Innovation – the creation of something new and useful – is the lifeblood of organizational success. Now more than ever, organizations rely on innovation as the single most promising strategy to growth. The most astute organizations are trying to stimulate innovation by building cultures that encourage it, but many are finding that this is easier said than done.
Where does innovation come from? In his new book “The Rational Optimist”, Matt Ridley (See The Wall Street Journal, May 22-23, 2010) tells us that Neanderthals, who had bigger brains than ours and were capable of speech, barely invented any new tools in the hundreds of thousands of years that they survived. What accounts for the explosion of culture and inventiveness, e.g. the creation of farms, cities, tools, processes and technology, in the more recent past is ‘Collective Intelligence’ – the sum of interaction and exchange between individuals.
It should come as no surprise that innovation relies on exchange of ideas that come from different sources, like a physician talking to a rocket scientist leading to camera guided surgical procedures. On a smaller scale, almost every organization carries the seeds of innovation in the diversity of perspectives represented by different disciplines. The challenge lies in getting these groups and individuals, many of whom speak different professional languages and even have different values, to routinely share their ideas in the spirit of collaboration and in support of innovation.
The Delphi Group, Inc can help organizations define and implement the structures, practices and behaviors to shape a culture that supports innovation. The fact that we ourselves are a cross-functional team (John is an electrical engineer and was a product manager at Procter & Gamble before starting his consulting practice, Dana is a Ph.D. in Psychology and has practiced as an organization development consultant and mediator) has helped us develop innovative approaches to helping organizations define and achieve their strategies. Learn more at www.thedelphigroup.com

Ref:  Wall Street Journal, April 7, 2010, Marketplace

Is General Motors finally ‘getting it’?  The April 20, 2010 edition of The Wall Street Journal reports that General Motors plans to make an early repayment of it’s remaining $4.7 billion in U.S. government loans.  CEO Whitacre forecasts a “solid” first quarter and sales are up 17% from a year earlier.

Of course time will tell.  One thing that is certain is that GM is in need of a drastic change of culture …… i.e. how they go about doing things, including internal processes.

Changing organizational culture is not a simple task, though it must begin with thoughtful, specific actions taken at the top.  An example is outlined in the WSJ April 7, 2010 article noted in this blog’s title.

The example noted a recent meeting in which top management from the company’s technology centers was asked to present their plans for a new generation of cars and trucks to the CEO.  “But before the executuives could present the pictures, charts and financial projections they had prepared, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., CEO,  stopped them to ask why they were having the meeting in the first place.”

“Y’all have checked all this out pretty thoroughly, Mr. Whitacre said in his Texas drawl.  I imagine you’re not going to approve something that’s bad or unprofitable, so why don’t you make the final decisions?”

The article goes on to note that “pushing authority and decision-making down into GM’s multilayered organization and cutting bureaucracy are a big part of the change Mr. Whitacre is trying to bring to the car maker.”

Such change involves risk, trust and willingness to push an organization out of its prior comfort zone.  Many of these types of actions may not necessarily work the first time, because the organization is not accustomed to such ‘radical’ changes and it doesn’t yet trust the leader’s intent.  Part of this level of culture change involves sticking to changed behaviors at the top and expecting similar changes in leadership and management throughout the organization.

The newly appointed CEO of another global client of The Delphi Group, Inc. decided that the very first order of business was to clarify the intended culture that was necessary for the future of this organization.  After also solidifying a partially new senior management team, she embarked on a global tour of ‘walking the talk’, describing the intended culture and associated changes that were necessary.

Top management demonstrating this behavior is necessary, but not sufficient.  Organizations making drastic cultural change must be willing to look at (and change, if necessary) all of their systems and processes associated with day-to-day business so that they are aligned with the intended Vision and Culture.  Many large scale organizational culture change initiatives have not succeeded because they failed to do so.

Where is your organization’s culture relative to your long range strategic needs?

Consider the Leading & Managing Change Mini-Survey on our website:  www.thedelphigroup.com

 …… Here Are Some New Tricks for an Old Dog

The phrase Performance Management typically congers up feelings and memories of required annual reviews, forms and ratings that were not only less than meaningful but seen by both those on the sending and receiving ends as toil, something to be avoided if at all possible and most likely justified by bean counters and personnel people trying to justify annual wage increases.  Formal reviews, while serving some purposes, are rarely motivational and often ineffective and misused.

So, Performance Management got a bad name and less-than-desirable reputation along the way!

Perhaps we should find a new name for this old dog, but as a minimum, some new tricks are in order.  Effective management of performance is part of the day-to-day culture of an organization ….. it is a way of operating that either contributes to or detracts from everyone’s motivation and commitment to success, and, it is everyone’s responsibility. 

Effective performance management depends upon clear expectations, individual responsibility for self-assessment and self-development and (if one has direct reports) assisting in the development of others.

