Joe's Jottings
Jottings Number 58, Reply B, by Chris Cavanaugh:
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 96 08:06:24 -0700
Dear Joe and all of my learning community buddies, Your jotting prompted several thoughts. Since my practice includes long range or multi-phased projects I resonated with many thoughts and has some divergent views about others. Hudi and I had mind share on some of those divergent areas. I was lucky to have an excellent mentor when I first came into the consulting ranks. She was adamant about shaping expectations which were appropriate to the intervention. I learned that at the beginning of a project - the honeymoon - the client is most susceptible to hearing what they want to hear and the consultants are most apt to hold back potential bad news because they don't want negative feelings early in the project. Collective denial at times. When consultants come in after sales people and they are not the same folks you can really see the makings of a poor start. Add a learning curve factor to situations like re-engineering or any systemic wide change and you can begin to see how consultants and re-engineering in its early learning curve days got poor grades. I have found that when I am working with an experienced visionary it is easiest to convey the generative learning model or spiraling. There has to be a conscious value priority for learning, collaboration and innovation vs. efficiency, productivity and action an orientation (still important and needed but not early in the project. I have found I have to do ground work around values and the role of senior management. They have to make a transition from a mental model of leadership competency being evaluated by actions and transition to a model of leadership being based on the ability to reflect, learn from each other and bust through what Argyris calls "skilled incompetence". It's not always an easy sell and I have had to learn how to walk away from possible work. Every time I don't do a thorough job or get attached to some wizzy element of the project and the critical pieces are not in place I regret it. On the consulting side it is critical to be open about what you don't know and why. This is critical modeling for comfort with "not knowing", the basis of learning. I also put a lot of emphasis on getting everyone up the learning curve about systems theory and why a true and deeper knowing comes from seeing patterns of behavior or problems before systemic problems can be fully addressed. I use a model I have been working on to walk through a "pre-flight check-list" to avoid crashing and burning. Regular feedback on key indicators established with the client, using surveying on-line, is another tool I will use in companies with the on-line capabilities. Though I am a true believer in Kaizen for process improvement I also have seen the power of and believe in break through thinking. Strategy for one is a synthesis of ideas, concepts and perceptions - in other words its not linear, its messy and a fertile place for break through thinking. I subscribe to Mintzberg's opinion that strategic planning is an oxymoron. My one area of greatest divergence from the ideas in the Review is in the area of IT. I believe Senior Management should manage, drive and mandate critical elements of the IT enterprise wide design to ensure the efficiencies are gained. This isn't to say they should be dictatorial, they have to beable to make a compelling case for design/pattern/order for the greater good. Bill Davidson from UCLA will have a new book out soon where he talks about this and I can't wait to read it. I think I rambled too much here and I could have done a better job of writing but I know if I waited until I could do a tip top job the subject matter would be in "cold storage" and I would love to continue the discussion. Thanks again for including me, Chris Cavanaugh
....................................................................... FROM: Non-HP-Christi473/HP-PaloAlto_shargw3////////HPMEXT1/Christi473#a#aol#f#com@opnmail1 TO: JOE-PODOLSKY-at-om/HP-PaloAlto_shargw3////////HPMEXT1/JOE#095#PODOLSKY#a#hp-paloalto-om4#f#om#f#hp#f#com@opnmail1