1. Leadership, Motivation and Collaboration Swiss International Senior Entrepreneurship Program June 9, 2004 (9:00-12:30)
Conducted By:
Professor Ralph Katz

2. Group versus Individual
Is a group likely to make a riskier or less risky decision than the average individual member of the group would have made?

3. Group versus Individual (cont.)
More risk
Average Individual Member
Less risk
Group

4. Group versus Individual (cont.)
If the group values risk with respect to a particular issue at a given time, the group is likely to be riskier
However
If the group values less risk with respect to that issue at that time, the group is likely to be less risky.
But
If there is no consensus of norms or values with respect to the given issue, it is unpredictable.
And so
A group is an amplifier but it can only amplify around the group’s consensus of norms and values.

5. Group versus Individual (cont.) Implications
If you want decisions to accurately reflect the norms and cultural values within the organization, then groups are most likely to achieve that result.
But
If you want the decision to break free of the norms and culture, then groups are less likely to achieve that result. Instead, individuals are more likely to achieve such an outcome.

6. Purchasing Executives
MANSON
POST
Plant Managers
LARSON
Purchasing Executives

7. What advice would you give to Mr. Post about what he did or did not do?
(In other words, how would you frame the problem areas and issues for Mr. Post?)

8. What Someone Behaving Entrepreneurially Should Be Doing Is:
Identifying Who and Where the Initial Targeted Market Need Is, i.e., the Initial market Segment, and…..
Then Identifying How the Product or Service Is Going to Diffuse Through the Rest of the Marketplace Over Time

9. There Are Two Different Kinds of Autonomy: (Strategic Versus Operational)
You Want Strategic Clarity
Coupled With
Operational Autonomy
But Not “Wide Latitude”

10. The More You Are Asked to Do Something That Has Never Been Done Before, the Stronger the Sponsorship Has to Be! (Note: One of the most commonly asked questions by a team is: “How do we strengthen the nature of our sponsorship?”)

11. Sponsor(s) Are Needed To:
Help Clarify Priority Differences (resolving quickly emerging conflicts)
Help Clarify Authority Relationships (holding others accountable for support)
Help to Remove Obstacles (providing necessary “air cover”)
Help to Free-up Resources (Commitments at “out-of-cycle” times)

12. What Kinds of Questions Do You Think the Purchase Executives Are Asking Themselves?

13. What sources of information might the average purchasing executive use?
Not Supportive of the Memo
Supportive of the Memo a) b) c) d) e) f)

14. Is a System More Receptive or Less Receptive to Negative Information the Closer It Gets to the Deadline? (Note: A primary purpose of a team is to try to surface problems as early as possible. The earlier you can surface them, the earlier you can deal with them.)

15. Why Won’t We Call Mr. Post, the Optimal Source of Information
Why Won’t We Call Mr. Post, the Optimal Source of Information? (What Is It About Our Organizational and Life Experiences that Makes It Difficult or Prevents Us From Making That Phone Call?)

16. Information Seeking Criteria
Familiarity or ease of use
Geographical distance
Minimize “psychological cost”
It is only after the effects of the above criteria that people might seek a more “optimal” source(s) of information

17. Innovation, Change, and Motivation Are All Related to the Generation and Reduction of Uncertainty...
But In Very Different Ways

18. The Management of Uncertainty
Innovation requires the positive energy, i.e., the creative tension, between the full cycle of the generation and reduction of uncertainty
BUT
Motivation and energy are related to the reduction of uncertainty while stress and anxiety are related to the generation of uncertainty

19. Generation versus Reduction of Uncertainty
1-Way vs. 2-Way communication
Separation of planning from implementation
Solution vs. problem orientations (substantively-based differences become emotionally-based conflicts)

20. The Fundamental Attributional Error
When we watch people behave, we tend to “see” their behavior as being “caused” by something about their personality or dispositions. When we explain our own behavior, we are far more conscious of the pressure of the situation (e.g., deadlines, rewards, the opinions of others).
In general, we are not sensitive to how powerfully our behavior and that of others is shaped by the situations we are in.

21. Effects of Stress on Teams Without the Active Involvement or Intervention of Leadership, What Does stress Tend To Do?
Stress Tends to Exacerbate Differences in Priorities, Backgrounds, and Values that Exist Within a Group or Organization.

22. Conventional Model of Motivation
This approach:
Fits our intuition
Makes us feel good
Doesn’t work very well
As individuals we have
Values
Interests
Needs
Personality
These shape our
Expectations
Goals
Attitudes
Feelings
Which lead to
Consistent choices and behavior
Personality
Attitudes
Behavior
In this model, the information used to reduce uncertainty is within the individuals.

23. An Alternative Model of Motivation
This approach is:
less intuitive
more useful to managers
more powerful
We work in settings with
Strategies
Structures
Reward Systems
Leaders
Which get us focused on
Specific tasks
Subunit objectives
Salient information
Coworkers
Which shape our
Expectations
Choices
Interpretations
Behavior
Attitudes
Behavior
Context
In this model, the information used to reduce uncertainty is outside the individuals.

24. Generation versus Reduction of Uncertainty (cont.)
Formal structures and procedures are needed by the routine, functioning parts of the organization, while more flexible, informal structures and procedures are needed for innovation (that is, for accomplishing those things that have never been done before).
Structure does not integrate, it differentiates! Informal integrative mechanisms (such as common problem definition, leadership, norms, information sharing, etc.) are therefore needed to link across the differences that result from formal structures.

25. What is Heaven From A Product-Line Point-of-View?

26. Do You Want Marketing People?

27. Who Makes Money in an Industry?
Who Controls the Technology?
Who Controls the Complementary Assets?
And How Are These Changing?

28. Do You Don’t Want Team Players?

29. Managing Socialization
Socialization can be thought of as the period of time in which individuals, teams, change efforts, products, and services function to reduce uncertainty.
1. Establishing one’s situational identities
2. Learning to deal with one’s boss & building the necessary information networks (build sponsorship above, trust below, & credibility throughout)
3. Learning, creating, or reinforcing the appropriate (and getting rid of the inappropriate) organizational and situational norms

30. Managing Socialization
Socialization must take place.
It is a social process, taking place primarily through communication and interaction.
Early experiences are disproportionately influential and long-lasting.
Because individuals are most malleable during socialization, best opportunity to clarify expectations and “legitimize” possible future problems and issues as discussible.

31. Individual Reflections
Choose one of your more challenging leadership problems, change efforts, or innovative activities. In what areas and in what ways are uncertainties being generated with respect to this problem or effort?
To what extent and how are these uncertainties being reduced and how are they affecting the effectiveness of your organization?
What activities and information can you (and others) initiate or provide so that these uncertainties are ultimately reduced in a more timely and productive manner?