“Tempered Radicals”
By Debra E. Meyerson
Harvard Business School Press, 2001
We know some of them – occupying positions of responsibility among the top 1,000 corporations or wielding influence in the corridors of power. They are the “activists” in an organizational community, seeming “poor fits” that cannot somehow be assimilated in the dominant culture.
He could be an environmental activist in a power generation company. On one hand, management could not make heads or tails about him, but, on the other, management seeks his insight into the phenomenon of a protest group which has raised an issue that couldn’t seem to go away.
She could be a feminist advocate in an engineering firm whose culture is defined by “male chauvinists.” Would she be co-opted into the dominant behavior and thus give up her commitment to a larger cause, or would she be a necessary gadfly pricking the conscience and pride of self-satisfied males?
How many of these mavericks survive? And how many give up the fight and melt into the solvent of the majority, losing identity, swallowing their pride and being untrue to themselves?
This is doubtless a riveting subject. And this is the subject of “Tempered Radicals,” sub-titled “How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work.”
It deals with “poor fits” in the organization, whose values and interests are at odds with the dominant culture.
Are they useful at all to organizations, which must run like a well-oiled machine? Author Debra E. Meyerson, professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, points out: “By asserting the non-conforming aspects of oneself, the tempered radical can pave the way for learning and change by questioning current practice and expectations and providing an alternative.”
That is because this activist person brings an entirely new perspective, asks disturbing questions – and therefore paves the way for new ideas.
Remember the child who declared the truth that the “the emperor had no clothes on”? Everyone in the kingdom knew that the ruler did not have anything on, but there was one boy who had the courage to tell the truth.
This is typical in the corporate world. Conformists would rather play safe, especially when the boss is espousing a “great” idea. It takes a non-conformist to contest such an idea. It is always a risky proposition. But, it could also be rewarding.
Based on 15 years of research and observation, the book reveals that adaptive, diverse, family-friendly, and socially responsible workplaces are built not by revolutionaries but by those the author calls “tempered radicals” – “people who successfully walk the tightrope between conformity and rebellion.”
The individuals have varying styles at introducing change within their organizations. At times, when change is difficult, if not impossible, these peope – to be “true to themselves” – take on responsibilities outside their work that give them self-fulfillment.
The book speaks about a a lawyer who volunteered his servies in a legal rights center to follow his commitment to fight injustice. The book calls this “designing behind the scenes actions” in order to make a difference.
The book’s research reveals that those who were successful in being true to their own values did not go for big wins, or earthshaking steps that would revolutionize their organizations. That could have been a surefire formula for being fired. What they did was to “leverage small wins” over time.
A chapter is devoted to how these tempered radicals organize for collective action, a process that requires the “essential skills of leadership,” the author says.
The tension remains when you are a maverick in your own organization. It is “difficult to navigate between competing pulls and sustains selves at odds with one another.” The sad thing is some peope finally give up one side of their selves or the other.
The book offers a way to “to resist lures to conform.” She advises that tempered radicals can make ongoing deliberate efforts to maintain affiliations, to make explicit the connection between their local efforts and their broader significance.
Possibly the most fundamental thing to remember about successful tempered radicals is that they know who they are and what is important to their sense of self. It’s a decision one has to make, the book says. Above all, tempered radicals reserve the choice to be an agent rather than a victim of their circumstances, and with this stance comes a tremendous sense of freedom and power.
Tempered radicals inspire change. Yet their leadership resides equally in their capacity to inspire people. They do inspire by having the courage to tell the truth even when it’s difficult to do so.
If you somehow fit into this category, or you are awed by the success or survival of tempered radicals in your firm, this book gives you a deeper insight into these mavericks who ask disturbing questions but who, in the final analysis, have tremendous value to the long-term existence of your organization.
Sunday, December 23, 2001
Sunday, December 09, 2001
Consulting work in bite-size options
“The Consultants Tool Kit”
Edited by Mel Silberman
McGraw-Hill, 2001
Consultants abound in the business world – and are, in the main, truly of help to organizations seeking the cutting edge in their strategy, managing change to cope with a profoundly altered environment, realizing new efficiencies in operations, making inroads into new markets – and a host of other solutions.
