Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Reflection: a tool to create transformative leaders

"Thoughtful reflection on natural experience, in the light of conceptual ideas, is the most powerful tool we have for management learning."
Henry Mintzberg in Managers not MBAs

The idea of reflective learning is coming into focus as individuals, teams, and organizations begin to realize its benefits.  In Consider: Harnessing the Power of Reflective Thinking in Your Organization Daniel Patrick Forrester explained that reflection is "where meaning is created, behaviors are regulated, values are refined, assumptions are challenged, intuition is accessed, and where we learn about who we are." It sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

In Taking Another Look: Leading Minds on Reflection Part 1  John Kotter speaks about the need to develop a reflective habit. The reality of it is that most of us don't. But how can we move forward and learn from our experiences if we don't reflect? Simple daily reflection expediates our learning, expertise, and ultimately our growth as an individual that is part of something larger.
In Taking Another Look: Leading Minds on Reflection Part 4, Marshall Goldsmith, author of the CoachingOurselves topic FeedFORWARD instead of FeedBACK, argues that reflection is more important today than in the past. He says it is also more challenging in a world of constant stimulus where information is coming at us from all ends. We must find the time to stop and think, even though our lifestyles force us to focus on our ability to act.

When we stop and think, we learn something about ourselves along the way. But what do we do with this new-found information? Jeremy Hunter, also in Taking Another Look: Leading Minds on Reflection Part 4, reminds us that just because we know something about ourselves doesn't mean this new-found knowledge will suddenly change our behaviour. We may know the resulting action, but not necessarily the trigger, or how to control the way we act once we've been pushed over the threshold. The answer is that it's all about reflection in the moment, in our daily lives.

So we've mastered the art of relfection, or at least our understanding of it, but how do we go about doing it? Our intuition often tells us that reflection is something to be done alone, by oneself. But reflection is something that can be done with others. It is not just about an individual, but it is also about other people we interact with and how our actions affect them, their work, and so on. Therefore, it is not only possible but also essential that we are taking the time to reflect on our weekly happenings with our management team, our family, and our friends.

Daniel Patrick Forrester's research, author of Consider, says that we can't afford not to take the time to think and reflect.

CoachingOurselves: Reflective Learning
With the CoachingOurselves tools, enterprise learning professional design leadership programs that leverage reflective learning and the power of peer group learning. The process of having managers gather in small groups for 90 minutes of reflection and discussion ensures learning from experience, and from one another. It helps create a reflective habit, which is crucial for leaders in today`s complex business environment.

Monday, October 28, 2013

A young, enthusiastic MBA was finally given the opportunity to apply his learning....

“A young, enthusiastic MBA was finally given the opportunity to apply his learning. He was asked to carry out a survey of a group with which he was not normally familiar and submit recommendations as to how its efficiency could be increased. 

He selected as his target a symphony orchestra. Having read up on the tools of the trade, he attended his first concert and submitted the following analysis:


a.         For considerable periods, the four oboe players had nothing to do. The number of oboes should therefore be reduced, and the work spread more evenly over the whole concert program, thus eliminating the peaks and valleys of activity.

b.         All twenty violins were playing identical notes. This would seem to be an unnecessary duplication, so the staff of this section should be cut drastically.

c.         Obsolescence of equipment is another matter warranting further investigation. The program noted that the leading violinist’s instrument was several hundred years old. Now, if normal depreciation schedules had been applied, the value of this instrument would have been reduced to zero and the purchase of more modern equipment recommended long ago.

d.         Much effort was absorbed in the playing of demisemiquavers, which seems to be an unnecessary refinement. It is recommended that all notes be rounded up to the nearest semiquaver. If this were done, it would be possible to use trainees and lower-grade operatives more extensively.

e.          In many cases, the operators were using one hand to hold their instruments. The introduction of a fixture would free that hand for other work. Also, it was noted that excessive effort being used by the players of wind instruments whereas, one compressor could supply enough air for all the instruments – and under more accurately controlled conditions.

f.          Finally, there seemed to be too much repetition of some of the musical passages. Therefore, scores should be pruned to a considerable extent. No useful purpose is served by repeating on the horns something which has already been handled by the strings. It is estimated that, if all redundant passages were eliminated, the whole concert time of two hours could be reduced to twenty minutes and there would be no need for an intermission.”  

(Published more or less as above in the mid 1950s in an American professor’s bulletin, a Canadian military journal, and Harper’s Magazine, based on an anonymous memorandum circulating in London and probably published originally in Her Majesty’s Treasury of the Courts) 

Thanks to Henry Mintzberg for referring me to this article!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Leadership Development: It's the process...

