Network leaders

Senge makes the point that the really significant organizational challenges occur at the interfaces between project groups, functions and teams. Network leaders are people who work at these interfaces. They are guides, advisors, active helpers and accessors (helping groups of people to get resource from elsewhere), working in partnership with line leaders. They often have the insight to help local line leaders to move forward and make changes happen across the organization.

The interconnections are hard to achieve in reality. We have observed the following obstacles to achieving smooth interconnection between the different roles:

• Executive leaders are busy, hard-to-get-hold-of people who can become quite disconnected from their local line leaders.

• Executive leaders and local line leaders rarely meet face to face and communicate by e-mail, if at all.

• Network leaders, such as internal consultants or process facilitators, are often diverted from their leadership roles by requests either to perform expert tasks or to implement HR-led initiatives.

• Network leaders may be busy and effective, but are usually undervalued as leaders of change. They often have to battle to get recognized as important players in the organization.

Senge’s model recognizes the need for all three types of leader, and the need for connectivity between different parts of the organization if change is desired.