March 6th, 2007

Target Patients & Intentional Cultures — Got Systemic Solutions?

When I would see clients in therapy, it was almost daily someone would bring in their child, telling me how they were broken. Everything from, “Suzy refused to go to school”, to “Billy is tearing this family apart”. The same thing seems to happen in organizations. “Susan in marketing doesn’t do her job”, or “William in holding our department back”. Inevitably, I find, in Organizations as well as families, these “Target Patients” more often than not turn out to be a symptom of some deeper systemic problem…

Eilliott Jacuqes popularized the idea of “requisite organization”. It’s not a new concept — but, it’s a critical one. The idea is this — almost every problem of organizational dysfunction isn’t the result of deficient employees, but instead can be traced to some systemic problem(s).

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December 24th, 2006

Why Doc, Why? Three ways of relating to the role of business consultant.

My clients often come to me – and, I know from talking to countless other business consultants, that I’m not alone in this story – asking broadly for help. The request for help often goes something like, "We regularly examine our productivity, motivate our employees, and generally improve our performance, and all we need is more X." Sometimes it’s that simple, often it’s not… When someone comes to me with an understanding of the problem, I’m occasionally afraid. Or, at least I’m skeptical. My sense is that a real understanding of the problem, implies a solution. I would ask, “How do you know the issue is sales management?” And, what have you tried to fix it? For example, "does ‘motivate employees’ mean ‘pay every other week’, or does it include a broad, individualized system of reinforcement?" Sometimes providing this clarity, as John Spence points out, can even get the ‘messenger’ in trouble.

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September 5th, 2006

Mentoring Means Modeling

I’m occasionally asked by leaders, teachers, and students about the essential qualities of mentoring — and for me it’s modeling. I suggest that, “mentoring means modeling”. And, the lack of this critical modeling component in the educational system may explain why so many people are unprepared for success in the work-force. If you’re a young person just entering the business world, or a seasoned leader interested in the value of hiring people with internship experience, read on.

I’m a strong believer, like Aristotle, William James and some others before me, that there are at least three kinds of knowledge a teacher passes on to his/her student; training in facts (declarative), training in skills (procedural) which includes reasoning, and training in being. My personal experience has been a focus through most of my education on declarative, starting shortly after I learned to tie my shoes and write the letter Z, and continuing disappointingly even into most of my Graduate experiences.

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