Leading outside the lines: How to Mobilize the (in)Formal Organization, Energize Your Team, and Get Better Results

THE INFORMAL IS THE UNDERDOG

Most managers would love to get the formal and informal aspects of their companies jumping together, so why is it so hard to do?

One reason is that the informal is so much harder to recognize, control, and quantify than the formal. Another is that the predominant management mindset encourages people to emphasize formal control and pursue rational paths based upon logical (typically analytical) reasoning. And a third reason—perhaps the most insidious—is that leadership development programs tend to reward and advance those who excel at rigor, process efficiency, and hierarchical control.

Invisibility of the Informal

Executives tend to favor the formal organization because it can be easily understood and explicitly ...