organizing work, creating value: the story so...
TRANSCRIPT
Organizing work, creating value: the story so far.
by Jack Martin LeithBath, United Kingdomjackmartinleith.com
92% of HR and business leaders surveyed by Deloitte cited organization design as their top priority.Source: Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends 2016.
Until we challenge our foundational beliefs, we won’t be able to build organizations that are substantially more capable than the ones we have today.
We need to remind ourselves that bureaucracy was an invention, and that whatever replaces it will also be an invention.
Gary Hamel
Source: Bureaucracy Must Die, by Gary Hamel, in Harvard Business Review.
The Aristotelian-Ptolemaic universe was a purposeful, goal-directed universe.Events such as planetary motion were understood in terms of a striving to fulfill a natural purpose.God played an important “intimate” role in this universe; His thoughts (purposes) were the continual, sustaining cause of all motion.Source: University of Hawai’i website.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 ‐ 1543) Galileo Galilei (1564 ‐ 1642)
René Descartes (1596 – 1650)
Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727)
The industrial revolution 1760 – 1840
Organisation chart
Created by Daniel C. McCallumfor New York & Erie Railroad in 1855.
Max Weber (1864 – 1920): Bureaucracy
Job specialization.Authority hierarchy.Formal selection based on qualifications.Formal rules and regulations.Impersonality (no favouritism).Career orientation.Source: TyroCity.com.
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856 – 1915)
It is only through enforced standardization of methods, enforced adoption of the best implements and working conditions, and enforced cooperation that this faster work can be assured. And the duty of enforcing the adoption of standards and enforcing this cooperation rests with management alone.Source: The Principles of Scientific Management (1911), by Frederick Winslow Taylor.
Mary Parker Follett (1868 – 1933)
Lateral processes within hierarchical organizations (led directly to the formation of first matrix-style organization: DuPont, 1920s).Authority of expertise.Power with, not power over → Starhawk.Coined the term ‘win-win’.Embrace conflict as a mechanism of diversity.Source: Wikipedia.
Alex Osborn
Creative director, BBDO advertising agencyBrainstormingDiverge → ConvergeQuantity → QualityWith Sidney Parnes:Creative Education FoundationOsborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Process
Read more on WikipediaAlexander Osborn in 1939, the year he organized the first “brainstorm sessions” at the innovative Madison Avenue ad agency Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborn
Evolution of innovation theory and practiceOsborn-Parnes Creative Problem Solving Process.
Creative Problem Solving Group (aka CPSB).
NPD consultancies.
Synectics.
?What If!
Gary Hamel / Strategos: Shell GameChanger.
IDEO: design thinking.
Henry Chesbrough: open innovation.
Clayton Christensen: disruptive innovation.
Kurt Lewin (1890 – 1947)Background: Gestalt psychology.Resistance to change [see next slide].Three-stage change process: Unfreeze, Change, Freeze.Force field analysis.Authoritarian, democratic and laissez-faire work environments.Group communication.Group dynamics.National Training Laboratories for Group Development → organisation development.
Resistance to changeIn the organisational realm, the concept was originated by psychologist Kurt Lewin in the 1940s and subsequently misinterpreted.
The following text is the abstract of Challenging ‘Resistance to Change’, a peer reviewed academic paper written by Eric B. Dent (Fayetteville State University; University of Maryland University College—Graduate School of Management and Technology) and Susan Galloway Goldberg (The George Washington University), and published in Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 35 No. 1, March 1999 25-41.
This article examines the origins of one of the most widely accepted mental models that drives organizational behavior: The idea that there is resistance to change and that managers must overcome it.
This mental model, held by employees at all levels, interferes with successful change implementation.
The authors trace the emergence of the term resistance to change and show how it became received truth.
Kurt Lewin introduced the term as a systems concept, as a force affecting managers and employees equally.
Because the terminology, but not the context, was carried forward, later uses increasingly cast the problem as a psychological concept, personalizing the issue as employees versus managers.
Acceptance of this model confuses an understanding of change dynamics. Letting go of the term — and the model it has come to embody — will make way for more useful models of change dynamics.
Richard Beckhard
Change formula:
David Gleicher (1960s) → Richard Beckhard (1970s) → Kathie Dannemiller (1980s).
D = Dissatisfaction with how things are now;V = Vision of what is possible;F = First, concrete steps that can be taken towards the vision;Must be greater thanR = Resistance.
Read more on Wikipedia
Peter Drucker
Management by objectives (1954).
