George Kohlrieser: An interview by Bob Morris

George Kohlrieser is an organizational and clinical psychologist. He is Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour at IMD and consultant to several global companies including Accenture, Alcan, Amer Sports, Barclays Global Investors, Cisco, Coca-Cola, HP, IBM, IFC, Morgan Stanley, Motorola, Nestlé, Nokia, Roche, Sara Lee, Tetra Pak, and Toyota. He is also a Police Psychologist and Hostage Negotiator focusing on aggression management and hostage negotiations. He has worked in over 100 countries spanning five continents.

Kohlrieser is Director of the High Performance Leadership (HPL) Program, an intense six-day IMD program for experienced senior leaders and the Advanced High Performance Leadership (AHPL) for former HPL participants. He completed his doctorate at Ohio State University where he wrote his dissertation on cardio vascular recovery of law enforcement leaders following high stress situations. His research has made significant contributions to understanding the role self-mastery and social dialogue has in helping leaders sustain high performance through life long learning.

He is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, adjunct faculty member of Union Graduate School, Antioch, Ohio, adjunct faculty member of Fielding Institute San Francisco, California, adjunct faculty member of Zagreb University, Croatia. He is past president of the International Transactional Analysis Association, San Francisco, California and is also a member of the Society of International Business Fellows (SIBF). He has consulted for the BBC, CNN, ABC, and CBS and his work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, and other leading newspapers and magazines.

He is author of the internationally bestselling book, Hostage At The Table: How Leaders Can Overcome Conflict, Influence Others, and Raise Performance, and, more recently, co-author of Care to Dare: Unleashing Astonishing Potential Through Secure Base Leadership with Susan Goldsworthy and Duncan Coombe.

Here is an excerpt from my interview of him. To read the complete interview, please click here.

* * *

Morris: Most change initiatives either fail or fall far short of original (perhaps unrealistic) expectations. More often than not, the resistance to change is cultural in nature, the result of what James O’Toole so aptly characterizes as “the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom.” Your thoughts?

Kohlrieser: This is a very interesting and challenging point. In fact, research shows that people do not naturally resist change – they resist the fear of the unknown and the pain of the change. The human brain actually thrives on curiosity, innovation, new learning, challenge and change to create new neurons until the day we die. This has come to be known as brain plasticity. Followers with a secure base leader will be empowered to successfully navigate the uncertainty, ambiguity, and other unknowns associated with change. James O’Toole is correct: most people are hostages to the “ideology of comfort” and to the status quo. They do not dare themselves to do something new or different. The challenge for leaders is to build trust that enables them to drive change. If leaders are not driving change, they are not really leading. We must dispel the myth that people naturally resist change – it is simply not true.

Morris: Looking ahead what do you think will be the greatest challenge that CEOs will face?

Kohlrieser: The greatest challenge I see is the “paradox of caring” – being able to both care and also dare followers, teams and organizations to achieve their full potential and to be true innovators. How do leaders show enough caring and bonding, even with difficult people and those they don’t like? Giving regular feedback and conveying hard truths unlock the door to the highest levels of performance. Successful leaders challenge their people by inspiring them and building trust, not by coercion, control or threats.

Leaders must drive change. Without change organizations wither and die. Leaders who don’t drive change put their companies in grave danger. The challenge facing leaders is to explain the benefits that change will bring. I use the term ”secure base leader” to describe someone who gives a sense of safety as well as the inspiration and energy to encourage followers to explore and take risk. In other words, you must care enough to encourage daring by shutting down the defensive nature of the brain and invite the mind’s eye to seek opportunity and possibility. This combination is crucial, and it’s why my new book about unleashing astonishing potential is called Care to Dare.

Morris: In your opinion, why do so many C-level executives seem to have such a difficult time delegating work to others?

Kohlrieser: It comes down to focus and trust. Secure base leaders, referred to in my books, always look for underdeveloped talents and turn delegation into opportunities to stretch people. This means they have to trust people to learn, develop and possibly to fail. Letting go of control is often the most difficult thing for an executive to do. After all, their experience means they often assume they know how to do things better, which may or may not be true. Give people a secure base leader and they will achieve amazing things – delegating is one form of stretching another person to show what they can do. The executive must always be standing behind as a secure base. A good example is flight training. There is a moment when the flight instructor must relinquish the flight controls to the trainee.

Morris: When and why did you decide to write Hostage at the Table?

Kohlrieser: I have been held hostage four times. Early in my career it became clear that hostage negotiators have to establish a relationship with a very unlikeable, even despicable person. They must engage in a dialogue under high pressure and influence the hostage taker to give up their weapons and their hostages knowing that they will likely go to prison. The success rate of hostage negotiators doing this work is an extraordinary 95 per cent. When I described what hostage negotiators do to the executives and other professionals I work with at my IMD High Performance Leadership Program, they wanted to know if the secret of hostage negotiation can be applied to situations when one is being held a psychological hostage.

