Canadian HR Reporter

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014 CANADIAN HR REPORTER & STRATEGIC CAPABILITY NETWORK Credit: Blazej Lyjak (Shutterstock) Making the case for hierarchy It's not about command and control so much as delivering on strategy BY LIZ BERNIER ere's been an interesting shift in recent years toward holacracy, with flatter organizations shying away from complex layers of man- agement and hierarchy. Part of the reason might simply be hierarchy has developed some- thing of a bad rap — there are a lot of misconceptions about the idea, and no real common under- standing of what the word means, said Julian Chapman at a Strate- gic Capability Network event in Toronto. "e word has been around for obviously quite some time. But… what does that actually mean to you?" he said. Hierarchy can be interpreted to mean organization, levels, power over others, control, limits, a way to organize work, discipline, a motivator, demotivator or ac- countability for risk, said Chap- man, who is president of Forrest & Company in Toronto and a former brigadier-general in the Canadian Armed Forces. But one thing that's noticeable about all these definitions is the preconceived notions about the word hierarchy, he said. Chapman has experienced hi- erarchy from a rather unique van- tage point: After a 34-year career in the military, he has come to un- derstand it not as an unnecessary byproduct of corporate bureau- cracy, but a natural and necessary occurrence that facilitates the de- livery of strategy. "ere is a reality to hierarchy. It is within us and it is natural," he said. "And hierarchy has to occur." When people think about work, they tend to focus on peo- ple working side by side, manag- ing interrelationships within the workplace, said Chapman. "But that belies the fact that within organizations, we exist to deliver the strategy," he said. "As a soldier, I deliver the strategy of the nation. As an employee within my corporation, I am there to deliver the strategy. So that means that there has to be some form of con- trol because (otherwise) I could create my own strategy." Negative connotations Strategy is one of those interest- ing words — like innovation or hierarchy — that means different things to different people, said Chapman. "When I say 'strategy' I'm talking about the end state of the organiza- tion — the vision, the mission, the objectives. e end state, rather than the plan to get there. So I'm talking about the end state of what we want to be as an entity," he said. "In order to deliver the strat- egy, there has to be some degree of clarity on how we're going to get that done." And that's where hierarchy be- comes a necessity. Generally, the power dynamics are structured so work is delegat- ed downwards from the top, said Chapman. "Alicia delegates to Bob, who then delegates from there to his own direct reports," he said. "It's simple, it's straightforward — it's the nature of the contract." But why does the simple con- cept of dividing work laterally, downwards through a power structure, become uncomfortable for some people? "We have notions of bureau- cracy, command and control, all of these sorts of things come into our thinking," said Chapman — that is, the moment hierarchy enters the equation, there is this negative perception that comes with it. "I have a theory… that there is a natural human tendency to be- lieve that 'I shouldn't be the boss' and that being bosses is a bad thing. Where I've developed this theory is in talking to managers because managers don't like to be the boss. We don't want to be put in an awkward situation where we have to say, 'at's not the right work' or 'You're not doing that well' or whatever the case may be. And I think there are some deep- seated beliefs in people that that notion of being a boss is actually a bad thing." But hierarchy and organiza- tional power structures don't need to carry those negative con- notations, said Chapman. In fact, many of these concepts actually originated in the military, where ranks and hierarchy are essential to effectively delivering strategy. "One little-known fact in Cana- dian business is that many of the business constructs have actually come out of the military. e no- tion of empowerment came out of the military," he said. "e military a long time ago figured out that 'We'd better be able to hear from the guys in the trenches. We'd better be able to hear from the guys at the bot- tom, because that's where it all happens.'" People automatically make this assumption that the boss or the person in the power position is better than the ones at the bot- tom, he said. "Yet the ones down at the bot- tom are actually the ones execut- ing the work — they're getting the work done. And there's an auto- matic presumption that somehow those people down at the bottom are less important than those who are further up in the organization." Identifying leaders At the same time, hierarchy is only effective if leaders are effective, said Chapman — but how can an employer tell if a manager is add- ing value? "I posit that there are three things that prove that a manager adds value: A manager tells me what my work is; a manager sets context on why I'm doing that work; and a manager finds me the resources," he said. Many managers feel they have to know how to do all the work — they think, "I have to know it in order to be able to lead it," he said, but that's not the case. "As a young platoon com- mander of 18 years old leading a platoon of infantrymen, I didn't know how all the systems worked. I had 32 soldiers under my com- mand… I had to rely on them to do their work. My work was the planning of the operation. My "e military a long time ago figured out 'We'd better be able to hear from the guys in the trenches because that's where it all happens.'" KNOW > pg. 14

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