In scaling a company, are flat organizational structures practical?

Description

In this week’s episode, Shahar and Romi talk with Lotte Vester, Head of Organisational Strategy at Asana. 

Like many tech companies, Asana is a fairly flat organization with very few staff having titles. While it isn’t unique in the industry, Lotte explains how this structure can only work if the right culture supports it.

Fortunately, this is something that Asana is very intentional about, aided by their Voice of Employee program, which evaluates decisions and goals set by individuals and the company. Lotte adds that for the culture to be effective, it is important to have open and curious leaders who are comfortable giving responsibility and critique to their staff. 

Asana pride itself on creating flexible working for its staff, which they proudly offered even before the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite seeing the value in face-to-face interaction and working collaboratively in an office, they believe that whatever gets the work done best is the most effective way. But is that attitude always best?

Having previously worked at Facebook, Lotte has experienced companies growing rapidly in both headcount and revenue. At the social media company, their key value was ‘move fast and break things’ – somewhat of a unique take. Lotte explains how employees were expected to make mistakes; if you didn’t, you probably weren’t moving fast enough, which she feels is a valuable concept as you grow. 

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Bio

Lotte Vester, head of Organizational Strategy at Asana – a work management platform designed to help teams organize, track and manage their work.

Asana aims to help humanity thrive by enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly.

Lotte has over 15 years of experience in media & tech and has worked in various finance, strategy & operations roles across the globe, including companies like Lonely Planet and Facebook.

In her current role, Lotte leads planning and goal-setting (OKRs) at Asana and uses our product. Creating clarity and alignment for our teams drives engagement, leading to better results.