Yup—that was always my “secret” at work.
Identify the “good guys” and learn from them.
After a couple of decades I had a “secret team” of allies that could accomplish true miracles because we totally ignored the formal organizational chart.
Once I had a little clout I went out of my way to do favors for folks to gain even more allies.
It just snowballed—in my last few years I could call anybody and they would drop what they were doing to help me out.
The bosses would come and go and had no idea what was going on—because we fixed problems before they even had a chance to know what the problems were.
Heh, knew you would get it…:)
Question: have you ever read the book “Once An Eagle“ by Anton Myrer?
If you haven’t, I highly recommend it. You seem like the kind of person that it would resonate with.