The knowledge worker (1959).
Employees are assets not liabilities.
Decentralization and simplification.
Predicted the end of the ‘blue collar’ worker.
Originator of outsourcing concept.
Community advocate.
“A company’s primary responsibility is to serve its customers.”
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
Eric Trist (Tavistock Institute) and Ken Bamforth(trade unionist)
1951: Some social and psychological consequences of the longwall method of coal getting.Multiskilled autonomous groups, interchanging roles, and shifts with minimal supervision allowed them to mine coal 24 hours a day, without waiting for a previous shift to finish.In spite of that era’s prevailing belief that high productivity came with doing the same task over and over, productivity soared.
Developed by Douglas McGregor at MIT Sloan School of Management during the 1960s.
Read more on Wikipedia
W. Edwards Deming
Genesis: Japan, 1950.Widespread: 1980s.Statistical process control.Total Quality Management.PDSA cycle.14 Points.System of Profound Knowledge
Four lenses through which to view the world:– Appreciating a system– Understanding variation– Psychology– Epistemology
Motorola: Six SigmaToyota: Lean manufacturing
Systems theories
General Systems Theory (Ludwig von Bertalanffy;1940s).
Cybernetics (Norbert Weiner, Ross Ashby,Warren McCulloch, Gregory Bateson; 1950s).
Second-order cybernetics (Living systems:Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela; Autopoiesis—1972).
Management cybernetics (Stafford Beer; 1959).
System dynamics (Jay Forrester; 1950s).
Soft systems methodology (Peter Checkland; 1970s).
Socio-technical systems (Fred Emery, Eric Trist, Ken Bamforth; 1950s).
Complex systems (e.g. Ralph Stacey; 1990s).
Ecosystem metaphor.
Stafford Beer
Management cyberneticsViable System ModelPOSIWID
Fred Emery and Merrelyn EmeryParticipative Design Workshop (1971)
Design Principle 1Redundancy of partsDesign Principle 2Redundancy of functionsSix criteria1. Elbow room for decision making.2. Opportunities for continuous
on-the-job learning.3. Sufficient variety.4. Mutual support and respect.5. Meaningfulness.6. A desirable future, not a dead end.
Read more
Participative systemic change methods1985Large Group Interactive ProcessFord Motor Company→ Real Time Strategic Change (Robert W. ‘Jake’ Jacobs), aka Whole-Scale (Dannemiller Tyson Associates)
Future SearchMarvin Weisbord, Sandra JanoffPrecursor: Search Conferences (Emery & Trist, 1960)
Open Space TechnologyHarrison OwenLiberian tribal gatheringThird Annual Symposium on Organization Transformation
Download Creating collaborative gatherings using large group interventions, by Jack Martin Leith
Shareholder value
The idea that the sole purpose of a firm is to make money for its shareholders got going in a major way with an article by Milton Friedman in the New York Times on 13 September 1970.View source
“The dumbest idea in the world.” –Jack Welch(During his tenure at GE, the company’s value rose 4,000%.)
“Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created
a lot of value for shareholders.”
David Cooperrider: Appreciative Inquiry
4D model (1990).Social constructionism: Reality is socially constructed. Organisations are created, maintained and changed by conversations.See Wikipedia.
“The strategy for an alternative future is to focus on ways a shift in conversation can shift the context and thereby create an intentional future.”Source: Civic Engagement and the Restoration of Community: Changing the Nature of the Conversation, by Peter Block.
The design sector: Pentagram
Founded in 1972.World’s largest independent design consultancy.Multi-disciplinary.Flat: 21 partners (“a group of friends”) + designers & architects.No CEO, CFO or board.Equal ownership.Equal pay for partners.Equal participation and controlof the group’s destiny.Renewal: 1st → 2nd → 3rd
generation partners.Source: Wikipedia.
Business process reengineering
Michael Hammer, Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate, in Harvard Business Review, 1990.
Michael Hammer and James Champy. Reengineering the Corporation: Manifesto for Business Revolution, 1993.
World Wide Web
Tim Berners-Lee, 1989.
Internal communications
Smythe Dorward Lambert (Wolff Olins breakaway – 1989).Lotus Notes.Sharepoint.Intranets.Enterprise communications.
