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| The wisdom of the collective |
| Anuradha Oza & Devapriyo Ghosh / New Delhi Jan 13, 2009, 00:35 IST |
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Organisations need to go beyond individual leadership capabilities to look at the portfolio of leadership abilities.
When writing about Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, Time magazine said in 1999, “Unlike so many of the inventions that have moved the world, this one truly was the work of one man. Thomas Edison got credit for the light bulb, but he had dozens of people in his lab working on it. William Shockley may have fathered the transistor, but two of his research scientists actually built it.” This in many ways points out the difference between teams that do things and the human need to identify one face or one person behind important achievements.
So it is in corporate leadership. Companies believe they need superheroes, or saviours, who will lead them out of crises or will spearhead growth. The general public looks out for that one name they can latch on to for praise or blame. This need for the knight in shining armour is deep-rooted: myth and legend talk about armies but only one king. Task forces don’t enthrall historians or poets.
Our experience shows, however, that teams can be a critical differentiator for companies. We have long been advocates of the portfolio concept of leadership. Waiting for a superhero is dangerous. As one of our clients told us, “No one can be perfect at everything”. We have argued that organisations need to go beyond individual leadership capabilities to look at the portfolio of leadership abilities that can help them collectively meet their strategic imperatives and deal with diverse situations: crisis, transition, growth and stable state.
This concept is perhaps even more relevant in a downturn. At this time, both individual leaders, as well as organisations as a whole, need to navigate ambiguity. Building this collective skill and helping the organisation become more agile and adaptable requires collective leadership even more strongly than at other times.
The qualities of authenticity and resilience become even more critical. Some leadership competencies that are necessary at this time include the ability to communicate and counsel employees, to engage employees even when they are anxious or insecure; to innovate, to truly understand the levers of the business so as to be to balance short-term revenue and profitability with building long-term strategic muscle; to relentlessly focus on operational excellence and to leverage relationships. These skills are certainly relevant in all situations, but we argue that they become critical in a situation of adversity.
As the saying goes, good companies grow in good times but great companies grow in difficult times. The ability to learn, grow and profit from adversity has served to differentiate great companies over time and this downturn will be no different.
The 3A model
How does an organisation build a portfolio of leaders? Through our experience in leadership development initiatives, we have found that there is a need to focus as much on teams as they do on individuals. We propose a simple “3 A” model, based on Alignment, Action learning and Appreciative enquiry, that helps build this portfolio by working through teams.
We suggest that alignment with the organisation’s vision is the key which allows the portfolio of leaders to be aligned as well. When supported by action-learning that helps to achieve business outcomes and appreciative enquiry that facilitates reflection, leaders will take their learning forward and build further alignment. Again this is neither new nor applicable only in a downturn — rather, it is a re-emphasis on what is important and makes a difference. (See graphic)
Alignment starts with understanding the nature of leadership required to achieve the strategic business objectives of the organisation in the context of its values and vision. It requires a deep appreciation of the kinds of situations leaders may face and specific outcomes that they need to deliver. Alignment is the pre-requisite that separates effective teams from dysfunctional teams.
Action-learning, a concept first introduced by the physicist Reg Revans, essentially suggests that learning happens when what we already know is coupled with our seeking to answer questions about what we don’t know. Action-learning is rooted in human beings’ helping each other understand and share concerns and problems about work-related challenges. It is also rooted in the idea that reflection is an essential component to acting wisely and well.
Action-learning brings together people from across the organisation to work on projects of immediate importance to the company. Action-learning teams also benefit greatly from both internal mentors and external coaches to ensure that the learning is consolidated and applied at various times.
It is also useful to be aware of the role of conflict in Action-learning situations. While we encourage teams to reflect on how they manage conflict, we have seen conflicts get completely out-of-hand and groups fall apart. We have seen a three-member team choosing to produce three separate pieces of work rather than work together.
Conflict can be an enormous source of energy, provided the group can get past the conflict. The danger is either the team remains paralysed and produces nothing, or the group breaks up into factions and produces outcomes that have no synergy, or one person just does all the work. Especially in a downturn, such conflict can be very dangerous.
Appreciative enquiry can provide a complement to action-learning in order to guard against energy-sapping incidents. Appreciative enquiry is a technique that gives space to numerous ways of looking at the world, so that assumptions and ideas have a chance to be expressed. Competition is an undercurrent in many teams, and an action-learning project is not going to be a band-aid for this undercurrent. This technique allows for a number of potential destructive interpersonal issues to be either set aside for a while or dealt with without judgment.
Using appreciative questions can help build reflection as well. Understanding what is working and why is a vital ingredient of the action-learning process. Understanding how to make it work in the future across a range of situations is even more important.
The model in action
A year-long leadership intervention with a pharmaceutical client is an example of how this process works. We have seen that what consistently makes a difference are the structured group reflection sessions. Without these sessions, much of the benefits of the group working together are lost. We also noticed that maximum learning happened when the group maintained its focus on four parameters: how do we work as one company or system rather than as individual silos, how do we find ways to innovate or do things better, how do we listen carefully to what someone else is saying even if we do not agree with it and how do we resolve our differences.
In order to ensure that adequate focus is given to different organisational situations, we combined the reflection component with a lecture-discussion format, followed by the project team work. We also ensured that these lecture-discussions were led, wherever possible, by senior management from the company. For example, a group discussion on anticipating crisis situations and handling crisis preparedness was followed up with a presentation to the management committee and the latter, in turn, participated in the second round of crisis-preparedness discussions.
The focus on the organisation as a system and on better ways of doing things can show immediate, synergised results. Teams can work on immediate challenges to the organisation like identifying new customer segments or how current products and services can serve the organisation better. Indeed, in one of our manufacturing clients, the organisation made significant cost-savings in a crisis through an action-learning approach.
They began to focus not just on producing top quality products, but also on building better efficiencies in the process, and leveraging synergies, with powerful results. For the first time, the accounting team sat down with the manufacturing team and sales teams to really listen to each other and to solve a common problem, rather than being at loggerheads.
The downturn as an opportunity
Warren Bennis has talked about the role of an intense experience, which he called “a crucible” in shaping the abilities and attitudes of leaders at an individual level. We believe the current economic crucible is a perfect opportunity to forge the strength of collective leadership to lead not just in the best of times but in the worst of times.
Devapriyo Ghosh a principal with Mercer’s human capital business and Anuradha Oza a senior associate with Mercer’s human capital division
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