Skip-Level Communication as Survival Obligation

"“You can talk to your manager’s manager without permission, you can talk directly to a VP in another dept, you can talk to me, you can talk to anyone without anyone else’s permission,” he wrote in another note. “Moreover, you should consider yourself obligated to do so until the right things happen. The point here is not random chitchat, but rather ensuring that we execute ultra-fast and well.”"

"“When I say that managers will be asked to leave if they take unreasonable actions to block the free flow of information within the company, I am not kidding,” he wrote."

"But with growth came distance: He no longer had a finger completely on the pulse the way he once did. His direct control was slipping. In a series of emails to employees, he laid out his expectations that managers shouldn’t be blocking the flow of information."