Colorkrew Blog

Dear readers of “The Road to Super Flat Organization.” Thank you so much for reading!

Back number:The Road to Super Flat Organization #9: The Road to Non-territorial Office

I found out that my friends did not press the “like” button, especially those who often tell me, “I read your blog!”

So far, I mostly talked about HR and organization. So this time, I will write about the changes in the office.

Back number: The Road to Super Flat Organization #8: 360 Degree Open Evaluation

From two floors office to a single floor

Before we moved to our current office in Asakusabashi, ISAO (Colorkrew, at that time) office was in Yotsuya.

This time, I will talk about how we set our new evaluation system after the new coaching system.

Back number: The Road to Super Flat Organization #7: the Birth of the Coaching System

A problem in a general evaluation method

Evaluation is a supervisor’s job.

Many companies adopt this evaluation system.

This time, I will describe how we worked on the coaching system.

The roles of a manager in the previous organization

Last time, I wrote that we adopted an organization where managers are not there and replaced them with the project leaders as we decided in the management camp.

Back number: The Road to Super Flat Organization #6: The Final Touch, Goodbye Departments! 

To summarize the previous stories, ISAO(Currently, Colorkrew) started disclosing the information in 2012, and at the same time, gradually made the organization flat by reducing unnecessary report lines.  

The last article was about the moment when we were like, “Let’s get rid of all the positions and make the structure flat!”  

This series is going to continue for a little more. However, today I’ll talk about the exact moment of the dawn of Super Flat Organization.

Unexpected Super Flat

In the last article, “The Road to Super Flat Organization #4 : First Open or First Flat?,” I explained how we came to have the three layers: the top, department managers, and everyone. Honestly, I, at that time, was thinking, “This is the best flat organization structure.”

“With what should we start?”

It is a FAQ from managers and leaders who want to install an “Open and Flat” ideology in their organizations.

First, Open

The conclusion is this: the importance of an “Open” culture is ten times more important than a flat organization, and it should be the first step to start.

Last time, I wrote about making things ready to explain why before actually making changes.

The completion of Super Flat Organization needed drastic changes on the previous organization. This time, I’ll talk about how I made decisions and how I moved things forward.

Why change?

A company is a living thing.

In the last article, I explained that “making the company open” was crucial for Super Flat Organization.

Back number: The Road to Super Flat Organization #1: Not a Goal, but a Result

This time, I’ll talk about what to do before making an impactful reform and what we did in ISAO (Colorkrew at that time).

The dark sides of hierarchical, closed organizations

In 2010, I joined ISAO (Colorkrew at that time).

ISAO at that time was a typical hierarchical, closed company.

Although the company culture was a casual one as now it is, teams were hierarchical and inflexible with a tremendous information gap, and it seemed a closed company to me.

In the past, I wrote about the organizations free themselves from management and running spontaneously, in many ways.

In this article, I’ll explain “why management sucks and why autonomy is lovely,” as a summary.

The times have changed

An important premise in talking about the paradigm shift from management to autonomy is that today’s society is quite different from the 20’s century, where Japan had a brilliant development with industrialization.

One’s value in a company is following his/her salary or position.

This time, I’ll think about how to improve your market value.

Improve individual performance #1 Basic Skills

To think of individual value, the first thing that comes to mind might be skills.

You should nurture those skills through a practical job; in other words, on-the-job-training (OJT) is the most important.

Hello! I’m Da-hara from the branding project.

I’m delivering you the latest interview article first time in a while!

This month, one big project came to its completion. The project was rewarded in the Award presentation, where the company praises successful outcomes of the previous period.

We had an interview with Mr. Tagami, the No.1 Project Manager (PM) called “the man who never fails.” We had him talk about the history of the 20 years long project that had been contributing to the company, what the team learned through, and the hardships and delights of the members.

In Colorkrew with Super Flat Organization, there are no managerial positions.

Naturally, we often receive questions such as “who makes the decision and leads the team, and how?”

No managers, many leaders

In Colorkrew, all business activities fall under the units of “projects.”

If you’re to promote the project, you will be a Project Leader (PL) and have specific roles in the project.