Read: HBR Case: Bennie Wiley at The Partnership, Inc.
Respond: How did Bennie Wiley’s leadership over 14 years at the agency illustrate the change processes described in this week’s readings? Use concepts of change management discussed in the Lecture Notes and the de Lima article.
Q B :
Read: The Collaboration Breakthrough – The Five C’s of a Collaborative Workplace (p.101 – 156): Each of the Five C’s chapters describes a particular leadership skill, which – when implemented together – can assure a collaborative workplace. After reading the five chapters, look at the list on page 156. If you were appointed the new leader of a group, which of these tools (you can pick one or a couple) would try to implement first? Describe what outcome you would hope for.
Q C :
Creating a Conversation: The Collaboration Challenge, Chapter 7 (p117) discusses the importance of “conversations” in building a collaborative workplace. The Lecture Notes mentions Gervase Bushe’s thinking about how “learning conversations” help eliminate “interpersonal mush.” Read the scenario below; then invent what you consider to be a constructive, collaborative learning conversation between you and George.
Two weeks ago, you asked George to run an analysis of the new ThingY 2000 product design to see if it was ready for market. He handed it in yesterday, a day early, and you have had a chance to read it over. It is first-rate, and you can see that the recommendations are very sound. You think you will be able to use the report to make a decision on whether to move forward. On your way to the cafeteria, you bump into Mary and Jose, peer department heads in your organization, and tell them about George’s report. To your surprise, Mary says, “That’s must be why George was so demanding of my team last week. He was after them for all kinds of data; a couple had to put in extra hours.” And, Jose chimed in “And my team was kind of depending on George to help them on the FramusXPD. They said he was MIA, which set their schedule back a week or more.”
Realizing George is a “Lone Star” (Warshaw Lecture Notes, Unit 5), how would you prepare for a conversation to help alleviate future instances of this behavior and build better team collaboration?
After noting some suggestions, write out a SCRIPT for how the conversation might go. [Make up both sides of the conversation, and consider that you might be part of the problem… as well as coaching for a correction.] The script might look like this:
Me: a;lksdfjaopaw[oauewor
George: a;ldskfasa;;eoir[onlkagagla
Me: alsdjfpaosdfa
George: lsadkapouepoinana
Sample Solution
