The moment you can't ignore

By Malachi O'Connor

Subjects: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Management, Organizational change, Corporate culture, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Workplace Culture, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Decision-Making & Problem Solving, Organizational behavior, Leadership

Description: "Culture is the key to the 21st century organization--not simply because it affects how we think and behave, but because it's the set of agreements and behaviors that drive how we act in groups and the decisions we collectively make. When a traditional structure can morph into a culturally-attuned and culturally-aligned organization, it can become superconducting: everything works better, more smoothly, faster. Malachi O'Connor and Barry Dornfeld show how to ask the big questions that point the way to renewing a culture: Who are we? What do we stand for, and what's the connection between our identity and the strategic commitments we make?" When people in a company are uncertain of its identity, they have a hard time executing on any strategy with real passion or commitment. Who's in charge? In many organizations it's unclear who's in charge of any given initiative at any given time. The person with the title may need to cede authority to the person with greater expertise. Or the maverick leader of an innovative project team may actually have more sway than the boss. When people don't know how to determine who's in charge, or when and how to shift authority from one person to another, the uncertainty can be paralyzing. How do I lead? Senior leaders may have positional and formal authority, but find they have a difficult time attracting followers. To get people on board with their ideas and initiatives, they can no longer simply order people to follow them. Even leaders in traditional command-and-control hierarchies sense they have to move to a different leadership style, but can't fully adjust to a world of command and collaboration. What's our future?"--