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  • The Designful Leader

    Last night I was reviewing the Design School Boot Camp Bootleg, an interesting document put out by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. In the opening of the 36-page PDF is the “Design Mindset” or “D. Mindset” (supposedly because everything looks cooler when you shorten a word to one letter and add a period). As I read them again, I started to wonder if they couldn’t also apply to leaders. The D. Mindsets are as follows, with my leadership commentary below:

    Show, don’t tell

    We all know how frustrating it is to receive “orders” from a leader who is solely focused don telling, especially if what we need is to see the action, behavior of value from the leader first before engaging in it ourselves.

    Create Clarity from Complexity

    Much of the role of leadership is sense-making, reducing the complex system they view to a tangible action or behavior that followers need to understand. Leaders make sense.

    Be Mindful of Process

    While making sense of complexity for followers, leaders also have to juggle their attention on the overall process of their objective. In addition, leaders need to know that their development and the development of their followers is a process.

    Collaborate across boundaries

    In most organizations, the leaders who get things done are often those who step outside the lines of hierarchy to do so. Collaboration is becoming increasingly more vital…and that doesn’t even consider the effects of globalization.

    Take Bias toward actions

    In the end, leaders influence others toward action. Leaders who can get to that action the quickest (with sufficient background knowledge) are of distinct advantage.

    Get experimental, and experiential

    As the literature on innovation grows, our understanding of the need to experiment grows with it. Leaders need to let followers experiment, and experiment themselves. In addition, leaders ought to consider the experience of what it is like to work on their team and build a positive experience.

    Focus on human values

    I’d love to think this one is obvious, but many “tactical” or “transactional” leaders are focused on accomplishing the objective first and appealing to human values second. While this may work in the short-term, it is not sustainable.

    Seven mindsets billed as required for engaging in proper design. Still, I can’t help but wonder if they ought to be re-billed as the “L. Mindsets.

    Please provide comments or feedback to our guest blogger.

    David Burkus is the editor of LeaderLab, a community of resources dedicated to promoting the practice of leadership theory. He is a consultant, a speaker and an adjunct professor of business at several universities. David focuses on developing leaders putting leadership and organizational theory into practice.

    David is a graduate of Oral Roberts University and holds a Master of Arts in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Oklahoma. David is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Strategic Leadership from Regent University. He can be reached at david@davidburkus.com.

  • Beyond the Breakeven Point of Value Creation

    Every year it’s my ritual to take off from work, join other professionals, and meet at a university for two days to share our corporate experience with undergraduate students. 

    As my trademark routine, I love to engage the young group and gain insight on their future aspirations. Yet, I am saddened by the lack of student preparation for future employment opportunities.  Many of these students are graduating seniors who are not ready for the harsh realities of life (your parents won’t be able to sustain you forever). 

     Furthermore, most students are unaware of current events, how to utilize their career center, and what to do to gain the attention of prospective employers.  

    Yes, I understand them! College is fun with few obligations and adult responsibilities for the average traditional student. It’s an opportunity to live like an adult without any sever consequences due to the fact that parents will continue to fund their college experiences and bail them out of most situations.

    The problem is that today’s college students cannot afford to be unfocused during this economic crisis. If they are to be employed and enjoy life, college students, as well as most of us, must understand the upmost importance of creating value to our customers.

    An advanced education can create value for prospective employees. According to Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce study, a college degree adds 84% to salary over a lifetime versus just a high school diploma. Individuals need to realize that like corporations they must understand their customers in order to build value for them.  

    This concept isn’t easy because customers want different things. Value is defined as the net bundle of benefits the customer derives from a product or service.  Value creation focuses on an organization’s ability to convey the worth of its product or service to customers. 

    Leaders must be attuned to value creation if a flow down is to take place throughout the value chain.  This is true even for new leaders. Michael Watkins, author of The First 90 Days, maintains that effective leadership seeks to add value as much as possible.

    Watkins explains, “The breakeven point is the point at which new leaders have contributed as much value to their new organizations as they have consumed from it….new leaders are net consumers of value early on; as they learn and begin to take action, they begin to create value.”