Following every Fad?
Some people seem to always be looking for the things that could make them a better leader; the 7 habits of effective people, the 21 laws of leadership, the 12.5 strengths of leaders, top ten leadership tips, and so on. But reading a book that boils it all down to 7 habits, or 21 laws and then trying to follow them on a daily basis never really worked for me. My world doesn't work like that.

I find the process of personal change is, well, a process. It takes time. It's hard to change who you are and what you do. You have to think hard about yourself. You have to take the time to fight yourself sometimes. You regress, you get back on track. It is a lot of work.

Many years back, I started my own path to change and it took years of constant effort. The Tony Robbins type thing where you visualize yourself being a "good" leader and then you will be a good leader never worked for me.

I came to the conclusion the only way to change is to take the time to make it happen. It could be an hour to go to the gym every second day, or a 30 minute reflective walk with a close colleague during lunch once a week. But it takes time and constant effort.

In my case, it was an hour a week with my management team during which we used a process McGill’s Henry Mintzberg taught me through his book Managers Not MBAs. This was a process of weekly reflection in light of conceptual ideas with the management team.

CoachingOurselves session in 2003

So I began a process of weekly learning meetings. I did not commit myself to a specific outcome. I let the reflections take use where ever they want to go, so long as we focused on becoming better leaders.



Much to my surprise, it turned out that being a better leader simply meant carving out the time to think and work on becoming a better leader. In the end there is no short term to this journey. You simply need to focus on the process not the end result. And the result will be more than you can imagine when you first start.

I, personally, took control of my management and leadership style. I maneuvered my career into a space where I can be the kind of manager that makes me happy and has the impact that makes me proud.

So please enjoy yourself, read your books and inspiring articles. But nothing is going to happen until you take the time, on a regular basis, and work on it. It is the process of good hard work that makes things change, and that takes time!

Click here for CoachingOurselves themed discussion topics for individual management teams. 

A fun, short 90 second animated video on how I learned about leadership with Mintzberg, you can watch it at: http://youtu.be/ZFmJhD2F4mE





Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Ed Schein -- The best way to learn

Ed Schein has been a great support to us at CoachingOurselves. Following is a short piece he wrote describing his perspective:

CoachingOurselves -- The best way to learn

by Ed Schein
As a psychology major I learned that the most important work in psychology was research on how learning actually happens.  The basic model is simple—you learn from experience.  You have some kind of goal, you try something and then you get feedback on whether or not you are closer to your goal.  If you are, you try that again.  If you are not, you try something different.  What you decide to try is determined either by so called “trial and error” or some kind of imitation of a role model.  Sounds simple enough, but all the elements are in fact complicated.  
First, it is not always obvious what your goal should be, so setting a goal is itself a learning process which requires input and feedback from others.  That is one reason why more learning occurs in groups, there are more sources of feedback to give you clues as to what you need to learn. Second, once you have a goal, you will discover that there are many things you can try to move toward it.  Here it helps to have others as role models or to test ideas on others before you commit to a course of action.  And, finally, the feedback we need when we learn something relatively complicated is best if it comes from multiple sources.  
I found all of this out when I first went to a Human Relations workshop at Bethel, Maine in 1959.  My Ph.D. in Social Psychology had taught me all that research had uncovered about group dynamics.  Then in this workshop I encountered something called a T-group (T for training later called “sensitivity training”) and discovered that in the unstructured meetings I learned all sorts of things I did not know.  In fact the premise of the workshop was to have experiences first, then lectures and readings.   In these workshops I also learned that groups have to learn how to learn.  You can’t just tell someone “you need to be a better communicator” because he or she either might not know what you are talking about or be really offended.  So we learned in the group about creating a climate in which we could gradually become more open with each other and, once we achieved some mutual acceptance, we could give each other feedback which helped set learning goals and learning processes.  
CoachingOurselves Group

The group was important because different members had different perceptions of what was going on which taught us a lot about perception and communication.  Individual coaching can help once we have a clear focus, but when we try to learn more complex social processes and new ways of managing, learning how to become a learning group is critical.  I think of a group as a “mutual help society” in which the learning is enhanced by our recognition that we are there to help each other to learn.


I think the greatest potential of CoachingOurselves is the potential in the group process of Helping Each Other to learn.  Should you have a group process coach?  Yes, but each member can play this role from time to time. You don’t need an outsider, you only need to identify the role and rotate it around the group.  Most of us have the skills if we accept the role of helping the group to become a learning unit.   
In conclusion, CoachingOurselves as a group process always has a double agenda:
  1. learning the content of a given module; and 
  2. learning how to learn as a group.  
In my view it is this double agenda that makes CoachingOurselves especially relevant to organizations today.    
Visit http://www.CoachingOurselves.com/ to learn more, or to purchase CoachingOurselves modules for use with your team visit CoachingOurselves for your team.  If you wish to read further go to my book Helping: How to offer, give and receive help (2009) and Process Consultation Revisited (1999). Schein, E.H. (1999)  Process Consultation Revisited.  Prentice-Hall. Schein, E.H. (2009)  Helping: How to offer, give and receive help.  Berrett/Kohler.  

