1. Bill Joiner, ChangeWise Pam Caraffa, Emergent Leadership
Developing Leadership Agility in a Complex Global Business Webinar hosted by the Best Practice Institute
Who introduces us?
Pam, after we’ve been introduced, do you want to briefly introduce the webinar – framing it as the case study of a leadership development program at Monsanto?
Bill Joiner, ChangeWise
Pam Caraffa, Emergent Leadership

2. Agility is Flexibility with Purpose
What do we mean by leadership agility? A number companies include agility among the competencies their leaders should have. But few are very clear about what it really looks like in action – and how to assess and develop it.
In a few minutes we’re going to introduce you to the highlights of a body of research we’ve conducted on this subject. But for starters we can start with a definition provided by executives in a recent global study.
In addition to saying that agility was tied for number 1 in their minds as the most important leadership capability for the continued growth and success of their companies, the ysaid that agility is more than flexibility or adaptability.
Agility, they said, included these capabilities, but it is more proactive.
Saying that agility is goal-oriented flexibility is a good start on defining what agility is. But it’s more than this.
Agility is Flexibility with Purpose 

3. Why Agility? Accelerating Change
Technological
Economic
Social
Environmental
Political
Military
But agility is more than this. Fundamentally it’s about being highly effective in dealing with two incredibly powerful forces that have been reshaping the business environment for years.
One is an accelerating pace of change. Not only is everything changing rapidly, but the pace of change is getting faster every year. This dynamic has introduced increased uncertainly into the business environment – leaving us with the one certainty that the pace of change will be even faster next year.
Copyright © 2012 ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

4. Growing Interdependence
Why Agility?
Growing Interdependence
New communication technologies
Global economy
Premium on customer & supplier relationships
Increasing importance of business partnerships
The other powerful global force creating today’s “agility imperative” is growing inter-dependence and complexity. This means that, as each year goes by, a leaders success depends more and more on their ability to effectively manage inter-dependent relationships.
Now, we know that leadership development needs to be linked to the competencies required to carry out a company’s business strategy. But today’s pace of change and level of inter-dependence have given rise to a new requirement:
Business strategy needs to include a focus on developing organizational agility, and for a company to become an agile organization, its leaders need to develop new levels of agility.
This webinar is about what one global company has been doing to bring leadership agility into their leadership development progreamming.
Copyright © 2012 ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

5. 2/19/ :00 AM
Monsanto Snapshot
Produce seeds for row crops & vegetables and traits & herbicides for row crops. The vision is to produce more food, fiber and fuel while using less land, water, and energy and improving lives around the world.
21,035 employees in 404 locations worldwide in 66 countries
9 regions – EMEA, India, North Asia, PAN-SEA, Latin America South, Brazil, Latin America South, USA, Canada
$11.8 billion 2011 EBIT, with organizational growth in LAS, LAN and India
Matrix structure to enhance innovation and decision-making

6. Monsanto’s Strategic Challenges
Farmers have to grow as much food as they have in the past 10,000 years – combined
Fast global growth, large infusion of new employees and acquisitions, and long orientation curve
Monsanto is leading in the marketplace, but competition is strong
Long product development cycle and complex stakeholder relationships
Emergent Leadership, 2012

7. Organizations Evolve Through Phases Over Time
Evolution and Revolution
as Organizations Grow, Larry E. Greiner,
Harvard Business Review, 1998
Phase 6
Bringing the
Outside In
Phase 5
Collaboration
Phase 4
Coordination
Energy
Phase 3
Delegation
Affiliation
Phase 2
Direction
Red Tape
Phase 1
Creativity
Control
Autonomy
Crisis
Leadership
Evolution
Emergent Leadership, 2012

8. Phase 6 Leadership Behavior Is Rare
Category
Context
Emphasis for Success
Structure
Crisis
1st Line Leads
Mid-Leads
Top Leads
PHASE 5
Collaboration
PHASE 6
Bring Outside In
Competition heightens need for speed & creativity
Complexity and rapid change bring the need for partnership
Help people work
together
Access outside ideas & expertise
Team or Matrix
Flexible matrix
Too much
communication
Work life balance
Culture & strategy confusion
Building teams
Interpersonal skills
Group innovation
Coaching/Culture
Systems/Coherence
Sharing strategy
Emergent Leadership, 2012

