An inverted pyramid scheme?

the significance of pyramids

The building of the pyramids in ancient Egypt was an unrivalled piece of engineering and construction. Not to mention a gargantuan logistical effort. Not only was this feat without parallel but these structures have stood the test of time as some of the most resilient monuments mankind has constructed. They certainly put many a modern box-shaped building to shame.

We all know that a pyramid is stable with a broad base narrowing to a thin apex at its top. Depicted by charting software across the globe, they have become metaphors for the organisation charts of almost all of today’s businesses  With swathes of workers at the bottom of the organisation and a decreasing number of higher paid managers and directors as we rise up the organisation.  Culminating at its peak with the C-suite (or whatever the equivalent is)

Even the hierarchical language used to describe the organisation bestows status and importance as we talk of “rising stars” by attaching familiar terminology to young talents, or “further up the organisation” relating to the heady heights were both income and responsibility rise… sometimes in direct proportion to the insecurity of tenure of the job holders..

It's easy for those at the apex of the pyramid to look down on others by adopting the accepted language of the day. Chains of command dictate that direction, and decisions come from "above" reflecting a militaristic view of organisations. In years gone by, there were many tangible signs to support this hierarchy ….. who remembers named executive car parking spaces, executive dining areas, or even executive toilets. Even recently, at one well known business (who shall remain un-named) I recall seeing the bright gleaming line of directors large Mercedes saloons being washed and polished outside whilst inside the drivers played their game, safe in the knowledge that gleaming German bodywork awaited them for the waft homeward. Look closely and you can still see the remnants of these status signals everywhere in businesses today - even in more enlightened and empowered organisations.

Those pyramids, built so painstakingly so long ago by the Egyptians, have survived as metaphors in today’s businesses – bases firm, stable and full of hardworking folk and apexes, by design, less full of people who sometimes still perceive themselves as astonishingly important…. And maybe some are.

But what if we inverted the organisational pyramid?

Instead of the base at the bottom supporting the ever-slimmer hierarchy above it…. What if the apex was at the bottom and we actually realised that the people who deliver the goods, repair the pallets, fix the roofs, load the trucks, sweep the floors, care for the sick (the list is endless) are the people that matter the most – because these are the good folk who actually earn the money, or deliver the value, day in and day out.

And the “leaders” towards the apex which is actually now at the bottom of the inverted organisation? ..... their job was to help and support the folks above them to continue to earn a living (for themselves and the business).

It’s not that anyone’s job or responsibility changes – or even that individual earnings change – this is not some weird kind of pitch for a “socialist peoples republic” where wealth is redistributed upon the inversion of the organisational pyramid. No – it’s simply a different way of looking at the world of business where leaders are there to serve the good folk who earn the money…. With good grace, and humility.

It's perverse that these extravagant monuments, built so long ago as enduring tombs for a country's elite; the very symbol of elitism, have endured in another setting to denote a hierarchy once more.

I have met some leaders who run their business with an inverted pyramid approach – but many more who do not. …. Yet.

Cause for some thought about how we think about organisational structures and behaviours maybe?