Tuesday 31 December 2019

LEADERSHIP SERIES - FACILITATION



FACILITATION

This is part of a series of blogs, posts and articles on consulting, leading or managing. Please feel free to comment, add feedback or perhaps share your own experiences, recommended reading or favourite resources from the internet.

If you want to meet to discuss any of the elements mentioned here please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Tim Mob 447797762051

KEY THOUGHTS

When consulting, leading or managing it is important to think about the process, content and the relationship.



It is particularly important to use your consulting, enabling, facilitation skills when working in an agile environment of fuzzy problems and emerging solution.


This is where consulting, leading or managing both yourself and other people is critical.



REFERENCE

— Humble Consulting: How to Provide Real Help Faster by Edgar H. Schein
http://amzn.eu/3o4Nhdr

GET IN CONTACT

If you to discuss these ideas or anything related to consulting, leading or managing please get in touch.

Tim HJ Rogers
Senior Consultant / Project Manager
Mob 447797762051  Skype timhjrogers Twitter @timhjrogers

Adapt Consulting Company - Consult, CoCreate, Deliver
Business Analysis – Projects – Processes – Programmes
Website http://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com
Linked-In https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhjrogers/



LEADERSHIP SERIES - RELATIONSHIPS

LEADERSHIP SERIES - RELATIONSHIPS

RELATIONSHIPS

This is part of a series of blogs, posts and articles on managing change. Please feel free to comment, add feedback or perhaps share your own experiences, recommended reading or favourite resources from the internet.

If you want to meet to discuss any of the elements mentioned here please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Tim Mob 447797762051

KEY THOUGHTS

When consulting, leading or managing it is important to think about the process, content and the relationship.

We need to improve communication

How can we do better? The answer is simple, but its implementation is not. We would have to do three things: 1) do less telling; 2) learn to do more asking in the particular form of Humble Inquiry; and 3) do a better job of listening and acknowledging. Talking and listening have received enormous attention via hundreds of books on communication. But the social art of asking a question has been strangely neglected.

How Does Asking Build Relationships?

Telling puts the other person down. It implies that the other person does not already know what I am telling and that the other person ought to know it. On the other hand, asking temporarily empowers the other person in the conversation and temporarily makes me vulnerable.

Here are some thoughts on relationships

Level Minus One: Negative hostile relationship, exploitation

Examples: Prisoners, POWs, slaves, members of different cultures, elderly or emotionally ill people, the victims or marks for criminals or con men

Level One: Acknowledgment, civility, transactional and professional role relations

Examples: Strangers on the street, seatmates on trains and planes, service people whose help we need, professional helpers such as doctors and lawyers Comment: We do not know one another as individuals but treat one another as fellow humans whom we trust to a certain degree not to harm us and with whom we have polite levels of openness in conversation. Professional helpers such as doctors and lawyers fall into this category because their role definition requires them to maintain a “professional distance.”

Level Two: Recognition as a unique person

Examples: People whom we know as individuals, co-workers, clients, bosses or subordinates whom we have gotten to know personally but not intimately through common work or educational experiences, casual friendships Comment: This kind of relationship implies a deeper level of trust and openness in terms of (1) making and honoring commitments and promises to each other, (2) agreeing not to undermine each other or harm what we are endeavoring to do, and (3) agreeing not to lie to each other or withhold information relevant to our task.

Level Three: Close friendships, love, and intimacy Examples: Relationships with strong positive emotions”

REFERENCE

Humble Consulting: How to Provide Real Help Faster
by Edgar H. Schein http://amzn.eu/3o4Nhdr

USEFUL LINKS

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ff/58/9b/ff589b493149365ba19a15587bd4bc5e.jpg

https://blog.container-solutions.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/humbleconsultingsketchnote-1011x1024.jpg?width=1011&height=1024&name=humbleconsultingsketchnote-1011x1024.jpg


GET IN CONTACT

If you to discuss these ideas or anything related to consulting, leading or managing please get in touch.

Tim HJ Rogers
Senior Consultant / Project Manager
Mob 447797762051  Skype timhjrogers Twitter @timhjrogers

Adapt Consulting Company - Consult, CoCreate, Deliver
Business Analysis – Projects – Processes – Programmes
Website http://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com
Linked-In https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhjrogers/



Monday 30 December 2019

CHANGE SERIES - STRATEGY AND CULTURE

STRATEGY AND CULTURE

This is part of a series of blogs, posts and articles on managing change. Please feel free to comment, add feedback or perhaps share your own experiences, recommended reading or favourite resources from the internet.

If you want to meet to discuss any of the elements mentioned here please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Tim Mob 447797762051

KEY THOUGHTS

Does the management own the strategy and the board ticks off (approves) that strategy? Or does the board own the strategy and the management implement it? My global studies show this to be an utterly irrelevant question.

