Hi Reader,

I've seen it happen countless times.

A growing organization reaches about 50 people and suddenly things start to fall apart.

• Communication breaks down.
• Decision-making slows to a crawl.
• Politics emerge.

And the entrepreneurial spirit that fueled early growth? Gone.

Most leaders respond by adding more control. More managers. More coordination meetings. More reporting.

They do exactly what they shouldn't.

Last month, I talked to a 120-person manufacturing company in Germany that was drowning in bureaucracy. "We've become an organizational iceberg," the CEO admitted. "Massive, immovable, with most decisions frozen beneath the surface."

Sound familiar?

The irony is that at this size, they actually have all the resources they need to create a thriving workplace. Money, talent, technology - it's all there. But what's missing is the right structure.

The company had stopped making choices about how to organize. They were just adding traditional management on autopilot.

When complexity takes over

When organizations grow, they naturally become more complex. But there's healthy complexity (diverse talents working on challenging problems) and unhealthy complexity (convoluted decision-making processes and blurred accountabilities).

The difference? Intentional organization design.

Most companies let their organizational structure evolve traditionally — which really means just doing what everyone else is doing. Another layer of hierarchy here, another reporting line there, another bureaucratic process to try and keep everything together.

No wonder things get messy.

During our conversation, I asked the CEO to step back and look at the fundamentals:

• What's your purpose?
• What are your core principles?
• How should responsibilities be distributed?
• How should decisions be made?
• How should information flow?
• How can we design a system that rewards the desired behavior?

He looked at me like I'd suggested something radical. "We don't have time for that philosophical stuff. We need practical solutions for our coordination problems now."

But that's exactly backward. The coordination problems exist because they haven't addressed these fundamentals.

The clarity paradox

Here's what fascinates me: clarity feels like a luxury when you're drowning in complexity, but it's actually the only way out.

When I showed the CEO examples of companies like Buurtzorg (15,000 employees, 0 managers), Haier (80,000 employees organized as entrepreneurial microenterprises), and NER Group (2,000 employees in a self-managing network), he couldn't wrap his head around it.

"That's impossible in our company," he insisted.

But it's not.

The hundreds of companies pioneering self-management aren't magical unicorns. They're real organizations that have made intentional choices about structure.

They've realized something powerful: the most effective way to handle complexity isn't to add more layers of coordination — it's to distribute responsibility to the people closest to the work.

Getting distance to see clearly

Two weeks later, I got a call from that same CEO. He'd spent a weekend away from the office, thinking about our conversation. "I think I see it now," he said. "We've been building a structure for a world that doesn't exist anymore."

That's the thing about organizational design — sometimes you need to step far enough back to see the whole picture clearly.

When you're embedded in day-to-day operations, making fundamental changes to your structure feels impossibly risky. It's hard to reimagine how work could flow differently when you're stuck in the current flow.

But the pioneers we've studied have shown us that it's not only possible — it's essential for thriving in today's complex environment.

The path to simplicity isn't simple

Simplifying your organization doesn't mean making it simplistic. The path to meaningful simplicity requires deep thinking about fundamentals:

1. Purpose and principles that guide autonomous decision-making
2. Clear team structures with well-defined responsibilities (without functional hierarchy)
3. Transparent information sharing
4. Distributed authority
5. Fair reward systems

When these elements work together, something remarkable happens: people take ownership.

They solve problems without escalating them. They coordinate naturally. And leadership shifts from controlling to enabling.

Is it easy? Not even close.

Is it worth it? Every self-managed organization we've studied says yes.

At Corporate Rebels, we’ve spent 9+ years of research to develop a comprehensive framework for progressive organizational design.

If you want to shortcut that journey, join our upcoming March Masterclass where we'll jointly work on understanding and designing a self-managing organization.

​Details here.​

Updates from Corporate Rebels HQ

Here's a quick overview of everything happening at Corporate Rebels:

• Nothing - Since we were out skiing with the team last, not much happened here other than skiing, snowboarding, après-skiing, and recovery ;)

New article

A new article has been published on our website earlier this week:

• Starting from Scratch: Rethinking Work, Hierarchy, and Purpose Sick​
  In this piece, Marc-Peter Pijper explores how Jur Deitmers' complete memory loss led him to question workplace hierarchies and find meaning without societal baggage. Through Jur's fresh perspective, readers are challenged to reconsider how power structures shape our work lives. The article invites us to take steps toward more purposeful work environments. Read the full article here.
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What inspired us

Here's something noteworthy we discovered this past week that you’re going to love:

• Inside Rebel Energy’s progressive approach to work - PODCAST
  ​Rebel Energy is part of the UK Rebel Cell, and in this episode of Clarasys Podcast: Never Mind the Pain Points, Jason Sharpe from Rebel Energy chats about shaking up traditional workplaces and making them more progressive, agile, and customer-focused. He shares Rebel Energy’s journey, why autonomy, agility, and purpose are key, and what it really takes to build a thriving work culture. Expect some great insights, real talk on the challenges, and plenty of practical takeaways! Listen here.

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Cheers,

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