Stefan Kühl - Lateral Leading: A Very Brief Introduction to Power, Understanding and Trust

Stefan Khl is professor of sociology at the University of Bielefeld in Germany and works as a consultant for Metaplan, a consulting firm based in Princeton, Hamburg, Shanghai, Singapore, Versailles and Zurich. He studied sociology and history at the University of Bielefeld (Germany), Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (USA), Universit Paris-X-Nanterre (France) and the University of Oxford (UK).

Other Books by Stefan Khl

Organizations: A Systems Approach

(Routledge 2013)

Ordinary Organizations: Why Normal Men Carried Out the Holocaust

(Polity Press 2016)

When the Monkeys Run the Zoo: The Pitfalls of Flat Hierarchies

(forthcoming)

Sisyphus in Management: The Futile Search for the Optimal Organizational Structure

(forthcoming)

The Rainmaker Effect: Contradictions of the Learning Organization

(forthcoming)

To contact us:

Metaplan

101 Wall Street

Princeton, NJ 08540

USA

Phone: +1 609-688-9171

stefankuehl@metaplan.com

Stefan Khl

Lateral
Leading

A Very Brief Introduction to Power, Understanding and Trust

Organizational Dialogue Press

Princeton, Hamburg, Shanghai, Singapore, Versailles, Zurich

Imprint

ISBN (Print) 978-0-9991479-6-2

ISBN (EPUB) 978-0-9991479-7-9

Copyright 2017 by Stefan Khl

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the author.

Translated by: Lee Holt

Cover Design: Guido Kltsch

Typesetting: Thomas Auer

Project Management: Tabea Koepp

www.organizationaldialoguepress.com

Contents

1.
Lateral LeadingIntroduction

2.
Power, Understanding and TrustThe Three Pillars of Lateral Leadership

3.
The Interplay of the Three Mechanisms of Influence

4.
Connection to the Formal Structure of Organizations

5.
How Do You Lead Laterally Through Processes of Change? Applying the Concept

6.
OutlookAdditional Search Fields for Further Developing the Concept of Lateral Leading

PrefaceLeading Beyond
Hierarchical Control

It would be naive to describe hierarchy as an outdated model or to go so far as to assume that hierarchies should be torn down, taken apart, and chopped up. The concepts of the learning organization and knowledge management, as well as deliberations about the decentralization of organization, have not dealt a mortal blow to hierarchies. There are good reasons to assume that as long as there are organizations, there will also be hierarchies. It seems that no other organizational mechanism is as well suited as hierarchy when it comes to making quick decisions, preventing constant power struggles, and pacifying conflicts at lower levels.

With increasing frequency, however, managers have the impression that hierarchical control in decision-making processes only works to a limited degree, and it appears that there are reasons for this. In the cooperative arrangements in a value-creation chain, there are often only limited ways to call for managerial intervention in conflict situations. This is because the more hierarchies are flattened out, the less available the hierarch becomes for the issuance of a command to solve coordination problems among subordinates. In collective bodiesfor instance, works councils or the management boards of corporationsor in project groups with members from different departments, hierarchical coordination frequently has to be avoided, more or less. The leaderif there is even one at alltypically only holds a coordinating function and cannot solve conflicts by referring to a specific hierarchical position. The limits of hierarchical coordination become particularly clear in cooperation between various organizations. Employees of such organizations are often forced to bring up an issue without being sure that the details of their cooperative arrangement are clarified by contracts, or that their managers are even ready to clear up every small problem on the margins of a conference orto invoke a clichon the golf course.

The concept of lateral leading tackles this problem and develops an approach to leadership that goes beyond hierarchy. The term itself may be irritating at first glance, because how can someone lead if they dont have any authority? The notion of lateral leading is an intentional oxymorona combination of two contradictory terms into one phrasethat seeks to make it clear that this concept is about bringing two dissonant demands into harmony. Just as the word bittersweet denotes that a dish can activate two opposed sets of taste buds, the special thing about the concept of lateral leading is the ability to lead without hierarchical authority.

Lateral leading is based on three central mechanisms of influence: understanding, power, and trust. Understanding means comprehending the structure of your counterparts thinking in a way that creates new possibilities for action. Trust is built up if one side takes the risk of extending itself and the other side does not take short-term advantage of the situation, thereby showing itself worthy of trust. Power plays an important role in lateral leading, not in the form of hierarchical command structures, but rather on the basis of other sources of power, such as wielding control over internal, and often informal, communication, tapping into expert knowledge, or using contacts in the organizations environment.

This book briefly presents the idea of lateral leading, reviews experiences with it up to the present time, and advances the concept with a few central aspects. The challenge here is to avoid the classic schism of management science. One school of management science, shaped by classical business studies, focuses strongly on the formal structure of organizations, yet in the process neglects informal mechanisms of control. The other school of thought, shaped by human relations concerns and an interest in the question of leadership by the powerless, has not adequately sought to find a connection to the formal structures of organization. Even if lateral leading seems at first glance to bear similarities with this school of management science, oriented as it is towards informal elements, it can only develop its full explanatory power if we incorporate considerations of the formal structure of organizations.

The first chapter traces the development of lateral leading as a concept. We will present various fields of application and assess the reasons for its popularity. The second chapter presents the three central mechanisms of influence in lateral leadingpower, trust, and understandingand their modes of function. The third chapter then shows how these three mechanisms of influence are connected. I believe that the core of the concept of lateral leading lies in the occasionally contentious interplay of these three mechanisms. The possibilities of lateral leading, however, have not even begun to be exhausted. The fourth chapter focuses on the embedding of processes of understanding, measures for establishing trust, and power games into the formal structures of organizations. Lateral leading is a concept that, for starters, opens up opportunities for action without having to fundamentally change the formal structures of a company, an administration, or an association. But everything that can be achieved with lateral leading is related to an organizations formal structures. The fifth chapter addresses the use of the concept in change processes, for example in the development of strategies or the reformation of organizational structures. The summary in the sixth chapter provides a brief overview of further ways in which the concept can be developed.