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

PART ONE

USING THE INFORMAL TO ENHANCE THE FORMAL

The informal organization can create effects that seem like magic. They’re amazing to watch, but it’s difficult to know how to produce them. These intangible, often emotional aspects of the informal organization exist right alongside the more evident and rational aspects of the formal organization. The key is to understand that the informal delivers its greatest benefits when it is balanced with the formal. Maintaining a balance is harder to do than it may seem, as the balance point constantly shifts. However, by creating and sustaining a balance between the informal and formal elements, organizations ...