Lateral thinking appears to solve a problem by an unorthodox or apparently illogical method.
Chapter 15: Leading ChangeYOUR LEADERSHIP CHALLENGEAfter reading this chapter, you should be able to: Show
CHAPTER OUTLINE464 Leadership Means Leading Change 467 A Framework for Change 469 Using Appreciative Inquiry 473 Leading Creativity for Change 481 Implementing Change In the Lead 466 Michelle Rhee, Washington, D., Public School System 472 The Red Team 484 Jon Fairest, Sanofi Canada Leader’s Self-Insight 466 Resistance to Change 470 Are You a Change Leader? 477 Do You Have a Creative Personality? Leader’s Bookshelf 473 Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard Leadership at Work 487 Organizational Change Role Play Leadership Development: Cases for Analysis 488 ‘‘From This Point On.. .’’ 489 Riverside Pediatric Associates Marvin Ellison, the current CEO of J. Penney, recently told a group of executives attending the Women’s Wear Daily Apparel and Retail CEO Summit that Penney has moved past the stage of ‘‘patching holes’’ and is in solid rebuilding mode. Leaders have been working for several years to undo the damage that resulted from a turnaround strategy that almost killed the company. It’s a cautionary tale of just how difficult change can be. When Ron Johnson, a former Apple executive known for his creativity, was hired as CEO of Penney in the fall of 2011, hopes were high that he could breathe new life into the struggling retailer. Penney needed radical change, but Johnson’s approach to implementing changes doomed them almost from the start. Early in his tenure, Johnson threw a party to celebrate his plans for the company, a move that irked both employees and customers. He also began poking fun at the company’s traditional way of doing business almost from the moment he took the job. Employees felt that the new managers Johnson brought in ridiculed them and made them feel dumb and uninteresting. Johnson refused to listen to long-established leaders, customers, or employees and even shunned suggestions made by board members. He got rid of many of Penney’s long-standing processes and systems, radically redesigned many stores, and eliminated hundreds of brands, even running an Oscars ad telling with less separation between management and workers. They did away with all the separate uniforms for electricians, fitters, operators, foremen, and so forth; elimi- nated the time clock for hourly workers; and got rid of the separate parking lot for managers. Each change was resisted. Employees said they liked the uniforms because they were less costly and identified who they were compared to wearing different clothes every day. Workers were strongly opposed to elimination of the time clock because, they said, ‘‘We won’t be able to prove we’ve been to work, so they’ll be able to cheat us on our pay.’’ They were suspicious that doing away with the managers’ car parking was so employees couldn’t see that managers could afford a new car every year. 6 If people resist changes designed to add value to their lives, imagine what it is like trying to implement changes that significantly shift their job responsibilities, task procedures, or work interactions! Leaders should be prepared for resistance and should find ways to enable people to see the value in changes that are needed for the organization to succeed. Later in this chapter, we will talk about how leaders can overcome resistance and help people successfully change. 15-1b The Leader as Change Agent Change does not happen easily, but good leaders can facilitate needed changes to help the organization adapt to external threats and new opportunities. For people throughout the organization to view change as positive and natural, they need lead- ers who serve as role models for change and provide the motivation and communi- cation to keep change efforts moving forward. Research has identified some key characteristics of leaders who can accomplish successful change projects: 7
EXHIBIT 15 Forces Driving the Need for Change Leadership Technological advances Increasing regulation Globalization Social media and the information revolution Economic turbulence Shifting social attitudes E-business and mobile commerce Changing market forces Need for change NEW LEADER ACTION MEMO Complete the questions in Leader’s Leader’s Self-Insight 15 to see if you have a natural tendency to resist change. CHAPTER 15 LEADING CHANGE 465
LEADER’S SELF-INSIGHT 15.Resistance to Change Instructions: Please respond to each of the following items based on how you handle day-to-day issues in your life. Think carefully in order to be as accurate as possible. Mostly False Mostly True
