Over a decade ago, two authors by the names of Marcus Buckingham and Don Clifton wrote an amazing book called Now, Discover Your Strengths.

At the very end of this book, hidden behind the database of strengths themes, there is a small section devoted to providing structural ideas for how to design a better organization. In this chapter, the authors mention something I’ve never forgotten—the idea of “building more ladders.”

Right now in our companies, we have essentially one ladder. One path up.

While we inherently understand that this doesn’t make any sense—not everyone wants to be a CEO—we persist in structuring our companies like everyone does.

Much better, I think, to design an organizational structure that provides many ladders.

In fact, what’s stopping us from having as many ladders as we need?

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