What You’ll Learn
Map matrix roles and relationships.
- Learn how to identify roles and relationships across the organization
Build successful relationships across functions.
- Learn how to approach every relationship as a partnership, regardless of relative positions on the org chart
Get better results as a team.
- Understand true collaboration and how to engage the right people in the collaborative process
Course Summary
The cross-functional nature of modern business means that leaders often need to achieve results through diverse teams. Recent events now require many of these teams to work together virtually.
This online program shifts participants’ thinking about leadership and provides tools to help them adopt a new way of leading that doesn’t depend on authority.
What to Expect
Expert Guidance
A master trainer will guide participants through live, bi-weekly sessions to review course content and discuss how they apply to actual challenges.
Hands-On Application
The extended-delivery format allows participants to apply what they’re learning in their day-to-day jobs, debriefing results during live sessions.
Real-World Results
Participants identify their specific leadership challenge at the start of the program and apply what they learn to overcome that challenge
Course Overview
This virtual program introduces participants to the basics of leading in a matrix—an organization that delivers results through cross-functional operations. The course takes place over a 12-week period, alternating self-guided learning with live virtual sessions led by an expert facilitator.
The program length gives students time to absorb and reflect on course content, while applying tools and techniques. The program sets the stage for participants to shift their thinking about leading without authority.
In self-guided weeks, participants access the lesson video and use the participant workbook to explore a specific topic. Each week includes assignments for the individual, learning partners, and/or teams.
During the live sessions, the instructor reviews assignments, answers questions, and provides tips and techniques for real-life application. Participants receive guided mentoring, based on their real-world challenges.
Lesson 1: What is a Matrix?
- Matrix organization: Learn to define this term based on how an organization operates instead of its organizational structure
- Vertical & horizontal dimensions: Discover how each dimension functions in a matrix organization
- Organizational charts: Understand the strengths and weaknesses of these ubiquitous diagrams
- Horizontal map: Chart this dimension to reveal how work gets done in your organization
- Business processes: Learn to recognize the three types of processes and how they work together
- Organizational roles: Discover the horizontal and vertical roles in every organization and how individual roles shift
Lesson 2: Matrix Leadership Mindsets
- Mindsets: Learn to identify the three mindsets and their effect on an individual’s actions
- Triggers: Learn what causes an individual to move from an empowered state to an unempowered state.
- Sphere of control: Recognize what exists in an individual’s sphere of control
- Axes of power: Learn how to use the power of choice to lead as an empowered individual.
Lesson 3: Relationships in a Matrix
- Organizational relationships: Understand the two types of relationships in every matrix organization
- Boss vs. Coach: Discover a key mental shift to help leaders foster the success of direct reports
- Horizontal relationships: Identify the different relationships found in processes and projects
- Relationship maps: Learn a tool for charting vertical and horizonal relationships to understand current roles
- Successful partnerships: Learn how to build and manage effective, win-win relationships
Lesson 4: Matrix Accountability
- Accountability systems: Recognize the two types of systems and how each influences leadership behavior
- Types of accountability: Learn about three types of accountability and how they work together to support leading without authority
- Leadership accountability: Discover key ways in which leaders need to support successful matrix operations
- Accountability portfolios: Learn two tools to document team and individual commitments to see who is doing what and to track resources
Lesson 5: Collaboration in a Matrix
- True collaboration: Redefine collaboration for more inclusion and better results
- Signs of collaboration: Recognize the look, sound, and feel of true collaboration
- Collaboration requirements: Learn the four essential ingredients required to support true collaboration
- Breaking down silos: Learn the importance of including stakeholders in collaborative processes to break down silos that exist in the organization
- Stakeholder maps: Learn to use this valuable tool for identifying the key stakeholders to include in the collaborative process
Meet The Instructor
Cathy Cassidy
As Managing Director of the Matrix Management Institute, Cathy Cassidy helps organizations and practitioners adopt the skills and methods they need to succeed in today’s complex, dynamic environment. She has more than 15 years of business consulting and training experience, helping businesses and institutions operationalize their matrix organizations, define horizontal governance structures, create project systems, and develop collaborative leadership skills. She has authored and co-authored several books related to matrix management, including her most recent publication, Managing Projects in a Matrix, and the soon-to-be-released Collaborative Project Planning Toolbook.