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Showing posts with label liderazgo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label liderazgo. Show all posts

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Why Personal Development is a must for today’s CEO
By George W. Watts & Jamie Millar


Late one Sunday night, Ron sat in his study ruminating on the upcoming week. The board was meeting on Wednesday, and Ron knew that some directors’ private questions about his leadership were getting louder. Soon the company was to announce a third straight quarter of stagnant earnings. Ron was starting to wonder if he had the right team—and the right strategy—to compete in an intensely competitive industry. Maybe the Peter Principle was real. Had he finally reached his level of incompetence?

To relax, Ron put on his headphones and set his iPhone to shuffle. As he sat back, the gentle opening guitar riff from Stairway to Heaven started to play. This song always brought him back to his youth, when life seemed simpler. Suddenly, Ron’s reminiscing was interrupted by Robert Plant: Yes, there are two paths you can go by/But in the long run/There’s still time to change the road you’re on.

As Ron reflected over his career, he noted that leaders usually achieved the best outcomes when they were temperamentally suited for their role, had earned their colleagues’ and customers’ trust, and worked in an organization—and industry—where their skills were most valued. He pulled out his notebook and began to jot down the themes into a process flow diagram.

 Ron drew some boxes. Each position he had held valued certain personality traits over others. At times in his career, Ron had felt like he was painting with his left foot. But what if he had molded his role to match his innate personality and assigned out tasks he did not enjoy? What if he had more effectively partnered with colleagues holding different strengths; would that have changed his outlook and the outcome? Ron realized that his personal effectiveness was the product of role-personality alignment and perceived trustworthiness. He thought back to the simple trustworthiness equation one of his mentors had taught him many years ago. Trustworthiness = (Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy)/Self-Orientation. Did he come across as too self-oriented? Perhaps. Did others feel they really knew him? Perhaps not enough.

Ron liked how the model was shaping up: personal effectiveness applied against the right platform would lead to both “hard” and “soft” outcomes. Those include financial results, Ron’s top priority, as well as team cohesion, strategic advantage, and enhanced reputation.

In the flow diagram, Ron sketched a box called “Personal Development,” which drew from both internal and external sources. External sources included colleagues, customers, and high-quality training programs. Ron also valued the nuanced insights he took away from a peer network he attended every quarter. As a voracious reader, Ron regularly sought out provocative ideas that would help him to understand his industry, his role, and himself  better. Ron had not worked with an executive coach in the past but wondered if a coach might help him step back and make sense of these disparate data points. It might be worth a try.

As Ron drew some arrows, he noticed a feedback loop in the diagram. Time spent on personal development had dual benefits, which complemented each other to enhance outcomes. On the one hand, he could use personal development to change his opportunity space. Why were marketing and product development not working well together? Why did the sales team miss the competitive threats in Asia? What might the shift from a pipeline business model to a platform model look like? As CEO, he had the authority to re-shape the organization, something Bill Gates was famous for.

On the other hand, Ron could also draw on personal development to change himself. Was he taking on specific responsibilities just because his predecessor had? They were very different people with different strengths and interests. Why did Ron feel that he had to keep the confines of the position? What might he delegate, and where could he better apply the talents that helped him reach the CEO position?

Ron challenged himself through self-reflection, an internal source of personal development. Did he sometimes dodge a tough question because he didn’t feel comfortable answering it? Did this erode others’ trust in him? Did they perceive his actions as a lack of competence? Perhaps some wondered if he had a hidden agenda. He knew that millennial employees craved authenticity; but then again, he suspected most others did, too.

There was much to consider. As Ron’s schedule became increasingly intense, he had spent more time working on the company and less time working on himself. He switched off the light in his study and headed up to bed, knowing that this had to change. Personal development was not a luxury. It was a necessity. It would make the company better. It would make him better. And that sounded like a winning formula.

