Six years ago, Google's IPO was the most hotly anticipated public offering of the year. But in classic Google style, the offering was neither typical nor uneventful. Here's the story of how the process began, what it involved, and the obstacles the company encountered along the way.
Some leaders drain all the intelligence and capability out of their teams. Because they need to be the most capable person in the room, these managers shut down the smarts of others, ultimately stifling the flow of ideas. At the other extreme are leaders who care less about flaunting their own IQs and more about fostering a culture of intelligence in their companies. Under these "multipliers," employees don't just feel smarter; they become smarter. This article explores the ways in which multipliers manage five areas-talent, culture, strategy, decision making, and execution-much differently than their less-enlightened colleagues (the diminishers).
Sally Randolph, chief medical officer at American Medical Center, has just learned that the CEO is cancelling the Evidence-Based Management seminar she has run for the past year. Sally and the seminar participants had worked hard to introduce the approach, which advocates basing all decisions on carefully gathered and rigorously assessed data. Although the seminar yielded thoughtful solutions to some of the center's trickiest management problems-such as uncoordinated patient care-the medical chiefs rejected them. Now the CEO wants to set up task forces, staffed with middle managers who were seminar participants, to try to sustain the evidence-based approach and to carry out a new strategic plan: creating Centers of Excellence, in the hope of boosting patient volume. Although he says that he values the evidence-based approach, Sally fears that he is merely paying lip service. Her challenge is making sure the approach doesn't fade away. She can try to gradually prove the value of evidence-based management within her own jurisdiction (regulating quality and control) or push for its implementation across the entire center immediately, as a central part of the CEO's strategic plan. Two experts comment on this fictional case study in R1005L and R1005Z.
Sally Randolph, chief medical officer at American Medical Center, has just learned that the CEO is cancelling the Evidence-Based Management seminar she has run for the past year. Sally and the seminar participants had worked hard to introduce the approach, which advocates basing all decisions on carefully gathered and rigorously assessed data. Although the seminar yielded thoughtful solutions to some of the center's trickiest management problems-such as uncoordinated patient care-the medical chiefs rejected them. Now the CEO wants to set up task forces, staffed with middle managers who were seminar participants, to try to sustain the evidence-based approach and to carry out a new strategic plan: creating Centers of Excellence, in the hope of boosting patient volume. Although he says that he values the evidence-based approach, Sally fears that he is merely paying lip service. Her challenge is making sure the approach doesn't fade away. She can try to gradually prove the value of evidence-based management within her own jurisdiction (regulating quality and control) or push for its implementation across the entire center immediately, as a central part of the CEO's strategic plan. Two experts comment on this fictional case study in R1005L and R1005Z.
Sally Randolph, chief medical officer at American Medical Center, has just learned that the CEO is cancelling the Evidence-Based Management seminar she has run for the past year. Sally and the seminar participants had worked hard to introduce the approach, which advocates basing all decisions on carefully gathered and rigorously assessed data. Although the seminar yielded thoughtful solutions to some of the center's trickiest management problems-such as uncoordinated patient care-the medical chiefs rejected them. Now the CEO wants to set up task forces, staffed with middle managers who were seminar participants, to try to sustain the evidence-based approach and to carry out a new strategic plan: creating Centers of Excellence, in the hope of boosting patient volume. Although he says that he values the evidence-based approach, Sally fears that he is merely paying lip service. Her challenge is making sure the approach doesn't fade away. She can try to gradually prove the value of evidence-based management within her own jurisdiction (regulating quality and control) or push for its implementation across the entire center immediately, as a central part of the CEO's strategic plan. Two experts comment on this fictional case study in R1005L and R1005Z.
The business world's preoccupation with predictability and quantitative analysis has not gotten us very far, the author argues. For instance, none of the economic forecasting organizations predicted that the economy would shrink in 2008, let alone that it would crater as disastrously as it did. Our complex world is like a spirited race horse, he says. The harder we tug on the reins to control it, the more it resists to prove a point: it is not a machine that responds the way a user manual suggests it will; rather, our world is an intensely complicated, ambiguous system of systems that defies comprehensive quantification. Such an environment demands a lesser-known form of analysis -- one that pays attention to qualities (i.e. important aspects of a problem that cannot be measured) rather than just quantities. The author argues that if we are to face today's complex challenges, we must build up 'qualitative intelligence'.
The complex problems we face go by many names, including 'social messes', 'wicked problems' and 'big hairy problems'. As the definitions of 'ends' (where to go) and 'means' (how to get there) become more ambiguous and the number of variables increases, the difficulty of solving such problems intensifies dramatically-a difference not just in scale of problem, but in kind. The author argues that such enigmatic problems comprise features identical to those routinely found in the arts-including uncertainty, ambiguity, complexity, uniqueness and interdependence between ends and means. As a result, she says, complex problems can be treated as opportunities for artistry -- but only if we enter the world of qualitative thought and experience, where judgment and imagination take their place alongside quantitative analysis and deductive reasoning.
Slowly but surely, modern managers are realizing that the complex situations they face cannot be approached in a routine manner. Indeed, the quest for creative solutions has become pervasive. But for creativity to truly add value to an organization, managers must first understand its core principles. In this article the authors define those principles, which include personal creativity, process creativity and collective creativity. They also highlight the critical role that imagination, inspiration and intuition still have to play in modern business.
