Someone very close to me recently tweeted “marriage has nothing to do with a happy relationship”.
It is amazing how little the rules of life change.
Marriage is the documented structure between two people. However, relationship is the actual state of play. And very often you will find that the “documented structure” and the “actual state of play” are two very different things. Having a marriage certificate is no guarantee of a healthy relationship.
Now take this same principle and map it out to an organisation. The similarity is uncanny! Each organisation has an org chart. This is the documented structure. Unrelated to this structure is the influence map. Influence map tells you the “actual state of play”. Basis of an influence map are the relationships within the organisation. These relationships dictate where the real power points are and quite often these power points are quite different to the documented org chart. It is the Influence map and not the org chart that tells you who the real influencer is.
If you are looking for a smooth ride in your career, take time to establish the influence map of the company and understand where the real power points are. This will tell you where to spend effort building relationships. Just as marriage is not indicative of a happy relationship, you can not rely on the documented org structure for the real power points.