Scoring and Interpretation Give yourself one point for each Mostly True answer to items 1 to 3 and 6 to 12 and for each Mostly False to items 4 and 5. Everyone feels some resistance to change, but people do differ in their tolerance for frequent change. A higher score of 8 or above on this scale means you probably prefer a predictable and routine life. Frequent or dramatic changes at work may be difficult for you, probably creating feelings of resistance, stress, and tension. If you received a score of 5 or lower, your resistance to change may be low, so you probably find surprises and changes to be somewhat stimulating. Source: Based on Shaul Oreg, ‘‘Resistance to Change: Developing an Individual Differences Measure,’’Journal of Applied Psychology88, no. 4 (2003), pp. 680–693. Used with permission. ####### IN THE LEAD Michelle Rhee, Washington, D., Public School System Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of Washington, D., public schools and founder of StudentsFirst, is one of the most controversial figures in U. education, but love her or hate her you can’t say she’s afraid of change. A daughter of Korean immigrants, Rhee wanted to quit halfway through her first year in Teach for America, the organization we described in Chapter 1 that sends new college graduates into some of America’s toughest schools, but her father made her go back and finish the job. That’s where she first embarked on a personal mission to change the system for America’s poorest students. Rhee noticed that students responded to teachers who pushed them hard and kept them interested. 3 a compelling picture. People need a clear vision and strategy to inspire them to believe that a better future is possible and they can achieve it through their actions. The energy for true change comes from seeing how the change can be positive for individuals and the organization. Leaders create a picture that helps people understand why the organization is undertaking the effort and how the change will help it to achieve long-term goals. It’s also important to develop a strategy for achieving the vision and let people know how they fit into the big picture. 4, communicate, communicate. Leaders tell the message not just once but over and over again. Change throws everyone into doubt and uncertainty, and people don’t listen well when they feel anxious. Another point to remember is that actions speak louder than words. Change leaders model the new behaviors needed from employees. At Siemens, Peter LoLo ̈scher mapped the amount of time the company’s top executives spent with customers and presented it at the annual leadership conference. LoLo ̈scher was number 1, having spent 50 percent of his time with customers. He told people that had to change and that the rankings would be presented each year to see if people running the businesses were honoring the new focus on customer contact. 12 5 rid of obstacles and empower people to act. Leaders give people the time, knowledge, resources, and discretion to take steps and makethe change happen. This might mean revising structures, systems, or procedures that hinder or EXHIBIT 15 The Eight-Stage Model of Planned Organizational Change
Sources: Based on John P. Kotter ,Leading Change(Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996), p. 21. 468 PART 5THE LEADER AS SOCIAL ARCHITECT undermine the change effort. After setting a vision and broad outline for change, Bill Glavin, former CEO of OppenheimerFunds, Inc., gave histeam members leeway to move forward with their own ideas for implementingdesired changes. Glavin said his approach was to meet with direct reports regularly and to ‘‘try to keep a light hand on the tiller.’’ 13 6 and celebrate quick wins. Unless people see positive results of their efforts, energy and motivation can wane during a major change project. To keep the momentum going, leaders identify some short-term accomplishments that people can recognize and celebrate. A highly visible and successful short- term accomplishment boosts the credibility of the change process and renews everyone’s enthusiasm and commitment. 7 it moving. Don’t get stuck on short-term wins. One study suggests that nearly 50 percent of all change initiatives crumble simply from lack of attention. 14 It’s important for leaders to build on the credibility of early accomplishments and keep the change process moving forward. At this stage, they confront and change any remaining issues, structures, or systems that are getting in the way of achieving the vision. 8 ways to make the changes stick. At this stage, leaders look for ways to institutionalize the new approach, striving to integrate the new values and patterns into everyone’s work habits. At Del-Air, a Florida heating,ventilation, and air conditioning contractor, managers linked a new GPS-enabled time-tracking system with the company’s bonus system. Employees who are more efficient with their time get rewarded for it. By integrating the change with the incentive system, managers made the new time-tracking system an accepted, integral part of everyone’s daily work. 15 Stages in the change process generally overlap, but each of these stages is impor- tant for successful change to occur. When dealing with a major change effort, leaders can use the eight-stage change process to provide a strong foundation for success. 