LEADERSHIP CODE: FIVE RULES TO LEAD BY

HR:Guiding Reinvention in the Age of Disruption

Kate SweetmanToronto 13 July 2016

Hello! I am so excited to be here. This is not only my first time in Pakistan It is my first DAY in Pakistan. And so I am truly excited to engage with you and learn as much as I teach. I have taught in over 25 countries in the world, and, while I believe the central lessons of leadership in the corporate sphere to be universal, there certainly are differences in how they are enacted.

And there are differences in how they are taught. So, I will look forward very much to hearing from you the extent to which what I have to say and how I attempt to engage you work.

Above all, I used to lead from the head around any topic I tried to develop expertise in. But now I try very hard to lead from the heart. And to encourage others to do the same. And that is because in all my study of leadership in my research, in my coaching, in my classroom experience, in my consulting I have come to realize that we can talk about process and structure and incentives and all that does matter. But in Building a Simply Irresistible Team in a Disruptive Age, we must lead from the heart. And appeal to the heart. And get other hearts to reach back to us and to each other. Because this Age of Disruption is more than anything a challenge to harness individual and collective energy, and bring it together in ways that are so based on trust and common understanding that errors of communication are completely minimized. Not because we dont still miss saying things to each other. We are humans and we will make mistakes. But because we as team members so believe in each other in our intentions and our goodwill and our looking out for each other. And because we trust each other, we know what is right for the team, and we do what is right for the team. We want to succeed individually but we do not let that desire overtake the need for the team to succeed. And when we make sacrifices for the team, we are totally ok with it. Because we also know it will come back to us in some way in some how. So, in a way, a sacrifice is not a sacrifice.

Leadership for a World in Motion

The world is more interdependent and border-lessNew challenges will arrive with less predictabilityThe shelf life on knowledge is getting shorterTacit knowledge more valuable than explicit, codified knowledgeLeadership assumptions are becoming outdated: effectiveness has moved from control to influenceProblems, and solutions, are more multi-dimensional and systemic, requiring team-based thinking, solutions, execution, learning, feedback

Global Shockwaves

global competition1981

ubiquitous friendly hardware & software, Soviet perestroika1989

egghead boom, Indian legal/regulatory reforms1991

ubiquitous PCsre-engineering peaksonline retailing hitsglobally interconnected telecomm1995

Global Competition1981

ubiquitous friendly hardware & software1989

egghead boom1991

ubiquitous PCsre-engineering peaksonline retailing hitsglobally interconnected telecomm1995

www commercialized1996

rightsizing peaks1998

outsourcing in earnest2004

ubiquitous smartphones2006

global crash2008

Whats the difference betweenGoogle and Yahoo? Netflix and Blockbuster? Amazon and WalMart? Apple and Nokia?

Why Do Organizations Slide Into Irrelevance and Failure?

Quantum Individual and Organizational Change Acceleratedwww.amazon.comwww.barnesandnoble,com

Core fundamentals or ALL good leaders, and a vital add-on for the VUCA world

Hey, why is there VUCA world?

Three Levels of Change

Postcards from the South Pole:A Tragedy of Failure to Reinvent

Antarctica 1911-1912

Scott v AmundsenBritain v Norway

Ponies v Dogs

Why Do Organizations Slide Into Irrelevance and Failure?

The Six BlindfoldsTM

Six Blindfolds Causing Vision LossArroganceBelieving Problems Dont ExistDismissing Competitors SuccessNegative Feedback Not Acknowledged HereInability to Know What We KnowWe Know Whats Best for the Customer

BLINDFOLD 1Arrogance

I could talk to you about Kmart, and about how Kmart did NOT see WalMart coming. But lets talk about Scott instead. In what ways was he arrogant? In what ways was Amundsen NOT arrogant?

DEFINITION OF BLINDFOLD 1 Arrogance

Overbearing and unwarranted display of superiority,self-importance, or false pride.

Does this ever happen with us?

Shane Script: Kmart was clearly at the top of the retailing chain in the 1970s and early 1980s. They were a strong organization, and focused their operations on serving the city dweller. Wal-Mart at that time, which had been around for decades, focused their energy on smaller towns and country regions. But then Wal-Mart did something unexpected. They began building stores in the suburbs closer to the city centers. They began boldly encroaching on Kmarts turf. And revenue surged as customers began switching in droves from Kmart to Wal-Mart. And how did Kmart react? They responded with astonishing arrogance. Despite losing market share, executives continued to label their newest competitor country bumpkins. Over the next decade, Kmart kept doing business as usual without making one significant change. A former Kmart executive later admitted that it wasnt until the late 1990s that top Kmart leadership admitted that Walmart was a legitimate threat. By that time, however, Walmarts momentum was irreversible and the outcome inevitable.

BLINDFOLD 2Believing Problems Dont Exist

Again, I could talk about GM and the complete disbelief on the part of the senior leadership team that anything was wrong with the ignition switch. But instead, lets talk about Scott. In what way did he not believe that a problem existed?

DEFINITION OF BLINDFOLD 2 Believing Problems Dont Exist

Being either completely blind to organizational or individual problems or dismissing them to protect oneself and/or the company.

