Lateral Collaboration
Most of our critical challenges require us to work across boundaries without being authorized to make decisions or control others’ work.
Whilst we are required to adopt a “one-organization” mindset, we still strive to deliver our own objectives. Having different interests, expertise and opinions hinders alignment.
Teaming up becomes immensely challenging, as there is no clarity on who leads whom and when. Leadership has no overall authority. Collaboration has to be negotiated. It becomes relational. It feels personal.
Let’s see the challenges teams face and how we at the lateral space can help to overcome these challenges.
What is
Lateral Collaboration?
Lateral & Hierarchal Collaboration are two gears, between which every leadership team needs to master & continuously shift.
Modes of Collaboration
For Lateral Collaboration to work simultaneously with Hierarchical Collaboration, it is important to know the distinctive features of both modes of collaboration.
Hierarchical Collaboration
- Focuses on execution through a well-defined plan and clearly defined objectives.
- The leaders exercise hierarchal (formal) authority
Lateral Collaboration
- Focuses on shaping and aligning strategy by addressing unclear challenges and supports the team toward a collective purpose.
- Leaders need to exercise personal leadership without authority by leading and following peers.
Where we come
- Most team members struggle to surface, address and organize around challenges, that require leading each other laterally.
- Our team of experts helps your leaders in creating a balance between Hierarchical Structure and Lateral Leadership.
You can understand both modes of collaboration clearly through our video.
Watch our video -> Lateral vs Hierarchical Collaboration.
What challenges Lateral Leadership?
Avoidance is the biggest challenge faced by a team planning Lateral Collaboration. It usually occurs in a hostile environment where a disconnected team or a disengaged leader fails to create a conducive sharing platform for its team members.
Leaders may also avoid giving feedback to their team for fear of being misjudged or considered intimidating.
This behaviour directly impacts the growth of the organization as it restricts utilizing the full potential of each team member.
Avoidance routines
An indication that the team is refraining from lateral leadership is when any of these practices are noticeable in the team.
Invisible avoidance
- Team members either don’t show up or meetings don’t last
- Decisions are postponed on purpose or due to endless debating
- Fire-fighting when topics of less strategic importance are prioritized
- Being harmonious and avoiding conflict, individual confrontation and critique
Visible avoidance
- Escalating decisions to the boss for signing off
- Claiming there is no need to collaborate laterally
- Defending own focus or ways of working over collective decisions
- Forming coalition (camp) to defend against opposite views
Socially acceptable avoidance
- Taking up roles democratically or by chance
- Creating (artificial) segregation of duties
- Being obsessed with equality, avoiding differentiating (even positively)
- Obsessive inclusion and alignment (out of courtesy)
Where we come
At the lateral space, we want our coached leaders to engage with their teams promote dialogue, and become more accessible to the team.
They will create a perfect balance between Hierarchical Structure and Lateral Leadership by following defined goals and addressing all challenges faced by the team.
You can understand these avoidance practices through our video. Watch our video -> Avoidance Routines of Lateral Collaboration.
What are the risks in Lateral Leadership?
Lateral Leadership is leadership in the absence of formal authority and
well-defined hierarchical powers.
With organizational structures becoming flatter, there are certain risks and challenges that a leader may run into when leading a team laterally. In addition, the team members too may face challenges while adjusting in this structure.
Risks of leading others laterally
- The risk of taking accountability for the total outcome
- The risk that I will not deliver on my vertical accountability
- The risk of losing my current position of power or accountability
Risks of following others laterally
- The desire to receive total recognition or be seen as the pioneer/hero
- The conviction that I know better than others and the risk of being diluted by alignment
- The desire to progress in hierarchy or power over others
Risks of harming relationships
- The risk of damaging or exposing others
- The fear of damaging harmonious collegial relationships and camaraderie
- The fear of interfering with someone else’s turf
Risks of distorting organizational cohesion
- The fear of being seen as a self-promoter or envied by others
- The fear of not being accepted by the group and being singled out
- The fear of unbalancing structural hierarchy
Here is a video for you to understand the risks faced during lateral collaboration. Watch our video -> Risk Against Lateral Collaboration.
Where we come
Leaders must understand and define their roles, responsibilities, and power in a team. Also, they must help team members to understand their value.
Create a collaborative environment
Our consultants at the lateral space will assist your leaders to understand their role in creating an environment for the team where they willingly cooperate, take responsibility, and find satisfaction in their work.
Define purpose and state expectations
Your leaders will be able to define the purpose of their leadership role to the team and lay down their expectations for the team.
Establish a transparent, cross-functional team
We will facilitate them to bring transparency within their team and across other teams with well-defined tasks for each member, accountability for their actions, and recognition for their performance.
What are
Organizational paradoxes?
Organizational paradoxes are
visible in situations such as
Large organizations are now-a-days built on complexity. Leadership dilemmas often come to existence within an organizational reality where two seemingly opposite sides need to be joined into one. This is called an organizational paradox.
Paradox is defined as:
“A situation or statement that seems impossible or is difficult to understand because it contains two opposite facts or characteristics.” – Cambridge Dictionary
Lateral
Collaboration
- Perform vs Transform
- Individual business wins vs Integrated solutions
- Firefighting vs Future focus
- Deliver with speed vs Ensure patient safety
- Serve patients/customers with E2E solutions vs Safeguard enterprise standards
Team challenges in an organizational paradox
A team facing an organizational paradox often wrestles with the following challenges:
Difficulty in priority setting
Long discussions without an outcome
Staying on high-level discussions
Focus on firefighting
Coalition forming in the team
Organizational paradoxes give rise to conflicts
These paradoxes create dilemmas that are present in every part of the organization. Often in teams, different members have responsibilities on different sides of the polarity. This can make it hard to move forward as it may give rise to conflicts.
Conflicts faced may include structural complexities, goal differences, workplace demands, competition-driven leadership, and loss of team interconnection.
Successful teams are teams that, not only recognize these paradoxes but are also able to effectively work
Where we come
The arising conflicts will affect your team’s collaboration negatively. Our consultants at the lateral space are here to help with the following solutions.
Identifying team conflicts
We will coordinate with your leaders to identify these conflicts within your teams arising as a consequence of certain organizational paradoxes.
Calculating the impact
We will assist you in calculating the impact of these conflicts on your team members, the team’s synergy, and the overall growth of your organization.
Providing remedial measures
We will also help to diagnose the reasons these conflicts are occurring within the team and suggest remedial measures and a correction strategy.
