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QuiDeep 01-04-43 |
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Deep Change Discovering
the Leader Within Robert
E. Quinn Jossey-Bass, 1996, 235 pp. ISBN 0-7879-0244-6 |
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Quinn is a management
consultant and professor at the University of Michigan Management School of
Business. He majors on leadership,
vision, and change. This book explores
the process of “transformation,” or “deep change,” and the development of
“internally driven leadership.” It is
divided into four parts: the necessity for change, undertaking personal
change, changing the organization, and a summary section discussing vision,
risk, excellence and related concepts.
There is much to be gained from this book. Each chapter has a series of excellent
questions for reflection and discussion “In the end, excellence is
infectious.” Xii “We must continually choose
between deep change or slow death.” Xiii “Incremental change is
usually the result of a rational analysis and planning process.” “…it is an extension of the past. …we are in control.” “Deep change…is change that is major in
scope, discontinuous with the past and generally irreversible. The deep change effort distorts existing
patterns of action and involves taking risks.
Deep change means surrendering control.” “This is usually a terrifying choice, often
involving a ‘dark night of the soul.’”
(3) “Organization and change
are not complementary concepts. To
organize is to systematize, to make behavior predictable.” An “organization” is characterized by
predictable behavior. “The process of
formalization makes the organization more efficient or effective. As time goes on, however, these routine
patterns move the organization toward decay and stagnation.” (5) “When internal [what the
organization is like] and external [what the world is like] alignment is
lost, the organization faces a choice: either adapt or take the road to slow
death.” (5) “To make deep personal
change is to develop a new paradigm, a new self, one that is more effectively
aligned with today’s realities.” “In
doing so, we learn the paradoxical lesson that we can change the world only by
changing ourselves.” (9) “Excellence…never lies
within the boxes drawn in the past.”
(11) “Each of us has the
potential to change the world. Because
the price of change is so high, we seldom take on the challenge.” (11) “We keep very busy because
it’s a kind of opium. We don’t know
how to confront the deep change process, so we keep ourselves busy with the
normal stuff and try not to notice what’s really happening.” (17)
“The tendency to choose slow death exists in everyone’s life.” If I am not continually growing, I am
slowly dying. Life is a continuous
process of deaths and rebirths. (24-5) “In today’s
organizations many people are dying, not physically, but
psychologically.” (26) Leaders often fail to see
the incongruity of asking for change in others while failing to exhibit the
same level of commitment in themselves. (32) “Most new programs to
initiate change in organizations fail.
Once a change effort fails, the effort tends to be ignored. “I have seldom heard anyone say, ‘The change
didn’t happen because I failed to model the change process for
everyone.’ One key to successful
leadership is continuous personal change.
Personal change is a reflection of our inner growth and
empowerment.” And it is incredibly
powerful. Personal change requires
discipline to take an unusual perspective, an unnatural thing. We resist reflecting on our own fear of
change, but we must confront it.”(34-7) “We are energized when we
are learning and progressing, and we begin psychologically to die when we
allow ourselves to stagnate.”
“Relationships often play a key role.”
(42) “Most of us have very high
expectations of our leaders, and we are easily and quickly disillusioned by
their failure to meet our expectations.
We seldom, however, hold the same expectations for ourselves.” (44) “Denial occurs when we are
presented with painful information about ourselves, information that suggests
that we need to make a deep change.”
“When we practice denial, we work on the wrong solutions or on no
solutions at all. The problem grows
worse as we become discouraged, and our vitality level declines.” (52) The “tyranny of the
in-basket”: We have so much to do that
we don’t do the hard work of thinking, of maintaining, of making sure we are
doing the right things. (60) Past successes have etched
a map, script, paradigm, or myth into our brain which affects how we process
information. When we use the old maps
in new territory, strange and frustrating things happen. Our maps and the external world get out of
synch. We must redesign our maps and
realign ourselves with our environment.
“We reinvent ourselves by changing our perspective.” (65-6) One way is by retelling the
important stories in our life from the perspective of our current situation,
telling them in unique ways that reconnect our past foundation with our
present and future realities.
(67) “Our lives are always full
of significant things about which we are unaware. Gaining an appreciation of these things can
radically alter how we see the world and how we behave.” (70) “To thwart our defense
mechanisms and bypass slow death, we must confront first our own hypocrisy
and cowardice. We must recognize the
lies we have been telling ourselves.
