#99 Hierarchies at Work- Good or Bad?
Importance of hierarchy in real life usage is way different from the ones we read in our course books. Yet, few organisations or team reinforce them to their advantage. Know how!
This corporate jungle is a world full of surprises and shocks; well more shock than surprises. This one incident took me ten years back and had put in a fix to rethink my views on hierarchies in organizations where I have worked so far. As a commerce graduate, my first encounter with the word ‘Hierarchy’ was in Class 11 where we all study about organizational structure, how they function and their differentiation. Whenever I used to read about business models, new organizations and their leadership styles, I always paid close attention to what works and what doesn’t or what the employees love about them. Given that no one in my extended family has ever worked in this jungle and my upbringing in a business family, I was confused about my sustenance in such a world where hierarchies define you and your growth.
Why am I scared of this word?- I feel this word has a negative connotation attached to it depicting authority and setting boundaries around you. I never wanted to be trapped inside a box or given limited power to explore my surroundings, so my initiative was always to keep myself out of the loop of powers, and a constant feeling that I have nothing to lose.
However, I don’t despise the dire need to build soft hierarchies as that helps the organization manage all stakeholders better, you can look up to someone to help and support you as a responsibility. The leaders have it easy to set the culture right and ensures team development otherwise the work and people will just go haywire.
But everything read and heard is set aside, I have successfully spent over 5 years in this working environment and this word somehow never overshadowed my experience. Yet this one incident and recurring events made me feel as if I was winning a lost battle all this while.
Events leading to a Trigger
So, whenever teams get restructured or new folks join a team, there is a learning curve attached to it for that person to come up to the terms and culture within that team. After adjusting and mending ways for about a year, one person sat down to state the hierarchy of the team quoting “You are not my boss/ I don’t report to you and so you are on your own".
Well, I have been noticing that person for a while and enquiries made from that newbie about her deliverables, bandwidth and work. Even though the newbie was superior in the hierarchy, she never used those powers and patiently answered her questions. But this statement was a bit inappropriate and put me in a fix making me rethink everything that I was technically doing beyond my manager’s capacity. The series of questions that followed:
Good or bad, I never had one managerial figure, who could exercise some control over me. My kick was to work across people within the team. Does that mean I was losing something more concrete?
Would I ever have the audacity to turn down any work coming from a Super boss without any explanation?
Who wants to just work under one person, be in a hierarchy and limit growth?
What if the manager was not a good mentor?
Why would someone happily cut down on her wings to fly, not gain more experience and opportunities to try something new?
Aren’t KRAs boring to just live up to them?
I couldn’t gather many reasons to justify the need to hide behind the hierarchies:
You are in a comfortable space and not willing to move out of it
Your manager is a gem of a person and you don’t want to switch
Well, what do you think of having hierarchies?
This incident opened my eyes to the fact that not having any boundaries does overwhelm you with work and responsibilities. Yet if I recollect, there are more gains than losses. You gain new skills, try new pilots, learn more about the industries you work in, collaborate more and the easiest way to break free from a monotonous routine.
Wouldn’t you be surprised if I tell you that I know a person who is a core strategy folk, but knows how to code, analyse and present data, help teams build on the right customer journeys, can find hacks with tech issues and still gets excited with a new project like a 15-year-old?
Yeah, I know it sounds like a description of a workaholic who lives to work, but trust me I am mesmerized with such a personality. It’s like googling answers to all work problems but if you talk to such people, you will realize that they can’t settle themselves with a problem. What intrigues me more is how they manage to learn it and not a possibility if they are barred by a hierarchical culture. These individuals don't differentiate between "my work" and "your work" – they simply show up to tackle any challenges and progress from the basics to the advanced stages.
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” — Henry Ford
My experience around Hierarchies:
As clichéd it may sound, my insight into this corporate jungle is spread across the industries where hierarchy is a charter. Right from Consulting to Banking, every position here has a set fence around it, and walking outside is a clear invitation to issues/ interpersonal gaps. Yet, I have been able to sway my way through these unsaid boxes pretty easily (thanks to the support of my mentors and their guidance). My naive behaviour got me in the right spirit and gave me the power to define my own rules and see through the grey part (It’s not that easy situation). 90% of people walk around the corridors of the jungle talking (read: criticizing) their bosses or managers, depending on them to suggest the way forward. Hierarchies are like a loop, whether you're at the top or the bottom. Everyone who becomes a part of it keeps running in circles (of office politics, information, decisions), expending energy and effort, and feeling fatigued at the end of the day.
Based on my limited experience, my view on organizational structures is simple: You need to interpret the implicit cues provided by the organization chart and observe how the environment responds to them. Then, identify the type of environment you prefer working in and try to bridge the gap. It's easier said than done, but communicating your expectations or experimenting can help you establish the right boundaries for yourself. You have to pick the right people at the right place at the right time to make this gap work for you.
“You cannot help but learn more as you take the world into your hands. Take it up reverently, for it is an old piece of clay, with millions of thumbprints on it.” — John Updike