While most consultants, no doubt, have a place in the scheme of things in business, some are favorite targets of wit and jests – especially when they prove themselves superfluous in a world where the bottom line is non-negotiable.
A humorists, Jeanne Robertson, defines consultant as “someone who borrows your watch and charges to tell you the time” -- a definition that points to consulting work that, at best, overstates the obvious or, at worst, needlessly doubles the work.
Arnold Glasow points to consultants’ fees, saying: “A consultant is someone who saves his client almost enough to pay his fee.”
Be that as it may, consultants will be around for a long time. Their importance in the corporate mainstream is such that U.S. business spends over $3 billion annually on consultants. We don’t have the figures on consultants’ compensations in Philippine business, but the proliferation of auditing firms doubling up as consultants – aside from counselors in marketing drives, IT, change management, risk handling, corporate communications, etc. – proves that our consultants are also handsomely paid.
Which should really be the case, if you ask me, if such consultants prove to be corporate turnaround artists, marketing wizards and productive experts with positive impact on rising revenues and falling costs. The message, therefore, is for consultants to continually prove their worth – and thus continually sharpen their skills, expand their scope and deepen their knowledge of the business.
There is a book that will prove useful to consultants hereabouts – “The Consultant’s Tool Kit.” Veteran players in the game need it to assure them that not a single consultancy service is missed. New entrants in the consulting business will need it, not only to start right, but to know the full range of services they can offer.
For example, Part I alone, provides the reader 13 assessment questionnaires – from finding out if the firm’s business strategy makes sense” to establishing the “client’s leadership competencies.” Consultants are in the best position to make such assessments – first, because they have the advantage of detachment and objectivity; and second, management at times would not dare “rock the boat” themselves.
From evaluating the firm’s operations in various areas, the consultant is also treated to “hot-to-guides” for solving client’s problems. There! Consutlants are supposed to have a “bag of tricks” of a “panacea” to companies’ lingering problems.
You may not cure all, but at least your methodology creates the climate of an entire company geared for solutions. Before you know it, proving once again the theory of “self-fulfilling prophecy,” the company is well on its way to stumbling into the ultimate solution.
You have a menu of from “how to lead effective meetings” (do you think it’s ever easy?) to “how to move your client from training to performance improvement.” This proceeds from the established fact that “training alone is insufficient to bridge most performance gaps.” Editor Mel Silberman, Ph.D., points out that “trainers need to develop more comprehensive interventions that include incentive systems, communications technologies, environmental redesign,” etc.
Finally, Part III, offers 17 “intervention activities to increase your client’s effectiveness.” This is a section for facilitators for various group activities that enhance their skills and deepen their insights on quality, tem-building, organization change, dealing with resistance, etc. Who says business is not fun? These exercises lead them to solve puzzles, read people’s minds and hurdle many forms of resistance – ala- “Survivor Africa.”
This book of 354 pages is full of insights, suggestions, illustrations all the way into the 354th page. The editor, featuring 45 top professionals in their fields, wasted mo space in giving the veteran or start-up consultant needs to start with a strong beginning, sustain his consulting practice, and make him or her enjoy every engagement that follows.
Did you ever think consulting work is the refuge of the retiree, the unemployed, the “corporate isolate”? Think again. If you get hold of this tool kit, you will realize consulting work is a world of vast possibilities where you can try almost anything. But, first things first:
Make a persuasive pitch for your prospective client to try your “new idea.” And then, when you get the client’s green light, give the job you best shot, decide that you will enjoy the entire exercise, truly bring your client to a new level of success or growth. You will realize that the financial rewards are simple side benefits.
Edited by Mel Silberman
McGraw-Hill, 2001
Consultants abound in the business world – and are, in the main, truly of help to organizations seeking the cutting edge in their strategy, managing change to cope with a profoundly altered environment, realizing new efficiencies in operations, making inroads into new markets – and a host of other solutions.
