Making the Matrix Work: How Matrix Managers Engage People and Cut Through Complexity

by Kevan Hall

Global customers, supply chains and more integrated business functions mean that work now cuts across the traditional vertical silos of country and function. But the 'solution' of the matrix structure also brings multiple bosses, competing goals and higher levels of complexity. Traditional management training prioritizes clarity, predictability and control. In a matrix we need to be able to balance this with the ability to tolerate ambiguity, manage uncertainty and decentralize control. Managers need an expanded toolkit to help them move from the hard to the soft, from the concrete to the ambiguous and back again depending on the situation. Kevan Hall's new book will help you develop your “matrix mindset” and will show you how to establish and engage networks that do not depend on role, control or authority to get things done. This book gives individuals working in the matrix the tools to take control of their own goals, role and success and shows matrix managers how to lead others to make their matrix really work.

Genres: Business, Management

288 pages, Hardcover

First published February 7, 2013

Reviews

[David Fredh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back to basics

[Benjamin Atkins · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very little in the way of practical information. As someone who works in a fairly large organization that is moving towards a matrix structure, I do not feel any more prepared for this transition than I did prior to reading the book. There is not much meat here, the author could have presented the info in a medium-length article or (better) more fully developed the ideas through comprehensive case studies. The short quotes used to illustrate typically restated the author's points and felt scripted. Read the first and last chapter, skip the rest.

[Melih · Rating 3 out of 5]

On of the better business books I've read. It doesn't just repeat itself, and gives lots of good frameworks.

I wish it had more practical case studies.

The little snippets of stories are actually the best connection between theory and practice.