It is one thing to be a hostage with a gun to your head; it is another to be held hostage by a boss, spouse, situation or yourself. People wanted to know how hostage negotiations applied to everyday situations. So the “hostage” metaphor is a highly empowering concept that I wanted to describe in the book based on theory and actual stories. The fact is even when physically a hostage, you don’t need to feel a hostage. The techniques used to gain freedom in a hostage situation can be used by all of us in everyday life. Warren Bennis and Dan Goleman, my two wonderful mentors, colleagues and friends, encouraged me to formulate these ideas into a book, and I was honored to have Warren Bennis include it in his Leadership series.

Morris: Obviously, much of the material in the book seems to be based on what you learned from your extensive experience as a police psychologist and hostage negotiator. What were the most valuable lessons learned from that experience?

Kohlrieser: I have learned a number of lessons in my 40-year career. The most powerful lessons for me have been:

1. The power of bonding and the impact dialogue can have on an adversary, a hostage taker, or a person threatening violence.

2. The paradox of caring. Hostage negotiation succeeds because the hostage taker feels genuine care, interest and concern from the hostage negotiator.

3. The power of focusing on the goal and not on the danger or the problem. When facing a gun, the brain will naturally focus on the weapon unless you train your brain to focus on the person and the goal.

4. The power of language, dialogue and of asking questions.

5. Making concessions within a negotiation.

6. The power of loss in motivating people and in driving violence, especially hostage taking. There is always a loss that precedes a hostage-taking situation.

* * *

To read the complete interview, please click here.

George cordially invites you to check out the resources at these websites:

His home page

His faculty page

His Amazon page

IMD “Big Think” interview

YouTube videos

Lawrence Cunningham: Part 1 of an interview by Bob Morris

Lawrence Cunningham is the Henry St. George Tucker III Research Professor at George Washington University Law School and Director of GW’s Center for Law, Economics and Finance (C-LEAF) in New York. He is the author of numerous books including three editions of The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America (Third Edition, March 8, 2013), The AIG Story (written with Hank Greenberg) and Contracts in the Real World: Stories of Popular Contracts and Why They Matter. His research appears in leading university journals, including those published by Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Michigan, Vanderbilt and Virginia; his Op-Eds have run in the Baltimore Sun, the Financial Times, the National Law Journal, the New York Daily News and the New York Times. On Amazon, Cunningham has been ranked one of the top 100 authors in the category of business and investing.

Here is an excerpt from Part 1 of my interview of him. To read all of it, please click here.

* * *

Morris: To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished in life thus far?

Cunningham: As a university professor, it would be blasphemous but to declare my formal education invaluable and there’s also a lot of truth in it. I learned some of the most important things I know from classroom work in economics in college and in law and business in law school. I’ve learned a great many things in the decades since, of course, but those days trained me to think, encouraged me to be curious, taught me how to interact with others, and nurtured countless other traits.

Morris: What do you know now about the business world that you wish you knew when you went to work full-time for the first time? Why?

Cunningham: The importance of relationships to opening doors and keeping them open. Merit seemed as important as anything else when I began my career as a corporate lawyer in 1988. And while merit matters, what’s more important over the longer term is the quality of the network of friends, colleagues, mentors, and fans that you develop and maintain at each phase of your life and career. There is a lot of truth in the old saying: “It’s not what you know but who you know.”

Morris: Of all the films that you have seen, which – in your opinion – best dramatizes important business principles? Please explain.

Cunningham: Other People’s Money. Hollywood has always had a bit of a hate affair with American business in portraying corporations and capitalists in negative lights. The exception is Other People’s Money, as it presents both sides of the story in a difficult circumstance of a company in decline: whether to stick it out or close it down. (Incidentally, it is akin to the angst portrayed in The Essays of Warren Buffett concerning a struggling New England textile company that Buffett eventually shut down.)

* * *

Morris: Here are several of my favorite quotations to which I ask you to respond. First from Voltaire: “Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.”

Cunningham: Truth is elusive. Searching for it is indeed noble. But be skeptical of anyone who claims to have found it.

Morris: From Albert Einstein: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Cunningham: Reminds of a quip, attributed to Will Rogers, quoted in The Essays of Warren Buffett: “When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” It also reminds me of another Einstein quip: “Everything should be as simple as possible, but not more so.”

Morris: Finally, from Peter Drucker: “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”

Cunningham: I wish such wisdom had been taken to heart by the financial engineers whose derivative products fueled the mortgages behind the housing boom that collapsed so catastrophically in 2008.

* * *

Morris: In Tom Davenport’s latest book, Judgment Calls, he and co-author Brooke Manville offer “an antidote for the Great Man theory of decision making and organizational performance”: organizational judgment. That is, “the collective capacity to make good calls and wise moves when the need for them exceeds the scope of any single leader’s direct control.” What do you think?

