Organizations have made efforts to become more flexible in recent years, relying on everything from flatter structures to processes that allow certain individuals and teams to circumvent the bureaucracy to make fast decisions. Too often, though, these innovations provide adaptability in name only. Often there is the sense that company flexibility-facilitating programs are mere window dressing; that management doesn’t want its people to veer away from traditional approaches without going through a lengthy approval process. As a result, most people in companies don’t take advantage of opportunities to adapt.
At first glance, Tony’s structure doesn’t seem to encourage flexible attitudes or behaviors. His top-down structure tends to put people in boxes, defining their roles and responsibilities so clearly that they’re not allowed to adapt as situations dictate for fear of crossing boundaries. Tony, however, gives his people a significant amount of freedom to violate these boundaries if it will help them solve problems and, above all else, make more money. In effect, he sets up a paradoxical system in which people are constrained by the structure but encouraged to violate it if common sense tells them they should. Of course, Tony’s guys better be able to justify their violations or they’ll pay a price. His people, though, know the rules and that Tony’s system accommodates rule violations if they’re warranted.
In a way, this represents the best of both worlds. The explicit structure provides clarity of roles and responsibilities, but the implicit freedom from roles and responsibilities—if such freedom can be justified—offers opportunities to adjust to changing circumstances. Perhaps more companies should adopt this paradoxical structure if they want to achieve "accountable flexibility." Of course, Tony has an advantage because he makes sure everyone in his organization understands and respects goals and boundaries. Tony gives people the freedom to be flexible because he has made sure they know what they can and cannot do.
TONY ON INCULCATING RULES INTO THE CULTURE
"I don’t make the rules. They’ve always been there."