 At every level of the organization outcomes, results, goals, deliverables must be clear and aligned with overall organizational strategy.  This is one level of alignment that represents “what” we’re intending to do or accomplish.

Another, and sometimes more difficult level of alignment, is based on clarity around the skills and behaviors (at every organizational level) that are necessary to support the overall organizational strategy.  These are not only the technical or specialist skills required of all organizations, but also include process skills, such as effective interactive skills, conflict resolution, problem-solving, cross-boundary collaboration skills, awareness of one’s impact on others, project management, cross-cultural understanding (esp for global organizations), etc.  This represents “how” we’re intending to go about the work of the organization and is a second level of alignment

The combination of all of these factors represents the whole of performance management.  People are generally self-aware of how they’re doing.  Management and leadership practices must expect, support, coach and develop individuals to make ongoing adjustments to their own ability to deliver results (overall goals/objectives)  and skill development.  Skills are the ‘means to the end’ ….. skills are how results/goals/objectives are achieved.

For the manager of others, performance is not a ‘hands off’ proposition, however it is much more than the old annual review process, which should only summarize what every person already knows about their performance.  The most impactful near-term feedback is done in a moment by moment, informal, manner ……. sincere, effectively communicated, informal feedback is the most important part of performance management for the manager of others (along with facilitating self-assessment) …………. do you and the managers in your organization have the skills to do this?

How is your organization or business doing in terms of performance management???

Consider the Mini-Surveys on Coaching and Leadership Development at our website:  www.thedelphigroup.com

Most of us can recall a time when we’ve been a part of a ‘high-performing’ team or group.  These are the times when everyone pulls together to achieve a particular goal or outcome.  This occurs most frequently in times of crisis, emergency or extreme urgency.

During such times, it is almost unnecessary to clarify the goal or to talk about individual roles because these are self-evident ….. everyone just pitches in to do what needs to be done … people take initiative to find necessary resources.  Of course, part of the motivation and intrigue associated with these occasions is that everyone knows that its duration is finite.

I am always surprised at the number of teams and groups (not in crisis) that give little to no deliberate thought to how they intend to function and operate.  This can apply to in-tact work teams, project teams or task forces.

Some manager/leaders think “if we get the right people together they’ll work well as a team” ….. conversely, if a team is not working well it’s because they’re not the right people for this task.  To some extent this may be true, but, generally neither is totally true.

The assumption that, left to their own devices, teams just learn to work together, or not, can lead to wasted time and money.

Teams and groups can be jump-started …. And this can happen at any time in their life as a team …. Of course, ideally, this happens in the beginning.  This is not about having social time together, often referred to as “team building”.  True team building engages the entire team in a deliberate and intentional discussion of:

• The overall Mission or Purpose, i.e. reason for being.
• The Goals/Objectives/Deliverables …. What must be accomplished
• Roles:  who does what, individual responsibilities & accountabilities
• Practices:  how we intend to operate on an ongoing basis … i.e. sharing information, getting resources, resolving disagreements, managing workload, etc.
• Relationships:  “how do we work together in a mutually supportive way”.  This makes an important assumption and should be an expectation for any team that intends to maximize its performance.  Team members must be able to say what they need, don’t need, get, and don’t get from one another and to give one another feedback (often a skill or practice that is erroneously assumed to be only a role of the boss)

Having said this, this task is not as easy as it seems.  It is important that this work be effectively facilitated and that it be an engaged, working discussion …. It is not the boss answering these questions and telling the team.

How does your team measure up?  Take our Mini-Survey on High-Performing Teams at www.thedelphigroup.com

We seem now to have entered an age in which the notion of collaboration is ubiquitous.  U.S. Intelligence Agencies are urged to collaborate in order to ‘connect the dots’ to prevent terrorist activity, state and local agencies are being asked to collaborate (and one step further – consolidate) to achieve efficiency and cost savings, within organizations, functional departments must collaborate to become more innovative, agile and responsive to customers.  The very word ‘collaboration’ has taken on a motherhood-and apple-pie sort of goodness connotation.

How do these two concepts jibe with one another?  Is it possible to become collaborative when individuals, groups, whole organizations have been programmed and rewarded to compete?  If so, how do we do it? And is collaboration really right for every situation?  How do we determine where it is useful and where it might not be?

We believe that there are definite benefits to becoming collaborative in some situations, particularly those that are characterized by the following:

• The entity as a whole (i.e. nation, state, agency, organization, community, family) clearly has something to gain as a result of all members working together
• The members care about the well-being of the whole and are likely to profit in some way by its success
• There are potential ‘elegant’ and creative paths or strategies that benefit the whole as well as most of the members in the long term

Even when these conditions are present, it may not be an easy thing to turn a traditionally competitive set of relationships into collaborative ones.  One sure-fire way to guarantee failure is to continue to reward ‘winners’ without also compensating collaborative activities and outcomes. Although difficult, it is possible for organizations to create a balance between encouraging healthy internal competition and maintaining a culture that rewards loyalty to the organization as a whole.

