Jennifer Garvey Berger, Keith Johnston

Simple Habits for Complex Times

Powerful Practices for Leaders

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Simple Habits for Complex Times teaches leaders three transformational practices that will enable them to thrive in the face of increasingly complex challenges with uncertain outcomes. By learning to take multiple perspectives, ask different questions, and see the system in which they must work, leaders can elevate their performance. This book shows them how.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 272
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. März 2016
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 228mm x 151mm x 20mm
• Gewicht: 424g
• ISBN-13: 9780804799430
• ISBN-10: 0804799431
• Artikelnr.: 44037227

Autorenporträt

Jennifer Garvey Berger and Keith Johnston are founding partners of Cultivating Leadership, a global leadership consultancy. Jennifer is the author of Changing on the Job (Stanford, 2011). Keith is the former Global Chair of Oxfam International. Follow them on CultivatingLeadership.com.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
1Leading the possible
chapter abstract
This chapter introduces what the authors mean about complexity, volatility,
ambiguity and uncertainty (VUCA) that seem to be growing in workplaces and
families. The chapter begins to explore the three habits of mind that frame
the development of the ideas through the other chapters. These habits for
leaders are asking different questions, taking multiple perspectives, and
seeing more of the system.
2Engage With Complexity, But Keep It Simple
chapter abstract
This chapter describes how leading in complex situations requires different
approaches than leading in more knowable contexts based on the use of the
Cynefin framework. The chapter points to the welter of demands on leaders
to simplify to focus on what is most important, to measure progress, and
report on performance. Unfortunately, methods to simplify and focus are
effective when the situation is known or a right answer can be figured out,
but in complex situations, there are too many interconnected variables to
be able to predict what might happen and so quite different methods are
needed to lead effectively. The chapter demonstrates leadership approaches
needed in complexity, including setting a clear direction and boundaries
for the organization or project and then conducting safe-to-fail
experiments to learn the inclinations of the system and discover what works
and what does not.
3Say What You Think, Listening for the Ways You Might Be Wrong
chapter abstract
This chapter argues some of the most profound changes leaders can make to
ways they lead are based on how they engage with people and how they change
their thinking about this. Leaders are rewarded for being good problem
solvers and thus coming to difficult conversations or running meetings,
assuming that other people have problems or are problems that they need to
solve. This chapter offer a new mindset of seeing others as people who make
sense of the world differently and from whom the leader could learn useful
insights and gain a bigger view of the situation. This sensemaker mindset
radically changes how leaders lead. The chapter sets out a simple model for
leaders to follow: giving clear data, separating out feelings and
interpretation, and being genuinely curious and actively listening to the
ways other people are making sense of things.
4Create A Clear Vision For An Unclear Future
chapter abstract
5Make Rational Use Of Human Irrationality
chapter abstract
This chapter applies the insights of derived recent decades from behavioral
economics about the mix of rationality and emotion that is at play in the
ways humans perceive things and make decisions and how this shapes us as
leaders. The authors identify common biases and mindsets leaders need to be
aware of and how they might use this awareness to increase their
effectiveness. Biases highlighted include thinking we are considering all
the data, but seeing only data that supports what we already believe or
have already decided; thinking we consider the future carefully, but being
captured by the past (or superimposing the past on what we say the future
will look like); and how thinking we see the world and our colleagues
clearly, but really mostly judging by using our somewhat paranoid sense of
the intentions we project on them.
6Communicate Your Certainty About Uncertainty
chapter abstract
Theories of effective communications assume crisp clear consistent messages
repeated on many occasions and leaders actually discover crispness,
clarity, and consistency are in short supply when the situation is complex.
Leaders in complex situations need to have different sorts of conversations
from the very beginning. The chapter describes a non-linear process of
communication and the factors leaders need to pay attention to. These
include setting the conditions for the initial direction and the initial
boundaries, communicating a mindset about the direction and boundaries;
Engaging emotions as well as logic and using stories and metaphors;
attaching these ideas to things that have worked in the past; changing the
messages as you learn, and listening well to enable feedback.
7Grow Your People To Be Bigger Than Your Problems
chapter abstract
This chapter applies the ideas of adult development to how leaders might
build organizations better equipped to work in conditions of volatility,
uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. This depends on beginning with a
mindset that people can grow and understand the world differently. From
that basis, adult development theories can provide a growth framework for
understanding how different adults may make sense of these challenges and
how to change organizational practices to have work be a place where people
are able to grow their capabilities. The chapter also provides examples of
a number of organizational policies or values that are intended to do good
things and also, perversely, may constrain people's development in the
workplace. These include commitments such as hiring the smartest people,
holding people accountable for results, using competition to sharpen
people's performance, and always treating people the same.
8Lead Change as the New Normal
chapter abstract
This chapter presents a change model for leaders working in complex
adaptive situations. The authors make the point that the ways leaders are
required to be different during times of uncertainty and complexity are the
same ways leaders can intentionally use to create a change in their
organization (also a time of complexity and uncertainty). The core elements
of this model are: Determining what's predictable and what's not, and
leaning in to the unpredictable settings; creating a feedback rich
organization to support constant learning; choosing direction and building
guardrails; examine the present situation and looking for the current
patterns of attraction; experimentingand learning; communicating clearly in
uncertain times; and, all the while, developing a growth mindset in
yourself and others.