Difference between revisions of "ITLPviii Group Kotter"

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Here are some steps implemented (and currently in use) to motivate and inspire people towards the goal of offering better customer service: I would like to apologize, beforehand, for some of the cheesy headers.. I blame it on Mountain Dew! :)
 
Here are some steps implemented (and currently in use) to motivate and inspire people towards the goal of offering better customer service: I would like to apologize, beforehand, for some of the cheesy headers.. I blame it on Mountain Dew! :)
  
Open Door Policy: The executive team (CIO and directors) pushed this initiative to make themselves accessible to everyone in the organization. For day-to-day activities, they encourage walk-ins over formal meeting requests.
+
'''Open Door Policy:''' The executive team (CIO and directors) pushed this initiative to make themselves accessible to everyone in the organization. For day-to-day activities, they encourage walk-ins over formal meeting requests.
  
Collaborative Environment: Team leads actively promote a collaborative working enviroment where members are encouraged to participate in problem resolution and vision accomplishment. One team lead has a weekly “team huddle” with his team to debate various issues currently on the table.
+
'''Collaborative Environment:''' Team leads actively promote a collaborative working enviroment where members are encouraged to participate in problem resolution and vision accomplishment. One team lead has a weekly “team huddle” with his team to debate various issues currently on the table.
  
Run with it: Fostering a culture where individuals are encouraged to take ownership of projects within their scope.
+
'''Run with it:''' Fostering a culture where individuals are encouraged to take ownership of projects within their scope.
  
Freedom!: Inter-team communication is strongly emphasized, and individuals (with expertise on the matter at hand) are encouraged to make recommendations, offer suggestions and educate others.
+
'''Freedom!:''' Inter-team communication is strongly emphasized, and individuals (with expertise on the matter at hand) are encouraged to make recommendations, offer suggestions and educate others.
  
Round of Applause: Accolades and customer endorsements are treated as a high priority and well communicated within the organization.
+
'''Round of Applause:''' Accolades and customer endorsements are treated as a high priority and well communicated within the organization.
  
 
===An "innovative presentation" idea?===
 
===An "innovative presentation" idea?===

Revision as of 01:31, 17 May 2007

ITLPviii Main Page > Group Kotter




Group Kotter


Group Members

What time is it
for everybody?


Phone meetings

(We have 30 minutes Tue & Wed, and as much as 90 minutes on Thurs. See full schedule.)

Date PDT CDT EDT
Tue,
May 15
1 pm 3 pm 4 pm
Wed,
May 16
noon 2pm 3pm
Thur,
May 17
9:30 am 11:30 am 12:30 am
Sherif's Conference Bridge
  • (212) 998-2280
  • 49657 - when prompted, enter this conference bridge number.
  • 100607 - when prompted, enter this six digit access code to enter the conference.

Our Paper

What Leaders Really Do by John Kotter
Harvard Business Review, December 2001
HBR_What_Leaders_Really_Do.pdf (704 KB)

The Other Papers

The Work of Leadership by Ronald Heifetz and Donald Laurie
Harvard Business Review, December 2001
HBR_Work_of_Leadership.pdf (316 KB)

The Leadership Advantage by Warren Bennis
Leader to Leader, No. 12, Spring 1999
http://www.pfdf.org/leaderbooks/l2l/spring99/bennis.html

The Leaderful Community by Joseph Raelin
Innovative Leader, Volume 12, Number 6, June 2003
http://www.winstonbrill.com/bril001/html/article_index/articles/551-600/article579_body.html

The Assignment

Develop a brief synopsis of the author’s views on leadership to be presented to the group on Day One. Please contrast the author you are reading with at least one of the other authors’ perspectives on leadership; discuss how your team wants to make your ten minute (or so) presentation. You are encouraged to be innovative in how you share this work with the class. Reading PowerPoint slides does not qualify as innovative: A leader needs to have the ability to capture and hold people's attention while communicating a message. (Full description.)

Comments/Thoughts

Kotter (What Leaders Really Do) - 1977 (1990)

From Jim Loter, UW, 5/3/2007...

I'm keeping my non-editorial notes on the reading here: http://www.engr.washington.edu/confluence/x/FAY

From Erik Lundberg, UW, 5/3/2007...

I've only just started to read the Kotter article (What Leaders Really Do), but the main point that crystalized for me is that:

  • "Managers promote stability, and leaders promote change".
  • And secondarily, "One person can do both".

