Q, Q, Q (Quotes, Quotes, Quotes)

• You have to go fast in order to fly
• You eat what you kill (colleague)
• In each company there are 20 peope who run it - rest are workers (Danaher guys)
• Sense comes from non-sense (Jamaican guy in Negril)
• I treat my wife like a queen but she doesn't feel like it (Brandt Allen)
• Strategy is not about planning - it's about thinking (Henry Termeer)

Gorilla experiment

Subjects in one experiment, as reported in Scientific American in March 2004, were told to focus on how many passes a basketball team made in a one-minute video. About halfway through the video, a gorilla emerged and walked across the basketball court. Half the participants in the experiment did not see the gorilla. The more you focus on something, the less able you become to see unexpected or unanticipated happenings. Just as when you drive you have to frequently use the rear- and side-view mirrors while focusing on the road ahead, so do you have to make yourself aware, even if only peripherally, of what may be coming up alongside or behind you.

Steve Covey

Quote: "One who never reads is not better off than one who doesn't know how to read."

Sweet November

Two good quotes from the movie "Sweet November":

"The meaning of life, is to give life meaning."
"You are living in a box - I have to open the lid!"

How to create a learning culture

1. Get clear on valuing learning (= commit)
2. Get started
3. Get informed - create a learning audit
4. Get practical - adult learners want practical learning
5. Get together - social learning is very important
6. Get consistent - support learning not as a fad

How to create innovation

1. Make it the norm
2. Put aside ego
3. Mix people up
4. Don't fear failure
5. Hire outsiders
6. Abandon the crowd
7. Let go of your ideads
8. Don't underestimate science
9. Fight negativity
10. Ask "What if?"
11. Merge patience and passion
12. Outsmart the customers (you can do better)
13. Experiment like crazy
14. Make it meaningful
15. Stop the bickering
16. Don't innovate. Solve problems.

MIT Model of change

1. Persuasive model of communication
2. Participation
3. Use of expectation
4. Role modeling
5. Using extrinsic rewards
6. Making structural and organizational changes
7. Coercing

Kotter's change model (How to...)

1. Establish sense of urgency
2. Create a coalition
3. Develop a clear and powerful vision
4. Communicate the vision everywhere
5. Redesign the organization to remove obstacles to change
6. Find short-term wins to celebrate
7. Consolidate short term wins into new change initiatives
8. Ensure the changes are incorporated into the underlying organizational culture

4 P's of change

1. Purpose (explain why the change is necessary)
2. Picture (help them visualize where you are going)
3. Plan (show them the plan how to get there)
4. Part (show them their part in the change process)

Leading the change process

Steps:
1. Claryfying the disconfirming data
2. Build a change team
3. Designing and leading change experiments
4. Reinforcing results with the new vision

Model of change: C = D x M X P > CC

C = Volume of change
D = Dissatisfaction with the status quo
M = Model for the future
P = Process of change
CC = Cost of change

Roles in change process:

1. Change leader = initiates change
2. Change agent = causes change to begin
3. Change manager = Day to day responsibility
4. Change model = exemplifies the change
5. Changees = people who are asked to change

Source: Jim Clawson, Level 3 Leadership.

Feedback framework

Steps in giving effective feedback

1. Cultivate constructive attitude
2. Focus on specific behavior
3. Focus on impact of behavior
4. Elicit feedback
5. Establish a dialogue about feedback

Steps in receiving feedback

1. Be specific about feedback
2. Be open to feedback
3. Summarize your understanding of the feedback
4. Share your reaction to the feedback

Reward systems

1. Expectancy theory: Motivation is a multiplicative function of
1. Expectancy (that effort will lead to performance), times:
   
2. Expectancy (that performance will be rewarded), times:
   
3. Valence (Different outcomes will be noticed and rewarded)
2. Equity theory:
1. People evaluate and compare the ratio of what they contribute to a situation (input) and an outcome (output) with a ratio for a comparative referent. If the ratio equal than equity exists. If the ratios are unequal than people have a tendency to adjust the ratios.
2. Five possible action levels:
1. Change actual outcomes (e.g. ask for raise, stealing office supplies, etc.)
   