15-3 USING APPRECIATIVE INQUIRYOne of the most exciting approaches to leading change is a process known as appreciative inquiry inquiry (AI)engages individuals, teams, or the entire organization in creating change by reinforcing positive messages and focusing on learning from success. 16 Rather than looking at a situation from the viewpoint of what is wrong and who is to blame for it, AI takes a positive, affirming approach by asking, ‘‘What is possible? What do we want to achieve?’’ For example, rather than looking at a problem such as decreasing sales, AI would investigate what makes sales increase. Appropriately framing a topic—to investigate what is right rather than what is wrong—is critical to the success of AI because it gets people away from blame, defensiveness, and denial and sets a positive framework for change. As David Cooperrider, cocreator of the AI methodology, puts it, ‘‘the more you study the true, the good, the better, the possible within living human systems, the more the capacity for positive transformation.’’ 17 AI can be applied on either a large or a small scale. 15-3a Applying Appreciative Inquiry on a Large Scale AI can accelerate large-scale organizational change by positively engaging a large group of people in the change process, including leaders and employees, as well as NEW LEADER ACTION MEMO As a leader, you can develop the personal characteristics to be a change leader. To improve the success of a major change, you can follow the eight-stage model for leading change, remembering to devote the necessary time, energy, and resources to each stage. NEW LEADER ACTION MEMO Answer the questions in Leader’s Leader’s Self-Insight 15 to see if you have what it takes to initiate changes and follow the eight-stage model of change. Appreciative inquiry a technique for leading change that engages individ- uals, teams, or the entire organization by reinforcing positive messages and focus- ing on learning from success CHAPTER 15 LEADING CHANGE 469 already exists. By allowing people to express their dreams for the future, AI inspires hope and energy for change. 3. The design stage formulates action plans for transforming dreams into reality. This involves people making decisions about what the organization needs to do in order to be what it wants to be. At American Express, people identified the values that would support the kind of culture they wanted, the leadership behaviors that would instill and support the values, and the structures, systems, and processes that would keep the new cultural values alive. 4. The final stage of AI is creating a destiny by translating the ideas identified in the previous stages into concrete action steps. This involves both celebrating the best of what exists and pushing forward to realize the dream by creating specific programs, activities, and other tangibleforces that will implement the design and ensure the continuation of change begun during the AI process. For example, specific changes in training programs, performance evaluation, and reward systems were part of the destiny stage at American Express. Using the AI methodology for a large-scale change may involve hundreds of people over a period of several days and may be conducted off-site to enable people to immerse themselves in the process of creating the future. A wide variety of organiza- tions, including businesses, school systems, churches and religious organizations, communities, government agencies, and social service organizations, have used AI for large-scale change. 19 A team at a large oil refinery in the Middle East used AI to help achieve a vision of making the refinery ‘‘the best place in the company to work.’’ EXHIBIT 15 Four Stages of Appreciative Inquiry
Appreciative Topic Source: Based on Gabriella Giglio, Silvia Michalcova, and Chris Yates, ‘‘Instilling a Culture of Winning at American Express,’’ Organization Development Journal25, no. 4 (Winter 2002), pp. 33– CHAPTER 15 LEADING CHANGE 471 15-3b Applying Appreciative Inquiry Every Day AI can also be applied by individual leaders on a smaller scale. The nature of leadership means influencing people in many small ways on an ongoing basis. This chapter’s Leader’s Bookshelf describes a three-stage change model that incorporates elements of AI and can be used for everyday change efforts. Good leaders work daily to gradually shift attitudes, assumptions, and behavior toward a desired future. When individual leaders in an organization are involved in daily change efforts, they have a powerful cumulative effect. 21 Leaders can use the tools of AI for a variety of everyday change initiatives, such as developing followers, strengthening teamwork, solving a particular work issue, or resolving conflicts. 