So, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how teams get put together, you know, the whole structure thing. Someone threw this phrase at me, “kings and wizards organization,” and it kinda stuck in my head. It got me reflecting on places I’ve worked and things I’ve tried myself.
Thinking Back: The ‘Kings’ Setup
I remember this one place, very traditional stuff. Everything flowed from the top down. You had your managers, the ‘kings’ I guess, making all the calls. My job, and everyone else’s really, was mostly to just do what was decided higher up.
- We waited for instructions.
- We passed information up the chain.
- Decisions took time, lots of meetings, lots of approvals needed.
- The manager knew the ‘big picture’, or so they said.
It felt safe sometimes, you knew who was in charge. But man, things moved slowly. If you had an idea, getting it heard was a whole process. Felt like shouting into the wind sometimes.
Trying Something Different: Enter the ‘Wizards’
Then I was on this project where we tried to mix it up. We had these folks who were just brilliant at their specific thing – coding, design, data, whatever. Real ‘wizards’ in their domain. The idea was to let them have more say, let them guide the technical stuff.
So, we started doing that. We pushed decision-making down to these experts for their areas. We set up smaller, focused groups. We wanted things to move faster, be more flexible.
And in some ways, it worked. Problems got solved quicker by the people who actually understood them deeply. Things felt more dynamic. People seemed more engaged when they had ownership.
Where It Got Messy
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Oh boy, no. Communication became… interesting. You had these expert groups, the ‘wizards’, running off doing amazing things, but sometimes they forgot to tell everyone else. Or they’d clash because their brilliant ideas didn’t quite fit together.
And the ‘kings’, the managers? They struggled. They were used to being the main node, the control point. Suddenly, they felt a bit lost. Their role changed from giving orders to… well, what exactly? Facilitating? Coaching? It wasn’t always clear, and some definitely resisted it.
We ended up with weird situations. Sometimes the ‘wizards’ would make a call, but a ‘king’ would override it later, causing frustration. Other times, the ‘kings’ wouldn’t step in when maybe they should have, and things drifted off course.
It felt like we were trying to build a car with two steering wheels, one for the king and one for the wizard. Lots of pulling in different directions.
My Takeaway from Trying This Stuff
Looking back, I spent a good chunk of time trying to bridge that gap. I remember setting up endless meetings trying to get the ‘kings’ and ‘wizards’ talking the same language. I literally drew diagrams on whiteboards showing who should decide what, trying to create clear lanes.
Sometimes it helped, for a bit. But people fall back into old habits. The core issue, I think, was trust and clarity. Do the ‘kings’ trust the ‘wizards’ enough to let go? Do the ‘wizards’ understand the bigger picture the ‘kings’ are supposed to be watching? Getting that balance right is tough.
It’s not like one way is pure good and the other pure bad. That ‘kings’ setup? Stable, clear chain of command. That ‘wizards’ approach? Fast, innovative, leverages expertise. The trick is finding a blend that actually works for the specific people and the specific work you’re doing. Still haven’t seen anyone get it perfectly right, myself included. Just keep trying, I guess.
