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This month's issue features two articles by OD Network members. Have an article you’d like to share? Something you have written or read recently? Email us at communication@odnetwork.org.
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Work and the Loneliness Epidemic
Vivek Murthy, Harvard Business Review
n August 24, 1992, in the early hours of the morning, my family and I stepped out of our temporary shelter to find our city — and our lives — forever changed. We had spent the past several hours huddled together as Hurricane Andrew battered our South Florida neighborhood with torrential rain and winds near 170 miles per hour. We saw pieces of homes strewn across the landscape, power lines flung about like pieces of string, and sea creatures stranded in trees, having been blown far inland by the storm.
Like thousands of others, we survived the storm and the many dark days that followed because of the kindness of strangers who brought food, water, and comfort. Hurricane Andrew forged a deep sense of connection and community in South Florida as the nation rallied around us and as we supported each other. But slowly, as normal life resumed, the distance between people returned. We went back to our homes, our work, our schools, and our lives, and once again we grew apart.
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Three Lessons My ‘Best Friend’ Taught Me About Leadership
Irv Rubin, PhD (OD Network Member), Temenos, Inc.
As any experienced person can attest, there are specific challenges that will dramatically impact an individual’s career success. I’m reminded of these challenges regularly when my clients and I are discussing the documented diversity in how they, and their direct reports, operationally define their ideal leader or manager. It becomes immediately evident that one shoe won’t fit all. (1) Courage is required to have the feedback discussions essential to increasing awareness of the specific behaviors diverse individuals identify as having positive consequences on the quality of their relationships. (2) Systematic personal development is required to manifest the flexibility needed to broaden the behavioral styles to meet diverse needs.
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A Survey of How 1,000 CEOs Spend Their Day Reveals What Makes Leaders Successful
Oriana Bandiera, Stephen Hansen, Andrea Prat and Raffaella Sadun, Harvard Business Review
What makes a CEO effective? The question has been studied extensively, of course, including in HBR. Yet we still know fairly little about how CEOs behave day-to-day and how their behavior relates to the success or failure of the companies they run. Previous studies have typically had limitations. Some have been of small samples, or relied heavily on the researchers’ interpretation to classify different “types” of executive.
In new research, we use survey data from over 1,000 CEOs across six countries and the financial performance of their companies to explore these questions. And our evidence suggests that hands-on managerial CEOs are, on average, less effective than leaders who stay more high-level.
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The Hard Truth About Good Leadership
Chris Myers, Forbes
If you think back to your childhood and the unique dynamic of playground politics, you’ll probably remember everyone jockeying to be “the leader.” I know that in my experience, everyone always wanted to be in charge and tell the others what to do.
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Anxiety and Change in Contemporary Organization Development
Robert J. Marshak (OD Network Member and Award Winner), OD Practitioner
For some time now I have been anxious about anxiety. My anxiety is not vague or unspecified, but directly related to advances in organization development (OD) theory and practice and the challenges facing organizations and their leaders over the past twenty-five years. While the anxiety that change and uncertainty can trigger is acknowledged by change practitioners, I am less sanguine about how seriously it is considered in contemporary change efforts. My recent work with Gervase Bushe to understand and conceptualize the change mindset and associated processes in Dialogic Organization Development (Bushe & Marshak, 2015) has furthered my interest in bringing thoughts about anxiety and contemporary change to the attention of change leaders and consultants.
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Dr. Robert J. Marshak leads our November Webinar, "Dealing with Change Anxiety"
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Five Critical Principles to Guide Organizational Change
Wendy Heckelman (OD Network Member) OD Practitioner
In order to respond to the fast pace of social, political, economic, and technological forces, organizations must be nimble at effectively responding to challenges and taking advantage of opportunities. Most organizations and their leaders struggle with developing and implementing all types of large-scale change. The vast majority of change initiatives are unsuccessful, with up to 93% of them unable to meet the goals of their change efforts (Decker, 2012). This can be costly to the organization in several ways, including, but not limited to lost competitive advantage, missed opportunity revenue, wasted dollars on the change effort, loss of employee engagement, productivity, and possible attrition.
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Leading Analytics Teams in Changing Times
Lori C. Bieda, MIT Sloan Management Review
The growing use of analytics in organizations is powered by analytics teams, which are often underfunded, misunderstood, and starved for talent. Extracting business value from data depends on nurturing the development and effectiveness of these groups. Yet, despite the demand, just a quarter of analytics teams operate as “business drivers” today, proactively leveraging data to unearth business opportunity. Most are seen as internal “consultants” (41%) or “service providers” (31%), suggesting opportunity on the side of both analytics teams, and the leadership they serve.
