Posts Tagged ‘organizational change’
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
By William Seidman
What makes a leader great? Do organizations unwittingly reinforce stereotypes (gender, age, or other) when they insist on a superhero at the top?
Can organizations excel at what they do without a “charismatic” leader?
I’ve been reading Transformational Leadership by the late Bernard Bass and organizational psychologist Ronald Riggio, and I’ve had some great conversations recently with Patti Dragland of Strategic Sense and Lynn Miller from The Center for Creative Leadership.
Patti and Lynn have great ideas and programs on how to be a leader, including expectations for what it takes to be an extraordinary leader — very much the charismatic superhero.
The consensus is that leaders have to create vision, engage people, build teams, inspire, and set by example.
But people can’t be all of these things, even with the best training and coaching. The charismatic, “superhero” model can be as limiting as any stereotype. There are people out there who are smart, creative and inspirational, but may not fit the superhero mold.
Suppose that we could lower the threshold of leadership by focusing on making the organization more agile and responsive? This is what is meant by “Be the Change,” and it’s a challenging idea that can lead to good organizations becoming great.
Leaders would not have to be superheroes if their organizations were easier to lead.
This what Cerebyte does: it helps organizations to become more agile and responsive so that leaders can be great, whether or not they’re superheroes.
Tags: Bernard Bass, Center for Creative Leadership, charismatic leaders, leadership, Lynn Miller, organizational change, Patti Dragland, Ronald Riggio, Strategic Sense, Superman, Transformational Leadership, Wonder Woman
Posted in leadership, organizational change | No Comments »
Monday, April 27th, 2009
By William Seidman
This year’s International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) annual meeting in Orlando was great.
No doubt due to the downturn, it was smaller than in the past — 500-600 people, but the energy level was high and my impression was that everyone who was there really wanted to be there.
Some of the highlights were the opening presentation by Don Peppers on leadership, particularly the need for leadership in these hard times. There were great presentations on Web 2.0 by Julia Bulkowski and Erika Grouell, both from Google, use of stories in training by Jon Revelos (Bank of America), and about the transition from classroom training to e-training - web-based training - by Allison Rossett (UCSD).
I presented on :Transcending Cultures: Change in Multi-Cultural, Multi-National Organizations and The Science of Cultural Change.
Were you there, or wish you were? Let me know what your thoughts.
Tags: Allison Rossett, Cultural Change, Don Peppers, Erika Grouell, International Society for Performance Improvement, Jon Revelos, Julia Bulkowski, organizational change, Orlando, Web 2.0
Posted in best practices, business, organizational change, positive leadership | No Comments »
Thursday, April 16th, 2009
By William Seidman
Several interesting conferences are coming up, and I’m going:
My first stop is Friday, April 17th in Chicago for the Transformational Leadership Gala sponsored by the good folks at the Wright Institute for Transformational Leadership.
The main speaker will be Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy.
Should be very interesting. 300 people are expected - all involved with leadership.
My next stop is the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) Annual Meeting in Orlando.
I am presenting Monday, April 20th on Organizational Change in Multi-National, Multi-Cultural Organizations, and on Wednesday April 22nd on The Science of Organizational Change.
ISPI is mostly for people responsible for changing organizations, and there are always lots of good conversations there.
It should be a great week and weekend!
Tags: International Society for Performance Improvement, leadership, multi-culturalism, organizational change, performance improvement, science of organizational change, Transformational Leadership Gala, Wright Institute for Transformational Leadership
Posted in best practices, organizational change, positive leadership | No Comments »
Monday, March 23rd, 2009
By William Seidman
What do we have to do with colorectal cancer screening? We’re about positive deviance, organizational change, digital coaching, and management consulting, right? Yes - and it’s especially gratifying when our program is used to save lives.
We work with Peter Guttchen at Organizational Resources Group (ORG), a longtime partner of Cerebyte. ORG uses our program, renamed for their purposes “IdeaNet Solution” (not to be confused with a lot of other “IdeaNet”s out there) - which in their words, “builds a sturdy bridge between planning and doing.”
Organizational Resources Group works closely with the American Cancer Society on a program for the screening of colorectal cancer. This disease is nearly always curable if detected early. But people are resistant to the idea of getting a colonoscopy, the single most effective screen for the disease. The screening test (recommended for anyone over age 50) is comparatively expensive, requires some preparation, and is done under light sedation. It saves lives. Even though colonoscopies need be done only once every ten years for healthy people, there is resistance toward any screening that reminds people of cancer.
Using IdeaNet, The American Cancer Society is creating a program that will bring many more people into routine screening. This has terrific potential to save lives, and we’re thrilled to play a part.
Tags: American Cancer Society, cancer, colonoscopy, colorectal cancer, Digital Coaching, management consulting, organizational change, Organizational Resources Group, Peter Guttchen, positive deviance
Posted in digital coaching technology, management consulting | No Comments »
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
By William Seidman
Common sense tells us that writing things down - possibly to enhance memory but especially to vent - can help us in several ways. Keeping a diary can make you happier, UCLA associate professor of social neuroscience Matthew Lieberman has found. Lieberman has studied the act of writing things down and found that writing about emotions, specifically negative ones, can calm the activity of the amygdala and help regulate emotional states.