Cunningham: The wisdom of crowds and the power of markets are real. But within an organization it can be difficult to maintain a “collective capacity” for decision making, which would resemble a democratic vote. Shareholders do a little of that when electing directors and voting in annual meetings when no single person is entitled to make such extraordinary decisions. But with such choices made, directors and the senior executives they appoint cannot discharge their duties by referendum.

True, within boards of directors, corporations have always drawn on a fundamental notion of organizational judgment. A team rather than an individual speaks for and binds the corporation. Law even gives such board decisions reverence, under the “business judgment rule,” which keeps judges out of second-guessing.

The danger to watch for in any move to such organizational judgment is the risk of authority without accountability, which I know we will discuss a bit more later.

Morris: Here’s a brief excerpt from Paul Schoemaker’s latest book, Brilliant Mistakes: “The key question companies need to address is not ‘Should we make mistakes?’ but rather ‘which mistakes should we make in order to test our deeply held assumptions?’” Your response?

Cunningham: I am not sure about the notion of having an appetite for mistakes, even as a way to test assumptions. There are other less costly ways to test assumptions, such as by logical critique, contained experiments and consulting analogical experience. The wisdom I see in this quotation might be flipped around, to say there are a class of mistakes we should avoid absolutely. Foremost among these would be any decisions that impair a company’s reputation, for instance, another point I know we’ll discuss more later.

* * *

To read all of Part 1, please click here.

Larry cordially invites you to check out the resources at these websites:

The publisher’s page for The Essays

Amazon’s page for The Essays

How Innovative Is Your Company’s Culture?

Here is a brief excerpt from an article co-authored by Jay Rao and Joseph Weintraub for The MIT Sloan Management Review. To read the complete article, check out others, obtain subscription information, and sign up for email alerts, please click here.

Image courtesy of Flickr user reway2007.

* * *

Today’s executives want their companies to be more innovative. They consume stacks of books and articles and attend conventions and courses on innovation, hoping to discover the elixir of success. They are impressed by the ability of comparatively young companies such as Google and Facebook to create and market breakthrough products and services. And they marvel at how some older companies — Apple, IBM, Procter & Gamble, 3M and General Electric, to name a few — reinvent themselves again and again. And they wonder, “How do these great companies do it?”

After studying innovation among 759 companies based in 17 major markets, researchers Gerard J. Tellis, Jaideep C. Prabhu and Rajesh K. Chandy found that corporate culture was a much more important driver of radical innovation than labor, capital, government or national culture. [Note: 1. G.J. Tellis, J.C. Prabhu and R.K. Chandy, “Radical Innovation Across Nations: The Preeminence of Corporate Culture,” Journal of Marketing 73, no. 1 (January 2009): 3-23.] But for executives, that conclusion raises two more questions: First, what is an innovative corporate culture? And second, if you don’t have an innovative culture, is there any way you can build one? This article addresses both questions by offering a simple model of the key elements of an innovative culture, as well as a practical 360-degree assessment tool that managers can use to assess how conducive their organization’s culture is to innovation — and to see specific areas where their culture might be more encouraging to it.

Six Building Blocks of an Innovative Culture

An innovative culture rests on a foundation of six building blocks: resources, processes, values, behavior, climate and success. These building blocks are dynamically linked. For example, the values of the enterprise have an impact on people’s behaviors, on the climate of the workplace and on how success is defined and measured. Our culture of innovation model builds upon dozens of studies by numerous authors.

When it comes to fostering innovation, enterprises have generally given substantial attention to resources, processes and the measurement of success — the more easily measured, tools-oriented innovation building blocks. But companies have often given much less attention to the harder-to-measure, people-oriented determinants of innovative culture — values, behaviors and climate. Not surprisingly, most companies have also done a better job of managing resources, processes and measurement of innovation success than they have the more people-oriented innovation building blocks. As many managers have discovered, anything that involves peoples’ values and behaviors and the climate of the workplace is more intangible and difficult to handle. As one CEO put it, “The soft stuff is the hard stuff.” Yet these difficult “people issues” have the greatest power to shape the culture of innovation and create a sustained competitive advantage.

[Here's the first of the six that Rao and Weintraub discuss.]

Values

Values drive priorities and decisions, which are reflected in how a company spends its time and money. Truly innovative enterprises spend generously on being entrepreneurial, promoting creativity and encouraging continuous learning. The values of a company are less what the leaders say or what they write in the annual reports than what they do and invest in. Values manifest themselves in how people behave and spend, more than in how they speak.

* * *

To read the complete article, please click here.

