Lattice Ways to Participate

8/8/2019 Lattice Ways to Participate

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LATTICE WAYS TO PARTICIPATE

As the definition of the workplace expands from a physical and highly structured environment to a

more virtual and highly adaptive one, so too does the notion of how people participate in

organizations and indeed in the greater world. The nature of work communication, relationships,

knowledge, and value creation is changing, becoming increasingly accessible and tailored to the

ways each person chooses to contribute. In lattice organizations, broader participation means that

people at all levels have options to share ideas and grow knowledge, access critical information, and

interact in communities and teams that span boundaries of all kinds. Participation both relies on and

creates a culture of inclusivity that is not characteristic of ladder organizations.

This transformation of participation works in tandem with lattice ways to build careers and to get

work done. It increases options for learning and growth, fosters innovation, enriches corporate

culture, and boosts careers. As employees participate in broader company workings, they become

better versed in organizational strategy, operations, and happenings and therefore contribute more

and perform better than those who do no participate in this way. They also enjoy more active and

engaged learning opportunities than the traditional one-way flow of information affords.

In the corporate ladder world, participation is generally tied to a persons physical location,

department, and box on the organization chart. The higher your position and the closer you are to

the head office, the more in-the-know you are on key decisions and the greater voice you have in

shaping them. Internal communication cascades down the chain of command, and access to

information is on a need-to-know basis. Social networks are fostered through in-person interactions

at industry gatherings and at water-coolers. Information also flows up, ever so slowly, from rank-

and-file workers in a sometimes filtered fashion. In many companies, the unspoken assumption is

that those at the top are the only ones whose opinions are worthwhile.

In marked contrast, the lattice organization enables broad-based participation across levels and

departmental boundaries. Relationships are more loosely coupled and not as strongly tied to

hierarchy or location. An unprecedented amount of unfiltered information is accessible through

formal and informal networks, often online. There are more avenues for building networks, gaining

expertise, making distinctive contributions, and becoming known the rock-solid links between

participation and careers.

In flattening their structures, organizations have pushed down accountability and decision making to

the front lines, so employees can provide real-time responses to customers and markets. Employees

there have more knowledge and insight to contribute than used to be the case, and, with a greater

voice, they are more engaged. People feel connected when a company communicates and

collaborates with them in the multiple ways use in their own increasingly networked lives.

THE TWIN FORCES OF PARTICIPATION

As we show in this chapter, the rules of participation are being reshaped and in some cases,

rewritten. Lattice organizations allow employees to customize how they voice their opinions,

provide feedback, and collaborate whether or not they choose to. New forms of contribution, in

turn, challenge traditional relationships and communication. They create empowered workers and

an inclusive work environment, at all levels in the hierarchy. We call these lattice ways to participate.


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Examples abound ofcompanies that employ the tenets of mass participation effectively in the

marketplace The resultscan beseen most easily in leading-edge internet companies like Wikipedia,

Amazon.com, Craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google, which rely on thecontributions of

millions of outsiders to power their services. But these are not the only ones. Many other types of

companies are becoming skilled at tapping in to the power of the wisdom of thecrowd, particularly

the wisdom inside a company.

Lattice ways to participate harness two interrelated forces:collaboration and transparency. These

forces are two sides of thesamecoin:each is distinctiveenough to beconsidered separately, but in

practice they are related aspects of one whole. Together, they describe theevolution in thinking and

acting that is necessary to implement latticestyles of participation effectively.

Lattice organizations realize that collaboration and transparencyenhance the authenticity and

effectiveness of internal and external communication a critical ingredient for increasing employee

engagement and productivity and ultimately burnishing a company

s talent brand. As information

flows broaden, the importance of brand and reputation for individuals and organizations grows,

because brands provide a shortcut through information overload. There is intensifying competition

to earn coveted best-places-to-work awards and rankings, and an industry isemerging to help

companies improve their practices and ultimately their brands.

