Transforming Leader Paradigms

Evolve from Blanket Solutions to Problem Solving for Complexity

James E. Luckman, Olga Flory

• Publisher: Productivity Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367139308
• eBook ISBN: 9780429639487
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Decision Making
• Index: Business

An easy read with clear examples and engaging stories, this book is a treat for leaders who are interested in totally transforming the way they work. Luckman and Flory help leaders and organizations shift from a solutions mindset to a problem-solving culture that results in flow and growth where everyone in the organization can become a winner.

• Anand V. Tanikella, Vice President R&D, Abrasives Worldwide, Saint-Gobain

Luckman and Flory explain how to create a platform for change and a culture of meaningful continuous improvement through what they call "Problem Solving for Complexity." This approach is about engaging everybody in the organization to improve every aspect of how work gets done. Read this book if you want to be a real change leader, not just the person who goes around talking about the need for change.

• Robert Kessiakoff, Coach/Consultant, Partner LTGe, Sweden

[This book] describes how the leader, through changing his or her own behaviors and practices, can transform an organization that is slow to adapt into one that solves problems organically. The book is an important read for leaders and managers at all levels.

• Peter Ward, Senior Associate Dean for Academics, Richard M. Ross Chair in Management, Professor of Management Sciences, Director, Center for Operational Excellence, Ohio State University

Organizational transformation is difficult, and despite expensive continuous improvement programs, most change efforts fail. This pattern, James E. Luckman and Olga Flory argue, is due to the fact that most change efforts start with senior leaders assigning an external or internal consulting group to attempt to drive change from the top down. Leaders today can no longer roll out solutions in the hopes of seeing better results. What they can do is play an active role in helping to transform their organization from "blanket solutions" thinking to learning how to solve complex business problems in a rapidly changing world.

Drawing upon decades of leadership experience and years of research with executives across many different industries, Luckman and Flory make a persuasive case that most companies have not been able to stay ahead in what is an increasingly turbulent business environment because they simply have not made the cultural changes required to do so. In discussing how to facilitate this culture change, the authors share a model for leadership designed to guide an organization to extraordinary new levels of performance by focusing on three key areas: building a framework for problem-solving, encouraging respectful communication, and accelerating the pace at which the organization learns. The result is more energized team members who are dedicated to their daily work in an organization that is better positioned to achieve operational excellence. Readers will also find powerful stories from executives who have effectively changed their approach to leadership, all of which serve to inspire more leaders to take the leap and become "problem-solvers for complexity."

Transforming Leader Paradigms is a book about strengthening every organization's capacity to solve complex business problems. But, more importantly, it's about what leaders must change in themselves to help their team members solve problems methodically, start to look at the world differently using complexity theory, and understand what it means to create real value for customers. For leaders who are willing to examine their own behaviors, this book is a welcome change from the steady stream of business books on the market that emphasize charismatic and/or heroic leadership as the key to achievement and success.

Part 1

Awakening

When we (Olga and Jim) sat down to reflect on what we’ve learned about leadership during the times of change, there was quite a bit of material to mull over and discern. What was clear to us was that it all starts with an awakening of sorts … a sense that what came before was before, and the future will never be the same. There is no going back (which means there is no going back to our old leadership habits either)!

We’ve each experienced awakening ourselves and witnessed it plenty of times in others. It helped us recognize that the leader’s awakening is a synergistic two-way process and experience. Its external focus is about how one’s leadership style and practice affect relationships with others, and the other is the ongoing internal reflection, the relationship to one’s self. The external focus is cognitive; it looks outside you and describes the world and conditions needing to be addressed and, then, how leadership needs to change to address those conditions. We’ll focus on this in Chapter 1, “The New Role of Leadership.” The second component of awakening is something that happens inside your unconscious self. You cannot control it. It grows within you and redefines who you are. What emerges is the real you, the you that now sees the world as an interconnected whole where you are creating something new and important for others, with others. We’ll talk more about this in Chapter 2, “From a Caterpillar to a Butterfly.” Since this new you emerges from within your unconscious mind, you cannot fully understand what is happening; it just happens. Some people call this a soul awakening.

In the first chapter, we dig into the reasons a new leadership is needed in the context of the world today. We offer some ideas about leadership theories and share with you our vision for creating a culture that not only emerges under your leadership but goes well beyond your time at your company. The second chapter covers the energy that rises from within you where you begin to act with a greater purpose. You create closer connections with others and build the strength to leave your current ordinary world and venture into the unknown. This is where you shed your skin and have a metamorphosis into a new you. You transform yourself, just like a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly.

This transformed you will guide you as you journey into the new unknown world.

1

The New Role of the Leader

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

Walt Disney

You are a leader. Congratulations! You likely made it to your current position through your focus, hard work, and dedication, not to mention your set of highly developed skills.

How do the people who work with you describe you? Are you a person who can quickly work through complex issues, make decisions, and set a clear direction? Maybe you are the “go-to” person to develop a long-term vision and establish business strategies due to your passion and ability to thoroughly analyze the market, competitors, and suppliers. Maybe you are the best at mobilizing the right resources to solve problems. Or perhaps you are a master change agent who understands what it takes to move your team to new performance levels.

Whatever people think about you, you have worked hard at developing your unique skill set over time. You have reached a level of excellence that is appreciated by your superiors, peers, and employees. And depending on your specific title—CEO, Director, VP, General Manager, and so on—your skills are some of the best for your position. You are highly respected for both your leadership and your status in the corporate hierarchy. And, like any good leader, you always aim to make your team successful. Over time, you have probably implemented programs and initiatives with the intention to build a strong, healthy, positive culture to help propel your team forward. But, our guess is, something is still bothering you.