Best practice is that management owns the strategy and the board owns the culture.

It may seem incredibly distant, but I believe the idea of wisdom and the Socratic tradition applies as much to a modern twenty-first-century corporation. Many of the leaders in my research were reflective people, continually dedicated to learning more.

REFERENCE

The Success Formula: How Smart Leaders Deliver Outstanding Value
By Andrew Kakabadse Start reading it for free: http://amzn.eu/hcYNAjQ

GET IN CONTACT

If you to discuss these ideas or anything related to managing change please get in touch.

Tim HJ Rogers
Senior Consultant / Project Manager
Mob 447797762051  Skype timhjrogers Twitter @timhjrogers

Adapt Consulting Company - Consult, CoCreate, Deliver
Business Analysis – Projects – Processes – Programmes
Website http://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com
Linked-In https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhjrogers/




CHANGE SERIES - THE ROLE OF THE BOARD

THE ROLE OF THE BOARD

This is part of a series of blogs, posts and articles on managing change. Please feel free to comment, add feedback or perhaps share your own experiences, recommended reading or favourite resources from the internet.

If you want to meet to discuss any of the elements mentioned here please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Tim Mob 447797762051

KEY THOUGHTS

First and foremost: pick the right CEO.
Second: oversight and strategy.
Third: monitor operations. Fourth: audit controls.
And fifth: strong governance.

The reality is that too many boards are not addressing the governance and business issues they should be looking at and end up being little more than toothless tigers with directors more willing to cozy up to one another than encourage debate. In place of raised voices, there is the quiet hum of a box-ticking machine

  1. Foundation of the board’s ability to perform….
  2. People: the need to continually review top talent and engage in succession planning
  3. Vision: the importance of having a clear vision and strategy that is both shared and understood
  4. Leadership: the need to promote team dynamics through the leadership of the board and
  5. Innovation: the capability of maximizing the capacity of the board to consider and adapt to risk and innovation.

REFERENCE

The Success Formula: How Smart Leaders Deliver Outstanding Value
By Andrew Kakabadse Start reading it for free: http://amzn.eu/hcYNAjQ

GET IN CONTACT

If you to discuss these ideas or anything related to managing change please get in touch.

Tim HJ Rogers
Senior Consultant / Project Manager
Mob 447797762051  Skype timhjrogers Twitter @timhjrogers

Adapt Consulting Company - Consult, CoCreate, Deliver
Business Analysis – Projects – Processes – Programmes
Website http://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com
Linked-In https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhjrogers/




CHANGE SERIES - LEADERSHIP QUALITIES

LEADERSHIP QUALITIES

This is part of a series of blogs, posts and articles on managing change. Please feel free to comment, add feedback or perhaps share your own experiences, recommended reading or favourite resources from the internet.

If you want to meet to discuss any of the elements mentioned here please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Tim Mob 447797762051

KEY THOUGHTS

The leaders I talked to displayed three key qualities: smartness, a high-level ability to model and conceptualize profound moral consciousness and persuasive advocacy to turn arguments in their favor.

Once the attention of the critical stakeholders has been won, effective persuasiveness involves seven steps: handling criticism positioning the argument managing expectations reworking the argument fostering a no-shame culture avoiding personal agendas and pet themes and zooming in, zooming out

The ability to zoom in and out of different cultures, contexts, and characters is key to the effectiveness of evidence-based leaders.

There are three aspects to this: zooming in and out of context; from big pictures to budgets—strategy to execution zooming in and out of cultures; regional or national culture to departmental culture zooming in and out of characters; learning in vivo, job title to individual personality.

Jim Collins, author of the 2001 bestseller Good to Great (and coauthor of the 1994 bestseller Built to Last), has championed something he calls Level 5 Leadership. The highest level in a hierarchy of executive capabilities, according to Collins, Level 5 is a potent blend of selflessness, humility, and iron will. Those who exhibit it are typically “quiet leaders” rather than the larger-than-life figures associated with transforming organizations.




REFERENCE

The Success Formula: How Smart Leaders Deliver Outstanding Value
By Andrew Kakabadse Start reading it for free: http://amzn.eu/hcYNAjQ

GET IN CONTACT

If you to discuss these ideas or anything related to managing change please get in touch.

Tim HJ Rogers
Senior Consultant / Project Manager
Mob 447797762051  Skype timhjrogers Twitter @timhjrogers

Adapt Consulting Company - Consult, CoCreate, Deliver
Business Analysis – Projects – Processes – Programmes
Website http://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com
Linked-In https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhjrogers/




CHANGE SERIES - BEWARE THE CHARISMATIC LEADER

BEWARE THE CHARISMATIC LEADER

This is part of a series of blogs, posts and articles on managing change. Please feel free to comment, add feedback or perhaps share your own experiences, recommended reading or favourite resources from the internet.