Fuente: Chief Executive

Links a los Contenidos de nuestros 
TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY,
"A MEDIDA" de las necesidades de su Organización:








    Consultas al email: msg.latam@gmail.com


    .·. Dr. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, MHSA .·.
    Especialista Multicultural Global en Management Estratégico, Conducta Organizacional, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones, graduado en University of California at Berkeley y The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)
    Asesor en Ministerio de Cultura y Educación de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
    Miembro del Comité EEUU del Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales
    Representante de The George Washington University para LatAm (2017-1996)
    Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en 
    The George Washington University (Washington DC)
    CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
    Skype: medinacasabella


    MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
    es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
    soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

    Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
    Management Estratégico,
    Gestión del Cambio,
    Marketing Estratégico,
    Proyectos de Inversión,
    Gestión Educativa,
    Capacitación

    de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

    a) Industria y Servicios,
    b) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
    c) ONGs y Gobiernos.
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    Thursday, July 5, 2018

    Innovation isn’t about Strategy, it’s about Culture


     “When strategy and culture collide, culture will win.”

    Innovation is one of the most important growth engines. It is crucial to understand that when you’re dealing with innovation — be it as a client, adopter, user, or developer – fast dynamics and rapid shifts in direction require a unique management style. You can’t control future innovation, you can only respond to it. Instead of strategy, organizations should focus on developing the right culture — one that enables, embraces, and encourages innovation. Here are a few principles to consider.

    Always be ready to switch plans.

    Long-term planning is overrated. It is impossible to predict emerging technologies and new social trends more than five years in advance with any accuracy. A few decades ago, who could have foreseen the rise of the internet and the colossal amount of data becoming “the new oil”? When the cloud concept took off, it was difficult to realize its effect on the startup industry — previous barriers to purchasing heavy computer infrastructure vanished into smaller fixed costs, making the “back of garage” concept accessible to more minds.

    In this volatile environment, you must believe and doubt your assumptions and strategies at the same time. Most startups fail, but 70 percent of the successful startups are doing something different than originally planned. Be ready to change direction when the time is right; don’t hold onto what you thought two years ago or get used to the new environment. All your targets are moving constantly.

     Master the revolution before it masters you.

    Despite the seemingly stormy marketplace described above, there is very good news: revolutions are very slow and they exist only in the eye of the beholder. Revolutions are a long process of incremental changes, with many failures along the way. The nature of change is that everything moves very slowly until it moves very fast. If you miss a trend, and the train has left the station and is gaining speed, it might too late. Recall the cases of Blackberry or Barnes & Noble – they joined the new trend only a little late, but with the benefit of hindsight, it was too late.

    Furthermore, revolutions are not always surprising. The smartphone is considered one of the big revolutions in modern history. Let’s revisit a few interesting dates: the first mobile call was made in 1973 (the phone weight was 2.4 pounds); the first smartphone (which had a calculator, clock, calendar, and a contact book) appeared in 1993; the Palm touchscreen phone offered the ability to install third-party apps (an old version of the app store concept) and had a wireless application; and a camera appeared on the 2002 Sanyo mobile phone. Finally, all these pieces were connected around 2007 (iPhone) and the revolution took off.

    Leadership is not more important than followership.

    Contrary to the common view, when it comes to innovation, the right followers — those who stay in the shadow — are at least as important as the leader. There are numerous leadership courses, but we don’t teach or train how to follow. The success of a team is defined not only by the leader’s quality but also by the followers who combine independent thought with coordinated efforts simultaneously. A good leader is one who has built a team that can function without him/her. To hit the moving target of innovation most effectively, a flat hierarchy is a better fit, as it enables the team to be agile and every member has the option (and skills) to function as the leader but chooses to follow the team.

    Don’t overvalue expertise.

    In his foreword to Start-up Nation Shimon Peres writes, “All the experts,’ Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, said ‘are experts on what was. There is no expert on what will be.’ To become an ‘expert’ on the future, vision must replace experience”.

    Experts understand the current situation and technology perfectly. Real experts oppose radical innovation and often serve as gatekeepers. In some cases, they have a lot to lose because radical change renders years of studying irrelevant. When the revolution takes off, you need a blend of novices with the vision to get the experts going and abandon their safe zone. Without novices, revolution identification will be missed, and you can get stuck in the present, soon to be past.