Peter Senge (1990)System dynamics
Tannenbaum & Schmidt Bryan Smith
How to choose a leadership pattern, by Robert Tannenbaumand Warren H. Schmidt, in Harvard Business Review (1958)
The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies for Building a Learning Organization, by Peter Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Rick Ross and Bryan J. Smith (1994)
Robert Tannenbaum and Warren H. Schmidt (1958)→ Bryan J. Smith (1994)
Leadership
Tao Te Ching (4th century BC).Tannenbaum and Schmidt (1958).Managerial grid (Robert Blake and Jane Mouton, 1964).Situational leadership (Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard, 1970s).
Outdoor leadership development (1990s).Leadership Development Framework(Bill Torbert & David Rooke, 1990s).Servant leadership (Robert Greenleaf, 1991).Host leadership (Mark McKergow, 2014).
Stephen Bungay: The executive’s trinity —management, leadership and command
NASA Mission Control Center, Houston
The executive’s trinity—management, leadership and command, by Stephen Bungay, Director, AshridgeStrategic Management Centre
Coaching
GROW model:Timothy Galwey: Inner GameSir John WhitmoreAlan Fine Graham Alexander (1980s)
NLP coaching.Gestalt coaching.Systemic coaching.Narrative coaching.Somatic coaching.
Action learningReg Revans. Genesis: 1950s.Widespread: 1990s.Director of education, National Coal Board.Collaborators: E. F. Schumacher and Eric Trist.Revans Academy, Manchester Business School.Read more on Wikipedia
Organisational culture
The idea of culture as shared beliefs or values goes back at least to Tom Burns and G.M. Stalker (1961). View sourceIn Search of Excellence, by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman (1982).Edgar Schein (1985).Social constructionism:“Culture is conversation.”
Edgar Schein
Values
Values and Lifestyles: VALS Group, SRI International (1978).Spiral Dynamics—Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change: Don Beck and Christopher Cowan (1996).
Strategy
Sun Tzu, Chinese general; The Art of War (544 – 496 BC).Carl von Clausewitz, Prussian general (early 1800s).Michael Porter (1980s).Strategy can be framed as a plan, a pattern, a position, a perspective, or a ploy. Source: Henry Mintzberg, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning (1994). Read moreStrategy innovation (Gary Hamel, late 1990s)Business model innovation (Alex Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur, 2008).
Strategy: an organising idea
The Prussian General Staff, under the elder von Moltke, did not expect a plan of operations to survive beyond the first contact with the enemy. They set only the broadest of objectives and emphasized seizing unforeseen opportunities as they arose. Strategy was not a lengthy action plan. It was the evolution of a central idea through continually changing circumstances.
Source: The return of von Clausewitz, in The Economist.
SpaceX mission and strategy
Read more: How (and Why) SpaceX Will Colonize Mars, by Tim Urban, Wait But Why, from his interview with Elon Musk.
John Kotter
Book: Leading Change (1996).8-Step Process for Leading Change:1. Create a sense of urgency.2. Build a guiding coalition.3. Form a strategic vision and initiatives.4. Enlist a volunteer army.5. Enable action by removing barriers.6. Generate short-term wins.7. Sustain acceleration.8. Institute change.Read more
Engagement
1970s, 1980s: Employee satisfaction.1990: Employee engagement (Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work, by William A. Kahn, in Academy of Management Journal).1990s: Gallup Q12 employee engagement measurement tool.2015: KPMG drops annual engagement surveys—“Not evidence based.” (Source: KPMG dumps ‘abused’ staff surveys, by Agnes King, in Financial Review.)
Engage in what, and for whose ultimate benefit?
The Business Case for PurposeDeloitte Global 2015 Millennial SurveyDeloitte 2016 Global Human Capital TrendsIDT Survey 2015: Skills for digital transformation
Purpose
Is your company worth believing in? The most successful companies are those who have a purpose shared by all stakeholders, which motivates everyone involved to greater success.Source: Wake Up & Shake Up Your Company, by Andrew Campbell and Richard Koch (1993).
Employees Business leaders
See Putting Purpose to Work: A study of purpose in the workplace, by PwC.
Additional information
The Talent Factor77 percent of Millennials believe that businesses must be driven by more than profit , and choose their place of work based on their employers’ purpose.
Source: Deloitte Global 2015 Millennial Survey.
In almost equal measure, Millennials, Gen Xers and Baby Boomers have the career goals of “Help solve social and/or environmental challenges” and “Do work I am passionate about.”
Source: IBM Institute for Business Value—Myths, Exaggerations and Uncomfortable Truths: The Real Story Behind Millennials in the Workplace.
