Book cover for Getting It Done: How To Lead When You’re Not In Charge

You’re not always in charge, but you always need to be “getting it done”. And even when you are in charge, simply telling people what to do no longer cuts it.

Roger Fisher and Alan Sharp understood this reality before Agile was cool. In Getting It Done: How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge, they provide a practical framework for lateral leadership skills to influence peers, engage stakeholders, and drive outcomes without formal authority. They show that in today’s collaborative work environments, these skills are essential.

But they don’t stop there; they also apply the very same principles and tactics to leading as the boss. After all, the gap between what needs to happen and getting it done has never been wider. Getting It Done provides the framework to close that gap.

Book: Getting It Done: How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge
Authors: Roger Fisher and Alan Sharp
Publisher: HarperBusiness, 1998

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What Getting It Done Offers: The Lateral Leadership Framework

Getting It Done is one of the most practical and pragmatic books on collaborative leadership skills I’ve ever read. While principle-based, it is relatable and tactical.

Collaborative Leadership

Fisher and Sharp brought differing perspectives to identifying key attributes for effective collaboration.

Roger Fisher approached the work from “How can one person help resolve differences with another for their mutual benefit?” Alan Sharp brought “How can people improve the way they work together and get high-quality results?”

Together, they developed a defined concept for Lateral Leadership, developing principles and tactics they tested and refined with a wide range of people, capturing real-world lessons that they bring to us.

Basic Steps to Lateral Leadership

Fisher and Sharp identify the key to Lateral Leadership begins with these three basic steps, which they structure the content of each of their core chapters around:

First, develop your personal skills at getting things done yourself.
Second, understand clearly what you’re seeking to achieve with others.
Third, learn some tactics for developing collective skills at collaboration.

Basic Elements for Getting It Done

They then present 5 basic elements for “getting it done.” What sets this book apart is these elements are not presented simply as principles. Fisher and Sharp present them as tactical actions:

Purpose. Every big picture is made up of smaller pictures where individuals see themselves.
Thinking. Organize thinking so differing perspectives can build constructive opportunities.
Learning. Shorten learning cycles and apply lessons early and frequently to increase momentum and improve outcomes.
Engagement. When individuals don’t see themselves in constructive roles, engagement suffers.
Feedback. The quality of feedback often depends on our ability to receive it well, not just give it well.

Fisher and Sharp present each element first as a skill for you to develop individually, then as you identify what you want to accomplish with others, they show us how to improve collaboration with these lateral leadership skills.

Also read Thanks For The Feedback. Feedback is essential. Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen show us how to receive it well, especially when it seems unfair or poorly delivered. And in turn, we learn how to give it well.

Why Getting It Done Matters Now More Than Ever

Fisher and Sharp published Getting It Done in 1998, but the shift toward flatter organizations, cross-functional teams, and agile methodologies has amplified its relevance. Today, we all routinely face coordination challenges across boundaries without formal authority.

These lateral leadership skills align with our modern work reality: product managers coordinate engineering and design stakeholders, project leads navigate matrix structures, change agents influence without authority, and individual contributors see what needs to happen but lack positional power.

Key Lateral Leadership Skills and Tactics

Questions Shape Thinking More Than Telling

Fisher and Sharp demonstrate that collaborative leaders achieve more by asking the right questions that build collective thinking and decisions, rather than by telling. They provide specific techniques for crafting questions that open possibilities, turning conversations into collaborative problem-solving sessions.

I’ve seen how this principle transforms work. Rather than jumping to presumptive solutions or giving instructions, ask: “What do we see behind these issues we’re experiencing?” and “What approaches might work?” This shift from telling to asking not only surfaces a much broader perspective, it builds real collective ownership.

Start With “Our Purpose”, Not “My Proposal”

We typically approach influence by pitching our solution. Fisher and Sharp flip this by arguing it’s more important that people working together have a shared understanding of the larger picture.

When people achieve a shared understanding of the higher-order outcome, they can see and express how it connects to their interests and how they can contribute. From here, we can better understand our collective roles and become genuine partners in charting constructive paths forward together.

