Chair
Martha Kesler
Vice Chair
Jamie Kelly
Treasurer
Amy Cowart
Trustees
Marco Cassone
Sherry Duda
Steven Goodwin
Jean Hartmann
Cindy Miller
Sanjay Naik
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MANAGING UNCERTAINTY & CHANGE
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How Values-Based Leadership Transforms Organizational Cultures
Brent Gleeson, Forbes
Simply put, organizational culture is the collective result of how people on the team think and behave, their shared values and how they react to internal and external stimuli. A company culture is either decisively created and nurtured from the very beginning or - more typically - it develops haphazardly over time through the beliefs and experiences of those on the team.
But when an organization is facing the need for some kind of change to remain competitive, cut costs, develop new products, become more efficient or improve quality, often times the culture is going to have to transform as well. Almost always. Because a new way of doing things requires a new way of thinking, especially from the leaders at all levels. And many studies show that the majority of significant organizational change efforts fail.
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Uber Bare: Four Steps To Avoiding A Corporate Culture Disaster
Rajeev Peshawaria, Forbes
The now viral blog about the alleged culture of rampant sexual harassment and Human Resources’ negligence at Uber prompted Bloomberg to come up with the headline: Uber CEO, With Tears in His Eyes, Apologises for Company Culture.
In the old days when we were not as connected as we are now, it was possible for people and corporations to hide information or remain anonymous. We now live in the open source era where smartphones, computers, surveillance satellites, and drones abound, and where everything is fully transparent and exposed. Today, like it or not, reputation is king.
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| MANAGING UNCERTAINTY & CHANGE
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What Makes Change Harder — or Easier
Markus Spiegel, Theresa Schmiedel, and Jan vom Brocke, MIT Sloan Management Review
Before you adopt any popular new management approach, it pays to analyze the implicit values embedded in it. Then ask yourself: How well will those values fit our existing organizational culture?
In today’s turbulent business environment, many companies are undergoing major innovation or change initiatives. These transformational efforts are often accompanied by the introduction of new management practices and methods. The reasons for such changes are many: The “old way” of doing things no longer delivers desired results, a new strategy needs to be implemented, new technologies should be leveraged, or an entire business model needs revamping. Unfortunately, transformational initiatives often fail to live up to expectations or to deliver the intended results in a timely manner.
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Managing Change in India: Complexities of Unlocking Our Potential
Vikram Bhalla and Amit Kumar, Live Mint
We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there — Charles F. Kettering
India is changing at an unprecedented rate. Most of us understand this, but underestimate the speed, degree and permanence of this transformation. Changing aspirations, technology and globalization are driving deep disruptions all around us. Many of these changes are unprecedented—India is connected today in a way that has never been true before. In October 2015, India crossed the billion mobile subscriber mark. Aadhaar, considered the world’s largest biometric identification system, crossed the billion mark a few months later. India has the largest number of Facebook users with over 195 million subscribers. Another sign was the singular focus on development as an election agenda in the 2014 general election. This was the first time since 1984 that a single party won a majority on its own.
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Strategies For Managing Employees Who Resist Change
Shawn Kent Hayashi, Forbes
Growing a business often requires developing people. But what can a leader do if someone on the team isn’t interested in growing?
In my work as an executive coach and consultant for high-performing teams, I often counsel executives who have two different mindsets toward growth. Some people are excited by change, seeing it as an adventure and opportunity, while others fear and resist it because of the unknown. Outstanding leaders tune into these differences and value what more cautious team members bring to the table while also coaching them to embrace growth.
What if someone is downright resistant to change?
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How One Law Measurably Lifted the Status of Women in India
Priti Kalsi, Harvard Business Review
The impact of female political leaders goes beyond their policies. One way it occurs is through the role model effect: Public exposure to women at the top has been shown to reduce social bias and improve living conditions for women. Studies have shown that female political leadership increases the likelihood that a woman is elected again, that crimes against women are less likely to go unreported, and that parents state higher aspirations for their daughters.
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How to Get Diversity Initiatives Right
Sharon Florentine, CIO
Despite the increased attention paid to diversity in tech, problem persists, according to new research from job search site Indeed, and that's negatively impacting companies' bottom lines. Addressing the issue requires a focus not only on diversity, but on inclusion to create a welcoming environment where talent can truly thrive.