While most consultants, no doubt, have a place in the scheme of things in business, some are favorite targets of wit and jests – especially when they prove themselves superfluous in a world where the bottom line is non-negotiable.
A humorists, Jeanne Robertson, defines consultant as “someone who borrows your watch and charges to tell you the time” -- a definition that points to consulting work that, at best, overstates the obvious or, at worst, needlessly doubles the work.
Arnold Glasow points to consultants’ fees, saying: “A consultant is someone who saves his client almost enough to pay his fee.”
Be that as it may, consultants will be around for a long time. Their importance in the corporate mainstream is such that U.S. business spends over $3 billion annually on consultants. We don’t have the figures on consultants’ compensations in Philippine business, but the proliferation of auditing firms doubling up as consultants – aside from counselors in marketing drives, IT, change management, risk handling, corporate communications, etc. – proves that our consultants are also handsomely paid.
Which should really be the case, if you ask me, if such consultants prove to be corporate turnaround artists, marketing wizards and productive experts with positive impact on rising revenues and falling costs. The message, therefore, is for consultants to continually prove their worth – and thus continually sharpen their skills, expand their scope and deepen their knowledge of the business.
There is a book that will prove useful to consultants hereabouts – “The Consultant’s Tool Kit.” Veteran players in the game need it to assure them that not a single consultancy service is missed. New entrants in the consulting business will need it, not only to start right, but to know the full range of services they can offer.
For example, Part I alone, provides the reader 13 assessment questionnaires – from finding out if the firm’s business strategy makes sense” to establishing the “client’s leadership competencies.” Consultants are in the best position to make such assessments – first, because they have the advantage of detachment and objectivity; and second, management at times would not dare “rock the boat” themselves.
From evaluating the firm’s operations in various areas, the consultant is also treated to “hot-to-guides” for solving client’s problems. There! Consutlants are supposed to have a “bag of tricks” of a “panacea” to companies’ lingering problems.
You may not cure all, but at least your methodology creates the climate of an entire company geared for solutions. Before you know it, proving once again the theory of “self-fulfilling prophecy,” the company is well on its way to stumbling into the ultimate solution.
You have a menu of from “how to lead effective meetings” (do you think it’s ever easy?) to “how to move your client from training to performance improvement.” This proceeds from the established fact that “training alone is insufficient to bridge most performance gaps.” Editor Mel Silberman, Ph.D., points out that “trainers need to develop more comprehensive interventions that include incentive systems, communications technologies, environmental redesign,” etc.
Finally, Part III, offers 17 “intervention activities to increase your client’s effectiveness.” This is a section for facilitators for various group activities that enhance their skills and deepen their insights on quality, tem-building, organization change, dealing with resistance, etc. Who says business is not fun? These exercises lead them to solve puzzles, read people’s minds and hurdle many forms of resistance – ala- “Survivor Africa.”
This book of 354 pages is full of insights, suggestions, illustrations all the way into the 354th page. The editor, featuring 45 top professionals in their fields, wasted mo space in giving the veteran or start-up consultant needs to start with a strong beginning, sustain his consulting practice, and make him or her enjoy every engagement that follows.
Did you ever think consulting work is the refuge of the retiree, the unemployed, the “corporate isolate”? Think again. If you get hold of this tool kit, you will realize consulting work is a world of vast possibilities where you can try almost anything. But, first things first:
Make a persuasive pitch for your prospective client to try your “new idea.” And then, when you get the client’s green light, give the job you best shot, decide that you will enjoy the entire exercise, truly bring your client to a new level of success or growth. You will realize that the financial rewards are simple side benefits.
Sunday, December 02, 2001
For small tasks, eat the frog; for huge work, eat the elephant (one bite at a time)
“Eat That Frog!”
By Brian Tracy
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2001
Everyone is shocked and dismayed at the revelation that Justice Francis Garchitorena is sitting on 341 cases, some of them pending for more than ten years. For his procrastination – by habit or by design (e.g., the cases of Imelda Marcos, et al, are in his division) – the Supreme Court relieved him of his duties as administrative head of the graft court.
