By Robert Morris
This is one of the volumes in the Harvard Business Essentials Series. Each offers authoritative answers to the most important questions concerning its specific subject. The material in this book is drawn from a variety of sources which include the Harvard Business School Press and the Harvard Business Review as well as Harvard ManageMentor®, an online service. I strongly recommend the official Harvard Business Essentials Web site (www.elearning.hbsp.org/businesstools) that offers free interactive versions of tools, checklists, and worksheets cited in this book and other books in the Essentials series. Each volume is indeed "a highly practical resource for readers with all levels of experience." And each is by intent and in execution solution-oriented. Although I think those who have only recently embarked on a business career will derive the greatest benefit, the material is well worth a periodic review by senior-level executives.
Credit Richard Luecke with pulling together a wealth of information and counsel from various sources. He is also the author of several other books in the Essentials series. In this instance, he was assisted by a subject advisor, Larry Barton, who is president of the American College. Together, they have carefully organized the material as follows. First, they explain why power is necessary in organizations "even though our society distrusts power and those who seek it." Next, they examine the sources of power. Then they explain why power is realized only through some form of expression. In Chapter 4, they examine influence in sharper focus, illustrating three specific tactics that any manager can use. Then in the next two chapters, Luecke and Reardon shift their attention to the concept of persuasion. They identify the four elements of persuasion and discuss how various audiences and people with diverse decision-making styles are receptive ("susceptible") to different forms of persuasion. Then in Chapter 6, they explain how to appeal both to the mind (with logic and/or evidence) and the to heart (by anchoring the given proposition in a human context). Hence the importance of compelling details, vivid images, similes, metaphors, analogies, and especially stories achieve resonance with an audience.
In Chapter 7, Luecke and Reardon provide some excellent suggestions to increase and enhance the impact of a formal presentation. "It suggests a presentation structure and a number of rhetorical devices perfected by the ancient Greeks. It also explains the various learning styles used by people and explains the importance of adapting each formal presentation to the needs, interests, and temperament of the given audience.
I also appreciate the three appendices provided. "In Leading When You're Not the Boss," Luecke and Reardon offer useful tips on how to be productive and effective in situations in which (usually lower-level managers) are expected to lead but have no formal power or authority to do so. Appendix B includes two forms by which to assess an audience and to assess one's own ability to persuade others. (Please check out Figures B-1 and B-2 on pages 135-139.) In the third appendix, Luecke and Reardon offer seven "Rules" to follow when preparing visuals for presentations that will have maximum impact.
Obviously, it is in an organization's best interests to formulate comprehensive contingency plans and then sustain preventive maintenance. However, there are developments and their consequences that, when they occur, create unforeseen crises to which organizations must respond. These are the situations in which organizations and their leaders define themselves, for better or worse. Hence the importance of information sources which can guide and inform not only contingency planning and preventive maintenance but also crisis response. Their value is even greater when a serious crisis occurs.
Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out other volumes in the Essentials series (notably Managing Change and Transition) and Harvard Business Review on Crisis Management as well as Steven Fink's Crisis Management: Planning for the Inevitable and Eric Dezenhall and John Weber's Damage Control: Why Everything You Know About Crisis Management Is Wrong. Also, Jeffrey Pfeffer's What Were They Thinking?, Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement, Ram Charan's Know-How, Mike Green's Change Management Masterclass, and Enterprise Architecture As Strategy co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
How to get leadership in proper alignment with organizational development
By Robert Morris
I first read Organizational Culture and Leadership more than a decade ago and recently re-read it after reading Organizational Development, edited by Joan V. Gallos and to which Edgar H. Schein provided the Foreword ("Observations on the State of Organization Development") and to which he contributed two articles, "Facilitate Process Interventions: Task Processes in Groups" and "So How Can You Assess Your Corporate Culture?" As Schein notes in the Foreword, the core of organization development (OD) has a number of elements that include "a concern with process, a focus on change, and an implicit as well as explicit concern for organizational effectiveness." I know of no one who has made more and more valuable contributions to the field of OD than has Schein. He is OD's pre-eminent knowledge leader.
He organizes the material in Organizational Culture and Leadership within three Parts:
Organizational Culture and Leadership Defined
Excerpt: "When one brings culture to the level of an organization and even down to groups within the organization, one can see clearly how culture is created, embedded, evolved, and ultimately manipulated, and, at the same time, how culture constrains, stabilizes, and provides structure and meaning to the group members. These dynamic processes of culture creation and management are the essence of leadership and make one realize that leadership and culture are two sides of the same coin...Leadership [must possess the ability and willingness] to step outside the culture that created the leader and start evolutionary change processes that are more adaptive. This ability to perceive the limitations of one's own culture and to evolve the culture adaptively is the essence and ultimate challenge of leadership." (Page 2)
Comment: I am again reminded of James O'Toole's apt characterization of a common barrier to change, "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." This is precisely what Jack Welch encountered after he Reginald Jones selected him to be the next CEO of GE. Jones urged him to "blow up" the organization. Schein's point is that although a culture may define leadership, there are situations in which a CEO must re-define the terms and conditions of the leadership needed if the culture itself is to be transformed, as was GE's and as was IBM's after Lou Gerstner became its CEO.
The Dimensions of Culture
Excerpt: "If culture consists of shared basic assumptions, we still need to specify: assumptions about what? The concept of organizational or occupational cultures reflects the ultimate problems that every group faces: dealing with its external environment...Culture is pervasive and ultimately embraces everything that a group is concerned about and must deal with. Beyond these external and internal problems, cultural assumptions reflect deeper issues about the nature of truth, time, space, human nature, and human relationships." (Page 85)
Comment: Here again, Schein stresses the importance of determining with meticulous care what a given culture's shared assumptions are, and then subjecting each to rigorous scrutiny. One of several reasons why so many organizations struggle (with mixed results) to deal with their external environment is the fact that their perspective is limited, if not myopic. Whatever organizational development these organizations achieve is by nature internal only and therefore self-limiting. Henry Chesbrough has much of value to say about open business business models, those that "create value by leveraging many more ideas, due to their inclusion of a variety of external concepts. Open models can also enable greater value capture, by using a key asset, resource, or position not only in the company's own business model but also in other companies businesses."
The Leadership Role in Culture Building, Embedding, and Evolving
Excerpt: "To fully understand the relationship of leadership to culture, we also have to take a developmental view of organizational growth. [Schein covers] the role of leadership in beginning the formation of an organizational culture in Chapter Twelve...[He then describes in Chapter Fifteen] ten different mechanisms or processes that cause cultures to change, and [points out] the role that leaders can and should play in using these processes to skew cultural evolution to their purposes. All of these are natural processes that should be distinguished from what [he calls] managed change, the process by which leaders set out to solve specific organizational problems that may or may not involve cultural elements." (Pages 223-224)
Comment: In the aforementioned Foreword to Organizational Development, Schein suggests that process "is as important as content, and sometimes more important." When identifying and then discussing ten culture change mechanisms in Chapter Fifteen, the focus is indeed on process and Schein notes that the role of the leader in "managing" culture differs at different stages of organizational evolution. For example, during an organization's Founding and Early Growth stage, the main cultural thrust comes from the founders and their assumptions. Hence the appropriateness of incremental change through general and specific evolution, insight, and promotion of "hybrids" within the given culture. Midlife and Maturity/Decline require different culture change mechanisms. Obviously, each stage also has different leadership requirements.
I provide these brief excerpts as well as comments of my own to assist those who read this review to gain at least a sense of the nature and extent of Schein's coverage of an admittedly complicated, indeed formidable challenge: how to get leadership in proper alignment with organizational development to achieve and then sustain an appropriate environment by taking into full account elements that include "a concern with process, a focus on change, and an implicit as well as explicit concern for organizational effectiveness."
What Edgar H. Schein offers is a brilliant achievement.
I first read Organizational Culture and Leadership more than a decade ago and recently re-read it after reading Organizational Development, edited by Joan V. Gallos and to which Edgar H. Schein provided the Foreword ("Observations on the State of Organization Development") and to which he contributed two articles, "Facilitate Process Interventions: Task Processes in Groups" and "So How Can You Assess Your Corporate Culture?" As Schein notes in the Foreword, the core of organization development (OD) has a number of elements that include "a concern with process, a focus on change, and an implicit as well as explicit concern for organizational effectiveness." I know of no one who has made more and more valuable contributions to the field of OD than has Schein. He is OD's pre-eminent knowledge leader.