We must acknowledge our own weakness, greed, insensitivity, and lack
of vision and courage. If we do so, we
begin to understand the clear need for a course correction, and we slowly
begin to reinvent our self.” (78) “The path of change is
often tortuous, with no clearly defined structure for determining if our
action is right or wrong.” “When we
have a vision, it does not necessarily mean that we have a plan. We must trust in ourselves to learn the
way, to build the bridge as we walk on it.”
(83-4) “When one discovers what is
right and begins to pursue it, the necessary people and resources tend to
turn up.” “The fact that we have
enough trust and belief in ourselves to pursue our vision is what signals to
others that the vision is worth investing in.” “However, it is usually our actions, not
our words, that send the message.” “Acting on a vision that exceeds our
resources is a test of our vision, faith, and integrity.” When present resources determine the
future, we have a plan, not a vision.
A vision leads toward a plan that exceeds present resources. (85)
“Deep change throughout a
system means sacrifice and suffering for everyone. It also means engaging in real
conflict. It is not very
pleasant.” (95) “Organizations are
coalitional. The dominant coalition in
an organization is seldom interested in making deep change. Hence deep change is often, but not always,
driven from the outside.” (96) Organizational cultures are
malleable but difficult to deal with.
When a rational strategy conflicts with existing implicit rules,
little change occurs. (100) We can tear down all the hierarchies, but
we continue to navigate by the same old map; the old governing rules are
still in place. If the real, deep
structure does not change, even downsizing is only a short-term financial
fix. It does not address the real
problem. (102) The real problem is often inside ourselves. Deep change requires an evaluation of the
ideologies behind the organizational culture.
We must first alter our own maps.
(103) For transformational
leaders, the vision is more important than personal survival. Their credibility is their behavioral
integrity, the alignment of every action with the vision. People watch their leaders and quickly
recognize the leader’s personal discipline and commitment. If the leader’s words are empty, they
ignore the vision until it dies. (125) “The transformational
paradigm transcends the rational planning process. It is concerned with deep change – with
exploring new areas, trying new methodologies, and reaching new goals. The means to the desired end cannot be
specified; they can only be learned as part of a risky, action-learning
process.” (125) “Visionaries are internally
driven leaders.” (127) “Empowerment is not granted
by the organization. People must
empower themselves.” (137) Middle
managers have to fight the system above and below, take risks, and break
rules to enact transformational change.
By definition, transformation requires rule breaking. By definition excellence is deviant
behavior! Three barriers to
middle-management initiatives: (136) ü Bureaucratic culture ü Embedded conflict ü Personal time constraints “Unfortunately, risk taking
sometimes has a negative outcome.”
(138) [Everyone knows this but authors rarely mention it! dlm] “The most potent lever for
change is modeling the change process for other individuals.” (148)
“CEOs are expected to play
four general competing roles: vision setter, motivator, analyzer, and
taskmaster. Top managers must attend
to the need for people, for innovation, for efficiency, and for
performance. Some of these roles or
expectations compete with one another. The transformational role focuses on
vision and motivating. The
transactional role focuses on efficiency and performance. (148-9) Highest levels of performance are
achieved by CEOs who frequently engage in all four competing roles. (150) Today’s rules and
procedures often represent solutions to yesterday’s problems. (156) “Every couple of years, you
need to bet your job, or else you are not doing your job.” “You have to pick the issues that really
matter.” (158) Definition: A team is “an enthusiastic set of competent
people who have clearly defined roles, associated in a common activity,
working cohesively in trusting relationships, and exercising personal
discipline and making individual sacrifices for the good of the team.” (161)
“It does not take long for members of an organization to figure out
when there is little cohesion within the top ‘team.’” (162) Deep change is not about
checklists or recipes. “This is about
figuring out where you are and where you need to go and then launching an
effort to get there. It’s about
learning.” (166) The transformational cycle
has four distinct phases: “initiation, uncertainty, transformation, and routinization.
Excellence is something that happens as part of this cycle.” (167) “First, the person or group
develops a vision and then begins to take risks. At the outset, it is often impossible to
know if the vision is illusory or sound.
