Who says elephant can’t dance: Micro Review
Yesterday, I felt like I needed a pick me up read for the weekend. I am pretty sure, you have that feeling some days :) I landed on a re-read of the classic by Louis Gerstner on IBM’s transformation.
And YES, it’s possible to effect change in large organizations. It can be painful, hard and may require lot of perseverance. But have a good intent, keep your head down, ignore the politics and keep working.
An apt case study & since IBM is huge so this is an exaggerated example of that. Here are my favorite excerpts from the book that resonated:
In a section titled <A culture of “No”>, he describes “…a culture in which no one would say yes, but everyone could say no. This led to unconscionable delay in reaching decisions, duplicate effort….”
“What I discovered was that senior executives often presided. They organized work, then waited to review it when it was done. You were a worker early in your career, but once you climbed to the top, your role was to preside over a process. Well, my kind of executives dig into the details, work the problems day to day, and lead by example, not title. They take personal ownership of and responsibility for the end result. They see themselves as drivers rather than as a box high on the organization chart.”
#culture #transformation
