Sometime last year, Steve Balmer (CEO, Microsoft) was in Europe to negotiate a settlement of the anti-trust suit brought on by the Europeans on Microsoft. This was just after a prolonged battle between Microsoft and the US government over the same issue.
The legend says that, on the night of one of the most difficult days in the negotiation, Balmer received an urgent email from a group of his programmers demanding his quick action. The urgent issue : Microsoft's recently made public stand on its refusal to support a pro-gay legislation back home. Balmer then spent the whole night going through the issue. By the next morning, he has back-tracked his earlier decision after long-distance communication with his programmers.
This, for me, is beginning of the most powerful new global trend in which the Corporation will no longer be blind to the issues in the society. Corporations will make choices on what they support and what they do not. Their influence will grow in areas of legislation and they will increasingly flex their muscles in areas where traditionally the politicians held sway.
The influence of Corporations in playing back room politics is not new. They have been accused of even starting wars. However, by their sheer size and influence and the fact that Corporations will be increasingly manned by knowledge workers, it is inevitable that the issues of the community will be as actively debated in the board-room as the development of a new product.
The separation of Church and State will not be the issue in the coming years. The issue will be how much will we allow Corporations to be the vanguard of a new civic society?
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Monday, October 23, 2006
The Trust Factor
John O. Whitney in his 1996 book, The Economics of Trust (Originally published as the Trust Factor in 1994) asks the following question:
" If everyone in your organization knew what to do; why he was doing it--
what would the organization chart look like?
If everyone desired to do his job correctly, on time, and could be trusted
to act with integrity in support of the firm's aims and goals, what would
your organizational processes and control systems be like?"
To answer his own question, he proceeds to put forward the hypothesis (which I paraphrase here) that like the concept of 'original sin', the entire management philosophy as we know it today is based on the presupposition that people are inherently untrustworthy and they can't be relied on to do the right thing. To ensure the check and balance is in place at all times, organizations have developed a complicated hierarchial system whereby each level in the system presupposes the one above or below it self will 'screw up' at the first opportunity.
Of course, I am putting it crudely here but that is about sums it all up.
I must admit that when I first read Whitney's ideas almost a year ago, it caught me by surprise. I felt that he has been able to explore the fundamental psychology on why organizations do what they do and why employees behave the way they do.
Maybe because this idea has been germinating in the recesses of my mind, it seems that for the past 1 year I have been 'picking-up' instances where I can trace the root-cause of a management/people issue back to a lack of trust in the parties involved. And, as Whitney has pointed out in his book, this lack of trust has a financial cost to it. Surprised? Consider this : How many signatures must a leave application carry in your organization? How many approvals for a purchase agreement? How many layers of decision making to decide on a new office mineral water supplier? You get the picture?
Anyway, the Foreword for Economics of Trust was written by no less than W.Edwards Deming himself. He writes:
" We have reached the limits of the capability of our current philosophy
and resulting methods of management....We can emerge from this prison
only through knowledge that is not part of the present system".
There it is. Its time to re-think, re-create and re-mind ourselves with new knowledge paradigms. As is often quoted : Yesterday's Solutions Can't Solve Today's Problems!
The next time you make a management decision, maybe you should consider the Trust Factor.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Leaders, Leading and Leadership
Jay Conger in his foreword for Leaders Talk Leadership (Ashby, M.D & Miles, S.A; Oxford University Press, 2002) said that " One of the hallmarks of effective leadership in this century will be the capacity to learn and adapt quickly. Years of experience will no longer be enough and, in some cases, may prove a hindrance. The shelf life of knowledge today is simply too short. Instead, a winning characteristic of the new generation of leaders will be its commitment to personal learning and the ability to generate a 'buzz' about learning throughout their organizations. The photographer Walker Evans's advice to novice photographers - " stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop" - will prove sound counsel for today's business leaders"
As far as I am concerned, I see two major lines of thought here from Jay Conger. First, the quality needed in today's leaders is the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn AND ensure the whole organization does this. Second, leaders need to get they hands dirty. Revolutionary thoughts? No. Well accepted? Yes. Practised? Hardly.