To do this takes more than well thought out policies:  It takes a set of skills and behaviors that may not come naturally to most.  These include all of the skills associated with resolving differences and managing conflict constructively.

What does culture have to do with strategy?

Successful strategies are clear and focused on a few key priorities or strategic intents, e.g. Wal-Mart’s focus on just-in-time inventory or Google’s intent to continuously innovate.  Implementing these strategies requires that every individual’s performance be consistent with the priority.  At Google, every associate must have the resources, support and capabilities to perform the tasks associated with innovation, and know that he or she will be rewarded accordingly.  There should be no obstacles or disincentives for the desired behavior.

This may seem like common sense. However, we find that in many organizations, practices, policies and behaviors are at odds with strategy.  Frequently, rewards and consequences are out of line with what is or should be expected, resulting in confusion or disbelief that the strategic intent is real.  If an organization decides that its’ winning strategy must include excellent customer service but employees are rewarded for spending the least amount of time possible on the phone with customers, it will be difficult to successfully implement the strategy.

Can culture be changed?

Because culture develops over time and often operates at an unconscious level, it can be difficult to change.  It is first necessary to make this implicit set of beliefs and behaviors explicit by doing an assessment of how the organization currently operates.  In fact, this first step can have a dramatic impact all by itself.  Once the current culture is understood, it becomes relatively easy to determine what a culture consistent with the chosen strategy would look like and what needs to be different

Fortunately, culture is never completely static. It evolves continuously based on day to day actions and decisions.  The greatest challenge in changing culture to fit strategy is acknowledging the need for change.  The next step is clearly and consistently communicating what the desired culture is and asking everyone to participate in defining their role in bringing it about.

Dana Morris-Jones
The Delphi Group, Inc

If Collaboration is so effective, why aren’t we all doing it?

It takes more than assembling a group of people and giving them a common task to make them effective collaborators. Even with the best of intentions, individuals have a strong tendency to defend their own views, perspectives and interests.  How can organizations harness the power of Collaboration and overcome this tendency?

Check this list:

• Make sure the group is jointly responsible for the outcome – either the entire group is credited and rewarded or no one is; the desired outcome must be very clear
• Clarify each person’s role and contribution – everyone should understand everyone else’s expertise and reason for being there
• Take time to let the group get acquainted and become familiar with one another’s background; people come with different ways of thinking, speaking, relating
• Define practices for ‘how we’ll work together’ – communication, information sharing, decision-making
• Teach people how to participate in ‘Dialogue’, which requires listening for understanding, suspension of judgment, exploration of assumptions, inquiry and reflection
• Expect the group to critique its own practices and progress and self-correct when necessary

Though it takes extra effort to create true Collaboration,
the outcomes generally justify the effort!

The Delphi Group can help you build Collaboration into your culture

Dana Morris-Jones
The Delphi Group, Inc

“Coaching is attracting America’s top CEO’s because, put simply, [it] works……..managers described an average return of more than $100,000, or about 6 times what the coaching had cost their companies”.
Fortune Magazine

“Many of the world’s most admired corporations, from GE to Goldman Sachs, invest in coaching. Annual spending on Coaching in the U.S is estimated at roughly $1 Billion”.
Harvard Business Review

“Today more than ever we face unprecedented change in our organizations that focuses our energy on preparing leaders to meet these new challenges. One of the most innovative and adaptable applications is Executive Coaching.”
The Conference Board

Recent studies on the value of Coaching for Leaders report:

• 77% of those coached improved working relationships with direct reports
• 67% reported improvements in teamwork
• 53% reported improved productivity of their units

Could You or Others in Your Organization Benefit from Executive Coaching?

The answer is yes if you answer ‘NO’ to any of these questions:

1. People who work here know where the organization is headed and are 100% committed to helping to get there
2. People here know where they fit and how their contribution matters
3. Leaders and Managers across the organization work together effectively to determine and execute the strategy
4. Excellent performance is rewarded and poor performance is not accepted for long
5. There is an upbeat and optimistic feeling about the future
6. Responsibility and authority are distributed, making everyone feel empowered

Coaching can turn average managers into awesome leaders!

Dana Morris-Jones
The Delphi Group, Inc

Manchester, “Executive Coaching Yields Return on Investment of Almost 6 Times in Costs”, Jan, 4, 2001. MetrixGlobal, “Executive Briefing: Case Study on the Return on Investment of Executive Coaching”, Nov.2, 2001

1. The ability to inspire others to do great things by:

2. The ability to lead change in a way that creates ownership by:

3. The ability to get things done:

• Thinking Strategically
• Thinking Systemically
• Problem-Solving
• Resolving Differences Constructively

4. Modeling the behaviors you want of others:

• Authenticity
• Courage
• Perseverance
• Openness