That'll never work by Marc Randolph, the founder of Netflix - a few take aways

 That'll never work is the story of the birth of Netflix as told by its founder, Marc Randolph.

Amongst the anecdotes and reminiscences of the founding and early years of Netflix when it was a DVD-by-post company, there are some real insights:

• Ideas and Start-ups
• "The truth is that for every good idea, there are a thousand bad ones." p.5
• Nolan Bushnell, co-founder of Atari, "Everyone who has taken a shower has had an idea, but it is the people who get out of the shower, towel off and so something about it that make the difference." p.301
• The key to initial success is to get a highly talented start-up team together.
• Start ups are about OPM - Other People's Money

• Culture
• The importance of company culture. "Culture isn't what you say, it is what you do." p75
• "People want to be treated like adults.  ....  What they want is freedom and responsibility. They want to be loosely coupled but tightly aligned." p.78
• Codifying Culture - HR Issues
• "Most companies end up building a system to protect themselves from people who lack judgement. Only that ends up frustrating the people who have it." p.189
• Vision for the HR Department as "a proactive agent for culture" p.190
• Self-Care: 
• Importance of prioritising relationship with wife/ family even when work is really tough. p.87
• Factors in Netflix's success
• The importance of data analytics
• The importance of testing. 
• "Take your idea and set in on a collistion course with reality as soon as possible." p.32;  
• "When it comes to ideas, it's more efficient to test ten bad ones than spend days trying to come up with something perfect." p.200
• "A culture of freedom and responsibility coupled with radical honesty." p.189
• The importance of focus.  "The Canada Principle":  Netflix could have gone into Canada at an early stage but didn't because the amount of work to do so could have been better used in focusing on developing the US market.
• Randolph being willing to step back from being CEO to become President to allow Reed Hastings (major founding investor) to run the firm. pp.169-182
• Meetings:
• Jeff Bezos "two pizza meetings" - if it takes more than two pizzas to feed a group of people working on a problem, then you have hired too many people." p.143
• Pitching
• "In a pitch, perfection isn't always the goal, projection is. You don't have to have all the answers if you appear to be the sort of person to whom they'll eventually come." p.150
• Belt-tightening:
• "Companies are like boats: sometimes you have to put them in dry dock to remove the barnacles that have accreted on the hull, slowing down forward progress." p.246

Turn the Ship Around! by L. David Marquet – Summary of key points:

Turn the Ship Around! is a leadership book based on the experience of Captain Marquet and his pioneering approach to running a US Navy submarine.

In it essence Marquet moved from the traditional top-down “Leader-Follower” model of leadership, to an empowered distributive “Leader-Leader” model.

Beyond the engaging narrative, the leadership take-aways can be categorised in three areas: control, competence and clarity

Control

• Marquet moved control to the senior leaders (officers), chiefs (middle leaders) and workers (the crew) – “Don’t move information to authority, move authority to the information.” (p.49) – “Identify decisions that are candidates for being pushed to the next lower level of the organisation.” (p.58)
• Language:  
• Shift from “Request permission to . . “/ “What should I do about . . . ?” 
• to “I intend to . . .” / “I plan on . . .” / “I will . . .”  (p.82-3)
• ‘The goal for the officers would be to give me a sufficiently complete report so that all I had to say was a simple approval . . .  it caused them to think at the next higher level.’(p.83)
• ‘As the level of control is divested, it becomes more and more important that the team be aligned with the goal of the organization.’ (p.88)
• You are responsible for your work
• Mechanisms for control
1. ‘Resist the urge to provide solutions.’ (p.92)
2. ‘Eliminating top-down monitoring systems.’(p.97)
3. ‘Specify goals not methods.’ (p.159)

Competence

•  ‘We rejected the inevitability of mistakes and came up with a way to reduce them.’ (p.117) (c.f. ‘Black Box thinking’)
• Mechanisms to strengthen technical competence:
1. ‘Take deliberate action’ (p.122) - don’t just do things on auto.
2. ‘We Learn (everywhere, all the time).’ (p.133)
3. ‘Don’t brief, certify.’ (p.140) – people switch off in briefings, ‘set read-ahead or think-ahead assignments’ and use meetings to check that everyone is engaged and on the same page.
4. ‘Continually and consistently repeat the message.’ (p.149)
5. ‘Specify goals not methods.’ (p.159)

Clarity

• ‘As more decision-making authority is pushed down the chain of command, it becomes increasingly important that the organisation understands what the organisation is about.’ (p.161)
• Mechanisms for clarity
1. ‘Build trust and take care of your people.’ (p.172)
2. ‘Use your legacy for inspiration.’ (p.176)
3. ‘Use guiding principles for decision criteria.’ (p.182)
4. Use immediate recognition to reinforce desired behaviours.’ (p.187)
5. ‘Begin with the end in mind’ (p.193)
6. ‘Encourage questioning over blind obedience.’ (p.200)
7. ‘Think out loud.’ (p.106)
8. ‘Specify goals not methods.’ (p.159) ‘by focusing on achieving excellence not avoiding errors.’