If you want to meet to discuss any of the elements mentioned here please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Tim Mob 447797762051

KEY THOUGHTS

Organisations where engagement with employees and other stakeholders was the highest were not those led by charismatic and visionary leaders. The leaders who achieved superior levels of engagement were often quiet and unassuming. In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins makes much the same observation, describing leaders who combine exceptional humility with the will to succeed as attaining the highest level of leadership, which he calls Level 5

Champion the concept of “fair process.” “Fair process is based on the simple human need for intellectual and emotional recognition,” says Kim. “There is a difference between a fair process and a fair outcome. If there is fair process based on engagement, explanation and clarity then painful and difficult goals can be achieved.”

Do you prepare for meetings to win your point of view or to meaningfully discuss the issues at hand? When the argument does not go your way, do you lose face or emerge as enriched because you have learned how to better deal with the issue the next time? Do you push your point of view or try to understand the mindset of the others and where they are coming from? Do you make clear propositions or ask more penetrating questions? How do others really see you, as a fearsome advocate or as someone open to alternative viewpoints?

REFERENCE

The Success Formula: How Smart Leaders Deliver Outstanding Value
By Andrew Kakabadse Start reading it for free: http://amzn.eu/hcYNAjQ

GET IN CONTACT

If you to discuss these ideas or anything related to managing change please get in touch.

Tim HJ Rogers
Senior Consultant / Project Manager
Mob 447797762051  Skype timhjrogers Twitter @timhjrogers

Adapt Consulting Company - Consult, CoCreate, Deliver
Business Analysis – Projects – Processes – Programmes
Website http://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com
Linked-In https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhjrogers/


CHANGE SERIES - CULTURE EATS STRATEGY FOR BREAKFAST

CULTURE EATS STRATEGY FOR BREAKFAST

This is part of a series of blogs, posts and articles on managing change. Please feel free to comment, add feedback or perhaps share your own experiences, recommended reading or favourite resources from the internet.

If you want to meet to discuss any of the elements mentioned here please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Tim Mob 447797762051

KEY THOUGHTS

Against all the evidence, the current wisdom of get the strategy right, structure follows strategy, and then sell, or tell, the people in the organization changes that they often know will not work continues with an astonishing frequency. Managers who once championed change programs frequently, on reflection many years later, relate to me how they underestimated the influence of culture and the damaging impact of poor engagement.

The eighteenth-century British parliamentarian, Edmond Burke, popularized the phrase “economical with the truth.” Most leaders interviewed stated that they did not distort the truth, but presented information in such a way that it was difficult for others to come up with an alternative argument. In this way stakeholders are gently led to a particular conclusion. Being “smart with information” was an oft-repeated phrase among my interviewees.

Not knowing what to do with the negative interactions that now become part of the culture, many CEOs and top directors give undue attention to structures, processes, and procedures. That is their way of handling tensions and counterproductive behavior.

REFERENCE

The Success Formula: How Smart Leaders Deliver Outstanding Value
By Andrew Kakabadse Start reading it for free: http://amzn.eu/hcYNAjQ

GET IN CONTACT

If you to discuss these ideas or anything related to managing change please get in touch.

Tim HJ Rogers
Senior Consultant / Project Manager
Mob 447797762051  Skype timhjrogers Twitter @timhjrogers

Adapt Consulting Company - Consult, CoCreate, Deliver
Business Analysis – Projects – Processes – Programmes
Website http://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com
Linked-In https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhjrogers/



CHANGE SERIES - VISION IS VANITY MISSION IS COMMUNITY

VISION IS VANITY MISSION IS COMMUNITY

This is part of a series of blogs, posts and articles on managing change. Please feel free to comment, add feedback or perhaps share your own experiences, recommended reading or favourite resources from the internet.

If you want to meet to discuss any of the elements mentioned here please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Tim Mob 447797762051

KEY THOUGHTS

By definition the vision-led organization is vulnerable to a poor choice of leader or to a leader who holds a contrasting vision to his or her predecessor. A leader going in a different direction without having built the necessary capability can be more damaging than a leader without a vision.

Vision: an image of our desired future Values: how we expect to travel to where we want to go Purpose or mission: what the organization is here to do Goals: milestones we expect to reach before too long.

As leaders sometimes our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, we take on a multitude of initiatives instead of asking: what are those few initiatives that are going to make the biggest difference?

For us customer delight is the first value. The second value is integrity and respect. And the third value is team together/ team apart. The fourth one is, to create the best place to work and grow. And the fifth one is, count on me.