I have always and still do find it difficult to accept a CEO or a GM's request to meet his 'Training Manager' or his 'HR Manager' to talk about training and development related matters. I agree that the training manager cum HR manager (as often is the case) do play a critical role in T&D. However, to relinquish the entire responsibility to these two individuals is tantamount to putting in place a road-map for the eventual failure of the organization's T&D initiatives. The reason is simple. Today, the CEO/Chairman/President IS the business. The organization is there to achieve HIS objectives vis a vis the people and resources. Even in a GLC which many people assume wrongly to be a shadow play of the government, a CEO is still the life-blood that will decide the success or failure of its strategies. In other words, the final say (and responsibility for) everything that happens in an organization should lie with its highest decision makers. That includes training and development. These key decision makers must take the time to get involved in determining the T&D needs of the organization. Better still, they must be (once in a while) part of training programs even though the program is for lower level employees. I was pleasantly surprised to facilitate a module in the Bullet Proof Manager program (which is a 12-month long program) for a company whereby the General Manager was also part of the program together with other mid-level managers. This GM, let me add, does not lack in knowledge yet he found the time to be there. I hope there will be more like him or at least there will be more who will at least take the time to bounce their ideas with trainers and learning partners like me.
No matter how big or small an organization is, I believe that T&D is far too important to become the sole domain of the training/HR manager.
In the final analyses, the people are trained and developed to achieve some salient objectives and these objectives will in the end be about the bottom-line. Hence, shouldn't the highest decision makers be actively involved in such an important task?
Saturday, October 14, 2006
What Success Means
On Thursday, I was with a group of managers and entrepreneurs with whom I shared some ideas on how to build a success foundation that their employees can own and strive for. The first idea that I shared with them is the fact that we all have a personal definition of what success is and most of the time , a manager's definition of what success is entirely different from that of a subordinate simply because a manager's scope of factors in determining success is inevitably larger than his subordinate's. Let me explain.
In a project management scenario, a manager's performance will be judged as a success or otherwise based on factors like cost control, on-time delivery, resource management, overall people management, creative new ideas produced, etc. On the other hand, his subordinate in the team who is responsible for keeping accounts will be judged only on how well she has balanced the account. She need not worry about anything else. You get the picture? So is it fair o expect the individual team members to have the same definition of what success should be? I suppose not at t least not until the manager has managed to create an ownership for his definition of what the team success should be by the team members.
Hence, the concept of what success may be basic but not universally understood or agreed upon. The solution to this apparent dichotomy is simple : Ensure that the team believes in a collective definition of success whereby each and every one of them will be held responsible for the 'SUCCESS' as a whole rather than to only a few tiny facets of it.
In a project management scenario, a manager's performance will be judged as a success or otherwise based on factors like cost control, on-time delivery, resource management, overall people management, creative new ideas produced, etc. On the other hand, his subordinate in the team who is responsible for keeping accounts will be judged only on how well she has balanced the account. She need not worry about anything else. You get the picture? So is it fair o expect the individual team members to have the same definition of what success should be? I suppose not at t least not until the manager has managed to create an ownership for his definition of what the team success should be by the team members.
Hence, the concept of what success may be basic but not universally understood or agreed upon. The solution to this apparent dichotomy is simple : Ensure that the team believes in a collective definition of success whereby each and every one of them will be held responsible for the 'SUCCESS' as a whole rather than to only a few tiny facets of it.
In doing so, I would also suggest to managers, as I did on Thursday, never to underestimate the 'good-old-values' like honesty, trust and fairness. I believe that in our rush to acquire more and more of the latest management skills, knowledge and tools; we have forgotten the power and energy behind such values like honesty and trust. I would suggest to managers not to feel old-fashioned when speaking about these values as without them no success is complete.