    Source: The Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center, Columbia Business School

    Haciendo click en cada uno de los links siguientes, Contenidos de nuestros 
    TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY, "A MEDIDA" 
    de las necesidades de su Organización:








      Consultas al email: mamc.latam@gmail.com


      .·. Dr. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, MHSA .·.
      Especialista Multicultural Global en Management Estratégico, Conducta Organizacional, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones, graduado en University of California at Berkeley y The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)
      Consultor en Dirección General de Cultura y Educación de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
      Miembro del Comité EEUU del Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales
      Representante de The George Washington University para LatAm (2017-1996)
      Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en 
      The George Washington University (Washington DC)
      CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
      Skype: medinacasabella


      MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
      es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
      soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

      Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
      Management Estratégico,
      Gestión del Cambio,
      Marketing Estratégico,
      Proyectos de Inversión,
      Gestión Educativa,
      Capacitación

      de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

      a) Industria y Servicios,
      b) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
      c) ONGs y Gobiernos.
      Posted by at No comments:
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      Friday, March 23, 2018

      Leading by Learning for Business Success
      by Brigadier General George Forsythe, Karen Kuhla and Daniel Rice


      This is the final article of the 6-part series focusing on how CEOs adjust to their disruptive business environments and what they learned from their efforts that might be helpful to other CEOs. To answer these questions, we interviewed six CEOs/Chairman/Presidents from a variety of industries: Joe DePinto (CEO, 7-Eleven); Mike Fucci (Chairman, Deloitte); Tony Guzzi (CEO, EMCOR), Margaret Keane (President and CEO, Synchrony Financial), Bob Leduc (President, Pratt & Whitney), and Bob Weidner (President and CEO, MSCI). We also interviewed General Dennis Reimer, who led the Army through a major transformation during the period when the Army created the term “VUCA.” We asked each of the leaders to describe their business environment and discuss how they are leading their companies to thrive in the face of massive disruptions. We are grateful to these leaders for their thoughtfulness and candor. We found their stories fascinating and relevant and hope you have as well.

      The six executives with whom we spoke all agreed their business environments are experiencing significant disruptions. Across a wide range of business sectors—manufacturing, engineering, aerospace, financial services, convenience stores and professional services—VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) is real. Technology advancements, competition, regulations and globalization are accelerating the rate of change and placing enormous demands on their business to be more agile and responsive to new market forces. What are they doing to adapt?

      First, they are creating, shaping and transforming their organizations’ cultures to be more responsive to their environments. They influence their organization’s culture by articulating and reinforcing corporate values. The executives spoke about the values of integrity, trust, empowerment, employee and leader development, and learning as being essential in the new normal of VUCA. Once the corporate values are articulated and shared, they reinforce them by personal example and presence and ensure they are cascaded throughout the organization. They also understand they need others to shape and reinforce the corporate culture; they use the values to guide hiring decisions and personnel development processes, and they ensure that all the organizational systems are aligned and synchronized to embody the culture.

      Culture change is hard work that takes time and continuous effort, and they understand the importance of communicating the need for change. The executives stressed the necessity for having a clear sense of shared purpose, an unwavering commitment to change and a willingness to listen to all stakeholders. Celebrating small early successes is important to build confidence in the change process and trust in the corporate leadership.

      Second, the executives are transforming their companies into learning organizations. They are encouraging experimentation with new products, services and procedures. From corporate R&D “skunk works” to small-scale pilot projects to cross-functional project teams, these executives are investing in experimentations with new ways of doing business within the markets. They are also creating the conditions where the organization can learn from experience, making “work” the “curriculum” for improvement and innovation.

      Techniques such as the after-action review (AAR) are enabling teams at all levels within the organization to learn from experience. These executives appreciate that things don’t always work out as planned; they have the courage to see the value in learning from failure, and they understand when and how to balance learning with organizational performance.

      Finally, the executives are investing heavily in employee learning and leader development. They understand that organizational agility requires agile employees who have the knowledge, skills and personal attributes to operate within the corporate culture they are trying to establish. Employee training programs are planned and delivered to create a workforce that embodies the culture. Leader development efforts leverage stretch assignments and work experiences, which are supplemented with supportive coaching and mentoring, to grow and expand the leadership bench of potential executives.

