After watching the video, I see
direct parallels from them to topics in our text - both of them focused on
changing culture to create a better organization. With the first video, Gallery Furniture had
taken a huge hit and decided that they needed to revamp the organization in
order to survive the housing market crash.
Originally, their focus was on new home furniture so their sales force
did not have to go out and seek people, the customer came to them. When the market changed, this was no longer
the case. Now the salespeople needed to
reengage with customers that might leave the store (an action called
prospecting) and as a result, they needed to get the customer’s contact
information prior to leaving. Many
employees were against this because they felt like this was extra work – it went
against their moderate culture. Because
the change was incompatible with existing change, McIngvale went about changing
the culture by sharing the vision. He
did this by using 6 sources of influence (2 of which were not described) that
manifested themselves by creating the following things within the organization:
prospecting (as discussed earlier), coaching (helping weaker personnel out by
showing them better sales techniques), enablers (providing tech savvy personnel
to assist less tech savvy personnel with the implementation of new technology –
specifically iPads to aid in gathering customer information), incentive pay
(their original commission program was ineffective at increasing motivation),
feedback (they created a feedback system for both the employees and the
customers), and recognition (recognizing good employees). These 6 items easily fit into the sharing the
vision discussion within the text. An
aggressive training program was implemented to ensure employees received the
necessary skills, focus was placed on employee health and wellness (something
that increased moral while cutting health costs), a programs were implemented
to limit rework (thus increasing customer satisfaction – another goal was to
create customers for life). With that being said, when looking
at fig 15.5, I am not able to determine which block of the matrix he went
with. Their needed to be a culture/strategy
change and the change was not compatible with existing culture – none of the
blocks really fit this scenario.
GEN McChrystal’s lecture was
incredibly informative and full of nuggets of wisdom that I am no kidding going
to start using immediately. His
discussion was focused almost entirely on creating strong culture within organizations
through listening and caring. When looking
at fig 15.5, I would say his discussion focused on managing change and
reinforcing the culture. His multiple stories
described how the Army develops their personnel to share a common bond and
knowledge that everyone is looking out for everyone else (i.e. culture). This team unity (shared purpose) is essential
– with a sense of security, much more focus can be placed on accomplishing the
task at hand. He also discussed how
modern times have led to new challenges for leaders, specifically inversion of
expertise. Older people might not be as
well versed with new technology as younger people. As a result, a leader must be willing to
listen to subordinates and be reversed mentored to get the leader up to speed. Finally, he stressed that leaders must be
willing to watch out for his followers, and the followers must know that their
leader has their backs.
As mentioned, there are several quotes
that I am going to start spreading.
First, “A leader can let you fail but not let you be a failure” –
failing is an important part of the learning process, however often people get
caught up with the singular failure and lose sight of the big picture. A leader must be able to allow someone to
learn through their mistakes but keep them focused on the big picture. The second quote: “A leader isn’t good
because they are right; they are good because they are willing to learn and to
trust.” Finally, “if you are a leader the
people you have counted on will help you out and if you are a leader the people
who count on you need you on your feet.”
Absolutely fantastic quotes about leadership!
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