Work at Alan without Management

Many ask themselves this question... How do we progress in an organization without management?

Sarah Meyer, Care Expert for more than a year at Alan, will do her best to answer this question!

Coaches are thought partners on Alaners' long-term aspirations. They strategize how to transform ambition into action. — Alan Leadership Principles

When I started the recruitment process to join Alan, I read everything I could about Alan to understand its unique culture.

Having worked in a more traditional environment, some concepts like full distributed ownership and absence of management seemed utopian to me.

One year in, I can confirm: the culture Alan talks about is the culture Alan lives.

No manager breathing down your neck doesn't mean the absence of structure — quite the opposite.

Here is how we do it:

From day one, all newcomers are paired with a role buddy and a coach.

The role buddy mission is to make the first two months at Alan smooth and stress-free. They belong to the same community as the new hire's (think "Care", "Sales", etc.)

They will help :

Your coach is your long-term growth partner. It’s a guide to help the coachee (the person being coached) through their growth journey — not by giving you answers, but by guiding you to find them.

Concretely, they will:

In short, the role buddy gets you started, and the coach keeps you growing.

The winning combination of role buddy and coach replaces the classic "manager" found in traditional companies.

At Alan, we hire people, not roles.

This means that Alaners have medium- to long-term opportunities to evolve into different positions. In the same spirit, we cannot 100% guarantee to a candidate during the recruitment process what they would be working on if they joined because priorities can change over time.

Our goal is for all Alaners to thrive. We are trying our best to find a configuration that will fulfil their ambitions whether through a change of community, project, or market they work on.

At Alan, we do not have a manager imposing objectives. Every Alaner is owner of defining their own objectives. We are the best to know what needs to be done when we are working on a topic.

Long-term objectives (up to 3 years) are defined at the company level. It sets the direction.

When it comes to how we reach these goals, those doing the work are best placed to find the way. With the help of our coach and community, we will define objectives that are ambitious yet achievable.

Objectives depend on:

In cases where resources don't allow all objectives to be met, we collectively define priorities and agree to put certain projects on hold so we can fully focus on those that bring the most value. This prevents Alaners from working on 10 different topics at once and losing efficiency.

Distributed ownership raises autonomy and accountability.

This management-free system has many advantages, such as not having to ask for approval for vacation days. Every Alaner is trusted to take time off whenever suits them (of course, we do our best to coordinate so that at least a few people from the community are available).

We should inform the people we work with publicly, but no authorization is required. And that's pretty great!

So, how do you progress in an organization without management? By trusting people to own their growth, their work, and their time. At Alan, that's not an ideal — it's the default.