He organizes the material in Organizational Culture and Leadership within three Parts:
Organizational Culture and Leadership Defined
Excerpt: "When one brings culture to the level of an organization and even down to groups within the organization, one can see clearly how culture is created, embedded, evolved, and ultimately manipulated, and, at the same time, how culture constrains, stabilizes, and provides structure and meaning to the group members. These dynamic processes of culture creation and management are the essence of leadership and make one realize that leadership and culture are two sides of the same coin...Leadership [must possess the ability and willingness] to step outside the culture that created the leader and start evolutionary change processes that are more adaptive. This ability to perceive the limitations of one's own culture and to evolve the culture adaptively is the essence and ultimate challenge of leadership." (Page 2)
Comment: I am again reminded of James O'Toole's apt characterization of a common barrier to change, "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." This is precisely what Jack Welch encountered after he Reginald Jones selected him to be the next CEO of GE. Jones urged him to "blow up" the organization. Schein's point is that although a culture may define leadership, there are situations in which a CEO must re-define the terms and conditions of the leadership needed if the culture itself is to be transformed, as was GE's and as was IBM's after Lou Gerstner became its CEO.
The Dimensions of Culture
Excerpt: "If culture consists of shared basic assumptions, we still need to specify: assumptions about what? The concept of organizational or occupational cultures reflects the ultimate problems that every group faces: dealing with its external environment...Culture is pervasive and ultimately embraces everything that a group is concerned about and must deal with. Beyond these external and internal problems, cultural assumptions reflect deeper issues about the nature of truth, time, space, human nature, and human relationships." (Page 85)
Comment: Here again, Schein stresses the importance of determining with meticulous care what a given culture's shared assumptions are, and then subjecting each to rigorous scrutiny. One of several reasons why so many organizations struggle (with mixed results) to deal with their external environment is the fact that their perspective is limited, if not myopic. Whatever organizational development these organizations achieve is by nature internal only and therefore self-limiting. Henry Chesbrough has much of value to say about open business business models, those that "create value by leveraging many more ideas, due to their inclusion of a variety of external concepts. Open models can also enable greater value capture, by using a key asset, resource, or position not only in the company's own business model but also in other companies businesses."
The Leadership Role in Culture Building, Embedding, and Evolving
Excerpt: "To fully understand the relationship of leadership to culture, we also have to take a developmental view of organizational growth. [Schein covers] the role of leadership in beginning the formation of an organizational culture in Chapter Twelve...[He then describes in Chapter Fifteen] ten different mechanisms or processes that cause cultures to change, and [points out] the role that leaders can and should play in using these processes to skew cultural evolution to their purposes. All of these are natural processes that should be distinguished from what [he calls] managed change, the process by which leaders set out to solve specific organizational problems that may or may not involve cultural elements." (Pages 223-224)
Comment: In the aforementioned Foreword to Organizational Development, Schein suggests that process "is as important as content, and sometimes more important." When identifying and then discussing ten culture change mechanisms in Chapter Fifteen, the focus is indeed on process and Schein notes that the role of the leader in "managing" culture differs at different stages of organizational evolution. For example, during an organization's Founding and Early Growth stage, the main cultural thrust comes from the founders and their assumptions. Hence the appropriateness of incremental change through general and specific evolution, insight, and promotion of "hybrids" within the given culture. Midlife and Maturity/Decline require different culture change mechanisms. Obviously, each stage also has different leadership requirements.
I provide these brief excerpts as well as comments of my own to assist those who read this review to gain at least a sense of the nature and extent of Schein's coverage of an admittedly complicated, indeed formidable challenge: how to get leadership in proper alignment with organizational development to achieve and then sustain an appropriate environment by taking into full account elements that include "a concern with process, a focus on change, and an implicit as well as explicit concern for organizational effectiveness."
What Edgar H. Schein offers is a brilliant achievement.
How to decide what is most important and then "get the HOWs right",
By Robert Morris
Most people agree that good health, financial security, and self-esteem are important in one's personal life. In business, most executives agree that it is important to have customers who are (as Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba describe them) "evangelists," more money coming in than going out, people who get more and better work done in less time, etc. My point is, that there is a substantial consensus on "what" and the first challenge is to understand the "how." The next challenge is to avoid what Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton have identified as the "knowing-doing gap."
As Dov Seidman explains in the Preface, "The tapestry of human behavior is so diverse, so rich, and so global that it presents a rare opportunity, the opportunity to outbehave the competition." He goes on to explain that, "Instead of rules, steps, or an instruction manual, this book offers an approach - a framework and a way of seeing - to help you navigate the new global, hyperconnected world in which we suddenly find ourselves working. It offers something that will carry you beyond short-term rewards toward lasting success." Those who get their "HOWs right" will achieve enduring personal and organizational business achievement.
Seidman carefully organizes his material within four Parts as he explores (through "a new lens") three HOWs:
HOW we think,
HOW we behave, and
HOW we govern.
I was especially interested in what Seidman has to say about "transparency" in Chapter 7. He cites an example of "issue contagion." Specifically, a posting on an online bulletin board by a 25-year-old cycling enthusiast, Chris Brennen, claiming that Kryptonite locks (reputedly impenetrable) could easily be opened by almost anyone. Kryptonite chose not to respond to the increasing, accelerating buzz and almost immediately found itself in one of the first Internet-facilitated PR disasters. According to Seidman, "Knowledge is power. That old adage is as true today as when philosopher first said it in the seventeenth century...As the world transitions to a bottom-up and side-to-side model in which each individual can contribute to the free flow of ideas, it opens up and becomes more transparent...Transparency - the new conditions of the world that allow us to see past the medium to get to the heart of the message - fundamentally changes almost every way we conduct our lives in public (and in private), demanding a new set of HOWs if we really want to thrive."
Seidman goes on to say that to understand those fundamental changes, we must consider two types of transparency: technological transparency (i.e. the ever-evolving state of the networked world) and interpersonal transparency (i.e. the realm of how we do what we do, of being transparent amidst various interconnected social communities). "What does it mean to be truthful? To be open? To act from principle rather than for a desired effect? For one thing, it's simpler...More importantly, in a world accustomed to falsehood and deception, in which daily we receive hundreds of commercial messages inveighing us to act one way or another, transparency and forthrightness can be tremendously refreshing. No one can copy your HOWs, and within the wide spectrum of human behavior, the HOW of active interpersonal transparency can become a powerful differentiator." And that is as true of an entire organization as it is of each individual within it.
This is one of the most entertaining as well as one of the most informative and thought-provoking books I have read in recent years. Its value will depend almost entirely on HOW accessible and receptive each reader is to what Dov Seidman shares, and then HOW willing and able each reader is to apply whatever is most relevant in her or his personal life as well as career. "Pursuing significance, in the end, is the ultimate HOW."
Most people agree that good health, financial security, and self-esteem are important in one's personal life. In business, most executives agree that it is important to have customers who are (as Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba describe them) "evangelists," more money coming in than going out, people who get more and better work done in less time, etc. My point is, that there is a substantial consensus on "what" and the first challenge is to understand the "how." The next challenge is to avoid what Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton have identified as the "knowing-doing gap."
As Dov Seidman explains in the Preface, "The tapestry of human behavior is so diverse, so rich, and so global that it presents a rare opportunity, the opportunity to outbehave the competition." He goes on to explain that, "Instead of rules, steps, or an instruction manual, this book offers an approach - a framework and a way of seeing - to help you navigate the new global, hyperconnected world in which we suddenly find ourselves working. It offers something that will carry you beyond short-term rewards toward lasting success." Those who get their "HOWs right" will achieve enduring personal and organizational business achievement.
Seidman carefully organizes his material within four Parts as he explores (through "a new lens") three HOWs:
HOW we think,
HOW we behave, and
HOW we govern.
