On management, leadership and organizational life.
"The essence of the independent mind lies not
in what it thinks, but in how in thinks." - Christopher Hitchens
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Bottom-Up Change: Comments and Feedback
Please give me your feedback about the presentation by using the comment feature below.
Thank you!
5 comments:
Anonymous
said...
The whole time you were talking this morning I was hoping you would have a 'Tipping Point' effect on the crowd. I know you've certainly inspired me, and I hope that the next time I see something happening in the workplace I believe can be done in a more effective way I can summon a bit of 'courage'. I wanted to ask you at the conference who you personally look to for inspiration. If you could post something to this effect I'd appreciate it. Thanks again, I'm going to roam your site now!
I enjoyed your presentation this morning. The combination of words, images and creative information display provided a fun way to learn.
You made an interesting point that treating people equally does not make them equal; true.
I agree with your observation of unmanaged poor performance being one of the barriers to a healthy organization. I suspect this is one of the most frustrating barries for most employees as your "office" piece illustrated.
I felt the three levers to a health organization you discussed were right on the mark and in line with my experience.
I do not have specific inspirations, except perhaps for a handful of people who I have learned from over the years. I have drafted a post on "mentors", ans I plan on finalizing it and posting on this blog before the summer. Stay tuned!
Etienne, just finished your paper, and as you suggested in your e-mail, these comments might be helpful here as you discuss some of the same topics.
I liked what you had to say about culture in relation to change. The tough part about it is that, as Schein says in Organizational Culture and Leadership, culture emerges to entrench those things that leads to an organization's success.
So at one point entitlements may have been a way to ensure that the ps had available talent when job security and especially compensation were not what they are today. The culture that emerges to allow the organization to adapt to the environment becomes the inhibitor of its' ability to continue to adapt!
I also liked what you said about leadership as property of the group and not the individual. I have long held that leadership is a contribution to furthur the purposes of the group. So if Ed takes on, and completes, a job that is necessary for the group to achieve its' goals, he is demonstrating leadership. The way I look at followership however is that when I acknowledge the leadership that Ed is demonstrating I am not following, I am [I need to create a term here].
It's not a formal apprenticeship thing, more like the potential for experiential / observational learning. And I may take up a leadership role the next day in doing something, while Ed becomes the learner.
This leader / follower / learner idea is for me a bit like the potential learning use of the Myers Briggs Type. Jung stated that while we have preferred styles or archetypes a well rounded person should work on the areas that are not their preference. My acknowledging the leadership of Ed, and his of me, are acts that seek to round out our non developed leadership strengths.
This type of shared leadership is totally independent of positional authority. Although you may expect all managers to be leader, not all leaders are managers.
I was impressed by your presentation. I am glad to see someone as proactive as you are in the PS to bring about the concepts of the three levers and how these can improve our work place. I haven't had the chance to read the paper you wrote on the an inconvenient renewal but I am certainly curious and I will spend some time sooner to read it. I found the presentation well prepared. The slides and pictures certainly helped people stay focused on the topics and helped make the presentation interesting with a twist of humor. Keep up the good work and your proactive approach.
All significant breakthroughs are break-"withs" old ways of thinking. - Thomas Kuhn
5 comments:
The whole time you were talking this morning I was hoping you would have a 'Tipping Point' effect on the crowd. I know you've certainly inspired me, and I hope that the next time I see something happening in the workplace I believe can be done in a more effective way I can summon a bit of 'courage'. I wanted to ask you at the conference who you personally look to for inspiration. If you could post something to this effect I'd appreciate it. Thanks again, I'm going to roam your site now!
I enjoyed your presentation this morning. The combination of words, images and creative information display provided a fun way to learn.
You made an interesting point that treating people equally does not make them equal; true.
I agree with your observation of unmanaged poor performance being one of the barriers to a healthy organization. I suspect this is one of the most frustrating barries for most employees as your "office" piece illustrated.
I felt the three levers to a health organization you discussed were right on the mark and in line with my experience.
Thanks for your insights!
Hello Anonymous #1,
I do not have specific inspirations, except perhaps for a handful of people who I have learned from over the years. I have drafted a post on "mentors", ans I plan on finalizing it and posting on this blog before the summer. Stay tuned!
Etienne
Etienne, just finished your paper, and as you suggested in your e-mail, these comments might be helpful here as you discuss some of the same topics.
I liked what you had to say about culture in relation to change. The tough part about it is that, as Schein says in Organizational Culture and Leadership, culture emerges to entrench those things that leads to an organization's success.
So at one point entitlements may have been a way to ensure that the ps had available talent when job security and especially compensation were not what they are today. The culture that emerges to allow the organization to adapt to the environment becomes the inhibitor of its' ability to continue to adapt!
I also liked what you said about leadership as property of the group and not the individual. I have long held that leadership is a
contribution to furthur the purposes of the group. So if Ed takes on, and completes, a job that is necessary for the group to achieve its' goals, he is demonstrating leadership. The way I look at followership however is that when I acknowledge the leadership that Ed is demonstrating I am not following, I am [I need to create a term here].
It's not a formal apprenticeship thing, more like the potential for experiential / observational learning. And I may take up a leadership role the next day in doing something, while Ed becomes the learner.
This leader / follower / learner idea is for me a bit like the potential learning use of the Myers Briggs Type. Jung stated that while we have preferred styles or archetypes a well rounded person should work on the areas that are not their preference. My acknowledging the leadership of Ed, and his of me, are acts that seek to round out our non developed leadership strengths.
This type of shared leadership is totally independent of positional authority. Although you may expect all managers to be leader, not all leaders are managers.
John
I was impressed by your presentation. I am glad to see someone as proactive as you are in the PS to bring about the concepts of the three levers and how these can improve our work place. I haven't had the chance to read the paper you wrote on the an inconvenient renewal but I am certainly curious and I will spend some time sooner to read it. I found the presentation well prepared. The slides and pictures certainly helped people stay focused on the topics and helped make the presentation interesting with a twist of humor. Keep up the good work and your proactive approach.
All significant breakthroughs are break-"withs" old ways of thinking.
- Thomas Kuhn
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