People Are Motivated by Their Own Goals.

The philosophy in top-down, pyramid-type organizations is that authority motivates people.

The philosophy of self-directed teams is that individuals and teams are motivated by their own goals and commitments. And when they’re in alignment with the company and its clients, it’s a win/win/win/win situation.

To achieve this, we organize around the client. Mental templates that help describe this are:

• There are no functional departments.
• The entire company is one department – the customer service department.
• Each client has its own department at the agency. But we eliminate the “D” word. We call these client-centered departments, client-based, self-directed teams.