22 Again, the key is to frame the issue in a positive way and keep people focused on improvement rather than looking at what went wrong. Jim (Gus) Gustafson, chief transformation officer and chief ministry officer for the Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines, Iowa, provides an example of the everyday use of AI. Gustafson loves using AI to develop followers. One example comes from the time he took over as director of sales and marketing for a major electrical manufacturer. While sitting in on several employees’ performance reviews with the outgoing executive, Gustafson noticed that two employees in particular were treated by the outgoing manager with disrespect and disinterest as they were ####### IN THE LEAD The Red Team When the general manager (GM) of the oil refinery where they worked asked them to ‘‘re-imagine the organization,’’ the group of young engineers known as the Red Team naturally wondered what he meant. The GM said he wanted the refinery to be the best place to work in the huge Middle East oil and gas organization. Success, he added, would be measured by the level of happiness among the 1,600 workers at the refinery. Happiness among the workers, the GM believed, would improve safety, performance, and productivity. The Red Team immediately began talking among themselves and identifying issues and potential recommendations for making the refinery a happier place to work. Then they decided it was a good idea to get input from the other employees. They came up with a simple theme, based on the word ‘‘Smile,’’ around which to connect people and get their ideas for how to improve morale, motivation, and happiness. Using the AI model, the team asked people to share their best experiences of working at the refinery (Discover), which created an energized and fun atmosphere. Next, people contributed ideas for what they thought the refinerycouldbe if these experiences were the norm (Dream). In the third (Design) stage, ideas included seeing managers more often in the plant, strengthening worker–supervisor relationships, improving the cafeteria menu, providing shade canopies over employee parking areas, and holding regular employee- family appreciation events. Volunteer teams were asked to champion each initiative for follow-up action to turn them into reality (Destiny). The process has already improved morale by giving people a chance to participate in shaping their own future. People have a stronger sense of belonging and commitment, and the vision of being ‘‘the best place in the company to work’’ is well on its way to becoming a reality. 20 472 PART 5THE LEADER AS SOCIAL ARCHITECT particularly in the departments where it is most needed. For example, some organi- zations, such as hospitals, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations, may need frequent changes in policies and procedures, and leaders can promote creativity among administrative workers. For companies that rely on new products, leaders promote the generation and sharing of ideas across departments and, increasingly, with outsiders. Creativityis the generation of ideas that are both novel and useful for improving the efficiency or effectiveness of an organization. 25 Creative people come up with ideas that may meet perceived needs, solve problems, or respond to opportunities and are therefore adopted by the organization. However, creativity itself is a process rather than an outcome, a journey rather than a destination. One of the most impor- tant tasks of leaders today is to harness the creative energy of all employees. 15-4a Instilling Creative Values Leaders can build an environment that encourages creativity and helps the organiza- tion be more innovative. Fostering a creative culture and promoting collaboration will spread values for creativity throughout the organization. Foster a Creative Culture For creative acts that benefit the organization to occur consistently, the interests and actions of everyone should be aligned with the organi- zation’s purpose, vision, and goals, and leaders should make a commitment of time, energy, and resources to support creativity. 26 One popular approach is to provide anidea incubator. An idea incubator provides a safe harbor where ideas from people throughout the organization can be developed without interference from company bureaucracy or politics. 27 Companies as diverse as Yahoo, Boeing, Adobe Systems, and UPS have used idea incubators to make sure good ideas don’t get lost in the day-to-day organizational system. To build a culture that encouragescorporate entrepreneurship, leaders encourage the creative spirit of all employees by promoting cultural values of curiosity, openness, exploration, and informed risk-taking. At W. L. Gore, best known for Gore-Tex fabrics, leaders basically did away with the rules so that people feel free to explore and experiment. There are no bosses at Gore; people explore ideas on their own and recruit others who believe in and want to work on the idea. That’s how Gore got into businesses as diverse as Glide dental floss, Ride-On bike cables, and Elixir guitar strings. 