In our work we find that writing things down helps learning as well as emotional states - so it was great to see it reinforced in brain scans. The people we’ve coached report a greater sense of personal power and enhanced comfort level with organizational and personal change when they’ve written things down. The act of writing down something emotionally difficult relocates the unpleasantness from the brain’s fear center to its intellectual center - and this makes a huge difference in a person’s ability to cope with the new information or changes.
Tags: amygdala, Matthew Lieberman, organizational change, personal change, regulating emotional states, regulating emotions, UCLA
Posted in best practices, organizational change, personal change | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
By William Seidman
Yesterday I led a webinar for the Ohio Heartland Chapter of the International Society for Performance Improvement. Julie Snyder and Tom Roach of “Leadership Beyond Limits” helped make it happen, and Suki McIntosh of OHISPI hosted.
Our use of the science of positive deviance, best practices research, and change initiatives inspired a key question: Does our scientific approach to change frighten people who are reluctant to change?
My answer: Of course it does! People who don’t want to change resist any method that promises to help them to change.
Our change process - any change process - works only when people want to do something differently and are willing to work to make it happen. Training, videos, digital coaching technology, webinars, binders … none of this drives change with organizations and people who want to stay the same and work in the same old ways. Cerebyte’s success comes from working with organizations, companies, and people who want to change - and want to know how to do it and make it “stick.”
Tags: best practices, digital coaching technology, Julie Snyder, Leadership Beyond Limits, neuroscience and change, OHISPI, organizational change, positive deviance, Suki McIntosh, Tom Rausch
Posted in best practices, getting change to "stick", management consulting, neuroscience, organizational change, personal change | No Comments »
Sunday, February 8th, 2009
By William Seidman
One of our partners in the work we do is Edward Ferris, Managing Partner at Charlesmore, a management consulting and organizational strategic change firm. One of the biggest challenges in organizational strategy is implementation - and this is where we at Cerebyte have so much to offer.
Edward has been doing a lot of work in India, second only to China in growth in Asia. The global recession that started in the US is less noticeable in these two countries. China has been dialed back, but with four times the population of the US and a growing (rather than shrinking) middle class, we can still consider it strong.
The reality of vast internal markets in these two countries (its citizens actually consume what their countries produce) means that many businesses in China and India can continue to grow without, in fact, playing globally. This internal growth isn’t going to be perpetual, but for now it’s pretty significant.
We are looking to companies in China and India for some great opportunities for our coaching for positive deviance, organizational change, and best practices - in whatever sector they are in.
Tags: best practices, Cerebyte, Charlesmore, China, Edward Ferris, global recession, implementation, India, internal markets, management consulting, organizational change, organizational strategic change, positive deviance
Posted in best practices, business, management consulting, organizational change, positive deviance | No Comments »
Thursday, February 5th, 2009
By William Seidman
I recently returned from Shenzhen (above, left), Beijing, and Hong Kong where I worked with Intel customer service teams - speakers of Mandarin and Cantonese, sometimes one and sometimes both - with only moderate English language skills. In their high-tech industry they are some of the best - and the work went well. Vivien Li (above, center) contributed hugely to our success.
My teams found that taking notes was a powerful tool.
- Some of the team members are speakers of Mandarin, and some speak Cantonese ; the languages are vastly dissimilar.
- Being able to write down their learnings in real time is powerful.
- Instead of relying on PowerPoint presentations and spoken English, much of their learning derived from discussions in their native language, stimulated by written “best practices.”
- They then would record learnings by writing in English. This recording made a big difference in retention, and actually solidifies learning. The act of note-taking, and the reliability of notes was especially important to our work in China - much as it is here in the US.
Tags: Beijing, best practices, Cantonese, China, customer service, Hong Kong, Intel, Mandarin, organizational change, Shenzhen, Vivien Li
Posted in best practices, management consulting, organizational change | No Comments »
Monday, January 26th, 2009
By Michael McCauley
I’m still thinking about futurists Watts Wacker and Ryan Mathews’ notion, explored in their book The Deviant’s Advantage, that so many great new products and services start life as positive deviant ideas which must change in order to become mainstream.
What does this mean for organizations? It means that to grow and thrive, organizations must constantly change in order to address the needs of their maturing markets and products. The new “deviant” idea can become tomorrow’s opportunity, but only if companies recognize and nurture that idea.
At each stage in their progression, positive deviant ideas must be transformed in order to appeal to consumers at the next stage. This means that organizations must change
- to address the needs of evolving products
- to address the needs of evolving consumer groups, and
- to usher in new ideas from the Fringe
Change is essential to organizational health. The most successful positive deviant ideas changed enormously from their first conception. Wacker mentions some obvious and not-so-obvious ones:
Companies need to embrace ongoing change that reinforces core organizational values. The companies that succeed rely on structured, systematic change. Most importantly, they have also embraced changes that enable them to systematically seek out new ideas (think Toyota and the Prius) and shepherd them toward social convention.
Tags: Absolut Vodka, Apple Computer, Fringe ideas, Hello Kitty, Jesse Ventura, Las Vegas, Microsoft, organizational change, organizational values, Prius, Ryan Mathews, The Deviant’s Advantage, Toyota, Watts Wacker
Posted in organizational change, positive deviance, positive deviants | No Comments »