Jane DelFavero, NYU 5/10/2007

- The balance between vision and planning seems to be a key point, in particular, the uselessness of long term planning (esp without a vision to guide it)

"visions and strategies" v plans

 Question from Jane: Is it really possible for a leader to be both a good manager 
 and a visionary thinker? Kotter says yes, I have my doubts

As we all know - all too well - good managing takes time and focus. Leading takes time too, and for sure visionary thinking requires getting above the day-to-day grind of managing. I agree that it is hard to do that when you have to spend all your time managing, and the rest of it fighting fires. But maybe you can apply some leadership principals to dealing with managerial-type issues, such as asking the right question instead of solving somebody's problem... Maybe that's sort of what Kotter is saying: leadership is more than just visionary thinking... Lundberg 18:29, 10 May 2007 (PDT)


Kotter synopsis

Leadership vs. management

Initial distinction: "management is about coping with complexity", "leadership...is about coping with change"

1. Setting Direction

  • goal: produce change
  • how: create vision and strategy
  • instead of: planning

2. Align People

  • goal: "Line up individuals so that they move together in the same direction"
  • how: "Communicate with the individuals... all the time"
  • instead of: organizing people

3. Motivate People

  • goal: Make people feel like they are part of the process and are important to the organization.
  • how: "by satisfying basic human needs for achievement, a sense of belonging, recognition, self-esteem, a feeling of control over one's life, and the ability to live up to one's ideals."
  • instead of: pushing people in the right direction (as control mechanisms do)

4. Create a culture of leadership

  • goal: leadership at many levels
  • how: push responsibility lower in the organization, thus creating more challenging jobs at lower levels. Create more smaller units.
  • instead of: a centralized management system with a few large units.

Heifeetz-Laurie (The Work of Leadership) - 1997

From Erik Lundberg, UW, 5/7/2007...

The Heifeetz-Laurie article (The Work of Leadership) is about "Adaptive Work". Leaders don't solve problems themselves. Instead, they

  • (a) pose the questions that engage others to take on the responsibility to identify the problems, and
  • (b) create an environment that makes it okay to break the rules and do things differently.

From Jim Loter, UW, 5/7/2007

My summary: http://www.engr.washington.edu/confluence/x/JwY

Interesting point to contrast with Kotter: "The prevailing notion that leadership consists of having a vision and aligning people with that vision is bankrupt because it continues to treat adaptive situations as if they were technical: The authority figure is supposed to divine where the company is going and people are supposed to follow." (13)

Doesn't this sound like a direct challenge to Kotter?

Maybe more of an expansion on the "domain" of leadership, in a new dimension. Kotter was all about the Man on the Balcony, because that was the prevailing view of that time (20 years prior). Heifeetz-Laurie (and the others) are pushing those same principles, but are now driving them down into the organization. (summary from our Wed meeting) Lundberg 13:54, 9 May 2007 (PDT)

Bennis (The Leadership Advantage) - 1999

From Erik Lundberg, UW, 5/7/2007...

My summary of the Bennis article (The Leadership Advantage) is:

  • Key to an organization's success is the "capacity to create the social architecture capable of generating intellectual capital."
  • "Exemplary leaders are distinguished by the master of the soft skills, above all, character."
  • "Exemplary leaders believe they have a responsibility to extend people's growth and to create an environment where people constantly learn."

need something about how Bennis relates to Kotter

Raelin (The Leaderful Community) - 2003

From Erik Lundberg, UW, 5/7/2007...

These two quotes lifted from the article seem to distill it for me:

  • "Leadership becomes a collective property, not the sole sanctuary of any one (most important) member."
  • "Leadership of the unit needs to come from within the community, not from an ultimate authority imposed from the outside."

Jane 5/16/07

  • Leadership is: concurrent, collective, collaborative, compassionate

Query: does the parallel nature of leadership in Raelin's vision conflict with Kotter's idea that leaders are the ones who set the tone and direction of an organization? It seems to me that in order for a "leaderful community" to arise, there has to be consensus about direction, goals, etc., and an understanding of corporate purpose.

Themes

Evolution of Leadership "Theory"

  • Kotter's original paper was seminal - and 30 years ago - and was all about the person at the top. Very hierarchical - but that was normal for the time: an authority-figure at the top shows the masses where to go and how to get there.
  • The other authors accept these "new" principles of leadership that Kotter laid out, but are all about the organization. Driving leadership concepts down into the org, flattening the org. Power to the people! In what ways does this reflect more general societal move (eg, social networking, the internet)?
  • In other words, Kotter was revolutionary, and the others were evolutionary in their contributions to leadership theory.

