what’s your recipe? charles leadbeater. what’s your recipe? which are you?
TRANSCRIPT
What’s your recipe?
Charles Leadbeater
What’s Your Recipe?
Which are you?
What’s Your Recipe?
Everything seems to be changing
Science and technology Values Demography Environment Geography Social structures
What’s Your Recipe?
Change : a cause for pessimism
Environment degrading Morals in disarray Family collapsing Culture dumbing down Politics by media sound bite Democracy corrupted War always on the horizon Globalisation = a gale of disorder
What’s Your Recipe?
Change : causes for optimism
People living much longer lives Democratic cultures spread by media, Internet World more interconnected Education spreading Position of women improving, somewhat Technological innovation critical to environment Asia: tens of millions lifted from poverty every year
What’s Your Recipe?
Change : optimism & pessimism
Private optimism, about our lives, families Public pessimism about the state of the world
The two come together in organisations
Organisations provide people with a sense of private identity But critical to how we cope with the world together
What’s Your Recipe?
Change : optimism & pessimism in society
Anti GlobalisationStudents, ethnic minoritiesLeft populism
New ageDownshifting
Rural protestsRight national populism: Europe
MelancholyNostalgia
Confrontation Retreat
Radical
Reactionary
What’s Your Recipe?
Change :optimism, pessimism & organisations
Adapt entrepreneuriallyCreate new business modelsVery risky
As long as what I do doesn’t change I don’t mind what is going on around me
Get back to basics but with a vengeance, cut costs, streamlineVery tough
Do you remember the old days when things were so much better?
Confrontation Retreat
Radical
Reactionary
What’s Your Recipe?
Why change?
Is it really necessary? Leadership as teaching, breaking up closed mindsets
What’s Your Recipe?
Why change?
Is it really necessary? Leadership as teaching, breaking up closed mindsets
Is it really rational? Confronting conventional wisdom in successful organisation
What’s Your Recipe?
Why change?
Is it really necessary? Leadership as teaching, breaking up closed mindsets
Is it really rational? Confronting conventional wisdom in successful organisation
Is it really possible?Building capacity for it: the more you do the easier it gets
What’s Your Recipe?
Why change?
Is it really necessary? Leadership as teaching, breaking up closed mindsets
Is it really rational? Confronting conventional wisdom in successful organisation
Is it really possible?Building capacity for it: the more you do the easier it gets
Does it make sense?Companies often act to confirm their view of the world
What’s Your Recipe?
Why change? Karl Weick: Sensemaking in Organisations
Rational sense making only works when conditions are stable Often rational sensemaking is a façade We make sense of the world to justify the roles we play Live life forwards but make sense of what we do backwards Act first, make sense later Changing how we make sense of world is v protracted and emotional Not just because the world is hard to understand but we are
What’s Your Recipe?
Understanding forces of change
Systematic Accelerating Non-linear Viruses and epidemics Margins become the mainstream From complicated to complex systems
What’s Your Recipe?
Rise of the knowledge economy
1912US Steel AnacondaExxon General ElectricCoats SingerPullman NavistarShell Sears
What’s Your Recipe?
Rise of the knowledge economy
1998Microsoft IntelGeneral Electric ShellMerck ExxonToyota IBMNovartis Coke
What’s Your Recipe?
Rise of the knowledge economy
1912 1998US Steel MicrosoftExxon General ElectricCoats MerckPullman ToyotaAnaconda NovartisGeneral Electric IntelSinger IBMNavistar ShellShell ExxonSears Coke
What’s Your Recipe?
Organisations of change
Adaptive, nimble, agile organisations able to learn fast about environment around them, sense opportunities and mobilise resources to exploit them
What’s Your Recipe?
Organisations of change
Adaptive, nimble, agile organisations able to learn fast about environment around them, sense opportunities and mobilise resources to exploit them
But organisations that just do that would be in perpetual turmoil, constantly reinventing themselves
What’s Your Recipe?
Organisations of change
So as well as being adaptive, nimble and agile organisations need to have a sense of stability, continuity and purpose
But a sense of stability that does not inhibit ability to adapt
What does that optimum mix of stability and flux come from?
What’s Your Recipe?
Recipes and cakes
Are you a cake maker? Find the one best way to make your cake as cheaply as
possible Markets with low innovation and uncertainty Structured, hierarchical coordination
What’s Your Recipe?
Recipes and cakes
Are you a recipe maker?
Combine ingredients to create new services and markets Markets with faster, fundamental innovation and more
uncertainty New business recipes require new business models
What’s Your Recipe?
Recipes and cakes
Can you make cakes and create new recipes, one feeding the other?
Being a cake maker is increasingly competitive And new ideas are going to come from many more sources
What’s Your Recipe?
Organisations that change and stay stable
Simplicity and reliability Efficient and low cost Limited hierarchy and bureaucracy But also capable of learning and adapting at all levels
What’s Your Recipe?
US Army
Lessons learned to simple rules
What’s Your Recipe?
e-Bay
The community leads the company
What’s Your Recipe?
Heathrow Airport
How would you stay in control if you were running it?
What’s Your Recipe?
Nokia
Common culture and values, networks and open leadership
What’s Your Recipe?
Lego organisations
Modularity allows many different tasks to proceed in parallel Central architecture allows the modules to click together Arup: The Second Avenue subway project
What’s Your Recipe?
Southwest Airlines
Dare to have a point of view…what’s your recipe = what’s your story?