Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
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MAIN FEATURE:
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Contents
4
My angle
Paul Hampton, Chief Operating Officer of Aramark Ltd, outlines seven core attributes that successful leaders
have in common.
marter pricing
Virtual leadership
In todays global economy, virtual teams are a fact of life. Drawing on three years research, Ghislaine Caulat
examines the skills, competencies and techniques needed by managers to lead teams successfully in a virtual
environment.
12
Gary Luck challenges any producer of goods to know the size of the market for their product. He illustrates how
this knowledge will remain elusive unless customer satisfaction, in its original sense, is allowed to drive
organisational strategy.
20
Fearless listening: the hidden factor behind the power of fearless consulting
Through reflection and enquiry into his personal consulting practice and that of some 100 executive coaches,
Erik de Haan, the author of recently published Fearless Consulting, looks at consultants vital skill of listening
without fear.
26
In this second article on factors that enable successful expatriation, Arno Haslberger and Sharman Esarey
discuss ways in which the organisation can tip the scales in favour of its expatriate employees.
32
Eve Poole suggests how the concept of organisational spirituality may help organisations to achieve some
breakthrough in the intractable problems associated with employee motivation, engagement and well-being.
38
Strategy as relationship
Chris Nichols looks at some of the terms in which strategy is usually discussed, and finds the consequences
disturbing. What happens if we look at strategy just as relationships, stripping out the usual imagery? Could the
answer change both the focus and practice of strategy?
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My angle
This year, I was invited to address Ashridge MBA participants at their graduation ceremony.
It was a pleasure to witness the delight, comradeship, not to mention relief, as each MBA
graduate celebrated their own success and that of their colleagues. They had all been through
a great deal of personal sacrifice to reach this achievement. All knew they had gained a
qualification of significant value to themselves and to their organisations. Each should go
on to achieve further accolades, prosperity and success as a result.
Many of them will go on to become leaders in business and perhaps in other fields of endeavour
too. It is this theme of better leadership that runs throughout Ashridges work, and underlines its
innovative offering. Ashridge is leading the way in developing new kinds of leaders across all
sectors, with the vision and the ability to understand and motivate their people, within a rapidly
changing world.
I believe there are seven core attributes that all successful leaders have in common. The first
is that they have absolute clarity about what they are trying to do. They dont try to complicate
things: they know what their objectives are.
Leaders are all optimistic. Not one leader I know or have worked with sees the glass half
empty. Philip Green, for example, whom I was privileged to work with when he was not so
famous, was optimistic about what he could achieve and hes certainly gone and done it.
Leaders tend to be reflective. You might not see this demonstrated on programmes like
The Apprentice, but many leaders often do nothing. They look, they wait and above all they
confer before making their decisions.
Yes, leaders have egos, and good for them! Too many people can be self-deprecating in this
politically correct world. Good leaders make sure they give credit to their teams and dont
misuse their power. Instead they know where they bring value.
Leaders also have focus. They know what is the core activity and more importantly the core
score of their organisation. They may have lots of measurements, but they really focus on the
one most important thing. For us at Aramark, this is our client retention rate, because losing
a customer in the food business is like getting fired.
Choosing heroes is something else leaders do very carefully. Who leaders reward, how they
support and recognise those who are delivering and how they treat those who are not, says
a great deal to everyone else about what is valued.
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However, the most important thing that great leaders do is cultivate trust. They trust their
staff to deliver. They understand their teams skills and capabilities. They know where the gaps
are and how to fill them. They are acutely aware that trust is the glue that holds the diverse
and different parts of an organisation together.
This issue of 360 reflects the diverse and different parts of Ashridge and its activities. The
lead article, Virtual leadership, by Ghislaine Caulat examines the dynamics of leading teams,
whose members are based in different countries. The increasing global nature of a modern
managers work is also explored in Snakes and ladders: the organisations path to successful
expatriation by Arno Haslberger and Sharman Esarey.
Strategy is a key management activity for every organisation and the article by Chris Nichols,
The four sided triangle looks at the benefits that can be derived from viewing strategy
through different language and images. Customer satisfaction strategy by Gary Luck outlines
innovative methods that can make an organisation the most preferred supplier in every
instance, through its ability to always ensure full availability.
At the other end of the spectrum from manufacturing and supply, Eve Poole analyses how
organisational spirituality can be embraced to achieve some breakthrough in the intractable
problems associated with employee motivation, engagement and well-being, in her article,
Organisational spirituality: away with the fairies? Finally, in Fearless listening, Erik de Haan
builds on the work in his critically acclaimed book, Fearless Consulting, by examining that
crucial aspect of successful consulting the quality of listening.