Wasn’t it Nortcotte Parkinson who said that “work expands to the time alloted to it”? If you have one week to finish work, you will finish it in one week. But, if you’re given only a day to complete it, you’ll have it over and done with in one day.
Justice Garchitorena has 90 days maximum, after submission for resolution, to promulgate the decision (source: Neal Cruz, “As I See it,” PDI, November 30), and so Garchitorena does not even fall under the Parkinson principle.
The Justice’s case is simply illustrative of many cases of procrastination that are happening everyday at home, in offices, in factories and in schools. Inspite of the fact that postponing one’s task has been a lesson we learned early in life (like, “Don’t postpone for tomorrow what you can do today”), tackling the day’s business is always the most difficult thing to do.
You come to your office, and your staffers are busy with the entertainment pages of your newspaper – and the staffers justify this by saying they are “setting themselves in the mood” for work! You check your manager’s work, and he is busy answering his emails, rationalizing that he is “doing away with little tasks” before he takes on a huge task staring him in the face.
Many pieces of advice have been offered, and thousands of books on “time management” have been published. It turns out, it’s not time we should be managing – it’s ourselves. That is if you believe Brian Tracy, author of the helpful book with a shocking title (yuck!): “Eat That Frog!”
Let me issue a warning crime reporters on television and radio with which they preface their gruesome reports: “Don’t read this while taking your breakfast,” especially when you get this unforgettable (because traumatic) line from Mr. Tracy: “If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.” Let me quickly add: The author is talking about something else – a subject that’s more helpful than a frog. He says:
“Your ‘frog’ is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it now. It is also the one task that can have the greatest positive impact on your life and results at the moment.”
If there’s a book that should make it easy for you to procrastinate no longer, this book of 118 pages will do the job – with a bonus: you will be introduced to great thoughts from influential and powerful persons giving us tips on the principles of “focus,” “concentration,” “passion,” “achieving your single biggest mission.”
Subtitled “21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time,” the book has 21 brief sections dealing with one “great way” at a time. The first section speaks about deciding what task to tackle first. A helpful blurb goes: Here’s a great rule for success: “Think on paper.”
I remember an uncle whom I visited in the U.S., a super-salesman. He gets up early in the morning, goes to a corner with his notebook, and plans his sales calls for the day. It turns out that’s the secret of his being “super.” Mr. Tracy reveals an interesting fact: “Only about 3 percent of adults have clear written goals. These people accomplish five and ten times as much as people of equal or better education and ability but who, for whatever reason, have never taken the time to write out exactly what it is they want.”
“Take action on your plan immediately,” he advises. That’s easy. So, we ask: What about tasks that take some time to complete – like maybe a huge engineering project or writing a book? Mr. Tracy has the answer too: “Resolve to do something every single day that moves you toward your major goal.”
Now, you know why some people get more things done, while others seemingly equally busy, come up with much much less.
The few times I watched former Senate President Jovito Salonga work, I discovered how he accomplishes great tasks – not only for himself, but for the country: He writes his daily tasks on a notebook, makes his own calls when he should, visits his associates to get him to support his cause -- and then, before you know it, he is launching a book with a tour-de-force dimension or he is rallying his senators abrogating the American military bases. No mean accomplishments, if we may say so. How does he do it? He begins with the ugliest frog, if we must use Tracy’s extended metaphor.
Maybe, the more appropriate metaphor is the elephant! The author writes: “You have heard the old question, ‘How do you eat an elephant?’ The answer, of course, is ‘one bite at a time!’.” A lot of friends ask me: “How can you read one book a week?” My answer: For thin books, I eat the frog; for thick complicated books, I take on the elephant in bite-size chapters!
This book is witty, warm-hearted and helpful. Procrastinate no longer. Go to the nearest bookstore. You’ll never know when you need to speed up pending work. I don’t know about you, but some have become a sorry case of “a frog on the frying pan” – blissfully enjoying the warmth of the pan until it is fried alive.
By Brian Tracy
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2001
Everyone is shocked and dismayed at the revelation that Justice Francis Garchitorena is sitting on 341 cases, some of them pending for more than ten years. For his procrastination – by habit or by design (e.g., the cases of Imelda Marcos, et al, are in his division) – the Supreme Court relieved him of his duties as administrative head of the graft court.