A significant danger at this point is acting on a vision that cannot
be implemented. If that situation
arises, the person or group is caught in the trap of illusion or
self-deception.” (169) [rarely
admitted in print! dlm] “Excellence, by definition,
requires continued deviance from the norm.”
(174) “There appears to be a
high level of satisfaction in achieving excellence. There also seems to be a great deal of pain
involved. Every day, you meet some
form of resistance, some force that would wear you down.” “Excellence is a form of deviance. If you perform beyond the norms, you
disrupt all the existing control systems.
Those systems will then alter and begin to work to routinize
your efforts. That is, the systems
will adjust and try to make you normal.
The way to achieve and maintain excellence is to deviate from the
norm. You become excellent because you
are doing things normal people do not want to do. You become excellent by choosing a path
that is risky and painful, a path that is not appealing to others.” “The question is, why would anyone ever want to do something
painful?” “You do it because it’s
right and because it brings enormous internal satisfaction. That is the key.” “…external punishment is a natural process that
is never going to end. It forces us to
weigh the trade-offs between internal satisfaction and external
punishment.” (176) “An undiscussable
issue is one that is important to the group but is too threatening to discuss
within the group.” A “sacred
cow.” Undiscussable
events may exist because of historical events, because someone will become
hurt or angry, or because of an enormous outside threat to the organization
which is too frightening or painful for words. When “sacred cows” are not discussed,
cohesive achievement does not occur.
Value is not added. Trust
falls. Transaction costs go up. Innovation withers. People withdraw. Perceptions become self-fulfilling. Harmful cycles set in. People feel disempowered and helpless.
(189-90) Usually
the help of a trained facilitator can help set up a constructive framing and
prioritizing process. (191) “Though vision statements
are now common in most large organizations, vision is not.” (195) “During turbulent times,
people’s uncertainty climbs, and they hunger for meaning and direction.” “They crave a clear vision. What they are actually encountering,
however, is continuous change and differentiation.” (196)
“Many senior executives…have difficulty coming up with anything that
is persuasive, exciting, or passionate.
There is no life in what they conceptualize. Worst of all, when they finally formulate a
vision statement, it is not consistent with the behavior of the CEO or the
top management team.” (197) “Gandhi’s vision…was rooted
in both facts and values. It inspired
passion.” “A visionary leader delves
into the core of the organization or group and touches the issues of bread
and salt. Few senior executives ever
do so. They are thus greatly hindered
in the process of aligning the operational present with the developmental
future.” “Isolated and insulated
people cannot succeed at motivating others.”
(200) Where should a vision come
from? Top down or bottom up? A circular process works. The bottom-up process provides the CEO with
input needed to develop his own vision, which is implemented from the top
down. It is his own
vision yet it clearly takes root from frank expressions of subordinates. It results from an important dialogue. Because it is in touch with the core of the
system the organization embraces the vision. (210) “Empowerment is a commonly
used buzzword. Everyone is for
it. However what it means and how to
implement it are fuzzy. Is it
mechanistic, top-down? Or is it
organic, beginning with the needs of the people? Or both?
(223) Mechanistic View of
Empowerment
Organic View of Empowerment
Four dimensions of
empowerment: (225-6) 1.
A sense of
meaning. Their work is important to
them; they care about what they are doing. 2.
A sense of
competence. They feel confident about
their ability to do the work; they know they can perform. 3.
A sense of
self-determination. They feel free to
choose how to do the work; they are not ‘micromanaged.’ 4.
A sense of
impact. They feel that they have
influence in their unit; people listen to their ideas. The
Levers of Empowerment: (227) 1.
Clear vision
and challenge. 2.
Openness and
teamwork. 3.
Discipline and
control. 4.
Support and a
sense of security. Note that #3 is mechanistic while 1,2, and 4 are organic.
Both are required. We
cannot empower people. Empowerment
cannot be delegated. (228) Four
questions to ask yourself: 1.
How can I
increase my own sense of meaning and task-alignment? 2.
How can I
increase my own sense of impact, influence, and power? 3.
How can I
increase my own sense of competence and confidence to execute? 4.
How can I
increase my own sense of self-determination and choice? “These
are four uncomfortable questions. They
shift the responsibility for our empowerment from someone else to ourselves.” (228) |
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