      At the end of the interviews, we asked the executives to reflect on how their efforts are working. They mentioned that employee surveys and “voice of the customer” feedback provide indications for how internal and external stakeholders perceive the change efforts. They also believe it’s important to be visible in, and available to, employees—listening to employees at all levels share their stories and experiences with change. They are employing “leadership by walking around.” The executives expect the changes will result in better performance of the business; although they are anxious to see early results, they also understand that many of their efforts will need time to fully blossom. They understand the importance of having patience, are eager to celebrate early successes and anticipate making great progress.

      Perhaps this is the most important takeaway: Excellence in a VUCA environment takes time. It requires strong leadership and agile, resilient team members who are all dedicated to being learning leaders who persevere in the face of resistance and setbacks. The six executives who shared their stories are certainly committed to change to provide better products and services of value on behalf of their customers, employees and shareholders. We are grateful for their willingness to share their experiences so others might learn as well—a true hallmark of learning leaders and organizations.

      Fuente: Chief Executive

      Haciendo click en cada uno de los links siguientes, Contenidos de nuestros 
      TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY, "A MEDIDA" 
      de las necesidades de su Organización:








        Consultas al email: mamc.latam@gmail.com


        .·. Dr. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, MHSA .·.
        Especialista Multicultural Global en Management Estratégico, Conducta Organizacional, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones, graduado en University of California at Berkeley y The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)
        Consultor en Dirección General de Cultura y Educación de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
        Miembro del Comité EEUU del Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales
        Representante de The George Washington University para LatAm desde 1996
        Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en 
        The George Washington University (Washington DC)
        CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
        Skype: medinacasabella


        MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
        es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
        soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

        Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
        Management Estratégico,
        Gestión del Cambio,
        Marketing Estratégico,
        Proyectos de Inversión,
        Gestión Educativa,
        Capacitación

        de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

        a) Industria y Servicios,
        b) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
        c) ONGs y Gobiernos.
        Posted by at No comments:
        Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

        Thursday, March 15, 2018

        Keys to developing Organizational Leaders
        by Brigadier General George Forsythe, Karen Kuhla and Daniel Rice


        While the fourth article focused on the organization, this one will address individuals. We were interested in how CEOs ensure that employees and organizational leaders are developed to meet the demands of a dynamic environment. Bob Weidner, CEO of MSCI, the industrial metals trade organization, indicated—“thoughtful companies view their people as assets in which you must invest.”

        Synchrony Financial’s CEO, Margaret Keane, summarized why employee development is so important in today’s business environment: “You cannot ignore the development of the employees, because they are the foundation of how things operate every day. In the environment we are in right now where change is happening at such an explosive pace, we have to make sure we are thinking through the skill sets of our employees to make sure they are going to be successful in their careers and that we have the right talent.”

        Companies grow employee talent through both training and development. When employees are preparing to move into management positions, training is oriented toward job-related and leadership skills. Development occurs through stretch assignments and critical on-the-job experiences that broaden employees’ understanding of the organization and enhance competencies for higher-level leadership. Developmental opportunities begin by considering an employee’s readiness to grow, then combining challenging assignments with support (training, coaching and mentoring) so that employees derive the full benefits of the experience. CEOs who value development understand that meaningful work should be a catalyst for personal and professional growth within the context of creating high-performing organizations. The Army often talks about the fact that it is not made up of people—it is people–to emphasize the importance of people in all organizations. Gen. Dennis Reimer notes that “in working with organizations for over five decades, both military and civilian, it is clear to me that people are our most important asset. We must ensure we develop them and allow them to be all they can be to create high-performing organizations.”

        All the companies we studied have in-house employee training programs. Deloitte, for example, takes pride in Deloitte University, which uses case studies in small-group settings to prepare professionals for the complexity and ambiguity inherent in their business environment and to help clients solve their challenges. Mike Fucci described it this way:

        “When you walk through the doors, you see a different setting. After you check in, your mind switches to learning mode. It’s very collaborative, a lot of group settings and multimedia interactivity. Not a lot of presentations. Groups of 6 to 8 to 20 can get together and solve problems, and we do a lot of case studies; we do a lot of hands-on learning. It’s a very immersive type of experience.”

        MSCI’s CEO, Bob Weidner, sees his organization’s role as offering training and education for his client companies. He has established a graduate program—the Strategic Metals Management program (SMM) at Washington University in St. Louis—for industry leaders, and he sponsors conferences on emerging trends in the metals industry.