Jay Rao is Professor, Strategy & Innovation, at Babson College. He earned a B.Engg. degree at Indian Institute of Technology( Chennai, India), an M.S. at the University of Kentucky, and a Ph.D. at University of California, Los Angeles. Joseph Weintraub is the Founder and Faculty Director of the Babson Coaching for Leadership and Teamwork Program. He earned a B.S. at the University of Pittsburgh and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at Bowling Green State University

Unrelenting Innovation: A book review by Bob Morris

Unrelenting Innovation: How to Build a Culture for Market Dominance
Gerard J. Tellis
Jossey-Bass/A Wiley Imprint (2013)

How to avoid or overcome “the incumbent’s curse” to achieve market dominance

By nature, books about innovation should contribute something new and/or something better to our understanding of what innovation is and isn’t as well as how to develop a mindset and skills that will enable us to (yes) contribute something new and/or something better. Gerard Tellis makes such a contribution as he explains how to build and then sustain a culture for market dominance. As Vijay Govindarajan suggests in the Foreword, “I like the central argument in this book: success breeds complacency, lethargy, or arrogance – in short, a culture that embraces the status quo instead of the future abhors risk and protects current successful products.”

This is what Tellis characterizes as “the incumbent’s curse”: Becoming successful hampers continued innovation and hinders continued leadership. He identifies three defining traits: “First, incumbents fear cannibalizing their current successful products…Second, incumbents are risk averse…Third, incumbents focus too much on the present” and probably the past. Hence a paradox: To paraphrase Marshall Goldsmith, whatever got an organization to its current success (however defined) will not only be able to sustain that success; worse yet, it will almost certainly eliminate that success in weeks and months (probably not years) to come.

Simply stated, “unrelenting innovation” is constant effort to make something new and/or make something better.” Odd are that, more often than not, innovation will not be the result. The process “fails” only when it does not continue. Every so-called “failure” is in fact a precious learning opportunity. I agree with Tellis that a culture within which innovation thrives must have defining characteristics that include the three he identifies: a willingness to “cannibalize” incumbent products and/or services, embracing risk, and a focus on the future. Organizations that aspire to establish and nourish such a culture must (a) provide appropriate incentives (i.e. strong for successful innovation but weak penalties for anything less), (b) establish internal competitive markets, and (c) empower innovation “champions” who not only create but also develop (with others) whatever is new or better.

These are among the dozens of passages I found to be of greatest interest and value, also listed to suggest the range of subjects covered during the course of the book’s narrative:

o Why Incumbents Fail to Innovate Unrelentingly (Pages 3-17)
o Understanding Technological Evolution (33-37)
o The Reflection, Hot-Stove, and The Expectation Effects (63-69)
o Availability Bias (114-121)
o Incentives for Enterprise (143-155)
o Four Characteristics of Markets (181-192)
o Four Characteristics of “Champions” (208-210)
o Steps in Empowering Champions (235-236)
o Micro Theories (238-250)
o Macro Theories (250-260)

With rare exception, the best business books are driven by research and that is certainly true of this one. Check out the list of major studies Tellis co0nsulted on Pages 17-19, the additional details in Chapter 8, his Notes (263-288), and his Bibliography (289-306. Exemplar innovation cultures include IBM, Samsung, P&G, and General Motors. However different they may be in most respects, all of them demonstrate highly developed communication, cooperation, and most important of all, collaboration. This book is also a major collaborative effort, as Tellis gratefully acknowledges on Page 307.

No brief commentary such as mine can possibly do full justice to the scope of material that Gerald Tellis provides in this volume but I hope that I have at least suggested why I think so highly of it. Also, I hope that those who read this commentary will be better prepared to determine whether or not they wish to read the book and, in that event, will have at least some idea of how to build and then nourish a culture for market dominance, an achievement that would be of substantial benefit to his readers’ professional development as well as to the success of their organization.

Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out as well as Josh Lerner’s The Architecture of Innovation: The Economics of Creative Organizations as well as Reverse Innovation: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere co-authored by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble with Indra K. Nooyi and The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge co-authored by Govindarajan and Trimble; also, Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation and two co-authored by Tom Kelley and Jonathan Littman: The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm and The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO’s Strategies for Defeating the Devil’s Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization.

Blogging on Business Update from Bob Morris (Week of 12/24/12)

 

I hope that at least a few of these recent posts will be of interest to you:

 

BOOK REVIEWS

Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything
Carol J. Loomis

The Leaders We Need: And What Makes Us Follow
Michael Macoby

The Tao of Twitter: Changing Your Life and Business 140 Characters at a Time
Mark W. Schaefer

HBR Guide to Finance Basics for Managers
Various Contributors

The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative (Second Edition)
Stephen Denning

INTERVIEWS

John A. Daly
Bob Morris

Gregory Unruh
Bob Morris

Karen May (Google) in “The Corner Office”
Adam Bryant
New York Times

COMMENTARIES

“Economic Conditions Snapshot, December 2012″
McKinsey & Company
The McKinsey Quarterly

“Six Great Work Paradoxes”
Michael Bungay Stanier
from Do More Great Work

“Play Makes Us Human V: Why Hunter-Gatherers’ Work is Play”
Peter Gray
Psychology Today

“Lincoln’s Leadership Lessons”
Nancy Koehn
HBR

“Michael Lewis’ perspectives on the writing process”

“The ‘talent myth’ revisited”
BOB

“Three fertile problems”
Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey
HBR

“How many of these Qs can you answer?”
Harold Urschel

“How and Why Perception Gaps Impede Working Women”
Kip Kelly
Talent Management

“4 of the best marketing videos of 2012″
Erik Sherman
CBS MoneyWatch

“Enduring Ideas: The Three Horizons of growth”
Steve Corley
The McKinsey Quarterly

“Overcoming a bias against risk”
Tim Koller, Dan Lovallo, and Zane Williams
The McKinsey Quarterly

“Beyond machines, then what?
IBM

*     *     *

To check out these resources and other content, please click here.

