I'm looking for any sign I can find that we're in recovery -- not
only that the economy is turning around, but that the mindset that led
us into this mess is shifting.
I found a good one.
The
chief learning officer of a highly admired company was talking about
leadership development. He was describing who and what leaders will
need to be to cut a navigable path for others to follow in a future
that is certain to be uncertain, convoluted and complex. His anger and
disappointment about how out of whack we seem to have gotten as a
society match my own...
I'm
scratching my head over AIG and all the lookalikes. Bonuses paid out in
the millions to people costing the company billions? People undermining
the world economy? Oh, right. They're not performance incentives,
they're retention bonuses. You wouldn't want people like that to get
away.
But this CLO has on his boxing gloves. His dukes are
up. He wasn't naming names, but he PowerPointed this quote, attributed
to a Wall Street trader, on a 20-foot screen:
"What
we are experiencing is a colossal failure of leadership in the business
community. CEOs are greedy, shortsighted, unethical, arrogant, and
lacking in vision and commitment. It's truly pathetic."
The quote is depressing.Butthe
context is encouraging. This CLO is setting out to make some changes. I
think many people, not just the high-profile
multi-million-dollar-earning executives, have been swept upby
the distorted dream defined by our derivatives debacle -- the idea of
spinning gold out of paper. But I believe more and more people are also
looking for something better, more hopeful, and more balanced.
I think we are starting to inch our way out of this mess.
I'm looking for any sign I can find that we're in recovery -- not
only that the economy is turning around, but that the mindset that led
us into this mess is shifting.
I found a good one.
The
chief learning officer of a highly admired company was talking about
leadership development. He was describing who and what leaders will
need to be to cut a navigable path for others to follow in a future
that is certain to be uncertain, convoluted and complex. His anger and
disappointment about how out of whack we seem to have gotten as a
society match my own...
I'm
scratching my head over AIG and all the lookalikes. Bonuses paid out in
the millions to people costing the company billions? People undermining
the world economy? Oh, right. They're not performance incentives,
they're retention bonuses. You wouldn't want people like that to get
away.
But this CLO has on his boxing gloves. His dukes are
up. He wasn't naming names, but he PowerPointed this quote, attributed
to a Wall Street trader, on a 20-foot screen:
"What
we are experiencing is a colossal failure of leadership in the business
community. CEOs are greedy, shortsighted, unethical, arrogant, and
lacking in vision and commitment. It's truly pathetic."
The quote is depressing.Butthe
context is encouraging. This CLO is setting out to make some changes. I
think many people, not just the high-profile
multi-million-dollar-earning executives, have been swept upby
the distorted dream defined by our derivatives debacle -- the idea of
spinning gold out of paper. But I believe more and more people are also
looking for something better, more hopeful, and more balanced.
I think we are starting to inch our way out of this mess.
I'm looking for any sign I can find that we're in recovery -- not
only that the economy is turning around, but that the mindset that led
us into this mess is shifting.
I found a good one.
The
chief learning officer of a highly admired company was talking about
leadership development. He was describing who and what leaders will
need to be to cut a navigable path for others to follow in a future
that is certain to be uncertain, convoluted and complex. His anger and
disappointment about how out of whack we seem to have gotten as a
society match my own...
I'm
scratching my head over AIG and all the lookalikes. Bonuses paid out in
the millions to people costing the company billions? People undermining
the world economy? Oh, right. They're not performance incentives,
they're retention bonuses. You wouldn't want people like that to get
away.
But this CLO has on his boxing gloves. His dukes are
up. He wasn't naming names, but he PowerPointed this quote, attributed
to a Wall Street trader, on a 20-foot screen:
"What
we are experiencing is a colossal failure of leadership in the business
community. CEOs are greedy, shortsighted, unethical, arrogant, and
lacking in vision and commitment. It's truly pathetic."
The quote is depressing.Butthe
context is encouraging. This CLO is setting out to make some changes. I
think many people, not just the high-profile
multi-million-dollar-earning executives, have been swept upby
the distorted dream defined by our derivatives debacle -- the idea of
spinning gold out of paper. But I believe more and more people are also
looking for something better, more hopeful, and more balanced.
I think we are starting to inch our way out of this mess.