I was especially interested in what Seidman has to say about "transparency" in Chapter 7. He cites an example of "issue contagion." Specifically, a posting on an online bulletin board by a 25-year-old cycling enthusiast, Chris Brennen, claiming that Kryptonite locks (reputedly impenetrable) could easily be opened by almost anyone. Kryptonite chose not to respond to the increasing, accelerating buzz and almost immediately found itself in one of the first Internet-facilitated PR disasters. According to Seidman, "Knowledge is power. That old adage is as true today as when philosopher first said it in the seventeenth century...As the world transitions to a bottom-up and side-to-side model in which each individual can contribute to the free flow of ideas, it opens up and becomes more transparent...Transparency - the new conditions of the world that allow us to see past the medium to get to the heart of the message - fundamentally changes almost every way we conduct our lives in public (and in private), demanding a new set of HOWs if we really want to thrive."
Seidman goes on to say that to understand those fundamental changes, we must consider two types of transparency: technological transparency (i.e. the ever-evolving state of the networked world) and interpersonal transparency (i.e. the realm of how we do what we do, of being transparent amidst various interconnected social communities). "What does it mean to be truthful? To be open? To act from principle rather than for a desired effect? For one thing, it's simpler...More importantly, in a world accustomed to falsehood and deception, in which daily we receive hundreds of commercial messages inveighing us to act one way or another, transparency and forthrightness can be tremendously refreshing. No one can copy your HOWs, and within the wide spectrum of human behavior, the HOW of active interpersonal transparency can become a powerful differentiator." And that is as true of an entire organization as it is of each individual within it.
This is one of the most entertaining as well as one of the most informative and thought-provoking books I have read in recent years. Its value will depend almost entirely on HOW accessible and receptive each reader is to what Dov Seidman shares, and then HOW willing and able each reader is to apply whatever is most relevant in her or his personal life as well as career. "Pursuing significance, in the end, is the ultimate HOW."
How to decide what is most important and then "get the HOWs right",
By Robert Morris
This is one in a series of "leadership fables" in which Patrick Lencioni shares his thoughts about the contemporary business world. His characters are fictitious human beings rather than anthropomorphic animals, such as a tortoise that wins a race against a hare or pigs that lead a revolution to overthrow a tyrant and seize control of his farm.
In this instance, Lencioni focuses on probably the single greatest waste of organizational resources: meetings. Although they are "the closet thing to an operating room, a playing field, or a stage that we have...most of us hate them. We complain about, try to avoid, and long for the end of meetings, even when we're running the darn things! How pathetic is it that we have come to accept that the activity most central to the running of our organizations is inherently painful and unproductive?" Nonetheless, in most organizations, meetings comprise the single greatest cause of waste of resources and, yes, of opportunities as well.
Briefly, here's the fictitious situation. Lencioni introduces Casey McDaniel, generally viewed as "an extraordinary man - but just an ordinary CEO" of Yip Software, a designer and manufacturer of sports-related video games company he founded. What is perhaps most significant about Casey is the fact that conducts lethargic, unfocused, and passionless staff meetings that his colleagues understandably dread, as does he. For reasons best revealed within the narrative, he sells his company to Playsoft, the second-largest manufacturer of video games. Enter J.T. Harrison who serves as a liaison between Yip and Software. Almost immediately, Casey's inadequacies as a CEO and, especially, the consequences of the executive staff meetings he conducts become obvious to Harrison who becomes increasingly concerned about Yip's underperformance. Casey's career and the fate of his company are in jeopardy when Casey hires Will Petersen to be his temporary administrative assistant while his permanent administrative assistant is on maternity leave.
What then happens - and does not happen -- throughout the ensuing weeks enables Lencioni to dramatize the importance of scheduling, preparing for, conducting, and then following through on meetings that are never boring nor ineffective. Hence the great emphasis Lencioni places on having different kinds of meetings (e.g. daily check-in, weekly tactical, monthly or as-needed ad hoc strategic, and quarterly off-site), each of which has a different context, purpose, structure, and timeframe. Obviously, some meetings will generate more conflict, excitement, drama, etc. than will others. Over the years, many (if not most) of the staff meetings I have participated in (including those I conducted) wasted time on discussion of what to discuss rather than on making decisions about what to do.
At least 8-10 years ago, Lencioni apparently made a conscious decision to address especially important business issues by creating a human context for each rather than merely offering answers to questions or prescribing solutions to problems. To me, this is one of the greatest benefits of a business narrative, in this instance of a leadership fable: Creating a series of real-world situations (albeit portrayed fictitiously) that readers can identify with emotionally as well as rationally. He is a brilliant business thinker but he also possesses the skills of a master raconteur as he introduces a cast of characters, develops conflicts between and among them, and then allows "rising action" to build to a climax that is also best revealed within the narrative. Unexpected plot developments engage the reader even more.
Of special interest to me is Will's role in this business fable. He serves as an especially effective means by which Lencioni articulates his insights and suggestions. Eventually, in ways and to an extent also best revealed within the narrative, Will has a profound impact on Casey's leadership style as well as on Yip Software's fate. Although Casey and his colleagues as well as J.T. Harrison are fictitious characters, each is credible as a human being rather merely functioning as a literary device. Their values, concerns, personalities, anxieties, and behavior will be very familiar to anyone who has been involved in non-productive group discussions.
As is Lencioni's custom in each of the other volumes in the series of "leadership fables," he also includes (after the Fable) a "Model" section, consisting of supplementary material (Pages 221-254) whose value-added benefits will help his reader to make effective application of the lessons learned from the experiences shared by Casey and his colleagues at Yip Software. Lencioni leaves no doubt that there are direct correlations between enjoyable as well as productive meetings and effective leadership and management to establish and then sustain a "healthy"organization.
Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Patrick Lencioni's other "leadership fables" as well as Michael Ray's The Highest Goal, David Maister's Practice What You Preach, Bill George's Authentic Leadership and his more recently published True North, James O'Toole's Creating the Good Life, and Michael Maccoby's Narcissistic Leaders.
This is one in a series of "leadership fables" in which Patrick Lencioni shares his thoughts about the contemporary business world. His characters are fictitious human beings rather than anthropomorphic animals, such as a tortoise that wins a race against a hare or pigs that lead a revolution to overthrow a tyrant and seize control of his farm.
In this instance, Lencioni focuses on probably the single greatest waste of organizational resources: meetings. Although they are "the closet thing to an operating room, a playing field, or a stage that we have...most of us hate them. We complain about, try to avoid, and long for the end of meetings, even when we're running the darn things! How pathetic is it that we have come to accept that the activity most central to the running of our organizations is inherently painful and unproductive?" Nonetheless, in most organizations, meetings comprise the single greatest cause of waste of resources and, yes, of opportunities as well.
Briefly, here's the fictitious situation. Lencioni introduces Casey McDaniel, generally viewed as "an extraordinary man - but just an ordinary CEO" of Yip Software, a designer and manufacturer of sports-related video games company he founded. What is perhaps most significant about Casey is the fact that conducts lethargic, unfocused, and passionless staff meetings that his colleagues understandably dread, as does he. For reasons best revealed within the narrative, he sells his company to Playsoft, the second-largest manufacturer of video games. Enter J.T. Harrison who serves as a liaison between Yip and Software. Almost immediately, Casey's inadequacies as a CEO and, especially, the consequences of the executive staff meetings he conducts become obvious to Harrison who becomes increasingly concerned about Yip's underperformance. Casey's career and the fate of his company are in jeopardy when Casey hires Will Petersen to be his temporary administrative assistant while his permanent administrative assistant is on maternity leave.
What then happens - and does not happen -- throughout the ensuing weeks enables Lencioni to dramatize the importance of scheduling, preparing for, conducting, and then following through on meetings that are never boring nor ineffective. Hence the great emphasis Lencioni places on having different kinds of meetings (e.g. daily check-in, weekly tactical, monthly or as-needed ad hoc strategic, and quarterly off-site), each of which has a different context, purpose, structure, and timeframe. Obviously, some meetings will generate more conflict, excitement, drama, etc. than will others. Over the years, many (if not most) of the staff meetings I have participated in (including those I conducted) wasted time on discussion of what to discuss rather than on making decisions about what to do.