Other observations: 

·       On Inspection:  ‘ “inspection mentality” is a morale killer’ . . .  ‘If we were excellent and prepared, the drills and inspections would take care of themselves.’ (p.78-9)

·       On professional development: ‘We had no need of leadership development programs: the way we ran the ship was the leadership development program.’ (p.84)

·       On organisational aims: ‘focus on achieving excellence, not avoiding errors.’ (p.159)

Lead Yourself First - Inspiring Leadership through Solitude by Raymond Kethledge and Michael Erwin - Book Review

Summary of Key Points and Argument

Lead Yourself First has an important message: we need solitude if we are to be effective leaders. Solitude provides the space that allows leaders 

• to be analytical
• to be intuitive
• to be creative, and
• to find moral courage.

Most importantly solitude allows leaders time to develop the core principles or underlying values that ground one's leadership and serve as a source of strength and direction when times are tough. Times of solitude can be found in any number of ways: on a long walk or run; in a library; or through writing a journal or daily meditation. 

The approach of the book is summarised by Jim Collins in his Foreword (Click here to download a sample of the audio book.)

Today's leaders face greater pressures because of the "always-on" culture that comes with new technologies. This makes finding solitude all the more important.

"Society did not make a considered choice to surrender the bulk of its time for reflection in favour of time spent reading tweets or texts." (p.181)

The highlight of the book for me were the insights on leadership by Doug Contant, formerly  President and CEO of the Campbell Soup Group:

"Leaders need to work on personal leadership as well as organisational leadership." 

"Leadership is an inside-out process - you need to be fortified within before you can lead people around you." (p.131)

I particularly liked the idea that Contant spends 30 minutes each morning thinking about five things:

• My family
• My work
• My community
• My faith
• My personal well-being.

The authors suggest a number of important ways  to embrace solitude.

1. Reset expectations:  find the balance between accessibility and distance: try putting in the calendar "time to think" each day and "no-meeting days";
2. Find Space for solitude: get away from your computer and leave your phone behind.
3. Prepare for solitude: "percolate beforehand" identifying issues to consider in advance.
4. Prepare emotionally:  "Solitude brings one closer to the truth and sometimes the truth is discomforting."
5. Embrace hard thinking:  think about complex problems.
6. Identify your first principles and stay connected with them. Be an authentic leader.
7. Find a higher purpose for your leadership and share it with your followers.

Review

Overall, Lead Yourself First is a much needed reminder that leaders need to take time to reflect and ground themselves in order to do their job more effectively and in that sense it is a worthwhile read. The authors are at their best when they are analysing the issue and offering practical advice (as in the paragraph above).

However, where Lead Yourself First falls down is that the subject doesn't warrant a full book. As a consequence, the authors draw on numerous examples to illustrate its simple message. A further deficiency is that far too many of these are taken from military history (Eisenhower, TE Lawrence, General Mathis, Platoon Commander Katie Simonis, Lincoln, Hooker and Grant to mention a few). At times I felt I was reading the edited highlights of the West Point Reading List combined with the collected anecdotes from contacts made during the authors' military service. Often the length of the narrative (especially the detailed descriptions of battle scenarios) was often well out of proportion with the point that was being illustrated. In what felt like padding (and a deliberate counterblast to the military perspective) the book draws to a close with three extended historical examples of moral courage: Churchill, Martin Luther-King and Karol Woytyla (Pope John-Paul II), without much application to the book's themes.

Having said that, many of the examples were interesting in their own right - it was an unexpected pleasure to fill in some gaps in my knowledge of the US Civil War and of C20 History - but I did not think that the authors worked hard enough to draw out the lessons of their many examples to further their argument about leadership in a significant way. 

Leading Digital – Turning Technology into Business Transformation by Westmann, Bonnet and McAffee – Key Points

Leading Digital outlines how firms in any industry can harness digital technologies to gain strategic advantage. The book categorises four types of organisation according to their ‘level of digital mastery’ with the follow characteristics:

1. Beginners – an immature digital culture usually with a management sceptical of the business value of advanced technologies; 
2. Fashionistas – a digital culture which lacks an overarching vision; but has many advanced features which exist in silos. 
3. Conservatives – an overarching digital vision which is underdeveloped, but active steps are being taken to build digital skills and culture; there is strong digital governance across silos.
4. Digital Masters – a strong digital culture flowing from an overarching digital vision with excellent governance across silos; many digital initiatives generating measurable business value. Digital Masters combine digital capabilities and leadership capabilities to achieve performance that is greater than either dimension can deliver on its own. 

The book also has some very useful self-assessment tools:

• How well is your organisation building digital capabilities?
• How well is your organisation building leadership capabilities?

Structure of the Book

Part One: Digital Capability: the what of digital mastery 

• How firms engage with customers and how they can create a ‘compelling customer experience’. 
• How digital technologies can transform operational processes and ‘exploit the power of core processes’
• How digital technologies can produce and reinvent new business models. 

Part Two: Leadership Capabilities: the how of digital mastery

• How to create a ‘transformative digital vision’. 

