Getting Things Done When You Are Not in Charge

Geoffrey Bellman

You are not in charge and you want to make a difference: that is the dilemma. You may not know who is in charge in today's changing, temporary, and virtual organizations, but you know you are not! You are searching for ways to contribute through the work you do and gain some personal satisfaction in the process. This book can help you do just that. In this new edition of his classic book, Geoff Bellman shows readers how to make things happen in any organization regardless of their formal position. The new edition has been written for a wider audience, including people in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, paid and volunteer workers, managers and individual contributors, contract and freelance workers. More than seventy percent of the material is brand new, including new examples, new chapters, new exercises, and much more.

Geoffrey M. Bellman

Getting Things Done When You Are Not in Charge, Second Edition

To

Michaela,

Joshua, and

Geoffrey

Preface

You are not in charge. You may not be clear who is in charge, but you know that you are not. In spite of this, you want to do your work well, you want to contribute to the organization, and you want to succeed personally. These wants often cause conflict, as you are challenged to support others’ goals while working toward your own. You feel irritated by the difficulty of trying to get something done and not having the power to do it. You feel constrained by the formal and informal boundaries of the organization. You try to do your best, but keep running up against the rules of play in the organization you are trying to help. You may work in the profit or not-for-profit sector. You may give your time or work for money. You may be a manager, a director, a salaried or an hourly worker. It does not matter. You share with many others the desire to do good work, the need for recognition, and the frustration of having your efforts blocked by the very organization you are trying to serve.

You are not as powerless as you sometimes feel: that is the main premise of this book. This book explores the many ways you can get things done, support the work of others, and find greater life fulfillment through your work. There are ways of dealing with the issues inherent in working for an organization. I know the issues well after thirty-five years in and around organizations. I have lived with the dilemmas of working from the middle of large corporations, government agencies, school systems, hospitals, foundations, and not-for-profit organizations. I have had amazing success and sobering failure, and I have learned. This book builds on my learning, and on the learning of others with whom I have worked, and it can be a guide to your learning as well. It is my answer to the question “How can you feel good about your work and make a difference when you have little formal power?”

Organizations loom large in our lives; you know the struggles that come with working in them. You know what it is like to have clear, constructive intentions and to be confounded by the way this place works. You know how hard it is to hold onto hope while faced with daily frustrations. You know the stress, the burnout, the fatigue, and you have felt yourself alternately rising to the challenge or sinking into skepticism. You see those frequent “learning opportunities” that come with trying to get something done, and sometimes feel that you have learned enough – it is somebody else’s turn. You know the energy it takes to step back into the fray, and are tempted just to save your energy and protect yourself. This book helps your pursuit of the hope, the challenge, the opportunity, and the learning from right where you are now, in your formally less-powerful position.

“I am not in charge.” Can you hear yourself saying these words? Say them aloud or in your mind: What do you sound like? What was your tone of voice? How did you feel? When did you last say something like this to someone about your work? As I have listened to