Out of the COVID ashes, we witness the rise of the ‘heterarchy’ – teams or functions with shared lateral positions of power and authority – operating more autonomously with greater freedom to act. Organisations that are fit for the future will be designed around agile ‘heterarchies’; with clear roles and accountabilities, aligned around a singular purpose and an ability to evolve. But a heterarchy can make organisational life more ambiguous and can cause confusion for leaders with a traditional mindset…
This is an excerpt from an article we wrote for theHRDirector about Agile Organisation Design.
An indicator of a heterarchical organisation is one populated with teams that are more connected laterally, where no one team has superiority over another. These more ‘autonomous’ teams spread ideas and make decisions between themselves, with less need for permission from their hierarchical parents. From an employee perspective they have clear roles and accountabilities and are aligned around a singular purpose. This is backed up by our research titled Organisational Agility – the New Normal in which organisations saw the need to “restructure in order to balance stability with agility and dynamism with surety, where autonomy is countered by shared purpose and vision.”
A heterarchy structure gives more opportunity to be agile than the more traditional hierarchies, created when manufacturing was the order of the day and work was predictable and ordered. However, the environment today is more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) and so businesses need to re-imagine how they organise themselves as they adapt to more hybrid ways of working.
Now seems the perfect time to look at moving towards a flatter organisation structure that effectively utilises the skills of its workforce whilst meeting new employee expectations of greater autonomy.
While there are obvious benefits for both the organisation and employees, a heterarchy has challenges for how leaders lead, as this type of structure can make organisational life far more ambiguous and may cause confusion for leaders with a more traditional mindset…
While there are obvious benefits for both the organisation and employees, a heterarchy has challenges for how leaders lead, as this type of structure can make organisational life far more ambiguous and may cause confusion for leaders with a more traditional mindset.
Leaders need to be focused on ‘clearing the way’ for their teams, by providing a clear sense of direction – a key attribute of heterarchy organisations – and clear interfaces between teams so that they can consult with each other and make decisions quicker, more freedom for teams to make decisions and coherence between teams to ensure ideas flow across the organisation.
Sometimes, leadership mindsets need to shift to ensure the framing of the issue is clear up front and to be less directive, delegate, empower others, stay connected to people and generally adopt more of a coaching style of leadership. This will not happen with the throw of a switch, it will require training and mentoring as leaders develop the new required behaviours and they also need to support for removing organisational blockers that may inhibit the required behaviour. For a heterarchy to be successful it is important to remove any blockers that may impact the organisation’s ability to act in an agile way.
For a heterarchy to be successful it is important to remove any blockers that may impact the organisation’s ability to act in an agile way…
Organisations are facing challenges in recruiting and retaining talent, must find new ways of working expectations of employees whilst preparing themselves for the expected downturn in the economy and business activity. Moving to a heterarchy – a flatter structure with more autonomous teams – is a way to address these challenges but it will not be a simple solution as it will require a commitment to empower employees, change the way teams are led and remove what can be well established organisational norms. However, the end result should be an organisation better prepared for the future and an ability to continuously evolve.
“Organisations that are fit for the future will be designed around agile ‘heterarchies’; with clear roles and accountabilities, aligned around a singular purpose and an ability to evolve. But a heterarchy can make organisational life more ambiguous and can cause confusion for leaders with a traditional mindset…”
Read the article in full by downloading the PDF below.
For more information, please contact Gary Ashton at gary.ashton@oecam.com.
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