Re-envisioning the customer experience

Re-envisioning operational processes

Combining both of these to re-envision business models 

• How to engage and energize employees to make the vision a reality. 
• How to put in place good ‘Digital Governance’ which will keep the transformation on the right track. o Standandise o Automate o Accelerate 
• How to develop ‘technology leadership capabilities’ to drive the transformation forward. 

Part Three: the Leader’s Playbook for Digital Transformation – concrete management guidance on how to get started. 

• How to frame the ‘Digital Challenge’
• How to focus investments
• How to mobilise the organisation 
• How to sustain the change. 

Some favourite quotes from the book: 

“The digital operations advantage is about more than great tools. It’s a combination of people, processes, and technology connected in a unique way to help you outperform you competitors.” p.69 

“Companies fall apart when their model is so successful that is stifles thinking that challenges it.” p.87 

“Leadership capabilities are essential to achieving true digital transformation, they turn digital investment into digital advantage.” p.95 

“When your technology leadership capabilities are weak, everything is a risky struggle. When they are strong, you can do great things.” p.171 

“Focussing investment is where the rubber meets the road in digital transformation.” p.189 

Some thoughts in response to the book

• Digital technologies have not brought cost savings in education because of increased compliance. 
• Digital transformation will not be possible in secondary schooling until it is liberated from the shackles of the (British) examination system. 
• So many schools have not imposed digital governance. Enthusiasts have been allowed to run off in all directions. There needs to be a balance between empowerment and anarchy.

Management Teams - Why they succeed or fail by Meredith Belbin - Key Points

Belbin is a name that has become synonymous with the profiling of teams and thus it is no surprise that Meredith Belbin's Management Teams - Why they succeed or fail has become a seminal text.  Here are a few key points:

Methodology: Belbin's conclusions were based initially on research in putting teams together for management exercises at Henley Management College in the 1970s and 1980s Teams were put together by the research team on the basis of a range of psychometric tests. These teams were then tested by their performance in business game simulations where success was measured in terms of the overall profit which the team generated in the course of the exercise. Having developed a theoretical model in the Henley test-bed, Belbin subsequently put his ideas in practice in a range of industries.

Team Roles: Belbin identifies key roles within teams.  These are usefully summarised by Belbin in a very useful summary sheet, a full size version of which appears at the end of this blogpost and which can be downloaded from Belbin's website here.

Summary of Conclusions
The contributing factors to Successful Teams were:

1. The attributes of the person in the Chair;
2. The Existence of a good 'Plant' (the creative, imaginative, free-thinking role);
3. A spread in mental abilities;
4. A spread in personal attributes laying the foundation for different Team Role capabilities;
5. A distribution in the responsibilities of members to match their different capabilities;
6. An adjustment to the realization of balance.

The contributing factors to Unsuccessful Teams were:

1. Characterised by an over-emphasis on a particular ability or Team Role;
2. Individuals took on a role that was not suited to their personalities;
3. When key roles were required,but never filled.

The role of Intelligence: Interestingly teams with very high intelligence (Belbin calls these 'Apollo Teams') were very rarely successful - so you 'can beat bright'; conversely teams where there was no one with high intelligence were almost always doomed to failure.

Team Leadership: Characteristics

1. The most effective team leaders were not the highest scorers in mental ability;
2. The most effective team leaders followed the 'Co-ordinator' profile (see team role sheet below)
3. 'Shapers' (a less calm, more driven Team Role profile) were successful at times;
4. Different leadership attributes were required to lead an 'Apollo team' of experts.

Personality Attributes of the Successful Chairmen (p.49-50)

1. A trusting nature;
2. A strong basic dominance (that to some extent counter-balanced their accepting nature)
3. A strong and morally based commitment to external goals and objectives;
4. Calm and Unflappable in face of controversy
5. Geared towards practical realism;
6. Possessed of a basic self-discipline;
7. Naturally enthusiastic;
8. Prone to detachment and distance in social relations.

Team Size:

1. The bigger the group, the greater the pressure to conformity;
2. Teams of 6 are often optimum

"A team of six could offer a broad range of technical skills and Team Roles so that a company could achieve, if its composition was favourable, a high degree of balance." p.113

Bill Walsh Lessons in Leadership Part Two: An example of what not to do

Whilst The Score Takes Care of Itself has some excellent insights for leaders, the Bill Walsh story is also a cautionary tale, for it highlights the pitfalls of "Hero Leadership".

Pitfall No.1:  Inability to Delegate

Bill Walsh had an excellent knowledge of his industry, he had served his apprenticeship with some of the best and had had opportunity to develop his leadership style as Head Coach at Stanford. He was a perfectionist and this was his fatal flaw. As Head Coach and General Manager he took overall control of the whole organisation both on and off the field. He knew everyone's job, he had defined everyone's job, he set the standards for everyone's job, and believed that he could do everyone's job better than them (which may have been true) but ultimately it led to him 'burning out'.