"What are you doing to contain or cut costs to get through 2009?"
I was a blind-copy recipient of this question in an email from a colleague the other day. It came with the promise that answers would be shared anonymously among those of us willing to throw our ideas into the conversation.
I'm tossing out a couple of thoughts. They're based on the experience I've had the last decade working with leaders to create and implement strategies for change, improvement and innovation -- which often has been shaped by the need to hang on for dear life.
I'm also passing along the question -- with hopes I'll hear from you -- to keep the conversation going.
Ideas...
Involve the people who will be effected by the change -- the cost cutting -- in the meaningful work of figuring out how to do it. Engage people in talking about the circumstances and the options for making things better. Let them influence the decision making. The outcome: they are likely to come up with the same ideas a leader or leadership team may be tempted to invoke unilaterally -- maybe even better ideas -- but they will own them. When they own them they are more likely to help make the ideas work.
Pay attention to the potential long-term damage being done by short-term solutions. Cost cutting is scary, distracting business. Productivity will suffer in the short term. That can ripple out. And you can be sure people will be worrying about their futures... and planning to finish them elsewhere. can you afford for your "most value resource" to be fantasizing about life without you?
Think "health reform" not "band aids." No organization can cost cut its way to greatness. Every organization wastes some resources. It always makes sense to be looking for ways to minimize those costs, not just when the economy is bad. Sometimes -- like now -- the only way for some businesses to survive in is to cut to the bare bones and find ways to stretch dollars and people as thin as possible without snapping. But that's not a formula for a vibrant future. The organizations I've seen do this most successfully cut surgically, thinking simultaneously about what it will take to refocus on growth strategies as soon as possible.
The Invitation...
What are you doing to contain or cut costs to get through 2009 -- strategically vs. reflexively? Post a comment or send me an email and maybe we can take this discussion to a new level.
"What are you doing to contain or cut costs to get through 2009?"
I was a blind-copy recipient of this question in an email from a colleague the other day. It came with the promise that answers would be shared anonymously among those of us willing to throw our ideas into the conversation.
I'm tossing out a couple of thoughts. They're based on the experience I've had the last decade working with leaders to create and implement strategies for change, improvement and innovation -- which often has been shaped by the need to hang on for dear life.
I'm also passing along the question -- with hopes I'll hear from you -- to keep the conversation going.
Ideas...
Involve the people who will be effected by the change -- the cost cutting -- in the meaningful work of figuring out how to do it. Engage people in talking about the circumstances and the options for making things better. Let them influence the decision making. The outcome: they are likely to come up with the same ideas a leader or leadership team may be tempted to invoke unilaterally -- maybe even better ideas -- but they will own them. When they own them they are more likely to help make the ideas work.
Pay attention to the potential long-term damage being done by short-term solutions. Cost cutting is scary, distracting business. Productivity will suffer in the short term. That can ripple out. And you can be sure people will be worrying about their futures... and planning to finish them elsewhere. can you afford for your "most value resource" to be fantasizing about life without you?
Think "health reform" not "band aids." No organization can cost cut its way to greatness. Every organization wastes some resources. It always makes sense to be looking for ways to minimize those costs, not just when the economy is bad. Sometimes -- like now -- the only way for some businesses to survive in is to cut to the bare bones and find ways to stretch dollars and people as thin as possible without snapping. But that's not a formula for a vibrant future. The organizations I've seen do this most successfully cut surgically, thinking simultaneously about what it will take to refocus on growth strategies as soon as possible.
The Invitation...
What are you doing to contain or cut costs to get through 2009 -- strategically vs. reflexively? Post a comment or send me an email and maybe we can take this discussion to a new level.
"There is no sense being a pessimist. It would never work anyway." -- Unknown
The news is...
Aw, pick a negative. Fill in the blank with any gloomy descriptor you can think of to depict just how un-rosy things are in the world right now. It's easy, right? It's not so easy to see through that news all the way to optimism. But it is possible.
I had a strong reminder this week about the value of the approach called Appreciative Inquiry. The first came in a conversation with a leader I've worked with the last three years. He was planning a staff meeting.
The agenda: Problems with co-workers.
The concern: The conversation would lapse into unproductive finger pointing.
The goal: Come up with some ideas about how to improve communication and collaboration, and to keep the process positive.
