The Fundamentals of Transforming from Matrix to Agile

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by Yves Doz

Nothing less than an evolution of strategy, structure, processes, people and technology will do.

Although it remains a common way to structure an organisation, the matrix is increasingly showing its weaknesses in the digital economy. Born in the 1960s and popularised in the 1970s, the matrix organises employees into grids, with each employee answering to at least two managers – functional, product or project, divisional or geographical. The matrix was envisioned to break down silos, foster lateral coordination and improve efficiency. In an era of rapid but steady productivity and economic growth, it soon became the norm across industries, with giant corporations such as Citibank, General Electric and Texas Instruments jumping on the matrix bandwagon.

But the matrix’s heyday appears to be over in the age of disruption, not least for businesses in fast-evolving sectors. Motorola and Eastman Kodak come to mind, but perhaps no other company offers a more salutary example than Nokia, once the world’s dominant mobile phone maker.

In 2003, as its early innovative drive flagged and competitors caught up, Nokia restructured itself along matrix principles into business groups – multimedia, mobile phones and enterprise solutions – and further among customer uses and lifestyles. It was hoped that the market-facing business groups would be entrepreneurial, but also share the company’s resources (e.g. technology platforms, operating systems and software development, manufacturing, logistics and distribution) as they created differentiated products.

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Why leaders need a long-term view

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by Harry Kraemer

When a business is going well, I’ve seen leadership teams conform to an unwritten 80-20 rule of thumb: They spend about 80 percent of their time focused on growth for the long term and only 20 percent managing the short term. But when things are not going well, I’ve observed the opposite: The temptation is to focus almost exclusively on the short term, with leaders spending a mere fraction of their time looking ahead.

An ultra-short-term focus, however, is not sustainable. As pressing as today’s demands are, as businesses continue to struggle with impact of COVID-19 and economic uncertainty, leaders should strive for balance between the short term and long term to produce value that benefits all stakeholders.

Admittedly, maintaining a long-term view has been challenging for business leaders who, over the course of the last year, were confronted by a pandemic and an economic crisis. In the early days of the pandemic, I witnessed the short term becoming the center of attention for leaders of companies where I am a board member, as well as at other firms. It’s a natural reaction during turbulent times when so much is changing day to day.

Consider dental supply companies, whose sales in the U.S. were cut by 50 percent or more in the second quarter of 2020 as dental offices closed and the provision of oral care plummeted. Similarly, as travel came to a virtual halt, the hospitality industry suffered. Accor, a global hospitality group with more than 5,000 properties and 10,000 food and beverage venues in 110 countries, reported a precipitous drop in its revenues — down 88.2 percent in the second quarter of 2020 on a “like-for-like” basis, and off 62.8 percent in the third quarter. Though business prospects have since improved across all industries, nearly half of the financial executives surveyed by PwC last summer said they expected revenues to decline by more than 10 percent in 2020.

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5 ways to get the most out of inclusive leadership training

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by Simone Morris

Many of us are on a quest to boost our knowledge in inclusive leadership. We don’t want to be left behind. 2020 has taught us that traditional one-off training isn’t sufficient. With the unfolding of additional calls for inclusion and the world’s diversification, we haste to invest in diversity, inclusion, and equity training to learn and deal with our blind spots. Upon the last glance, the spend was upwards of 8 billion dollars. If you’re there and dancing with discomfort, here are five strategies to have optimal results for your investment.

Plan Wisely

Plan for success by factoring in managing time, budget, and requirements for your project. It is prudent to flex the amount of content and the training approach for optimal engagement for timing. For afternoon deliveries, account for remote and 2021 fatigue. Add multiple checkpoints to gain feedback on whether the content is resonating with participants.

The saying goes, “you get what you pay for.” Therefore, manage expectations accordingly. If there’s a small budget with a huge ask, expect the other project parameters (time/scope) to adjust accordingly. Limited funds could directly impact customization requirements. Demonstrate empathy for all stakeholders in the planning process. It is no easy feat to deliver training that changes lives and cultures on a shoestring budget. Be patient and acknowledge that this is a journey. Also, consider providing bite-sized pieces of content with multiple training offerings to allow participants to comprehend and implement learnings.

