Not Departments
Most organizations have departments. Marketing, finance, operations, programs. Each one has a director, a budget, a silo. Information flows up and down but rarely sideways. The people closest to the work have the least authority over it.
Ktown Team is designed around teams instead. The difference isn’t just naming - it’s structural. Teams at Ktown Team operate within a flat hierarchy where decision-making authority sits with the people doing the work, not with a management layer above them.
25 Teams, One Structure
We’re planning 25 specialized teams spanning the full range of community needs. Housing. Health. Arts and culture. Education. Public safety. Economic development. Accessibility. Environment. Technology. Legal. And more.
Each team is focused on a specific domain, but none operates in isolation. The team structure is designed so that teams coordinate naturally - because the issues they work on are connected. A housing team can’t ignore health outcomes. An arts team can’t ignore accessibility. An economic development team can’t ignore language barriers.
This cross-team connection isn’t managed by executives directing traffic. It’s built into how teams communicate, share resources, and make decisions together.
How Teams Work
Every team will follow the same basic principles:
Open membership. Anyone can join a team based on interest. You don’t need credentials, experience, or an invitation. If you care about housing in Koreatown and want to work on it, you join the housing team. Expertise is valuable, but lived experience is expertise too.
Shared leadership. Teams won’t have a single leader who makes all decisions. Leadership roles rotate, and decisions are made collectively. This prevents bottlenecks, distributes knowledge, and keeps any one person from becoming a gatekeeper.
Transparent operations. Team discussions, decisions, and progress will be visible to the broader community. If you’re not on the housing team but want to know what they’re working on, that information will be available. Transparency isn’t a reporting requirement - it’s how trust gets built.
Clear connection to outcomes. Every team will track what it’s doing and what results those efforts produce. Not for performance reviews - there aren’t any in the traditional sense - but for collective learning. What’s working? What isn’t? What should we try next?
Why Flat Hierarchy
Hierarchical organizations are efficient at executing predetermined plans. They’re terrible at adapting, learning, and including diverse perspectives. When decisions flow through a chain of command, the people at the bottom - usually the ones closest to the community - have the least influence on what happens.
A flat structure is slower for some things. Decisions take longer when more people are involved. Coordination requires more communication. There’s no boss to break a tie.
But the tradeoffs are worth it. Flat teams produce better decisions because they draw on more perspectives. They adapt faster because information doesn’t have to travel up a hierarchy and back down. They retain people because participants have real agency, not just assigned tasks.
Getting Involved
The 25-team structure is being built now, during our founding stage. This is the best time to get involved - not because we need warm bodies, but because the people who join early will shape how these teams operate.
If you have interest in any domain that affects Koreatown - and nearly everything does - there’s a team forming around it. No application, no interview, no prerequisites. Show up, contribute what you can, and help build something that works for the neighborhood.
The teams page on our wiki details the full list and how participation works. We’re building the plane while designing it - and we want the passengers involved in both.