Working without hierarchies

We can't claim that we have no hierarchies at all. However, ours are flatter and, above all, flexible. Anja explains: "There are always hierarchies. They're just based on a different foundation: competence and experience. It can happen that someone on the team makes decisions and says: 'That's how we'll do it now.' What matters is that everyone goes along with it and accepts the hierarchy. That develops organically and isn't imposed." 

Collaborating on an equal footing always matters to us. Mutual trust and connection within the team are, for us, the cornerstones of productive collaboration in which everyone can contribute as best they can. There are no pre-set paths, we coordinate openly and rely on self-leadership within the team – without classical superiors, but with the awareness that people matter more to us than job titles or predefined roles.

25 years of interactive tools – we take showing our stance seriously

For over 25 years, we at interactive tools have been developing digital products, putting people at the centre of our decisions and actions. This stance defines us not only in our projects, but in our daily interactions and our role in society.

Our stance

"We've moved out of the chaos phase, because we know how to enable the team and more self-responsibility is being lived out", says Anja. "There's always a framework that gives the freedom to self-organise within the team. Scrum, Kanban, whatever you call it – a certain structure is there, especially in larger projects. In smaller projects, it perhaps doesn't need to be quite so defined."

So there are guardrails that prevent chaos. But above all, there's communication between team members. Timo describes it like this: "Negotiate, reassess, reconsider. Nothing is automatically a given, you're allowed to question everything. We can do it exactly as we did on the last project, but we're also allowed to do everything differently and take on new roles. That depends on who has time, who has experience and who has which expectations."

For Karim, it's simply agile working: "We don't follow a pre-set master plan, but move forward situationally and step by step. It's an ongoing process in which we keep asking ourselves: how do we do this? What works? What do we need?"

So we don't work in chaos, but we do work flexibly. And that's exactly where we welcome our employees' personal responsibility and individuality. Timo sums it up like this: „I've never experienced chaos. It's sometimes exhausting, yes. But that's intentional too, and it's worth it.“  

"It can cause problems. It's often underestimated that some structure is still needed. Sometimes that's not explicit enough. Tasks aren't fully taken on, there's a gap between tasks and budget, people don't get along well. But we always manage to solve it together", Anja says.

Andrea tells us about a client project she has been involved in for several years now. There were brief phases where requirements weren't clearly defined enough and decisions had to be made jointly. It's precisely at such moments that work can be challenging without responsible decision-makers. But she sees this as a chance for the team to come closer together and work jointly on solving problems. "Everyone is involved in getting out of the supposed chaos again," she tells us. Because once challenges are recognised, the team can work together on a constructive solution and learn for future projects.
For Andrea, jointly overcoming problems can do a lot for a team and a project: "Everyone feels responsible and realises that their contribution matters to solving a problem."

Without overarching leadership figures, there's often more courage to get actively involved, and that can positively reinforce the dynamic within the team. Timo also sees the consequences of a different approach: "It would be a huge problem for our work if we simply blanked out connection and trust in favour of clear hierarchical structures. Togetherness is one of our greatest resources. We would consciously forgo quality, efficiency and enjoyment if we didn't work so collaboratively. And ultimately, we'd also have to forgo the people."

Because that's what matters to us: working together as people.

Becoming more effective. Having more creative freedom. Delivering better results. Working as a human being. Being authentic. Being connected. Being able to contribute.
Our colleagues can list a long list of benefits. Anja sums it up like this: "Essentially, it comes down to everyone involved working together more happily and being more satisfied with the outcome than they used to be with specifications and waterfall."

An important point for many is also the development opportunities. There are no ready-made career ladders to unfold. Everyone can develop according to their own interests and skills. You can read more about this in our article on lifelong learning.

We believe that if we didn't keep reorganising how we work together as a team and who decides what, we would end up delivering worse results for our clients, and everyone on the team would be more dissatisfied too. Hardly anyone at interactive tools can imagine working with classic hierarchy levels.

"That doesn't just mean: we're a family. Not at all. We work together at eye level and meet each other as people", says Timo.

Appreciation for one another and exchange are important to us. That's why we've established a positive feedback culture in which regular retrospectives and personal feedback are a fixed part of our work. We focus on transparency and communicate openly with one another. In future, too, we want to keep people at the centre and shape our work together – without control or complex hierarchies.