the year without pants – valve

The game company Valve, makers of the games Half-Life and Portal, have a similar philosophy. They hire T-shaped programmers and designers—people who are masters at one craft but skilled at many. Valve also bets heavily on employee autonomy, going further than Automattic with its complete absence of formalized teams or hierarchy. Projects form at the whim of employees. Colleagues decide for themselves what projects to work on. Although the company is not distributed, employees’ desks are on wheels, and they can choose for themselves what project they want to join, literally rolling down the hallway to become part of the project while it lasts. The Valve company handbook, leaked online in 2012, says, “We don’t have any management, and nobody ‘reports to’ anybody else. We do have a founder/president, but even he isn’t your manager. This company is yours to steer—toward opportunities and away from risks. You have the power to green-light projects. You have the power to ship products.”