Many years ago I used pamphlet-sized yellow books with black, notched-line borders called Cliff´s Notes ® to pass literature tests rather than read the full literary works assigned in class. Being a typical student with underused brainpower, my goal was to find out how much I could get away with to do well in exams and papers with minimum expended study. Of course when we pass into adulthood with responsibilities, we realize that if we spent half as much time in school doing what we were supposed to be doing instead of trying to get out of as much work as we could, we would have been so much more effective as students. Such is youth.
I now peruse bookstores and see that these venerable summaries are still around. Several generations now attribute their advanced degrees, in part, to passing tests thanks to Cliff´s Notes ®. For the uninitiated, Cliff´s Notes ® are easy-to-read summaries of literature and other topics. Today there are business versions of Cliff´s Notes ® for busy executives. Leading business books are summarized on CDs and for downloads so that decision makers with too-tight schedules can keep up-to-date on current latest theories and practices.
While recently preparing to facilitate a workshop, I researched organizational and management theories to compare and summarize. My workshop was to provide an MBA (Masters of Business Administration) degree´s worth of models in 90 minutes...typical conference workshop challenge! During my research I came across a succinct summary of organizational, group, and individual models to which I was exposed in business school and corporate management. The following is a summary of the summary-sort of a Cliff´s Notes ® of Cliff´s Notes ®-that will help you better understand (or review) some of the prevalent and long-lasting business and human development models. Exposure to these models helps you communicate at the decision-making table.
Organizational Model
7S Framework or the McKinsey 7S Model
Richard Pascale, Anthony Athos, Tom Peters, and Robert Waterman combined resources in the 1980´s to develop this model. Managers must consider seven interdependent factors to ensure a strategy is successfully implemented. The seven factors are:
- Structure: The organization of people and work tasks.
- Systems: Linked processes and information flow.
- Style: Management behavior.
- Staff: Management development.
- Strategy: Actions.
- Superordinate Goals: Long-term vision and values that shape the organization´s future.
- Skills: Capabilities and attributes.
For further study, reference: The Art of Japanese Management. Pascale and Athos. ISBN0446302929; In Search of Excellence-Lessons from America´s Best Run Companies. Peters and Waterman. ISBN0060548789; Managing on the Edge. Pascale. ISBN0671732854.
Group Models
The Three Circles
John Adair, in the 1970´s, found that effective leaders give their attention to three areas of team members´ needs. Team members have needs relating to the task, to the team itself, and to themselves as individuals. This basic model is drawn as three circles that overlap each other, with each circle being one of the three identified needs. A leader may vary emphasis on any one circle at any time. In order for a team to be most effective, its leader must pay attention to all three of the following needs (circles):
- Task needs - Clear goals and objectives, and process management.
- Team needs - Interpersonal interaction, shared work, and communication within and outside the team.
- Individual needs - How individuals feel and behave; vary by person.
For further study, reference: 100 Greatest Ideas for Effective Leadership and Management. John Adair. ISBN1841121401.
Belbin´s Eight Team Roles
Meredith Belbin identified that successful teams include people who fill eight roles within the team. These eight roles-defined succinctly, yet intermixed in practice-are as important as team members´ experiences and technical skills.
- Extrovert roles involve people who look to the world outside the group and beyond the tasks at hand. These roles include the plant (an innovator full of radical ideas; imaginative); the resource investigator (extrovert with connections outside the team; creates atmosphere that welcomes new ideas); the chairman (ensures everyone contributes and guides team to success; decisive); and the shaper (always in motion; sometimes impatient).
- Introvert roles involve people who are primarily concerned with relationships and tasks within the group. These roles include the monitor evaluator (monitors progress to prevent mistakes; assessing and prudent); the team worker (provides the informal support and networking that keeps the team together); the company worker (turns plans into actions; keeps team focused on tasks at hand); and the completer finisher (ensures the team delivers to deadlines; follows up well).
For further study, reference: Team Roles at Work. Belbin. ISBN0750626755.
Five Stages of Group Development
Bruce Tuckman identified five succinct stages through which groups progress from the time they first come together through the time they disband. A change in a group´s structure sends the group back to previous stages, through which it must work its way again. A less emphasized, yet more important benefit to understanding this model is to discover how to create conditions that help groups move through these five stages to productive states, more efficiently.
The five stages of group development include:
- Forming - When a group first assembles, individuals are polite and avoid serious issues and feelings.
- Storming - Politeness ends and individual roles and responsibilities are defined.
- Norming - The group has a clear grasp of their tasks and identifies the contributors and detractors. Individuals come to understand, or at least accept, each other.
- Performing - Individuals give-and-take in order to achieve the group´s goals. A group identity develops and individuals are loyal to the group.
- Adjourning - The purpose of the group´s forming comes to an end. Individuals feel a sense of achievement as they separate and move on.
For further study, reference: Forming Storming Norming Performing: Successful Communication in Groups and Teams.Egolf. ISBN0595204449.
Six Thinking Hats
Edward de Bono defined six distinctive ways in which people think. These definitions-fun and descriptive-provide a common language for people to communicate appropriate and inappropriate approaches to situations with each other. The six hat colors and their definitions are:
- White-hat thinking - concerned with facts and figures; objective.
- Red-hat thinking - concerned with anger and rage.
- Black-hat thinking - negative thinking; pessimistic outlook.
- Yellow-hat thinking - positive thinking; optimistic outlook.
- Green-hat thinking - creative; abundant ideas.
- Blue-hat thinking - concerned with controlling and organizing the thinking process.
For further study, reference: Six Thinking Hats. de Bono. ISBN0316178314.
Situational Leadership
Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey created a model in the 1960´s that ties four leadership behaviors to four development levels. People in leadership positions-whether formal managers or informal leaders-lead using one of four leadership styles or behaviors (simplified). People who are led (followers) produce their best results when managed in one of four ways, depending on their development (skill) levels in a given situation.
The leadership styles include:
- Directing (S1) - Leader defines tasks and roles and closely supervises. Communication and decisions are primarily one way from leader to follower.
- Coaching (S2) - Leader defines and decides, yet is open to ideas and suggestions from follower.
- Supporting (S3) - Leader takes part in, yet delegates, decisions to followers. Control is with follower.
- Delegating (S4) - Follower decides the level of the leader´s involvement.
The development styles (of the follower) include:
- High Competence/High Commitment (D4) - Experienced and comfortable with own ability. May be more skilled than the leader.
- High Competence/Low Commitment (D3) - Experienced and capable but lacks confidence or motivation to perform.
- Low Competence/High Commitment (D2) - Inexperienced or unable to perform without help. Willing to try even though the task is new.
- Low Competence/Low Commitment (D1) - Lacks specific skills required to perform and lacks confidence and motivation to try.
For further study, reference: Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness Through Situational Leadership. Blanchard and Zigarmi. ISBN0688039693.
To Be Continued
The next set of models define "the individual" as compared to the group or organization. Individual models give structure to defining and understanding what makes us tick as individuals. When we understand ourselves, we can then decide whether to, and in turn how to, interact with other people (and their own defined selves) in ways presumably better than we currently interact.
The individual models are addressed in Part 2 of this article à Cliff´s Notes ® of Organizational Theory - Part 2.
BONUS: For a challenging maze puzzle that summarizes five approaches to organizational design structure, download the file "maze puzzle - OD_5 Approaches to Org Design (handout).pdf" from www.springboardtraining.com/links.htmlà Leadership & Organization Development. If you enjoy the puzzle, let me know by sending a note to Sylvia@springboardtraining.com with the subject line "Maze Puzzle - 5 Approaches".
