Friday, June 19, 2015

Organizational Transformation - Total Systemwide Cultural Transformation of Your Organization

Organizational Transformation
Total Systemwide Cultural Transformation of Your Organization


Ref: http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/change_leading.html


MegaChange – a New Capability-based Approach
MegaChange3 is a total systemwide cultural transformation of your organization. It means designing and transforming organizations based on assumptions of human capability rather than limitations using the tools of the modern resource-based management model.
Entrepreneurial Leadership of Transformational Change
 
One of the most striking attributes of leaders of successful transformational change efforts is their entrepreneurial spirit and behavior. These individuals think and act like heads of their own businesses and are able to inspire and direct others to act in the same manner.  Entrepreneurial leaders are part visionary, part role model for the new values and behaviors and part crusader. They frequently emerge from lower levels of the organization, from the business, or from other organizations.
Entrepreneurial Leader: 4 Attributes
Systems Thinking
Understanding Interactions between Parts
You should master systems thinking if you wish to  succeed in your extremely challenging organizational transformation effort. Systems thinking "focuses on the whole, not the parts, of a complex system. It concentrates on the interfaces and boundaries of components, on their connections and arrangement, on the potential for holistic systems to achieve results that are greater than the sum of the parts. Mastering systems thinking means overcoming the major obstacles to building the process-managed enterprise – for every business process is a whole system."2... More
Ask Searching Questions
Don't ask one or two questions and then rush straight towards a solution. With an incomplete understanding of the problem it is very easy to jump to wrong conclusions.
Ask open-ended questions that elicit a wide rage of answers:
  • 'Why' questions  to discover the roots of the problem
  • 'How' questions to discover different routes to significant improvement (see an example)
 Case in Point  GE1
Today, GE succeeds in dozens of diverse businesses, and is continuously at the vanguard of change. Some years ago however, in locations throughout GE, local managers were operating in an insulated environment with walls separating them, both horizontally and vertically, from other departments and their workforce. Employee questions, initiatives, and feedback were discouraged.
Determined to harness the collective power of GE employees, create a free flow of ideas, and redefine relationships between boss and subordinates, Jack Welch, CEO, General Electric, created a new corporate culture. It's key elements are:
  • Redesigning the role of the leader in the new economy: creating followers through communicating a vision, and establishing open, caring relations with every employee
  • C
reating an open, collaborative workplace where everyone's opinion is welcome
  • Empowering senior executives to run far-flung businesses in entrepreneurial fashion
     
  • Liberating the workforce; making everybody a participant through improving vertical communication and employee empowerment... More
  • 25 Lessons from Jack Welch
     Case in Point  British Petroleum (BP)
    When John Browne became head of BP Exploration he was determined to transform the company from underperforming bureaucracy to global leader. Although BP was successful, the world was changing, and the business had to become more adaptive to keep pace with new rapidly changing economy.
    To enhance organizational capability, BP reduced or removed central functions, and business units were empowered to chose their own routes to implement changes. BP's organizational structure has evolved significantly towards an entrepreneurial, empowered "federation" of 100 business units. A flat organization was established. The number of management levels was reduced from 13 to 5.
    The Browne's strategy for BP included:
    1. Entrepreneurial design driven by consistent decentralization
    2. Single common strategy
    3. A knowledge network of peers across the business units.
    As a start of creating more value, both internally and externally, Browne opened up the organization, decentralized it, established information sharing and knowledge management  networks and developed an action plan for competitive corporate learning. To find a natural equilibrium between creative chaos and order and free the energy in BP, Browne moved the organization to the situation that was at the edge of chaos. He created room different thinking. The company adopted new business thinking and a new relationship to its business ecosystem. New approaches to developments, new working relationships with contractors and new alliances have been adopted. Browne's strategy included also process improvement, major outsourcing, and asset sales. Most importantly, it included total changes in BP corporate culture.
    As a result of corporate transformation, BP increased the value of its share price by a factor greater than 10 in a period when other companies were seeing marginal improvements in their share prices. The overall benefit of company-wide transformation was measured in billions of dollars.3

    MegaChange: Key Features3
    Total Systemwide Cultural Transformation of Your Organization
    • Capability focused: MegaChange is based upon assumptions of human and organizational capabilities rather than limitations.
    • Transformation: MegaChange is not a mere transition, it is cultural transformation of your organization.
    • Systemwide: MegaChange is not piecemeal, it is systemwide
    • Concepts, actions, and tools: MegaChange is produced using and integrated set of concepts, actions, and tools, not just tools without concepts.
    • Empowering: MegaChange affects everyone in the organization. It results in a joint optimization of organizational and individual performance, capability and satisfaction.
    • Cultural: MegaChange results in in new and changed ways of thinking, acting, and cooperating.
    • Theory for practice: MegaChange is not a theory or practice
    • Reformation: MegaChange is not about restructuring or reengineering, it is about reformation. It reforms structural concepts, actions, and tools necessary for creating organizations that achieve extraordinary levels of productivity and satisfaction by engaging human capability rather than denying it.

