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As we discuss in The Rise of the Superworker, weâve entered a period of productivity-led growth in business. The economy is slowing (US consumer sentiment plummeted and GDP growth in the EU and China has slowed), expectations for AI are high, and CEOs are looking to redesign operating models.
Core to this strategy is the idea of busting bureaucracy: eliminating middle managers, reducing job layers, and shrinking teams to focus on talent density. And as I watch Elon Musk brandish his chainsaw (an old metaphor) and hear stories of Jamie Dimon, Mark Zuckerberg, and other CEOs push to weed out low performers, Iâm taken back to many years of history: this is not a new idea.
The most iconic cost-cutter in my career was Jack Welch (âneutron Jackâ) who laid off 118,000 GE employees in his first few years as CEO. Welch decided that forced ranking was needed, and he introduced a two-decade trend to lay off 10% of the workforce every year, focused on using the bell curve as an organization model. And for much of Welchâs tenure GE performed well.
Later we learned, however, that much of this was a charade. The companyâs focus on being #1 or #2 in each market created a company filled with financial engineering, and GE lost its focus on engineering, product fit, and quality. David Gelles, a NYT author I admire greatly, went so far to say that Welch âcrushed the soul of Corporate America.â
Along came the internet and bureaucracy busting took on a new shape. Now we talked about agile teams, holacracy, two-pizza teams, self-managed groups, and Amazonâs famous âpress releaseâ culture. The Facebook approach to âmove fast and break thingsâ went viral and we all started doing innovation projects all over our companies. I interviewed many clients and found that yes, flatter companies did perform better. We could avoid bureaucracy simply by keeping teams small. (Read The Mythical Man-Month.)
But that wasnât enough. Rather than focus on âregular layoffsâ (which damage employment brand and create toxic internal competition) we realized we needed to build âgrowth mindset.â So companies like Microsoft (Satya Nadellaâs wonderful book Hit Refresh) discovered that a focus on growth, not accountability, was the secret, because thatâs the culture that creates innovation. So everything shifted again.
And here we are in 2025, ready to implement AI to speed up everything, but we still have too much bureaucracy. And the US Federal Government, which is $36 Trillion, is getting chain-sawed before our eyes.
What are we to do?
Before I share our insights, let me simply say this is a highly studied domain. I have read dozens of books on org design, leadership, and innovation strategy and they each posit models, approaches, and ideas that make sense. So as you think about your own companyâs productivity journey, thereâs no shortage of ideas.
As you embark on your own companyâs journey, Iâd like to give you our 25+ years of experience. And these fall into the category of âprinciples,â each of which will guide your process. Much of this comes from Peter Drucker, whoâs famous book âThe Effective Executive,â still sits on my desk, as well as our large body of research on Dynamic Organizations, Agile Organization Design, and Irresistible Companies.
Fundamental Principles of Organization Design
1/ Jobs and job titles are not cast in stone. Eliminate them or change them at will.
The first problem we have in business is the age-old âjob architecture.â Stop thinking about jobs as containers for people: think about people as skilled resources who can do many jobs. The more job levels and specialization you create, the more bureaucracy you build. It gets in the way of agility and project based work. (Lots of companies are doing away with descriptive job titles.)
2/ Focus on accountability, not org charts.
It doesnât really matter âwho works for whomâ â what matters is what weâre responsible for. If we all know our goals and measures, we can each contribute without huge amounts of management.
3/ Managers manage work, people manage themselves.
Stop creating âmanagerâ or âsupervisorâ jobs to drive output, and make sure these roles are contributors. There is no more need for a âfull time managerâ who isnât also leading work. And that means individuals should think about themselves as accountable professionals. If someone doesnât know what to do, they can ask their leader, but they should not need to be âmanaged.â
4/ Talent density is everything. Headcount is not.
Stop thinking that âmore headcount leads to more growth.â It doesnât. What matters is the skills, capabilities, and team alignment of the group. A small highly skilled team will outperform a large, misaligned team by orders of magnitude. You have to invest in skills development, reflection, feedback, and learning. âHiring gurusâ is a bad way to build a company.
5/ Managers must be rewarded for outcomes, not power.
Once you anoint someone a âmanager,â they suddenly want more authority. As we all know, the best managers are âdoersâ who share, coach, and support others. If your managers are hoarding talent or slowing down change, get them out of the management ranks.
6/ Itâs ok to let someone go. And itâs ok to shut down a team and redeploy the talent.
If you find a person or team whoâs falling behind, damaging collaboration, or constantly making mistakes, itâs perfectly ok to let them go. Maybe they were a bad fit to being with. And donât blame the team if a business unit or product fails â find them a new job if they have skills and culture you need.
7/ Turn talent acquisition into the âgrowth teamâ not the âhiring team.â
You should make it very hard to hire a new person. Before a headcount is opened, you should have many conversations about the 4Râs (reskill, retain, redesign, recruit). I often tell people âjust come back with a plan to double output with the team you have.â And sure enough, then they think about new tools, new processes, and eliminating wasted meetings.
8/ Invest in technology, learning, and culture building.
Every week there should be a learning meeting to share what youâve learned. Constantly talk about behaviors, teamwork, and customer focus. Invest in the best IT tools you can find, and throw away the ones that donât work. Think about every challenge as a new opportunity to automate.
9/ Believe in the unquenchable power of human spirit.
People can do much more than you (and they) think if you inspire them. Donât second guess someone as a âlow performerâ â theyâll surprise you. If you make jobs âbigâ people will grow to meet the opportunity. And this means age, gender, race, education, disabilities, and physical looks must be irrelevant. (Read Irresistible for more.)
10/ Remember that nobody is perfect.
Every leader, every expert, and every high performer will make mistakes. Your job is not to âprevent themâ but to âquickly learn from them.â Perfection is the enemy of the good. Great organizations get better over time, not worse. If you constantly think about growth people will take more risks, work harder, and bring their best efforts to the team.
Sounds Like High Level Stuff, What About The Chainsaw?
That all sounds so conceptual, what about the layoffs?
Well if you practice these principles continuously you probably wonât need them. In the meantime if you do need to cut, call us and weâll show you what to do. Thereâs a method to organizational productivity, and we are happy to help you down the path.
Ask Galileo for help, all our best practices and case studies are there to guide you. And if you just want to learn more, look at our Organization Design Superclass in The Josh Bersin Academy.
Additional Resources
The Road To AI-Driven Productivity: Four Stages of Transformation
Galileoâą Professional, The Essential AI Assistant for Everything HR