In traditional hierarchies, authority and energy move vertically. They invite top-down meddling from bosses and bottoms-up dependency from employees who “bump up” difficult issues to avoid risk. Hierarchies don’t manage cross-functional work or processes well since their natural flow is horizontal. Working wider is highly dependent on horizontal flows between often widely spaced participants. An [...]
Leadership
Functional Myopia Turbocharged
Who hasn’t seen the negative consequences of cost centers? People justify parochial spending that might not make sense for the corporation but because “it’s not in my cost center,” it’s easy to do. this sends a chill down any CEO’s spine and is the reverse of working and thinking wider. The same behavior is evident [...]
Leadership and business practices are overun by realitites on the ground
When the playing field changes, we need to as well. Every familiar boundary has sprung a leak. Markets are converging as fast as technologies. Companies are racing to access what used to be personal social networks. Governments and sovereign wealth funds replace banks as the source of survival capital. Firms that initially reached abroad for [...]
Why Working Wider?
Value creation has moved from the center of the firm to its edge and beyond. People are working and collaborating beyond home base to create value, including outside their firm. I call this phenomena "Working Wider". It dramatically changes the world of work, what defines leadership, how you compete and win.
We’re not just being challenged to think outside the box -- Now we’re working outside it as well.
I'm Christopher Meyer - author of Fast Cycle Time, Relentless Growth and several Harvard Business Review articles.
