Change Catalyst Group

One Description of Healthy Organizations

2012-12-05T15:08:07-08:00

December 5, 2012

I just finished reading an article in the latest McKinsey Quarterly called
"Leadership and the Art of Plate Spinning." It contained the best description
of the attributes that make for successful organizations that I have read in
a while. The author of the article, Colin Price, also co-authored the book
Beyond Performance: How Great Organizations Build Ultimate Competitive
Advantage. The book included ten years of data from more than 700
organizations.

Here is a quote from the article that really made sense to me: "our research
shows that the most successful organizations, over the long term, consistently
focus on 'enabling' things (leadership, purpose, employee motivation) whose
immediate benefits aren't always clear. These healthy organizations, as we
call them, are internally aligned around a clear vision and strategy; can execute
to a high quality thanks to strong capabilities, management processes, and
employee motivation; and renew themselves more effectively than their rivals
do. In short, health today drives performance tomorrow."

Of course, there is much more to the article especially with regard to the
paradoxes of organizational life. Below is the link to the entire article, as
well as the book mentioned above.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Leadership_and_the_art_of_plate_spinning_3037

Source

Colin Price, Leadership and the Art of Plate Spinning, McKinsey Quarterly, November 2012.

Working With People is Messy

2012-09-28T12:53:05-07:00

September 28, 2012

The MIT Sloan Management Review has described well the managerial issues
that I see with clients. Dealing with people is complex and requires critical
thinking skills more than following formulas or models. Learning how to better
deal with people side of business is one of the reasons I studied Organizational
Management in graduate school instead of getting an MBA. Please share your
thoughts with me on the article below.

"In a period of rapid technological and business change, successful executives
particularly need the ability to think critically—and to be aware that some of
their most cherished assumptions may at any point be challenged or invalidated
by changing events. Consider, for example, how many financiers’ optimistic
assumptions about the markets for securitized subprime mortgage assets
were challenged by the meltdown of those markets and the financial crisis
in 2008.

Today’s executives need to be able to address complex, messy problems.
As the late organizational scholar Russell L. Ackoff once put it, “Managers
don’t solve simple, isolated problems; they manage messes.” Ackoff was
also instrumental in defining the nature of such messes. According to him,
a mess is a system of constantly changing, highly interconnected problems,
none of which is independent of the other problems that constitute the entire
mess. As a result, no problem that is part of a mess can be defined and solved
independently of the other problems. Accordingly, the ability to manage messes
requires the ability to think and to manage systemically; this in turn requires
that one understand systems thinking.

In organizations, successfully addressing complex, messy problems also
requires constructive conflict and structured debate with others to help test
one’s assumptions— and help ensure that one is not solving the wrong
problem. Many business schools excel at teaching young managers
well-structured models, theories and frameworks. But we believe that
business schools should spend more time helping their students surface,
debate and test the assumptions underlying each model, theory or
framework they are learning about. In this way, by developing students’
critical thinking skills, universities would prepare young business leaders
to succeed in a messy, uncertain world."

Source

Ian I. Mitroff, Can M. Alpaslan and Richard O. Mason, The Messy Business
of Management, MIT Sloan Management Review, September 18, 2012.

Arizona Ranks Second for Installed Solar

2012-09-11T10:21:34-07:00

September 11, 2012

I saw this information published in Bloomberg, as well as the U.S. Solar Market

Insight Report, Q2 2012, an executive summary developed by GTM Research
and SEIA. The U.S. solar market continues to progress with Arizona second in
in the country for installed solar.

"U.S. solar-panel installations more than doubled in the second quarter from
a year earlier led by demand in California, according to the Solar Energy
Industries Association. Installations totaled 742 megawatts in the quarter,
up 45 percent since the first quarter, and may reach 3.2 gigawatts by year
end, the Washington-based trade group said today in its quarterly market
report. California led installations with 217 megawatts, followed by Arizona
with 173 megawatts. The U.S. now has 5.7 gigawatts of installed solar capacity,
enough to power 1 million homes, according to GTM Research, a Boston-based
consulting company that prepared the report with SEIA."

Personal Attacks: Do Not Allow Them

2012-09-05T14:00:18-07:00

September 5, 2012

I found this great post called "How Not to Lead Through Conflict" by Linda Fisher Thornton.
She regularly develops the Leading in Context® publications. I selected this one part of her
post on personal attacks because it is such a common issue in many organizations that does
considerable harm to engagement and integrity.

"Mark Gerzon, in his book, Leading Through Conflict, says that 'In many settings, debate is
disintegrating into little more than verbal brawling in coats and ties.' This kind of conflict is
damaging to companies. It leads to a toxic workplace, where it is hard to get work done and
employees do not feel safe.

What can happen when we allow employees to personally attack each other? When we allow
personal attacks, we are also allowing disrespect. When we allow disrespect, we send a
message that 'anything goes' in making a point. When we send the message that 'anything
goes in making a point' aren’t we encouraging unethical behavior? How much of a stretch is
it from verbally attacking a coworker to other unethical interpersonal behaviors like bullying?"

Tell me what you see in your own organizations and team meetings.