Does this ever happen with us?

Shane Script: Kmart was clearly at the top of the retailing chain in the 1970s and early 1980s. They were a strong organization, and focused their operations on serving the city dweller. Wal-Mart at that time, which had been around for decades, focused their energy on smaller towns and country regions. But then Wal-Mart did something unexpected. They began building stores in the suburbs closer to the city centers. They began boldly encroaching on Kmarts turf. And revenue surged as customers began switching in droves from Kmart to Wal-Mart. And how did Kmart react? They responded with astonishing arrogance. Despite losing market share, executives continued to label their newest competitor country bumpkins. Over the next decade, Kmart kept doing business as usual without making one significant change. A former Kmart executive later admitted that it wasnt until the late 1990s that top Kmart leadership admitted that Walmart was a legitimate threat. By that time, however, Walmarts momentum was irreversible and the outcome inevitable.

BLINDFOLD 3DismissingCompetitors Success

I could talk about Microsoft under Ballmer but in what way did Scott dismiss competitors success?

DEFINITION OF BLINDFOLD 3 Dismissing Competitors SuccessRefusing to accept competitors successes as valid and downplaying competitors strategic and product innovations. Usually because of past successes.

Does this ever happen to us?

Shane Script: Microsoft continues to refuse to give Apple credit for their great success this past decade. We had a chance to visit Microsoft headquarters recently in Redmond, Washington, and meet with a key executive over strategy and market research. We were anxious to find out before our visit ended how Microsoft perceived Steve Jobs and Apples incredible success. And our Microsoft executive obliged. And we were shocked at what we heard. In a period of five minutes, this executive expressed three times that Apples success was simply a matter of luck. He explained that Steve Jobs was initially going to open his risky retail outlets with only one product to sell: the computer. He then explained that Apple stores would have certainly failed, except that the iPod luckily came along at just the right time. We were stunned. Apples success was based on luck? In a period of 10 years, Steve Jobs helped to create seven new industries, let alone the launch of successful retail stores. It was hardly a matter of luck.

BLINDFOLD 4Negative Feedback Not Acknowledged Here

I could talk about the Challenger disaster but lets instead apply this to Scott. In what way did he not acknowledge negative feedback?

DEFINITION OF BLINDFOLD 4 Negative Feedback Not Acknowledged Here

The inability to hear anything negative about the project, company, or yourself and to confront the brutal facts as they will get in the way of agendas, deadlines, and commitments.

Does this ever happen with us?

Shane Voiceover: NASAs Kennedy Space Center has been one of our favorite clients. During one of our projects in 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster happened. It was an emotional time. The president of the United States assigned a team called the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) to conduct a full study on exactly what caused the shuttle disaster. The common feeling was that it was the foam that broke off and struck the wing. On one of our visits our client contact showed us the CAIB report findings. He read us the most telling finding of all: We are convinced that the management practices overseeing the space shuttle program were as much a cause of the accident as the foam that struck the left wing. NASA should continue to remove communication barriers and foster an inclusive environment where open communication is the norm and a culture of trust and openness permeates all facets of the organization. The NASA organizational culture has as much to do with this accident as the foam. The revelation was stunning. It wasnt the foam that struck the wing that initially set the disaster in motion. The potential for disaster was already in play because of NASAs culture of inability and unwillingness to address potentially negative feedback that bubbled up from below. There were many engineers who had actually predicted the foam might happen.

BLINDFOLD 5Inability to Know What We KnowFBI

I could talk about the lack of systems and the politics that got in the way of the FBL being able to act on what it knew around 9/11 but instead lets apply this to Scott. In what way did he not now what he knew?

DEFINITION OF BLINDFOLD 5 Inability to Know What We Know

The inability to transfer learning, knowledge, ideas and information across boundaries in ways that result in the ability to take action.

Does this ever happen with us?

Shane Voiceover: NASAs Kennedy Space Center has been one of our favorite clients. During one of our projects in 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster happened. It was an emotional time. The president of the United States assigned a team called the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) to conduct a full study on exactly what caused the shuttle disaster. The common feeling was that it was the foam that broke off and struck the wing. On one of our visits our client contact showed us the CAIB report findings. He read us the most telling finding of all: We are convinced that the management practices overseeing the space shuttle program were as much a cause of the accident as the foam that struck the left wing. NASA should continue to remove communication barriers and foster an inclusive environment where open communication is the norm and a culture of trust and openness permeates all facets of the organization. The NASA organizational culture has as much to do with this accident as the foam. The revelation was stunning. It wasnt the foam that struck the wing that initially set the disaster in motion. The potential for disaster was already in play because of NASAs culture of inability and unwillingness to address potentially negative feedback that bubbled up from below. There were many engineers who had actually predicted the foam might happen.

BLINDFOLD 6We Know Whats Best for the Customer

I could talk about Akers taking UBM to the brink of extinction because he was tone deaf to the needs to the customer in times of great change but instead, how does this apply to Scott?

DEFINITION OF BLINDFOLD 6 We Know Whats Best for the Customer

An inability to have empathy for customer frustrations and needs, and a lack of inquisitiveness to find out ways to perfectly align to customers current and future needs.

