Leading in Totally Screwed Up Times Tom Peters/Fast Company 20 May 2001/Philadelphia.

Leading in Totally Screwed

Up TimesTom Peters/Fast Company20 May 2001/Philadelphia

“There will be more confusion in the business world in the next decade than in any decade in history.

And the current pace of change will only accelerate.”

Steve Case

“In 25 years, you’ll probably be able to get the

sum total of all human knowledge on a personal

device.”Greg Blonder, VC [was Chief Technical

Adviser for Corporate Strategy @ AT&T] [Barron’s 11.13.2000]

“We are entering an era of no limits, with nothing to brake the cascade of human intelligence

unleashed by the Information Age. The Web essentially allows all the brains on earth to communicate and share insights in real time, around the globe, all the time.”

Jeffrey Young, Cisco Unauthorized

<1000A.D.: paradigm shift: 1000s of years1000: 100 years for paradigm shift

1800s: > prior 900 years1900s: 1st 20 years > 1800s

2000: 10 years for paradigm shift 21st century: 1000X tech change than 20th

century (“the ‘Singularity,’ a merger between humans and computers that is so rapid and profound it represents a rupture

in the fabric of human history”)

Ray Kurzweil, talk april2001

CEOs appointed after

1985 are 3X more likely to be fired than CEOs appointed before 1985

Warren Bennis, MIT Sloan Management Review

“The Internet is not going away – but flawed business

models are.” fool.com

“The corporation as we know it, which is now 120 years old, is

not likely to survive the next 25 years. Legally and

financially, yes, but not structurally and economically.”

Peter Drucker, Business 2.0 (08.00)

“Most of our predictions are based

on very linear thinking. That’s why they will

most likely be wrong.”Vinod Khosla, in “GIGATRENDS,” Wired 04.01

= Nuts!

The Fantastic

Fifty

1. Great Leaders on Snorting Steeds Are Important – but Great Managers (Type I) are

the Bedrock of Organizations that Perform

Over the Long Haul.

2. But Then Again, There Are Times When This “Cult of Personality”

(Type II) Stuff Actually Works!

3. Find the “Businesspeople”!

(Type III)

The Golden Triangle: (1) Creator-Inventor-

Visionary … (2) Talent Fanatic … (3) Inspired

Profit Mechanic.

Project Team Golden Triangle

(1) Champion-Maniac. (2) Implementer-Pol. (3)

Schedule & Budgets Fanatic.

4. Leadership Mantra #1: IT ALL DEPENDS!

5. The Leader Is Rarely/Never the Best Performer.

6. Leaders LOVE the

MESS!

7. Leaders Groove on

AMBIGUITY!

8. LEADERS

DO!

“We are in a

brawl with no rules.”

Paul Allaire

S.A.V.

The Kotler Doctrine:

1965-1980: R.A.F.(Ready.Aim.Fire.)

1980-1995: R.F.A.(Ready.Fire!Aim.)

1995-????: F.F.F.(Fire!Fire!Fire!)

[ ISOE #1: A Bias for Action]

“I don’t know.”

Karl Weick

“The leader who says ‘I don’t know’ essentially says that the group is facing a new ballgame

where the old tools of logic may be its undoing rather than its salvation. To drop these tools is

not to give up on finding a workable answer. It is only to give up on one means of answering that is ill-suited to the unstable, the unknowable, the

unpredictable. To drop the heavy tools of rationality is to gain access to lightness in the

form of intuitions, feelings, stories, experience, active listening, shared humanity, awareness in

the moment, capability for fascination, awe, novel words and empathy.” - Karl Weick

Weick I

Uncertainty will be based less on insufficient facts and more on insufficient questions.

There will be fewer experts and more novices.

There will be more of a premium on stating in motion than on detaching and reflecting.

There will be more migration of decisions to those with the expertise to handle them, and

less convergence of decisions on people entitled by rank to make them.

Weick II

There will be fewer attempts to capture the big picture and more attempts to capture the big

story, with its ongoing, dynamic plot.

There will be more focus on updating and plausibility and less on forecasting and

accuracy.

There will be more improvisation and fewer routines.

There will be more humility and less hubris.

Source: The Future of Leadership, Warren Bennis et al.

9. Leaders DELIVER!

10. LEADERS FOCUS!

Priority #1

“To Don’t ” List

11. Leaders Win Through

LOGISTICS!

12. “Leaders”

Know: POWERLESS

IS COOL!

THE IDEA

“4Fs”: Find a

Fellow Freak

Faraway

World’s Biggest Waste …

Selling “Up”

Heart of the Matter

F2F!/K2K!/1@T/R.F.A.*

*Freak to Freak/Kook to Kook/One at a Time/ Ready.Fire!Aim.

