It's not that you can't have flat hierarchy, it's that you have to ensure that it's supported by transparency and process to then prevent it actually being a mask for another power structure.

To wit, this is the actual democratic experiment that people keep thinking they refer to when talking about America.

"Holacracies" aren't impossible. It's just that they're hard. Brady's point is more that many people refuse to admit this and, accordingly, run into the worst problems posed rather than having ways to deal with them as they arise.