Alignment refers to the structures, systems, processes, and protocols necessary to position the organization to realize its strategy, objectives, and desired outcomes.

Astoundingly, C-suite executives report that only one out of five executives hired from outside are viewed as high performers at the end of their first year in-house. And ultimately, of the 40 percent of leaders who are hired from outside each year, nearly half fail within the first 18 months. CEB studied more than 320 leaders in 36 organizations and found that external leaders fail because they just don’t work well with the people on their teams.

the corporate functions were making more of the calls than they should. You really need the operators to be running the business and corporate support functions are not there to impose their political will. So, I had to go about unwinding that structure, creating proper business units with the right level of authority and accountability. I clearly was not popular with the corporate functions because they were losing power as a lot of people had to go; there was a fair amount of change and ultimately we got the business structure to run and back into a more reasonable role.

So if alignment is the logic and structure to execute strategy, then engagement is the desire, willingness, motivation (or demotivation) to make the structures and processes work.

Alignment provides a two fold advantage: the reduction of complexity and greater clarity by clearly displaying the links between initiatives. The value proposition is clear. From then on, interrogation focuses more on detail.

REFERENCE

The Success Formula: How Smart Leaders Deliver Outstanding Value
By Andrew Kakabadse Start reading it for free: http://amzn.eu/hcYNAjQ

GET IN CONTACT

If you to discuss these ideas or anything related to managing change please get in touch.

Tim HJ Rogers
Senior Consultant / Project Manager
Mob 447797762051  Skype timhjrogers Twitter @timhjrogers

Adapt Consulting Company - Consult, CoCreate, Deliver
Business Analysis – Projects – Processes – Programmes
Website http://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com
Linked-In https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhjrogers/



CHANGE SERIES - CHALLENGES OF A CORPORATE CENTRE

CHALLENGES OF A CORPORATE CENTRE

This is part of a series of blogs, posts and articles on managing change. Please feel free to comment, add feedback or perhaps share your own experiences, recommended reading or favourite resources from the internet.

If you want to meet to discuss any of the elements mentioned here please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Tim Mob 447797762051

KEY THOUGHTS

Positioning for competitive advantage in different localities is necessary but may not be in keeping with the demands, protocols, and processes of the corporate center. However, the targets and KPIs require that the operating business develop the necessary skills to be differentiated within its country or region. The operating business may clash with the systems of the corporate center and the need for consistency of practice across the enterprise.

The problem, seen from the viewpoint of the general manager, is often that the center won’t listen. He or she is constantly having to explain the reality on the ground to people at corporate HQ who simply don’t listen. There are two sides to every story, of course.

What value does the corporate center provide? Does the corporate center support your pursuit of competitive advantage for your business? Do the processes and procedures of the corporate center support the doing of business in your area? Do you as a business head feel part of the top team?

First, diversity of thinking allows an organization to capture multiple experiences, context, and interests. Second, that data may be used as evidence to understand the opportunities and threats facing the organization if it pursues a given course or strategy. Third, the evidence is interrogated (teased out, tested, and challenged) as the basis for strategic decisions.

In the most successful organizations, leaders interrogate the evidence. Factual detail is the fuel of constructive interrogation. Evidence captures the merit of the case. Evidence draws out the counter arguments, distinguishing assertion from well-balanced argument. A clear display of point and counterpoint enables leaders to reach a shared and balanced view.

Simply put, evidence-based leaders seek out and reward multiple points of view (diversity of thinking), while proposition-based leaders are selective, filtering out, and punishing dissenting voices and only listening to evidence that supports their point of view.

There are a host of books on making an impact. Leaders are expected to change the world in 90 days, 100 days, and so on. But changing any organization without evidence to back up the need for changes is a hopeless task. Evidence is the fuel of change.

Evidence facilitates the reaching of an informed view. More than that, well-considered, detailed evidence acts as the basis for sound teamwork. Trust in each other as team colleagues is insufficient. Sharing a platform of detail stimulates discussion on the contributions necessary to effectively execute strategy. Each member of the team has a role to play in determining the future.

REFERENCE

The Success Formula: How Smart Leaders Deliver Outstanding Value
By Andrew Kakabadse Start reading it for free: http://amzn.eu/hcYNAjQ

GET IN CONTACT

If you to discuss these ideas or anything related to managing change please get in touch.

Tim HJ Rogers
Senior Consultant / Project Manager
Mob 447797762051  Skype timhjrogers Twitter @timhjrogers

Adapt Consulting Company - Consult, CoCreate, Deliver
Business Analysis – Projects – Processes – Programmes
Website http://www.adaptconsultingcompany.com
Linked-In https://www.linkedin.com/in/timhjrogers/