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Does Engaging with Customers on Facebook Lead to Better Product Ideas?
Irene Bertschek and Reinhold Kesler, Harvard Business Review
Feedback on social media can serve as a valuable source of information for companies, helping them to improve and develop products and services. Examples include Gillette, which launched the very first product for assisted shaving based on feedback inferred from social media, and Tesla, which improved the company’s app based in part on CEO Elon Musk’s reading a customer’s complaints on Twitter. At end of 2016, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky asked on Twitter what the company could launch in 2017.
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Digital Audits as a Tactical and Strategic Management Resource
Alexis Bateman, MIT Sloan Management Review
U.S. companies that outsource production to manufacturing hubs in countries such as China and India lower their costs, but the practice comes with substantial reputational risk. Manufacturers in these countries run the gamut in how lax or strict they are about enforcing labor and environmental regulations.
To offset this risk, enterprises have made sizable investments in factory audits, which can include asking suppliers to meet externally certified accreditations or hiring third-party auditing companies to make site visits. However, persistent scandals involving illegal or dangerous working conditions show that the standard factory audit is inadequate as a business risk mitigation strategy.
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Fourth Industrial Revolution and Diversity
Lee Joong-hak and Kim Jong-nam, The Korea Times
What is your company doing to prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution? What do you think will be needed to survive in the upcoming Fourth Industrial Revolution, which will bring both threats and opportunities to Korean corporations?
What is the current status quo of Korean companies in terms of diversity?
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Diversity and Inclusion — a Vital Tech-enabled HCM Agenda Item
Janine Milne, Diginomica
Greater innovation, better business performance and profitability, more talent working your company… With a benefits list like that, it’s not surprising that diversity and inclusion (D&I) has become a hot topic.
D&I simply makes good business sense, according to John Kostoulas, Human Capital Management (HCM) research director at Gartner: "Organizations need diversity and inclusion to come up with business results. It’s not just because it’s the right thing to do, it’s also because it makes business sense. It’s a win-win."
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Is Globalisation a “Force for Good”? In Most of Asia, Yes
Kim Iskyan, Stansberry Churchouse Research
The war on globalisation is in full swing… at least, in the developed world.
We talk a lot here about U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Fortress America” approach to global trade. Trump has led the U.S. into a sharp shift away from globalisation – for example, by promising to build a wall on the U.S./Mexico border and making it more difficult for people from certain countries that happen to be majority Muslim (while conveniently omitting from the black list those countries with which the Trump family has extensive business interests) to enter the U.S.
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Transforming Ourselves to Transform Our Organizations Argerie Vasilakes (OD Network Member) and Ray Luechtefeld, OD Practitioner
From 2014 to 2015 the Organization Development Network sponsored an exploratory Internal Practice Community (IPC). Two core, well-established principles — double-loop learning (Argyris, 1976) and Action Inquiry (Torbert, 2004)—informed the collaborative reflection process. IPC members became more self-aware and saw how their perceptions affected their interactions. They supported each other in replacing their own ineffective unilateral “control” actions with alternatives that were grounded in mutuality. Collaborative reflection in the IPC suggests an approach for building capability in mutuality over time in organizations striving to advance their collective leadership and interdependent alliances. In this article, we describe the IPC approach and offer a case study.
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Creating a Collaborative Framework
Paul Curci, OD Practitioner: Practicing OD
Once in a while an opportunity comes along that is rooted in a visionary idea. As an OD professional, when you have an opportunity to be part of something that has never been done before, my advice is to seize it.
In 2012, the CEO of a healthcare foundation, Russell Johnson, had developed a visionary plan to bring four nonprofits together onto one campus, which would be built from the ground up. The four human service organizations included an affordable housing and human services community, a comprehensive senior services center, a hunger relief organization, and a full-service YMCA. The new enterprise would serve community members of every age, fostering inter-generational connections. An all access lobby would serve as an active hub and community meeting place.
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Chair
Martha Kesler
Vice Chair
Jamie Kelly
Treasurer
Amy Cowart
Trustees
Lori Blander
Marco Cassone
Jean Hartmann
Cindy Miller
Sanjay Naik
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