Newsletter
March 2006
Spotlight: The Magic of Diagnosis for Igniting Energy and Strategy
Learn how diagnosis fires people up to design and execute smart strategies - and how to make sure you take your organization's temperature accurately. Part two of an article by IRC Faculty member Brenda Barker Scott. ...more
This Issue:
- Business Strategy: Enter the fast lane to creating solid strategies via our revamped program ...more
- Alumni in Action: Garth Johns talks about his favourite take-home tool from OD Foundations ...more
- In the Groove: What's your best-practices leadership brand? ...more
- Buzz at Queen's: CAW leader Buzz Hargrove is this spring's Don Wood Lecturer ...more
- Winds of Change: Faculty in the news in Queen's Master of Industrial Relations program ...more
- Spotlight: The magic of diagnosis for igniting energy and strategy, part 2 ...more
Business Strategy in the Fast Lane
Registration continues for the re-vamped Business Strategy program, which runs May 1 to 3 in Kingston. Three days of concentrated learning will improve your critical thinking skills and give you the power to lead the important conversations that underpin solid strategies.
Assure your seat in this popular program now. Or if you have any doubts about the importance of strategic thinking skills for HR/OD managers, click here to hear what CEOs told IRC Director Carol Beatty they most want in their HR stars.
Alumni in Action
We asked Garth Johns, Commissioner of Human Resources for the Regional Municipality of Durham, to tell us about the most useful tool he took home after the OD Foundations program in Kingston last fall:
"More than anything else, I have found the Blueprint for Diagnosing Organization Effectiveness to be indispensable to me - not only in my own department as we assess our operating effectiveness but also for other departments seeking guidance, and for the organization as a whole. Every organization, regardless of which sector it functions within, for-profit, not-for-profit, or government, needs to develop and follow some type of operating strategy - its mission, vision, and values. Once that strategy is established and understood, the rest is elementary. I have referred, on many occasions, to the other elements of the Blueprint to assess organizational or departmental effectiveness. Recommendations have been made in various situations about Leadership, Relationships, People, Capabilities/Resources and Infrastructure. The Blueprint has not solved all of our problems, but it has sure helped us to ask all the right questions."
The next OD Foundations program will be held March 26 to 30 in Kingston and April 18 to 21 in Regina.
What is your leadership brand?
At our recent Leadership Capacity program, Jean-Pascal Souque, Senior VP of HR at Canadian Medical Association Holding Company, offered a fascinating glimpse into a best-practices leadership development effort. We knew Jean-Pascal was serious about the subject when we found out that leadership development within CMAH has its own brand identity, complete with logo and colour scheme.
Taking his cue from a live jazz workshop that opened the IRC program, Jean-Pascal told participants that there is much to learn from musicians grooving together. “Pay attention to structure and processes,” Jean-Pascal advised, “and use initiative and creativity to build something that creates unique value.”
Here are some other of Jean-Pascal’s personal learnings:
- Leadership development must be a culture within the culture.
- Before implementing any leadership development initiative, you must know what you are doing – experience it first.
- The three key success factors: self awareness, willingness to learn, and listening skills.
- You need short stories that are true; build your folklore.
- Pay attention to derailers such as: betrayal of trust or values, blocked learning, over ambition, arrogance, narrow functional orientation, failure to build and lead teams, lack of composure, micro-management, and failure to deliver results.
- You cannot develop leaders if they are in operations 75 percent of the time. “Leaders need to spend time dealing with people, process, and purpose.”
Buzz at Queen's - Raising Labour Issues and Eyebrows
Basil “Buzz” Hargrove, national president of the National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers' Union of Canada (CAW-Canada), will offer his perspective on labour relations in Canada on March 16 at Queen's University. He is the spring 2006 Don Wood Visiting Lecturer in Industrial Relations.
The event is organized by the Queen's University Industrial Relations Centre and Master of Industrial Relations (MIR) Program, School of Policy Studies. It features distinguished individuals such as Hargrove - a dynamic, often-controversial figure on the Canadian labour scene for decades - who have made an important contribution to industrial relations in Canada or abroad. For more information call 613-533-6000, ext. 77082.
Winds of Change: Faculty News From the Queen's MIR Program
Recent developments in the Masters program of the Queen’s School of Industrial Relations include a new professor, a new program director, and a professor recently appointed to play a leadership role in developing federal public policy.
Robert S. Hickey has joined the faculty of the MIR program in the School of Policy Studies, and will be teaching the courses Unions and Collective Bargaining and Negotiations and Conflict Resolution. He has worked as an organizer for the Teamsters in various U.S. cities, and holds an MS degree from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations Studies at Cornell University.
In addition, Prof. Chris Riddell becomes MIR Program Director for the coming session, and Prof. Rick Chaykowski has been appointed as the inaugural Public Policy Visiting Chair at Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. He will work in Strategic Policy and Planning supporting the creation of high-quality, evidence-based policy.
Spotlight: The Magic of Diagnosis for Igniting Energy and Strategy
By Brenda Barker Scott, Queen’s Industrial Relations Centre
Last month, Brenda discussed how diagnosis enables change leaders to uncover what is really going on - and how that knowledge yields both the best solutions and the energy for change. In part two of her article, she elaborates on how diagnosis actually works to mobilize change, and how to make an accurate diagnosis.
I’ve emphasized the importance of staying in the deep diagnosis phase in order to mobilize change. But how does this actually work? A useful formula for explaining how energy arises out of engagement and learning is the formula DxVxF>R, offered by Kathy Dannemiller and colleagues. It is built on the notion that resistance is a normal and natural human response to change and that to move forward, people must have a deep appreciation for the why, what, and how of the change - or D,V and F - which they describe as follows:
"Our version states that for change to occur, the product of dissatisfaction with the present situation (D), a vision of what is possible (V), and first steps to reach the vision (F) must be greater than resistance to change (R). If any element is missing, the product will be zero. Since we all resist change to some extent, if the product is zero we will not overcome resistance and no change will occur. In other words, if people are able to absorb new information, they will see the world differently (paradigm shift) and, once their paradigm shifts, their behaviour will change as a result."
What is the best way to create DxVxF? There is no substitute for engaging people in critical conversations with colleagues, customers, suppliers and experts to explore and identify the many reasons for change, the desired possibilities for the future and the paths to getting there. Building a critical mass of support through DxVxF creates leverage. It is a strategy that enables change agents to join with people, to make them all smart about why change, to what and how.
One of most compelling insights I’ve had is that if you spend time creating D and V, you will create the spark for working at warp speed when you reach F - or implementation. That’s because you’ll have a group of people who know what to do, as they have knowledge embedded in their DNA. The magic of taking your time at the front end is that the back end will then roll forward quickly. That’s why a brilliant diagnosis made by a select few may be a waste of time if it does not resonate with the people who need to make it happen. In many ways, change is all about learning (see sidebar, "Change is Learning; Learning is Change"), and doing the diagnosis is a critical step. You need to think carefully about who needs to be engaged in real learning for the change to succeed.
To read the full Spotlight article, go to: http://www.industrialrelationscentre.com/change-management/articles/the-magic-of-diagnosis-part2.htm
~~~
Call us: 613 533 6628
Fax us: 613 533 6812
E-mail us: ircentre@post.queensu.ca
Delete us: Click Here
| 