Create A Psychologically Safe Environment

Inclusive Leadership training evokes strong emotions (positive or negative) seeking an outlet. Psychological Safety is a foundational element for impactful education results. Expert Amy Edmondson says employees at work engage freely without fear of punishment when they feel safe. Consider the current culture and its unwritten rules. Is there a message that rewards professionalism over vulnerability? Let us allow ourselves thinking time. Keep the output in mind when implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion training. Come up with a plan to address safety in training delivery. Get clarity on techniques leveraged to establish safe incubators for growth and learning.

Provide Experiential Learning

Don’t get bogged down by the technicality of delivering a boatload of conceptual materials. This approach is guaranteed to lose your audience along the way. Meet your audience where they are. A quick way to note this upfront is to do a check-in. Consider pairings or smaller group sizes to set the stage for authenticity. Debrief as a large group after that to address any challenges that have surfaced. Responses will give cues as to whether there is a trust issue. Assess nonverbal cues that also signal you’ve lost participants and adjust accordingly. Be sure to include ample time for authentic conversations that support comprehension of complex topics. Pause the schedule, get present, and hold space for those willing to get vulnerable and grow together in the training incubator.

Model Inclusive Behaviors

Walk the talk when delivering training. Demonstrate vulnerability to model desired class engagement behaviors. Plan an approach to combat unconscious bias that could derail your success. All of us contend with bias daily. Similar to the approach we take to minimize discrimination in hiring by removing names from resumes, we can use the picker wheel tool to eliminate bias in determining who we call on to participate in training.

Hold Learners Accountable

Deeper learning occurs outside the training environment when participants have had a chance to practice in their typical settings. Increase the understanding by providing opportunities for accountability. How? Ask for a commitment from your participants to take action personally and professionally on new knowledge. Then follow up to ensure participants carried through with promised commitment. Another way is to create a follow-up training that builds on the knowledge imparted.

 

Source: forbes.com

How to Tame a Belligerent Colleague

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by Manfred F. R. Gets de Vries

Antagonistic behavior is usually rooted in low self-esteem.

Serge faced a conundrum. One of his business partners was in a legal dispute with Serge’s father, Charlie, and asked for his help. Serge knew that his father was prone to suing everyone who crossed his path – including family members. The business partner had repeatedly tried to end this legal fight, to no avail. It seemed like Charlie didn’t want to find a resolution. He preferred to engage in self-sabotage to escalate the conflict. Impulse control was not one of Charlie’s strengths.

Many of us know people like Charlie who enjoy arguing for the sake of argument and who thrive on drama and conflict. Personality types come in many shapes and colors, but quarrelsome people like Charlie don’t belong to a single one. Their combative behavior is an amalgamation of antisocial (psychopathic), borderline, narcissistic and histrionic personalities.

The belligerent personality traits

Like many other psychiatric disorders, the specific causes of the belligerent personality have not been clearly identified. There is no known genetic link for this disorder. It is however associated with chaotic early child-parent attachment patterns in the form of abuse, neglect and conflict.

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Can you master the inner game of leadership?

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by Adam Bryant and Kevin Sharer

Niki Leondakis, a veteran hotel-industry CEO, started managing people in college when she was promoted from waiter to shift supervisor at a restaurant called the Hungry U near the University of Massachusetts. She took the job seriously, but in that role, as well as in her first management job out of college, she made a mistake common to many young leaders: She was too friendly with the people she was managing and had to learn the appropriate boundaries and necessary distance that managers have to keep from their teams. “I think people fall into one of two camps,” she said. “Very few people become a supervisor or a boss for the first time and know exactly where the right balance is. Both with myself and all the young managers I see, people seem to swing to one end of the pendulum or the other — overzealous with power or, ‘I’m everybody’s friend, and I want them to like me, and if they like me, maybe they’ll do what I ask and then it’ll be easier.’”

As she started advancing in her career, she adopted a more rigid and authoritarian style that she saw many men use, thinking that their approach was what successful leadership looked like. “That was in the early eighties,” she recalled. “For women in general at that time, we all thought that to be successful or to be considered equal, you tried to really dress like men, act like men, and ensure people knew you were tough-minded and could make the tough calls and be decisive.” But then a moment arrived when she recognized that she had swung the pendulum too far. She had to discipline someone on her team she liked and admired, and Leondakis’s boss could tell she was struggling with how to have the conversation. Her advice: Tap into who you are and relate to her with compassion.

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