Wasn’t it Nortcotte Parkinson who said that “work expands to the time alloted to it”? If you have one week to finish work, you will finish it in one week. But, if you’re given only a day to complete it, you’ll have it over and done with in one day.
Justice Garchitorena has 90 days maximum, after submission for resolution, to promulgate the decision (source: Neal Cruz, “As I See it,” PDI, November 30), and so Garchitorena does not even fall under the Parkinson principle.
The Justice’s case is simply illustrative of many cases of procrastination that are happening everyday at home, in offices, in factories and in schools. Inspite of the fact that postponing one’s task has been a lesson we learned early in life (like, “Don’t postpone for tomorrow what you can do today”), tackling the day’s business is always the most difficult thing to do.
You come to your office, and your staffers are busy with the entertainment pages of your newspaper – and the staffers justify this by saying they are “setting themselves in the mood” for work! You check your manager’s work, and he is busy answering his emails, rationalizing that he is “doing away with little tasks” before he takes on a huge task staring him in the face.
Many pieces of advice have been offered, and thousands of books on “time management” have been published. It turns out, it’s not time we should be managing – it’s ourselves. That is if you believe Brian Tracy, author of the helpful book with a shocking title (yuck!): “Eat That Frog!”
Let me issue a warning crime reporters on television and radio with which they preface their gruesome reports: “Don’t read this while taking your breakfast,” especially when you get this unforgettable (because traumatic) line from Mr. Tracy: “If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.” Let me quickly add: The author is talking about something else – a subject that’s more helpful than a frog. He says:
“Your ‘frog’ is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it now. It is also the one task that can have the greatest positive impact on your life and results at the moment.”
If there’s a book that should make it easy for you to procrastinate no longer, this book of 118 pages will do the job – with a bonus: you will be introduced to great thoughts from influential and powerful persons giving us tips on the principles of “focus,” “concentration,” “passion,” “achieving your single biggest mission.”
Subtitled “21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time,” the book has 21 brief sections dealing with one “great way” at a time. The first section speaks about deciding what task to tackle first. A helpful blurb goes: Here’s a great rule for success: “Think on paper.”
I remember an uncle whom I visited in the U.S., a super-salesman. He gets up early in the morning, goes to a corner with his notebook, and plans his sales calls for the day. It turns out that’s the secret of his being “super.” Mr. Tracy reveals an interesting fact: “Only about 3 percent of adults have clear written goals. These people accomplish five and ten times as much as people of equal or better education and ability but who, for whatever reason, have never taken the time to write out exactly what it is they want.”
“Take action on your plan immediately,” he advises. That’s easy. So, we ask: What about tasks that take some time to complete – like maybe a huge engineering project or writing a book? Mr. Tracy has the answer too: “Resolve to do something every single day that moves you toward your major goal.”
Now, you know why some people get more things done, while others seemingly equally busy, come up with much much less.
The few times I watched former Senate President Jovito Salonga work, I discovered how he accomplishes great tasks – not only for himself, but for the country: He writes his daily tasks on a notebook, makes his own calls when he should, visits his associates to get him to support his cause -- and then, before you know it, he is launching a book with a tour-de-force dimension or he is rallying his senators abrogating the American military bases. No mean accomplishments, if we may say so. How does he do it? He begins with the ugliest frog, if we must use Tracy’s extended metaphor.
Maybe, the more appropriate metaphor is the elephant! The author writes: “You have heard the old question, ‘How do you eat an elephant?’ The answer, of course, is ‘one bite at a time!’.” A lot of friends ask me: “How can you read one book a week?” My answer: For thin books, I eat the frog; for thick complicated books, I take on the elephant in bite-size chapters!
This book is witty, warm-hearted and helpful. Procrastinate no longer. Go to the nearest bookstore. You’ll never know when you need to speed up pending work. I don’t know about you, but some have become a sorry case of “a frog on the frying pan” – blissfully enjoying the warmth of the pan until it is fried alive.
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