The sled-dog analogy
By: Fabio Longano
Tags: Management, Culture, Management And Leadership, Team Collaboration, Team

Why I’ve ranted before as to why I feel that conventional pyramidal hierarchies are suboptimal, is that they are typically top-heavy with management and leave too much “doing work” to an under-skilled and often under-paid workforce. This can work well, with the right management in the right places doing the right things — but not always. Human nature is too varied, and while unicorn formations may succeed from time to time, it’s too difficult to replicate their success at a blueprint level.

When not done right, organisational structures can cause devastating effects, and more often than not, management efforts start to dwindle. Corporate ghosting is an activity I’ve witnessed in horror first hand, and seeing how it proliferates throughout a company has truly been a sight to behold — and deal with. Subordinates are left without adequate direction, training or support and often this results in an inefficient and low-quality output which ultimately always results in a poor customer-experience and a worse off product execution.

In the book “Extreme Ownership”, written by ex navy seals Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, the authors describe that the most effective SWAT teams are those that were kept to a manageable size, not exceeding 6 members. In covert operations, where time is of the essence, and the team must execute swiftly to achieve their objective, reducing the size of the team improves the facilitation of effective communication along the chain of command. This is referred to as a decentralised command. While the senior officers have a clear overview of the mission and objective — the details of the execution is left to the very capable hands of the highly trained individuals in the task force who are very aware of their responsibilities and have a clear idea of what is expected of them.

The notion of decentralised command also describes how it is important for an organisation, or team, to work top-down as effectively as it works bottom-up. In “Reinventing Organizations”, Frédéric Laloux describes effective teams as being those that are able to master the art of two way communication and collaboration. Empowering the people at the very bottom to bear weight, grants a level of ownership and genuine commitment from team mates in a way that promotes trust and breeds positive habit-building across a team.

Introducing The Sled-dog structure, which presents a similar architecture and way of working as a decentralised team. Imagine your outfit as a sled. The sled is the organisational structure. The cargo on the sled is the product that you’re delivering, or aiming to deliver, to your customers. The destination is your customer base. You are the sled-driver and the wolf pack is your team.

In dog sledding, canines are arranged in rows of two (sometimes more in certain competitive events). One typically finds the most experienced hounds book-ending the pack — leading the front and stabilising the back, where the less experienced dogs form the output capacity in the middle. There is still a team lead, being driven by vision — the leader knows the general direction of travel and is further steered and directed by the musher.