You have to produce good managers before you can produce good products.
James P Womack
Lean Management Institute
Interview published in Mint Campaign, 25 August 2008
Showing posts with label Management process. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Management process. Show all posts
Monday, August 25, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Management - Miscellaneous - HBR 2006
Nonprofit Management
Disruptive Innovation for Social Change
Clayton M. Christensen, Heiner
Baumann, Rudy Ruggles, and
Thomas M. Sadtler
December
Reprint R0612E ♦ OnPoint 1683
How to Manage Urban School Districts
Stacey Childress, Richard Elmore,
and Allen Grossman
November
Reprint R0611B
Disruptive Innovation for Social Change
Clayton M. Christensen, Heiner
Baumann, Rudy Ruggles, and
Thomas M. Sadtler
December
Reprint R0612E ♦ OnPoint 1683
How to Manage Urban School Districts
Stacey Childress, Richard Elmore,
and Allen Grossman
November
Reprint R0611B
Decision Making - HBR 2006
Decision Making
A Brief History of Decision Making
Leigh Buchanan and
Andrew O'Connell
January
Reprint R0601B
Decisions and Desire
Gardiner Morse
January
Reprint R0601C
Decisions Without Blinders
Max H. Bazerman and
Dolly Chugh
January
Reprint R0601G ♦ OnPoint 2998;
OnPoint collection "To Make the
Best Decisions, Demand the Best
Data" 3048
HBR Case Study: All the Wrong Moves
David A. Garvin
With commentary by Christopher J.
McCormick, Hauke Moje, Ralph
Biggadike, and Paul Domorski
January
Reprint R0601A, Reprint Case
only R0601X, Reprint
Commentary only R0601Z
The Hidden Traps in Decision Making
John S. Hammond, Ralph L.
Keeney, and Howard Raiffa
January
Originally published in 1998
Reprint R0601K
Who Has the D? How Clear Decision Roles Enhance Organizational Performance
Paul Rogers and Marcia Blenko
January
Reprint R0601D ♦ OnPoint 3021
A Brief History of Decision Making
Leigh Buchanan and
Andrew O'Connell
January
Reprint R0601B
Decisions and Desire
Gardiner Morse
January
Reprint R0601C
Decisions Without Blinders
Max H. Bazerman and
Dolly Chugh
January
Reprint R0601G ♦ OnPoint 2998;
OnPoint collection "To Make the
Best Decisions, Demand the Best
Data" 3048
HBR Case Study: All the Wrong Moves
David A. Garvin
With commentary by Christopher J.
McCormick, Hauke Moje, Ralph
Biggadike, and Paul Domorski
January
Reprint R0601A, Reprint Case
only R0601X, Reprint
Commentary only R0601Z
The Hidden Traps in Decision Making
John S. Hammond, Ralph L.
Keeney, and Howard Raiffa
January
Originally published in 1998
Reprint R0601K
Who Has the D? How Clear Decision Roles Enhance Organizational Performance
Paul Rogers and Marcia Blenko
January
Reprint R0601D ♦ OnPoint 3021
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
When you take over a Division
When a New Manager Takes Charge.
By: Gabarro, John J.,
Harvard Business Review,
Jan 2007, Vol. 85, Issue 1
Fewer publications address what happens when general managers take over a division or function in large organizations. Yet these are the transitions through which a manager becomes -- or fails to become -- a leader.
More than 20 years ago, Harvard Business School professor John J. Gabarro conducted a research project to examine what happens when general managers take on big new jobs.
In this 1985 article (reprinted now once again), he reported on his findings: Managers took much longer than predicted to get up to speed; successful transitions followed predictable stages (including two sit-back-and-watch periods of immersion and refinement); industry insiders took charge much faster than outsiders; and a good working relationship with a boss dramatically increased the likelihood of success. Gabarro's most important finding overall was that taking charge takes a long, long time. Given the now common practice of shortened general-management assignments, are organizations paying a huge, hidden cost?
