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We're launching a series where we call on thought leaders in business to summarise their message - in just six words.

In honour of Bloomsday on Sunday we'll kick off by quoting Molly Bloom and asking:

“Oh Rocks – Tell us in plain words what you really mean!”.

First up is Professor Gareth Jones expert in organisational design, culture, leadership and change and award-winning author of “The Character of a Corporation: How Your Culture Can Make or Break Your Business” and “Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?”, co-authored with Rob Goffee.

Irish Management Institute: Summarise your message for us in six words.

"Build the organisation of your dreams."

Irish Management Institute: What does this really mean?

Gareth Jones:We asked people “What is your idea of an authentic organisation?”. We found that the there are six real principles you can adopt to create the most productive and rewarding working environment possible:

Difference beyond diversity - celebrate characters (not just categories). Radical honesty – tell the truth before someone else does (you can’t keep corporate secrets like you used to). Extra value – add value to the individual (don’t extract it). Authenticity – live the values (don’t just have them on a mission statement card). Meaning – a meaningful job in an organisation (which itself has meaning). Simple rules – no bureaucracy

Irish Management Institute: Where should we go to learn more?

Gareth Jones: Our Harvard Business Review article Creating the Best Workplace on Earth.

 

So the workplace of our dreams is one that takes account of our characters as well as our skills.

Ulysses may have more relevance to management than we think; Joyce’s novel is a celebration of practical thinking in everyday life.

James Joyce Management Business Simple Words Advice Summary

Through the mutual insights shared between the newspaper advertising salesman Leopold Bloom and the student-artist Stephen Dedalus, Joyce makes the case that two often divided concepts of work and creativity – or labour and play – are mutually dependent and must be realigned.

Jones and Goffee's work has shown this message is as relevant today as it was when Ulysses was published in 1922.

Happy Bloomsday.

Professor Gareth Jones will be discussing his new research at an IMI HR Briefing on the evening of the 4th of July. If you're interested in attending this event register here.