To subscribe via RSS Reader, please click here.

Gregory Unruh: An interview by Bob Morris

Gregory Unruh is a thought leader dedicated to sustainability innovation for business and the world. An Associate Professor of Sustainability at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, he is a noted writer, speaker and educator in the areas of corporate social responsibility, environmental management and innovation management.

Before Thunderbird, Unruh was the IE Alumni Professor of Corporate Sustainability at the top ranked IE Business School in Madrid. He also served on the faculty of Columbia University through Jeffrey Sach’s Earth Institute and at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, where he was interim director of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy. Prior to his academic career, he spent eight years as an environmental consultant in California and northern Mexico.

Unruh is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review including his recent articles The Biosphere Rules, Growing Green: Three Smart Paths to Developing Sustainable Products and Winning in the Green Frenzy. He is the author of two books including the Amazon best-selling Earth, Inc.: Using Nature’s Rules to Build Sustainable Profits and Being Global: How to Think, Act, and Lead in a Transformed World, a work co-authored with Ángel Cabrera, president of Thunderbird, and endorsed by President Bill Clinton..

Here is an excerpt from my interview of Greg. To read the complete interview, please click here.

* * *

Morris: Who has had the greatest impact on your professional development? How so?

Unruh: Bill Pete. I read his book Wump World (similar vein to the Lorax) when I was in 3rd grade and became motivated to solve the sustainability question.

Morris: To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished in life thus far?

Unruh: I have both a hard science background and post graduate studies in the social sciences. All the perspectives are critical if you are going to understand and address global issues.

Morris: Please share your thoughts about this observation by Voltaire: “Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.”

Unruh: Actually, run away from those that think they have found it. Science is about constantly questioning existing dogmas. Nothing ever is finally proven, everything is a working hypothesis subject to revision in light of new information or ideas.

Morris: In Tom Davenport’s latest book, Judgment Calls, he and co-author Brooke Manville offer “an antidote for the Great Man theory of decision making and organizational performance”: organizational judgment. That is, “the collective capacity to make good calls and wise moves when the need for them exceeds the scope of any single leader’s directs control.” What do you think?

Unruh: That is a premise of my work training management professions. All professions are about judgment. You learn multiple disciplinary perspectives, all of which inform you deliberations, but none of which can give the final answer. All professionals, doctors, lawyers and managers, have to triangulate among the different views of a problem and develop a solution that is most likely to achieve the hoped for outcomes.

Morris: Now please shift your attention to Being Global. When and why did you and Ángel decide to write it in collaboration?

Unruh: We had been meeting and working with a really unique set of people through events like the World Economic Forum and the UN Global Compact and began to see patterns emerge that lead us to believe that people successful in a global context share similar characteristics. They were also inspiring.

Take for example Paul Meyer, co-founder of the mobile health services company Voxiva. While born in New York, Meyer grew up in California, Tunisia, Egypt, and Washington as he followed his mother who ran World Bank relief programs in 50 countries. After college he worked for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and landed a White House job that took him to South Asia, Bangladesh, South Africa, Uganda, and Tunisia. These experiences led him to found a series of organizations that used information technology to foster social and economic development.

People like Paul Meyer were drawn by life experience into being global, but we wondered if that meant only those that are born global can be global? What we learned, however, is that global leaders are not just born, but can be made. Global leaders become who they are by cultivating particular ways of looking at the world, ways of thinking about problems and opportunities and acting with integrity in pursuit of solutions.

Morris: To what extent (if any) does the book in final form differ significantly from what you originally envisioned?

Unruh: Ángel initially envisioned the book as an edited volume that would bring together our colleagues to create a definitive academic reference on global leadership. However, as we worked with Harvard Business Review Press, we began to rethink the audience. While the fundamental structure of the book stayed the same, it evolved into an approachable guidebook for professionals wanting to develop the skills to succeed in a global world.

Morris: Please explain your lengthy and intense interest in international relations.

Unruh: I actually came to international studies later in life. I was always curious about different countries, but my passion was the earth and environmental sciences. However, as I began working as a consultant with companies opening maquiladora plants in Northern Mexico the ecological realities forced me to become more global in my outlook. The environment doesn’t recognize national borders or cultural & language barriers, so to succeed in tackling global environmental problems you needed to master the skills of international relations. So I quit my job and got on a plane to Europe where I studied international affairs in Spain, France and Germany.