At least 8-10 years ago, Lencioni apparently made a conscious decision to address especially important business issues by creating a human context for each rather than merely offering answers to questions or prescribing solutions to problems. To me, this is one of the greatest benefits of a business narrative, in this instance of a leadership fable: Creating a series of real-world situations (albeit portrayed fictitiously) that readers can identify with emotionally as well as rationally. He is a brilliant business thinker but he also possesses the skills of a master raconteur as he introduces a cast of characters, develops conflicts between and among them, and then allows "rising action" to build to a climax that is also best revealed within the narrative. Unexpected plot developments engage the reader even more.
Of special interest to me is Will's role in this business fable. He serves as an especially effective means by which Lencioni articulates his insights and suggestions. Eventually, in ways and to an extent also best revealed within the narrative, Will has a profound impact on Casey's leadership style as well as on Yip Software's fate. Although Casey and his colleagues as well as J.T. Harrison are fictitious characters, each is credible as a human being rather merely functioning as a literary device. Their values, concerns, personalities, anxieties, and behavior will be very familiar to anyone who has been involved in non-productive group discussions.
As is Lencioni's custom in each of the other volumes in the series of "leadership fables," he also includes (after the Fable) a "Model" section, consisting of supplementary material (Pages 221-254) whose value-added benefits will help his reader to make effective application of the lessons learned from the experiences shared by Casey and his colleagues at Yip Software. Lencioni leaves no doubt that there are direct correlations between enjoyable as well as productive meetings and effective leadership and management to establish and then sustain a "healthy"organization.
Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Patrick Lencioni's other "leadership fables" as well as Michael Ray's The Highest Goal, David Maister's Practice What You Preach, Bill George's Authentic Leadership and his more recently published True North, James O'Toole's Creating the Good Life, and Michael Maccoby's Narcissistic Leaders.
How "ordinary" people - working together -- can achieve extraordinary innovation.
By Robert Morris
I have had a lifelong interest in etymology. Curious to know the origin of "genius," I checked several sources and here is what I learned. The Latin word "genius" originally meant "deity of generation and birth" and as its meaning evolved over time via various languages, it was used to describe "a person of outstanding intellectual ability." We do indeed view those of superior intellect (e.g. Plato and Aristotle, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein) as secular equivalents of religious deities and certainly admire their mental capabilities. We also tend to toss the word "genius" around somewhat carelessly when referring to entertainers, athletes, and business executives. That said, the fact remains that throughout human history, what Keith Sawyer characterizes as "collaborative genius" has made significant contributions in ways and to an extent few (if any) individuals have. In fact, the more I think about all this, the more I appreciate the meaning and significance of Bernard of Chartres' observation (incorrectly attributed to Isaac Newton) that "We are like dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants."
Here is a brief excerpt which correctly indicates one of Keith Sawyer's core concepts: "In both an improv group and a successful work team, the members play off one another, each person's contributions providing the spark for the next. Together, the improvisational team creates a novel emergent product, one that's more responsive to the changing environment and [key point] better than what anyone could have developed alone. Improvisational teams are the building blocks of innovative organizations, and organizations that can successfully build improvisational teams will be more likely to innovate effectively."
Make no mistake about it: although there can be indeed great creative power of collaboration, the process is necessarily messy, frustrating, at times perhaps discouraging. However, on the basis of his extensive research since the 1990s, Sawyer has identified seven key characteristics of effective creative teams: Innovation emerges over time, successful collaborative teams practice "deep listening," team members build on their collaborators' ideas, only over a period of time do the meaning and significance of each idea become clear, meanwhile "surprising" (i.e. unforeseen) ideas emerge, innovation is inefficient (trial and error, frequent false starts and detours, "dry wells," etc.), and innovation emerges "from the bottom up."
Sawyer carefully organizes his material within three Parts: The Collaborative Team (Chapters 1-4), The Collaborative Mind (Chapters 5-7), and The Collaborative Organization (Chapters 8-11). One of Sawyer's most valuable insights, examined with both rigor and eloquence, is that people who are steadfastly convinced that they are not "creative" can nonetheless work effectively together to generate (albeit eventually) profoundly innovative ideas. There are some "ifs," of course. First, senior managers must provide full support (including sufficient resources, especially time) of a collaborative team. Next, they must be patient rather than committing the common mistake of "ripping out a seedling to see how well it's growing." Also, they must understand - really understand - the meaning and especially the implications of the aforementioned seven key characteristics of effective creative teams. Finally, they must recognize that each "failure" (however defined) is a unique learning opportunity for them as well
as for team members.
Credit Keith Sawyer with a brilliant achievement, especially at a time when the need for innovative thinking and creative collaboration is greater now than ever before.
Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Howard Gardner's studies of multiple intelligences, notably Creating Minds (i.e. those of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi) and his more recently published Five Minds for the Future. Also Andrew Hargadon's How Breakthroughs Happen, Michael Ray and Rochelle's Myers' Creativity in Business, Frans Johansson's The Medici Effect, Henry Chesbrough's Open Innovation and Open Business Models, Michael Michalko's Cracking Creativity, Richard Ogle's Smart World, and X-teams co-authored by Deborah Ancona and Henrik Bresman.
I have had a lifelong interest in etymology. Curious to know the origin of "genius," I checked several sources and here is what I learned. The Latin word "genius" originally meant "deity of generation and birth" and as its meaning evolved over time via various languages, it was used to describe "a person of outstanding intellectual ability." We do indeed view those of superior intellect (e.g. Plato and Aristotle, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein) as secular equivalents of religious deities and certainly admire their mental capabilities. We also tend to toss the word "genius" around somewhat carelessly when referring to entertainers, athletes, and business executives. That said, the fact remains that throughout human history, what Keith Sawyer characterizes as "collaborative genius" has made significant contributions in ways and to an extent few (if any) individuals have. In fact, the more I think about all this, the more I appreciate the meaning and significance of Bernard of Chartres' observation (incorrectly attributed to Isaac Newton) that "We are like dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants."
Here is a brief excerpt which correctly indicates one of Keith Sawyer's core concepts: "In both an improv group and a successful work team, the members play off one another, each person's contributions providing the spark for the next. Together, the improvisational team creates a novel emergent product, one that's more responsive to the changing environment and [key point] better than what anyone could have developed alone. Improvisational teams are the building blocks of innovative organizations, and organizations that can successfully build improvisational teams will be more likely to innovate effectively."
Make no mistake about it: although there can be indeed great creative power of collaboration, the process is necessarily messy, frustrating, at times perhaps discouraging. However, on the basis of his extensive research since the 1990s, Sawyer has identified seven key characteristics of effective creative teams: Innovation emerges over time, successful collaborative teams practice "deep listening," team members build on their collaborators' ideas, only over a period of time do the meaning and significance of each idea become clear, meanwhile "surprising" (i.e. unforeseen) ideas emerge, innovation is inefficient (trial and error, frequent false starts and detours, "dry wells," etc.), and innovation emerges "from the bottom up."
Sawyer carefully organizes his material within three Parts: The Collaborative Team (Chapters 1-4), The Collaborative Mind (Chapters 5-7), and The Collaborative Organization (Chapters 8-11). One of Sawyer's most valuable insights, examined with both rigor and eloquence, is that people who are steadfastly convinced that they are not "creative" can nonetheless work effectively together to generate (albeit eventually) profoundly innovative ideas. There are some "ifs," of course. First, senior managers must provide full support (including sufficient resources, especially time) of a collaborative team. Next, they must be patient rather than committing the common mistake of "ripping out a seedling to see how well it's growing." Also, they must understand - really understand - the meaning and especially the implications of the aforementioned seven key characteristics of effective creative teams. Finally, they must recognize that each "failure" (however defined) is a unique learning opportunity for them as well
as for team members.
Credit Keith Sawyer with a brilliant achievement, especially at a time when the need for innovative thinking and creative collaboration is greater now than ever before.
Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out Howard Gardner's studies of multiple intelligences, notably Creating Minds (i.e. those of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi) and his more recently published Five Minds for the Future. Also Andrew Hargadon's How Breakthroughs Happen, Michael Ray and Rochelle's Myers' Creativity in Business, Frans Johansson's The Medici Effect, Henry Chesbrough's Open Innovation and Open Business Models, Michael Michalko's Cracking Creativity, Richard Ogle's Smart World, and X-teams co-authored by Deborah Ancona and Henrik Bresman.
Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way,
By Robert Morris
By now, I have become convinced that an organization's performance in these separate but related areas - knowledge management and - will probably determine whether or not it survives. That is why I recently read with great interest this book as well as Gaston Trauffler and Hugo P. Tschirky's Sustained Innovation Management. Think about it: An organization can neither initiate nor respond effectively to change without sufficient information; the same is true when an organization must assimilate radical and incremental innovation management, and do so over an extended period of time.
Francois Dupuy observes that "we are now seeing an interesting paradox which certainly merits some attention: it is not so much change itself which poses a problem - it is even valued as a driving force for economic activity, as a source for the creation of wealth - but more the ability to lead it, to steer it, to control it, in brief to be an `active actor' and not just a simple, even if enthusiastic spectator." My own rather extensive experience with all manner of organizations indicates to me that most people do not fear change; rather, they fear what is unfamiliar. Hence the importance not only of knowledge but also of managing it well.
Dupuy carefully organizes his material within two Parts. In the first, he explains the nature, extent, and implications of what he characterizes "the customer's victory" within what has become a new environment, "an uncertain world," in which there has been a paradigm shift from "a scarce product to a scarce customer." Throughout Part I, Dupuy focuses on forces, factors, and issues that come into play as organizations scramble (with mixed results) to respond to all manner of changes. Insofar as knowledge management is concerned, many (most?) organizations do not know (a) what they already know, (b) what they think they know...but don't, (c) therefore, what their most important knowledge needs are, and finally (d) how to meet them. I wish I had a dollar for every time I have heard a senior-level executive claim that her or his "most valuable assets walk out the door at the end of each day." Yes, a cliché but nonetheless true. There is a "fog" in business just as in war, as Carl von Clauswitz once suggested when referring to the difficulties of communication during combat.
Then in Part II, Dupuy shifts his attention to the methodology and tools that an effective change process requires. He includes a number of "anonymous" case studies, all of which are based on real-world situations. Opinions vary as to the extent it is possible to "manage change." Peter Drucker frequently suggested that the best way to manage the future was to create it. I certainly agree that it is better to control the process by which to prepare for, initiate, and then sustain change than be surprised by it and perhaps managed by it.
In his final chapter, Dupuy addresses a number of issues of special interest to me. Specifically, the challenge all organizations face when struggling to survive what Charles Darwin would describe as a process of "natural selection," and do so at a time when change is the only constant. According to Dupuy, "at least in the short term, nothing is written in stone. The managers and members of organizations are returned not only to their perception of the future, to their choices, but above all to their reciprocal confidence - an essential condition for introducing a process of change into organizations - while at the same time offsetting the most severe aspects of the crisis, the drama or the ever-renewed pressure." How to respond effectively to what is undeniably a formidable challenge. The observations and suggestions that Francois Dupuy offers are worthy of careful consideration. Then a choice must be made: Lead, follow, or get out of the way?
Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to read O'Dell's If Only We Knew What We Know (written with C. Jackson Grayson) and The Executive's Role in Knowledge Management. Also Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline and a more recent work, Presence, co-authored with C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworksi, and Betty Sue Flowers; Richard Ogle's Smart World; Deborah Ancona and Henrik Bresman's X-teams; Howard Gardner's Five Minds for the Future; Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson's Enterprise Architecture as Strategy; Dean R. Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement; and Competing on Analytics co-authored by Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris.
By now, I have become convinced that an organization's performance in these separate but related areas - knowledge management and - will probably determine whether or not it survives. That is why I recently read with great interest this book as well as Gaston Trauffler and Hugo P. Tschirky's Sustained Innovation Management. Think about it: An organization can neither initiate nor respond effectively to change without sufficient information; the same is true when an organization must assimilate radical and incremental innovation management, and do so over an extended period of time.
Francois Dupuy observes that "we are now seeing an interesting paradox which certainly merits some attention: it is not so much change itself which poses a problem - it is even valued as a driving force for economic activity, as a source for the creation of wealth - but more the ability to lead it, to steer it, to control it, in brief to be an `active actor' and not just a simple, even if enthusiastic spectator." My own rather extensive experience with all manner of organizations indicates to me that most people do not fear change; rather, they fear what is unfamiliar. Hence the importance not only of knowledge but also of managing it well.
Dupuy carefully organizes his material within two Parts. In the first, he explains the nature, extent, and implications of what he characterizes "the customer's victory" within what has become a new environment, "an uncertain world," in which there has been a paradigm shift from "a scarce product to a scarce customer." Throughout Part I, Dupuy focuses on forces, factors, and issues that come into play as organizations scramble (with mixed results) to respond to all manner of changes. Insofar as knowledge management is concerned, many (most?) organizations do not know (a) what they already know, (b) what they think they know...but don't, (c) therefore, what their most important knowledge needs are, and finally (d) how to meet them. I wish I had a dollar for every time I have heard a senior-level executive claim that her or his "most valuable assets walk out the door at the end of each day." Yes, a cliché but nonetheless true. There is a "fog" in business just as in war, as Carl von Clauswitz once suggested when referring to the difficulties of communication during combat.
Then in Part II, Dupuy shifts his attention to the methodology and tools that an effective change process requires. He includes a number of "anonymous" case studies, all of which are based on real-world situations. Opinions vary as to the extent it is possible to "manage change." Peter Drucker frequently suggested that the best way to manage the future was to create it. I certainly agree that it is better to control the process by which to prepare for, initiate, and then sustain change than be surprised by it and perhaps managed by it.
In his final chapter, Dupuy addresses a number of issues of special interest to me. Specifically, the challenge all organizations face when struggling to survive what Charles Darwin would describe as a process of "natural selection," and do so at a time when change is the only constant. According to Dupuy, "at least in the short term, nothing is written in stone. The managers and members of organizations are returned not only to their perception of the future, to their choices, but above all to their reciprocal confidence - an essential condition for introducing a process of change into organizations - while at the same time offsetting the most severe aspects of the crisis, the drama or the ever-renewed pressure." How to respond effectively to what is undeniably a formidable challenge. The observations and suggestions that Francois Dupuy offers are worthy of careful consideration. Then a choice must be made: Lead, follow, or get out of the way?
Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to read O'Dell's If Only We Knew What We Know (written with C. Jackson Grayson) and The Executive's Role in Knowledge Management. Also Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline and a more recent work, Presence, co-authored with C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworksi, and Betty Sue Flowers; Richard Ogle's Smart World; Deborah Ancona and Henrik Bresman's X-teams; Howard Gardner's Five Minds for the Future; Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson's Enterprise Architecture as Strategy; Dean R. Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement; and Competing on Analytics co-authored by Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris.
Why some narcissistic leaders are productive...and others are not.
By Robert Morris
As Michael Maccoby explains in his Preface, "To understand differences among narcissists and even predict which visionaries will succeed and which are likely to fail, this book dissects narcissistic personalities and contrasts narcissists with the other psychoanalytic personalities: the careful obsessives, caring erotics, and adaptive marketing types." Maccoby concludes, "I'm proposing that management theories need to take account of personality and context. Different personality types shine in different settings. Their approach to leadership may be right for one context but not another." Jack Welch offers an excellent case in point. He was selected by Reggie Jones to succeed him as CEO, challenging Welch to "blow up" GE. He had the right "personality" for that "context." (For years thereafter, he was referred to as "Neutron Jack.") Throughout the narrative that follows, Maccoby focuses on other examples of productive as well as non-productive narcissists, comparing and contrasting them in terms of their positive or negative impact, especially on their respective corporate cultures.
Of special interest to me is what Maccoby has to say about what he characterizes as "strategic intelligence," especially in Chapter 4. It consists of five elements. The first two (foresight and systems thinking) are "pure intelligence" skills. The other three (visioning, motivating, and partnering) are what Maccoby views as "real-world" skills. He rigorously examines each of the five elements, and what emerges is a composite profile of the productive narcissist: she or he thinks in terms of unprovable forces that are shaping the future...sensing a coming wave that [her or his organization] can ride on"; possesses "an ability to synthesize and integrate, to conceptualize the whole rather than a collection of separate parts"; has a holistic vision, then creates that vision in the real world of business; then achieves buy-in of that vision throughout the given enterprise to embrace a common purpose and implement the vision; and finally, understands "how each alliance, whether personal or corporate, fits into [her or his] vision for the company."
