What does it really look and feel like to work in a company without traditional managers?
In a world where progressive ways of working are often dismissed as utopian, the team at Mayden offers a grounded, human-centred example of self-management in action.
Self-management isn’t a buzzword at Mayden—it’s a lived experience. In an episode of Make It Thrive: The Company Culture Podcast, I sat down with two members of the Mayden team: Dr. Philippa Kindon, program manager and coach, and Ruth Waterfield, scrum master and software developer. Together, alongside other Mayden team members, they co-authored Made Without Managers, a book that gives a transparent, multifaceted view into what it really takes to work in a self-managed organisation.
This isn’t just another leadership book from the top down. It’s a raw and honest collection of stories from across the company, including interns and long-standing team members alike. The book—and the conversation—shine a light on the practical, emotional, and cultural shifts that self-management demands.
A Health Tech Company with a Difference
Mayden, based in Bath, UK, is a health tech company that provides digital solutions to the NHS and charities supporting mental health services. Their flagship product, iaptus, helps clinicians deliver patient-centred, outcome-focused care. But it’s not just what Mayden builds that sets them apart—it’s how they operate.
Since 2013, the team has been experimenting with and embedding self-management principles into their everyday practices. Inspired by agile methods and the founder’s original ethos, Mayden has evolved into a company where decision-making is distributed, teams are autonomous, and transparency is the norm.
Why Self-Management?
Mayden’s move toward self-management wasn’t driven by a desire to follow a trend, but by necessity and values. As Philippa explained, early frustrations with traditional team structures led the company to explore agile practices. That opened the door to deeper questions: What if we took autonomy further? What if every part of the business operated with more trust, shared responsibility, and purpose?
The result is not a perfectly polished system, but an evolving one—full of learning curves, mistakes, growth, and, most of all, humanity.
Radical Transparency and Adult-to-Adult Culture
One of the biggest shocks for new team members at Mayden is just how transparent the organisation is. Everything from project updates to financials is visible to the entire team. As Philippa recalled, this was initially uncomfortable: “I could see everything that everybody is doing. I thought, ‘What if I mess something up?’” But that openness is what enables real accountability and better decision-making.
At the heart of this transparency is an assumption that everyone is treated as an adult. Ruth described how openness helps close the gap between perception and reality: “If you can’t see things, you can’t ask good questions.” Transparency leads to inspection, which leads to meaningful change.
The Power of Unlearning
Working in a self-managed company demands unlearning deeply held beliefs about authority, permission, and control. For Philippa, a powerful early experience was watching a colleague openly talk about a mistake during an all-staff day—something she’d never seen in a traditional workplace. It signalled that Mayden truly walked the talk of a no-blame culture.
Ruth shared that, as someone who joined straight from university, the self-managed environment at Mayden just made sense. “It seemed like a sensible way to work—people-centred, everyone has a say, and you listen to each other.”
But for those coming from more traditional workplaces, the adjustment can be significant. People often ask, “Who do I ask for permission?” or “Who tells me what to do?” Self-management flips that paradigm—it’s about shared purpose, not top-down directives.
Innovation and Customer Service as Core Drivers
Philippa and Ruth were clear that self-management at Mayden isn’t just for internal culture—it directly benefits customers too. By removing bottlenecks and empowering cross-functional teams, the company can respond more quickly and creatively to problems. Ruth described how, when a technical issue arises, the right people come together instantly—from systems engineers to product owners—to solve it collaboratively. “You’ve got the people, the context, and the decision-making ability in the room,” she said.
The structure also encourages innovation. Teams aren’t told how to solve problems—they’re trusted to find their own way. This autonomy fuels creativity, engagement, and ultimately, better outcomes for the people they serve.
The Hidden Challenges of Self-Managed Work
While the rewards are many, the team is candid about the challenges. One of the most overlooked aspects, they argue, is the emotional labour involved in working this way. “Self-awareness, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution—these so-called soft skills are actually the hardest,” Ruth said.
In traditional workplaces, it’s easy to defer responsibility: let the manager sort out a difficult colleague or make a tough call. In a self-managed environment, those responsibilities often sit with you—and that can be uncomfortable. But it also leads to more mature, more human ways of working.
Hidden hierarchies and power dynamics can still emerge, so facilitation becomes crucial. “Just because you don’t have managers doesn’t mean you don’t need structure or support,” Philippa added. “You need people to hold the space and make sure everyone is heard.”
Growing Pains and the Next Stage of Evolution
Mayden isn’t standing still. As the company grows—both in headcount and international reach—it faces new challenges: How do you maintain alignment across more people and more teams? How do you co-create strategy without defaulting to top-down planning? How do you ensure your way of working scales with complexity?
Philippa and Ruth acknowledge that their culture is changing with growth. Not everyone who joins will immediately “get” the way Mayden works, and not everyone stays. But they remain committed to evolving self-management in a way that fits their ethos—and helps others see there is another way.
Is Self-Management Worth It?
“It might be hard, but it’s worth it,” said Ruth. “You grow as a person in this environment, and you help shape a workplace you actually want to be in.”
Philippa echoed the sentiment: “This way of working reminds us that humans are at the heart of every organisation. It just makes sense to work in a way that reflects that.”
Self-management, they argue, is not the goal. It’s a means to creating organisations that are more innovative, more resilient, and more meaningful—for both employees and customers.
If you’re curious about what it really takes to adopt self-management—not as a theory but as a daily practice—Made Without Managers is a must-read. Rich with real stories and hard-earned lessons, it’s a rare look at the lived experience of a team rewriting the rules of work.
