Work Disrupted

CHAPTER 6The Rise of Teams: Reinvent Organizations, from Individuals and Hierarchies to Teams and Networks

If your company has an excessively rigid internal structure and employees have a rigid mindset, they don't just miss dangers and miss risks, they also miss big opportunities.¹

—Gillian Tett, editor and author, United States, The Financial Times; author, The Silo Effect

The last Apple org chart Steve Wozniak has seen shows that he still reports to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Not one to shy away from dark humor at the expense of Jobs, who passed away in 2011, Wozniak noted, “Since Steve died, I can't be fired.”² Of course, Wozniak stepped down from Apple in 1985, and remains an employee in a ceremonial capacity only, something the org chart failed to capture. Organizational charts have long been the butt of jokes, in part, because they are rarely up to date, and even when they are, they generally fail to reflect reality. More significantly, they no longer represent the more dynamic organizational models that are evolving at many companies, based not on individuals jockeying to edge their way up to the top spot, but, rather, on teams, networks, and platforms working together.

It is easy to picture the traditional org chart, with its branches, sticks, and boxes cascading down from the CEO, who sits at the crown. At their best, org charts offer a visual representation of who is below us, who is above us, and how employees and leaders fit into the hierarchy of the entire ...