Organizations are getting more and more complex with crisscrossing reporting lines that look worse than the toy racing car tracks from my childhood. It is not a surprise that the complexity is being balanced by flatter organizations to avoid any communication challenges and ensuing dissemination of information, both up and down the chain of hierarchy.
One must love a certain amount of ambiguity to survive inside the matrix, it can be challenging and stressful but if managed appropriately can create a lot of opportunities and learning from cross interaction. I have always believed it is almost impossible to accomplish anything significant without clarity of role. I have written about it in many of my past essays and decided I needed to revisit the idea. Over time I have built a robust network (my Net work is my Net worth!) and realized there is a lot more to getting things done than authority.
So what is so powerful about the network that matrices lack? Actually nothing! It may just be about the mindset people approach it with. The fundamental difference is authority can be bestowed like a magic pill while relationships take time to build, additionally relationships are tenuous, easy to destroy but tough to build. If one gets the dynamics of the difference relationships could very well be a replacement to authority!