    John Gamble and Arthur Thompson, authors of Essentials of Strategic Management, further explored the concept of value as a strategic advantage. Businesses can create unique capabilities and valuable resources that rivals can’t easily duplicate. This includes companies launching a variety of strategies including low-cost, differentiation, or niche. The authors suggest, “Resource-based strategies may be used in tandem with any of the three strategic approaches…and are keyed to delivering customer value in ways rivals are unable to match.”

    Regardless of the industry, value creations needs to be the cornerstone of any business strategy.  What’s important to the customer should be important to the businesses. College students, looking for future employment, should always keep this in mind in their job preparation.  If individuals keep the concepts of value creation in their mindset, they will be able to overcome many of the disruptive changes to come.

    How does value creation relate to sustainability for today’s leaders?

    © 2011 by Daryl D. Green

  • Human Factor Buy-in

     

    Steve Proud gets his biggest promotion as the latest senior executive to run this troubled business. With lots of talent and experience, the organization struggles to meet performance goals. Being on the fast-track, Steve quickly makes significant changes to impress the corporate board. He fires the old managers and surrounds himself with the better talent. His team rolls out a comprehensive strategic plan.

    The corporate board starts seeing positive results.  However, things change within two years. Many employees view Steve as a ‘paper manager.’ Despite his ‘talk about empowering workers,’ his actions demonstrate he cares little about any worker’s opinions. Steve cannot understand why his strategy failed.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

    Most organizations move swiftly ahead reacting to market forces without truly empowering workers to make organizational decisions. Managers preach that employees are a critical asset to an organization’s bottom-line. However, few managers ever show it. Given that percept, we will discuss the final component of effective socio-technical systems. It is the human factor buy-in. Organizations must shift their paradigm to viewing workers as more than mechanical parts for their organizational objectives.

    According to a USA Today poll, nearly half of those interviewed said that corporations can be trusted only a little, or not at all, when it involves looking out for the best interest of employees. Michael Hackman and Craig Johnson, authors of Leadership: A Communication Perspective, argue that a leader’s credibility is directly related to the quality of his relationship with followers.

    Marios Katsioloudes, a researcher specializing in socio-technical analysis, explains that as profitability of mechanization increases, the importance of technology is implied while there is a devaluation of the workers. Clearly, U.S. businesses cannot point to the lack of employee performance for mismanagement errors.

    Japan, a long-time benchmark for American companies, is being defeated by American employees. Today, the average U.S. worker puts in 36 more hours than Japanese workers (1,825 vs. 1,789). Over the last two decades, balancing work and home life have been difficult since Americans have added 200 hours to their annual work schedule.

    Employees want to be valued. Felix Harris, a financial director with over 8 years in the banking industry, acknowledges the importance of people in a socio-technical system. He states, “When employees are appreciated, they work harder.  A machine is only as good as its operator.”  Jeffrey Pfeffer, author of The Human Equation, acknowledges that organizational success is directly related to implementation, and this capacity comes from the workers, how they are treated, their skills, and their efforts as it relates to the organization.

    Managers should see followers as more than mechanical parts for their organizational objectives. Managers assume that giving employees new technology is enough to keep them happy. Likewise, leaders should view followers as vital components of the socio-technical system.

    Today’s managers in technical organizations must understand the delicacy of balancing a socio-technical system. The recent mirage of culture changes such as outsourcing, scandals, and unethical dealings by both governmental and business senior managers have made American employees skeptical about the seriousness of organizations implementing corporate values into their workplace.

    Furthermore, today’s executives are falling short in promoting the desired values to support socio-technical systems due to understanding the value of employee buy-in.

    In fact, this insight would be valuable to any manager, trying to integrate the man – human interface mechanism. Understanding the uniqueness of the socio-technical system may increase leadership effectiveness and better management strategies for your organization.

    How can organizations best gain employee buy-in when they possess less than a stellar track record of worker empowerment?  

     © 2010 by Daryl D. Green