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Dawn
Dynamics -
SP2017
Dashboard Spring Semester 2017 SP2017-LEAD-644-999 January 30 - February 5
Financial imperatives and Human thriving Keeping organizations successful

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January 9 - Keeping organizations successful
January 15 by Peterson, Dawn - Friday, February 10, 2017, 12:32 PM
January 16 -
Money vs. People
January 22
January 23 -
January 29 What do Microsoft, General Electric, Southwest Airlines, Capitol One, and
January 30 - Johnson & Johnson have in common? All are companies who are
February 5 financially successful and who are well known for treating people right.
Peak What does it mean to treat people right? To different companies it
Office means different things but to most of them it means finding ways to
and the improve their employees lives. Rewarding stock plans, career
Age of development opportunities, financial rewards, employee freedom to
Un- control their jobs, profit sharing, employee involvement practices in
building | manufacturing pants are just a few of how these companies are showing
Mark that their employees are more than just workers, they are human capital
Gilb... worth investing in for future company profits (Lawler III, 2011, pp. 578-
579).
 Financial In his article Lawler explains that treating people right leads to
imperativ powerful win-win virtuous spirals of success (2011, p. 577). He goes on
es and to explain that these spirals occur when organizations take the time and
Human effort to implement programs that help the employees to perform their
thriving job better (p. 577). Creating work environments that encourage
productivity (Wright & Cropanzano, 2011, p. 135) , safe environments to
Keepi try new ideas (Sutton, 2011, p. 349), opportunities for intrinsic motivation,
ng and treating them decently as human beings (Amabile & Kramer, 2011,
organi p. 167) are just a few ways that organizations help improve their work
zation life.
s
The opposite is also true. Organizations that treat its people poorly can
succes
find themselves in a death spiral that can take years or just days!
sful
Organizations in this spiral find themselves struggling to attract
February 6 - talented workers because no one wants to work for an organization that
February 12 treats its people poorly and customers choose to avoid association. This
February 13 ultimately affects the financial bottom lines. Organizations like this have
- February not changed with the advances in business models that show that the
19 best and most profitable employers take care of their people (Lawler III,
February 20 2011, pp. 579-580).
- February
Do I think that making money and valuing people are necessarily in
26
conflict? No, it has been shown that many companies can show profits
February 27 while still looking out for their people. I think it is important to let your
- March 5 workers know that they are important to the organization for more than
March 6 - just accomplishing tasks. Organizations cannot thrive unless their
March 12 people prosper, but at the same time, people cannot thrive unless their
March 13 - organizations prosper.they depend on each other and feed off each
March 19 other (Lawler III, 2011, p. 581).
March 20 -
March 26
Operational Efficiencies and Innovation
March 27 -
April 2
April 3 -
Lotus is a good example of what happens when you apply traditional
April 9
management methods to companies that require creativity and
April 10 -
innovation. Lotus went from sales of $53 million in 1982 to $156
April 16
million in 1984 and by 1985 it was determined that they needed
April 17 - experienced managers. But with these new managers came problems.
April 23 They were using techniques that were designed for routine work rather
April 24 - than creativity and innovation. The original people who were with the
April 30 company from the beginning felt that they no longer fit. Lotus was
May 1 - May having problems developing new products.(Sutton, 2011, p. 348) What
7 happened?
My courses
Learner Dashboard
 Leading or managing innovation can be like walking a tightrope. A good
manager must be there to provide guidance and support, but then get
$ out of the way and let the innovators do their magic. This concept can be
ADMINISTRATION contrary to many leaders experience and they try to manage by
overseeing and giving orders rather than find ways to encourage
Forum
creativity (Sutton, 2011, p. 349).
administration
Optional What does a good manager do to encourage efficiencies or production?
subscription Sutton gives several suggestions he terms weird ideas that can help
encourage creativity and final outcomes.
Subscribe to
this forum Innovation is all about the end product: an innovator must be able
Subscribe to to sell their idea for it to be viable for market (p. 149).
this discussion Innovation requires both stubbornness and flexibility: strike a
healthy balance...by hold[ing] either the solution or the problem
Course constant (pp. 351).
administration Get comfortable with discomfort: Successful innovations can come
from the need for something better (pp. 352).
Nothing is forever: sustaining innovation requires treating
COURSE everything from procedures and product lines to teams and
SEARCH organizations as things that might be useful now but will need to
be discontinued (p. 352).
Make it simple: make everything as simple as possible (but no
simpler) (p. 353).
Fail Quickly: dont try to reduce the number of screw-ups learn to
Go .
fail faster, not less often (p.354).
Openness can spark creativity: ideas that are old to them, but new
to you, can be borrowed or blended with what you already know to
invent new management practices, services, and products (p. 355).
Be curious: innovation is fueled by a restless intellectual curiosity
(Kelley & Kelley, 2013, p. 65).

Innovators Dilemma

This brings us to the conundrum of the innovators dilemma. Lets

start by defining the dilemma. According to Christensen the dilemma is
how can good companies that are well managed stay atop their
industries when they confront certain types of market and technological
change (Christensen, 1997, p. 7). If they follow best practices, how do
they fail? Christensen says that good companies fail because they either
dont recognize the impact of a new disruptive technology as a threat or
that they see the possibility of the technology as superseding the current
technology and jump in with all their resources into the new technology
thereby leaving the previous solid technology that has a solid customer
base that provides financial profit hanging (p. 17). He gives this example
to help us better understand the thought processes of a company in this
dilemma.

