Leading Outside the Lines:How to Mobilize the Informal Organization, Energize Your Team, and Get Better Results

Every organization is built around overlapping layers. There is the more defined and visible “formal organization” layer of the company, and then there is the “informal organization” layer. What if you could harness the power of your informal organization and use it to accelerate higher performance and results? Well, you can!

The following summary of Leading Outside the Lines, by Jon R. Katzenbach and Zia Khan, will take you through a new examination of the modern workplace, and how leaders and managers, as well as others must embrace it for success. Katzenbach and Khan reveal how two distinct factions form the bigger picture of how an organization works, and how you can balance the informal and formal elements of your organization to achieve outstanding results.

According to Marshall Goldsmith, the author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, “If you want to know how work really gets done, read Leading Outside the Lines! It is the best book I have ever read at explaining the difference between what is supposed to be going on – and what is really going on in organizations.”

Katzenbach is a senior vice president of Booz & Company, where he founded the Katzenbach Center. He is the author of Why Pride Matters More Than Moneyand co-author of The Wisdom of Teams. Khan is the vice president of strategy and evaluation at the Rockefeller Foundation and a senior fellow of the Katzenbach Center.

In the following summary, you’ll learn how to look at the bigger picture of your organization to recognize where and how you can lead outside the lines most effectively and, as a result, have more impact. Get ready to open your mind, be willing to adopt some new behaviors, and focus on execution. With the knowledge you’ll gain, you’ll be ready to achieve real and long-lasting results.