Organization Tree VS Organization Pyramid

Netflix’s book “No Rules Rules” by Reid Hastings is an amazing playbook in the organizational culture. I haven’t come across any other organizational culture content & material like this one and no wonder Netflix plays its culture card like a trump card.

I learnt about Netflix’s “Organization Tree” concept today which talks about leaders being at the root of the organization making an organization strong, giving direction but not necessarily being at the top to drive every decision. I resonated with this concept, especially in the era of collaboration, hybrid work, agile decision making & ever-changing business needs. The branches in the organization network depict the collaborative teams networked together to achieve collective objectives and leadership/CEO provides strong support, direction without coming in a way of hierarchical decision making organization.

Of course, we can argue it can work in small companies but not in the large corporations that are obsessed with control & governance. Although, if an organization wants to move towards innovation, agility & people-centric culture, pyramids have a risk to become speed breakers. Netflix can drive this since they have a fabric of talent density, open candour and leading with context.

Do you think other companies can build their ODs through “Tree” rather than “Pyramids”?

Originally published at https://www.thetalentbeats.com on February 11, 2022.