Let’s think together. This is because there is still a problem. You have developed skills to excel inside your existing management system, which is likely buried in a mental and cultural paradigm that currently dominates your organizational thinking and behaviors. And something about this paradigm is not helping you meet your current business challenges. It is just getting harder to get things done.

A BRAND-NEW WORLD

To say our world today is “fast-paced” and everything seems to be speeding up is a massive understatement. Consider how the way we receive news has changed, how we are bombarded by instant messaging, and how our businesses now get customer feedback on social media platforms like Facebook. Your leadership philosophy, which influences the way your team performs its work, may have been fine 50 years or even a decade ago, but today it no longer can keep up. Think about how just the size of your email inbox has grown. The speed of communications and increasing level of noise have made it difficult for us to know and decide what is important. It’s impossible to respond to every email and consider every new piece of information coming your way.

Closely related to the increased speed of communications, is the connectedness of everything in our world. Almost every part of every system influences the other. This is called interdependence, and it is why business problems (or any problems, really) cannot be solved with simple cause-and-effect thinking. Solving problems now requires many people, with different perspectives, working together to influence and shift complex interdependent processes. Over the past two decades, we have seen the problems and opportunities related to interdependencies at nearly every company we have visited.

Along with complexity and interdependencies comes uncertainty. You might say uncertainty is what defines our world today. More and more events that we can neither predict nor prevent happen on a daily basis. Consider the impact of 9/11, the financial crisis of 2008, and more recently, Brexit. These were all significant disruptions that most people didn’t see coming. Besides diverting actions to correcting for these disruptions, these events each caused massive re-thinking about what to do after things settled down.

The workplace today experiences similar disruptions, whether leaders acknowledge them and face them head-on or not. Customers decide to change suppliers because of something they see on Twitter … Mergers result in restructuring … Changes in the volatile stock market cause leaders to take drastic actions to maintain stability … Learning how to respond rapidly and wisely to these kinds of disruptions is simply a required feature for companies to survive, let alone thrive.

A BRAND-NEW MANAGEMENT PHILOSOPHY?

Most companies have a management philosophy that is at least a half-century behind today’s reality. Most leaders, through no fault of their own, are still practicing these outdated leadership skills, even though these skills no longer work to address the problems we see today.

Here are some questions for you to ponder.

Who does the thinking and who is doing the work?

In many companies, the management philosophy is still based on the concept of separating thinking from doing. Leaders establish strategies, roll them out, expect their people to accept the directives, and work toward accomplishing the goals. This is what is called a command-and-control management, and sadly, it is still far too common today.

Are the processes static and controllable or are they dynamic and adaptive?

Some processes are more static, stable, and transactional, meaning they can be controlled. Others are much more dynamic and therefore unstable. For example, in many manufacturing operations, some sequential processes where one step leads to another do not change much. However, in other functions, primarily in product development and sales, processes are more variable because they create knowledge, not parts, and require adaptability and speed. “Operators” in these departments need significant continuous change and re-adjustment. One size does not fit all and, yet, many leadership practices were developed for static and controllable processes. Leaders need to become aware of these differences and determine the best way to engage their team members and guide the interactions between them.

How many millennials are among your company employees and what do you notice about their approach to work?

Millennials bring a different focus to your workplace these days. They may not be as willing to accept the current leadership model as other employees have. They tend to prioritize values, ethics, and flexibility and, as a result, they may expect more diversity and inclusion. They will challenge previously established policies, and you will need to adjust to their demands. You can see this as a problem or an opportunity … an evolution … a sign of the times.

What is the global footprint of your business?

Geographically separated teams have additional communication needs to deliver customer value. How often and how effectively they communicate will have a significant impact on your business. “Handoffs” are a problem everywhere, even when people sit next to each other, but these problems are more amplified by long distance.

A NEW ENERGETIC APPROACH TO “EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT”

If we want people to feel capable of making decisions and taking problem-solving actions that are important to the business, then we need to trust that they care about the business. This means we need to go beyond the business jargon and think seriously about what “employee engagement” looks and feels like. According to Keven Kruse, a New York Times best-selling author, “Employee engagement” is the “emotional commitment an employee has to the organization and its goals, resulting in the use of discretionary effort.” Recent studies have discovered that only 30% of employees are engaged in their work. Keven has created a master list of 32 research findings about the impact of employee engagement, which include:

• Companies with high employee engagement scores had twice the customer loyalty
• Percent of industry net sales increased by 300% in a large manufacturing company
• A Fortune 100 manufacturing company reduced quality errors from 5,658 parts per million to 52 parts per million.
• Business units in the bottom quartile averaged 62% more accidents
• Employees with lower engagement are four times more likely to leave
• Organizations with highly engaged employees achieve twice the annual net income

We like these stats because they remind us that increasing employee engagement is key to improving company performance. But, from experience, we know that this really only works if it is done in a way that is integrated with a leadership team’s approach to creating a culture that focuses on solving business problems. If you attempt to address the issue of employee engagement as a separate initiative, then it will surely be seen by employees as just another “fad program.”

How do you increase engagement in a brand-new leadership and management context? To answer this question, let’s review some theories of leadership in practice today.

According to Transactional Leadership Theory, leaders need to be highly action and results focused. They spend most of their time reviewing checkli...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Authors
• Introduction
• Part 1: Awakening
• Part 3: Action
• Part 4: Actualization
• Conclusion
• Deep Dive
• Bibliography
• Index