9. Leadership Needs
To be a truly agile organization, we need agile leaders who
Think systemically, are visionary, have the emotional intelligence to lead multiple teams collaboratively, and can lead through influence and participative management
Develop other leaders who can apply change leadership skills to any situation that might emerge
Leadership program reframe: From providing this year’s most needed skill to on-going provision of:
A way to understand how one is perceived and how one has grown
A leadership model that helps participants become Phase 6 leaders
Using the Monsanto global competency of “agility” as a highway to greater leadership development
Emergent Leadership, 2012

10. Study by ChangeWise and the Institute for Corporate Productivity
Leadership agility is the key driver for organizational agility
High performing organizations have more agile “leadership cultures”
This way of framing a leadership development program is backed up by some important research on leadership and organizational agility. I’ll just mention a few highlights of this research:
The research to date on organizational agility – meaning an organization’s effectiveness in dealing with rapid change and complexity – repeatedly shows that more agile organizations have better business performance than less agile organizations.
A recent global survey found that 90% of executives believe that organizational agility is essential to business success, yet a high percentage said that their company is not as agile as it needs to be.
Why not? They pointed to many factors inhibiting increased agility, but the they felt that the biggest barrriers lay in the organizational culture.
We at ChangeWise were fascinated by this study. So we teamed up with the Institute for Corporate Productivity to look more deeply into this question.
Two key findings: On the slide.
Copyright © 2012 ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

11. The Book: 5 Years of Research
The Book, Leadership Agility:
Based on Five Years of Research
Do today’s conditions require new leadership capacities and skills?
How do highly agile leaders think and behave?
I also co-authored a book called Leadership Agility that is based on 5 years of research on this topic.
The research was driven by three key questions: On slide.
How does leadership agility develop?
Copyright © 2012 ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

12. Gain a broader, deeper view
The Essence of
Leadership Agility
Focus
Step back
Gain a broader, deeper view
One of the key findings was that leadership agility looks different in different contexts, but , at it’s heart there is a core dynamic.
Leadership agility is powered by a process that is something like a zoom lens …
Re-engage, take action
Copyright © 2012 ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

13. Stages of Development Stages of Personal Development Synergist
Co-Creator
Catalyst
Adult Stages
Achiever
Expert
Conformer
We’ve talked about the new business environment that is fueling the need for increased agility. But in addition to this outside-in perspective, our research also looked at leadership agility from the inside-out.
Some of you may be familiar with a body of research called “stage development psychology,” which has shown that not only children but also adults can grow through a series of stages of personal development - deepening and broadening their mental and emotional capacities.
You may be familiar with the names of people like Bob Kegan, Bill Torbert, and Susann Cook-Greueter, who did some of the pioneering work in this field.
Our research focused in a very systematic way on the ways in which this process of growth translates into leadership development.
Operator
Pre-Adult Stages
Enthusiast
Explorer
Copyright © 2012 ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

14. Leadership Agility from the Inside-Out
Leaders develop through clearly definable “agility levels” that correlate with well-established stages of personal development
Developmental stage determines the depth and breadth of mental and emotional meaning-making
Leaders reach a new agility level by (1) growing into a new developmental stage and (2) translating the capacities of that stage into leadership behavior
At each new agility level, leaders become more adept at dealing with change and interdependence
Here’s what we found …
Copyright © ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

15. 10% Catalyst 35% Achiever 45% Expert 10% Pre-Expert Leadership Agility
Capacities
10% Catalyst
35% Achiever
45% Expert
10% Pre-Expert
Current Institutional “Ceiling”
Percentages
Institutional ceiling
Copyright © 2012 ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

16. Pivotal Conversations
Three
Leadership Arenas
Leading Change
Leading Teams
Pivotal Conversations
Catalyst Level
Achiever Level
Expert Level
I’d like to take a few minutes to introduce you to the differences between these three levels of agility. I’m going to break it out into 3 areas of application:
Leading change
Leading teams
Pivotal conversations
Copyright © 2012 ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

