The Uncertainty of Change

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            [post_content] => Previously a lecturer in Psychology at Pembroke College, Oxford, he has been Professor of Psychology at University College London since 1992. He has lectured widely abroad and held scholarships and visiting professorships at, amongst others, the University of New South Wales, the University of the West Indies, the University of Hong Kong and the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He has also been a Visiting Professor of Management at Henley Management College. He has recently been made Adjunct Professor of Management at the Norwegian School of Management. Since 2007 he has been nominated by HR magazine as one of the 20 Most Influential People in HR. 

IMI: Based on your current work – if you only had 6 words of advice to give a business – what would they be?
AF: Every Disruption involves threat and opportunity.
IMI: What does that mean?

AF: We live in turbulent times: times of both threat and opportunity that really test managers. So what are the fundamental principles of good management to ensure staff are happy, motivated and productive? Can you teach experts to become good people managers and if so, how? What is the role of money in motivation? And how can we engage rather than disenchant our staff? We know from futurologists that the world of work is changing fast, even though many predictions have not come true. But where we work, for whom we work and with whom we work are all in flux. How do you manage the older worker? What are young people really like in the work-place? What is the work-place and organisation of the (near) future going to look like? Finally, I address the (continual) management of change. Which strategies work best and why? No one ever said managing people was easy: but we can learn to do it better and ensure our organisation thrives and survives in an uncertain world.

Adrian Furnham is a keynote speaker at the IMI National Management Conference taking place on Thursday 29th  of September. To register please click here.

 
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            [post_content] =>  Sydney Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Leadership at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, where he teaches courses on Leadership and Strategy.  He is also the Faculty Director of the flagship Tuck Executive Program, and has experience working with executives at a number of other prestigious universities around the world.  His latest
bestselling book is SUPERBOSSES: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent. He will be a keynote speaker at the IMI National Management Conference on 29th September 2016.

 

IMI: Based on your current work – if you only had 6 words of advice to give a business – what would they be?
SF: Great leaders create other great leaders.
IMI: What does this mean?

SF:  Imagine a world where the work you did really mattered. Where the person who you call your boss changed your life by helping you accomplish more than you ever thought possible. Where your own opportunities would multiply in ways you may have been afraid to even dream of. That’s the world of “superbosses”, leaders with an incredible track record of generating world-class talent time and again. By systematically studying business legends and pop culture icons like Lorne Michaels, Ralph Lauren, George Lucas, Larry Ellison, Miles Davis, Charlie Mayfield, and Alice Waters, what superbosses actually do comes into focus. And anyone can do these same things. Superbosses identify, motivate, coach and leverage others in remarkably consistent, yet highly unconventional and unmistakably powerful ways. Superbosses aren’t like most bosses; they follow a playbook all their own. They are unusually intense and passionate — eating, sleeping, and breathing their businesses and inspiring others to do the same. They look fearlessly in unusual places for talent and interview them in colorful ways. They create impossibly high work standards that push protégées to their limits. They partake in an almost inexplicable form of mentoring, one that occurs spontaneously and with no clear rules. They lavish responsibility on inexperienced protégées, taking risks that seem scary and foolish to outsiders. When the time is right superbosses may even encourage star talent to leave so they can then become part of a strategic network of acolytes in the industry.

IMI: Where should we look for further information?

SF: I put together a list of interesting articles related to this subject:

Superbosses aren't afraid to delegate their biggest decisions

The rise of the superbosses

George Lucas: Management Guru?

The Power of Feeling Unthreatened

Hire People and Get Out of the Way

Sydney Finkelstein is a keynote speaker at the IMI National Management Conference taking place on Thursday 29th of September. To register for this event, please click here.
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Sue Cox is a Learning and Development Consultant and a Tango dancer.  She has worked extensively with the public and not-for-profit sectors as well as the corporate world and has developed and led social inclusion projects across the UK.

She is interested in how we develop our own potential and how we connect better with others in order to be more effective in our organisations and relationships.

She will be a keynote speaker at the IMI National Management Conference on 8 October 2015. 

IMI: Based on your current work – if you only had 6 words of advice to give a business - what would they be?
SC: Want better leadership? Develop your followership.
IMI: What does this mean?

SC: Many organisations invest heavily in developing and recognising good leadership but give little or no thought to actively cultivating good followership. Leadership is, by definition, a relational process however there is no leadership unless there is a leader/follower dynamic. When we focus only on developing leadership, we give visibility and importance to one aspect only, neglecting the contribution of followership and the untapped potential of the relationship between the two.  How much do we lose by doing so?