No automotive company is currently threatened by electric cars,

and none contemplates a wholesale leap into that arena. The
automobile industry is healthy. Gasoline engines have never been
more reliable. Never before has such high performance and quality
been available at such low prices. Indeed, aside from governmental
mandates, there is no reason why we should expect the established
car makers to pursue electric vehicles. But the electric car is a
disruptive technology and potential future threat (Christensen,
1997, pp. 17-18).

How do we successfully navigate this dilemma? The answer lies in firms

being able to identify, develop and successfully market emerging,
potentially disruptive technologies before they overtake the traditional
sustaining technology ("The innovators dilemma," 2000). Staying ahead
of the curve while not laying aside the sustaining technology that makes
up the bedrock of the company. The speed at which new technologies
are invented forces organizations of the future to compete and innovate
simultaneously in multiple venues and in overlapping time frames
(Nadler & Tushman, 2011, p. 643) as well as sharpening the focus of the
company and defining ways to compete within a given competitive
space, operating simultaneously in mature, emerging and future
segments of the same markets (p. 644).

In closing I want to leave you with a short quote that may sum up the
answer to the dilemma. Out-innovating yourself always beats being out-
innovated by someone else (Masnick, 2010).

References

Amabile, T. M., & Kramer, S. J. (2011). Inner work life: Understanding the
subtext of business performance. In J. S. Osland & M. E. Turner (Eds.), The
organizational behavior reader (pp. 159-169). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Christensen, C. M. (1997). The innovators dilemma: When technologies

cause great firms to fail. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

The innovators dilemma. (2000). Retrieved from

http://web.mit.edu/6.933/www/Fall2000/teradyne/clay.html

Kelley, D., & Kelley, T. (2013). Creative confidence: Unleashing the creative
potential within us all (pp. xv, 304 pages). doi:Nook
Lawler III, E. E. (2011). Why treating people right pays off. In J. S. Osland
& M. E. Turner (Eds.), The organizational behavior reader (pp. 571-582).
New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Masnick, M. (Producer). (2010). Implementing new ideas quickly [Video

file]. Whiteboard Seizing Opportunities Videos. Retrieved from

Implementing New Ideas Quickly

Nadler, D. A., & Tushman, M. L. (2011). The organization of the future:

Strategic imperatives and core competencies for the 21st century. In J. S.
Osland & M. E. Turner (Eds.), The organizational behavior reader (pp. 640-
653). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Sutton, R. I. (2011). Weird ideas that work: Building companies where

innovation is a way of life. In J. S. Osland & M. E. Turner (Eds.), The
organizational behavior reader (pp. 347-357). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Wright, T. A., & Cropanzano, R. (2011). The role of psychological well-

being in job performance: A fresh look at an age-old quest. In J. S. Osland
& M. E. Turner (Eds.), The organizational behavior reader (pp. 128-139).
New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Sum of ratings:6 (1) Permalink | Reply

Re: Keeping organizations successful

by Peterson, Dawn - Friday, February 10, 2017, 3:34 PM

Oops. Didn't see that happening when I copied and pasted! Well, feel
free to watch the 2 min video!

Sum of ratings: - Permalink | Show parent | Reply

 Re: Keeping organizations successful
by Brand, Jay - Monday, February 13, 2017, 7:17 PM

Dawn,

Another fantastic post! And you picked excellent papers from our
textbook (and elsewhere) to support your responses. If you attend our
Leadership Conference this summer, Vijay Govindarajan will be our
keynote speaker dealing with many of the important issues you raise
in your post. His latest book, 'The 3-Box Solution: A Strategy for
Leading Innovation' will be available for a book signing. Of course, you
can just get it on Amazon if you wish. A previous book of Vijay's (with
Chris Trimble) is also very good in this respect, 'The Other Side of
Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge'.

One of the primary challenges for leaders involves the balance

between cutting costs and operational efficiencies, on the one hand,
and active exploration and investigation in order to encourage
creativity and drive innovation. These 'competing values' constitute
the quandary for organizations, particularly for-profit companies.
Almost everything accountants and financial leaders (e.g., CFO's
COO's) learn and tell CEO's and strategic leaders prevents investment
in the risky activities needed for novelty, originality, and break-through
innovation. For example, traditional corporate values say, 'Protect
your company's IP and knowledge base by keeping it private, within
the company' whereas often strategic partnerships with suppliers,
needed for breakthrough product design & development, requires
transparent communication about a company's intellectual assets as
well as operational secrets.

Many other examples of this ambivalence could be cited. However, I

tend to agree with you that the best advantage of nurturing creativity
and innovation is that it invariably serves to engage (or re-engage)
employees, because it increases the meaningfulness and value of their
work beyond the boundaries of the organization (i.e., they can be
confident of improving society, improving the quality of life for clients,
contributing to their own personal values).

Again, very nice post!

Dr. Brand

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