Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager, Third Edition

© Michael Lopp 2016

Michael Lopp, Managing Humans, 10.1007/978-1-4842-2158-7_17

17. A Different Kind of DNA

A design and architecture meeting with teeth

Michael Lopp¹ 

(1)Los Gatos, California, USA

Flat. It’s an organizational meme in rapidly growing teams in Silicon Valley, and it contains a couple of noble ideas. Simply put, a flat organization is one with as little hierarchy as possible to encourage the individual voice. What’s not to love?

The first challenge to the flat organizational mantra is the inevitable arrival of leads or managers tasked with organizing different aspects of the team. The flat religion’s answer to this development is rebranding of the role: the lead or manager is no different from the individual. It’s not a promotion, there ...