I am going to meet a group of managers of a private higher education on Monday to discuss about their Change Management project...I will talk about these values. I strongly believe that success without these values is empty no matter how we define it!
Saturday, October 07, 2006
ACTION - OD
The following will be part of a book that I am currently working on.
The ACTION Organizational Development Tool (ACTION-OD) is the culmination of our involvement in consulting and in designing and delivering corporate development programs for Malaysian and international corporations. Through or dialogues we have identified a myriad of requests, needs, worries, complaints and concerns. Some often give us the impression that they are more inclined towards depending on technology to solve their organizational problems while others point to weaknesses either at the management level or at the employee level. Some blame external factors. The commonality between all these voices is that organizational issues are compartmentalized. Compartmentalization of organizational issues refer to the notion that like a production line, problems and defects can be identified and corrected at one single clearly defined point. This may be true in a manufacturing production line but never in situations where human input, feedback and performance are involved. In other words, organizational performance is a single unit of ‘organism’ whereby defects in one part affect the entire organism. Identifying and curing a symptom will not cure the disease. Developing and implementing disjointed measures and strategies are a surefire way of getting deeper into problems. What organizations and business leaders need is a Management Model cum Managing Tool which will help them to create a road-map for organizational excellence and high performance and sticking to that road map.
Hence, to address any issue in an organizational setting, there must be a willingness to look at a much bigger and wider context. In trying to conceptualize this understanding, we had to face one critical task. We had to identify a model within which a clearly defined paradigm can emerge and with which we can create a tool to understand and consequently address issues related to organizational performance. At another level, we also wanted a framework that can be applied to diverse contexts without simplifying the issues at hand. Thus began our search for a model that can help organizations manage the complexities related to performance which can also be applied to understand and improve individual performance. The final challenge for us in developing the ACTION – OD is creating a model/tool that Malaysian organizations, business leaders, entrepreneurs and managers can empathize with without getting lost in a maze of management fads, buzz-words and ‘same-wine in different bottle’ solutions.
The ACTION – OD tool is made up of a cascading paradigm that takes an organization towards the exact behaviors that it needs to improve performance and productivity. ACTION – OD begins by identifying the 4 Drivers for organizational peak performance (Knowledge Edge, Leadership Orientation, Change Adaptability and Customer Literacy) which produces 4 Characteristics (Innovativeness, Commitment, Fluidity and Passion) which in results in 4 Behaviors ( Utilization of Knowledge, Empowerment of Human Capital, Internalization of Change and Delighting of Customers). This 4-4-4 cascading paradigm is supported by a 6-step methodology that will assist the organization in identifying, developing, instituting and measuring management/business strategies for peak performance.
We began the development of ACTION – OD by understanding the organizations that we worked with and others which we observed. The most outstanding element of successful organizations that we have been involved with whether directly or indirectly is that they are so focused on knowledge. We can say that they are driven by the acquisition, dissemination and utilization of knowledge at every level of their business performance. In some organizations, this has become much like a second nature to them, they don’t even realize it. Individual employees in such an organization seem to reflect a characteristics unique to such organizations, i.e innovativeness. These organizations and their individual employees are bale to innovatively re-focus all their effort and energy to seek knowledge and to use each acquired knowledge to add value to products, services, work and life in general. These knowledge driven organizations are constantly adapting and adopting new and innovative ways to acquire and utilize knowledge. Although most of their knowledge seeking are utilitarirsn in nature, there also seems to be genuine respect of and appreciation for knowledge.
The next element that we have identified in successful and progressive organizations is their orientation towards leadership. Leadership is defined as being more than merely ‘leading’. It also encompasses ‘nurturing’ and ‘developing’. Such organizations are constantly nurturing and developing leaders ate every level of their business process. We were pleasantly surprised to note that leadership in type of organizations is not tied to any position or title. Everyone is a leader. Everyone is leading, nurturing and developing either an idea, a person, a product or a service. Leadership in these organizations is
viewed as a function of an individual/person rather than as a function of a title or position in the organizational hierarchy .
