I have been retired for 4 years–last worked at the new Houston Campus. First, You may know now, but you will certainly know later when you work elsewhere or when you have retired, that there is a special regard, respect and empathy that you will always feel for your coworkers at ExxonMobil–I may not know you but I know a little about you just from the fact that you work at EM, and I follow your current situation and hope that things work out as well as possible.
The term influence without authority may be used differently now but, like the earlier poster who had success with it, I really got a lot of benefit out of the concept, as I understood it. My department for the last many decades has been flattening the organization. So if you aren't made a manager, you might yet still do well/get salary increases, etc, if you can figure out how to be productive, not only through your own internal resources, but how to leverage the help and cooperation of other folks, some of whom equal you in rank so to speak and some who might be higher up in the organization, or in another department entirely.
So, as one commenter above asked, if you don't have authority over someone, how in the heck do you get others to help you, how do you influence their behavior so that they perform better than they otherwise would? My managers said to me that the answer to that question was to be found in the notion of IWA. I took this as my permission to go forward and seek the help and cooperation of others. And when you do go forward and seek help, there I believe is where the creativity of each employee comes into play. How do you deal with other people–how can you convince them they ought to help you; how do you develop contacts over a period of time that you can count on and who can count on you. I enjoyed that because it helped me focus on the particular people I reached out to influence or ask for help—what are they like, what type of approach might work best for this person versus that person.
So, in hindsight, I would have enjoyed more assignments where my sphere of influence included direct reports that I could simply ask for help (but think about all the responsibility and baggage that goes with managing others, EADS, etc.). However, I really do think that idea of IWA is a good concept (not unique to XOM obviously) and gave me skills and insights on dealing with other people.
To wrap up, I really regret the anxiety that you guys have and I feel for you. I went through several of these headcount reductions over the years, starting with the "SPOSA" on the Exxon side back in the mid-80s. EM always came back but I do admit that these threads of comments really do portray an upset workforce. The mid-80s setback I mention was the oil bust back then but my recollection is that oil prices recovered within a year or so. And EM's position before the pandemic hit was not as good as heading into the 80's bust. So I know that most of you are appropriately focused on how this whole thing will affect your job and your career. That is where my focus would be also. But, I do believe the whole IWA is a solid concept and with organizations getting flatter and flatter in the oil and lots of other business lines, I just wanted to share that I got a lot of benefit out of it and know others who do and did also.