Henry Ford accomplished a fair amount in life but one of his more remarkable accomplishments that may have propelled the rest of it was how he structured Ford in the early days.
Every employee came through the entry level positions. Tool makers, line workers, janitors. His philosophy was those that came to work, worked hard and took on additional work then earned the promotions. Earned through contribution not through office politics or applying for higher job titles.
It was common that a department head started as a sweeper or the factory foreman started as a metal castor.
Higher titles have the disadvantage of downshifting motivation to work. Structural hierarchy develops a culture of 'do as I say because I am higher than you' as compared to natural leaders emerging – the type of people that finds themselves actually leading people because they have earned it through effort and knowledge.
What is an optimal structure?
In an organization people need structure.
An organization should be formed around Contribution Level with each Contribution Level having associated pay bands and scope.
Something to the effect of:
Associate - New Entrant. Learning core skills and accomplishing specific tasks under supervision.
Lead - Mastered core skills. Identifies and implements techniques and procedures to increase quality and efficiency or reduce cost. Owns execution on work.
Principal - Deep multi-area expertise. Able to identify new opportunities across multiple domains understanding company wide impact. Mentors and develop other personnel in the company.
Each level can have two pays bands – Associated (1&2), Lead (3&4), Principal (5&6).
Why this works?
Because everyone starts at the beginning learning core competencies of actual production. This allows an organization for hard chargers to find ways to make their job higher quality, more efficient or lower cost and using that freed up time or money now being able to be deployed in a new way. The charge in on the individual employee to want the additional workload whereas some times organizations are set up that the title is needed to take on more work.
Find a way so a job can be done better, take on more work that you want to do and work your way up the ladder to higher pay and title.
This type of structures is built from the bottom up. Not the top down. An individual in an organziation doesn't make Principal to then start directing orders at others to follow but earns Principal because they have developed that level of leadership and expertise already.
What about specialty positions?
Sometimes an organization will find themselves in a position that a skill needs to get brought in – something with deep knowledge and a specific scope that is critical to the success of the company but may not mix well with this structure.
Hire a consultant.
Use their skills to fix the gap in knowledge. Ensure a Principal or Lead works with the consultant to learn.
These highly specialized consultants are more competent if they are outside the company finding work across multiple companies, domains, and doing a wider variety of projects. Lean into that fact. The skills and knowledge will be at a higher leve. If performance drops another consultant can be outsourced more easily as well.
These types of highly specialized people won't want to start at Associate because they have earned a higher band already. That is true and their pay should be appropriate to their skill.
An organization will thrive better if everyone in it starts at the bottom. High speed individuals, including those will a high levels of education, should be able to learn the core skills and navigate through Associate quickly. This is important that time in grade or service is not a component to promotion – only demonstrated contribution level. Those individuals that come in a kick ass should be rewarded.
A lot of people will filter out because those with 20 years experience won't want to go back to associate and work hard all over again. Good – in your organization you want hard workers. Most people only want higher titles so they can stop working so hard. But you want an organization where everyone is sprinting because they want to.
So you install fresher people, people with less experience but are willing to work hard and learn.
As people move from Associate to Lead ensure you give them the control to own their work. They are the front line and should have the responsibility to implement decisions. If you don't trust the Lead and Principals to implement good ideas autonomously then fire them and promote someone else you do trust.
A fast moving organization geared with this structure can take on any challenge because the culture is built from the bottom up.