"Somehow in my mind I believed that I as the best qualified to do almost every job, especially when it came to the offensive part of our game, In one sense, it stemmed from confidence; I was absolutely sure that if I did the job it would not get screwed up. Well that can only take you so far. Pretty soon you're on overload while very talented people in the organization are being underultilized. 

There were others, too, on my staff who are able and willing to take on more responsibilities. They were willing; I was reluctant, even unwilling - unable is perhaps more accurate.

Well that kind of thinking can only take you so far. Eventually you are working seven days a week, sixteen hours a day, with little good sleep, eating poorly, and dealing with all kind of forces."  (p.212-3)

Leaders need to look after themselves and one of the ways they can do this is by putting trust in the talented team that they have around them.. They need to use the capacity gained to take time away from the nitty gritty of work. to be able to reflect and to develop time on the ball (see blogpost).

Pitfall No.2: Perfectionism - knowing when to let things go

Bill Walsh strove for perfection - he loved what he calls the "puzzle of perfection". His analysis of the team's performance in when they beat Miami 38-16 to win their second Super Bowl (XIX) is a case in point (p.190-92): Walsh describes this as a "the closest I've ever come to coaching a perfect game", yet Walsh continues "two events marred it for me to this very day" and proceeds to deliver a detailed post-mortem on the two imperfect plays of the game.

Here lies the paradox that makes great leaders: leaders necessarily focus on things that go wrong because these are the areas for improvement; but the leaders who are able to sustain high levels of leadership need to learn when to let things go. Bill Walsh didn't and he allowed his perfectionism and attention detail to shift from being a creative to a destructive force.

Pitfall No.3:  Allowing Winning to become "Not-failing" - The Challenge of Sustained Success

No one expected the San Francisco 49ers to win Super Bowl XVI, a year after they had had one of the worst records in the league. However, with success came raised expectations and this only increased further when the 49ers won Super Bowl XIX four years later. Fear of failure drove Walsh to the point where victory was not enough - it simply became a form of not-losing. Walsh's advice with the benefit of hindsight was:

Avoid the destructive temptation to define yourself as a person by the won-lost record, the "score," however you define it. Don't equate your "won-lost record" with your self-worth. (p.225-6)

Walsh cautions against a world where executives cannot celebrate success because they are immediately preparing to win the next battle.

Pitfall No.4: Not Managing Up" - Not managing Expectations

Part of Walsh's problem in his latter years is that he did not "manage up" well. He allowed the owner of the club to have unrealistic expectations and set unrealistic, and ultimately unachievable, targets (a Super Bowl every year).  This was a major contributory factor to his burn out and early retirement.

The section where Walsh talks about the relationship with his owner (p.220-21) chimed with me. Throughout my 14 years of school leadership in the UK the most debilitating part of the job was managing expectations of Governors. In particular, there was always a constituency on the Board who, within minutes of my announcing record results for the nth consecutive year, shifted from momentary praise to laying out their expectations for even better results the following year. 

Over the years, I have realized that an important part of the role of a leader is to manage the expectations of key stakeholders (particularly, parents and Governors), Most of all, I have come to understand that I have a responsibility both to the staff, to the senior team, to the organisation and to myself to protect ourselves from short-term demands from Governors. Burnt out school leaders and staff do not bring about sustained school improvement - School Board members around the world and the British Government take note.

Bill Walsh Lessons in Leadership Part One: An example of how to transform an organisation

Bill Walsh was the coach who turned around the San Francisco 49ers taking them from the bottom of the pile to being a team that won five Super Bowl titles in 15 years. His book The Score Takes Care of Itself - My Philosophy of Leadership is packed full of insights about how to lead and manage people and how to drive change in an organisation:

"Running a football franchise is not unlike running any other business. You start first with a structural format and basic philosophy and then find the people who can implement it."  (Frontispiece)

There is not sufficient space here to do justice to all the many insights in contained in the book, so I will endeavour to give a flavour here.

Standard of Performance
At the heart of Bill Walsh's approach is the Standard of Performance - i.e. the high requirements that he had for actions and attitudes. These applied not only to the players but to every person within the organisation (he was both Head Coach and General Manager). Everyone knew how they contributed to the aim of the organisation and what what was expected of them. 

These are the characteristics of his personal Standard of Performance:

1. Exhibit a ferocious and intelligently applied work ethic directed at continual improvement;
2. Demonstrate respect for each person in the organisation and the work he or she does;
3. Be deeply committed to learning and teaching, which means increasing my own expertise;
4. Be fair
5. Demonstrate character;
6. Honor the direct connection between details and improvement;
7. Show self-control, especially where it counts most - under pressure;
8. Demonstrate and prize loyalty;
9. Use positive language and have a positive attitude;
10. Take pride in my effort as entity separate from the result of that effort;
11. Be willing to go the extra distance for the organisation;
12. Deal appropriately with victory and defeat, adulation and humiliation;
13. Promote internal communication that is both open and substantive (especially under stress);
14. Seek poise in myself and those I lead;
15. Put the team's welfare and priorities ahead of my own;
16. Maintain an ongoing level of concentration and focus that is abnormally high; and
17. Make sacrifice and commitment the organisation's trademark.

