Persuading the Bear Learn How to Build Engaged Communities Through Horizontal Influencing

Persuading the Bear Learn How to Build Engaged Communities Through Horizontal Influencing

It was 9 pm on a Friday and I was at work. My spouse called asking when I’d be home; my boss was all over me. I had been working on a proposal for 5 months and couldn’t get team, vendor and client’s buy in! I became insufferable (even Ron, my best friend, declined our traditional Wednesday beer date). I changed jobs frequently, feeling disengaged, until I became physically ill. After a third round of antibiotics, I decided to quit another position and start working for myself.My feeling of disengagement was not unique. According to the Gallup engagement study, nearly 70% of employees suffer from work place disengagement - a true epidemic!For over 20 years, my personal transformation journey as a consultant and later as a leadership agile coach taught me to look for patterns in organizations. I have recognized recurring behaviours that plague unsuccessful and disengaged organizations.The overarching problem is the traditional approach to organizational power/influence which I named vertical influencing. Unsuccessful organizations suffer from high employee disengagement since they adopt vertical influence patterns.On the other hand, I discovered that successful organizations adopt a fresh paradigm of horizontal influencing. Presently, these horizontal influencing structures manifest themselves in lean agile approaches.Horizontal influencing includes a set of skills fundamental to building Dyad and Triad relationships; creating a true win-win environment at the individual, team and organizational level. Experience how to create engaged communities together, through building Horizontal influencing.