A powerful illustration of what this looks like in practice can be seen in Argentine Tango. There is a misconception in Tango that the leader is in control and the follower is relatively passive. Nothing could be further from the truth. Tango is complex, improvised and co-created in the moment and it depends entirely on the leader/follower dynamic.  Good followership amplifies and strengthens leadership; good leadership maximises the followers’ contribution. The quality of their connection elevates the whole dance to a greater level of performance.

Misconceptions about leadership and followership are seen as often in the boardroom as they are in the ballroom. If you want to release potential in your organisation and be resourceful and creative in the way you respond to change and opportunity, the challenge is to develop everybody’s ability as both leader and follower, so that each can play their full part in co-creating the dance.

IMI: Where should we look for further information?

SC: Visit my website at Ballroom2Boardroom.com 

Sue Cox spoke at the IMI National Management Conference on Thursday 8 October. This event has now reached maximum capacity however if you would like to be added to the waiting list, please email your contact details and company name to conference@imi.ie.
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Billy Byrne

25th Oct 2017

Billy Byrne is an IMI associate on the High Impact Leadership programme.

"Every Disruption involves threat and opportunity" Six Word Wisdom from Adrian Furnham

"Great leaders create other great leaders" Six Word Wisdom from Sydney Finkelstein

"Want better leadership? Develop your followership" Six Word Wisdom from Sue Cox

The Uncertainty of Change

A river is used as a metaphor to remind us how everything around us is constantly changing.

You probably know the quote “No man steps in the same river twice”. The quote is generally attributed to Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher who lived around 500BC. The river is used as a metaphor to remind us how everything around us is constantly changing.

Part of the richness of the river metaphor is that the river looks the same from minute to minute, despite the fact that it is constantly flowing. The banks of the river give it shape, but the river itself is constantly moving. As a metaphor it can be usefully applied to organisations. We can think of the riverbank as a metaphor for the organisation structures, both physical and organisational. The organisation’s structure generally doesn’t change day to day and remains constant over the short-term at least. However, the organisation is made up of people and people are changing every day; using the river metaphor, the people in the organisation are the water that is constantly flowing in the organisational river. There is not only a constant flow of people through the organisation, but each person is himself or herself in a state of change from moment to moment.

Adding to this state of flux is the fact that people are thinking beings, unlike water that is governed by the laws of physics. We can predict change in a river system; there is a repeatable cause-and-effect. However, with people, it is not so straightforward. Change is far less predictable because people can make choices about how they will react to change. Even the person who is driving change in the organisation is herself changed by the experience. This is another reason why one cannot step into the same river twice – one is changed by stepping into the river.

The power of Heraclitus’ metaphor is never more apparent than when we recognise that even the very first steps in a change programme can have unpredictable consequences. The first conversations about change are the equivalent of stepping into the river. Once we begin the conversation about change we cannot return to a place where this conversation has not taken place. In other words, we cannot step twice into the same river.

An important, but often overlooked, example of this is when information is gathered at the initial stages of a change programme. The intention is to get a measure of the current state of affairs. This raises two challenges. The first is that the constantly changing nature of the organisation means that any measure is already out of date the moment it is taken. Secondly, the very act of gathering information can itself initiate change. Unfortunately, this may or not be the change that is intended. This is usually referred to as the Observer Effect and describes how the act of observing a situation has the effect of changing it. Take for example, the situation where a questionnaire is sent out to staff to assess their attitude to a number of organisational issues. This initial act can have far-reaching consequences. The very act of asking questions raises their importance in people’s minds. The point to remember here is that change has now already occurred. It is unpredictable at this stage whether the initial conversations about change will aid or hinder the actual change programme.

So, there are three lessons to take away from Heraclitus and his river metaphor:

The organisation is always in a state of change: even the slowest-moving river is still flowing.
You are also affected by the change you are introducing; you are changed by stepping into the river.
Change begins from the moment you start talking about change; talking about change is a step into the river.

Billy Byrne is an IMI associate on the High Impact Leadership programme. He is an executive coach, leadership development specialist and an associate at KinchLyons, Organisational Psychologists. Billy holds masters degrees in organisational behaviour and coaching. He is a chartered fellow of CIPD and Council Member of EMCC.