        Pratt & Whitney has a comprehensive employee-training program that includes leadership training for managers at all levels within the company. All the other companies in our interview set also outsource to organizations like Thayer Leader Development Group at West Point, leadership training for senior leaders. In addition, Pratt & Whitney uses stretch assignments and cross-functional rotational programs to develop high-potential leaders for more senior positions. Bob Leduc believes much of his company’s leadership development philosophy revolves around modeling and reinforcement of positive behaviors until they become ingrained in employees’ DNA, as well as the importance of developing a culture based on trust and empowerment to ensure the successful delivery of business objectives.

        On the training side, Synchrony Financial has 2-to-3-day functional academies for credit, finance and technology, for example. Margaret also has instituted a range of leader development programs such as the STEP Program, which prepares high-potential, non-exempt individuals for management positions.

        “We have a lot of non-exempt employees, many in call centers, and the STEP Program is focused on helping them advance,” she explained. “This is a two-year rotational program using experiential learning and development to help them grow out of the non-exempt ranks into the exempt ranks and become managers of people; we’ve had real success with the program. The other positive is that there is a lot of our diversity in our non-exempt staff, so we’ve been able to pull people up through the organization and increase diversity in our ranks.

        Synchrony makes extensive use of stretch assignments and critical experiences by moving “people with real talent, leadership and capabilities to different functions.” Margaret told the story of a finance professional who was moved to marketing. As a result, both the individual and the firm discovered he had real talent in that area. He was bold enough to say he wanted to try it (an indicator of developmental readiness) and the company was bold enough to let him try it. Margaret also is moving more tech people into other functional areas to both develop talent and meet the need for greater tech infusion throughout the company. This is a stellar example of a CEO matching organizational requirements for adaptability with individual employee development.

        The CEOs with whom we spoke understand that their organizations’ ability to adapt to market disruptions would only be effective if their employees and leaders understand how they contribute to the company’s success and have the requisite skills and personal attributes to make it happen. We heard CEOs extol the virtues of empowering employees and leaders at all levels to act within their scope of responsibility to be able to add flexibility and responsiveness to their companies. Training and leader development, tailored to specific jobs and levels of responsibility, create the workforce that is allowing them to succeed in their VUCA environments.

        Successful businesses create a culture of learning that fosters individual growth and corporate flexibility to respond to the dynamics of the marketplace. The final article in this series highlights the essential keys to excelling in a VUCA environment.

        Fuente: Chief Executive

        Haciendo click en cada uno de los links siguientes, Contenidos de nuestros 
        TALLERES DE CAPACITACIÓN IN COMPANY, "A MEDIDA" 
        de las necesidades de su Organización:








          Consultas al email: mamc.latam@gmail.com


          .·. Dr. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, MHSA .·.
          Especialista Multicultural Global en Management Estratégico, Conducta Organizacional, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones, graduado en University of California at Berkeley y The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)
          Consultor en Dirección General de Cultura y Educación de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
          Miembro del Comité EEUU del Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales
          Representante de The George Washington University para LatAm desde 1996
          Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en 
          The George Washington University (Washington DC)
          CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
          Skype: medinacasabella


          MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
          es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
          soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

          Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
          Management Estratégico,
          Gestión del Cambio,
          Marketing Estratégico,
          Proyectos de Inversión,
          Gestión Educativa,
          Capacitación

          de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

          a) Industria y Servicios,
          b) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
          c) ONGs y Gobiernos.
          Posted by at No comments:
          Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

          Thursday, March 8, 2018

          Creating a Learning Organization
          by Brigadier General George Forsythe, Karen Kuhla and Daniel Rice


          This is the fourth article in a 6-part series focusing on how CEOs adjust to their disruptive business environments and what they learned from their efforts that might be helpful to other CEOs. To answer these questions, we interviewed six CEOs/Chairman/Presidents from a variety of industries: Joe DePinto (CEO, 7-Eleven); Mike Fucci (Chairman, Deloitte); Tony Guzzi (CEO, EMCOR), Margaret Keane (President and CEO, Synchrony Financial), Bob Leduc (President, Pratt & Whitney), and Bob Weidner (President and CEO, MSCI). We asked each to describe their business environment and discuss how they are leading their companies to thrive in the face of massive disruptions.

