Geeking with Greg: First, kill all the managers

Geeking with Greg: First, kill all the managers: "Google has almost no management. In 2003, managers were at the director level or higher and had 50 or so reports. More managers have been added since then, but I believe that 20+ reports is the norm.

Program management is done in a separate organization. The PMs have no power over the engineers, not even an appeal to engineering managers, since there are none. The PMs try to bring order to the chaos, but they must do so by convincing people, not by commanding them.

Mentoring is done by other engineers. People learn by doing. You want people to dive into the code and learn from those who are closest to the problem.

Parts of the vision emerge from everywhere, brought together, clarified, and unified by the few managers that exist. Despite a few people wandering up other peaks, most are guided up the same hill.

Communication is direct through informal networks, not through the management hierarchy. Transparency and pressure from peers provide for accountability and limit free riding.

Titles are unimportant. A 'software engineer' could be a former tenured professor or a recent college graduate. A 'program manager' could be a former CTO.

To imitate Google, it is important to realize that there is more to do here than just suddenly sending your middle managers out to sleep with the fishes.

Tasks often done by managers need to be moved out of a management hierarchy. Informal networks and a culture of transparency need to be encouraged. Hierarchies must be destroyed, titles made irrelevant, and compensation and rewards redesigned."