Here’s my hookah-liquor induced epiphany:
A startup is a chance for people to clear the air and work together in a new way.
Think about it! Matrix-model businesses, scrum methodology, agile-management: these are (relatively) new ways of getting things done. These ways of working didn’t exist 50 years ago. We don’t have to work the same way everyone’s worked for centuries. And if we don’t work the same way, then maybe how power is structured, and thereby how compensation is structured, don’t have to work the same way.
I’m not talking a Marxist movement of the workers seize ownership of the means of productions, or that we rule by committee.
- My vision of “Ruling by committee”
What I mean is that companies, with their leadership hierarchy in place, may not be the way business is done in the future. It worked for the Industrial Revolution, when the line of command was modeled off of military structure which pre-dates the Romans. But look at the military today: more and more command is devolved to small, agile forces. Perhaps people will find themselves working in more tight-knit companies than behemoth monoliths. This gives highly-skilled, highly specialized professionals the ability and AGENCY to execute. I’m still for bureaucracy, but the lower the chances for egos or ossified procedures to impede on results, the better.
We can hope this trend of smaller teams continues (and in our own way, make it so….)
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