LADDER // LATTICE

 

LADDER // LATTICE

In most workplaces opportunity exists on a ladder, not on a lattice. While the ladder, in the corporate structure, shows you the path to the leader at the top, the lattice is a crisscrossing structure like checker board that offers multiple paths to the top.

The lattice system rejects two unwritten rules that dominate ladder hierarchies – don’t go behind your boss’s back or above your boss’s head. These implicit rules often stop many people from speaking up and being heard. It removes the threat of punishment for going around and above the boss.

In the Ladder system a single ‘no’ is enough to kill an idea or even a career.

Managers often say no because your idea might be a threat to their ego – if it’s good -- or their image if it’s bad. The tide is invariably turned against the one who comes up with a creative suggestion.

It happens like that because unproven ideas carry too much risk and uncertainty.

Managers know that if they bet on a bad idea, it might be a career limiting move, but if they ignore a good idea, it’s unlikely anyone will ever find out.

And even if managers are supportive of an idea, if they perceive leaders above them would not like it, they tend to see it as a losing proposition.

All it takes is just one gatekeeper to shut out a new frontier

‘Hidden Potential’

Adam Grant