* * *

To read the complete interview, please click here.

Greg Unruh cordially invites you to check out the resources at this website:

www.gregoryunruh.com

John A. Daly: An interview by Bob Morris

Daly is the Liddell Professor of Communication and TCB Professor of Management at The University of Texas at Austin. While at the university, he has won every major Daly is the Liddell Professor of Communication and TCB Professor of Management at The University of Texas at Austin. While at the university, he has won every major award given on campus for undergraduate teaching. John has been the president of the National Communication Association, and served on the Board of Directors of both the International Customer Service Association and the International Communication Association. He is one of fewer than 70 scholars in the world who is a Fellow of the International Communication Association. Fellows are recognized for their major scholarly contributions.

He has published numerous research articles in scholarly periodicals and produced eight books. John’s latest book is Advocacy: Championing Ideas and Influencing Others. His work has also appeared in any number of popular outlets including Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Investor’s Business Daily, and New York Times. He has also worked with many organizations on topics related to communication, advocacy and leadership. These include such major firms as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Merck, Pfizer, USAA, Union Pacific, Kraft, Apple, IBM, Shell, ExxonMobil, Texas Instruments, 3M and Dell. In addition, he worked at the White House some years ago.

Here is an excerpt from my interview of him. To read the complete interview, please click here.

* * *

Morris: Before discussing Advocacy, a few general questions. First, who has had the greatest influence on your personal growth? How so?

Daly: Honestly, my wife. She is far wiser than anyone else I know.

Morris: The greatest impact on your professional development? How so?

Daly: My students who ask brilliant questions on a regular basis.

Morris: Years ago, was there a turning point (if not an epiphany) that set you on the career course you continue to follow? Please explain.

Daly: In terms of my work on advocacy, the turning point was when I was working with a company and one brilliant employee complained he didn’t get the credit he deserved for his ideas. He was right. This prompted me to start exploring what it takes for people, like this scientist, to get their ideas adopted.

Morris: To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished in life thus far?

Daly: All of it has mattered. I was at different stages of personal growth at different points in my career. My undergraduate years were lots of fun and thanks to some splendid faculty I pursued graduate school. And graduate school offered me brilliant mentors and the opportunity to do what I like the most—research and teach.

Morris: What do you know now about business world that you wish you knew when you when to work full-time for the first time? Why?

Daly: The politics are very real. It isn’t your accomplishment that matter alone; it is your ability to market those accomplishments that often make the real difference. There is a politics to ideas.

Morris: Of all the films that you have seen, which – in your opinion – best dramatizes important business principles? Please explain.

Daly: An old movie — Twelve o’Clock High comes to mind…it is about leadership, teamwork, delegation.

Morris: From which non-business book have you learned the most valuable lessons about business? Please explain.

Daly: Two answers For general knowledge — biographies; for my interest in advocacy — Machiavelli’s The Prince.

* * *

To read the complete interview, please click here.

John cordially invites you to check out the resources at these websites:

His faculty page.

Communication Studies page.

McCombs School of Business page.

John’s Amazon page.

The Trust Edge: A book review by Bob Morris

The Trust Edge: How Top Leaders Gain Faster Results, Deeper Relationships, and a Stronger Bottom Line 
David Horsager
Free Press (2012)

“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Presumably all C-level executives agree with David Horsager about the importance of trust within a workplace culture (a) between and among those who labor there and (b) between the given organizations and everyone else who is directly involved with it, notably customers.  Years ago, Warren Buffett observed, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

Although all C-level executives may affirm the importance of trust, many (too many) of them spend less than 20 years earning it and less than five minutes ruining it. Lack of trust and respect for a supervisor is probably the reason most often cited by highly-valued employees who leave. It is certainly among the major factors that explain why positive and productive employee engagement in the U.S. workplace is, on average, less than 30%. Much of the material in Horsager’s book can help to increase that percentage.

Now consider this: Many of the companies that are annually ranked on lists of those that are “Best to Work for” and “Most Highly Admired” are also ranked on the lists of those that are most profitable and have the greatest cap value in their respective industries. That is no coincidence. Horsager focuses on a number of such companies that include Amazon, Apple, Harley-Davidson, IBM, IKEA, Southwest Airlines, and Charles Schwab. Their people trust their supervisors, they trust their colleagues, and they trust those for whom they are responsible. Both trust and distrust are contagious. Much of the material in Horsager’s book can help those who lead an organization to establish or strengthen a culture of trust.