          In his book, “The Fifth Discipline,” Peter Senge popularized the concept of a learning organization, where individuals and teams challenge the established mindsets, learn from experience, and develop greater personal and collective competence to achieve better performance. This article will illustrate how the CEOs are transforming their companies into learning organizations to adapt to their dynamic business environments.

          It was clear from our conversations that the CEOs based their approaches to organizational learning on being able to meet the challenges they faced in their markets. Corporate culture, values, mission and strategy provide the foundation for learning, out of which emerge a shared vision and purpose that drives actions. We see similarity with the Army’s concept of the commander’s intent, which flows from the leader’s analysis of the mission and communicates to all members of the organization the what (vision) and why (purpose) of the mission. The how is left to subordinate leaders and staff members who are closer to the action and can adjust specific actions as the situation unfolds. Organizational learning, then, is grounded in the mission.

          Two strategies for organizational learning emerged from our interviews: experimentation and learning from experience. Woven throughout these strategies is the importance of communicating lessons learned across the organization, a challenge that exists in most organizations but is acute for large global companies.

          Experimentation.

          It will come as no surprise that industrial companies employed prototyping and experimentation as part of the R&D function. MSCI is the industrial metals trade organization, which has member companies representing production mills and service centers. Bob Weidner, president/CEO, described how innovation through experimentation is taking place both in terms of product development and process innovations. He noted the companies in the industrial metals sector that are the most adaptive are “blurring the lines” between product and process innovation, seeing both production and operational processes as part of a larger strategy for rapid response to market demands.

          7-Eleven uses “fast-fail method prototyping” to develop innovative technologies in response to new competitors in its market space. Before rolling out its “click-and-pick” technology, where customers order and pay for products online for pickup at the nearest store, CEO Joe DePinto explained that the company experimented with a small number of stores and refined their processes based on these pilot studies. 7-Eleven learned which technologies worked best and how to train store employees to implement the new system.

          In financial services, Synchrony Financial CEO Margaret Keane created four innovation stations with cross-functional teams that work together to accelerate change in the company. The teams include IT, operations, compliance, and legal, all working on innovative ideas to deliver capability as quickly as possible. Team members are trained in agile thinking; they are learning to work cross-functionally to accelerate change across the company. Additional examples from Synchrony include two pilot programs—one to assist military veterans transitioning to the firm and the other to support employees with disabilities. These experiments result in best practices that are shared throughout the company.

          Learning from Experience.

          All the CEOs emphasized the importance of learning by doing the work of the company. Many employed after-action-reviews (AARs) on a routine basis, where work groups take stock of their collective performance following major events or tasks, looking at what worked, what went wrong, and what needs to be improved. For example, to facilitate organizational learning, Mike Fucci at Deloitte engages the firm’s partners in change management conversations about specific events. Several important innovations have resulted from this process.

          The after-action review is a technique developed by the Army as a tool for organizational and individual learning from experience. Across the Army—from platoons to senior staffs—work groups and teams meet after operational actions and training events to review what worked, what didn’t work, what they learned and how they can perform more effectively and efficiently next time. Individual and collective reflection is based on the mission and leader’s intent, with the focus on enhancing organizational performance on subsequent events. All team members participate, and leaders often start the discussion with a self-critique to model openness to learning. Honesty and trust are the bedrocks of the review and hallmarks of a learning organization.

          At Pratt & Whitney, Bob Leduc has instituted after-action reviews throughout the company. He recently brought together his executive leadership team to review the actions they had taken in the past 9 months to implement culture change and align organizational systems. He emphasizes accountability, empowerment and transparency, especially in times of challenge. Bob recognizes there will be times when things don’t go as planned, and that it is important to own your mistakes and learn from them, just as you do with your successes.

          “We are now using regular after-action reviews and allowing people to make mistakes and learn. In virtually every meeting we have now, we have a conversation around what went well, what could have gone better, and what we have learned from this. We had a disappointing incident where a project did not turn out as planned, so I had [the manager] come see me. He took me through his assessment. It was very well done, very well thought out and he actually found some improvement opportunities in relevant policies and procedures. And so, we probably spent a half hour talking about it and in the end, I said ‘Listen…, the important thing is to understand the root cause and to learn from this and make sure it never happens again’.”

