Hi Reader, I've seen it happen countless times. A growing organization reaches about 50 people and suddenly things start to fall apart.
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 overWhen 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:
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 paradoxHere'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 clearlyTwo 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 simpleSimplifying your organization doesn't mean making it simplistic. The path to meaningful simplicity requires deep thinking about fundamentals:
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. Updates from Corporate Rebels HQHere's a quick overview of everything happening at Corporate Rebels:
New articleA new article has been published on our website earlier this week:
What inspired usHere's something noteworthy we discovered this past week that you’re going to love:
Cheers,
Follow us on: |
Join 43,900+ changemakers from all corners of the globe. We share insights on self-managing organizations, new ways of working, and global pioneering companies. Every other week: blog on Monday, newsletter on Thursday. Are you up for some fun, inspiring and rebellious content? Become part of the workplace revolution! 💌
Last week, I was in China on a business trip. One of the highlights? A visit to the progressive powerhouse Haier in Qingdao. While there, I spent hours on the road. In electric cars. Surrounded by electric cars. Curious, I looked it up. Turns out: almost half of all new passenger cars sold in China today are electric. It reminded me of something Jeremy Clarkson once said: “I’ve got probably 10 cars, all with V8 engines. I don’t think electric cars solve anything.” Classic Clarkson. But also:...
In preparing for the summer '25 cohort of our Corporate Rebels Masterclass, I had conversations with two founders of wildly successful self-managing organizations. Both run companies without traditional hierarchies. Because both believe in autonomy, trust, and ditching command-and-control. But when I asked them how decisions are made, I got two completely different answers. One said: "We like to reach consensus. We only move forward when everyone agrees. It's part of our culture to find the...
We arrived by boat. Forty impact entrepreneurs. Brought together by Forming Impact, from all corners of the world. The sky was burning blue, the water impossibly clear. And there it was: Necker Island. On the dock stood a man in shorts and flip-flops, waving as we pulled up to the shore. Richard Branson, grinning like a kid on holiday, there to welcome us in person. It was surreal. But also, strangely normal. No security guards. No PR team. Just a curious, kind, slightly sunburned man, ready...