These are among the dozens of passages that caught my eye:

o       The High Cost of Suspicion (Pages 21-23)
o       Barriers to Trust to Overcome (34-39)
o       The Oracle of Omaha (55)
o       [Why] Conflict is Inevitable! (63-64)
o       Tips for Effective Listening (80-81)
o       Accountability: How? (116-118)
o       Being a Mentor (139)
o       Commitment, Harley-Davidson Style (151-155)
o       Finding Common Ground: Questions Build Connect (172-174)
o       Six Ways to Motivate Contributors (189)
o       Consistency Builds Habits [Good or Bad] (229-230)
o       Extend Trust to Gain Efficiency and Effectiveness (241-242)
o       Fifteen Tips for Rebuilding an Organization’s Trust (262-263)
o       The Making of a Trusted Online Presence (299-301)
o       An Environment of Trust (310-314)

I commend Horsager on his skillful use of reader-friendly devices that include a pair of sections that conclude the first 15 chapters, “The Trust Edge” and “Ask Yourself…,”  sections that review the chapter’s key points and then pose questions that the reader is encouraged to pose…and then answer. At the conclusion of the 16th and final chapter, he suggests “Five Ways to Sharpen Your Trust Edge.” These sections can facilitate, indeed expedite frequent review of the material later.

The “pillars of trust” on which Horsager focuses are Clarity, Compassion, Character, Competency, Commitment, Connection, Contribution, and Consistency. Obviously, there are countless other words that could also serve as names but perhaps no other set of eight whose names begin with the same letter. The names are far less importance than are developing and then sustaining those strengths. Almost all of the material in this book can help individuals to achieve two separate but interdependent strategic objectives: to establish or strengthen their own pillars of trust (however named) and then help others to do so, also.

David Horsager agrees with Peter Drucker: If you don’t have a customer, you don’t have a business. He would then suggest that, if people don’t trust you or what you offer, you don’t have a customer.

Ken Segall: An interview by Bob Morris

Ken Segall  worked closely with Steve Jobs as his ad agency creative director for over 12 years spanning NeXT and Apple. He led the advertising team behind the “Think different” campaign that helped revitalize the Apple brand when Steve returned from exile in 1997; he co-wrote the first commercial ever to win an Emmy; and he set Apple down the i-way by naming the iMac. Having served as global creative director at agencies for Dell, IBM and Intel, Ken is in a unique position to describe how Apple’s culture sets it far apart from its competitors. And that’s just what he’s done in his bestselling book, Insanely Simple. Illustrating his points with behind-the-scenes stories from Steve Jobs’ world, Ken shows how the love of simplicity has guided the way Apple organizes, innovates, communicates and markets — and how simplicity has helped build the most valuable company on earth. Ken currently does creative work, branding and product naming for major brands. He blogs about technology and marketing at kensegall.com, and he has fun with it all at his Apple satire site, Scoopertino.com.

Here is an excerpt from my interview of him. To read the complete interview, please click here.

*     *     *

Morris: Before discussing Insanely Simple, a few general questions. First, who has had the greatest influence on your personal growth? How so?

Segall: At the risk of sounding like I’m obsessed with all things Apple, the easy answer to that question is: Steve Jobs. He was a truly remarkable person in so many ways, probably even more so to those who got to see him up close. I don’t think I ever left a meeting with Steve without being amazed how intensely smart and focused he was. I’m not at all surprised he was able to accomplish what he did. So to me, Steve was a person to be admired, and he opened my eyes to the things that are possible when you put all your energy into what you believe.

We’ve all heard stories about the not-so-nice things that Steve did, and many of those stories are true. But there was also a side to Steve that never got much press. He could be charming, energizing and even fun. He was a complicated mix — but I found him to be an inspiration, and he changed the way I live and work.Morris: To what extent has your formal education been invaluable to what you have accomplished in life thus far?Segall: Every few years, I stumble upon my college transcript in a dusty file, and I’m always amazed — because I haven’t the faintest memory of having taken 99% of those classes. In my case, college was really more of a training ground for learning how to succeed. It presented me with a goal (getting a degree), and let me figure out the best way to achieve it. Learning how to allocate time and money to achieve a goal is a good foundation for a young person just setting out in life.

Ironically, I took an aptitude test before I entered college (Penn State) that indicated I might be a good fit in the world of advertising. That sounded somewhat interesting to me, so that’s what I signed up for. However, just seven weeks into my first term, I abandoned ship on that major and never looked back. I graduated with a BA degree and decided to play drums instead.

That’s what I did for the next seven years, until at the ripe old age of 29, I ended up in … advertising. I really should have given that aptitude test more credence. Given my experience, I’m always surprised to meet advertising people who actually studied for that profession. All the more power to them, but I found that my worldly adventures really helped me when I did get into advertising at a more advanced age. I had a better understanding of what makes people tick, and was able to tap into this understanding when I wrote headlines and copy. I probably advanced in the business more quickly than those starting right out of school.

Morris: What do you know now about the business world that you wish you knew when you when to work full-time for the first time? Why?