Being a part of Ashridge means belonging to a broad and rich network of contacts, friendships,
collaborations, ideas and experiences which every one of us can cultivate and draw upon in our
business lives. I sincerely hope you enjoy reading this edition of 360 and that it is not only
useful, but enriches and adds to your experience of Ashridge.
Paul Hampton
Chief Operating Officer, Aramark Limited
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Virtual leadership
In todays global economy, virtual teams are a fact of life.
Drawing on three years research, Ghislaine Caulat examines
the skills, competencies and techniques needed by managers
to lead teams successfully in a virtual environment.
Virtual teams are increasingly becoming the
life-blood of most companies: they tend to
undertake the most global, strategic and
complex projects. They have the strong
advantage of gathering the best people for
a specific task independent of their
geographical location in a sort of Just in
time talent approach.
There are practical reasons for this
development. Given the ongoing, relentless
globalisation of organisational life with a
growing emphasis on India, China and
Latin America, an increasing number of
employees tend to spend an increasing
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Current reality
The research
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Scope:
Conversations in teleconference settings with several test groups
Scope:
18 qualitative interviews with managers of different organisations in 11
different industries
One inquiry workshop with seven managers from five different industries
Detailed analysis of existing literature and research
Review of virtual working development provision by various training providers
We have worked with four groups of clients from three different global
organisations in an Audio Action Learning format on a regular basis since
2004. The second person inquiry methodology is used to identify the emerging
themes around virtual leadership and virtual working, in a systematic way at the
end of each session.
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AND
The emergence
of new ways
of working,
relationships
and expectations
The need for
reliance on tried,
trusted and proven
technology
The existence
of established
ways of working,
relationships
and expectations
The personal
need to be
trusted, empowered
and self-directed
Interdependence
needed to
synchronise work
with colleagues
working remotely
from me
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Role versatility
Self-awareness
Nurture diversity
Establish norms
Demonstrating empathy
Showing authority
Coaching
Prescribing
Focusing on relationships
be a relationship builder
be a facilitator of social and work
processes
be a care taker
be a communication designer
align group structure, technology
and task environment.
10
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Project managing
References
1. See, for example, Duarte, Deborah, L. and
Snyder, Nancy Tennant, (2001) Mastering Virtual
Managing conflict
Working with diversity
Establishing the context
360
of being remote
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Customer
satisfaction
strategy
In this article, Gary Luck challenges any producer
of goods to know the size of the market for their
product. He illustrates how this knowledge will remain
elusive unless customer satisfaction, in its original
sense, is allowed to drive organisational strategy.
Forecasting the science
of imprecision
How big is the market for your product?
Every year, thousands of organisations run
endless spreadsheets and engage
multi-billion pound computer systems to
produce forecasts that will determine the
amount and specification of individual
items that the company will manufacture.
This forecast determines the raw materials
purchased, production schedules and
sales targets: all aimed at achieving the
highest level of customer satisfaction
providing customers with exactly what
they want, whenever they want it.
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Figure 1.
Stock consumption
X
Order placed
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Y Z
Order delivered
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Figure 2.
Stock consumption
Y Z
Order delivered
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Successful implementation
Key steps to successful implementation
of customer satisfaction strategy are:
1. Obtaining fast sales information:
making decisions based on todays
sales to the customer
References
1. Hill, Terry, (1993) Manufacturing Strategy,
The MacMillan Press.
2. Kanter, Rosabeth, (1977) Men and Women
360
informed my thoughts.
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The Ashridge Journal Fearless listening: the hidden factor behind the power of fearless consulting Autumn 2006
Fearless listening:
the hidden factor behind the
power of fearless consulting
Through reflection and enquiry into his personal consulting practice
and that of some 100 executive coaches, Erik de Haan, the author
of recently published Fearless Consulting, looks at the vital
skill for consultants of listening without fear.
Fearless Consulting
2,000 years ago Plutarch pointed out that
although most professionals spend a lot of
time and effort in learning to speak better,
it is the faculty of listening that really
deserves this investment. In my opinion, the
same is still true for many professional
executives and consultants today.
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Fearless Consulting
The aim in Fearless Consulting was to reflect on the temptations, risks and limits of the
profession and to get consultants thinking about their profession, with questions such as:
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of listening.
