By Jem Smith
Introduction
Robert Kaiser makes an intriguing argument as to why many executives see their career progress suddenly interrupted, arguing that for many ambition and inflexibility, which may have contributed to their early success, can become such a handicap in senior leadership positions that it eclipses their intelligence and work ethic, causing them to become a liability.
Introduction
The UK is currently deafened by the sound of executives crashing and burning as their careers derail in the unfolding phone hacking scandal – Rebecca Brooks and John Yates to name just two. Robert Kaiser argues that there is an identifiable phenomena of ‘high fliers’ who see their career progress suddenly interrupted when a firestorm erupts around them, as is happening in News International right now. The question is, why do some executives come to such an abrupt end? Is it just bad luck, or is it something to do with the attributes they bring to the job?
Leaders and managers are increasingly expected to introduce changes in work practices, routines and structures as part of their management role. Myths abound about the challenges of doing this. Here we lay five to rest.
A Self-Organising Meeting
The Open Space process allows people to contribute to conversations that interest and energise them. It ensures that all topics that need to be discussed, are discussed. It allows people to add value to the discussions in a way that works for them. It disrupts established patterns of organisational behaviour, allowing new voices, views, opinions and perspectives to be heard and developed.
In this conversation we got interested in:
Q: What do I do to enable others to lead?
Trust
Trust gets withdrawn in a crisis -> Q: What is we want people TO DO? [as opposed to not do].
Its never only 1 answer but there can be common goals.
Q: Who is the most important customer/client in this particular context?
What’s It For?
The World Café process is designed to help people talk together, exchanging ideas and developing their thinking about an issue in a relaxed, informal, yet purposive way. In small ‘café groupings’ of no more than six people, groups discuss particular questions or topics with the aim of expanding their understanding of their own and others’ views and of the possibilities. World Café is useful in many contexts, and excels when the main object is to connect and explore around a particular topic. At its best it produces conversation that connects, has energy, is emergent, magic and values not knowing as well as knowledge.
Simu-Real is a technique used to represent an organisation to itself by showing its members how the different parts of the organisation affect each other in their work. By showing how the behavior of the constituent pieces of the whole have unforeseen or unappreciated consequences elsewhere in the organisation it allows the participants to analyse and change their ways of working to be more helpful to each other. Here are answers to some commonly asked questions about Simu-Real.
What is it?
Appreciative Inquiry is a psychologically based, revolutionary way of approaching organisational change and development. It is based on an understanding of the organization as a living human system. It calls on all the things that encourage change in people: energy, excitement, imagination, empathy and connection, trust, relationships, understanding, shared goals and concerns, and a strong desire to be connected with good things.