Segall: Because I started later than most, and therefore had some maturity going for me, I don’t lament any lack of knowledge when I broke into the business. In fact, I often talk about how my innocence and idealism served as a business advantage. To me, the advertising business was fresh and exciting, and I didn’t get why some of the older people seemed to be trying to find a way out. One of the things that got me excited about working in an agency was the intelligence and wit I saw all around me. Unlike a lot of my fellow musicians, my advertising colleagues actually read newspapers. They were stimulating to be around. Very quickly, I felt like “these are my people.” Of course, there were some embarrassing moments as I learned what advertising was all about. Starting at Chiat/Day in L.A., I distinctly remember the first time I saw the form upon which copywriters would submit their final work. At the top of the page, in big type, it said “COPY.” I thought that was special paper for the Xerox machine. Little did I know that a career in copy awaited me.

Morris: Of all the films that you have seen, which – in your opinion – best dramatizes important business principles? Please explain.

Segall: This probably isn’t the answer you’d expect, but I’ll go with The Hudsucker Proxy. First, I’m a Coen Brothers fan (I did short promotional film with them about Apple’s Final Cut Studio video editing suite some years ago). Second, in typical Coen Brothers fashion, it has some wonderfully exaggerated characters and improbable plot lines. Yet we get an interesting assortment of the things we see in business every day: plotting, scheming, backstabbing, subterfuge and greed. I say all of this tongue-in-cheek, of course, but the movie wouldn’t be fun if such things didn’t actually exist in the corporate world. So in that sense you might even consider it educational.

*     *     *

To read the complete interview, please click here.

You can learn more about Ken, his book, and his blog by visiting kensegall.com.

Calculating Success: A book review by Bob Morris

Calculating Success: How the New Workplace Analytics Will Revitalize Your Organization
Carl Hoffman, Eric Lesser, and Tim Ringo
Harvard Business Review Press (2012)

How and why “the connective tissue between vision and execution is workforce analytics”

According to Carl Hoffmann, Eric Lesser, and Tim Ringo, “there is more measurable value in an organization than meets the eye – if it is sought out and quantified. Taking a structured approach – in this case our Six Step method – and combining it with the right expertise and sponsorship can unlock immense value.” Their book explains how to do that.

It is difficult (if not impossible) to manage what cannot be measured but, obviously, so much depends on selecting the correct metrics for the given situation. Hoffmann, Lesser, and Ringo focus on analytics that, they assert, are more appropriate to what they characterize as “the new workplace.” I am greatly indebted to Tom Davenport for what I have learned about analytics and consider it strange that there are no references to him and his pioneering research in Hoffmann, Lesser, and Ringo’s book. Competing on Analytics (2007), for example, and more recently, Analytics at Work (2010), in which Davenport and his co-authors develop in greater depth a five-stage model for analytical maturity (“God has decreed that all maturity models have five stages”) but supplement it with an abundance of “pragmatic suggestions” with regard to the design and implementation process.

Hoffmann, Lesser, and Ringo offer a process to achieve similar strategic objectives:

o  Translate strategy into profitable action
o  Balance talent supply and demand
o  “Untangle” the drivers of workforce performance
o  Measure the value of collaboration and knowledge capital
o  Solve the “turnover mystery”
o  Build a sustainable workforce analytics capability

Readers will appreciate the provision of mini-case studies that demonstrate various ways four quite different organizations have used new workplace analytics to revitalize themselves:  Delta Airlines (Pages 13-23), “ABC” (an American manufacturing plant, 44-51), CORP Service Centers (117-135), and PHARMA (171-191). Leaders in each of these organizations used analytics to achieve specific objectives. Other exemplars are also identified and briefly discussed. Most change initiatives fail or fall far shirt of original (albeit unrealistic) expectations, especially organizational revitalization and transformation. I commend on their provision of the information. Hence the importance of the information, insights, and counsel that Hoffmann, Lesser, and Ringo provide in abundance.

Here are a few of several dozen passages that caught my eye:

o  A Six step “common sense” approach to addressing workplace challenges (Pages 5-6)
o  “The Six Step Analytical Process: The Intersections of Science and Industry” (18-27)
o  Developing Workforce Stands: Luxottica Retail and IBM (57-62)
o   Defining Action Steps to Implement the Solution (95-102)
o  Using Social Networks to Measure Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing (142-148)
o  Applying Wisdom of the Collective Organization (148- 150)
o  Solving the Turnover Mystery: An Extended Look at the Workforce Analytics Process (167-190)

Business leaders who read and (hopefully) re-read this book and then begin to take a hard look at their own organization will corroborate Hoffmann, Lesser, and Ringo’s comment, “there is more measurable value in an organization than meets the eye – if it is sought out and quantified.” That is a HUGE “if,” of course. Fortunately, business leaders are provided with a Six Step method process to follow; also, the central involvement of Six Step method as their virtual mentors. It is essential to “make haste slowly,” to engage positive and collaborative involvement in the process from Day One (including, especially, residents of the C-suite), and combine persistence with patience when attempting to create “immense value” that might not otherwise be accessible. Game on!