17. Ed, the Company’s New CEO
Mandate: Restore profitability in 2 years and reclaim market leadership in 3-5
Challenges: Complex business. Fierce competition. Rapid change in customer requirements
Qualifications: BS in Engineering, MBA. Many years’ experience in the industry. Very bright. Assertive, takes initiative. Was CEO of smaller AMT firm that took market share from Overmyer
To give you some concrete examples of the differences these agility levels can make, I’m going to briefly summarize a fictional case study written for the book, which summarizes the key points from all the real-life stories presented in the book.
Overmyer – former industry leader, but no more
Ed’s challenges
Ed’s qualifications
I’m going to take an approach that might remind you of the movie “Groundhog Day.” We’ll check in with Ed 7 months after Ed has started his new job.
First as an Expert, then as an Achiever, and finally as a Catalyst level leader.
Copyright © 2012 ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

18. Leading Organizational Change
Expert: “I focused on the main functions, zeroed in on the problems in each area, and told those VPs how to improve the performance of their divisions.”
Achiever: “I set clear strategic goals, initiated a strategic planning process, and focused on gaining buy-in from all the key players to making the changes we need to make.”
Catalyst: “In addition to focusing on immediate needs and strategic outcomes, we’re setting out to create an agile organization that can meet currently unknown challenges beyond the current strategic horizon.”
Copyright © 2012 ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

19. Leading Teams
Expert: “Meetings are OK for reviewing progress, but people tend to hold back. I get more real work done with my directs by meeting with them one-on-one.”
Achiever: “Motivating and aligning my executive team is key, so I try to orchestrate discussion of important strategic and operational issues in all our team meetings.”
Catalyst: “Our executive team has become a laboratory for growing leaders and seeding the development of a highly participative, candid, empowering organizational culture with strong leaders at every level.”
Copyright © 2012 ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

20. Pivotal Conversations
Expert: “We don’t have the right person in every job, but now isn’t the time to deal with that. … When my HR VP tried to tell me I lowered morale in an R&D meeting by cutting people off, I had to stop her right there.”
Achiever: “Our Manufacturing VP wasn’t performing up to par. I told him what I expected. I got input from HR on how to handle this the best way. I gave him a chance to improve, but when he didn’t, I had to let him go.”
Catalyst: “I asked for feedback from my team. … I gave our Manufacturing VP feedback and asked for his perspective. He said he felt in over his head. I asked him what he’d most like to be doing. He said plant manager, even with a cut in pay. We wound up moving him back to that position.”
So, this will give you at least a quick overview of the three different agility levels.
Copyright © 2012 ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

21. Increased Business Complexity Requires More Catalyst Behavior
Organization Phase
Critical Mass of Leaders Needed
4 Manage precise work, policies, and procedures
Expert: Solve problems using expertise
5 Help people work together, manage communication, enhance team problem-solving and innovation
Achiever: Engage others in reaching desired outcomes for valued institutions
Bringing the Outside In: Gather outside ideas & expertise and integrate them with Monsanto,
plan & share a differentiating strategy, build an adaptive & resilient culture, develop people
Catalyst: Create sustainable systems and tap into the potential of others to fulfill visions of a better world (“post-heroic”)
You can get by with Achiever level leadership. But wish we had this years ago when the company was building to Phase 5 – would have developed faster. It would have been great to have leaders in Phase 5 who were at the Catalyst level - – fewer current issues if leaders had been anticipating the future then. And we found people development to be critical for success at Phase 5 and catalyst leaders would have been skilled in people development.
6 Gather outside ideas/expertise and integrate them with Monsanto, engage others in a differentiating strategy, develop people, build an adaptive and resilient culture
Catalyst: Create agile, sustainable systems and tap into the potential of others to fulfill visions of a better world
Emergent Leadership, 2012

22. Previous Leadership Program Development for mid-level leadership roles
ASSESSMENT & COACHING
None
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT SKILLS
No overall leadership model
Variable depending on year
“Agility” used without specific behavioral framework
EXECUTIVE TEAM ROLE
Primarily presentations
Sponsorship of ALP
Informal networking
ACTION LEARNING PROJECT (ALP)
Strategic company issue
Variable integration into business

23. Revised Leadership Program Development for senior-level leadership roles
ASSESSMENT & COACHING
Leadership Agility 360 feedback process prior to and one year after GLE experience
Nine executive coaching sessions
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT SKILLS
Leadership Agility model integrated with Monsanto Global Leadership Competencies
Focus on developing Catalyst level behaviors - systems thinking, self- awareness & collaboration skills
EXECUTIVE TEAM ROLE
Questions and discussion
Sponsorship of an ALP
Informal networking
ACTION LEARNING PROJECT (ALP)
Strategic company issue
More consistent integration into the business

