The Power Of Working With The Front Line

Conventional organisational leadership is based on strict control from the top - commonly know as "command control". Traditional wisdom states that the path to success involves exerting tight control over subordinates.

But as we have already noted, this model of "leader-follower" is not suited to a complex systems environment.

The power of working with the frontline can only be unleashed by reversing this model and delegating control.

Retired Captain David Marquet of the US Navy challenges this traditional top-down structure by sharing his exceptional leadership experiences on the nuclear submarine USS Santa Fe.

Marquet transformed this underperforming submarine to a high-achieving crew by applying what he calls the "leader-leader" approach.

Every team member was empowered as a decision-maker with widespread expertise which in turn led to proactive thinking.

There are many situations at work or in your personal life where you are not in charge. You do not have formal authority, you are a layman and yet you need to take advantage of the power of working with the frontline to resolve things and get things done.

We live in an interconnected and complex world so knowing how to exercise influence without authority is an increasingly important modus operandi.

The fundamental principle of how to influence without authority is mirrored reciprocation whereby you get what you really want by giving other people what they really want.

This goes beyond the transactional and is about building a "win-win" that addresses our deepest needs as human beings.

Resources

• 6 Key Tips On To Influence Without Authority

At one point in my business career I was deeply involved in change management and at that time the model of "Informal Networks"  was quite popular.

I have always thought [and still do] that a basic understanding of informal networks and how to work with them is an essential part of the toolkit for exercising influence and getting things done.

This model evolved in the corporate world but the basic principles apply to any informal networks whether in the corporate buisnes workd or in any other context where human beings associate and collaborate for reasons of self interest.

The parallel universe of the informal networks

Thought leaders such as Jon Katzenbach and Zia Khan with "Leading Outside The Lines" and other leading practitioners at that time such as Neil Farmer of "Informal Networks Ltd" expanded understanding of the power of working with the frontline with the idea of informal networks of non management people operating in a parallel universe to the traditional well understood formal hierarchical management networks within an organisation.

The basic idea of the "Informal Networks Model" is that up to 75% of an organisation's natural leaders and informal networks sit outside of the formal management structure

Informal networks are formed by frontline people with shared self interest

In an informal network, people at the frontline start working together because they have self interests in common and not because they are being forced to work together.

In other words, they work with each other because they find it beneficial to do so.

People join an informal network because of the value of the knowledge they receive and the personal relationships they build.

Find and work with the Natural Leaders in these informal frontline networks

One further aspect of recognising and working with these informal networks is to be aware that these networks contain "Natural Leaders".

These are people with no formal authority but who through strength of personality, their connections and relationships, and their experience are recognised by the frontline as people of influence.

Resources

• Working With Informal Networks
• Leading Outside The Lines  - Article
• Leading Outside The Lines  - Book

If you are not in an organisation and are an individual operating on your own account then for the purposes of these scenarios you are a lone-wolf.

The modus operandi of the lone-wolf is based on influence without control, as outlined above.

The informal networks model can also be applied within networks that are outside of an organisation but formed by people who work in the frontline and who share a common interest in a particular activity, or special interest group.

Examples could include workers in the retail sector in one specific town or city, or people involved in the hospitality sector within one state of country, or people who are engaged in cutting edge research in special interest groups.

As with informal networks within an organisation, people join these network because of the value of the knowledge they receive and the personal relationships they build.

Also, if you are fortunate enough to have connections that give you access within an organisation you may gain influence with informal networks there as well.

I am going to conclude this article with a model that can assist the lone wolf in leveraging the power of working with the frontline by targeting the natural leaders and key people of influence within informal networks.

In my experience the "Pareto Principle" and it's sibling "The Fat Tail Fractal Factor" is probably the most powerful model for targeting your efforts on those people most likely to have influence on the outcomes that you seek.

The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 Rule, means that 20% of your actions/activities will account for 80% of your results/outcomes.

It gets its name from the Italian-born economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923), who observed that a relative few people held the majority of the wealth.

The Pareto Principle is an observation, not a law of nature, and is a useful heuristic to help you to find the small number of people that give you the biggest results - i.e. the point of maximum leverage.

What many people don't realise is that the 80/20 rule can be applied within itself - that is where the fractal factor kicks in.

The first row in the schematic above shows the standard 80/20 split.

However the 80/20 rule will still apply within itself [this is the fractal factor] so applying it to your 20% best efforts, 20% of that [i.e. 4%] will deliver 64% of your best results. This is illustrated in the second line of the graphic above.

Then, the 80/20 rule can be applied to this 4%, so 20% of that 4% [i.e. 0.8%] will deliver 51.2% or more of your best results. This is illustrated in the third line of the graphic above.

The challenge lies in finding that key subset of your productive 20%.

Resources

• Pareto Principle - The 80/20 Rule
• The Fat Tail Fractal Factor - Give Your Effectiveness A Quantum Leap