28 One important outcome of entrepreneurship is to facilitate idea champions. Idea championsare people who passionately believe in an idea and fight to overcome natural resistance and convince others of its value. Change does not happen by itself. Personal energy and effort are needed to successfully promote a new idea. A creative culture is anopen culturethat encourages people to look everywhere for new ideas. Leaders promote openness by rotating people into different jobs, allowing them time off to participate in volunteer activities, and giving them oppor- tunities to mix with people different from themselves. One aerospace company uses the phraseGet out of Kansas! to stress the importance of looking for novel ideas in the world outside company walls. 29 Leaders can also give people opportunities to work with customers, suppliers, and people outside the industry, which contributes to a flow of fresh ideas. Executives at Productos Cementos Mexicanos (known as Cemex) ride in cement trucks to get ideas about customer needs, for instance. 30 Promote Collaboration Although many individuals have creative ideas, creativitysoars when people work together. Rather than leaving people stuckin their departmental Creativity the generation of ideas that are both novel and useful for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization Idea incubator a safe harbor where ideas from employees throughout the organization can be developed without interfer- ence from company bureaucracy or politics Corporate entrepreneurship internal entrepreneurial spirit that includes values of exploration, experimenta- tion, and risk taking Idea champions people who passionately believe in a new idea and actively work to overcome obstacles and resistance 474 PART 5THE LEADER AS SOCIAL ARCHITECT silos, smart leaders find ways to get them communicating and collaborating across boundaries. Creative collaboration is one of the most important activities leaders can support for a creative culture. 31 That’s one reason companies use cross-functional teams and self-managed teams, as described in Chapter 10. Some remodel their physi- cal spaces so that people from different areas work side by side on a daily basis. Many companies use internal Web sites that encourage cross-organizational collaboration. For example, Arup Group, a British engineering services company, developed an online ‘‘knowledge map’’ that shows the company’s different areas of expertise and how departments and employees are connected to one another in terms of important information flows. 32 A recent approach to promoting one-on-one collaboration is speedstorming. Speedstorming, as the name suggests, was inspired by the phenomenon of speed- dating. It uses a round-robin format to get people from different areas talking together, generating creative ideas, and identifying areas for potential collaboration. People are divided into pairs, with each person from a different department, and given a specific topic with a goal of generating ideas to pursue collaboratively by the end of each three- to five-minute round. By the end of the session, the goal is for each partici- pant to have formed ideas for creative collaboration with several others. Speedstorm- ing can be a fun experience that enriches existing approaches to collaboration. 33 15-4b Leading Creative People Many organizations that want to encourage change and innovation strive to hire people who display creative characteristics. However, recent research on creativity suggests that anyone can learn to be creative and can get better at it with practice. 34 That is, everyone has roughly equal creative potential. The problem is that many people don’t use that potential. Leaders can help individuals be more creative by facilitating brainstorming, promoting lateral thinking, enabling immersion, allowing pauses, and nurturing creative intuition, as illustrated in Exhibit 15. Facilitate Brainstorming One common way to encourage creativity is to set up brainstorming sessions focused on a specific problem or topic. Assume your organi- zation faces a problem such as how to reduce losses from shoplifting, speed up checkout, reduce food waste, or lessen noise from a machine room uses a face-to-face interactive group to spontaneously suggest a wide range of crea- tive ideas to solve the problem. The keys to effective brainstorming are: 35 1 criticism. Group members should not criticize or evaluate ideas in any way during the spontaneous generation of ideas. All ideas are considered valuable. 2 is welcome. People should express any idea that comes to mind, no matter how weird or fanciful. Brainstormers should not be timid about expressing creative thinking. As a full-time developer of ideas at Intuit said, ‘‘It’s more important to get the stupidest idea out there and build on it than not to have it in the first place.’’ 