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Following up on that conference regarding leadership transformation and what I called ‘Theory of Business’ Bryan and I discussed the situation with the client and brainstormed possible activities the group could participate in to move them along with their intended outcomes – which are to begin to understand how their leadership performance impacts their bottom line results and their measure of employee satisfaction. Their current business results are reasonable but the scores on things like trust are poor.

We want to have the participants engage in a dialog with each other about what they hope to learn and how they see themselves growing and how they hope to shift their behaviors – then, if they choose to, they can have a coaching experience in the next 9 or 10 months going forward.

We thought it would be important to give participants a visceral experience – intellectual, physical (kinesthetic), and visual experience of their view of leadership as well as an exploration of how other organizations are experiencing leadership so they can develop a wider ‘portfolio’ of leadership options.

Some of the work needs to be done individually and some of the work needs to be done in small groups.

Individual explorations could include:

• What matters to you?
• What’s working and where have we been at our best?
• Build a portfolio of successful behaviors and results (examples of things that they like – quotes, statements, images of the way we think about people, management, etc.).
• What is your best experience of being a team?
• What is your best experience of being lead?What is your best experience of being a leader?
• What is your concept of an ideal leader? organization?
• What’s the difference between leadership and management? Different experiences of management and leadership.

We came up with some options for materials that could be introduced from outside their organization that might shed light on other ways of doing things. The two primary suggestion we had were works by Ricardo Semler and works by Alfie Kohn.

The Semler options could include:

April 1, 2004

Ricardo Semler: Set Them Free By Brad Wieners

For nearly 25 years, Ricardo Semler, CEO of Brazil-based Semco, has let his employees set their own hours, wages, even choose their own IT. The result: increased productivity, long-term loyalty and phenomenal growth. Can his radical approach work for you?

http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1397,1569009,00.asp

Case Study Abstract

(pdf file) This case introduces Ricardo Semler, CEO of Brazil’s Semco S.A., one of the world’s most respected champions of organizational change. The case portrays the internal turmoil Semoco faces as ownership is passed from father to son, and the company reaches the decline stage of its business cycle. The radically changing Brazilian economy serves as the backdrop and provides a compounded sense of environmental chaos as the company evolves from a culture based on paternalistic, command-oriented management to a highly democratic, participative management structure.

http://www.thunderbird.edu/pdf/about_us/case_series/a15980024.pdf

14th of September 2003

“Semco has no receptionists, secretaries, or personal assistants. All employees, Semler included, receive their own guests, make their own copies, and draft and send their own correspondence. There are no private offices, workers set their own hours, and office attire is at the discretion of each employee. Job titles carry little formal status since all workers are actively encouraged to question and constructively criticize their peers and managers.”

This is a nice little 12 paged summary about Ricardo Semler and his Semco S.A. company.

(pdf file) http://www.t-bird.edu/pdf/about_us/case_series/a07980024.pdf

Ricardo Semler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Semler

The Alfie Kohn options could include:

Alfie Kohn’s web site

or his articles on management

The workshop would include small group activities exploring real applications to their work environment. One option we came up with was for this group to draft a revised HR manual with new leadership principles and guidelines. The group could also design some experiments they could try to see if results change.

The workshop will allow each participant to build their own models of leadership, explore options for changing behaviors and allow for follow on work on an individual basis – by individual choice.