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

RATIONALITY HAS ITS LIMITS

When formalist leaders want to make a change of some kind, however, their reliance on the formal organization may not serve them so well. They invariably overemphasize the rational case, especially when they want to make an unanticipated change of some kind, explaining in excruciating detail why the new plan is important. They will explore what competitors are doing, describe customer segmentations, go through elaborate financial forecasts, discuss corporate objectives at length, and explain scorecards in endless detail. Their assumption is that once the rest of the organization understands the logic of why certain behaviors are important, they will get it and do what’s expected. If it’s rational and explained properly, ...