[Ailist] How much AI do leaders need to know to lead successfully?

[Suzanne Graves]

Hi Anne,

Great question.  And one that is all too common.  John Kotter writes about
this phenomenon in Corporate Culture and Performance.  Here's how it
goes...when an organization is successful, the people leading the
organization see themselves as responsible.  As a result, they think they
are doing the right things and that what they know now and who they are has
contributed to the success of the organization.  This is natural.  However,
accompanying it is often the arrogance that builds inside the individuals
and the group leading the organization.  And arrogance leads to the thinking
that you cannot learn from outside.  Hence you don't need to listen to your
customers, learn new capabilities or skills, or do anything that will break
you out of your belief that you are perfect.  There's no need to inquire or
learn new things.  What's the eventual result of not listening to customers,
employees, stakeholders?  Eventual rapid decline.  For proof he has quite a
bit of documentation in the book.  For proof, just think of any of the
organizations that grew rapidly and crashed as rapidly.  Most of them had
cultures that were arrogant.  

There are a number of ways to break through.  Usually it has to be handled
tactfully, however.  They are doing well, so you can't tell them they
aren't.  Instead, co-creating a vision that is greater than where they are
now may be helpful.  AI can help you do this.  Then creating the tension
between where they currently are and where they want to be to develop
concrete actions to take them there might be helpful.  Also, while working
on creating a strengths based organization, you may want to emphasize the
need for greater inquiry into what is going well, and why.  Getting them to
focus on asking good questions, designed to enrich learning, will help them
to become more open to new ideas.  Of course, that's at the heart of AI...

And I'd probably give them a copy of Good to Great by Jim Collins with a
focus on Level 5 Leadership, which emphasizes the need for humility. 

 Suzanne

Suzanne Graves
Managing Principal
The Janus Company
19 Pelham Island Road
Sudbury, MA  01776
978 443 6597

-----Original Message-----
From: ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu
[mailto:ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu] On Behalf Of
AnneLondon at aol.com
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2007 10:23 AM
To: ailist at lists.business.utah.edu
Subject: [Ailist] How much AI do leaders need to know to lead successfuly?

Hi everyone,

I would like to ask for your thoughts about how much information or 
background information on AI you think leaders need to have to successfully
lead the 
next stage of their business.


Background:
A chief executive has taken a considerable amount of time over the last few 
years to learn about and prepare himself in strength-based approaches to 
change.   He regards this, and the fact that his global team took their cue
from him 
and altered their leadership style, as some of the key reasons why the 
business has been extremely successful and is much larger than it was.

The success brought with it some reorganisation and a new team. 

Current situation:
Because of its previous success, there are very high expectations of the 
business, the chief executive and his team of business leaders who have much

greater responsibilities than before.   

However, as far as I can see, the current leaders do not appear to see the 
importance of investing in their own leadership capabilities or knowledge of

strength-based change as did their chief exec.

In your view, does this matter?
If you think it does matter, what are your thoughts on how to address the 
situation?
If you think it doesn't matter, please say why. 

I am asking about this having seen how little people investment is included 
in their plan for 2008.   I look forward to hearing your views.   

Many thanks,

Anne Radford   
_______________________________________________
The Appreciative Inquiry Discussion List is hosted by the David Eccles
School of Business at the University of Utah. Jack Brittain is the list
administrator. For subscription information, go to:
http://mailman.business.utah.edu:8080/mailman/listinfo/ailist