From years of working with hundreds of organisations, I’ve seen one common pattern everywhere: when a company is still small, everything tends to run with great agility. It’s often out of necessity—limited staff, constrained resources, everyone wearing multiple hats and ready to roll up their sleeves to move the company forward.
People focus on outcomes, collaborate quickly, and make decisions on the spot. There aren’t endless reports or approval chains—just clarity on what matters and how to get it done.
This agility, combined with the team’s hands-on spirit, is often a key ingredient in the company’s early success.
But then the company grows.
The team expands, the workload increases, and cross-departmental interactions become more complex. Naturally, leaders start thinking about putting in a more “structured” system.
However, the “professional” system many organisations choose often ends up adding layers of middle management, extra approval steps, more forms and reports, and meetings just to align on things that were once clear and simple.
Gradually, agility fades. Decisions that used to take minutes now take days. The people closest to the work no longer have decision-making authority, while those making the decisions are too far removed to grasp the real situation. Employees begin to feel unclear about their roles. Some resort to “just following the process,” while others stay silent or wait for instructions.
At that point, the company loses not just speed, but also the proactive spirit and sense of connection that were once its greatest assets. I’ve heard many leaders say, “We need tighter control because the organisation is too big now.” But in reality, the problem isn’t the number of people or tasks—it’s how the system is designed.
Open Management doesn’t deny the need for clear structure. But instead of using structure for control, we use it to distribute decision-making authority to where it belongs: with the people doing the actual work.
In an Open Management organisation, roles are clearly defined but not rigidly tied to job titles. One person may take on multiple roles depending on their skills and context. Each role comes with specific responsibilities and decision-making authority. Information is shared widely so everyone can see the bigger picture and adjust their actions accordingly. The people closest to the work are trusted to make decisions, as long as they understand the overall goals and have access to data.
Leaders, rather than sitting at the centre trying to control everything, shift their role to rhythm-keepers, unblockers, guides, and enablers. They lead not through authority, but through trust and broader vision.
A system like this doesn’t just emerge on its own. It needs to be intentionally designed, tested, adjusted, and grown over time. But once an organisation finds the right way to operate, something seemingly contradictory becomes reality: the company gets bigger, yet stays agile, fast, and effective.