The characteristic that seems to be most outstanding in these organizations is the commitment towards nurturing and developing leadership. This organizational commitment is reflected by the individual employee’s commitment towards identifying and nurturing self-leadership in every aspect of life and to believe that this critical to personal success.
Being knowledge driven and committed towards leadership inevitably prepares these organizations to manage planned and un-planned internal and external changes. We refer to this element as change adaptability. Change is said to be the only constant and many organizations do believe this. However, they seldom prepare themselves to manage change. In the last few years we have seen the successes enjoyed by organizations which have and are still riding the waves of change and we can also observe the failures endured by those who couldn’t.
The often given reasons for these organizations’ failures are the fast changing technology, the rise of low-cost manufacturing centres and the obsoleteness of previously held competitive edge. What we suspect however is that, although these may indeed be contributing factors that resulted in organizations’gradual decline but the actual cause is their inability to adapt to change. The only element differentiating between successful and failed organizations is the ability to adapt to changes as they are all operating in a fundamentally similar business environment.
The associated characteristic with change adaptability that we have identified is the ability of the organization as a whole and employees at the individual level to identify, institute and welcome change in every aspect of life and to accept this a s continuous process of improvement.
The final but no less important element of successful organizations is their customer literacy. These organizations literally live and die for customers as they know that they can also live and die because of customers. They have tremendous respect and appreciation for their customers. They have extremely high customer care standards and are willing to institute whatever it takes to achieve that standard. These organizations take great pains to understand and involve customers in every stage of their business process. In return they receive and enjoy customer retention and loyalty.
There is only one word to describe these organizations’ intensity of focus on customers : Passion. Hence, we have identified passion as the corresponding characteristic to the element of customer literacy. Customer literacy is reflected in these organizations’ and their employees’ passion to develop others in every aspect of life and to realign life mission and vision to make others (customers) successful.
The core component of the 9 – Box Model for Peak Performance is the ACTION hexagon which will determine whether the four elements of Knowledge Driven, Leadership Orientation, Change Adaptability and Customer Literacy are transformed into results that reflects positively on the performance of the organization and the individual employees. This ACTION hexagon is the actionable component of the 9-box model.
The ACTIOn hexagon comprises of 6 stages in the process of achieving peak performance : Analyze, Create, Transmit, Institute, Orientate and Naturalize. These 6 stages are equally applicable for both and organization and an individual in efforts to achieve peak performance.
To begin the process of achieving peak performance, the organization must first analyze the performance needs. Performance needs refer to the kind of optimum performance enhancing environment that is needed. There is no one single environment that can be applied to all organizations or individuals but there are some general approaches that can be taken to achieve a desirable environment. Most of these approaches are rooted in suitable training and development programs.
Once the need has been analyzed, the next stage involves creating the resources and/or programs needed to begin building that environment. At the same time, a vision and mission of the peak performance desired must also be created. To be effective, this creation of resources, programs, vision and mission must involve all levels of the organization.
In the stage 3, the created resources, programs, vision and mission are then transmitted clearly to the part of the organization that specifically wants to achieve peak performance. At this stage, ample time must be given to receive feedbacks and comments.
Stage 4 involves instituting programs and resources as have been identified in stage 2. The institution of programs and resources must be closely aligned to the vision and mission of peak performance as have already been determined.
In stage 5 orientation takes place. The respective leaders must be ready to orientate the programs, resources and efforts to achieve the desired standard of peak performance. This stage will face challenges in the form of overzealousness or loss of motivation. So, it is vital that the leaders are able to continuously orientate the instituted programs to achieve the desired outcome of peak performance.
Finally, all programs and efforts toward peak performance must be naturalized so as to make it a lasting factor contributing towards organizational success. The naturalization may take a long time as old behaviors need modification and new thought processes must be assimilated.
