> "Growing up as a military brat, McChrystal exhibited the mixture of brilliance and cockiness that would follow him throughout his career."
Read more about this stage 4 (Expert) leader in the Rolling Stone article that led to his firing. This incident is an unfortunate but not uncommon example of the rise -- and fall -- of Experts.

Too Much

© Paul Kampas 1994-2010
All Rights Reserved

                                            Great Results  =  Great Talent  +  Great System  

Working with many firms, we have found that sustainable success thrives on merging great talent ("stage five" people) with a great system (an "architected" organization). We call this the People/System Potential. With both elements working together, the whole becomes far greater than the sum of its parts, resulting in enhanced quality, productivity, innovation, adaptability, and stakeholder satisfaction. To help you maximize your People/System Potential, we offer a range of workshops, consulting, coaching, and books. We strive to make this work both effective and user-friendly with our innovative graphical tools that are powerful yet inspiring and fun.

                  ~ ~   The TALENT Leap   ~ ~                                          ~ ~   The SYSTEM Leap   ~ ~

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
                                                     - Viktor Frankl

Talent development in a leader or professional occurs not in a smooth, linear process, but through a series of predictable and distinct stages, each with a unique mindset that profoundly shapes one's self-view, worldview, mental capacity, and adaptability. Has your talent made the leap...

> From EXPERT:  40% of adults and 80% of leaders are Experts -- the 4th stage of development -- and have a heroic mindset that looks at things this way:
- I make things happen 
- I work mostly from center stage
- I have a clear, EXPERT point of view
- I am data driven
- I see mistakes as failure, waste
- I see profit as the goal
- I am comfortable with control and stability

> To EVOLVER:  1% of adults and 10% of leader are Evolvers -- the 5th stage of development -- and have this post-heroic mindset:
- I create a makes-things-happen system 
- I work mostly from back stage
- I am an EVOLVER of points of view
- I am innovation driven based on data
- I see mistakes as opportunities to learn
- I see profit as the reward
- I am comfortable with ambiguity and change

Do you have really smart people (Experts) from scientists, engineers, and physicians to managers who would benefit from becoming more collabor- ative, open, and adaptable? If yes, keep reading...

Most talent development programs attempt to add capability on top of a participant's Expert mindset. Because many of these capabilities directly conflict with the underlying heroic mindset of the Expert, only incremental improvement is often possible, and some capabilities hardly "stick" at all. 

In contrast, our Making the Leap - From Expert to Evolver program focuses on making the shift from an Expert mindset to an Evolver mindset. This shift opens up a vast new capacity for growth, enabling transformational improvement. As a result, capability training can be more successful as well as less necessary because many desirable leadership skills and behaviors come naturally to Evolvers. See our workshop agenda and more in our brochure.

The success of a strategy depends on doing many things well...and integrating among them. If there is no fit among activities, there is no distinctive strategy...
                                                        - Michael Porter

Organizational architecture raises the effectiveness of a firm through integrating its many elements (strategy, culture, mission, leadership, structure, processes, learning, etc.) into an optimal system and business model for delivering its value proposition. Has your organization made the leap... 

> From STRUCTURE:  Traditional (heroic) organizations run their business as a "top-down" entity with a hierarchical mindset that looks at things this way:
- We view the leader as the boss 
- We perceive the business primarily through the lens of
     structure -- the "org chart" with VPs and their silos
- We see profit as the goal
- We believe star performers are core to success
- We look at infrastructure as overhead
- We adopt the latest new big ideas to get ahead

> To ARCHITECTURE:  Post-heroic organizations look at their business as a customer value-creating system and have what we call an architectural mindset:
- We view the customer as the boss 
- We perceive the business primarily through the lens of
     processes -- customer value creating activities
- We see profit as the reward
- We believe a star system is core to success
- We look at infrastructure as an execution platform
- We continuously innovate process/product to get ahead

Many of the highest performing businesses achieve their success architecturally. An example of a game- changing business architecture is IKEA's customer-as-partner architecture, where the customer picks it out, picks it up, takes it home, and puts it together -- getting stylish home products at a low price. Other examples include FedEx's hub-and-spoke logistics architecture, Apple's cool-multimedia architecture (spanning devices, content, and stores), Southwest Airlines' no-frills-yet-friendly architecture, and Google's everyone-innovates architecture.

Is your organization gaining the benefits of an architectural approach? If not, then we should talk. See some organization design examples at Innovative Organizations, Organizational Barriers, and inside our book Mastering Organizational Architecture.
 

 
Organization and Talent/Personal Development Books by Kampas Research: (click on covers)

   To look inside books, click on the covers. For summaries and ordering information, click here