    Managerial LeadershipJack Welch - case studyDevelop a VisionGE Values GuideEliminate BureacracyEmployee EmpowermentEfficiency ImprovementEliminate BoundariesGE - case study25 Lessons from Jack Welch

    Defining Leadership: 8 Ways to Be a Great Leader

    Defining Leadership: 8 Ways to Be a Great Leader

    Leadership: Why Alpha Is Over and Beta Is Better

    Leadership: Why Alpha Is Over and Beta Is Better

    By

    What do Amazon, Zappos and Timberland have in common besides about a billion pairs of shoes? They're all "beta" businesses— that is, businesses that follow their own unique paths and organize themselves along nontraditional lines.
    These aren't the hierarchically structured, cutthroat corporations of centuries past, not by a long shot. Beta businesses— a term coined by entrepreneur and "Corporate Anthropologist" Dana Ardi in her new book, "The Fall of the Alphas: The New Beta Way to Connect, Collaborate, Influence— and Lead" (St. Martin's Press, October 2013) — thrive on shared leadership, open communication and employee collaboration.
    Take, for example, Zappos' "core value" of building relationships through open and honest communication. That's not just a nice sentiment, it's company policy. Or consider Timberland's "Path of Service," a corporate policy that encourages employees to perform community service by paying them for it.
    In an email interview with BusinessNewsDaily, Ardi explains how such policies and corporate structures represent the beta way of doing business and why this departure from the norm will usher in a more efficient corporate age.
    BusinessNewsDaily: First of all, can you explain what a “Corporate Anthropologist” is.  Is that an official title or just a way you describe yourself?
    Dana Ardi: I coined the phrase Corporate Anthropology to describe the deep study of organizations— company culture, mores, values, communications, diversity, physical spaces, roles of individuals, and how they organize to accomplish strategic initiatives.
    As a Corporate Anthropologist, I study the cultures of organizations— how they evolve and intersect with what’s happening right now, and how the people in them influence and shape their communities. In my work as a consultant, I believe it is critical to take a larger, 360-degree look at what is happening socially, culturally, globally, digitally, and across generations to best advise organizations.
    BND: What is the catalyst for the fall of the alphas? What has changed to make this happen?
    D.A.: For centuries, the hierarchical style and structures that I call the Alpha paradigm was the only way leaders led, and the only way organizations organized. As I explain in "The Fall of the Alphas," leaders asserted themselves aggressively, competed rather than collaborated, and conquered rather than compromised.  This trickled down to younger generations as the single template of how to be, act, behave, and aspire.
    Organizations were constructed like pyramids with predetermined and narrowly defined steps or rungs leading to the top. The slightest suggestion of a more community-oriented or compassionate approach was seen as “soft,” certainly not sufficient to lead a “tough” organization through “tough” times.
    But everything changed with the dawn of the Informational Age. It was my realization that work in the Information Age is heuristic— it stimulates inquiry, trial and error and is fluid. Creativity, technology, social change and globalization have created the opportunity to rethink how we organize and come together. The new Beta way is all about the way we need to connect, collaborate, and influence to meet the challenges of this information age.
    BND: Is this inherently a good thing or are there drawbacks?
    D.A.: The Beta Model of flatter, more collaborative organizational structures has many advantages. The model fosters teamwork. It allows for more open and transparent communication. It brings new voices to the table for there is more involvement and participation in creating opportunities and problem solving. It leverages the knowledge and intellect of the team.
    Beta companies have disadvantages if poorly implemented. Many leaders feel loss of control. Many employees, if not properly considered and self-motivated, feel role confusion. Coordination and organizational learning must occur or there will be confusion. Beta organizational principles are not suitable for all activities but collaboration and open communication is still a Beta cultural imperative. Beta organizations must evolve. Their success relies on self-awareness and personal responsibility.
    BND: Will the new world of work be more efficient, without Alphas to lead the way?
    D.A.: The new world of work will most definitely be more efficient. Technological advances will enable collaboration and data models will enhance decision-making. Beta organizations will still have strong leaders who are emotionally intelligent, self-aware and capable of bringing out the best in their colleagues.  Beta organizations will recruit and deploy teams of diverse skill sets. Companies can no longer live in a single private bubble. No single Alpha, no single leader can possibly guide a complex, constantly evolving networked organization. In "The Fall of the Alphas," I show that the Beta model becomes more efficient for it enables the leader to bring out the best from team members and guide their talents rather than command and control.
    BND: What will work look like in 10 years? How will it be different?
    D.A.: The nature of work is evolving. In the next decade the baby boomers will retire and the millennials will take over. For this generation traditional roles are “in play." These Information Age workers grew up texting, pinging and yelping. Their common language teems with e-pinions, tweets, pins, shares and viral forwards.  They work and think in groups. In contrast to the Alpha era where work was algorithmic and incremental, where experience mattered more than anything else, work for the millennials will be fluid and heuristic. Heuristic work stimulates inquiry typically by trial and error and discovery.
    That is why understanding “The Fall of the Alphas” is essential for forward-looking businesses. Enterprises will be global and technology will continue to provide tools for collaboration and connectivity. Robotics will take over manual tasks. Knowledge workers and the craftsman economy will thrive. Companies will have small cores of high impact teams that take on strategic initiatives. These teams will represent diversity of thought and knowledge.
    Companies will be a connected ecosystem of other organizations that will partner with them and collaborate on many fronts. The new Beta leaders will be leading and following depending on the role they play. Strategic alliance and strategic investments will replace acquisitions. Companies will be defined by their cultures. Innovation will be a key driver. Organizations will be more reflective and self- aware and organizational structure and definitions of leadership will continue to evolve.
    Originally published on BusinessNewsDaily.