John J. Gabarro is the UPS Foundation Professor of Human Resource Management in Organizational Behavior at Harvard Business School in Boston.
By: Gabarro, John J.,
Harvard Business Review,
Jan 2007, Vol. 85, Issue 1
Fewer publications address what happens when general managers take over a division or function in large organizations. Yet these are the transitions through which a manager becomes -- or fails to become -- a leader.
More than 20 years ago, Harvard Business School professor John J. Gabarro conducted a research project to examine what happens when general managers take on big new jobs.
In this 1985 article (reprinted now once again), he reported on his findings: Managers took much longer than predicted to get up to speed; successful transitions followed predictable stages (including two sit-back-and-watch periods of immersion and refinement); industry insiders took charge much faster than outsiders; and a good working relationship with a boss dramatically increased the likelihood of success. Gabarro's most important finding overall was that taking charge takes a long, long time. Given the now common practice of shortened general-management assignments, are organizations paying a huge, hidden cost?
John J. Gabarro is the UPS Foundation Professor of Human Resource Management in Organizational Behavior at Harvard Business School in Boston.
Leading Change
Leading Change.
By: Kotter, John P.,
Harvard Business Review,
Jan 2007, Vol. 85, Issue 1
This article, originally published in the spring of 1995, previewed Kotter's 1996 book Leading Change. It outlines eight critical success factors -- from establishing a sense of extraordinary urgency, to creating short-term wins, to changing the culture ("the way we do things around here" ).
EIGHT STEPS TO TRANSFORMING YOUR ORGANIZATION
1. Establishing a Sense of Urgency
• Examine market and competitive realities
• Identify and discuss crises, potential crises, or major opportunities
↓
2. Forming a Powerful Guiding Coalition
• Assemble a group with enough power to lead the change effort
• Encourage the group to work together as a team
↓
3. Creating a Vision
• Create a vision to help direct the change effort
• Develope strategies for achieving that vision
↓
4. Communicating the Vision
• Use every vehicle possible to communicate the new vision and strategies
• Teach new behaviors by the example of the guiding coalition
↓
5. Empowering Others to Act on the Vision
• Get rid of obstacles to change
• Change systems or structures that seriously undermine the vision
• Encourage risk taking and nontraditional ideas, activities, and actions
↓
6. Planning for and Creating Short-Term Wins
• Plan for visible performance improvements
• Create those improvements
• Recognize and reward employees involved in the improvements
↓
7. Consolidating Improvements and Producing Still More Change
• Use increased credibility to change systems, structures, and policies that don't fit the vision
• Hiring, promoting, and developing employees who can implement the vision
• Reinvigorating the process with new projects, themes, and change agents
↓
8. Institutionalizing New Approaches
• Articulate the connections between the new behaviors and corporate success
• Develop the means to ensure leadership development and succession
Now retired, John P. Kotter was the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School in Boston.
By: Kotter, John P.,
Harvard Business Review,
Jan 2007, Vol. 85, Issue 1
This article, originally published in the spring of 1995, previewed Kotter's 1996 book Leading Change. It outlines eight critical success factors -- from establishing a sense of extraordinary urgency, to creating short-term wins, to changing the culture ("the way we do things around here" ).
EIGHT STEPS TO TRANSFORMING YOUR ORGANIZATION
1. Establishing a Sense of Urgency
• Examine market and competitive realities
• Identify and discuss crises, potential crises, or major opportunities
↓
2. Forming a Powerful Guiding Coalition
• Assemble a group with enough power to lead the change effort
• Encourage the group to work together as a team
↓
3. Creating a Vision
• Create a vision to help direct the change effort
• Develope strategies for achieving that vision
↓
4. Communicating the Vision
• Use every vehicle possible to communicate the new vision and strategies
• Teach new behaviors by the example of the guiding coalition
↓
5. Empowering Others to Act on the Vision
• Get rid of obstacles to change
• Change systems or structures that seriously undermine the vision
• Encourage risk taking and nontraditional ideas, activities, and actions
↓
6. Planning for and Creating Short-Term Wins
• Plan for visible performance improvements
• Create those improvements
• Recognize and reward employees involved in the improvements
↓
7. Consolidating Improvements and Producing Still More Change
• Use increased credibility to change systems, structures, and policies that don't fit the vision
• Hiring, promoting, and developing employees who can implement the vision
• Reinvigorating the process with new projects, themes, and change agents
↓
8. Institutionalizing New Approaches
• Articulate the connections between the new behaviors and corporate success
• Develop the means to ensure leadership development and succession
Now retired, John P. Kotter was the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School in Boston.