Thus we propose the 9 Box Model of ACTION to achieve peak performance. We have argued our case on the basis that any program intended to achieve peak performance, including motivation programs, need to view the process of achieving peak performance from a wider perspective. Merely focusing on a limited set of micro skills to be delivered (such as sales related skills) will not bring lasting effects on peak performance. We have to look at peak performance from a perspective of knowledge driven, leadership orientation, change adaptability and customer literacy. These must be viewed from the point of view of the organization. An organization that has internalized these qualities will inevitably develop employees that reflect those qualities which will result in peak performance.
Next we have discussed the actionable component of the 9-Box Model which is the ACTION hexagon. Action outlines the stages that an organization need to address before, during and after a program that is intended to bring about peak performance. By following these stages, the planned program will achieve its intended objectives.
Hence, to address any issue in an organizational setting, there must be a willingness to look at a much bigger and wider context. In trying to conceptualize this understanding, we had to face one critical task. We had to identify a model within which a clearly defined paradigm can emerge and with which we can create a tool to understand and consequently address issues related to organizational performance. At another level, we also wanted a framework that can be applied to diverse contexts without simplifying the issues at hand. Thus began our search for a model that can help organizations manage the complexities related to performance which can also be applied to understand and improve individual performance. The final challenge for us in developing the ACTION – OD is creating a model/tool that Malaysian organizations, business leaders, entrepreneurs and managers can empathize with without getting lost in a maze of management fads, buzz-words and ‘same-wine in different bottle’ solutions.
The ACTION – OD tool is made up of a cascading paradigm that takes an organization towards the exact behaviors that it needs to improve performance and productivity. ACTION – OD begins by identifying the 4 Drivers for organizational peak performance (Knowledge Edge, Leadership Orientation, Change Adaptability and Customer Literacy) which produces 4 Characteristics (Innovativeness, Commitment, Fluidity and Passion) which in results in 4 Behaviors ( Utilization of Knowledge, Empowerment of Human Capital, Internalization of Change and Delighting of Customers). This 4-4-4 cascading paradigm is supported by a 6-step methodology that will assist the organization in identifying, developing, instituting and measuring management/business strategies for peak performance.
We began the development of ACTION – OD by understanding the organizations that we worked with and others which we observed. The most outstanding element of successful organizations that we have been involved with whether directly or indirectly is that they are so focused on knowledge. We can say that they are driven by the acquisition, dissemination and utilization of knowledge at every level of their business performance. In some organizations, this has become much like a second nature to them, they don’t even realize it. Individual employees in such an organization seem to reflect a characteristics unique to such organizations, i.e innovativeness. These organizations and their individual employees are bale to innovatively re-focus all their effort and energy to seek knowledge and to use each acquired knowledge to add value to products, services, work and life in general. These knowledge driven organizations are constantly adapting and adopting new and innovative ways to acquire and utilize knowledge. Although most of their knowledge seeking are utilitarirsn in nature, there also seems to be genuine respect of and appreciation for knowledge.
The next element that we have identified in successful and progressive organizations is their orientation towards leadership. Leadership is defined as being more than merely ‘leading’. It also encompasses ‘nurturing’ and ‘developing’. Such organizations are constantly nurturing and developing leaders ate every level of their business process. We were pleasantly surprised to note that leadership in type of organizations is not tied to any position or title. Everyone is a leader. Everyone is leading, nurturing and developing either an idea, a person, a product or a service. Leadership in these organizations is
viewed as a function of an individual/person rather than as a function of a title or position in the organizational hierarchy .
The characteristic that seems to be most outstanding in these organizations is the commitment towards nurturing and developing leadership. This organizational commitment is reflected by the individual employee’s commitment towards identifying and nurturing self-leadership in every aspect of life and to believe that this critical to personal success.
Being knowledge driven and committed towards leadership inevitably prepares these organizations to manage planned and un-planned internal and external changes. We refer to this element as change adaptability. Change is said to be the only constant and many organizations do believe this. However, they seldom prepare themselves to manage change. In the last few years we have seen the successes enjoyed by organizations which have and are still riding the waves of change and we can also observe the failures endured by those who couldn’t.
