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Category Archives: Failure of Leadership Development

The Leadership System: Perfectly Designed to Get Intended Results

10 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by Dan Edds in Developing Leadership Systems, Failure of Leadership Development, Leadership Systems, Praxis Solutions, Systemic Leadership

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Leadership Systems

DemingEdwards Deming put this title in a different way: Every system is perfectly designed to get the results that it does. Therefore, when Seattle Swedish Hospital’s, Neurological Institute changes surgeon’s compensation formula from one where revenues were shared to one that compensated surgeons on production, they received exactly what the system was designed to produce. Surgical production went up, collaboration when down, safety went down, and a new age of internal competition was born.

This according to a 4-part expose that was published in 2017 by the Seattle Times. As a result, the CEO of Swedish Hospital resigned, and the director of the Institute lost his license to practice in the State of Washington. The final result will be determined by the courts. It will take a generation to heal the scars.

Deming is also often quoted as saying: I should estimate that in my experience most troubles and most possibilities for improvement add up to the proportions something like this: 94% belongs to the system (responsibility of management) 6% special events.

Dr. William Tate, one of the early pioneers in systemic leadership uses the analogy of a fish tank. The traditional model of leadership is one that occasionally pulls the fish out of the tank for training and then sends them back into a toxic tank. The result is little if any change. Better to change the tank (the leadership system).

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The Leadership System – Routines & Processes

04 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by Dan Edds in Developing Leadership Systems, Failure of Leadership Development, Leadership Systems, Praxis Solutions, Systemic Leadership

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Leadership Systems

social systemIn our contemporary age, most of us understand the role of processes. Processes are what takes the raw materials of production, whether they be aluminum ingots or knowledge of the human brain and turns them into a soda can or the removal an aneurysm. But a cousin to processes are routines. Routines are tasks and activities that are regular patterns of human behavior. For a leadership system, routines and processes are part of what makes leadership – a system.

A conversion with a the director of a level 1 trauma center revealed a simple, but important routine. The current CEO of the hospital regularly rounds to each department, including the trauma center 2-3 times a week. In doing so, he learns the names of physicians and nurses. He learns their concerns, what they like about the job and what frustrates them. He invites 2-way communication and dialog. He learns in real time any potential labor challenges that might be on the horizon. Consequently, trust and respect for the administration is high. Senior leaders, following the lead of the CEO do the same. A culture of mutual respect and trust grows.

Contrast this with executive leaders who lead from the sanctum of their office. Out side of direct reports, there is no relationship. For this type of leader, trust and respect of the workforce is probably not a priority.

Processes and routines are also the bank of organizational knowledge, skills, and experience. They serve as organizational memory. Procedures are changed and turned into new routines and processes because experience and data says there is a better way. Innovation occurs when existing processes are modified, reorganized, and streamlined. For the leadership system, processes and routines need the same kind of continual evaluation as an intricate surgical procedure. Annual strategic planning needs continual review and the process itself to make it more effective. Communication between senior leaders and front line staff always needs improvement. Routines that encourage and build 2-way communication yields enormous value.

The challenge is that only when we understand leadership as a system, will we understand how to improve the system. By understanding leadership as a system, leaders can be trained to its requirements.

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Developing Leadership Systems Vs. Leadership Development

09 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by Dan Edds in Developing Leadership Systems, Failure of Leadership Development, Leadership System Rules, Leadership Systems

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Leadership Systems

Frustrated leaders

Stop Developing Leaders; Start Developing Leadership Systems

In October of 2016, the influential Harvard Business Review published two articles on the failure of leadership development. The first, titled Developing Employees, Why Leadership Development Isn’t Developing leaders. The second, Spotlight On Building the Workforce of the Future – Why leadership Training Fails-and What To Do About It. According the authors of the former, American corporations spent $160 Billion in employee training and education in 2015, and received little of value.
The problem seems to be threefold:

  1. Senior leaders and HR departments seem to believe there is a causal relationship between employee training and organizational transformation. A belief that has never been justified;
  2. The training itself. Too much training is classroom learning that is removed from the actual work experience; and
  3. The systems are unyielding.

Both articles spoke to the “context” and “systematic context” or an eloquent way of saying that training was not aligned with organizational systems. One article was clearer, “the individuals had less power to change the system surrounding them than the system had to shape them”. Exactly! Systems are virtually always stronger than an individual. So, spend billions on training and nothing on systems development and … perfect scenario to waste a lot of money.
In our view, the solution is not to change the training but to change, or more accurately, design the system. When it comes to leadership, design the leadership system like we would any other system. Applying systems thinking to leadership we can articulate the major components of a leadership system to be:Leadership System Model
1) Relationships;
2) Resources;
3) Rules
Structure around a primary focus or intent.

Links to both articles:

https://hbr.org/2016/10/why-leadership-development-isnt-developing-leaders

https://hbr.org/2016/10/why-leadership-training-fails-and-what-to-do-about-it

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  • Failure of Leadership Development
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