Lessons from Google's Failed 'Manager-less' Experiment

Back in 2002, Google managers were often seen as a necessary evil, and sometimes even just another layer of bureaucracy. This led to a "manager-less" experiment.

Now, Bayer, a German pharmaceutical giant, is taking a similar approach.

The newish Bayer CEO, Bill Anderson, believes that layers of approval chains and endless meetings are "spirit-crushing" and prevent professionals from truly engaging with their work, resulting in the tumbling stock prices over the past years.

Anderson's solution is to get rid of managers and give workers more decision-making power instead, by replacing the existing bureaucracy with "dynamic shared ownership".

Under this model, employees will work in small, empowered, autonomous, and self-managed teams that focus on delivering the best possible outcomes for their customers. The cross-functional teams will work on a specific task for 90 days before regrouping around a new set of goals.

To me, this approach appears to be inspired by Agile principles, which emphasize value delivery through self-organizing teams working in small batches with frequent iterations.

Regardless the framework or what else it's called, the success of any teamwork setup relies on mutual trust that enables healthy conflict and reliance on others.

Therefore, creating the right culture and mindset shift is essential for this approach to work.

I wonder whether Bayer is also considering this in the organizational change to allow the company to achieve better business results? Can't wait to see how this turns out!

Coz here's an intriguing fact - Google's experiment in 2002 actually failed.

Six years later, they found out that managers matter a lot! The research effort, called Project Oxygen, revealed a direct link between exceptional leaders, team engagement, and outstanding results.

Curious to know what Google discovered about the behaviors that the best managers have in common? Stay tuned for the next post!