In conversation with Eva Maguire, IMI

[post_title] => Build the organisation of your dreams - Six Word Wisdom from Professor Gareth Jones [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => build-the-organisation-of-your-dreams-professor-gareth-jones-6 [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2020-05-11 21:42:37 [post_modified_gmt] => 2020-05-11 21:42:37 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.imi.ie/news-and-events/?p=1355 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [1] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 8268 [post_author] => 39 [post_date] => 2014-09-29 11:53:40 [post_date_gmt] => 2014-09-29 11:53:40 [post_content] => Described as ‘The Jane Bond of Innovation’, Nilofer Merchant has grown businesses — from Fortune 500s and silicon valley web start-ups — for 20 years.  She will be a keynote speaker at the IMI National Management Conference on 9 October 2014.  As an innovative thinker and practitioner, Nilofer will share her thoughts and experience on how we best align our organisations to succeed against our business challenges today and into the future. nmweb150 IMI: Based on your current work – if you only had 6 words of advice to give a business - what would they be? NM: Not everyone will, but anyone can. IMI: What does this mean? NM: Most organizations think of work in boxes. As in engineering does this and marketing does that. Or, even more personally as Tom is responsible for delivering X and Susan is responsible for Y. This is to put work into neat little boxes to create some type of measurability. It’s a relic of the industrial era when the way to profitability and market performance was on efficiency and productivity. But if you look around your workplace, you’ll notice the most obvious truth. Most things are not failing because so and so didn’t do such and such. It’s because of a gap. A gap between organizational silos. A gap between understanding. A gap between the organizational boxes. In order to close the box, you need to organize not around boxes but around purpose. Organize not by “who should be here” but who wants to be here. And while not everybody will rise up to solve the situation, create new products, etc … what you’ll discover is an amazing reserve of talent that exists. Things you didn’t know were possible will happen. Because anybody can. IMI: Where should we look for further information? NM: Visit my website nilofermerchant.com Nilofer Merchant is a keynote speaker at the IMI National Management Conference taking place on Thursday 9 October. If you are interested in attending click here to register. [post_title] => "Not everyone will, but anyone can" Six Word Wisdom from Nilofer Merchant [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => everyone-will-anyone-can-six-word-wisdom-nilofer-merchant [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2020-05-11 21:02:28 [post_modified_gmt] => 2020-05-11 21:02:28 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.imi.ie/?p=8268 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [2] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 8010 [post_author] => 7 [post_date] => 2014-09-04 14:33:32 [post_date_gmt] => 2014-09-04 14:33:32 [post_content] => Due to a number of factors such as technology and globalisation our day to day lives - whether business or personal increasingly involve broader international networks.  And while in the IMI blog we often consider our "effectiveness" in how we interact with and manage others but all too often we do not discuss the critical factors of nationality and culture. How do cultural differences impact on your ability to do business? And how can we make sure we are maximising our relationships with those in our network who may be operating with cultural differences to our own.   Erin Meyer is a professor at INSEAD, one of the world's leading international business schools. Her work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Singapore Business Times and Forbes.com. In 2013 the Thinkers 50 named her as one of 30 up-and-coming thinkers and in October 2013 British Airways Business Life magazine on their list of 'Ten Dons to Watch'. Her work focuses on how the world's most successful global leaders navigate the complexities of cultural differences in an international environment.   Erin-Meyer IMI: Based on your current work - if you only had 6 words of advice to give a business - what would they be? EM: Succeed Globally with a Culture Map IMI: What does this mean? EM: Today, whether we work with colleagues in Dusseldorf or Dubai, Brasilia or Beijing, New York or New Delhi, we are all part of a global network (real or virtual, physical or electronic) where success requires navigating through wildly different cultural realities. Unless we know how to decode other cultures and avoid easy-to-fall-into cultural traps, we are easy prey to misunderstanding, needless conflict, and ultimate failure. Yet most managers have little understanding of how local culture impacts global interaction. Even those who are culturally informed, travel extensively, and have lived abroad often have few strategies for dealing with the cross-cultural complexity that affects their team's day-to-day effectiveness. To help people improve their ability to decode the cultural differences impacting their work and to enhance their effectiveness in dealing with these differences, I have built on the work of many in my field to develop a tool called the Culture Map. It is made up of eight scales representing the management behaviours where cultural gaps are most common. The eight scales are based on decades of academic research into culture from multiple perspectives. To this foundation I have added my own work, which has been validated by extensive interviews with thousands of executives who have confirmed or corrected my findings.   The scales are:
  • Communicating: explicit vs. implicit
  • Evaluating: direct criticism vs. indirect criticism
  • Leading: egalitarian vs. hierarchical
  • Deciding: consensual vs. top down
  • Trusting: task vs. relationship
  • Disagreeing: confrontational vs. avoidance
  • Scheduling: linear-time vs. flexible-time
  • Persuading: applications-first vs. principles-first
By analyzing the relative positioning of one nationality to another on each scale, managers learn to decode how culture influences day-to-day international collaboration and therefor avoid the common pitfalls. Managers have always needed to understand human nature and personality differences – that’s nothing new. What is new is that twenty-first century managers must understand a wider, richer array of work styles than ever before. They have to be able to determine which aspects of their interactions are simply a result of personality and which are a result of differences in cultural perspective. IMI: Where should we look for further information? EM: Read The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business.  Or my HBR article:  Navigating the Cultural Minefield www.erinmeyer.com. Erin Meyer will be holding a Masterclass at IMI on September 30th.  If you are interested in attending click here to register. [post_title] => "Decode cultural differences to suceed globally" Six Word Wisdom from Erin Meyer [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => six-word-wisdom-erin-mayer [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2020-05-11 21:04:07 [post_modified_gmt] => 2020-05-11 21:04:07 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.imi.ie/?p=8010 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [3] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 16058 [post_author] => 89 [post_date] => 2016-09-20 14:18:38 [post_date_gmt] => 2016-09-20 14:18:38 [post_content] => 2016 photo Sydney Finkelstein 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. [post_title] => "Great leaders create other great leaders" Six Word Wisdom from Sydney Finkelstein [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => great-leaders-create-great-leaders-six-word-wisdom-sydney-finkelstein [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2020-05-11 19:54:28 [post_modified_gmt] => 2020-05-11 19:54:28 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.imi.ie/?p=16058 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) )
Cali Yost

Cali Yost

17th Sep 2020

CEO of Flex+Strategy Group

Related Articles

Build the organisation of your dreams - Six Word Wisdom from Professor Gareth Jones
"Not everyone will, but anyone can" Six Word Wisdom from Nilofer Merchant
"Decode cultural differences to suceed globally" Six Word Wisdom from Erin Meyer
"Great leaders create other great leaders" Six Word Wisdom from Sydney Finkelstein

Six Words of Wisdom with Cali Yost

Based on your current work – if you had only six words of advice to give a business, what would they be?

Reimagine work: how, when and where.

 

What does this mean?

The pandemic collectively forced organizations worldwide into a flexible and remote work experiment for which many were unprepared. Not only did this ensure safety and operational resilience during the crisis, but it’s opened the door to reimagine how, when and where work can be done next.

With the flexible work genie out of the bottle, now is the opportunity to consider what a dynamic, nimble onsite and remote work model could look like. One that could benefit the business in terms of operating performance, innovation, responsiveness and talent management, but also impact employee health and well-being. Only this time with strategic, intention, not as an overnight response to a crisis.

The pandemic proved work is a WHAT we do, not WHERE we go, in which managers and employees share leadership to determine together what needs to get done. Then, how, when, and where to do it best. One-size will not fit all.

To start this cultural and operational shift and prepare to reach new levels of performance and flexibility, now is the time to leverage successes, lessons and challenges experienced over the past few months. Next, explore the possibilities of what can be done better, smarter, and more effectively going forward. Then, provide proper training in the new skills and tools of strategic, high performance flexibility that everyone at all levels will require for success. Make sure the resources exist to not just reimagine work but make that vision a reality. This can be and is the future of work.

 

Where should we look for further information?

Read why flexible work can help save the economy and research outlining how investment in training and resources yields transformational results.

 

For more on IMI’s 2020 National Management Conference, go here.