Indeed polled 1,002 U.S. technology workers in December 2016, and found that 24 percent of respondents felt they had been personally discriminated against at their current company. In addition, almost half (45 percent) of women said they witnessed non-inclusionary behavior, with 34 percent reporting they have been made personally uncomfortable. Over half (64 percent) of non-white respondents have felt personally uncomfortable, compared to 24 percent of respondents who identify as white.
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New Research Helps Organizations Deliver Stronger Diversity Training
Matthew Biddle, Phys.org
While diversity training programs are a good way to build awareness of cultural differences, they usually are not as effective at changing attitudes and behaviors toward diverse groups in the workplace, according to new research from the University at Buffalo School of Management.
Published in Psychological Bulletin, the study found diversity training can be successful—but that results vary widely based on the content and length of training and whether it was accompanied by other related initiatives.
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4 Models for Using AI to Make Decisions
Michael Schrage, Harvard Business Review
Charismatic CEOs enjoy leading and inspiring people, so they don’t like delegating critical business decisions to smart algorithms. Who wants clever code bossing them around? But that future’s already arrived. At some of the world’s most successful enterprises — Google, Netflix, Amazon, Alibaba, Facebook — autonomous algorithms, not talented managers, increasingly get the last word. Elite MBAs (Management by Algorithm) are the new normal.
Executives dedicated to data-driven excellence accept the reality that smart algorithms need greater autonomy to succeed. Empowering algorithms is now as organizationally important as empowering people. But without clear lines of authority and accountability, dual empowerment guarantees perpetual conflict between human and artificial intelligence.
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A 5-Step Process to Get More Out of Your Organization’s Data
Jon M. Jachimowicz, Harvard Business Review
“My best employees are leaving,” Daniel told me, “and I can’t seem to figure out why.”
Daniel (not his real name) was a VP human resource manager at a Fortune 500 company. I asked him whether he had collected any data that could provide him with insights into systematic patterns. “I made sure we get exit interviews done with every single employee who is leaving us,” he replied. “I even personally conducted some myself! But no consistent pattern is emerging. I’m not sure how I can prevent my best employees from leaving us in the future.”
Here is the problem with exit interviews: People aren’t honest about the reasons why they quit. And even if they were, such post hoc rationalizations rarely reflect the true reasons employees quit.
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Leveraging Polarities in Changing Organizational and Leader Identity
Ann V. Deaton, OD Practitioner
Our identities, whether individual or organizational, are something we hold dear. Identity is the core of who we are and encompasses our values, our personality, our habitual ways of being and doing things, and our beliefs. Identity provides the strong foundation that enables our success. We tend to believe that identity is enduring, yet we all know that change is a given. What happens when who we’ve been up until now is not who we need to be to continue to thrive?
In using polarity thinking (PT) in my coaching and facilitation with individual leaders and teams, it is evident that PT is a powerful and impactful approach to supporting successful identity changes. While minimizing the stress and pain that often accompany such transformations, recognition of key polarities can facilitate the integration of core aspects of past identity along with the manifestation of essential, if less familiar, ways of being. In this short article, I share several examples of how understanding and leveraging polarities has contributed to the process of identity change for individual leaders and organizations
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Your Organization Wastes Time. Here’s How to Fix It.
Eric Garton, Harvard Business Review
A year into their jobs, how many employees still have the unbridled energy and enthusiasm that they brought with them to their first day on the job? How many still believe they can make a difference?
Unproductive routines, corporate bureaucracy, and “administrivia” kill ambition and sap energy for far too many employees. That’s demoralizing for employees, and a waste for companies, which badly need the full energy and commitment of all their workers.
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How Spotify Balances Employee Autonomy and Accountability
Michael Mankins and Eric Garton, Harvard Business Review
Autonomy may be the single most important element for creating engagement in a company. How can anyone feel engaged, let alone inspired, if she feels that some supervisor is always looking over her shoulder? But autonomy is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it spurs creativity and involvement. On the other, unchecked autonomy can lead to ambiguity and inefficiencies, even organizational chaos.
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