2. Change actual inputs (working less hard, longer breaks, less team player, etc.)
   
3. Change other's outcomes
   
4. Affect other's inputs (distracting them from work, taking credit for her contributions, etc.)
   
5. Leave the situation
   

Also consider the reward mix (fixed, variable, benefits) and reward process. New reward innovations include:

1. Cafeteria-style benefits
2. Broad banding (increase pay steps with job title)
3. Team reward (align own and team goals)
4. Profit sharing
5. ESOP/ Stock options
   

Job Characteristics Model

This model states that 1. creates 2. and then leads to 3.:

1. Core Job Dimensions
   
1. Skill Variety
2. Task Identity
3. Task Significance
4. Autonomy
5. Feedback
2. Psychological states
1. Experience meaningfulness of work
2. Experience responsibility for work outcome
3. Knowledge of the actual results
3. Personal and work outcomes
1. High internal work motivation
2. High quality work performance
3. High satisfaction with the work
4. Low absenteeism and turnover
   

Humor = Barometer

The amount of humor within teams works like a barometer that gauges team integration.

Pies in the US and Japan

One study found that in negotiations in the US, managers are more concerned about splitting the pie equally. Whereas in Japan it was more important to increase the pie and less important to split it later in equal parts.

Communication = Tennis = Bowling

Japanese saying: "He who speaks first at a meeting is a dumb ass."

"Communication in the US is like playing tennis. In Japan, it's more like bowling. You do not face one other and you can set your own pace."

Leading organizations, 3Q 2006.

Change Matrix

Useful 2x2 matrix to discover strengths and weaknesses:

1. Dimension: Change within you / Change cause by you within your organization
2. Dimension: Success / Failure

Source: Leading organziations class, 3Q 2006.

Barriers to change

• Lack of enough effort
• Longer tenure -> can't think outside the box
• Not buying in
• Lack of mentor
• Fear of failure
• Lack of endurance

Source: Leadership class, 3Q 2006.

Resonance

Jim Clawson's 5 key questions on resonance:

1. How do I want to feel today?
2. What does it take to get that feeling?
3. What keeps me from that feeling?
4. How can I get that back?
5. Am I willing to work for it? (point 2!)

Disorientation Take-aways

• Every exit is an entry (Bruner)
  
• Meaning brings an exit to a good end (Bruner)
  
• Always deliver your best result (Clawson)
• Leadership is about managing energy in companies
• Be a net contributer of energy in companies
• If you start dragging yourself to work, you will only deliver mediocre results (Clawson)
  

Four energy zones

There are two dimension of energy zones:
1. Intensity of energy level
2. Quality of energy level

This yields four possible 'zones':

1. Passion zone (high / high)
2. Aggression zone (high / low)
3. Resignation zone (low / low)
4. Comfort zone (low / high)

Companies in the passion or aggression zon are more likely to have success, companies in the resignation zone have nearly given up. Companies in the comfort zone are living on past success.

There are three energy traps:

1. Acceleration trap: efforts to accelerate can lead to a burn-out. This yields issues in prioritizing.
2. Intertia trap: weakening a company's ability to leverage resources. This can come from past successes in a changing environment.
3. Corrosion trap: not chanelling forces together but used to fight internal fights.

How to unleash Organizational energy:
Radical change either yields in reaching the passion (winning the princess) or aggression (slaying the dragon) zone.

Slaying the dragon
Articulate threat, release strong, negative emotions to overcome threat. Requires high-energy, brave and commanding leaders. This approach is often the only choice for a company when they battle for survival.

Winning the princess
Strong positive energy to move people into passion zone. Create an objective desire (the princess) and invoke passion in employees. Requires calm, gentle, inspiring and empathic leaders.

From: Unleashing organizational energy, MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall 2003.