          Tony Guzzi, CEO at EMCOR, told a similar story about how the CEO’s reaction to failure can build trust and reinforce the company’s values.

          “When you’re at the top of an organization, bad news needs to travel relatively fast, right? And really bad news has to travel exceptionally fast,” Guzzi says. “And the only way that really bad news is going to travel exceptionally fast is if you build a culture of trust—that when someone gives you that bad news, and they’ve been a good performer and they’ve made good decisions—even if they haven’t—that you’re going to react appropriately. If they think you’re immediately going to fly off the handle or that everybody around goes into cover-up mode, then that’s not going to be a good outcome.”

          “We had a job in the last couple years that was a real problem. I mean, it was not only a problem for us, it was a problem for a lot of people. It was a high-profile job; many different political factions got involved, which is pretty unusual, quite frankly. Our CEO on the ground had to know that…we weren’t going to fire him because this thing was going bad. It was outside of his control; we were going to actively engage in the solution, because the solution was going to be beyond him.”

          Scaling the after-action review process across a large company presents some unique challenges. At Pratt & Whitney, Bob Leduc gathers all executives at least annually to review strategy and operations. At EMCOR, an international construction services corporation,  Guzzi uses functional peer groups to enhance organizational learning within the company.

          “We have a very extensive set of peer learning and job learning strategies. We have peer groups around building information modeling…The CEOs have peer groups around different construction techniques. We have peer groups around safety. And then, we reinforce those peer groups all the time…We have a lot of communication that goes around those peer groups. When they get together, it’s usually around a learning event like a peer group…We’ve taken that down multiple levels. So, we have a superintendents’ peer group once a year for Mechanical; Electrical; service manager; and different kinds of estimating. Now, some will say, ‘Hey, we see this need,’ and we’ll start connecting to different people in the organization, and, then, we’ll develop a peer group around that. So, there’s an extensive group of peer learning that goes on here.”

          Joe DePinto at 7-Eleven uses video technology to connect employees across the company in a bi-weekly conversation to review corporate strategy implementation.

          “We do a national video call with all of our field operators every 2 weeks. It’s about a 2-hour call. There are probably 4,000 or so people on the call. They are all linked in. We zero in on a part of the strategy that we want to talk about. They all understand the overall strategy, but we constantly reinforce the importance of executing the strategy this way. We also share case studies of how others across the organization have been successful, or have tried different ways to improve different parts of our strategy and have either been successful or failed. They actually get up there and teach their peers, and go through their case study in a national forum.”

          In this article, we have explored how companies in different business sectors respond to their dynamic environment by becoming learning organizations. Experimentation and learning from experience emerged as strategies for these companies. In the next article, we will describe what the CEOs are doing to foster individual learning, so all employees are better able to perform in a dynamic environment.

          Fuente: Chief Executive

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            .·. Dr. Miguel Ángel MEDINA CASABELLA, MSM, MBA, MHSA .·.
            Especialista Multicultural Global en Management Estratégico, Conducta Organizacional, Gestión del Cambio e Inversiones, graduado en University of California at Berkeley y The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)
            Consultor en Dirección General de Cultura y Educación de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
            Miembro del Comité EEUU del Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales
            Representante de The George Washington University para LatAm desde 1996
            Ex Director Académico y Profesor de Gestión del Cambio del HSML Program para LatAm en 
            The George Washington University (Washington DC)
            CEO, MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm
            Skype: medinacasabella


            MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS GROUP LatAm ©
            es una Consultora Interdisciplinaria cuya Misión es proveer
            soluciones integrales, eficientes y operativas en todas las áreas vinculadas a:

            Estrategias Multiculturales y Transculturales, Organizacionales y Competitivas,
            Management Estratégico,
            Gestión del Cambio,
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            de Latino América (LatAm), para los Sectores:

            a) Industria y Servicios,
            b) Universidades y Centros de Capacitación,
            c) ONGs y Gobiernos.
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