The New Corporate Structure

That fact isn’t in question here. Leadership structures (as a model) are tried & true in regard to the roles and responsibilities of those with the charge to lead.

C-level Executives define the company’s vision and goals. They foster relationships and are responsible for the health of the company as a whole. They make the tough calls and in many cases command a great deal of respect.

Middle Managers and Leads help focus the vision of upper management. They enforce deadlines and make sure the front lines conform to the work standards and workloads. This level of employee ensures conformity to the schedule and grants the day-to-day PTO and ensures policy adherence is obeyed.

Frontline Workers and Specialists carry the bulk of the workload. They often work directly with the clients and customers while regularly dealing directly with feedback. The customer experience is usually based on their actions and is usually dependent on their ability and desire to tow the company line.

This still is and has been the predominant model for years and has flaws like most things.

This model often leads to a “Because I said so” mentality.  Not just from the top but can foster this attitude from the middle managers and even leads.  Because someone has climbed the corporate ladder this attitude of self-importance stifles ideas that come from lower in the structure.

Not to mention, the top-down approach tends to stifle new talent, new ideas, and new curiosities.  This doesn’t seem like a massive disadvantage at first, but often what happens with companies, eventually you hit roadblocks.

The new idea or that new breakthrough may come from one of the new hires. Somebody who brings a bit of experience from another company but doesn’t have the advantage of being higher up in the corporate structure.

It’s not surprising that information from all the social media platforms, news outlets, and personal opinion blogs, travel at the speed of light. Political climates, economics, and even trends are changing just as quickly. In the traditional pyramid top-down model, the ability to pivot quickly doesn’t come inherently.

There’s an old phrase that goes. No one person can help everyone, but everyone can help someone.

This goes along with idea sharing. Many times we expect innovation to come from the top of the traditional pyramid. However, no one person at the top is able to understand the day-to-day dealings of the entire organization.

However, what would happen if every single person at every level had a voice?

Again this isn’t all bad. As mentioned before it’s been around forever.

What if we keep the structure?  But we just look at it from a different point of view.

In the marketing company that I work for this is exactly what we did.

We kept the pyramid structure intact but decided to look at it from a different point of view. 

I’ve maintained that when it’s time to get creative all you need to do is look at it from someone else’s point of view.

Like telling the story of a man walking into a room and sitting on a chair, that story is pretty unremarkable. 

But what happens if you look at it from the chair’s point of view and tell the same story? It now changes the entire feeling of how that story is told. It now has the potential of being a horror story, or even a comedy, whatever angle the storyteller decides to take, telling it from a different point of view changes the very feeling and understanding of how that story comes to pass.

So like we did in our marketing firm, we took the corporate pyramid and flipped the way we look at it upside down.

We placed our frontline workers and specialists at the top because, at the end of the day, they’re some of the most important people we have within the company.

They do the day-to-day interactions with the customers, they find creative solutions to bridge the gaps between what the company requires and what the customer needs.

This means that from a high-level point of view, they’re the ones who require the most support.

That brings us to the next level down in the new corporate structure.

Imagine the responsibility of Middle Managers and Leads is to hold their arms up in the air and support our front-line workers.  This gives them the great responsibility of consistent communication and understanding what our top-line workers need. Asking them questions about what might help them remove the roadblocks within their path.

When you look at it from this inverted view, it gives the impression leaders are there to serve and even corrective conversations are meant to be more helpful.  Policies are written with the front line in mind. It eliminates ego, and opens up the lines of communication through questions and answers, and gives management an understanding of the pitfalls and the challenges that the front-line workers are experiencing. The inverted Pyramid structure creates a visual of the weight that our managers carry, and the importance of that responsibility to be a support and a guide.

Underneath them then come your Upper Management/VPs.

This visual shows the weight that they carry, and the massive responsibility of working with those above them. Being a greater support to those that are in their care. VP’s should be asking the directors what are the pitfalls they face and how they might be able to remove roadblocks.  VP’s primary concerns then should be empowering those directly in their care and helping them understand and teach the company culture, based on the company’s pillars of belief

When you adopt the visual of the Upper Management and VP’s holding up the structure of everyone they are responsible for, you see them as the foundation to those in their care, The feeling of that responsibility changes.

The visual accounts for both sides, it shows the weight that the VP’s carry, but it also places them at the foundation of the company as being a support to those and their care.

From this vantage point, empathy becomes easier.

It sets the stage to impart support. wisdom, and being a guide versus managing and dictating from the top down.

It builds trust throughout your organization because even your frontline workers understand you are part of the foundation and that you truly care to support those that are in your care.

Now, this takes us to the absolute bottom, C-level Executives.  The entire weight of the organization is on their shoulders, and the grave responsibility of supporting those in their care comes to a head.

When this position is understood correctly, the front-line workers then understand that even though the entire organization comes to a point, the weight of that organization weighs on that point.

But it gives a clear vision of who is supporting who, if we see the organization from the viewpoint of how we can support those in our care, You’ve taken the first step and understanding how a culture can change.

No, the structure did not change drastically.

How we look at it does. Many times culture isn’t about free food, or the ability to work from home, or the workout room, or the cafeteria… 

Your company culture comes from a foundation of principles, but more importantly how your people accept and govern themselves based on those principles.

The result of how those principles are lived then become your company culture.

You’d be amazed how much more people are willing to participate in your change of culture when they see that you are not a top-down structure, but support from the bottom-up structure, employees naturally want to participate and be an active members of the organization.

Take a moment and consider your organization. Is your company built on the foundation of supporting those in your care?  

This is just the beginning, in helping your organization on the path of improving company culture.

Will everyone within your organization come to these conclusions?  Is everyone comfortable being a supporting leader vs being seen as someone yielding power?  No, and that’s okay.  You’ll find that those who are, will rise to the top.  Like fresh milk, the cream will rise.

Taking other steps like creating a culture of questions, creating a culture of constant improvement, building up your pillars of belief as guiding principles that everyone within the company can look to answer those questions, making room for Personal Development, understanding that change happens from the executive level all throughout and that those within the company should be taking the time to not just get their job done, but be allowed the time for self-improvement.

It is becoming more apparent as time goes on that the way companies structure themselves, or the way employees expect to be a part of that structure is changing.

Be sure to check out different articles within christopherdargy.com in regards to how you can best prepare your company for healthy company culture.