36 3 desired. The goal is to generate as many ideas as possible. The more ideas the better. A large quantity of ideas increases the likelihood of finding excellent solutions. Combining ideas is also encouraged. All ideas belong to the group, and members should modify and extend ideas whenever possible. Brainstorming has both ardent supporters and intense critics, but it remains the most common way leaders use groups to generate new ideas. 37 Leaders are NEW LEADER ACTION MEMO As a leader, you can help the organization be more innovative. You can encourage values of curiosity, openness, and exploration, and give employees time to work with people outside their normal areas. You can build in mechanisms for cross- functional collaboration and information sharing. Speedstorming using a round-robin format to get people from different areas talking together, gen- erating creative ideas, and identifying areas for poten- tial collaboration NEW LEADER ACTION MEMO Complete the exercise in Leader’s Leader’s Self-Insight 15 to see if you have a creative personality. Brainstorming a technique that uses a face-to-face group to spon- taneously suggest a broad range of ideas to solve a problem CHAPTER 15 LEADING CHANGE 475 Promote Lateral Thinking Most of a person’s thinking follows a regular groove and somewhat linear pattern from one thought to the next. But linear thinking does not often provide a creative breakthrough. Linear thinking is when people take a prob- lem or idea and then build sequentially from that point. A more creative approach is to use lateral thinking thinkingcan be defined as a set of systematic techni- ques used for changing mental concepts and perceptions and generating new ones. 42 With lateral thinking, people move ‘‘sideways’’ to try different perceptions, different concepts, and different points of entry to gain a novel solution. Lateral thinking appears to solve a problem by an unorthodox or apparently illogical method. Lateral thinking makes an unusual mental connection that is concerned with possibilities and ‘‘what might be.’’ Companies such as Boeing, Nokia, IBM, and NestleNestle ́have trained people to use lateral thinking as a way to help the organization meet the demands of a rapidly changing global environment. 43 To stimulate lateral thinking, leaders provide people with opportunities to use different parts of their brains and thus to make novel, creative connections. If the answer isn’t in the part of the brain being used, it might be in another that can be stimulated by a new experience. Consider the NASA scientist who was taking a shower in a German hotel while pondering how to fix the distorted lenses in the Hubble telescope in 1990. Nobody could figure out how to fit a corrective mirror into the hard-to-reach space inside the orbiting telescope. The engineer noticed the European-style showerhead mounted on adjustable rods. LEADER’S SELF-INSIGHT 15.Do You Have a Creative Personality? Instructions: In the following list, check each adjective that you believe accurately describes your personality. Be very honest and check all the words that fit your personality.
Scoring and Interpretation Add one point for checking each of the following words: 2, 4, 6, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 30. Subtract one point for checking each of the following words: 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 17, 20, 27, 28, and 29. The highest possible score is +18 and the lowest possible score is –12. The average score for a set of 256 assessed males on this creativity scale was 3, and for 126 females was 4. A group of 45 male research scientists and a group of 530 male psychology graduate students both had average scores of 6, and 124 male architects received an average score of 5. A group of 335 female psychology students had an aver- age score of 3. If you received a score above 6, your personality would be considered above average in creativity. This adjective checklist was validated by comparing the respondents’ scores to scores on other creativity tests and to creativity assessments of respondents provided by expert judges of creativity. This scale does not provide perfect prediction of creativity, but it is reliable and has moderate validity. Your score probably indicates something about your creative personality compared to other people. To what extent do you think your score reflects your true creativity? Compare your score to those of others in your class. What is the range of scores among other students? Which adjectives were most important for your score com- pared to other students? Can you think of types of creativity this test might not measure? How about situations where the creativity reflected on this test might not be very important? Source: Harrison G. Gough, ‘‘A Creative Personality Scale for the Adjec- tive Check List,’’Journal of Personality and Social Psychology37, no. 8 (1979), pp. 1398–1405. Lateral thinking a set of systematic techni- ques for breaking away from customary mental concepts and generating new ones This perception connected with the Hubble problem as he realized that corrective mirrors could be extended into the telescope on similar folding arms. Lateral think- ing came to the rescue. 