Quinnsights: Skipping the Hierarchies

After last month’s columna reader asked, “Would you blog on skipping the hierarchies in working smarter,and not being afraid to speak up to leadership, including your boss?” I amappreciative that she brought this up, and of course I’m happy to oblige.

To start, you have to recognize that working smarterinherently includes innovation.You must be continually learning, and that requires research. In this case,research means continual experimentation. You can operate on what’s known onlyso long, and then you also need to try new things.

One of the reasons I don’t like the idea of best practices(although I inadvertently used that phrase in the previous column) is thatthey’re not re-contextualized into the current situation. I argue instead forbest principles (abstracting from specific instances), and then re-instantiating.And that requires experimentation, evaluation, and refinement.

What truly benefits innovation is diversity,if the process is managed correctly. The lateral inputs that may move you intoa more productive space can’t come from everyone thinking the same. You tapinto diversity by deliberately choosing people who are different, whileensuring the necessary skills are represented and there is a sharedunderstanding of what’s important. You then must employ appropriatebrainstorming approaches; think individually before collectively, everyone getsequal time, don’t evaluate until you’ve exhausted the idea-generation stage,etc.

Skipping the hierarchies

Hierarchies are contrary to innovative thinking. Theyreflect a particular way of looking at the world. It’s hard to cross boundariesin hierarchies, yet boundary crossing is essential. This is why modernapproaches to innovation explicitly talk about creating diverse teams (seeGeneral Stanley McChrystal’s Team ofTeams, Amy Edmondson’s Teaming,and John Kotter’s XLR8).

You may need hierarchies to perform the routine, but that’sincreasingly being automated. The valuable work, the valuable outcomes, will emerge from innovation.New ideas come from crossing the hierarchy. Does this signal the demise ofhierarchies? Some think so, but others argue that you still need the optimalexecution to couple with continual innovation.

Implicit in the above innovation concept, by the way, is everyone having a voice. That means thatyou must talk to the boss, as well aseveryone else. You must communicate to leadership. And, most importantly,leadership needs to listen.

The age of one person thinking for everyone is gone. There’stoo much complexity, and things are moving much too fast for anyone to havetheir mind around all of it. You want lateral inputs to continually spark newideas. You get better outputs when everyone contributes.

Ideas lead to experiments, not all of which are successful.It’s no coincidence that a startup manual was titled Fail Fast, Fail Often (Ryan Babineaux and John Krumboltz). If yourleadership can’t hear of mistakes and discards thoughts from below, the stageis set for the success of the competition. Innovation is a competitiveadvantage.

Knowing the above is critical in learning. Not formallearning, but informal learning. It’s a critical part of working smarter. And I will suggest that this is a role that canand should be facilitated by learning professionals.

Thanks for the chance to opine about skipping thehierarchies and assuring an equitable voice in the organization. Organizationsthat fail to transcend hierarchies will be too hidebound to adapt. Being agilemeans tapping into diversity. And that’s smart!