This shifts the dynamic from presuasion to alignment, a fundamentally different (and more effective) approach.

Jesse Fewell demonstrates this principle in Untapped Agility, explaining effective leaders elicit energy toward shared goals rather than solicit compliance to top-down goals.

Systematic Discipline

While this book is largely about soft skills, Fisher and Sharp have a methodical approach to the practice of Lateral Leadership. They encourage structuring problems systematically and empirically:

Data: What is the problem?
Diagnosis: What are possible causes?
Direction: What strategies might be wise?
Do Next: What are some specific next steps?

They apply this systematic approach throughout the book, demonstrating how to use it when when working individually and with others.

I have found it helpful to be explicit about practicing this. Collaboratively applying the Data-Diagnosis-Direction-Do Next framework forces clarity: What exactly is the problem? (Not symptoms.) What’s causing it? (Not assumptions.) What strategies address root causes? (Not pet solutions.) What’s one next step? (Not comprehensive plans.) Being systematic and collaborative prevents spinning on problems that aren’t clearly defined, and “losing the problem” to presumptive or overly orchestrated solutions.

What Getting It Done Doesn’t Cover

While comprehensive for collaborative leadership, Getting It Done focuses primarily on influencing peers and coordinating across organizational boundaries. When you’re in charge, lateral leadership is still an essential skill, but so are delegating, supervising, and performance management, which are not addressed here.

The book also assumes some baseline willingness to engage; highly adversarial or political environments may require additional strategies.

Conclusion: Transform Your Leadership Approach

Fisher and Sharp deliver a pragmatic framework for one of the most persistent challenges in modern work: driving results when you lack formal authority.

They write with clarity and directness, mindful of the real world we live in. Getting It Done is not high-minded theory; it is a practical and actionable resource for anyone looking to build greater collaborative energy.

The authors saw a need for lateral leadership skills in the hierarchical business world of the late 1990’s. But I will argue, if anything, the shift since then toward flatter organizations, cross-functional teams, and agile methodologies makes these skills and practices not only more relevant than when first published, but they are in higher demand today.

The workforce today is actually tuned toward lateral leaders.

Who Should Read Getting It Done?

Anyone who finds themselves accountable for outcomes they cannot command will benefit from this book: the product manager coordinating engineers and designers, the project lead navigating matrix reporting structures, the change agent championing transformation, and the team member who sees what needs to happen but lacks positional power to make it happen.

It’s equally valuable for managers and executives who recognize that authority alone no longer guarantees results, and who understand that their effectiveness increasingly depends on influence that extends beyond their direct reports.

Bottom Line: Essential Skills for Leading Without Authority

Getting It Done is recommended for professionals at any level who find themselves working with other people and want a practical framework to mobilize constructive effort toward shared goals.

To be clear, Getting It Done is not a quick checklist or cheat sheet to increase productivity. It is a timeless resource of fundamentals that treats lateral leadership as a systematic discipline to develop, consistently practice, and continually hone.

As I read this book, an underlying thesis emerged for me: Lateral Leadership is first Personal Leadership. We first commit ourselves to these practices, then, as we practice these skills publicly for ourselves, we begin to nudge others toward participating with us. We are taking a patient, growth-oriented approach to developing sustainable, shared practices and behaviors for working together and alone.

Get your copy of Getting It Done to put these essential fundamentals into practice today!

About the Authors: Roger Fisher & Alan Sharp

Roger Fisher was a leading figure in the field of negotiation and conflict resolution. As co-founder of the Harvard Negotiation Project and co-author of Getting to Yes, Fisher fundamentally shifted how we think about reaching agreements and collaborative problem-solving. His work influenced business, diplomacy, and law. Getting It Done extends his principled negotiation framework to lateral leadership.

Alan Sharp was an accomplished senior manager in the electronics and chemical industries and later a management consultant and director at Coverdale Scanas, a Danish consultancy. Sharp trains top executives in business and government on building effective teams, bringing practical organizational experience to complement Fisher’s negotiation expertise.

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