Presentation Ideas

A two-part presentation:

(1) overview of the evolution of thought about leadership, represented by these papers

  • Focus on Kotter (that is our prime assignment, after all)
  • Point out how each of the authors who followed in his footsteps have expanded those principles, and pushed them into new dimensions.
    • Not surprising that Raelin, which is the most recent, goes the furthest in pushing the idea of leadership down to the community level. From his perspective, if leadership is about dealing with change (one of Kotter's theses), then the multiple perspectives of distributed leadership have a better chance of foreseeing and dealing with that change.
  • Summary: Kotter built the house of leadership. Twenty to thirty years later, the others have done some remodeling, but the foundation remains untouched. (EL)

(2) panel discussion, where we present a case study (or whatever) from each institution

Each university takes one of the three Kotter Principles for their case study:

  1. Aligning People vs. organizing & scheduling (NYU)
  2. Setting Directions vs. planning & budgeting
  3. Motivating and Inspiring vs. controlling activities and solving problems.
  4. Creating a Culture of Leadership (UW)

NYU

Alignment: about 8 years ago, there was the first step of a reorg with the creation of central ITS from 3 existing groups (telecom, Academic Computing and UCC/administrative computing). After a couple of years, a survey was done of the staff, and the biggest issue that people identified was inter-group communication. As a result, it was decided that every Tuesday, there would be a subject-matter based, cross-group meeting. The attendees are generally not director-level, but line staff and managers. The topics and structure of these meetings have changed over time, but they produced some useful, and perhaps unexpected output. First, they allowed communication between groups and people who had not met regularly before, which allowed knowledge and respect to develop (as well as improving communication). But, they also allowed natural "affinity groups" to develop, made up of people who shared interests in larger organizational issues. It also created an environment where people who were not in a managerial role could exercise their leadership skills. This seems to be a good example of aligning people, rather than organizing them (see Kotter, p 7)

[maybe something about how, after the reorg, our org structure was very flat, but that was inefficient, because it makes it hard to resolve disputes, allocate resources]

UW

not in a reorg, but are collaborating more these days, and this shift from silos to "community" is relatively new, and is being supported, by "central IT" leaders (encouraged, even? fostered???)

Focus on "culture of leadership" at UW. Initially very grass-roots driven. Leadership qualities in units is increasingly recognized and encouraged by "central" IT. Unit leaders have more of a role in creating and fostering change across the University.

Examples

  • New Office of Information Management (OIM) is founded on change
  • IS Futures Task Force (which recommended the formation of the OIM) was intended to produce change and included membership from across campus
  • Central IT (C&C)'s strategic plan is open to change
  • Computing Directors group and IT Resource Sharing Group push change

OU

Motivation: Here are some steps implemented (and currently in use) to motivate and inspire people towards the goal of offering better customer service: I would like to apologize, beforehand, for some of the cheesy headers.. I blame it on Mountain Dew! :)

Open Door Policy: The executive team (CIO and directors) pushed this initiative to make themselves accessible to everyone in the organization. For day-to-day activities, they encourage walk-ins over formal meeting requests.

Collaborative Environment: Team leads actively promote a collaborative working enviroment where members are encouraged to participate in problem resolution and vision accomplishment. One team lead has a weekly “team huddle” with his team to debate various issues currently on the table.

Run with it: Fostering a culture where individuals are encouraged to take ownership of projects within their scope.

Freedom!: Inter-team communication is strongly emphasized, and individuals (with expertise on the matter at hand) are encouraged to make recommendations, offer suggestions and educate others.

Round of Applause: Accolades and customer endorsements are treated as a high priority and well communicated within the organization.

An "innovative presentation" idea?

Perhaps as a follow-up to the panel discussion, we could attempt to engage the audience - by asking our colleagues from each of our institutions to come up with further examples to support the Kotter Principles that we outlined in the first part of our presentation. Maybe drawn from their particular area of the organization, or something they've noticed in the broader community. ("A leader needs to have the ability to capture and hold people's attention while communicating a message.") (EL)

Since our presentations cover 3 of the 4 major points listed in the Kotter synopsis above, maybe we can turn to the audience to ask them about what a culture of leadership means to them? Or, use that point as the comparison with Raelin, who's very interested in the community aspect of leadership.(JD)

Off-shoot topics

Kotter Breakout Topics - How these articles apply to higher-ed. Some strawman topics for discussion...

  1. What drives change in the higher education sector?
  2. To what extent are we (Universities) hamstrung by financial and organizational models that keep our units (colleges, schools, departments) autonomous and siloed?