These two pairs of complementing fears can
be pictured as dilemmas, showing the
ambivalence of a listener. This matches a
common experience with listening, i.e. when
one fear disappears there is a good chance
that another fear will pop up, such that the
middle ground of just excellent listening
seems an almost unattainable state and a
precarious balance. See Figure 1 overleaf
for a short summary of the two dilemmas.
The axes in this figure are about
appreciation of listening (high appreciation
at the bottom to low appreciation at the
top) and about the focus of listening
(merging with self on the left and merging
with the other on the right).
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The Ashridge Journal Fearless listening: the hidden factor behind the power of fearless consulting Autumn 2006
Figure 1.
Dilemmas of listening
Not seeing the work
involved in listening
Being self-conscious
FEARLESS
LISTENING
Identifying with
the other
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References
1. de Haan, E., (2006). Fearless Consulting
Temptations, Risks and Limits of the Profession,
Wiley, Chichester.
2. Plutarch (1st Century A.D.). On listening.
Translated by R. Waterfield, Essays, Penguin Books,
London, 1992.
3. de Haan, E., (2006a). Ik twijfel dus ik coach
spannende momenten van coaches uit hun eigen
praktijk coachingpraktijk [I doubt therefore I coach
critical moments in coaching practice],
Handboek Effectief Opleiden 40 (11.6), pp.
2.012.18. Followed by: de Haan, E. (2006b),
Ik worstel en kom boven spannende momenten
van ervaren coaches [I struggle and emerge critical
moments of experienced coaches], Handboek
fearless listening.
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The Ashridge Journal Snakes and ladders: the organisations path to successful expatriation Autumn 2006
Email: arno_haslberger@yahoo.com
Email: sharmansue@yahoo.co.uk
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Autumn 2006 Snakes and ladders: the organisations path to successful expatriation The Ashridge Journal
Lets play
Coltrane Corp. rolls the dice, announcing it
has selected David Browne, a 40-year-old
engineer, for the prestigious position of
starting up its new line of business in Japan.
His boss, convinced of his technical brilliance
and impressed by his management skills with
his local ten-person team, nominated him for
the new role. After 15 successful years with
the company, this will still be a major break for
David. Should things go well, it could vault him
into the companys upper ranks.
When Coltrane rolls, where does David
land? On a snake or a ladder?
While every expatriate experience is
different, much will depend on how
Coltrane has prepared the ground to
influence the critical individual and the
micro- and macro-environmental factors at
this stage of the game.
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As president of the American Womens Association in Vienna, I come across Englishspeaking women from across the globe who struggle with the transition to a new
environment. New arrivals complain that, while coping with new homes and schools and
other important matters, some task that they do on autopilot at home suddenly
transforms into a feat of cross-cultural acrobatics. What took 15 minutes at home now
requires an hour, even two.
One new arrival told me she and her partner arrived in Vienna during the Christmas
holidays; they couldnt find a single grocery store to stock the refrigerator and
ended up eating out for days. Another said she had decided on ham sandwiches for
lunch what could be easier? Then she spent more than an hour in the grocery store
unable to locate the mustard.
These frustrations are trivial, but they pile up like the proverbial straws on the camels
back even though they are easy for the company to foresee and address.
Citing similar examples, these women spoke about how difficult their changed
circumstances were and how tough to come to grips with. They all needed to make new
friends who could sympathise with their experiences.
Sharman Esarey
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References
Bhaskar-Shrinivas, P. Harrison, D. A. Shaffer, M. A.
& Luk, D. M., (2005) Input-based and Time-based
Models of International Adjustment: Meta-analytic
Evidence and Theoretical Extensions, Academy
of Management Journal, 48, 257-281.
Black, J. S., (1992) Coming Home: The Relationship
of Expatriate Expectations with Repatriation
PREPARING FOR
THE ASSIGNMENT
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The Ashridge Journal Organisational spirituality away with the fairies? Autumn 2006
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A meaning-making construct
First, it is useful to examine the way in which
this particular piece of jargon is used. In
general, a distinction is usually drawn
between spirituality and religion, where the
former is perceived to be more inclusive and
less encumbered with ideological baggage
than the latter. Apart from being not religion,
spirituality in the workplace is generally taken
to encompass a basket of related concepts:
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The benefits
There are a number of both hard and soft
reasons why organisations might want to
take this concept seriously.
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Autumn 2006 Organisational spirituality away with the fairies? The Ashridge Journal
Figure 1.