Barry Schwartz, professor of psychology at Swarthmore College and author of Why We Work, is optimistic. When I spoke to him recently, he observed that as “the millennials ascend, they will change organizations” because “meaning is an important part of their agenda” and “workplaces are going to have to listen or else [they] are not going to get the best talent.”
Source: Paychecks with a Purpose, by Susan Cramm, in strategy+business.
Purpose
At the leadership level, there is a sizable disconnect between how important purpose is claimed to be for business and how central purpose actually is to business decisions.79% of business leaders believe that purpose is central to business success and to an organization’s existence; yet, only 34% agree that purpose is a guidepost for leadership decision-making.Without purpose as the bedrock of an organization, all efforts to build purpose constructs upon it will prove futile.Source: Putting Purpose to Work: A study of purpose in the workplace, by PwC.
Purpose
Purpose is not an initiative; it is a way of business.It must be core to the decisions, conversations, and behaviors across all levels to be authentic and deliver the wealth of advantages it promises. Now, more than ever, companies must cultivate the power of purpose if they are to succeed in a world where the opportunities—and responsibilities—of business have never been greater.Source: Putting Purpose to Work: A study of purpose in the workplace, by PwC.
Frederic Laloux: Reinventing Organizations (2014)
Former McKinsey consultant.Teal organisations.Fundamental characteristics:
Self-managementWholenessEvolutionary purpose
Worldview Aristotelian-Ptolmaic
Newtonian-Cartesian Pre-systemic Systemic Post-systemic
How world is seen God’s work Machine Network System Web of life
Wilber colour code MagentaRed
AmberOrange Green Teal Turquoise
How the org is seen Machine Family Living system
Frederic Laloux (based on Ken Wilber and Spiral Dynamics)
Jack Martin Leith
Holacracy
A comprehensive practice for structuring, governing, and running an organization. A complete system for self-organization.Originated by Brian Robertson, a former software engineer.Named and introduced in 2007.Dynamic roles replace static job descriptions.Distributed authority replaces delegated authority.Rapid iterations replace big re-orgs.Transparent rules replace office politics.Tensions drive everything. A tension is a person’s felt sense that there is a gap between current reality and a potential future, between what is and what could be.
Holacracy
Holacracy: generic roles
Lead Link A Role that holds the Purpose of the overall Circle. The Lead Link is responsible for assigning people to Roles that have been created through Governance Meetings. The Lead Link also allocates resources and defines Priorities, Strategies, and Metrics within the Circle.
Rep Link An elected Role used to represent the interests of a sub-Circle to its super-Circle. Also note that the Lead Link of a Circle may not serve as the Rep Link of that Circle. Rep Links allow Tensions from the sub-Circle to be processed by the super-Circle when the issue seems to extend beyond the sub-Circle’s current authority.
Secretary An elected Role with the Purpose of aligning Circle Governance and operations with the Constitution through maintaining Circle records, scheduling meetings, and interpreting Governance upon request. The Secretary works actively and collaboratively with the Facilitator during Governance and Tactical Meetings.
Source: A glossary of key Holacracy terms.
Home-grown self-organisation operating systems
Examples:SpotifyMorning Star CompanyW.L. Gore & AssociatesPatagoniaBuurtzorgMediumAugust How Spotify organises work
Agile + Lean Start-up. Squad: A development team with a long-term mission.Tribe: A collection of squads working in related areas.Chapter: People with similar expertise.Guild: A cross-tribe community of interest.
Product Owner
Download Scaling Agile @ Spotify with Tribes, Squads, Chapters & Guilds (pdf), by HenrikKniberg & Anders Ivarsson
Ultimately, and somewhat ironically, the next generation of self-managing teams is demanding a new generation of leaders—senior individuals with the vision to see where it is best to set aside hierarchy for another way of operating, but also with the courage to defend hierarchy where it serves the institution’s fundamental goals.Source: Beyond the Holacracy Hype, by Ethan Bernstein, John Bunch, Niko Canner, and Michael Lee, in Harvard Business Review.
Jack Martin Leith is a co-creation consultant working with large corporates and nonprofit organizations. He is also a lifelong innovator and an entrepreneur.
He is currently making preparations to launch a social enterprise that will operate beyond the professional services sector.
Jack is based in Bath, UK.
Tel: 07583 601234 (+44 7583 601234)
Twitter: @JackMLeith
Email: jack@ jackmartinleith.com
Web: jackmartinleith.com