Filed under: - Leadership, - Personal change, - Personal Reflections | Tags: Leadership, Vision
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”―Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Isn’t that what great leadership does—teach us to long for the endless immensity of the future?
That is not nearly as easy as it sounds. It is about more than the typical prescription for “vision.”
I long for strategic leaders who have oceans of imagination, energy, momentum, and resolve.
Filed under: - Leadership, - Strategy and Imperatives | Tags: Leadership, LinkedIn, Transformation, Vision
We have been hunkered down for a couple of years following the recession.
In early 2012, I was hopeful that organizations would break back out. However, it seems to me that this is only happening in pockets.
There are a few brave souls on the horizon, however. continue reading here
Filed under: - Change Execution, - Innovation, - Organization Change Management, - People Change Management, - Strategy Execution | Tags: Change Management, Commitment, Resistance, Strategy, Vision
What if our organization was energized? If everyone understood the vision and the strategy and contributed enthusiastically to moving us forward? How would we talk to each other? Maybe it would look like the best of our meetings – agreeing and disagreeing, compromising, collaborating, loud, messy even, but always vibrant. It seems to me that internal social media should look like this and create this kind of traction.
Filed under: - Innovation, - Leadership, - Organization Change Management, - Strategy and Imperatives | Tags: Burning Platform, Change Management, Culture, Leadership, LinkedIn, Planning, Resistance, Strategy, Transformation, Vision
If you recognize that your organization needs either a wholesale culture change (as Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop expressed this week (2)) or tweaking in certain units, this book will provide you with an excellent framework and the language to discuss it. The authors, Cameron and Quinn, are renown in this space and the book is an expansion of decades of academic research and field application.
The foundation, Competing Values Framework, sets out a 2×2 matrix with 4 different organizational culture types (Clan, Hierarchy, Adhocracy and Market Cultures) and the authors maintain that most organizations exhibit differing degrees of each.
The beauty of the framework is that it takes the intuitive (and sometimes not so intuitive) and makes it plain, gives it structure that can be measured and discussed. As I peeked ahead to read the model, I could immediately recognize characteristics s of organizations that I have worked with. Even rough plotting current and desired state values seemed intuitive and suddenly easy to talk about. Further reading illuminating much more meat on the model worthy of further study – the Management Skills Assessment Instrument and Organizational Change Assessment Instrument (OCAI) are simultaneously straightforward and comprehensive.
The book claims that the approach provides six advantages: practical, timely, involving, quantitative and qualitative, manageable and valid. I have to concur – this book delivers.
Evidence is emerging every quarter that our most established and revered organizations are only reactive to change – are not demonstrating the capability to evolve at the pace that the market is demanding. In my opinion, these organizations are constrained by three factors: the vision of leadership, the effectiveness of their strategies and … the ability to change the cultures of these organizations. The success of our economies and our communities going forward will depend, to large degree, on whether we accelerate our commitment to these areas.
In correspondence with Professor Quinn I asked for authoritative online description of OCAI to share with you and he referred me to the Competing Values Company where you can access much more information.
Of note, the third edition, published by John Wiley, is due for release in Canada on March 9th 2011 and will contain a downloadable online version of the Management Skills Assessment Instrument and the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument.
Also of note, I think we can expect to hear the reference to “the burning platform” a lot more in 2011. It would be appropriate to acknowledge Daryl Conner who coined the phrase following the Piper Alpha explosion to articulate the notion of choice between certain death (failure) and potential life (hope). He was interviewed recently by Luc Galoppin and described this in his own words “Burning Platform: The Misunderstanding ” (Part 1 here and Part 2 here).
Footnotes:
(1) “Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture”, Kim S. Cameron and Roger E. Quinn, John Wiley & Sons, 2006, USA.
(2)“Nokia CEO Says Company Is Standing on a “Burning Platform”, Mashable, Feb 9, 2011.
Other related posts:
- Strategic Success in 2020 requires new contracts with employees
- Is your brand promise on the change train?
- The Big Wall: When change is incompatible with organizational culture
Filed under: - Innovation, - Organization Change Management, - People Change Management, - Strategy and Imperatives | Tags: - Innovation, Change Management, LinkedIn, Strategy, Vision
How do you value and leverage deep Subject Matter Expertise ? e.g. retailers building or re-designing an online commerce site rely on web designers’ advice because only they know what works (e.g. what software to use, what ASP services, what usability, how to back it up, privacy standards across different countries, etc). What about challenges that are more complex, more ambiguous? Like Change Management. How do you evaluate and leverage this?
Let’s start by agreeing that there is a difference in Change Management done well and done poorly (usually by rote). How would a Leader assess this specialization? (BTW an uncensored relationship between the Sponsor and the Change Management Subject Matter Expert (CM SME) is critical – any CM SME who doesn’t require it will not push hard enough to optimize results.) continue reading here
Filed under: - Innovation, - Organization Change Management, - Professional Development, - Strategy and Imperatives | Tags: - Innovation, Leadership, LinkedIn, Strategy, Vision
My vote goes to “Integrative Thinking” attributed to Roger Martin:
“The ability to face constructively the tension of opposing ideas and,
instead of choosing one at the expense of the other,
generate a creative resolution of the tension in the form of a new idea
that contains elements of the opposing ideas but is superior to each.” (1)
How will this play into our ability to innovate and evolve our organizations? How do we balance execution of individual initiatives and Business As Usual (BAU) and developing a more Nimble Organization? More from Daryl Conner in his post this week “Constrained or Nimble” here (http://changethinking.net/nimble-organizations/constrained-or-nimble-name-your-organization#more-1246) and in his book “Leading at the Edge of Chaos (2)”.