BEING
Developing and
becoming self
360
Unity with
others
SELF
OTHER
Expressing
full potential
Serving
others
DOING
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The Ashridge Journal Organisational spirituality away with the fairies? Autumn 2006
Tread softly
Furnished with this information, the second
step in the journey is to proceed with
caution,
taking
seriously
existing
sensitivities in this area. Will it be culturally
more appropriate to start with a focus on
the spiritual notions of contemplation and
reflection, rather than moving wholesale
into the organisational spirituality arena? As
the poet Yeats advises: Tread softly,
because you tread on my dreams. Is there
any indication from staff surveys, exit
interviews, etc. that staff would welcome
positive action in this arena, or are feeling
constrained in any way? Is it worth holding
some optional workshops to test the
organisations readiness and willingness to
take this further? As a rule of thumb,
research in both the US and the UK shows
Figure 2.
Stillness
Journalling
Visioning
Listening
Encounter
Grieving
Celebration
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Story
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References
1. See, for example, Peters, Thomas J and Waterman,
Robert H (1994) In Search of Excellence, Harper &
Row, New York; and Collins, James C and Porras, Jerry
I, (1994) Built to Last, Harper Business, New York.
2. Lamont, Georgeanne, (2002) The Spirited
Business, Hodder & Stoughton, London.
3. For this and her other ROI case studies, see
http://www.lamontassociates.com.
4. Lips-Wiersma, Marjolein, (2003) Making Conscious
Choices in Doing Research on Workplace Spirituality,
Journal of Organisational Change Management
16 (4), pp406-425.
5. Buckingham, Marcus and Coffman, Curt, (1999) First,
Break All the Rules, Simon & Schuster, New York.
6. See Lamont, op. cit.
7. Duerr, Maia (2004) The Contemplative
Organization, Journal of Organisational Change
Management, 17 (1), pp43-61.
8. Bridges, William, (1995) Managing Transitions,
Nicholas Brearley Publishing, London.
9. Kolb, David (1985) Experiential Learning,
Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Further reading
Books: Axelrod, Robert (1990) The Evolution
of Co-operation, Penguin, London.
Catlette, Bill and Hadden, Richard, (2001) Contented
Cows Give Better Milk: The Plain Truth About
Employee Relations and Your Bottom Line, Saltillo
Press, Germantown.
Heskett, James I; Sasser, W Earl and Schlesinger,
Leonard A, (1997) The Service Profit Chain,
The Free Press, New York.
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The Ashridge Journal Strategy as relationship: the four sided triangle Autumn 2006
Strategy as relationship:
the four sided triangle
Chris Nichols looks at some of the terms in which strategy is usually
discussed, and finds the consequences disturbing. What happens if we
just look at strategy as relationships, stripping out the usual imagery?
Could the answer change both the focus and practice of strategy?
Words so common we hardly notice
Military, combative and mechanistic
analogies are widespread in organisational
life today. They are reinforced in business
books and have become a deeply rooted
way of thinking within organisations.
Three giants of modern business strategy
describe this way of thinking in the following
words:
Effective strategies should.concentrate
superior power (vis--vis) opponents at a
place and time likely to be decisive (they
should allow) for flexibility and manoeuvre
while keeping opponents at a relative
disadvantage (and make) use of speed,
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What
How
What
How
How
Figure 1.
1
Sid
e
th
n
ee
tw ty
be bili
a
ps
hi ain
ns st
io su
lat d
Re n an
io
Re
to latio
cli ns
en hi
ts ps
an of
d
fu orga
nd n
in isa
g
ti
on
Side
The inner world of
the strategic participant
e isat
Sid gan
or
360
Side
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How
How
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Who
360
What
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References
1. Mintzberg, Henry; Quinn, James; Ghoshak,
Sumantra, (1997) The Strategy Process, Prentice Hall.
2. Watson, Guy, (2006) Part of a Solution,
Resurgence, Issue 237.
3. Stacey, R., (2005) Strategic Management and
Organisational Dynamics.
4. Nichols, Chris (2006) The 6-P Model of Effective
Strategic Conversation, Converse, Spring edition,
Ashridge.
5 There are exceptions: see for example Hart S,
(2005) Capitalism at the Crossroads, Wharton
Publishing/Prentice Hall.
6 Porritt, Jonathon (2005) Capitalism as if the World
Matters, Earthscan.
Further Reading
Schon, D, (1982) The Reflective Practitioner, Basic
Books Inc.
Heron,J, (1999) The Complete Facilitators Handbook
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