A company

s brand is what the marketplace perceives it to be. Employees, former employees,

suppliers, customers, and shareholders are among the influencers who now have their own forums

to shape a brand as they interact with each other, sometimes inside and sometimes outside the four

walls of the organization. Asexpectations grow for ways to participate, a company

s failure to

embrace and harness thesesources of reputational power can create a chasm between employee

expectations and their work experiences, and ultimately fuel a horde of brand dissenters.

Greater collaboration and transparency inside a firm, on the other hand, can result in a greater sense

ofcommunity and pride in the organization, creating a cadre of brand ambassadors. Both realities

Ladder participation norms

Top-down communication

ne-way, prescriptive instructions

Information shared with thosewho need to know

Individual contribution

ierarchical level determines how

individualscontribute to thecorporate agenda

Command and control

Limited transparency inhibits

trust

Lattice participation norms

Multidirectional communication

Interactive group dialogue

A variety of information availableto those who need or want to

know

Communitycontribution

Multiple, nonhierarchical optionsenable individual choice about

how to contribute to thecorporate agenda

Collaboration and influence

Transparencyencourages trust


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signal that brands everywhere including talent brands depend on what people really think and

feel about an organization.

THE COLLABORATION ECONOMY

The word collaboration is derived from the Latin collaborare, which means to labour together.

Given the ever-increasing pace of global business, labouring together collaboratively becomescritical to keeping pace. Rather than focus on defending a few key ideas, or stocks of knowledge,

companies must use flows of knowledge to continuously generate newer and better ideas.

Collaboration is a means of tapping in to the flow of information, knowledge, and teamwork across

internal and extended organizational networks. In many companies, a cross section of colleagues

from different levels comes together both in person and virtually to collaborate, share interests,

connect, create, and innovate. Communities of practice and other networks, often self-forming,

coalesce around the skills and experiences that people have in common.Because there are many

networks and ways to participate in them, social learning experiences become customized to the

individual.

Procter & Gamble (P&G), for example, has set up communities of practice to bolster its innovative

strategy. Within research and development alone, it has established more than twenty communities,

bringing together people from disciplines such as packaging, skin care, and fragrance. The

communities help share expertise across the company. Experts from its flavoured coffee producers

and other P&G brands, in one instance, helped craft new flavours of Crest toothpaste. The goals of

the P&G communities typify what communities of practice are all aboutbuilding the technical

excellence of members, solving difficult challenges, and cross-pollinating organizational knowledge

faster than prior approaches. In addition to benefiting the development of a wide range of products,

these communities help individuals grow and develop. P&G even highlights them in its recruiting

brochure for doctoral students.

At the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), communities of practice first formed about five

years ago to cultivate the specialized expertise needed to fulfil the agencys mission and to, as

former Chief Learning Officer Carol Willett explains, tap in to the power of peer learning and peer

collaboration. These early communities brought people together but struggled to capture and share

knowledge at scale.

Enter the GAO wiki, a collaboratively written content resource that was rolled out in 2008. Spanning

the agencys twelve locations, the wiki offered a rapid way to solicit contributions from those who

couldnt always be present at meetings. In fairly short order, communities evolved to help connect

experts with organization needs. In a very positive way, the technology is being hijacked by people

and being put to very good purposes, and theyre using the technology in pursuit of finding theexpertise that is going to enable them to contribute more effectively and thereby enhance their

careers, says Willett.

As the GAOs story illustrates, social technologies that help people interact and share information

make it dramatically easier to find people to collaborate with, in turn making work more effective

and efficient. A recent survey concluded that three-fourths of executives say they plan to maintain

or increase investments in networking and related technologies that encourage internal


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collaboration. Nearly half use or plan to use Web 2.0 tools to foster collective intelligence and peer-

to-peer networking, and one-third use online social networks, blogs, RSS, podcasts, and wikis.

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Lattice Ways to Participate