When to exhibit Courage to Succeed?
Courage as a Skill.
By: Reardon, Kathleen K., Harvard Business Review,
Jan 2007, Vol. 85, Issue 1
In business, courageous action is really a special kind of calculated risk taking. People who become good leaders have a greater than average willingness to make bold moves, but they strengthen their chances of success -- and avoid career suicide -- through careful deliberation and preparation. Business courage is not so much a visionary leader's inborn characteristic as a skill acquired through decision-making processes that improve with practice. In other words, most great business leaders teach themselves to make high-risk decisions. They learn to do this well over a period of time, often decades.
Learning to take an intelligent gamble requires an understanding of what I call the "courage calculation" : a method of making success more likely while avoiding rash, unproductive, or irrational behavior. Six discrete processes make up the courage calculation: setting primary and secondary goals; determining the importance of achieving them; tipping the power balance in your favor; weighing risks against benefits; selecting the proper time for action; and developing contingency plans.
Faced with having to take a risk, most people make only one attempt: They ring the doorbell, and if a response is not forthcoming, they give up and go away. Those who accomplish their primary and secondary goals try knocking at the back door, tapping at a window, or even returning a second time.
Courageous managers prepare themselves for any eventuality, including worst-case scenarios.
Author
Kathleen K. Reardon (docreardon@aol.com) is a professor of management and organization at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business. Her latest book is It's All Politics: Winning in a World Where Hard Work and Talent Aren't Enough (Doubleday, 2005).
By: Reardon, Kathleen K., Harvard Business Review,
Jan 2007, Vol. 85, Issue 1
In business, courageous action is really a special kind of calculated risk taking. People who become good leaders have a greater than average willingness to make bold moves, but they strengthen their chances of success -- and avoid career suicide -- through careful deliberation and preparation. Business courage is not so much a visionary leader's inborn characteristic as a skill acquired through decision-making processes that improve with practice. In other words, most great business leaders teach themselves to make high-risk decisions. They learn to do this well over a period of time, often decades.
Learning to take an intelligent gamble requires an understanding of what I call the "courage calculation" : a method of making success more likely while avoiding rash, unproductive, or irrational behavior. Six discrete processes make up the courage calculation: setting primary and secondary goals; determining the importance of achieving them; tipping the power balance in your favor; weighing risks against benefits; selecting the proper time for action; and developing contingency plans.
Faced with having to take a risk, most people make only one attempt: They ring the doorbell, and if a response is not forthcoming, they give up and go away. Those who accomplish their primary and secondary goals try knocking at the back door, tapping at a window, or even returning a second time.
Courageous managers prepare themselves for any eventuality, including worst-case scenarios.
Author
Kathleen K. Reardon (docreardon@aol.com) is a professor of management and organization at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business. Her latest book is It's All Politics: Winning in a World Where Hard Work and Talent Aren't Enough (Doubleday, 2005).
Becoming a Professional Manager - First Experience
Becoming the BOSS. By:
Hill, Linda A., Harvard Business Review,
Jan 2007, Vol. 85, Issue 1
Since my original research, which I described in the first edition of Becoming a Manager, published in 1992, I've continued to study the personal transformation involved when someone becomes a boss.
In their prior jobs, success depended primarily on their personal expertise and actions. As managers, they are responsible for setting and implementing an agenda for a whole group, something for which their careers as individual performers haven't prepared them.
A New Manager's Misconceptions
Managers wield significant authority.