Bill Walsh was a man who liked lists ("Great organisation is the trademark of great organisations" p.85) and the book contains many useful lists of advice. Here's one for Leaders:

Be a Leader - Twelve Habits Plus One

1. Be yourself
2. Be committed to excellence
3. Be positive
4. Be prepared (Good luck is the product of good planning)
5. Be detail-oriented (but don't bury yourself in the detail)
6. Be organized
7. Be accountable
8. Be near-sighted and far-sighted (keep everything in perspective)
9. Be fair
10. Be firm
11. Be flexible
12. Believe in yourself
13. Be a leader

"A self-sustaining winning organisation"
Walsh's leadership aim was to produce "a self-sustaining winning organisation" where "everyone is able to execute their responsibilities in all ways at the highest level" (p.229), even under extreme pressure. This was illustrated in the final play of the final game that Bill Walsh ever coached. In the Super Bowl XXIII,  San Francisco 49ers were trailing 13-16 when they got possession of the ball on their own 8 yard line with only 3:08 left on the clock. What followed became legendary in NFL history: The 92 yard "Drive" to win the Super Bowl with seconds to spare:

"The Drive" was in many ways a culmination of all that Bill Walsh stood for. It was the product of hours of training, preparation, excellent strategy and meticulous planning and, executed in the cauldron of the final seconds of a Super Bowl. San Francisco went on to win Super Bowl XXIV the following year - evidence, if any were needed, that Bill Walsh had indeed produced "a self-sustaining winning organisation".

This is a book that is already heavily annotated and one to which I know that I will return, time and time again. I cannot recommend it more highly.

There is a negative side to the Bill Walsh story, which I will discuss in Part Two of this review.

The key to Leadership is having time on the ball

Any soccer fan will testify that a world class footballer in his pomp is a delight to behold. The likes of Pele, Ronaldo, Messi and David Beckham look as if they have all the time in the world to weigh up their next move, pass or shoot. They evaluate the field of play in an instant, consider their options and select from their fully honed repertoire precisely how they are going to optimise the impact of what they choose to do next. These people give confidence to the players around them, they create opportunities, they draw pressure away from others and they dictate how the game is going to be played. They are masters of their craft - they are in control. So what is it that that makes these players so special? One factor is that they have "time on the ball".

These principles also apply to leaders and to the organisations that they run. Inspirational leaders, too, have "time on the ball". They are able to take the pressure, give confidence to those around them, create opportunities for their team, and read and control the game. These are leadership qualities to which we should aspire.

Pele, Ronaldo, Messi, Beckham et al are not always in the thick of the action - often unseen, they work hard off the ball, never shirk the crucial tackle when it matters, but never forget that their true role is to run the game and create space for others.

Great leaders have time for people at every level of their organisation. Realising that their staff are the most valuable resource, they give of their time - they make people feel special and valued. They have "time on the ball". "Time on the ball" comes from a clear vision and a confidence in dealing with the challenge ahead.

But this does not just apply to leaders, it can apply to leadership teams, indeed to everyone in an organisation. Like the great Brazilian World Cup winning side of 1970, organisations, too, can have "time on the ball". "Time on the ball" allows the team to achieve reach its goal. Enjoy!

Accelerate XLR8 - John Kotter - Book Review

In his latest book, Harvard Business School Professor, John Kotter, argues that established hierarchical managerial structures do not provide the agility for organisations to respond sufficiently quickly to take advantages of the narrow windows of opportunity that present themselves. Kotter's solution is that firms should re-organise themselves to be able to cope with the demands of an increasingly changing world. In particular, firms should augment their their hierarchical structures with a network comprised of volunteers drawn from a range of levels and divisions within the organisation. Thus the firm would have a dual-operating system with the hierarchical structure providing day-to-day reliable management and the network providing agile strategic leadership. Kotter believes that this structure existed in most firms at a much earlier stage of their evolution.

The following YouTube clip provides an excellent summary of the Kotter's main arguments:

At the heart of Kotter's argument is the concept of the "Big Opportunity":

A Big Opportunity is something that can potentially lead to significant outcomes if the possibility is exploited well enough and fast enough.  . . .  A Big Opportunity is not a "vision" . . .
A Big Opportunity is also not any form of "strategy" or "strategic initiative."  pp.133-36

In order to make the shift to a dual-operating system Kotter believes that it is necessary to develop and maintain "a strong sense of urgency".  (Here there is an echo of Kotter's previous work on Leading Change - see review of Our Iceberg is Melting.)

Urgency in the sense that I am using the word here, means that significant numbers of people wake up each morning and have, somewhere in their heads and hearts, a compelling desire to do something to move the organisation towards a big strategic opportunity.  p.112 

This was a very thought-provoking read and the advantages of the dual-operating structure are clear. It was easy to see what "B" looks like, but the practicalities of how to make the transition from an established hierarchical structure to a dual-operating system were less clear. Kotter endeavours to share his experiences of working with a number of firms who have successfully moved to this model; however, I found that the case studies given in the book are so generalised that I was left wanting more detail about how each organisation had managed to make what is undoubtedly a difficult step towards the new structure.

