The shift isn't theoretical. Different organizations have reduced coordination overhead in different ways—and the patterns are visible.
These are not proofs or templates. They are directional examples showing what changes when transparency, platforms, and autonomy replace manual coordination.
Netflix: Context Over Control
Netflix is often cited for relying less on traditional project management and more on "context"—clear strategy, high transparency, and distributed decision-making. Instead of coordinating through meetings and status reports, they invested heavily in transparent information systems.
Key Practices
- Strategy documents published internally before external announcement
- All teams have access to real-time metrics and dashboards
- Decisions documented in memos, not made in meetings
- Teams trusted to make trade-offs within clear constraints
The result: Engineers spend time engineering. Product people spend time on product strategy. Coordination still exists, but far less of it takes the form of recurring status meetings and manual reporting.
Spotify: Autonomous Squads
Spotify organized around autonomous "squads"—small teams with end-to-end ownership. Fewer dedicated project roles. Less reliance on approval chains for routine decisions. Squads hold end-to-end ownership where possible, supported by platform teams and shared standards.
Coordination happens through transparent data, shared principles, and platform teams that provide common infrastructure.
Key Practices
- Squads own complete features end-to-end
- Platform teams provide infrastructure as a service
- Coordination through data transparency, not meetings
- Decisions pushed to the squad level
Haier: Microenterprises
Haier, the Chinese appliance giant, dismantled its entire hierarchy and reorganized into 4,000+ "microenterprises"—small autonomous units that operate like startups.
Traditional managerial control is reduced, with coordination shifting toward market-like mechanisms and unit-level accountability. Each microenterprise has a leader, but they can't command. They can only coordinate through market-like mechanisms.
Key Practices
- Units coordinate through internal markets, not hierarchies
- Revenue and profit visible in real-time
- Leaders elected by team members
- Compensation tied to unit performance
GitHub: Asynchronous by Default
GitHub operates asynchronously. Most coordination happens through written communication, not meetings. Decisions are documented in issues and pull requests.
This isn't just remote work culture—it's a fundamental shift in how coordination happens. Systems can work with written, persistent context far more easily than they can with ephemeral meeting conversations.
Key Practices
- Written proposals over verbal presentations
- Decisions documented in GitHub issues
- Meetings only when synchronous discussion adds value
- Default to transparency unless privacy is required
What They Have in Common
These organizations look different on the surface, but they share recurring patterns:
1. Transparent Information
All relevant information is visible to everyone who needs it. Status becomes visible without asking.
2. Clear Constraints
Teams operate autonomously within well-defined constraints. Approval is reserved for decisions outside a team's authority.
3. Platform Infrastructure
Coordination is enabled by shared platforms and tooling. Resource access shifts toward self-service rather than negotiation.
4. Trust by Default
The default assumption is that teams will make good decisions. Oversight is the exception, not the rule.
The Economics Explain It
These organizations didn't reorganize because of ideology. They reorganized because the economics of coordination changed.
When information is cheap and accessible, hierarchical coordination becomes a bottleneck. When software can sense and route work, human coordination becomes overhead.
These organizations saw it first. The underlying economics are widespread—even when they express differently across industries and constraints.