Authority flows from the manager's position.
Managers must control their direct reports.
Managers must focus on forging good individual relationships.
Managers must ensure that things run smoothly.
Author
Linda A. Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School in Boston and the author of Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership (Harvard Business School Press, second edition, 2003).
Hill, Linda A., Harvard Business Review,
Jan 2007, Vol. 85, Issue 1
Since my original research, which I described in the first edition of Becoming a Manager, published in 1992, I've continued to study the personal transformation involved when someone becomes a boss.
In their prior jobs, success depended primarily on their personal expertise and actions. As managers, they are responsible for setting and implementing an agenda for a whole group, something for which their careers as individual performers haven't prepared them.
A New Manager's Misconceptions
Managers wield significant authority.
Authority flows from the manager's position.
Managers must control their direct reports.
Managers must focus on forging good individual relationships.
Managers must ensure that things run smoothly.
Author
Linda A. Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School in Boston and the author of Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership (Harvard Business School Press, second edition, 2003).
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Judgments by Leaders
Making Judgment Calls.
By: Tichy, Noel M., Bennis, Warren G.,
Harvard Business Review,
Oct 2007, Vol. 85, Issue 10
In the end, it is a leader's judgment that determines an organization's success or failure. On a more personal level, it is the sum of a leader's judgment calls that will deliver the verdict on his or her career--and life.
Our first finding, which focused our thinking on the topic, was that most of a leader's important calls reside in one of three domains: people, strategy, or crisis.
People judgments--getting the right people on your team and developing up-and-comers who themselves demonstrate good judgment--are foundational. The people around you help you make good strategy judgment calls and the best decisions during the occasional but inevitable crisis. It's sometimes possible to repair the damage--to a company or a career--that results from misjudgments about strategy or crises, but it is almost impossible to recover from poor people judgment.
Judgment process: First is preparation, during which leaders sense and frame the issue that will demand a judgment call, and align their team members so that everyone understands why the call is important. Second is the call itself--the moment of decision. And third is execution--making it happen while learning and adjusting along the way. Leaders may not be able to change their calls, but they can almost always change course during execution if they are open to feedback and committed to follow-through.
Indeed, good leaders take advantage of "redo loops," which can occur throughout the process.
Noel M. Tichy (tichy@bus.umich.edu) is a professor of management and operations and the director of the Global Business Partnership at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor. Warren G. Bennis (w.g.bennis@gmail.com) is a university professor and a distinguished professor of business administration at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles. Their book Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls is forthcoming from Portfolio.
By: Tichy, Noel M., Bennis, Warren G.,
Harvard Business Review,
Oct 2007, Vol. 85, Issue 10
In the end, it is a leader's judgment that determines an organization's success or failure. On a more personal level, it is the sum of a leader's judgment calls that will deliver the verdict on his or her career--and life.
Our first finding, which focused our thinking on the topic, was that most of a leader's important calls reside in one of three domains: people, strategy, or crisis.
People judgments--getting the right people on your team and developing up-and-comers who themselves demonstrate good judgment--are foundational. The people around you help you make good strategy judgment calls and the best decisions during the occasional but inevitable crisis. It's sometimes possible to repair the damage--to a company or a career--that results from misjudgments about strategy or crises, but it is almost impossible to recover from poor people judgment.
Judgment process: First is preparation, during which leaders sense and frame the issue that will demand a judgment call, and align their team members so that everyone understands why the call is important. Second is the call itself--the moment of decision. And third is execution--making it happen while learning and adjusting along the way. Leaders may not be able to change their calls, but they can almost always change course during execution if they are open to feedback and committed to follow-through.
Indeed, good leaders take advantage of "redo loops," which can occur throughout the process.
Noel M. Tichy (tichy@bus.umich.edu) is a professor of management and operations and the director of the Global Business Partnership at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor. Warren G. Bennis (w.g.bennis@gmail.com) is a university professor and a distinguished professor of business administration at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles. Their book Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls is forthcoming from Portfolio.
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