On Pages 197-200, Maccoby provides an especially clever summary of the five elements in the form of a series of statements (one cluster per element) that enables each reader to complete a preliminary (rather than definitive) self-diagnostic of her or his own strategic intelligence. It should also be noted that, previously in Chapter One, Maccoby provides a questionnaire that invites his reader to respond to a series of 80 statements, indicating Never, Almost Never, Seldom, Sometimes, Frequently, or Almost Always. Then in the Appendix, he explains how to interpret the questionnaire results and provides two forms to chart results. One suggests the degree to which the reader's responses fit the four personality types (i.e. erotic, possessive, marketing, and narcissistic); the other chart suggests the profile for the productive aspects of each type (i.e. caring, systematic, self-developing, and visionary). By the time his reader arrives at the Appendix, Maccoby has thoroughly discussed all of the various elements, personality types, and productive aspects.
To repeat, the self-diagnostic he offers is by no means definitive, nor does he make any such claim. It was of substantial value to me, however, because it increased my understanding of Maccoby's core concepts; also, by completing the self-diagnostic, I was challenged to think about those aspects of my own personality that I can - and should -- leverage to become more productive.
As Michael Maccoby explains in his Preface, "To understand differences among narcissists and even predict which visionaries will succeed and which are likely to fail, this book dissects narcissistic personalities and contrasts narcissists with the other psychoanalytic personalities: the careful obsessives, caring erotics, and adaptive marketing types." Maccoby concludes, "I'm proposing that management theories need to take account of personality and context. Different personality types shine in different settings. Their approach to leadership may be right for one context but not another." Jack Welch offers an excellent case in point. He was selected by Reggie Jones to succeed him as CEO, challenging Welch to "blow up" GE. He had the right "personality" for that "context." (For years thereafter, he was referred to as "Neutron Jack.") Throughout the narrative that follows, Maccoby focuses on other examples of productive as well as non-productive narcissists, comparing and contrasting them in terms of their positive or negative impact, especially on their respective corporate cultures.
Of special interest to me is what Maccoby has to say about what he characterizes as "strategic intelligence," especially in Chapter 4. It consists of five elements. The first two (foresight and systems thinking) are "pure intelligence" skills. The other three (visioning, motivating, and partnering) are what Maccoby views as "real-world" skills. He rigorously examines each of the five elements, and what emerges is a composite profile of the productive narcissist: she or he thinks in terms of unprovable forces that are shaping the future...sensing a coming wave that [her or his organization] can ride on"; possesses "an ability to synthesize and integrate, to conceptualize the whole rather than a collection of separate parts"; has a holistic vision, then creates that vision in the real world of business; then achieves buy-in of that vision throughout the given enterprise to embrace a common purpose and implement the vision; and finally, understands "how each alliance, whether personal or corporate, fits into [her or his] vision for the company."
On Pages 197-200, Maccoby provides an especially clever summary of the five elements in the form of a series of statements (one cluster per element) that enables each reader to complete a preliminary (rather than definitive) self-diagnostic of her or his own strategic intelligence. It should also be noted that, previously in Chapter One, Maccoby provides a questionnaire that invites his reader to respond to a series of 80 statements, indicating Never, Almost Never, Seldom, Sometimes, Frequently, or Almost Always. Then in the Appendix, he explains how to interpret the questionnaire results and provides two forms to chart results. One suggests the degree to which the reader's responses fit the four personality types (i.e. erotic, possessive, marketing, and narcissistic); the other chart suggests the profile for the productive aspects of each type (i.e. caring, systematic, self-developing, and visionary). By the time his reader arrives at the Appendix, Maccoby has thoroughly discussed all of the various elements, personality types, and productive aspects.
To repeat, the self-diagnostic he offers is by no means definitive, nor does he make any such claim. It was of substantial value to me, however, because it increased my understanding of Maccoby's core concepts; also, by completing the self-diagnostic, I was challenged to think about those aspects of my own personality that I can - and should -- leverage to become more productive.
A "call from practice" for strategic management of discontinuous technologies and radical innovation.
By Robert Morris
NOTE: The copy I have identifies co-authors, Gaston Trauffler and Hugo P. Tschirky.
By now, I have become convinced that an organization's performance in two separate but related areas - management of knowledge and of innovation - will probably determine whether or not it survives. That is why I recently read with great interest this book as well as Francois Dupuy's Sharing Knowledge. Think about it: An organization can neither initiate change nor respond effectively to it without sufficient information; the same is true when an organization must assimilate radical and incremental innovation management, and do so over an extended period of time.
In the final chapter of Sustained Innovation Management, Gaston Trauffler and Hugo P. Tschirky observe that "Rare are those companies that actively seize the challenge of designing their management approaches and organizational structures in a way that takes competitive advantage of discontinuous technologies or that actively and constantly generates radical innovations. The poor performance of companies meeting this challenge is rooted in two main gaps. On the one hand, the understanding of implications of today's management approaches for this management challenge is missing. On the other hand, there is a lack of applicable concepts for the strategic management of discontinuous technologies and radical innovation." Trauffler and Tschirky wrote this book this book to share what their years of research, and, to provide their analysis of what they perceive to be the nature and implications of those revelations.
They carefully organize their material within six chapters. First, they describe the "call from practice and the management encounters when challenged by the management of radical innovation and discontinuous technologies." They then shift their attention to a review of relevant research currently available. Next, they analyze state-of-the-art management practices as revealed in three corporate case studies. In Chapter 4, they offer a new management approach for strategically managing radical innovations, share the results of several interviews, and cite other corporate case studies. In the next chapter, they describe management principles that "purely address management's concern in management summary style." Finally, the share their "outlook" and then provide a management summary.
For me, some of the most valuable material in the book is provided in Chapter 4 as Trauffler and Tschirky introduce a concept whose development is based on the nine propositions [identified on Pages 77-78] that suggest a possible design of processes, methods, and structures that will enable a practitioner-oriented planning concept for sustained innovation management." There are four development phases, each of which involves several process phases: identification, evaluation, decision and implementation. When concluding this important chapter, Trauffler and Tschirky offer a necessary disclaimer, noting that "the concept designed to fulfill all of the nine propositions is one possible solution for the strategic management of sustained innovation. It thus represents one potential contribution to the lack of concepts for successfully mastering sustained innovation. It should not be regarded as the [begin italics] only effective way [end italics] to achieve sustained innovation. Further, the concept is focused exclusively on the procedure of strategic innovation planning. There may be other factors that also play an important role besides choosing the right procedure for planning." Indeed there are.
More a quibble than a complaint, Trauffler and Tschirky frequently insert references to other sources as well as to case studies and illustrations. For example, "the stability that organizations are naturally striving for (Scigliano, 2003:9) has clearly disintegrated over the last few decades (D'Aveni, 1994: 227; Nault and Vandenbosch, 1998: 171)." Although this is obviously an issue of style and format, I think it is very irritating; worse yet, it disrupts the flow of the prose narrative and distracts at least this reader's attention from the otherwise solid material.
That said, this is an especially informative and thought-provoking book in which Trauffler and Tschirky make a strong argument for companies making an organizational commitment to effective management of sustained innovation to initiate as well as respond to discontinuous technology changes. As they themselves suggest, "to seize the challenge of designing their management approaches and organizational structures in a way that takes competitive advantage of discontinuous technologies or that actively and constantly generates radical innovations."
Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Seeing What's Next co-authored by Clayton M. Christensen, Scott D. Anthony, and Erik A. Roth. Also, Henry Chesbrough's Open Innovation and Open Business Models, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne's Blue Ocean Strategy, Enterprise Architecture as Strategy co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson, Dean R. Spitzer's Transforming Performance Management, and Richard Ogle's Smart World.
NOTE: The copy I have identifies co-authors, Gaston Trauffler and Hugo P. Tschirky.
By now, I have become convinced that an organization's performance in two separate but related areas - management of knowledge and of innovation - will probably determine whether or not it survives. That is why I recently read with great interest this book as well as Francois Dupuy's Sharing Knowledge. Think about it: An organization can neither initiate change nor respond effectively to it without sufficient information; the same is true when an organization must assimilate radical and incremental innovation management, and do so over an extended period of time.
