33 mins
EP3HR after AI: what is really happening behind the talk of flatter companies
Board slides keep promising thinner management layers. Hosts Dr. Nora Castell of the Acme Work Lab and Dr. Felix Brandt of Northwind University test that claim against their own field data. They find reporting lines barely changed, follow the coordination effort as it moves to new hands, and explain how HR groups are turning into the people who design day-to-day processes.
In this conversation
- Flatter structures are a headline more than a trend.
- Coordination work moves; it doesn't disappear.
- HR teams are becoming workflow designers.
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Find the hosts and guests
- Dr. Nora Castell: linkedin.com/in/nora-castell
- Dr. Felix Brandt: linkedin.com/in/felix-brandt
Acme on social
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/acme
- Twitter/X: x.com/acme
- Instagram: instagram.com/acme
Episode timeline
- 00:00 – Why this episode
- 04:40 – The flattening story
- 16:00 – Where coordination work goes
- 25:00 – HR as workflow designers
Dr. Felix Brandt (04:42)
Every board deck this year has a slide about flatter organizations.
Dr. Nora Castell (04:49)
And in our data, spans of control barely moved. What moved was who does the coordinating.
Your hosts
Dr. Nora Castell
Head of the Acme Work Lab
Dr. Castell leads research at the Acme Work Lab, where she studies how AI is changing the way people and teams work.
Dr. Felix Brandt
Professor Emeritus at Northwind University
Dr. Brandt is a workplace researcher and author whose books cover meetings, incentives, team design and how companies absorb new tools.
Read new work from the Acme Work Lab
The Acme Work Lab is an independent research team guided by scholars and operators who study how jobs are shifting. We turn field studies into checklists, templates and plain guidance that managers can try with their teams this quarter.
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