In scaling a company, are flat organizational structures practical?

How I Scaled My Team

In this week’s episode, Shahar and Romi talk with Lotte Vester, Head of Organisational Strategy at Asana.

Like many tech companies, Asana is a fairly flat organisation with very few staff having titles. Whilst it isn’t unique in the industry, Lotte explains how the only way this structure can work is if it is supported by the right culture.

Fortunately, this is something that Asana are very intentional about, aided by their Voice of Employee programme, which evaluates decisions and goals set by individuals and the company. Lotte adds that for the culture to be effective, it is important to have open and curious leaders who are comfortable giving responsibility and critique to their staff.

Asana pride themselves on creating flexible working for their staff, something which they proudly offered even before the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite them seeing value in face-to-face interaction and working collaboratively in an office, they believe that whatever gets the work done best is the most effective way. But is that attitude always best?

Having previously worked at Facebook, Lotte has experienced companies growing rapidly, in both headcount and revenue. At the social media company, their key value was ‘move fast and break things’ - somewhat of a unique take. Lotte explains how employees were expected to make mistakes and if you didn’t, you probably weren’t moving fast enough, something which she feels is a valuable concept as you grow.

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