24. Why The Leadership Agility 360?
Framed holistically within stage of growth
Rich quantitative and qualitative feedback
Easy for individuals to map to company competencies and tie to business needs
Easy to project from specific behavioral needs to a pathway for development
Emergent Leadership, 2012

25. The Leadership Agility 360 Pivotal Conversations
Framework
LA360 Framework
Leading Change
Leading Teams
Pivotal Conversations
Context-Setting Agility
Stakeholder Agility
Creative
Agility
Self-Leadership Agility
Copyright © 2012 ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

26. The Leadership Agility 360
Feedback Report
Overall level of leadership agility
Pivotal conversations
Improving team performance
Leading organizational change
6 most agile leadership practices
6 least agile leadership practices
Largest gaps between “self” and “all other” scores
Copyright © 2012 ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

27. Puts Feedback in Context
The LA360
Puts Feedback in Context
Traditional “Brings conflicts into the open for resolution”
LA360
Leading Change: “When stakeholder views and objectives that conflict with their own, this manager …”
Leading Teams: “When team members resist changes in team functioning, this manager …”
Pivotal Conversations: “When attempting to resolve conflicts or differences in pivotal conversations, this manager …”
Copyright © ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

28. Makes Feedback more Meaningful
The LA360
Makes Feedback more Meaningful
“Brings conflicts into the open for resolution”
Very poor fair average good excellent out-
poor standing
“When team members resist changes in team functioning, this manager …”
Listens to the views of team members but primarily relies on their own judgment
Asks for and considers team member views while advocating their own views
Initiates open dialogue that genuinely considers and addresses team member reservations
Copyright © 2012 ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

29. Other Key Features of the
Leadership Agility 360
Includes “Catalyst” level of leadership agility
Identifies where managers are on a developmental “road-map”
Positive, aspirational approach
Development Planner leads to bite- sized, actionable next-steps
Validated instrument
Partner: Cambria Consulting
Copyright © 2012 ChangeWise, Inc. – All Rights Reserved

30. Leadership Program Timeline
2010
2011
2012
ACTIVITY N D J F M A S O
Engage Leaders
LA360 Pre-Assessment
Session One (1 week)
Executive Coaching
Action Learning Project
Session Two
(1 week)
LA360 Post-Assessment
Just to get a sense for how the program flowed . . .
Emergent Leadership, 2012

31. Results Post-session feedback: Nine months later:
LA360 consistently rated highly as valuable way to learn about others’ perceptions and how to grow
More holistic view of self than competency-based 360
Easier to visualize future behaviors and a path for growth
Leadership agility learning experiences: Highly rated
Nine months later:
Reports of both personal growth and growth observed by managers
More conscious of seeking feedback, practicing new behaviors
Promotions, added responsibility, higher performance ratings, and/or more confident leadership
Post-LA360 feedback process to begin in June, 2012
Emergent Leadership, 2012

32. Examples of Growth
“She has greater capacity to deal with complexity and to influence others. I felt confident putting her in charge of a key acquisition.”
“… better balance of inquiry and advocacy.  It was easy for me to jump to the answer and give the marching orders, but the best answer is often derived from asking questions and listening closely to understand others’ views and suggestions.  The outcome is better and the ownership is much greater from my team. This approach allows them to show their leadership.”
“I have learned to be more self-aware in my global role – what situational leadership role I am taking and how well it is working. I can now step back during my interactions and think about the best approach to the local situation in each world area.”
These were the kinds of points that were made a lot.
Emergent Leadership, 2012

33. Examples of Growth
“He thinks more broadly, asks more questions about others’ views, and integrates other people’s thinking into a joint solution.”
“I focus on asking the right questions to engage the Leadership Team in outcome based conversation … Before GLE, I rarely participated in these kinds of conversations or debates, as I didn’t realize the scope of my role and wasn’t aware of what I could bring to the Leadership Team outside of my immediate functional leadership.”
“It is rare these days for corporations to engage in research on leadership development and to pay for it. So, a significant indicator of the value of this approach is that the company has begun a three-year study of the effectiveness of this approach, wanting to document it, learn from it, and share it with others.”
Emergent Leadership, 2012

34. Questions and Comments