(in an overly dramatic, motherly voice) Where have you been Young Man? The short answer is… busy. I’ll give a quick recap below but about my college life but first I wanted to cover some new material.
TED.com
On my hour long drive to work I was listening to classic books on my phone via Bluetooth. I discovered that was REALLY boring because 18th and 19th century novelists are like soap opera writers, IT JUST KEEPS GOING ON AND ON. I have switched and am now listening to TED talks. If you don’t know what TED talks are, go to TED.com and check them out. The premise is that really smart people talk for about 20 minutes on whatever their field of study or business covers. Again, check them out, they are very cool.
Discussion of the Day - Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action on TED talks
Let’s start this discussion with WOW. His concept is simple, but mink blowing in the sense that people don’t think like this. The concept is that if we convey our WHY (vision) to everyone, that will get them to buy into our concept. This is not a new idea, but he is very good at conveying it. His idea includes three concentric circles; in the inner circle is WHY, the middle is HOW and the outer is WHAT. SEE FIGURE 1.
Most organizations work from the outside in:
· They know WHAT they do – “we make computers” or “we maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression and maintaining freedom of the seas.”
· Most know HOW they do it through their Business Process Management (BPM).
· Very few know WHY they do it.
He uses the analogy “a computer company would say ‘we make great computers (WHAT), they are beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly (HOW), do you want to by one (WHY)?’“
The great companies will take the opposite approach and start from the inside and work out. That analogy looks like Apple and sounds like this “Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo, we believe in thinking differently (WHY) we challenge the status quo by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly (HOW) we just happen to make great computers, do you want to buy one (WHAT)?”
On his website, Simon goes on to make the three circles into a cone, where the WHY is on the top, How is in the middle and WHAT is on the bottom. He states that the WHY should be practiced by the top leaders, etc. To add to the idea, you could see the cone as a metaphor for a megaphone and the top leader will be shouting their message (WHY) through it.
He is repackaging visionary leadership (either transcendent, servant or authentic leadership) but it still is a powerful concept that we could embrace at work, home and community. Check out his speech at:
http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html
Back to College Life
I started my Ph.D. program on April 14th with a Benedictine University Seminar Weekend. Dr. Chris Worley was the guest speaker. Also Gretchen just started her MBA in Marketing. Wow, a lot of learning going on in this house. The OPTEMPO is high, but the payoffs will be worth it. Gretchen is one hell of a networker so if you need someone in Marketing 2 years from now, let me know.
Organization Development
If you don’t who Chris Worley is; I will give you a brief bio. He is one of the leading people in the world of Organization Development (OD) and is co-author of an OD textbook considered to be the bible of OD. He also wrote a very significant book called Built to Change, that deals with organizations and change. It sounds boring but is pretty interesting to see where businesses are trending. His last book, Management Reset takes the concepts that he built in Built to Change and builds upon them with the triple bottom line for business – profit, social and economic responsibility. In the foreword, the CEO of Patagonia even suggests a four forces (IVF) model that encompasses environmental stewardship, corporate citizenship, product or service quality and financial strength.
If you haven’t read my other blogs, you are probably saying to yourself “Organization Development, what the heck is that?” Good question, and when we in the OD field find a definition, we’ll let you know. Just kidding. OD is about helping an organization define itself, change itself and manage itself. In our OD text, which has been cited as the OD Bible, there are FIVE definition of OD! I will give you the proper definition as:
OD is the system wide process of data collection, diagnosis, action planning, intervention and evaluation aimed at (1) enhancing congruence among organizational structure, process, strategy, people and culture; (2) developing new and creative organizational solutions; and (3) developing the organization’s self-renewing capacity. It occurs through collaboration of organizational members working with a change agent using behavioral science theory, research and technology
If that doesn’t sound like fun, I don’t know what does…
The coursework itself and the people that I have met so far are very interesting. I am enjoying it and will update my status periodically.
Studying for the PMP
I haven’t given up, but had to put that on hold until I can get my Ph.D. material under control.
Ding, ding, time’s up. I have ranted for my ten minutes (actually 3 hours) and as always I appreciate your readership. Please feel free to ask me questions or add comments to our discussion.
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