Links
http://www.kotterinternational.com/our-principles/accelerate

Our Iceberg is Melting by John Kotter - Book Review

Fables have a deceptive power. On the surface they read like the stories of our childhood employing simple vocabulary to describe everyday contexts to which we can all relate. Their narrative structure lulls our adult brain into a false sense of security, disabling the rational analytical faculties that usually protect our cherished world view. We uncritically play along with the story until we reach the point where the fable's inner truth is unavoidable. So it is with John Kotter's Our Iceberg is Melting.

Our Iceberg is Melting presents as a children's book: it is in large print with colourful illustrations - a six year old probably would enjoy it, if he had the patience to sit for the 45 minutes it takes to read. It is the story of an Emperor Penguin colony faced with a potentially devastating problem that is threatening their home. Fred, a low-ranking quirky penguin discovers that the iceberg on which the colony has lived for unknown generations is melting and is likely to fracture. The story charts how a small group lead the colony through the process of coming up with a solution and effecting their plan.

As well written as it is, Kotter is no children's author. A Harvard Business School professor, he is one of the world's experts and best-selling author on leadership and change. "Our Iceberg is Melting is a simple fable about doing well in an ever-changing world" and the characters that we meet in Our Iceberg is Melting are 'types' that are found in every organisation. The tale "is one of resistance to change and heroic action, seemingly intractable obstacles and the most clever tactics for dealing with those obstacles" (quotes from dust jacket).

Our Iceberg is Melting is a powerful illustration of Kotter's Eight Step Process of Successful Change outlined in his book Leading Change:

1. Create a sense of urgency. Help others see the need for change and the importance of acting immediately. 
2. Pull together the guiding team. Make sure there is a powerful group guiding the change - one with leadership skills, credibility, communications ability, authority, analytical skills, and a sense of urgency.
3. Develop the change, vision and strategy. Clarify how the future will be different from the past, and how you can make that future a reality. 
4. Make sure as many others as possible understand and accept the vision and strategy.
5. Empower others to act. Remove as many barriers as possible so that those who want to make the vision a reality can do so. 
6. Create some visible, unambiguous successes as soon as possible. 
7. Don't let up. Press harder and faster after the first successes. Be relentless with initiating change after change until the vision is a reality. 
8. Create a new culture. Hold on to the new ways of behaving, and make sure they succeed, until they become strong enough to replace old traditions.

How Headteachers can use Twitter for Continuing Professional Development

Presentation given at the HMC Conference in London on Wednesday 2nd October, 2013.

What School Sport teaches young people (especially girls).

The Value of School Sport

Independent Schools devote a significant proportion of the curriculum to sport; indeed, here at Berkhamsted pupils spend more time at Key Stage 3 each week playing games than they do learning mathematics. We do this because we believe that sport has true educational value. 

Hilary Levey Friedman, in her book Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture, identifies five ways in which sport develops important transferable skills:

1. Sport internalizes the importance of winning;
2. Sport helps young people to learn how to bounce back from a loss to win in the future;
3. Sport teaches the importance of performing within time limits;
4. Sport helps young people to learn how to succeed in stressful situations;
5. Sport teaches the importance of being able to perform under the gaze of others.

Girls, Sport, Success, Self-esteem and Body Image

A study by the Women's Sports Foundation (in the USA) found that:

1. High school girls who play sports are more likely to get better grades in school and more likely to graduate than girls who do not play sports. 
2. Girls and women who play sports have higher levels of confidence and self-esteem and lower levels of depression. 
3. Girls and women who play sports have a more positive body image and experience higher states of psychological well-being than girls and women who do not play sports. 

Girls, Sport and later Business Success

A survey of top women business executives published by the Oppenheimer Foundation in February 2013 discovered that 81% of top women business executives played organized team sports growing up.

When asked how playing team sport contributed to their business, they commented that,

1. Sport developed leadership skills, 
2. Sported engendered greater discipline, 
3. Sport developed the ability to function as part of a team

A final thought . . . 
One of the most important aspects of School Sport is the camaraderie that it brings. When Old Boys and Old Girls come back to school more often than not they end up reminiscing about their sporting triumphs. It was a great privilege a forthnight ago to sit between two 95 year-old Berkhamstedians at a special lunch. It was not long before they were talking about their days in the First XV - one played Full-back and the other Lock - and that was some 77 years ago, but just like yesterday to them!

References and Further Reading:

• Hilary Levey Friedman, Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture (September 2013)
• Hilary Levey Friedman, 'Do Your Kids Need More Competitive Capital?'  Harvard Business Review Blog 03/09/2013
• 'Benefits - Why Sports Participation for Girls and Women' Womens Sports Foundation
• 'Successful Women Business Executives Don't Just Talk a Good Game... They Play(ed) One'  Oppenheimer Foundation Report: (February 2013)

Leading Staff and Parents through Change

A presentation given to Headteachers at the Independent Schools Association Annual Conference in Eastbourne on Friday 17th May 2013.