In the final chapter of Sustained Innovation Management, Gaston Trauffler and Hugo P. Tschirky observe that "Rare are those companies that actively seize the challenge of designing their management approaches and organizational structures in a way that takes competitive advantage of discontinuous technologies or that actively and constantly generates radical innovations. The poor performance of companies meeting this challenge is rooted in two main gaps. On the one hand, the understanding of implications of today's management approaches for this management challenge is missing. On the other hand, there is a lack of applicable concepts for the strategic management of discontinuous technologies and radical innovation." Trauffler and Tschirky wrote this book this book to share what their years of research, and, to provide their analysis of what they perceive to be the nature and implications of those revelations.
They carefully organize their material within six chapters. First, they describe the "call from practice and the management encounters when challenged by the management of radical innovation and discontinuous technologies." They then shift their attention to a review of relevant research currently available. Next, they analyze state-of-the-art management practices as revealed in three corporate case studies. In Chapter 4, they offer a new management approach for strategically managing radical innovations, share the results of several interviews, and cite other corporate case studies. In the next chapter, they describe management principles that "purely address management's concern in management summary style." Finally, the share their "outlook" and then provide a management summary.
For me, some of the most valuable material in the book is provided in Chapter 4 as Trauffler and Tschirky introduce a concept whose development is based on the nine propositions [identified on Pages 77-78] that suggest a possible design of processes, methods, and structures that will enable a practitioner-oriented planning concept for sustained innovation management." There are four development phases, each of which involves several process phases: identification, evaluation, decision and implementation. When concluding this important chapter, Trauffler and Tschirky offer a necessary disclaimer, noting that "the concept designed to fulfill all of the nine propositions is one possible solution for the strategic management of sustained innovation. It thus represents one potential contribution to the lack of concepts for successfully mastering sustained innovation. It should not be regarded as the [begin italics] only effective way [end italics] to achieve sustained innovation. Further, the concept is focused exclusively on the procedure of strategic innovation planning. There may be other factors that also play an important role besides choosing the right procedure for planning." Indeed there are.
More a quibble than a complaint, Trauffler and Tschirky frequently insert references to other sources as well as to case studies and illustrations. For example, "the stability that organizations are naturally striving for (Scigliano, 2003:9) has clearly disintegrated over the last few decades (D'Aveni, 1994: 227; Nault and Vandenbosch, 1998: 171)." Although this is obviously an issue of style and format, I think it is very irritating; worse yet, it disrupts the flow of the prose narrative and distracts at least this reader's attention from the otherwise solid material.
That said, this is an especially informative and thought-provoking book in which Trauffler and Tschirky make a strong argument for companies making an organizational commitment to effective management of sustained innovation to initiate as well as respond to discontinuous technology changes. As they themselves suggest, "to seize the challenge of designing their management approaches and organizational structures in a way that takes competitive advantage of discontinuous technologies or that actively and constantly generates radical innovations."
Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Seeing What's Next co-authored by Clayton M. Christensen, Scott D. Anthony, and Erik A. Roth. Also, Henry Chesbrough's Open Innovation and Open Business Models, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne's Blue Ocean Strategy, Enterprise Architecture as Strategy co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson, Dean R. Spitzer's Transforming Performance Management, and Richard Ogle's Smart World.
Balancing Perks and Productivity
Tips to starting an effective flexible employment plan at your firm
By Victor Van Valen
Incorporating employee perks—such as casual Fridays, free dry cleaning pick-up and allowing employees to bring their dog to the office—is important for organizations to cater to the livelihood of its employees. And with the war for talent ensuing, the more flexibility companies have, the better they can position themselves to addresses the work/life issues of their employees—and the better they can maintain employee loyalty. But what are these perks actually communicating to your employees?
It is important that these perks programs are implemented correctly, to be able to fully utilize their potential. "If your organization is not currently addressing work/life issues, it will soon be losing out — if it isn't already," says Ilyse Shapiro, founder of www.MyPartTimePro.com , a job search Web site. "Firms which offer flexible work arrangements are able to retain current employees and attract new ones better than firms that do not," states Shapiro.
Shapiro suggests that businesses consider the following tips before putting together a work/life balance program:
1. Support work/life initiatives.
It's great to tell staff that your organization offers flexibility, but
it shouldn't be just a catchphrase. Management from the top down needs to both embrace and encourage the concept among all its employees. The program must be part of everything a corporation says and does—from the mission statement to short- and long-term strategic objectives.
2. Don't discriminate or be selective.
Many employees fear that they will face repercussions—co-worker animosity, management scrutiny, etc.—if they take advantage of
flex-time options. Effective employers must ensure that their staff
does not face this type of feedback by making sure work/life balance programs are non-discriminatory. Consider all employees as equals—regardless of sex, race, income level, job title, status (exempt or non-exempt) or family composition (single/married, with/without children). It is crucial that all employees feel included so that employee resentment doesn't brew against each other—or against their supervisors.
3. Keep opportunities flexible too.
If your employees feel they will become "out of sight, out of mind" for taking advantage of flexibility or mobility programs, you will negate your incentive efforts. Make sure to continue career advancement and training for all members. Staff who work flexible schedules should be offered the same opportunities as those who work traditional, full-time schedules. Adjust training availability or offer programs that can be completed via the Web, and be sure to continue to give praise and rewards where it’s due.
4. It's all about them, but it's also about you.
Remember flexibility is a two-way street. Effective work/life programs must work for both the employees and the employer. Employees might want a flexible work schedule, but some positions—such as sales or customer service reps—require employees to work a certain set of hours. If one type of perk isn't practical for your organization or department, try something else—such as casual Fridays, a weekly staff luncheon or gym memberships.
By Victor Van Valen
Incorporating employee perks—such as casual Fridays, free dry cleaning pick-up and allowing employees to bring their dog to the office—is important for organizations to cater to the livelihood of its employees. And with the war for talent ensuing, the more flexibility companies have, the better they can position themselves to addresses the work/life issues of their employees—and the better they can maintain employee loyalty. But what are these perks actually communicating to your employees?
It is important that these perks programs are implemented correctly, to be able to fully utilize their potential. "If your organization is not currently addressing work/life issues, it will soon be losing out — if it isn't already," says Ilyse Shapiro, founder of www.MyPartTimePro.com , a job search Web site. "Firms which offer flexible work arrangements are able to retain current employees and attract new ones better than firms that do not," states Shapiro.
Shapiro suggests that businesses consider the following tips before putting together a work/life balance program:
1. Support work/life initiatives.
It's great to tell staff that your organization offers flexibility, but
it shouldn't be just a catchphrase. Management from the top down needs to both embrace and encourage the concept among all its employees. The program must be part of everything a corporation says and does—from the mission statement to short- and long-term strategic objectives.
2. Don't discriminate or be selective.
Many employees fear that they will face repercussions—co-worker animosity, management scrutiny, etc.—if they take advantage of
flex-time options. Effective employers must ensure that their staff
does not face this type of feedback by making sure work/life balance programs are non-discriminatory. Consider all employees as equals—regardless of sex, race, income level, job title, status (exempt or non-exempt) or family composition (single/married, with/without children). It is crucial that all employees feel included so that employee resentment doesn't brew against each other—or against their supervisors.
3. Keep opportunities flexible too.
If your employees feel they will become "out of sight, out of mind" for taking advantage of flexibility or mobility programs, you will negate your incentive efforts. Make sure to continue career advancement and training for all members. Staff who work flexible schedules should be offered the same opportunities as those who work traditional, full-time schedules. Adjust training availability or offer programs that can be completed via the Web, and be sure to continue to give praise and rewards where it’s due.
4. It's all about them, but it's also about you.
Remember flexibility is a two-way street. Effective work/life programs must work for both the employees and the employer. Employees might want a flexible work schedule, but some positions—such as sales or customer service reps—require employees to work a certain set of hours. If one type of perk isn't practical for your organization or department, try something else—such as casual Fridays, a weekly staff luncheon or gym memberships.
A Gift Card That Gives Back
By Leo Jakobson
Linen's 'n Things has embraced cause-related marketing, unveiling a pink gift card that supports the fight against breast cancer.
The Linens 'n Things Pink Gift Card, which gives $1 per card sold to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, is not the only cause the Clifton, NJ-based retailer of home textiles and housewares will support. Cause-related Linens 'n Things gift cards can be created for other charities sponsored by corporations, and co-branded with a corporate logo.