    Ref: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5103-share-leadership-theory.html
    Elizabeth Palermo: Elizabeth writes about innovative technologies and business trends. She has traveled throughout the Americas in her roles as student, English teacher, Spanish language interpreter and freelance writer. She graduated with a B.A. in International Affairs from the George Washington University. You can follow her on Twitter @techEpalermo or .

    7 Steps to Ethical Leadership

    7 Steps to Ethical Leadership


    The key to having an ethically run company is employing morally upstanding leaders, a new book suggests.
    In her new book "7 Lenses: Learning the Principles and Practices of Ethical Leadership (Leading in Context, 2013)," author Linda Fisher Thornton says getting employees to act ethically in the workplace starts at the top.
    "It begins with ethical leadership," Thornton said. "Ethical leaders have a tremendous impact on how people in their organizations behave and what they achieve."
    Thornton believes that those who succeed in leading ethically not only improve their business and culture, but also help make a difference in the world.
    "Effective leaders focus on what’s right and exemplify to their people that they are there to help, and not to exploit the vulnerabilities of others," she said. "Their organizations typically respond to their example and their desire to serve others and make a positive difference."
    In her book, Thornton offers practical advice on the most important actions leaders can take to integrate ethical conduct into their organizations, including:
    • Face the complexity involved in making ethical choices: Openly discuss the ethical gray areas and acknowledge the complexity of work life. Involve others in more of the ethical decisions. Be a leader who talks about the difficult ethical choices, and help others learn to take responsibility for making ethical decisions carefully.
    • Don't separate ethics from day-to-day business: Leaders must make it clear to their employees that ethics is "the way we operate" and not a training program or reference manual. Every activity, whether it is a training program, a client meeting or an important top management strategy session, should include conversations about ethics.
    • Don't allow negative interpersonal behaviors to erode trust: Make respect a load-bearing beam in your culture. Be an ethical leader who expects it and practices it. Cultivate a respectful environment in which people can speak up about ethics and share the responsibility for living it. Build trust, demand open communication and share the ownership of organizational values.
    • Don't think about ethics as just following laws and regulations: Leaders need to take action and show consumers and other stakeholders that they are actively engaged with ethical issues that matter. Recognize how ethics influences consumers' reasons to buy from you, and demonstrate a commitment to go beyond mere compliance with laws and regulations. They must prove that they are committed to ethical issues, including human rights, social justice and sustainability.
    • Don't exempt anyone from meeting ethical expectations: Allow no excuses. Make sure that no one is exempted from meeting the ethical standards that are adopted. Maintain the status of ethics as a total, absolute, "must do" in the organization. Hold everyone, particularly senior leaders and high profile managers, accountable. No exceptions.
    • Celebrate positive ethical moments: Be a proactive ethical leader, championing high ethical conduct and emphasizing prevention. Managers should talk about what positive ethics looks like in practice as often as they talk about what to avoid. Take time to celebrate positive ethical choices.
    • Talk about ethics as an ongoing learning journey, not a once-a-year training program: Integrate ethics into every action of the organization — everything people do, touch or influence. Talk about ethics as an ongoing learning journey, not something you have or don't have. Recognize that the world changes constantly, and that ethical conduct requires that everyone remain vigilant.
    Ref: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5537-how-to-be-ethical-leader.html

    A former bank senior vice resident and chief learning officer, Thornton runs her own leadership consulting practice and teaches as an adjunct assistant professor for the University of Richmond School of Professional and Continuing Studies.
    Originally published on BusinessNewsDaily.

    Chad Brooks: Chad Brooks is a Chicago-based freelance writer who has nearly 15 years experience in the media business. A graduate of Indiana University, he spent nearly a decade as a staff reporter for the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago, covering a wide array of topics including, local and state government, crime, the legal system and education. Following his years at the newspaper Chad worked in public relations, helping promote small businesses throughout the U.S. Follow him on Twitter.