More than 30 senior delegates from various industries attended the first of our Strategic Leadership Conversations sessions at The Venue at Melrose Arch on 23rd August 2010. JvR brought these delegates together with international guest speakers from the Center for Creative Leadership and the Association of Internal Management Consultants as well as local leaders. The programme, outlined below, was very well received by the delegates and we will seek to create similar opportunities for leadership conversations in the future.
Conversations about leadership
We were fortunate to have Simon Rweyongoza and Michaël van Impe from the Europe, Middle East and Africa offices of the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) start off the day with an interactive session on the gap that participants perceive between the current state of leadership in South Africa and an ideal future state. The findings from this session will be made available in future and we will be hosting sessions to work on how these leadership gaps may be bridged.
In their worldwide research on the leadership gap, CCL identified seven leadership skills that are consistently viewed as most important now and in the future. They are:
• leading employees
• strategic planning
• inspiring commitment
• managing change,
• resourcefulness
• being a quick learner
• doing whatever it takes
CCL’s research found that leaders are not adequately prepared for the future. The four most important future skills — leading people, strategic planning, inspiring commitment, and managing change — are among the weakest competencies for today’s leaders. Watch this space for more on this topic.
Leading an organizational turnaround
Dr Brian Chicksen, Vice-President of Safety at AngloGold Ashanti presented his experience of having led a healthcare company through a dramatic turnaround under difficult circumstances. Brian presented “The Anatomy and Physiology of an Organisational Turnaround”. As the then Managing Director of the company, Brian (a Physician and business Executive) took up the helm after the company had been subject to a forensic audit and he was under significant pressure from the shareholders to turn the company around. Brian shared his intimate knowledge of the process in a unique way, blending theory and practice to highlight his views on the relative contribution of different approaches, methods and tools to the success of the turnaround process.
The following points summarise the essence of the learning extracted from Brian’s case study presentation:
• The make-up of an organization (individual, team, collection of teams) is analogous to the living organism (cell, organ system, collection of organ systems)
• The “what” of organizational transformation (or anatomical factors) is specific to a particular context and includes factors such as strategic positioning, strategy mapping, building core competencies, organizational structuring and building flexibility
• The “how” (the physiological factors) is generic to any turnaround program – this includes factors such as Kotter’s 8-step model of change – creating a sense of urgency, a guiding coalition, creating a vision, communicating the vision, empowering others to act on the vision, create short-term wins, consolidate improvements and institutionalize the new state.
Brian researched the extent to which various stakeholder groupings regarded each of the anatomical and physiological factors as having contributed to the successful turnaround of the organization. He concluded that both anatomical and physiological factors are critical to transformation, similar to the concepts of:
o structure without function is lifeless
o without form there can be no function
International knowledge base
Dave Hoff and Robert Kath from the US-based Association of Internal Management Consultants (AIMC) provided an overview of their organization. The AIMC is a network of managers in organisations and external consultants representing leading organizations in the public and private sectors with representation in the US, Europe and Asia. Practice areas include:
• organisational effectiveness and development
• project and change management
• process and operational improvement
• management training and development
• strategic planning
• performance management
The AIMC allows for international networking through the regular exchange of practice allowing for professional reflection, learning and mutual support. Some of the organizations represented on the AIMC are Chevron, SAP, SMC, Bayer, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, ORC, Guttman Development Strategies, the United Nations, Gaian, Carghill Inc, Model Performance, Mayo Clinic, Easi Consult, ExxonMobil, Eli Lilly, Mutual of Omaha, Alticor and Becton Dickinson.
JvR Consulting Psychologists hosted the first meeting of the AIMC in Africa and, given the interest expressed by delegates, have decided to move forward with the South Africa Chapter. The next meeting of the SA Chapter will be on Friday, 5 November 2010 at the JvR offices in Randburg. We are in the process of compiling an agenda based on the recommendations of participants.
If you would like to know more about the AIMC and / or would like to attend the next meeting / suggest a topic to be presented / make a presentation at this event, please feel free to contact Leigh Wallace or Grant Freedman at JvR.
JvR Consulting Psychologists is a firm of professionals who deliver evidence-based solutions in specific areas, including Psychological Assessment, Skills Development and Process Consultation. We help organisations, teams and individuals to navigate complexity and ambiguity, to manage themselves effectively and efficiently, and to foster constructive relationships with others. [JvR Consultin Psychologists]
Related posts:
