26 Feb Leadership Nudge® 297 – Flatten the Power Gradient

When an organization has a steep power gradientThe amount of hierarchical social distance from one person to another. A proxy for power gradient could be pay scale, office size, equity, age, longevity, skill level, attractiveness, and carpet thickness. Information flows inversely to the steepness of the power gradient. Steep power gradients inhibit communications, variability of ideas, and creativity. In psychology, this is close to the term “social gradient.”, very little information will flow from the bottom up. When we remove the trappings of power and flatten the gradient, information will flow more freely.

The power gradientThe amount of hierarchical social distance from one person to another. A proxy for power gradient could be pay scale, office size, equity, age, longevity, skill level, attractiveness, and carpet thickness. Information flows inversely to the steepness of the power gradient. Steep power gradients inhibit communications, variability of ideas, and creativity. In psychology, this is close to the term “social gradient.” is the feeling of “how much more important are people the next tier in the hierarchy than we are” and “how much more important are we then people below us.” In Industrial AgeThe period when humans developed large complex organizations based on machines. Factories, assembly lines, plantations, and railroads were dominant during the Industrial Age. The Industrial Age organizational design was optimized to use humans to reduce variability and comply with their masters’ instructions. This fundamental structure shapes our organizational design and language today. organizations (where we conformThe Industrial Age play where people hide behind their positions and deny connection with other people.ed to our roles) we wanted a steep power gradient because that allowed us to coerceThe Industrial Age play where we goad, manipulate, order, motivate, inspire, or threaten people to do what we want them to. Using influence, power, rank, talking first, talking more, or talking louder to bring people around to your way of thinking. Coercion sounds like: I need you to be a team player. Everyone needs to get on board. It's time to fall in line. We are ready to go, right? The new play for leaders is Collaborate. the team to do what we wanted them to do. They would complyThe Industrial Age play of doing what we were told. with their jobs. Here’s why power gradient matters. Information and ideas flow inversely proportional to the power gradient. With a steep power gradient, very little information is going to flow up. It’s going to be highly curated, massaged, and will be worded just right. With a flatter power gradientThe amount of hierarchical social distance from one person to another. A proxy for power gradient could be pay scale, office size, equity, age, longevity, skill level, attractiveness, and carpet thickness. Information flows inversely to the steepness of the power gradient. Steep power gradients inhibit communications, variability of ideas, and creativity. In psychology, this is close to the term “social gradient.”, you will get more information and ideas flowing up. You’ll hear more about what the team is trying to do. Now you feel the power gradient toward your boss, but it’s very hard for you to feel it going down. As leaders we need to take actions to flatten the power gradientThe amount of hierarchical social distance from one person to another. A proxy for power gradient could be pay scale, office size, equity, age, longevity, skill level, attractiveness, and carpet thickness. Information flows inversely to the steepness of the power gradient. Steep power gradients inhibit communications, variability of ideas, and creativity. In psychology, this is close to the term “social gradient.”. These examples of steep power gradientThe amount of hierarchical social distance from one person to another. A proxy for power gradient could be pay scale, office size, equity, age, longevity, skill level, attractiveness, and carpet thickness. Information flows inversely to the steepness of the power gradient. Steep power gradients inhibit communications, variability of ideas, and creativity. In psychology, this is close to the term “social gradient.” i.e., my carpet is thicker, my office is bigger, I have a private parking spot, I have a private executive dining room— are Industrial AgeThe period when humans developed large complex organizations based on machines. Factories, assembly lines, plantations, and railroads were dominant during the Industrial Age. The Industrial Age organizational design was optimized to use humans to reduce variability and comply with their masters’ instructions. This fundamental structure shapes our organizational design and language today. vestiges, which don’t help us when we want to get the most out of our team. So the play is Flatten the Power Gradient. 

Read more on our IBL Blog here – What is the power gradient?