In this, Linens 'n Things is catching a growing trend in corporate America: corporate philanthropy is an increasingly important part of recruiting new workers. According to "Creating a Virtuous Cycle: Strategic Corporate Community Involvement," an April, 2007 report by consulting firm Deloitte & Touche USA, Millennials—also known as Generation Y—are insisting that their employers be good corporate citizens, and choose to work for companies whose values align with their own.
"This generation is moving the old model of philanthropy—something that was separate from business—to a socially minded undertaking that is part of business," says Barry Salzberg, a managing partner of the firm. "They are looking for the double bottom line—both the social impact and the business value—from community involvement."
The report cites research from 2006 that found that 86 percent of Millennials feel that "companies have a responsibility to support social/environmental causes," and four out of five want to work for a firm that cares about its impact on society. More than half said they would not work for a poor corporate citizen.
The Linens 'n Things Pink Gift Card has no fees or expiration date.
Linen's 'n Things has embraced cause-related marketing, unveiling a pink gift card that supports the fight against breast cancer.
The Linens 'n Things Pink Gift Card, which gives $1 per card sold to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, is not the only cause the Clifton, NJ-based retailer of home textiles and housewares will support. Cause-related Linens 'n Things gift cards can be created for other charities sponsored by corporations, and co-branded with a corporate logo.
In this, Linens 'n Things is catching a growing trend in corporate America: corporate philanthropy is an increasingly important part of recruiting new workers. According to "Creating a Virtuous Cycle: Strategic Corporate Community Involvement," an April, 2007 report by consulting firm Deloitte & Touche USA, Millennials—also known as Generation Y—are insisting that their employers be good corporate citizens, and choose to work for companies whose values align with their own.
"This generation is moving the old model of philanthropy—something that was separate from business—to a socially minded undertaking that is part of business," says Barry Salzberg, a managing partner of the firm. "They are looking for the double bottom line—both the social impact and the business value—from community involvement."
The report cites research from 2006 that found that 86 percent of Millennials feel that "companies have a responsibility to support social/environmental causes," and four out of five want to work for a firm that cares about its impact on society. More than half said they would not work for a poor corporate citizen.
The Linens 'n Things Pink Gift Card has no fees or expiration date.
Best Sales Practices Breakthrough
Why do so many projects fail?
By Jacques Werth, President, High Probability Selling
Stumped as to why your top-notch reps continually outshine your lower performers? Both are probably following the same list of best sales practices and contacting the same caliber of clients—so what gives?
It seems obvious that if a company has their entire sales force doing what their top salespeople do, then it should greatly improve their sales productivity. Nonetheless, most companies that utilize best sales practices research are producing only small incremental productivity improvements at best. As it turns out, the majority of best sales practices research, SFA and CRM projects have failed because consultants automate what they believe are the "best sales practices" of their clients' salespeople. However, many of the best practices identified are largely fictional.
Current research begins with the assumption that the best salespeople are using the best combination of known sales techniques—in the right order—and that they are aware of how to apply those techniques.
The prevailing research methodology is to interview the top salespeople to determine how they sell. Then, those top salespeople meet to combine their techniques in a logical order and agree on an outline of their best sales practices. However, the current assumptions are flawed. As a result, they are producing flawed sales processes.
If you observe the top one percent of salespeople while they are selling, the methodology will quickly reveal the following points.
* 84 percent of the top salespeople do not use many known sales techniques in any order: They do not meet with interested prospects, persuade and convince prospects to buy, build rapport, identify needs, give presentations or overcome objections. They seldom understand, or can accurately describe, what they are doing.
* Most of the top one percent have learned their sales practices intuitively. Because they have little contact with other top salespeople, no common terminology has been developed to describe how they sell.
*When asked, they make an honest attempt to describe their methods in common sales jargon. However, when observed at work, they are not doing what they have described during interviews.
Interviewing the top sales producers and determining which known sales techniques they favored does not reveal what they were actually doing. The key then is to determine what the top salespeople are doing that the vast majority of salespeople are not doing.
The fact is that most of the top producers have developed entirely new sales behaviors, techniques and processes to take advantage of the communication, technological, psychographic, and business process changes in virtually every market. They have abandoned the basic premises of the 70-year-old Needs Selling paradigm—including its modern incarnations such as Consultative Selling, Spin Selling and Solution Selling.
These discoveries revealthe most significant paradigm shift in the history of selling—the beginning of a new "Wants Selling" paradigm. The process within that paradigm derives most of its power from the following factors.
1. The ability to devote most of the salesperson's time and resources to high probability prospects.
2. The ability to forge immediate relationships of mutual trust and respect.
3. The ability to obtain mutually beneficial agreements and commitments.
4. The ability to close more business in less time.
5. They establish long-term relationships of mutual trust and respect that tends to keep out their competition as long as their products and services are satisfactory.
The result is a step-by-step sales process that is radically different from those in use by the Fortune 1,000. It closely emulates the sales performance of the top one percent. Therefore, it is highly effective. Almost any industry can utilize the process. However, it is important to customize each step of the process based on how the top salespeople of client companies utilize them.
While this new sales process will not make the average salesperson as productive as the top one percent, it can enable most salespeople to increase their sales productivity by twenty to fifty percent.
By Jacques Werth, President, High Probability Selling
Stumped as to why your top-notch reps continually outshine your lower performers? Both are probably following the same list of best sales practices and contacting the same caliber of clients—so what gives?
It seems obvious that if a company has their entire sales force doing what their top salespeople do, then it should greatly improve their sales productivity. Nonetheless, most companies that utilize best sales practices research are producing only small incremental productivity improvements at best. As it turns out, the majority of best sales practices research, SFA and CRM projects have failed because consultants automate what they believe are the "best sales practices" of their clients' salespeople. However, many of the best practices identified are largely fictional.
Current research begins with the assumption that the best salespeople are using the best combination of known sales techniques—in the right order—and that they are aware of how to apply those techniques.
The prevailing research methodology is to interview the top salespeople to determine how they sell. Then, those top salespeople meet to combine their techniques in a logical order and agree on an outline of their best sales practices. However, the current assumptions are flawed. As a result, they are producing flawed sales processes.
If you observe the top one percent of salespeople while they are selling, the methodology will quickly reveal the following points.
* 84 percent of the top salespeople do not use many known sales techniques in any order: They do not meet with interested prospects, persuade and convince prospects to buy, build rapport, identify needs, give presentations or overcome objections. They seldom understand, or can accurately describe, what they are doing.
* Most of the top one percent have learned their sales practices intuitively. Because they have little contact with other top salespeople, no common terminology has been developed to describe how they sell.
*When asked, they make an honest attempt to describe their methods in common sales jargon. However, when observed at work, they are not doing what they have described during interviews.
Interviewing the top sales producers and determining which known sales techniques they favored does not reveal what they were actually doing. The key then is to determine what the top salespeople are doing that the vast majority of salespeople are not doing.
The fact is that most of the top producers have developed entirely new sales behaviors, techniques and processes to take advantage of the communication, technological, psychographic, and business process changes in virtually every market. They have abandoned the basic premises of the 70-year-old Needs Selling paradigm—including its modern incarnations such as Consultative Selling, Spin Selling and Solution Selling.
These discoveries revealthe most significant paradigm shift in the history of selling—the beginning of a new "Wants Selling" paradigm. The process within that paradigm derives most of its power from the following factors.
1. The ability to devote most of the salesperson's time and resources to high probability prospects.
2. The ability to forge immediate relationships of mutual trust and respect.
3. The ability to obtain mutually beneficial agreements and commitments.
4. The ability to close more business in less time.
5. They establish long-term relationships of mutual trust and respect that tends to keep out their competition as long as their products and services are satisfactory.
The result is a step-by-step sales process that is radically different from those in use by the Fortune 1,000. It closely emulates the sales performance of the top one percent. Therefore, it is highly effective. Almost any industry can utilize the process. However, it is important to customize each step of the process based on how the top salespeople of client companies utilize them.
While this new sales process will not make the average salesperson as productive as the top one percent, it can enable most salespeople to increase their sales productivity by twenty to fifty percent.
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