Yeah, I saw the "self organizing" bit, and I thought "good f'ing luck". E.g. I don't see many folks touting Zappos' notorious "holacracy" structure these days.
Reducing unnecessary levels of middle management, particularly in a bloated company, is usually a great idea. But I've found that the vast majority of people are not interested in "self organizing". They just want to come to work, feel that they are supported doing great work, and have a strong sense that the work they are doing matters to the company.
That's why as a former manager I felt like my most important job was to "block" for my team. I.e. there is always a bit of chaos and change at the upper levels reflecting to change in the business and competitive landscape, but as much as possible I tried to protect my team from this unnecessary churn. I've often said "coders are happiest when they're coding", so I tried to have product plans and priorities laid out as much as possible so folks could come in and do great work.
This doesn't mean "hiding" the broader corporate machinations from folks, but most people just don't want to be affected by that day-to-day. I've never seen this "self organizing" approach work, and Ive seen lots of cases where it was deemed an abject failure.
Reducing unnecessary levels of middle management, particularly in a bloated company, is usually a great idea. But I've found that the vast majority of people are not interested in "self organizing". They just want to come to work, feel that they are supported doing great work, and have a strong sense that the work they are doing matters to the company.
That's why as a former manager I felt like my most important job was to "block" for my team. I.e. there is always a bit of chaos and change at the upper levels reflecting to change in the business and competitive landscape, but as much as possible I tried to protect my team from this unnecessary churn. I've often said "coders are happiest when they're coding", so I tried to have product plans and priorities laid out as much as possible so folks could come in and do great work.
This doesn't mean "hiding" the broader corporate machinations from folks, but most people just don't want to be affected by that day-to-day. I've never seen this "self organizing" approach work, and Ive seen lots of cases where it was deemed an abject failure.