Does this ever happen with us?

Shane Voiceover: The FBI is a painstaking example of what happens to organizations that cannot put what they know into action. The 9/11 Commission Report was launched by Congress to determine why American intelligence was so ignorant about the planned terrorists attack on September 11, 2001. On page 77, the report introduced a watershed finding: The FBIs information systems are woefully inadequate. The FBI lacked the ability to know what it knew: there were no effective mechanisms for capturing or sharing its institutional knowledge. FBI agents did create records of interviews and other investigative efforts, but there were no reports officers to condense the information into meaningful intelligence that could be retrieved and disseminated. This acknowledged that the information to prevent and solve terrorist problems was already inside and known within the FBI. It was simply trapped within a blindfolded culture and within systems that couldnt integrate information into critical knowledge that could be acted upon.

Major A-Ha!All Six of These Individual and Organizational Blindfolds are Self-Imposed!

Blindfolds are self-imposed!

You can simplytakethemoff.

The primary cause behind individual and organizational irrelevance and failure is the inability or unwillingness to humbly understand, accept, and quickly adapt to a fast-changing external business environment.

Examples of ExtinctionInabilityUnwillingness28Core Reinvention Principle: See Reality

What is REALLY boils down to is a Core Reinvention Principle that we ask everyone to take to heart: The primary cause of individual and organizational irrelevance and failure is the inability or unwillingness to humbly understand, accept, and quickly adapt to a fast-changing external business environment.

Inability means not having the skills and abilities to sense changes and adapt quickly. Unwillingness means simply refusing to follow this principle even in they have the talent to do so.

As we leave our deep dive on the six blindfolds, and move into lesson four, reflect on your experience. Have you ever been in a place where individuals or organizations were slow to change? Was it inability? Or was it unwillingness? Is one a bigger problem to address than the other?28

Harnessing the power of every individual and aligning all human energy horizontally-vertically.

Leveraging incoming global shockwaves to reinvent and leapfrog the competition.Innovating every part of an organization to stay one step ahead of competitor best practices

Viruses behind blindfolds preventing team success

Not invented hereFalse PositiveWhat? Me learn?High Power DistanceTurfismRearview MirrorDistractionDisruptionDiversity

Not only do these things get in the way of teamwork, but they get in the way of innovation, change and shared energy.

Reinvention Agility MatrixReinvention AgilitySkill/WillShockwave StrengthLOHIGHHIGH

See p. 39 for fuller descriptions

Judo Champions 15%Change Agile 45%Visually Impaired 35%Legally Blind 5%

SO: what does this mean to us in HR?What does it take to change?

REMOVING SIX SELF-IMPOSED BLINDFOLDSLEADER-SETS ARE THE PRIMARY WAY FOR INDIVIDUALS-ORGANIZATIONS TO REMOVE HARMFUL BLINDFOLDS AND SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE VISION CLARITY!

NEW SKILL-SETSExample

Ability to continuously scan external environment and create useful information that leads to action.

NEW TOOL-SETSExample

Subscribe to industry benchmark reportImplement process to align & integrate silos

NEW MIND-SETSExample

HumilityInquisitivenessWilling to learn new things

NEW BEHAVIORAL-SETSExample

Attend monthly leadership forumBenchmark competition 4 hours per week.

Shane will talk them through this slide

When mindsets shift, incredible energy is released

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in. Isaac Asimov The acknowledgement of a single possibility can change everything. Aberjhani Just because a door appears closed it does not mean that it is locked - nor that it will not open with the right heart, call or touch Rasheed Ogunlaru

Isaac Asimov: American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and popular science. Asimov was prolific and wrote or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards.[3]

Aberihani:

Rasheed Ogunlaru: Rasheed Ogunlaru is a life coach, speaker, author of Soul Trader - Putting the Heart Back into Your Business, The Gift of Inner Success, A Zest for Business and business coach partner of the British Library'

The Mindset We All WantCuriosity, joy, sense of potential, open-mindedness, mutual appreciation, support, positive intent

Reinvention FormulaR = (D x F x A x E) L > CR = ReinventionD = Dissatisfaction F = FocusA = AlignmentE = ExecutionL = LeadershipC = Cost of Change

Leadership is the Force MultiplierWithout leadership, it is just a formula on a page

Are You/Your Team/Your Organization ready to change?DissatisfactionHow dissatisfied are you with the status quo?FocusDo you focus where you need to? Or are you looking backward at past examples of success without realizing need to change?AlignmentAre all the elements properly aligned? Do you have the right people with the right mindset, skill set, tool set, and behavior set?ExecutionHow good is the team at working hard every day to make change happen?Leadership Do you have good, positive, accelerating leadership for these times?Cost of ChangeWhat is the cost of reinventing? Who is concerned about losing status? Expertise? Political access? Authority?

ExerciseHow can you use these ideas to help guide YOUR senior leadership team toward change?

What is YOUR leadership role?

www.amazon.comwww.barnesandnoble.com

Core fundamentals or ALL good leaders, and a vital add-on for the VUCA world

Hey, why is there VUCA world?

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