The blog “Why is Command and Control Workplace Culture Bad for Business?” by Atomic Revenue’s CEO Tara Kinney critiques the traditional "Command & Control" management style, emphasizing its limitations compared to a "Guide & Support" model. In the "Command & Control" approach, management layers impose strict directives with minimal autonomy for employees, often stifling creativity and engagement. This structure requires more oversight and can increase operating costs and risks as employees lack the authority to make independent decisions, which can lead to inefficiencies and disengagement.
The alternative, Guide & Support, fosters autonomy and trust, where employees are empowered to make decisions within established boundaries. By allowing teams to self-manage, this model enhances productivity, reduces the need for constant supervision, and builds a more resilient, engaged workforce. Organizations that prioritize this culture benefit from a shared commitment to company goals, as leadership provides strategic "guardrails" rather than constant oversight.
Repurposed for Revenue Operations and ICT
In a Revenue Operations (RevOps) context, embracing a Guide & Support culture aligns well with Agile methodologies and open-source principles, fostering a collaborative environment essential for driving customer acquisition and retention. As an ICT professional, this approach means establishing clear frameworks for data accessibility and communication channels within ERP systems. For example, empowering team members across functions—sales, marketing, and customer service—to monitor and adjust their own performance within CRM tools like Salesforce, Hubspot and Odoo encourages accountability and reduces bottlenecks, driving efficient revenue growth.
This model also aligns with continuous learning modules, where team members are encouraged to engage with structured training and development on platforms like Salesforce Trailhead. By empowering individuals to learn and make decisions, RevOps and ICT teams can operate in a self-sustained manner, allowing leadership to focus on high-level strategy while employees drive everyday operations.
This cultural shift supports the adaptability and responsiveness crucial to RevOps and ICT, creating an agile, purpose-driven team committed to sustainable growth.
Lessons Learned in Hiring, Onboarding, Training, and Offboarding
At Black Cactus Coworking, creating a cohesive culture involved designing processes that align personal and professional goals with the organization's objectives. During hiring, we emphasized finding candidates who not only had the technical skills but also resonated with our mission to foster community and creativity within a coworking environment. This mission alignment ensured that new hires were already invested in the organizational vision from day one.
In onboarding, we use Odoo and Google Classroom as essential knowledge modules. Odoo served as the centralized ERP, giving employees seamless access to HR materials, organizational policies, and project management tools, while Google Classroom is being employed to facilitate structured training content. By making these resources accessible from the start, new team members could navigate and interpret organizational culture effectively, reinforcing our collaborative and self-directed work environment.
Building a Culture of Self-Organization and Business Value Alignment
Our approach to self-organization empowered employees to prioritize tasks that aligned with both business value and their individual development goals. This meant that employees were encouraged to manage their own schedules, identify areas where they could make the most impact, and regularly align their responsibilities with the strategic objectives of Black Cactus Coworking. By fostering this autonomous culture, employees naturally took ownership of their roles, contributing to a more agile and responsive workplace.
Expanding Organizational Mission through Volunteerism and Nonprofit Integration
To expand beyond traditional enterprise boundaries, Black Cactus Coworking integrated volunteerism and nonprofit initiatives into its operations. Recognizing the importance of community development, we explored establishing a nonprofit arm of the organization. This nonprofit would operate within the enterprise, supporting the coworking space's mission, vision, and values by creating volunteer opportunities for employees to contribute to local causes. This not only strengthened our community presence but also deepened employees' connection to the organization by allowing them to participate in purpose-driven initiatives beyond their day-to-day roles.
It is my belief that a commitment to modular learning tools, self-organization, and a mission-aligned expansion through nonprofit efforts created an environment where employees could thrive professionally and personally, while collectively driving toward organizational impact.