Interlock Formation

How to Lead When You Don’t Own the Org Chart

What It Is

INTERLOCK is a five‑move sequence for moving a matrixed org: Adapt → Leverage → Interlock → Grow → Navigate.
The key difference: we replace “influence people to align” with “interlock commitments that ship.”

Why It Matters

Meetings create “agreement.” Roadmaps create “hope.” Only interlocks—named owners, resources, milestones, and shared KPIs—create momentum. This is how I pushed revenue targets through product, finance, and marketing at Meta and Intuit without owning their headcount.

How to Activate It

1. Adapt (read the terrain fast).
   Spend your first week shadowing the people who actually gate progress—finance approvers, privacy, central analytics. Map how decisions get made versus how the slide says they do. Convert this into a one‑page “decision map” you can route through.

2. Leverage (use existing muscle).
   Co‑opt central teams (enablement, data, sales ops) instead of building tooling yourself. If they have a dashboard template, rename it and run. The goal is weeks, not quarters.

3. Interlock (create binding commitments).
   Convert goodwill into contracts of execution:

• Owner: single name per milestone.

• Resource: headcount/dollars attached.

• Date: public commit (start/finish).

• KPI: 1 north star both teams report (same number, same dashboard).
  If any element is missing, you don’t have an interlock—you have a promise.

4. Grow (make it repeatable).
   Archive every asset in a “Steal‑This‑Asset” folder—decks, SQL, talk tracks, Jira templates. Next initiative runs 4× faster because you’re not reinventing.

Navigate (weaponize visibility, not politics).
Friday 30‑minute “roadblock review.” Anything stuck for 2 weeks gets an exec ping Monday with a one‑slide: blocker, owner, ask. You’re not escalating people—you’re escalating facts.

Role‑Specific, Concrete Plays

CRO

• Interlock with Product Marketing: quota relief tied to activated beta users, not just bookings. Add a temporary SPIF for AEs who land accounts that hit activation thresholds in 30 days.

• Leverage Sales Ops: borrow their enablement calendar and inject a 15‑minute “feature revenue moment” in every regional call for 4 weeks.

CPO

• Interlock with Finance: lock a runway of 2 FTEs for the next 90 days in exchange for a CFO‑visible KPI (e.g., +12% expansion revenue from the new SKU). Put both on the same Looker tile.

Adapt: sit in two customer support calls per week for a month. You’ll ship fewer features, but every one maps to a cost or revenue lever.

COO

• Leverage Central Analytics: replace team‑built trackers with one sanctioned telemetry stream so uptime, latency, and incidents roll into the NOC.

• Navigate: publish a weekly “Ops Heatmap” (green/amber/red per region). When a region stays amber 2+ weeks, you trigger a standard playbook—no politics.
  

CEO

• Interlock at the Top: ask each staff exec for a single 90‑day commitment that ladders to your one company KPI. Put those five commitments on one slide and open every staff meeting with it.

• Grow: mandate that every major cross‑functional win ends with a 2‑page debrief and template in the “Steal‑This‑Asset” folder.

30‑Day Pilot You Can Run Now

• Pick one initiative stuck in cross‑functional limbo.

• Draft a single‑page interlock: owner, resources, dates, KPI, weekly stand‑up.

• Publish the KPI tile everyone shares.
  Hold four Friday roadblock reviews.

• Goal: unblock within 30 days or kill it publicly. Both outcomes create momentum.