The leadership lattice is a learning framework, focused on management and leadership. The framework is a simplified conceptual structure of how companies work - and takes inspiration from the world of systems thinking. It’s a set of interconnected domains of responsibility - put together, they can describe everything your company does from individual to impact.

I’ve been testing how well it works as a learning framework by taking lessons from the most popular leadership books and checking how they fit into the lattice. In theory, the lattice is the skeleton and the books provide the “muscle” through specific management practices.

Two books in particular - Lean Startup and Zero to One - provide leadership and management practices for early stage startups. Both these books revealed that the lattice is incomplete because it doesn’t have a concept of time. Your leadership lattice (and associated practices) should and will evolve as your company grows in size.

So, I wanted to add the concept of Stage as a property of each domain across the lattice. Different stages require different practices and that needs to be reflected in the lattice. The good thing is - the domains themselves (i.e the conceptual strucutre of how companies work) is largely unchanged, no matter what the stage - every stage will have domains for individuals, teams, application, and so on.

Note that the lattice was also extended recently through the addition of the peer and governance domain.