I’d like to start a discussion about how senior leadership teams measure their success. Most stick to the usual top business measures like profitability, quality, and marketshare and these are critical. But they are not sufficient because the impact leaders have – and leadership teams have, in particular – is immense. Are you building an organization that is agile? Likely to remain union free? The senior team makes a big difference.
Here’s what I would recommend including in a good definition of success for leadership teams: Continue reading » »
The higher up the food chain you and your peers are, the more expensive your meetings. AND the higher your hurdle rate should be for the value that the time you send in meetings produces. Regular ground rules are not enough to help you ensure that this precious time is spent wisely. To that end, I created a suped-up set of meeting ground rules just for you! Let me know what you think.
X-Factor Meeting Ground Rules
Participation is not an option, nor is it an invitation to grandstand or over-participate. Everyone is expected to participate in team discussions in ways that moves conversation forward. Each person is also expected to help bring out the best thinking in others. If participation is not strong and focused, it is a team failure.
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I am working on the materials for a two-day class on organizational agility and have adopted the following definition:
Organizational Agility is your enterprise’s capacity to be consistently adaptable without having to change. It is the efficiency with which your organization can respond to nonstop change.
What do you think about this definition? Let’s break it down a bit.
- What does it mean to be consistently adaptable?
- What does “without having to change” look like? What would this look like in the world of sports or the arts?
- What does the phrase “efficiency with which your organization can respond to nonstop change” mean and how does this contrast more traditional change management techniques and methods?
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Middle managers have a tough job and they are the engines that fuel stretegic implementation. Great middle managers engage their employees and create an environment where people are focused, results oriented, and interested in helping the business thrive. Middle managers are a key lever (maybe THE key lever) that a senior team can pull to ensure their intentions come to fruition. So you would think that organizations would know to invest in the care, feeding, and development of their middle managers. I find that the opposite is more often true.
Many of the organizations I worked with using improvement processes and philosophies like Lean. They make HUGE investments in money, time, and other resources to do Lean well. When I ask why they are willing to make this investment, most of my clients talk about how Lean has helped them manage their business, do things more effectively, and involve everyone in quality improvements.
Hmmm…somthing seems amiss here.
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