The plan we came up with for the meeting is to focus on what's going on in the team when things are going well, and then to brainstorm how to do more of that. What are people doing that's good? And how can they get better at doing more good?
That's an extreme simplification of the thinking behind appreciative inquiry, but that's the essence for me. Instead of looking at what's broken, focus on what works well. Admit that things don't go well all time, and figure out what you can do to up the percentage.
Appreciative Inquiry got its start in 1980 in the doctoral work of David Cooperrider. Read more at The Appreciative Inquiry Commons. Another school of evolving thought in this same vein is Positive Psychology.
Call me terminally optimistic, but given the choice -- and we are all given the choice -- I think it's far preferable to pursue hope than it is to roll over to despair.
"What are you doing to contain or cut costs to get through 2009?"
I was a blind-copy recipient of this question in an email from a colleague the other day. It came with the promise that answers would be shared anonymously among those of us willing to throw our ideas into the conversation.
I'm tossing out a couple of thoughts. They're based on the experience I've had the last decade working with leaders to create and implement strategies for change, improvement and innovation -- which often has been shaped by the need to hang on for dear life.
I'm also passing along the question -- with hopes I'll hear from you -- to keep the conversation going.
Ideas...
Involve the people who will be effected by the change -- the cost cutting -- in the meaningful work of figuring out how to do it. Engage people in talking about the circumstances and the options for making things better. Let them influence the decision making. The outcome: they are likely to come up with the same ideas a leader or leadership team may be tempted to invoke unilaterally -- maybe even better ideas -- but they will own them. When they own them they are more likely to help make the ideas work.
Pay attention to the potential long-term damage being done by short-term solutions. Cost cutting is scary, distracting business. Productivity will suffer in the short term. That can ripple out. And you can be sure people will be worrying about their futures... and planning to finish them elsewhere. can you afford for your "most value resource" to be fantasizing about life without you?
Think "health reform" not "band aids." No organization can cost cut its way to greatness. Every organization wastes some resources. It always makes sense to be looking for ways to minimize those costs, not just when the economy is bad. Sometimes -- like now -- the only way for some businesses to survive in is to cut to the bare bones and find ways to stretch dollars and people as thin as possible without snapping. But that's not a formula for a vibrant future. The organizations I've seen do this most successfully cut surgically, thinking simultaneously about what it will take to refocus on growth strategies as soon as possible.
The Invitation...
What are you doing to contain or cut costs to get through 2009 -- strategically vs. reflexively? Post a comment or send me an email and maybe we can take this discussion to a new level.
Gerry (my partner at GrowthWorks) and I created a Leading Innovation workshop this year based on our book. We delivered the training for a high-tech company to its top 400 managers around the world. At the end of day one of each session I gave the participants a homework assignment:
Do something different... and pay attention to see if you notice anything special...
It could be as simple as driving a new way to work. I did the assignment 19 times in Berlin, London, Sydney... And I was rewarded every time.
In Boston, I had forgotten overnight to do the assignment. When I woke, slightly embarrassed and panicked about not completing the work... how could I expect others to get anything out of the exercise if I wasn't doing it myself... I decided i would sing in the shower. But I'm not a morning person and didn't really feel like singing. So, I thought, "I'll just tell the group I sang int he shower." But there was no reward in faking it. So I sang. And my mood shifted instantly... for the better.
In Singapore,I decided to work out in the fitness facility without listening to my iPod or watching TV. With 2 minutes and 6 seconds left on the clock on the elliptical trainer I was ready to be done, but time seemed to be moving so slowly. would it everrrr end? And to that point, no reward. I played a game; decided I wouldn't look at the timer again until I was confident it was under 2 minutes. When I looked back I expected to see 1 minute and maybe 30 seconds. It was 1 minute 59 seconds. I thought, "7 seconds is a lonnnnng time." And that set me off thinking about a book I've been wanting to write but have been postponing "for lack of sufficient time."
My reward for doing some different and paying attention for anything special in that fitness room in Singapore? I realized I can get this book done in small pieces. I don't have to swallow it whole. I got started again that night.
Enough for now. I've scheduled 15 minutes to make a few preparations for a book-related research trip I planned in my spare minutes.