44 Another example comes from Atlanta pediatrician Amy Baxter, who had been trying for years to find a way to use cold to relieve the pain children felt when getting vaccinations. Driving home tired after an all-night shift at the emergency room, Baxter noticed that the steering wheel was vibrating because she hadn’t had time to get her tires aligned. As she pulled into the driveway, she realized the vibration had made her hands numb. Baxter had a flash of insight— combining vibration and cold might be enough to ease the pain of a shot. Buzzy, a toylike vibrating bee with a tiny ice pack, is now used in around 500 hospitals to ease injection pain for children. 45 Alex Osborn, the originator of brainstorming, developed many creative techni- ques. One effective technique that is widely used to stimulate lateral thinking is the checklist in Exhibit 15. The checklist seems to work best when there is a current product or service that needs to be improved. If the problem is to modify a cell phone design to increase its sales, for example, the checklist verbs in Exhibit 15. can stimulate an array of different perceptions about the item being analyzed. An exercise ofconsidering opposites will also stretch the mind in a lateral direction. Physical opposites include back/front, big/small, hard/soft, and slow/fast. Biological opposites include young/old, sick/healthy, male/female, and tortoise/hare. Management opposites would be bureaucratic/entrepreneurial, or top-down/bottom- up. Business opposites are buy/sell, profit/loss, and hire/fire. 46 Enable Immersion Lateral thinking might be considered thinking outside the box. Immersionmeans to go deeply into a single area or topic to spark personal creativity, EXHIBIT 15 Lateral Thinking Checklist Verb Description Put to other uses? New ways to use as is? Other uses if modified? Adapt? What else is like this? What other ideas does this suggest? Modify? Change meaning, color, motion, sound, odor, form, shape? Other changes? Magnify? What to add: Greater frequency? Stronger? Larger? Plus ingredient? Exaggerate? Minify? What to subtract: Eliminate? Smaller? Slower? Lower? Shorter? Lighter? Split up? Less frequent? Substitute? Who else instead? What else instead? Other place? Other time? Rearrange? Other layout? Other sequence? Change pace? Reverse? Transpose positive and negative? How about opposites? Turn it backward? Turn it upside down? Reverse role? Combine? How about a blend, an alloy, an assortment, an ensemble? Combine units? Combine purposes? Combine appeals? Combine ideas? Source: Based on Alex Osborn,Applied Imagination(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1963). NEW LEADER ACTION MEMO As a leader, you can expand the creative potential of people in the organization by facilitating brainstorming, promoting lateral thinking, enabling immersion, allowing for pauses, and fostering creative intuition. Immersion to go deeply into a single area or topic to spark per- sonal creativity NEW LEADER ACTION MEMO Right now, see if you can think of three additional opposites in each of the categories of physical, biological, management, and business. Look at opposites to stretch your thinking for a problem you face. 478 PART 5THE LEADER AS SOCIAL ARCHITECT gathering data constantly, especially when you are studying background material on a problem to be solved. Then the creative insight bubbles up as an intuition from the deeper subconscious. It may be hard to trust that intuitive process because it seems ‘‘soft’’ to many business executives. The subconscious mind remembers all experiences that the conscious mind has forgotten. Creative intuition has a broader reach than any analytical process focused solely on the problem at hand. To understand your own creative intuition, consider the following question: 56 A man has married 20 women in a small town. All the women are still alive, and none of them is divorced. The man has broken no laws. Who is the man? If you solved this problem the answer came in a sudden flash: the man is a preacher, priest, or justice of the peace. That flash of insight arose from your creative intuition. Here are some additional problems that might be a little tougher. Each of the following sets of three words has something in common. 57 Do not overanalyze. Instead just relax and see if the common element pops up from your intuition. 1. rat blue cottage 2. pine crab sauce 3. curtain fisherman nuclear reactor 4. envy golf beans 5. bowling alley tailor wrestling match Don’t rush to find the answers. Give your intuitive subconscious time to work. After it’s finished working on these problems, consider the following question you might be asked if you interview for a job at Microsoft:How would you weigh a large jet aircraft without a scale?This question combines logical thinking and intuition. Before reading on, how might you compute the airplane’s weight doing something that is technologically feasible even if not realistic? 