There is the authority an organisation chart describes, and there is the authority that actually operates. They overlap, but never completely, and the space between them is where a surprising amount of institutional life happens…
Posts tagged Leadership
Extreme Ownership: There Are No Bad Teams
The principle is deliberately stated without qualification: a leader owns everything in their world. Not the successes and some of the failures. Everything. If the team fails to perform, the leader failed to prepare, organise,…
Productive Conflict vs Artificial Harmony
When a meeting is very smooth — decisions reached quickly, no significant dissent, everyone aligned — it is tempting to read this as a sign of a well-functioning team. Lencioni’s model suggests almost the opposite:…
The Team That Works
Most explanations of why a team isn’t working point at the visible problems. People aren’t aligned. They’re not motivated. They’re not delivering. The instinct is to address the thing you can see — to push…
Move Authority to the Information
There is a standard model for how authority and information are supposed to interact in an organisation. The people at the top have the authority to make decisions. The people at the bottom have the…
Vulnerability-Based Trust: The Foundation Every Team Skips
The healthiest teams argue more than the unhealthy ones. They admit failure more readily. They say things in meetings that would be career-limiting elsewhere. They’re the first to say when they don’t know something, when…