Let's (not) get rid of all the managers!
summary
Argument: managers matter because they explain at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement and flat org experiments fail without guidance. Historical roots (Taylor, Hawthorne) justify different tools: back‑briefing A3 for distributed decision‑making, guardrails and stop‑work cards to protect psychological safety. Google’s Project Oxygen reverses flat orgs, produces a ranked set of managerial behaviors, and shows coaching and approachability beat deep technical expertise alone. Measure outcomes that matter and bolster strengths, not just fix weaknesses.
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chapters (14)
- 0:00Introduction
- 6:42Scientific Management
- 10:44Motivation
- 12:42Decisionmaking
- 13:25Modern management
- 15:28Employee engagement
- 17:32Managers
- 19:12Ignore Hierarchy
- 23:52People Resources
- 25:01Cognitive Safety
- 30:32Measure What Matters
- 32:36Listen to Google
- 35:56Strengthen your employees
- 37:23Conclusion
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