A new source of inspiration for creative leadership and development comes from the world of the Arts. While the Arts have inspired people for centuries, greater attention is now being paid to learning from artists themselves. In their work with artists and business people the authors have uncovered two key approaches for applying artistic methods in business: the development of artful capabilities and competencies and the ability to conceptualize and prototype. In this article they examine how theatre directors use these skills and present a possible new model for creative leadership.
Today more than ever, business growth requires new ways of looking at the world. Unfortunately, most people don't know how to go about looking at their landscape in new ways. Too often, they continue to look at the world in the same way they always have, only to be surprised and disappointed when they don't discover anything new. In this article the authors present seven 'ways of looking' at the world around you that will enhance your ability to see possibilities that do not yet exist.
It takes a stubborn person to remain an artist in a society that values conformity, and the authors argue that it will take the same courage and tenacity in organizations to create a culture where adults can reconnect with their innate artistic capacities. In their research, they have peeled back the outer layers of creative methods to reveal the underpinnings of the 'artistic mindset'. In doing so, they have identified a capacity that they call Aesthetic Intelligence (AI), which is comprised of three elements: presence, authenticity and synthesis. When integrated into the fabric of organizational life, AI can inform strategy and process and holds the potential to energize leadership and performance.
The design and production of new products and services is an endeavor that calls for the skills and experience of interdisciplinary teams to get the job done. Yet, as a half-century of research makes abundantly clear, teamwork is difficult. The competing viewpoints that promote creative ideas and sound decision-making can also lead to conflicts that waste precious time and erode relationships. The authors present five key challenges faced by new product development teams and describe how these very challenges can lead to positive outcomes such as project management skills, broad perspectives, expanded networks and boundary-spanning skills.
While play is a familiar concept, as a topic of serious inquiry it is among the least-studied and least-understood organizational behaviors -- despite the fact that the Social Sciences have long associated play with creative functioning. The authors define play as a way of organizing behavior that consists of five elements: threshold experience; boundaries in time and space; uncertainty, freedom and constraint; flexibility between ends and means; and positive affect. While the cost of play can be inefficiency, errors or dead ends, the authors argue that the cost of not playing may actually be even more severe to organizations whose survival and prosperity depend upon creative ability.
Design thinking has received a great deal of attention as increasing numbers of organizations succeed in solving complex problems by creative means. In doing so, many of these firms have focused on implementing specific 'design methods' - from observational research to iterative prototyping to storytelling-alongside more mainstream approaches. But as any professional designer will attest, design thinking entails much more than applying such methods: to create value, methods must be applied together with design sensibilities. The author explains what design sensibilities are and describes innovations from Altoids to Virgin America that embody the optimal balancing of design methods with design sensibilities.
Differences in behavior and associated gender stereotypes derive from the different norms and expectations associated with the social roles that men and women typically hold. The stereotypes are all-too familiar: men are better at math, women at communicating; men make better military officers, women better caregivers. As a result, occupations, jobs and tasks become gender-typed as 'male' or 'female' according to the gender of the typical incumbent. The authors report their findings, which suggest that the additional scrutiny of being a solo member of one's gender -- whether self-imposed or imposed by others -- can be either beneficial or detrimental to performance, depending on the typicality of the task relative to one's gender.
Arts Education champion and Stanford Professor Emeritus Elliot Eisner discusses how the Arts can inspire business and how we can continue to develop artistically throughout our lives. Unlike our brains, he says, our minds are not entirely given at birth: they are a form of cultural achievement. The kind of mind you develop is profoundly influenced by your experiences and learning opportunities, and as a result, artistry can be fostered by how we 'design' the environments we inhabit. Eisner argues that as we learn in and through the Arts, we become more qualitatively intelligent and our consciousness is affected in many ways: our senses are refined so that our ability to experience the world is made more complex and subtle; our imaginative capacities are promoted so that we can envision what we cannot actually see, taste, touch or hear; and we experience the world in new ways.
In the spring of 2010, Intel was regarded as an important champion for a new broadband technology called WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access). WiMAX transmitted large amounts of data over radio signals, and offered much greater range than Wi-Fi. It also offered much faster connection speeds than 3G networks run by AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. WiMAX was a new space for Intel, and the company hoped it would yield the same type of profitability and success for Intel that Wi-Fi had. Between October 2008 and May 2010, Intel had joined forces with Clearwire, Sprint, Motorola and other partners to launch WiMAX in about 30 U.S. cities. Intel's vision for the deployment of WiMAX evolved from fixed wireless (for broadband connectivity to homes and businesses) to portable wireless (laptops) to mobile wireless (handheld devices and high-end smart phones), as the company spent billions of dollars on acquisitions and investments in the WiMAX arena. But Intel faced many challenges with WiMAX. A large infrastructure would have to be built from the ground up in the U.S. and around the world, and WiMAX needed a least a few major cellular operators to choose it as their next-generation (4G) technology. Intel would have to create a new 4G ecosystem to convince equipment manufactures to embed WiMAX technology in its devices. In addition, WiMAX faced stiff competition from other new wireless technologies, including LTE (Long Term Evolution), which AT&T and Verizon planned to use when they upgraded from 3G to 4G technology. Although WiMAX had a two- to three-year lead over LTE, the size of the mobile operators already committed to LTE threatened to make WiMAX a niche technology.