Too often we picture organizational structures as hierarchies in which individuals must climb to the top and reign supreme over those beneath them. To gain more authority and responsibility in an organization means to “climb the ladder” or “get a leg up”, for sale emphasizing power over service and value. But instead of top-down hierarchies, maybe we should view our organizations more as a series of concentric circles with the customer and value at the center and each level in the organization a layer surrounding the center.
Viewing our organizational structures in this manner suggests the following:
- The closer we are to the center, the more direct access we have to the customer and to the value creation.
- Each promotion moves us farther from the center and cognitively reinforces that we must work through the inner layers to participate in the value creation..
- Any attempts to bypass contiguous layers will only distort the balance and therefore stunt the value creation.
- To keep our organizations in a healthy balance, we need to focus our attention and efforts on the levels directly on the inside and outside of our level.
- Our organizations grow by increasing the value at the center rather than just by adding additional levels in the structure.
So next time you are thinking about your organization and career path, rather than focusing up, you should turn your focus to the value at the center, determine how far from the creation of that value you want to be, and how you would work through the layers to increase that value.