58 The next challenge may appear to have no solution until your intuition shows you the obvious answer. In the following illustration, remove three matches to leave four. 59 Here is another problem that may force your mind to respond from a different place to get the answer. The matches are an equation of Roman numerals made from 10 matches. The equation is incorrect. Can you correct the equation without touching the matches, adding new matches, or taking away any matches? Have you given adequate time to your creative intuition? The answers to these creative challenges follow: For the word sets, the correct answers are (1) cheese, (2) apple, (3) rods, (4) green, and (5) pins. One answer to weighing the jet aircraft would be to taxi the jet onto a ship big enough to hold it. You could put a mark on the hull at the water line and then remove the jet and reload the ship with items of known weight until itsinks to the same mark on the hull. The weight of the items will equal the weight of the jet. 480 PART 5THE LEADER AS SOCIAL ARCHITECT The answer to the first match puzzle depends on how you interpret the word ‘‘four.’’ Rather than counting four matches, remove the matches at the top, bottom, and right and the answer is obvious—the Roman numeral IV. For the second match puzzle, you can solve this problem by looking at it from a different perspective— turn the page upside down. Did your creative intuition come up with good answers? 15-5 IMPLEMENTING CHANGELeaders often see innovation, change, and creativity as a way to strengthen the organization, but many people view change only as painful and disruptive. A critical aspect of leading people through change is understanding that resistance to change is natural—and that there are often legitimate reasons for it. This chapter’sConsider Thisbox takes a lighthearted look at why employees may resist changes in some overly bureaucratic organizations. ConsiderThis!Dealing with a Dead Horse Ancient wisdom says that when you discover you are astride a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. In government and other overly bureaucratic organizations, many different approaches are tried. Here are some of our favorite strategies for dealing with the ‘‘dead horse’’ scenario: 1. Change the rider. 2. Buy a stronger whip. 3. Beat the horse harder. 4. Shout at and threaten the horse. 5. Appoint a committee to study the horse. 6. Arrange a visit to other sites to see how they ride dead horses. 7. Increase the standards for riding dead horses. 8. Appoint a committee to revive the dead horse. 9. Create a training session to improve riding skills. 10. Explore the state of dead horses in today’s environment. 11. Change the requirements so that the horse no longer meets the standards of death. 12. Hire an external consultant to show how a dead horse can be ridden. 13. Harness several dead horses together to increase speed. 14. Increase funding to improve the horse’s performance. 15. Declare that no horse is too dead to ride. 16. Fund a study to determine if outsourcing will reduce the cost of riding a dead horse. 17. Buy a computer program to enhance the dead horse’s performance. 18. Declare a dead horse less costly to maintain than a live one. 19. Form a work group to find uses for dead horses. And ... if all else fails ... 20. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position. Or, in a large corporation, make it a vice president. Source: Author unknown. Another version of this story may be found at abcsmallbiz/funny/ deadhorse. CHAPTER 15 LEADING CHANGE 481 What is are the key's to changing thinking and behavior a positive emotional attractor B supportive relationships C repetition of new behaviors D all of these?Changing people's thinking and behavior is possible, and the keys to doing so incorporate FIVE elements: A positive emotional attractor, supportive relationships, repetition of new behaviors, participation and involvement, and after-action reviews.
Which phase of the Appreciative Inquiry process includes translating ideas into concrete action steps quizlet?"Destiny" as a stage in the appreciative inquiry process involves: translating the ideas into concrete steps.
Is a place where employees can develop new ideas without interference from organizational leaders?A safe harbor where ideas from employees can be developed without interference from company bureaucracy or politics is called an: idea incubator.
In what way is emotional intelligence associated with effective leadership quizlet?Emotions intelligence is related to effective leadership because: both the emotional state of the leader affects the entire group and emotional intelligence enables leaders to respect followers. In the workplace, love: energizes employees in their jobs, involves caring for people and work, and in motivating.
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