Evergreen Leadership Blog

Challenges

A Third Way to Make Decisions

I’ve been the victim of disastrous decisions made from “on high” – well-meaning corporate types who had no idea how their dictates impacted operations at the local level. And not all were disastrous, but many were ill-conceived, not very practical, or at times, bewildering and laughable.

I’ve also been the corporate type – struggling to make one decision that served many, being blind to the specific nuances and awed by the complexity of implanting something across large global organizations.

And too, I’ve suffered through my fair share of mind-numbing meetings attempting to get to consensus. And been a part of way too many projects that were stalled as key decisions were held hostage to the notion that a consensus must be reached.

I’ve also led my fair share of meetings trying to get to consensus. Often successful if the issue was minor or the culture was compliant. Often frustrated if the issue was major or the culture was one that pushed back.

And no matter whether leading decisions, or participating in consensus decision making, often experiencing decisions that were watered down or awkwardly cobbled together or crafted to the least common denominator.

And so I cheered as I read Fredric Laloux’s new book, Reinventing Organizations, where he described a third way of organizational decision making – the advice process.

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Leadership

Is Holacracy a new organizational structure that will catch on?

In November 2014, Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, the billion dollar on-line shoe retailer, announced the company was moving to holarchy, an organizational structure with no job titles and no managers.

Instead of the typical hierarchy, fraught with bottlenecks, slow decision making, and concentrated power, the company will be organized into 400 circles, with each circle having a number of roles. The intent is “radical transparency” and extreme adaptability. In this model, the CEO has less power and all employees are expected to lead and to act entrepreneurially. Zappos and its 1500 partners (you and I would call them employees) will be the largest company to date to attempt this type of organizational structure.

Let me explain what I think works with this model, as well as what bothers me about this model.

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Leadership

Leadership as an Amateur Sport

In almost all instances, success precedes promotion. And for most of us, we say yes because we feel, at some level, confident in our ability to tackle the new role in a proficient manner. And then we land the new job, take on the additional responsibility, strike out into new territory. And all that we knew in our last job is suddenly not enough.

As leaders are faced with this reality, they have two basic choices…

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Shedding

A basic tenet of our Evergreen Leadership Approach is the concept of “shedding”. If you feel your load is heavy, here are suggestions on some things you might shed.

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Leadership

Transformation from the Inside Out

Real change, lasting change, substantial change occurs when we are able to identify a thought and belief that is no longer serving us well and replace it with a thought or belief that does. This is transformational change, inside – out, and is much more powerful and more lasting. It requires more up front effort in discerning the thought pattern that needs to change – but once the “aha” happens, requires far less discipline, maintenance and is less prone to regressing back to past behaviors and results.
Here is a simple process that can get you started:

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