 

Multipliers - How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter - Book Review

Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown's Multipliers is perhaps the most influential book on leadership that I have read. I came across it in June last year and, according to my Amazon account, to date, I have bought 18 copies for my senior leadership team and other colleagues!

In essence, Multipliers is an eloquent case for a "distributive" approach to leadership, which empowers everyone in the organisation to take responsibility (and, to some extent, risks).  Multipliers divides leaders broadly into two camps: Diminishers, who "drain intelligence, energy, and capability from the ones around them and always need to be the smartest ones in the room"; and Multipliers who "use their intelligence to amplify the smarts and capabilities of the people around them." A Multiplier is the antithesis of being a "control-freak".

"A leader is someone who helps others to lead." (p.167)

Multipliers develop people, they look to their team/organisation to solve problems, and they attract talent to the organisation. Multipliers is packed full of practical strategies to bring out the best in the team and is illustrated with examples from a range of industries. There is nothing particularly new about these concepts - indeed it was the basis of Jan Carlzon's turn around of SAS in the 1980s - see previous blogpost - but Multipliers is well researched and clearly argued. 

Wiseman and McKeown have identified five skills and practices that can be learned that distinguish Multipliers from Diminishers:

1. The Talent Magnet - attracts talented people and uses them at their highest point of contribution
2. The Liberator - creates an intense environment that requires people's best thinking and work
3. The Challenger - defines an opportunity that causes people to stretch
4. The Debate Maker - drives sound decisions through rigorous debate
5. The Investor - gives other people the ownership for results and invests in their success.

This is a book that makes you reflect on your leadership style and context. I found myself writing extensive ideas and questions in the back of my copy which became the basis of a major review of how we do things here at Berkhamsted.
One of the parts of the book that I liked the most was the concept of the "autonomous organisation" (p.181) and that one of the roles of the Leader is to foster a maturity that allows that an organisation to grow, respond, to develop and change without being dependent on one person or an inner sanctum.

The one significant weaknesses of the book for me was that it doesn't really address the issue of under-performance. What if people in the organisation don't want to be empowered, or are unwilling to take responsibility? The book recognises the need at times of "removing blockers" (p.52-56) and "pulling weeds" (p.62), but, apart from the need for removing prima donnas, it doesn't develop the circumstances in which this might happen.

One of the most valuable aspects here is that the Multipliers project has developed beyond the book. There is a Multipliers network on LinkedIn which provides a platform to share ideas, and there are some excellent resources (for example The Accidental Diminisher Quiz and The Multipliers 30-day Challenge) to help you develop as a Multiplier leader. There is also an education version of Multipliers to be published in March 2013 under the title, The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools.

Links and Resources

• Multipliers on sale at Amazon UK
• The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools on sale at Amazon UK
• http://www.multipliersbook.com
• http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Multipliers-Leadership-Network-4215807
• The Accidental Diminisher Quiz
• The Multipliers 30-day Challenge

Multipliers: Executive Perspectives Survey

The Wiseman group, the group responsible for publishing Multipliers, is conducting some research for an article and workshop about “how to work with executives.” 

The questions are a useful component in any Executive and Organisational self-appraisal:

1. As an executive, what types of issues naturally make it onto your radar screen? 
2. What's the hardest thing about working in an executive role? 
3. How do you decide how to allocate your time? 
4. What causes you to take a meeting with someone? (i.e., what kind of people do you, as the English say, "have a lot of time for?") 
5. What are the characteristics of people whose advice you really value? 
6. Other than position or power, why are some people more influential with executives than others? 
7. What would make you say, "This is the best internal partner / collaborator I've ever had in my career? 
8. What earns trust with you? What Loses Trust? What does it take for someone to rebuild trust?

If you would like to contribute to the Executive Perspectives Survey go to:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TJHGR7F 

Moments of Truth - Jan Carlzon. Book Review

If you think that Richard Branson had the first and last word on lessons for leadership and management from the airline industry, then think again.

Moments of Truth summarises the strategies employed by Jan Carlzon (CEO and President) that led to the dramatic turnaround of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) during the early 1980s. The key to Carlzon's success was that he and his team had a clear vision for SAS (that it would be "the best airline for the frequent business traveller" p.23) and that he was able to communicate this to the whole organisation. Carlzon transformed SAS by doing away with the traditional hierarchical management structure, flattening the pyramid to empower key personnel on the ground to make decisions so they can provide excellent customer service. The result was that "people throughout the company were able to see (the vision of top management) and take the initiative to put the pieces where they belonged." (p.26). The result was that Carlzon was able to shift SAS to become a customer-driven organisation that not only moved from loss to profit, but also became one of the best airlines in the world. The title "moments of truth" refers to those few key encounters between customers and key employees on the ground, on the basis of which the reputation of the whole organisation is judged (check-in assistants, air hostesses, baggage handlers etc). 

