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Archives For April 2011

Book Review: Change Anything

David Burkus —  April 27, 2011

The folks behind Crucial Conversations and Influencer have released another one – Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success. I’ll admit, I’m inherently skeptical of any title that includes both the words “science” and success” in the same line. I brought that skepticism with me when I picked up the review copy sent to me by their publicist. Change Anything aims to tackle the problem of personal change, why is it so hard to break addictions or begin new habits.

To begin, the authors debunk a common myth of personal change – that it only requires willpower. Instead, they outline the hidden forces that often drive our behavior. This acknowledgement that environment influence behavior brings the book out of the mire of books like As a Man Thinketh or The Secret and into the realm of actual, researched science. The authors review several studies that add evidence to their claims about the six sources of influence.

It’s an interesting read, and the authors do a great job summarizing several interesting studies. However, I’m unconvinced there is much to this book for leaders. If you’re trying to lose 20 pounds or stop adding to your credit card debt, then this book is a useful resource. If you’re an organization leader, looking to outline a large-scale change initiative, then perhaps books such as Leading Change or the newer Switch would be more appropriate. You’ll have to decide whether Change Anything is right for you.

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Surveying Strategy: The Configuration School

David Burkus —  April 21, 2011

This post is the final in a series about the various schools and models of making organizational strategy.

Strategy is a fluid process.

The configuration school is the jeet kune do of strategy: the way of no way. Proponents of this school don’t promote any new ideas about how to formulate or implement strategy, instead they investigate the other nine schools of strategy and determine what elements should be included and when. In this way it seeks to integrate the various schools into a fluid process of strategy.

At certain stages of development, this school argues, different schools should be utilized. In the start-up and growth stages of an organization, entrepreneurial and learning schools hold insight into how to develop strategies. In stable organizations and environment, design and planning schools become more relevant to the strategy needs of the organization. The configuration school doesn’t see the other nine schools as conflicting, but complementary. In practice, most organizations borrow elements from all nine schools.

Thus, we are all configuration scholars.

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Surveying Strategy: The Environmental School

David Burkus —  April 19, 2011

This post is the eighth in a series about the various schools and models of making organizational strategy.

Strategy is a reactive process.

The environmental school takes the burden of strategy formation off senior management and even the organization as a whole. Instead, strategy is merely a reaction to the environment, subject to the constraints and opportunities the environment provides. The initiative for strategy is the environment, not the organization. Environmental strategists seek first to understand the pressures imposed on the organization by its competitors, marketplace and industry.

Many schools of strategy recognize the importance of the environment as a factor of strategy development but, the environmental school views it as THE factor. In practice, the strategy engaged in is merely a logical reaction to the dictates of the environment.

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Global Communication: Do similarities or differences matter more?

Tim Vanderpyl —  April 18, 2011

Crabtree (2001), in his provocative article on global leadership, writes that “thinking globally used to require conscious attention to the differences that exist between different markets. Now it requires constant attention to the increasing similarities and the opportunities and threats created by them” (p.58). In the ten years since Crabtree penned those words, we have globalized our society even more. Global communication now requires a focus on the increasing similarities between cultures, because the differences between us are much less important than the similarities now.

Marshall McLuhan, in correspondence with Edward Hall wrote that “we live in a single constricted space resonant with tribal drums” (as cited in Rogers, 2000, p.12). McLuhan wrote that letter in 1962 and in the forty years since, the “tribal drums” themselves are becoming more homogenous in how they sound. We communicate through similar mediums (Internet, Facebook, music, blogs etc.) worldwide. If McLuhan’s famous idiom that “the medium is the message” is correct, then our converging mediums means the communication itself will soon become the same worldwide. 500 Million of us use Facebook, 50% of whom access it every day (see Facebook Statistics for up-to-date statistics). Maybe the cultural communication differences matter less than we think they do?

Tim Vanderpyl is a Certified Human Resource Professional (CHRP) with Canada’s largest catholic healthcare organization. He holds a Master of Arts in Leadership from Trinity Western University and is working toward a Doctorate in Strategic Leadership at Regent University. He can be reached by email here or at his websitetimvanderpyl.com.

Crabtree, H.R. (2001). Take me to your leader. In W.H. Mobley & M.W. McCall (Eds). Advances in global leadership, Vol. 2 (pp. 49-74). Binkley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.

Rogers, E.M. (2000). The extensions of men: The correspondence between Marshall McLuhan and Edward Hall. Mass Communication & Society, 3(1), 117-135.

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The Designful Leader

David Burkus —  April 13, 2011

Last night I was reviewing the Design School Boot Camp Bootleg, an interesting document put out by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. In the opening of the 36-page PDF are the “Design Mindset” or “D.Mindset” (supposedly because everything looks cooler when you shorten a word to one letter and add a period). As I read them again, I started to wonder if they couldn’t also apply to leaders. The D.Mindsets are as follows, with my leadership commentary below:

  • Show, don’t tell
  • We all know how frustrating it is to receive “orders” from a leader who is solely focused don telling, especially if what we need is to see the action, behavior of value from the leader first before engaging in it ourselves.
  • Create Clarity from Complexity
  • Much of the role of leadership is sense-making, reducing the complex system they view to a tangible action or behavior that followers need to understand. Leaders make sense.
  • Be Mindful of Process
  • While making sense of complexity for followers, leaders also have to juggle their attention on the overall process of their objective. In addition, leaders need to know that their development and the development of their followers is a process.
  • Collaborate across boundaries
  • In most organizations, the leaders who get things done are often those who step outside the lines of hierarchy to do so. Collaboration is becoming increasingly more vital…and that doesn’t even consider the effects of globalization.
  • Take Bias toward actions
  • In the end, leaders influence others toward action. Leaders who can get to that action the quickest (with sufficient background knowledge) are of distinct advantage.
  • Get experimental, and experiential
  • As the literature on innovation grows, our understanding of the need to experiment grows with it. Leaders need to let followers experiment, and experiment themselves. In addition, leaders ought to consider the experience of what it is like to work on their team and build a positive experience.
  • Focus on human values
  • I’d love to think this one is obvious, but many “tactical” or “transactional” leaders are focused on accomplishing the objective first and appealing to human values second. While this may work in the short-term, it is not sustainable.

Seven mindsets billed as required for engaging in proper design. Still,I can’t help but wonder if they ought to be re-billed as the “L.Mindsets.

David Burkus is the editor of LDRLB. He is an executive coach, a sought-after speaker and an adjunct professor of business at several universities.

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