Why Are We So Surprised Slow Orgs Move Slowly?

You know that feeling when you’re cruising on a smooth, open road, finally making good time, and then — thump-thump-thump — you hit a series of speed bumps? Your progress stalls, your coffee splashes everywhere, and your once-white shirt is now a modern art piece. Speed bumps are not decorative. They are designed to slow people down.

I’ve come to see traditional organizational hierarchy exactly like that. Every leader wants faster teams. We want agility, creativity, collaboration, and all the other words that look great in slide decks. But then we build structures that slow people down at every turn.

Removing the Organizational Speed Bumps

If you want teams to move faster, you have to look at the road they are driving on. No amount of inspirational posters or “synergy” mandates will help if the org chart is designed like a parking lot. Flattening hierarchy isn’t an HR initiative. It’s an operational one that shifts authority to the edges where the action is. Here are a few practical ways to rethink structure so teams can actually pick up speed.

• Shorten the path between decisions and the people doing the work. While you’re waiting for 17 reviews and signatures, your competitor has already launched, iterated, and is now selling T-shirts about it. Teams move faster when they do not have to stop at every approval checkpoint. When authority sits closer to the work, people can respond to customers and partners in real time, which creates a natural rhythm of collaboration.
• Design for speed, not control. Control-heavy structures operate on the fear that someone, somewhere, might make a mistake. In fast-moving markets, delay is the bigger risk. When leaders design structures that prioritize learning speed over perfect permission, teams adapt faster and recover quicker, which reduces the need for constant top-down intervention (and the endless “Can I get five minutes on your calendar?” requests).
• Give a team a complete outcome, not a task. Let teams own an entire outcome instead of slicing the work into isolated tasks. When a single group owns the outcome, trade-offs happen faster because the same people feel the consequences. Form small, cross-functional units accountable for a specific result from start to finish. You’ll be shocked how quickly debates over departmental priorities vanish when one team owns the entire journey.

Speed comes from structure, not slogans. If the road is full of bumps, no amount of pep talks will help your teams move faster. It’s not a matter of will or talent. It’s a matter of physics. Remove the friction, shorten the distance between decisions and action, and let teams operate with the autonomy that modern work demands. The results tend to show up quickly, which is exactly what every executive hopes for when they ask their teams to accelerate.

Adeline (Addy) Maissonet is a senior advisor on contracting policies and procedures within the Office of the Secretary of War, U.S. Department of War (DoW) and the agency’s representative on the Department’s views on proposed legislation to Congressional members, their staff, and committee staffers. She leads the development and implementation of Department-wide procurement policies for commodities and services, within her portfolio. Prior to her current role, Addy served as a Division Chief and Contracting Officer with unlimited warrant authority for the U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command (MICC) – Fort Eustis, Virginia. Prior to joining the MICC, Addy served as a Branch Head for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (MARMC), Norfolk, Virginia, with unlimited warrant authority. She also held other procurement positions with the U.S. Navy. Addy holds an MBA in Management and Contracting Level III Certification under the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act. She is a graduate from Cornell University’s Executive Leadership Certificate Program and Harvard University’s Business Analytics Certificate Program. In her free time, Addy enjoys hiking and overlanding with her family and friends.

Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of War.

Photo by Yan Krukau