Carlzon's approach challenged traditional approaches to leadership and management: 

"By defining clear goals and strategies and then communicating them to his employees and training them to take responsibility for reaching those goals, the leader can create a secure working environment that fosters flexibility and innovation. Thus, the new leader is a listener, communicator, and an educator - an emotionally expressive and inspiring person who can create the right atmosphere rather than make all the decisions himself" (p.35-6). 

Although Moments of Truth was published 25 years ago, this book has stood the test of time and is an excellent and honest account of how one man transformed an organisation by harnessing its collective wisdom. The leadership and management principles that he employs have been picked up in books like Liz Wiseman's Multipliers and have a greater relevance and currency today.

Switch - Book Review

Switch by Chip and Dan Heath sets out to explore how to manage change in both personal and professional contexts.

It is another one of those pop-management books in the style of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink and Tipping Point. Like Gladwell, the Heaths have a very simple concept which they illustrate drawing on real-life examples from a range of situations.

According to Switch there are three aspects to managing change. Throughout the authors use the analogy of riding an elephant to illustrate the difficulty of managing change: the rider can decide on a new direction but if the elephant doesn't want to go that way there is little that the rider can do. The key is making it easy for elephant to go in the direction that the rider wants it to go.

1. Direct the Rider (getting your head around change):

• Follow the Bright Spots (find what's working in the organisation and clone it)
• Script the Critical Moves (think in terms of small, simple, understandable, specific changes)
• Point to the Destination (change is easier if everyone knows where they are going)

2. Motivate the Elephant (getting your heart around change):

• Find the Feeling (make people in the organisation feel something
• Shrink the Change (break down the change into manageable chunks)
• Grow your People (create a sense of identity/community)

3. Shape the Path (making the direction of change easier):

• Tweak the Environment (when the situation changes, behaviour changes)
• Build Habits (look for ways to build good habits - make good behaviour habitual)
• Rally the Herd (behaviour is contagious - help it spread)

Switch illustrates each of these nine areas with inspirational examples.

The section on "fixed" and "growth" mindsets (pp.163-168) summarising the work of Carol Dweck of Stamford University (Mindset) is excellent and has significant implications for education.

Dweck distinguishes between two types of mindset:

• People who have a "fixed mindset" believe that their abilities are basically static.
• People who have a "growth mindset" believe that their abilities are like muscles - they can be built up with practice.

Dweck's research demonstrated that two hours of training in how to think about intelligence made students demonstrably better a Maths. Dweck proved that the growth mindset can be taught and that it can change lives.

Overall this is an easy read. Like many books of its kind, it works a very simple concept to the limit and could have got the its message across in 20 pages, but there are some fun lines ("It is like tossing a fire extinguisher to someone who is drowning. The solution doesn't match the problem" p107) and lots of interesting anecdotes.

Drive by Daniel H Pink - Book Review

Daniel H Pink's Drive is a study of what motivates people and its conclusions are as relevant for individuals as they are for organisations.

The essence of Pink's argument is that the secret to achieving high performance in the work place is to shift from "Extrinsic" reward-based motivators, such as bonuses; to "Intrinsic" motivators, such as having greater autonomy, having the opportunity to master what we do, and having a sense of a (higher) purpose.

The book is divided into three sections.

1. The first engages with the body of research on what motivation, which indicates that traditional motivational techniques of carrots and sticks ("Motivation 2.0") are flawed. Indeed, he argues that (extrinsic - "Type X") bonus cultures when applied in the wrong context can have the opposite to the desired effect, causing a short-term approach that can encourage unethical behaviour and addiction to the next reward. Instead, the key is to motivation are intrinsic ("Type I") rewards:
2. The second expands on the three pillars of an intrinsic motivational culture ("Motivation 3.0): Autonomy (over Task, over Time, over Technique, over Team), Mastery (is a Mindset, is Pain, is an Asymptote) and Purpose (words - policies - goals).
3. The third section provides a handy summary in the form of a "Type I Toolkit" of how these principles for individuals, organisations, parents and educators.

Drive is an excellent book and I thoroughly recommend it to all who aspire to lead teams or organisations.

The ideas that underpin Drive have important implications for education. I will discuss these in subsequent blogposts in the coming weeks.

Reflections on Leadership at National College

The National College of School Leadership Conference in Birmingham was a truly inspirational event. It explored the qualities and values of leadership teams from a number of angles. One of the highlights was Frances Edmonds' talk which combined deep insights into the challenges of leadership with stand-up comedy.

Frances Edmonds: "Say what you are going to do - do what you said you are going to say. DELIVER."

• D - Discipline
• E - Enthusiasm
• L - Listening
• I - Innovation
• V - Values
• E - Empathy
• R - Risk-taking
  

Three Hs of good leadership

• Humility
• Humanity
• Humour
  

Great Quotes:

“Success is the ability to move from one failure to another without losing enthusiasm.” [Winston Churchill]

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or when the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worth cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat." [Theodore Roosevelt]

Further reading
Frances Edmonds Winning the Game of Life

Leadership and Change Management

A great presentation on Leadership and Change Management, comprising a lot of useful quotations and ideas - click here