What would an example look like in real life? “Strategy for Success in Afghanistan : One Tribe at a Time” (special thanks to Luc Galoppin) here http://tinyurl.com/39m2alo. More from Luc on his blog here (http://www.reply-mc.com/).
(1) “The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders win through Integrative Thinking”, Roger Martin, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, 2007.
(2) “Leading at the Edge of Chaos: How to Create the Nimble Organization”, Daryl R. Conner, John Wiley and Sons Inc, Canada, 1998.
Filed under: - Innovation, - Marketing, - Organization Change Management, - People Change Management, - Project Management | Tags: Change Management, Culture, LinkedIn, Planning, Projects, ROI, Transformation, Vision
Is your Brand Promise important to you? (Huh?) Is it important to preserve a stellar customer experience during change?
As you make changes throughout your organization do you mindfully consider the impact on Brand Promise? On the culture that supports it? Many organizations take this for granted.
Do you tolerate or build (gasp!) changes that compromise the Brand Promise? continue reading here
Filed under: - Innovation, - Strategy and Imperatives | Tags: - Innovation, Burning Platform, Leadership, LinkedIn, Planning, Strategy, Transformation, Vision
Please do read this blog post “Rethink, Reimagine, Reset” – Idris Mootee, CEO of Idea Couture, is the author of four books, tens of published articles, and a frequent speaker at business conferences and executive retreats. His post challenges us to think harder about leveraging existing technology to improve the world around us.
My response? Here we go:
Agree completely – vehemently. I hear a call to action to leaders to THINK HARDER – good intentions are no substitute for good work. And nothing less than great strategy and great execution will preserve our standard of living. Shake ups are required – paradigm shifts.
Not convinced? Peer into the future by considering the trends described here :
“For the first time since Bloomberg BusinessWeek began its annual Most Innovative Companies ranking in 2005, the majority of corporations in the Top 25 are based outside the U.S.”.
And, by the way, expand your horizon beyond the US to the North America continent – there are ripple effects.
It is not clear that technology innovation alone will compensate for the gross growth we are losing however there is likely no single silver bullet – we need to think in terms of ‘and’ not ‘or’.
I particularly embrace Mootee’s call to action:
We don’t even need to look into the future, just look around us, there are plenty of technologies that allow us to change the world. We just need more design thinking and imagination.
This reminds me of one of my favorite affirmations – a quote from Teddy Roosevelt:
“Do what you can, where you are, with what you have!”
This is the start – the thin edge of the wedge. Critical to creating traction for change.
Next? We can ignore the change that is evidencing itself around us (and by all accounts we do this very successfully) but until we acknowledge that fundamental shifts in our economies are occurring we cannot begin to change the trends.
Filed under: - Organization Change Management, - People Change Management | Tags: Change Management, LinkedIn, Organization Design, Planning, Projects, Vision
Question posted on LI by Rick Maurer, author and consultant. My answer, skewed towards realization of change:
1. The Business Case for CM. Wait, hear me out.
Firstly, we speak in our own language using words that look familiar to the average business person but often mean different, very specific, things to us (e.g. ‘adoption’, ‘resistance’ even ‘communication’).
Secondly, there seems to be a chasm between those in business who ‘get it’ vs those who don’t – and our use of language only impedes the discussion. At the risk of generalizing, those who focus on ROI or installation (often Project Managers and Operational Leaders) who have ‘grown up’ in chain of command cultures strongly believe that people will do as they are told, believe that once they understand they will convert. And therefore these Project Leaders see no need for additional capabilities. Any failures or short falls are attributed to insubordinance or ignorance – those problem people are fired and more compliant people hired. Enough of such failures (and their substantial costs) and these Project Leaders might begin to wonder if there might be other ways.
So, to your question, IMHO the first thing that is missing is the “Brief”, the Executive Summary of the compelling business case for Change Management – in the audience’s language, in their context. And, by the way, surveys will not get us there. Project Managers and Operational Leaders want some hard facts – the good news is once they ‘get it’ they often become enthusiasts.
2. An holistic approach
There are many, multi-disciplinary, capabilities required in executing transformational change including:
- Leadership and Strategic Planning (e.g. Vision)
- Strategic Marketing, Organization Design and Development (e.g. Culture and Capability), Business Process Re-engineering, Technology Implementation
- People Change Management (PCM), Training and Communications
- Project Design and Management
Again IMHO, Change Management is not actually any single one of these: ‘change’ only happens effectively and efficiently when these are ALL appropriately optimized. Perhaps worth adding, I see a differentiation between Organizational Change Management (OCM) and Project Change Management (PCM) (more here)- different competencies that must be aligned. Further, there are too many practitioners promoting their own area of experience, e.g. leadership training, as it if alone is the silver bullet.
A broader and deeper CM “map” is required – and unless and until we get good at 1 and 2 the perception of our value add will continue to be misunderstood and underestimated, as well as under-deployed and mis-applied. Of the few good resources I have found recently include “Change the way you lead Change” and “Switch” (“Switch” because the authors demonstrate rather than explain) (full info and other resources are shared here). Of the practitioners who ‘get it’, in business terms, and publish their leading thoughts, in ‘business’ terms, it is worth noting Luc Galoppin. Eager to hear if others have found great resources.
3. Accreditation
Establishing a qualified CM resource in a Program goes a long way towards getting the benefits of CM. The problem is how do you find one or know him / her when you see them?
There are degrees and certifications for almost every profession (MBAs, diplomas, designations) and professional bodies for almost every discipline. Yet how would a buyer begin to evaluate a legitimate, qualified and experienced Change Management professional? Yes, one can compile a list of OD, HR, PM, etc qualifications and bundle them but this is inadequate. So much of the work we do today is based on ‘good judgement’ – this is (my new favourite acronym) TBU (true but useless). I understand that there is a fledging effort underway here http://www.acmp.info
