We have created Friday Roundtable Sessions where everyone at the company meets to discuss anything that’s on their minds regarding business operations and weekly updates. For example, employee suggestion programs would allow employees to voice their opinions.
Human resources is at the root of a company’s culture, and their practices must be changed to facilitate employee autonomy, implementing new programs that allow for employee empowerment. The key to creating horizontal structure is by changing company practices. Although some people within the company may have stronger opinions and power than others, horizontal communication allows everyone to be heard and valued, encouraging employees to move toward the company’s vision. Horizontal communication means information flows across all functions on the same organizational level. Many organizations follow a top-down vertical communication structure where employees communicate down the organizational hierarchy, limiting their access to communicating with anyone in higher level management.Īt my company, we have adopted a horizontal communication structure through multiple initiatives and seen promising results in productivity and satisfaction. Employees require transparency: They need to understand the company’s strategic vision behind every action they are tasked with. Managers who do not clearly communicate their strategic vision to teams will inevitably create a divide within the company because there is no context to act upon.įor employees to be optimally productive, they must feel empowered. This disconnect also influences the way managers think: They can perceive failures as the results of their employees who carry out strategies and take little responsibility themselves. Without the ability for employees to feel like their voice is being heard, they won't feel empowered to execute on the company’s goals and may be perceived as poor performers. However, when the leader of Boat Crew 11 took over the boat, he changed management practices and pulled the team together, eventually winning.
The leader justified his performance based on his crew and not his management practices. Navy SEAL Leif Babin mentions in his book, in 2008 when Boat Crew VI was failing under their original leader, that leader didn’t believe it was possible for them to do any better. When employees are tasked with executing strategies without the knowledge of strategic intent from management, they feel separated from management and have little motivation to work hard.
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