The Director's Cut: Joining the dotted lines

The goal was to ensure faster, flexible and more focused action.

If only! The reality delivered something rather different. Our attempts to achieve democracy and more people power by erasing reporting lines has left a legacy of issues, including large numbers of people reporting in to one person and confusion as to who owns what.

The other trend has been an increase in dotted line reporting, which in turn means unclear accountability (an IT leader I know calls this "dotty line" reporting, which says it all). Next time you are told you have such a reporting structure, ask exactly what it means. You will probably be told it was done to ensure flexibility and cross-fertilisation of skills and responsibility. Rubbish. It is done when people can't agree on things.

Simply eradicating reporting lines was an outstanding success - for those consultancies who advised companies to do so. These results have left many companies with literally the wrong shape to face and embrace the new business age that is upon us. The fast-moving, opportunity-laden and exciting new world calls for clear ownership, leadership at every level, and a culture of action and consistent innovation.

It wouldn't have been so bad if companies had also focused on leadership and motivation at the same time - motivating people to move forward, less reliant on hierarchies. In fact, all we did was upset and demotivate people, motivating them to stand still through fear, more reliant on hierarchies and security.

Rather than looking to drive forward to new achievements, people started to focus on not losing what they had. This is bad enough in commercial terms; in human being terms it spells disaster. Our minds cannot think in negatives. The moment we introduce an idea into our minds, we move towards it (tell a young child not to touch a hot plate, and what do they do? Say to yourself just before you do a presentation, "I'm NOT nervous"!). And so people and organisations started performing even worse.

That may have been a few years ago, but the legacy continues to this very day and, post year 2000 and dot-com hype, the attentions of hierarchical managers are once again turning to structure charts. Don't let the same mistakes happen again. If you ever saw yourself as a leader, now is the time to stand up and lead.

As a leader of the new millennium, you can do much to ensure your team, department and company catches up and then overtakes present and future needs.

Become a true leader, where job titles and structures matter little compared with personal style, attitude and actions. Key test - if you were stripped of all of your trappings of status, would you still get the best from your people?

Turn your IT department upside down by announcing that you report to everyone in it, your prime role being to bring out the best in them.

Ensure clear ownership and accountability - regardless of who reports to whom.

Where you have dual reporting, one person should be responsible for leadership and direction, and one for work accountability.

All of your processes and procedures should be centred on your customer - internal or external - and must allow for ideas that thrive and actions that drive forward.

Lines drawn on pieces of paper, job titles and hierarchies are an integral part of any organisation, large or small. If we try to erase them without replacing them with a new culture of leadership, they will simply come back again - people need the security that such structures bring.

However, it is the mindset that is critical. Regardless of whether you have fourteen levels or one, make sure you have in place true empowerment, where people know what they are there for and are able to make decisions accordingly. Focus all activity in your company on results that directly gain or retain customers, motivate people or increase revenue. And make sure the culture has a buzz of activity about it, rather than a frozen stagnation. Then you will be moving forward, driven by a rediscovered community based on being human, as opposed to being able to draw straight lines, dotted or otherwise.