The New Leadership Construct: What Happens When a Flat Organization Builds a Tall Tower?

When the Block Tower Building activity surfaced some forty years ago, it was to designed to illustrate the managerial skill of directing subordinates in exactly how to "stack up" the results required by management. However, in today's more horizontal organizations, with a premium placed on non-hierarchical leadership of a diverse workforce, teams are expected to achieve "toweringly" higher results. This exercise is meant to reflect new organizational realities and presents a redesigned tower building exercise. The exercise examines the issue of who really leads in non-hierarchical, self-managed team settings. The design reflects new thinking about effective organizations and new ways of interpreting emergent organizational dynamics.