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Henry Mintzberg and CoachingOurselves featured in Young Entrepreneur

CoachingOurselves co-founder Henry Mintzberg and CoachingOurselves was featured on Young Entrepreneur!

In the article Is the MBA Still Necessary?, Jason Daley examines the role of the MBA in corporate America today.  Once the driving force behind a fruitful business career, today’s corporate climate has many questioning the value of the MBA.  Have business schools managed to stay relevant or does the MBA breed narrow-mindedness?  Daley consults Henry Mintzberg, author of Managers Not MBAs,  to discuss why the MBA is insufficient and in need of reform.  What does Mintzberg recommend as a more effective alternative to traditional business schools?  CoachingOurselves for management teams!
“You say nothing has really changed in the years since your book came out. 

I think some business schools are moving in new directions, but not many and not much. They’re too fat and too successful and make too much money from what’s destructive. I think the problem with the American economy is not economic; it’s managerial. Anyone who accepts a bonus of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars while their company is failing is not a leader. Which means almost no one in the Fortune 500 is a leader.

People say, ‘I can’t believe what is going on in my company,’ and a lot of it is led by MBAs. They learn management by remote control. You learn to read case studies and sit in classrooms and have to pronounce judgments on companies about which you know almost nothing….”

To read the entire article, click here.

And click here to learn more about using CoachingOurselves to develop youself and your team.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Simon Caulking: The wrong direction and Would the Economy be better off without MBA students by Henry Mintzberg

Two friends of mine publish the J&E Alert, a fantastic newsletter highlighting thought provoking thinking on leadership, management and business. Below are two snippets from their newsletter. You can subscribe directly by sending an email to the editors (Mireille Jansma & Jurgen Egges)

Article - Simon Caulking: The wrong direction (Financial Times, 3 December 2012 )
 

Critical article on management with references to Henry Mintzberg, Gary Hamel and Alan Greenspan, by author and journalist Simon Caulkin. 
From the article: "To mark the journal’s 90th anniversary, the Harvard Business Review website has run a series of blogs and articles under the strapline Why Management Matters. Alas, the content does not engage with the proposition itself, taking the importance of management for granted. 
This is a common stance. Management is so omnipresent that it is mostly invisible. But nearly a century after it emerged in modern form, it is a good time to pose that fundamental question: does management matter, and if so why? The answer of course is that it does – but more and in less congratulatory ways than most people suppose." 

Article - Would the economy be better off without MBA students? (Henry Mintzberg vs. Paul Danos, Economist debates, November 2012) 

Debate between Henry Mintzberg and Paul Danos, on the (lack of) merit of MBA's. 
Opening Statements:
  • Henry Mintzberg: "Management is a craft, rooted in experience. But one cannot teach the craft to people who lack the experience. Those who believe they have learned management by sitting still in an MBA classroom are a menace to society."
  • Paul Danos: "I agree that a business leader must have experience to truly hone his or her management skills. However, two years in a modern and well-functioning MBA programme will accelerate students on the path to leadership." 
From the moderator's opening remarks: "(...) Are MBA students good for the economy? At first glance it might seem an odd question to ask. The professionalization of management has, some argue, been the single biggest factor behind the economic advancements of the past 100 years. Basic ideas such as such as paying employees for their talents and capital budgeting have made companies more competitive and helped to improve the lives of millions of people.

Surely, then, the fact that the most powerful people in business have studied management at the world's best universities is a good thing. This is what Paul Danos, the dean of Dartmouth University's Tuck School of Business, will be arguing. He thinks that the reason business prizes MBAs so highly is because they have been taught the business and leadership skills that companies require. After all, if they didn't, they wouldn't hire and promote them so enthusiastically.




 Henry Mintzberg, a management guru most famous for his book Managers Not MBAs, does not agree. He says that MBA programmes teach the wrong things to the wrong people. Not only does this mean that companies are led by unsuitable people, but it also means that the right candidates—who have learned the craft of management through years of practise—are barred from leadership positions by an old boys' network. This, he believes, holds the economy back." 

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Mintzberg on Decision Making

Just rediscovered this great little clip by Mintzberg on Decision Making:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyvXu3lSSG0  

This can be used in conjunction with the CoachingOurselves topic on Decision Making by a management team that wants to enhance their decision making capacity, such as in the case of a risk averse organizational culture that tends to force an analytic style that inhibits innovation.
Contact us to learn more http://www.coachingourselves.com/contact-us