SVP
Hill + Knowlton Strategies
Flat organizations can be great. They’re cost efficient, and they enable fast communication and quick decision-making. And the younger generation of workers, in general, seem to prefer them. So it’s no wonder that flattening has become a trend in corporate America in recent years. So far, it’s been producing great results.
But as I was recently prognosticating about a trend I was tracking for 2020, I noted that the shift to flattening could create challenges and expose companies to potential risk in the event of a crisis.
One of the biggest risks with the flat organizational structure – especially during an incident – is the potential confusion over roles and responsibilities. Experienced crisis managers agree that an effective response is the result of very clear lines of authority and absolute role clarity among those on the incident-response team.
Every plan I have seen or written during the last two decades has contained a specific set of roles and responsibilities for each individual on the team – mostly because it is a fundamental of the nearly universally accepted Incident Command System structure that best-in-class organizations adopt so that their companies are prepared to develop an effective response. If your organizational structure puts role clarity at risk, you might have a problem.
It’s easy to understand why organizations want to flatten. Often they seek efficiencies that come when micromanagement is set aside and individuals and teams are empowered to work independently to achieve objectives. It sounds great because it is.
But without the careful and deliberate leadership that’s needed to form an effective response, a fast-moving incident can quickly become a disaster.
Too often, it can also lead to some individuals making a chaotic power grab, quickly morphing the situation into an internal conflict, as well. If there’s a breakdown in leadership on the incident-response team, the response will almost certainly suffer.
I want to be absolutely clear that I love an organization where principled contributors are organized to communicate, make fast decisions and deliver efficiency to the enterprise. But when that same organization is tested by an existential threat and challenged by circumstances, it requires a response that will protect the viability of the company for the long term. At that moment, a flat collaborative organization is antithetical to something that will work well.
What flat organizations need is the ability and courage to adapt to a more hierarchical structure when stuff hits the fan. Leaders involved in incident response need to know their roles and recognize their swim lanes.
The organization needs to empower a clear leader to make consequential decisions and know that those decisions will result in action. And the team needs the tools and resources to work toward the objective that the leader hands it.
It’s important to note that none of this suggests that an effective incident response ignores collaboration. That is never true. Organizations that are flattening for all the right reasons need to prepare themselves to flex to a less-flat and more-hierarchical structure when it comes to managing an effective response.
Failure to bring that adaptive instinct forward quickly will hurt an effective response in those early critical hours.
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