These Workers Beat Organizational Gridlock to Save Innovation. Here’s How.

Subscribe:

For Hanieh Mohammadi, a PhD candidate at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University, it started with curiosity.

She was working with a federal government in Asia when she learned about their challenges in implementing an innovative new project. They wanted to create a labour market information analysis system – a critical tool to help policymakers make important decisions.

The system was centred around a group of mid-level employees from across government departments, who were tasked with coordinating the collection of critical data and turning it into policy recommendations.

But the project failed. Twice. And they were about to embark on their third attempt.

At the time, Mohammadi was working on a different research project. But when she heard about this latest attempt, she asked if she could tag along as an observer.

Over the next two years, she saw mid-level workers overcome bureaucratic constraints and leadership conflicts to establish a lasting new governmental program. Her findings show that, for mid-level workers, it’s possible to work around even the most rigid structures to make an impact at an organization.

“It’s about creating the freedom to complete your work,” said Mohammadi. “It requires a bit of risk-taking, but it’s possible.”

The project began with a call for volunteers. Workers from across the federal government were invited to join a working group to collect and analyse labour market data and provide policy recommendations to federal ministers. Those who participated were self-nominated, came from ministries across the government, and did this work in addition to their regular jobs.

In the past, this configuration contributed to the project’s failure. Group members now had two allegiances: one to their ministry and another to the working group. Any request to the group could cause a conflict of interest among its members or political tension among government leaders.

This time around, the latter occurred. But instead of crumbling under the tension, group members worked around this organizational constraint.

Managing Up

The novelty of this group meant they didn’t have an official protocol for receiving and processing data requests. Instead, through their diverse connections across the government, they received requests informally, through unrelated encounters during their day job. The group would soon find out that this arrangement could cause some awkward situations – a reality that became apparent when the country’s transport sector went on strike.

The Ministry of Transport urgently needed labour data to help form a response to the strike. Normally, they would have requested it from the Ministry of Labour. But, at the time, the Labour Ministry was severely overburdened – they wouldn’t be able to process the request quickly enough.

Our newly formed working group sprang into action. They became aware of the situation and, at the informal request of the Ministry of Transport, they asked the Central Bank for some support.

The Central Bank was indeed better equipped to complete the required data collection and analysis, but they were hesitant to step in. It wasn’t their job to handle this kind of request and, had they done so, risked intruding on the Ministry of Labour’s jurisdiction.

With the Ministry of Labour beyond capacity, and the Central Bank politically unmotivated to help, the working group seemingly had their hands tied. They couldn’t complete the work for which they were created: to quickly gather and distribute labour data and policy recommendations.

But instead of succumbing to organizational gridlock, the group deployed three strategies to overcome it.

Strategy #1: Rule-setting. Instead of confronting the bureaucracy head-on, the group created a new protocol to safeguard their work, specifying that no single leader could unilaterally interfere. The protocol seemed harmless at first glance, so every minister and leader signed off on it without much resistance. But, once in place, the agreement made it politically challenging for anyone to reverse course without facing scrutiny from other leaders. In this case, it allowed the group to enlist the help of the Central Bank despite the Bank’s fear of political reprisal.

Strategy #2: Role-switching. In an organization where titles and affiliations carry political weight, the group realized they could sidestep some of the scrutiny by signing reports as individual contributors rather than representatives of their respective departments. This subtle shift detached their findings from specific organizations, highlighted the group’s independence, and prevented inter-departmental politics from getting in the way.

Strategy #3: Formalizing information channels. The group formalized their information channels, building a reliable network of back-and-forth communications. This allowed them to circumvent bureaucratic bottlenecks and facilitate swift decision-making, using trusted contacts who understood the intricacies of the system.

These strategies gave the working group the flexibility they needed to efficiently access and process data for the Ministry of Transport. They could now pull labour data from the Central Bank without worrying about interference from leadership and fulfil the mandate for which they were created.

Innovation Flex Zones

This story exemplifies what Mohammadi calls “Innovation Flex Zones.” She coined this term to describe the grey areas that emerge when an innovation challenges an organization’s structure. In this case, the working group found themselves initially vulnerable to political and organizational gridlock.

Over time, however, they turned this grey area into an asset by demanding the independence they needed to do their work effectively. This separation from the traditional hierarchy allowed them to function as an independent entity, overcoming political hurdles and ensuring the program’s success.

It wasn’t the leaders who made this innovation successful; it was a group of motivated workers who cared about achieving results.

“If you want the innovation to be done, it’s possible,” said Mohammadi. “That’s the story.”

Hanieh Mohammadi is currently a PhD candidate at the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University, studying with Professor Henry Mintzberg in the Strategy and Organization area.