The often given reasons for these organizations’ failures are the fast changing technology, the rise of low-cost manufacturing centres and the obsoleteness of previously held competitive edge. What we suspect however is that, although these may indeed be contributing factors that resulted in organizations’gradual decline but the actual cause is their inability to adapt to change. The only element differentiating between successful and failed organizations is the ability to adapt to changes as they are all operating in a fundamentally similar business environment.
The associated characteristic with change adaptability that we have identified is the ability of the organization as a whole and employees at the individual level to identify, institute and welcome change in every aspect of life and to accept this a s continuous process of improvement.
The final but no less important element of successful organizations is their customer literacy. These organizations literally live and die for customers as they know that they can also live and die because of customers. They have tremendous respect and appreciation for their customers. They have extremely high customer care standards and are willing to institute whatever it takes to achieve that standard. These organizations take great pains to understand and involve customers in every stage of their business process. In return they receive and enjoy customer retention and loyalty.
There is only one word to describe these organizations’ intensity of focus on customers : Passion. Hence, we have identified passion as the corresponding characteristic to the element of customer literacy. Customer literacy is reflected in these organizations’ and their employees’ passion to develop others in every aspect of life and to realign life mission and vision to make others (customers) successful.
The core component of the 9 – Box Model for Peak Performance is the ACTION hexagon which will determine whether the four elements of Knowledge Driven, Leadership Orientation, Change Adaptability and Customer Literacy are transformed into results that reflects positively on the performance of the organization and the individual employees. This ACTION hexagon is the actionable component of the 9-box model.
The ACTIOn hexagon comprises of 6 stages in the process of achieving peak performance : Analyze, Create, Transmit, Institute, Orientate and Naturalize. These 6 stages are equally applicable for both and organization and an individual in efforts to achieve peak performance.
To begin the process of achieving peak performance, the organization must first analyze the performance needs. Performance needs refer to the kind of optimum performance enhancing environment that is needed. There is no one single environment that can be applied to all organizations or individuals but there are some general approaches that can be taken to achieve a desirable environment. Most of these approaches are rooted in suitable training and development programs.
Once the need has been analyzed, the next stage involves creating the resources and/or programs needed to begin building that environment. At the same time, a vision and mission of the peak performance desired must also be created. To be effective, this creation of resources, programs, vision and mission must involve all levels of the organization.
In the stage 3, the created resources, programs, vision and mission are then transmitted clearly to the part of the organization that specifically wants to achieve peak performance. At this stage, ample time must be given to receive feedbacks and comments.
Stage 4 involves instituting programs and resources as have been identified in stage 2. The institution of programs and resources must be closely aligned to the vision and mission of peak performance as have already been determined.
In stage 5 orientation takes place. The respective leaders must be ready to orientate the programs, resources and efforts to achieve the desired standard of peak performance. This stage will face challenges in the form of overzealousness or loss of motivation. So, it is vital that the leaders are able to continuously orientate the instituted programs to achieve the desired outcome of peak performance.
Finally, all programs and efforts toward peak performance must be naturalized so as to make it a lasting factor contributing towards organizational success. The naturalization may take a long time as old behaviors need modification and new thought processes must be assimilated.
Thus we propose the 9 Box Model of ACTION to achieve peak performance. We have argued our case on the basis that any program intended to achieve peak performance, including motivation programs, need to view the process of achieving peak performance from a wider perspective. Merely focusing on a limited set of micro skills to be delivered (such as sales related skills) will not bring lasting effects on peak performance. We have to look at peak performance from a perspective of knowledge driven, leadership orientation, change adaptability and customer literacy. These must be viewed from the point of view of the organization. An organization that has internalized these qualities will inevitably develop employees that reflect those qualities which will result in peak performance.
Next we have discussed the actionable component of the 9-Box Model which is the ACTION hexagon. Action outlines the stages that an organization need to address before, during and after a program that is intended to bring about peak performance. By following these stages, the planned program will achieve its intended objectives.
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