Consolidation

Sometimes we think too much about our decisions. Perhaps we would do better to see them more insightfully. Or just act on them in order to think about them better. This session contrasts "thinking first" with "seeing first" and "doing first" as approaches to decision making, using examples from finding a mate to handling decisions at work.

Generative relationships are ones which bring unforeseen, novel solutions to a complex context. Managers often face challenges where no precedents exist, such as when a company or industry faces a new competitive landscape. Relationships which have generative potential can be key to creating innovative solutions.

But how do you know whether relationships have generative potential? And how can you deliberately increase the generative potential of relationships?

The idea of catalytic leadership has taken off recently as people begin to think about the difficulty in making change happen in situations where potential leaders might not have executive authority over various groups. There are many situations like this in organizations, especially with increasing use of outsourcing, contractors, joint ventures, strategic alliances, multi-agency collaboration, and project groups.

Metaphors—which transfer concepts from one context to another—are typically viewed as a linguistic device used by poets. In this session you will see that metaphor also can be a powerful tool for creating and communicating new approaches to managing, and for understanding the approaches that prevail in your organization today.

Strategy, defined as plan, pattern, position, and perspective, is used to derive four distinct processes of strategy formation: planning, visioning, venturing, and learning. Each is considered as it applies to your organization and the session concludes with an integrative model that includes all 8 P's.

Clear strategic thinking depends on a good assessment of your organization’s internal and external environments. SWOT, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, is one of the simplest and yet most powerful tools that you as a manager can use to bring your strategic situation into sharper focus.

We know that culture figures prominently in changing an organization. Where it has been, and what it stands for, will significantly determine where it is able to go. You have to manage culture to manage change. And to manage culture you have to understand who plays what role in sustaining, challenging, and shifting that culture. When a culture change program has been launched, it is tempting for leaders to move straight on to other challenges, often taking their eyes off the 'cultural ball', but this is exactly the time when leaders need to be most alert to what is happening on the ground.

The management thinker Peter Drucker once stated, “Insight lasts; theories don’t.”

Breakthroughs and insights require going beyond your habitual approach to issues and seeing them in new ways. This topic offers three brief stories to help shift your perspective and promote insights on current issues within your organization. These thought-provoking stories range in topic from perfume magnates to physicists to baboons. But what they all have in common is that they provide different “lenses” through which you can view your organizational challenges.