Opportunity ALWAYS Knocks

VFCJ* “Strategy”

*Volunteer For Crappy Jobs

Is It …

“The Oh-Hell-I-Wish-It-Were-Over Memorial Day picnic”

or

“The First Annual Seriously

Kewl Celebration of Our Incredible Staff”

Is It …

Wrestle the damn Safety Manual into line with the ridiculous new OSHA Regs?

Or …

A stealth opportunity to address the War for Talent via … a thoroughgoing review

of how safety and environmental issues contribute to making this a

Great Place to Work?

Reframers’ Rules:

Rule 1: Never accept an assignment as given! (Please.)

Rule 2: You’re never so powerful as when you are “powerless”!

Rule 3: Every “small” project contains the entire

enterprise DNA!

BOTTOM LINE

The Enemy!

Joe J. Jones Joe J. Jones 1942 – 2001 1942 – 2001

HE WOULDA DONE SOME HE WOULDA DONE SOME

REALLY COOL STUFF REALLY COOL STUFF

BUT …BUT …

HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM! HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM!

Characteristics of the “Also rans”*

“Minimize risk”“Respect the chain of

command”“Support the boss”

“Make budget”

*Fortune, article on “Most Admired Global Corporations”

The greatest dangerfor most of us

is not that our aim istoo high

and we miss it,but that it is

too lowand we reach it.

Michelangelo

13. Leaders Understand

the Ultimate Power of

RELATIONSHIPS.

14. Leaders Wire the Joint!

15. Leadership Is Improv!

16. Leaders Trust in

TRUST!

17. Leaders Are Natural

EMPOWERMENT

FREAKS!

WOMEN RULE!

“AS LEADERS, WOMEN RULE: New Studies find that female managers

outshine their male counterparts in almost

every measure”Title, Special Report, Business Week, 11.20.00

The New Economy …

Shout goodbye to “command and control”!

Shout goodbye to hierarchy!

Shout goodbye to “knowing one’s place”!

Women’s Stuff = New Economy Match

Improv skillsRelationship-centric

Less “rank consciousness”Self determinedTrust sensitive

IntuitiveNatural “empowerment freaks” [less

threatened by strong people]Intrinsic [motivation] > Extrinsic

18. Leaders FORGET!/Leaders

DESTROY!

19. Leaders Toss Their

Press Clips!

20. Leaders Are Terrified of

“Fighting the Last War.”

Forget>“Learn”

“The problem is never how to get new, innovative

thoughts into your mind,

but how to get the old ones out.”

Dee Hock

The [New] Ge Way

DYB.com

The Gales of Creative Destruction

+29M = -44M + 73M

+4M = +4M - 0M

RM: “A lot of companies in the Valley fail.”

RN: “Maybe not enough fail.”

RM: “What do you mean by that?”

RN: “Whenever you fail, it means you’re trying new things.”

Source: Fast Company

Forbes100 from 1917 to 1987: 39 members of the Class of ’17 were alive in ’87; 18 are in ’87 F100; the 18 F100 “survivors” underperformed the market by

20%; just 2 (2%), GE & Kodak, outperformed the market from 1917 to 1987.

S&P 500 from 1957 to 1997: 74 members of the

Class of ’57 were alive in ’97; 12 (2.4%) of 500 outperformed the market from 1957 to 1997.

Source: Dick Foster & Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction: Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the

Market

[21. BUT … Leaders Have to Deliver, So They Worry

About “Throwing the Baby Out with the

Bathwater.”] [Life’s a Bitch.]

22. Leaders …

HONOR THE ASSASSINS … in

Their Organizations!

23. Leaders

HANG WITH FREAKS!

Button-down Org H.S.D.E. .

• Acquire for market share• Suck up to biggest customers• Pursue “strategic vendors”• Bigger is better• Accept assignments as given• Hire 4.0s from “top schools”• Promote when they’ve “paid

their dues”• Appoint a “prestigious” board

• Hang out with my pals• R.A.F.• Be “professional” at all

times/Honor thine elders

• Acquire for innovation• Partner with cool customers• Seek out pioneering vendors• Break it up … to refresh• Reframe all tasks to innovate• Hire “intriguing,” wherever• Promote tomorrow if the work

product is weird and WOW• Appoint an interesting,

headstrong board• Take a freak to lunch today• F.F.F.• Stay loose, stay cool/The hell

with thine elders

Message: TAKE SOMEONE NEW & WEIRD TO LUNCH

TODAY OR TOMORROW. [Inundate yourself with weird.]

24. Leaders Make [Lotsa] Mistakes –

and MAKE NO BONES ABOUT IT!

25. Leaders

LAUGH!

“Fail faster. Succeed sooner.”

David Kelley/IDEO

“Learn not to be careful”

Photographer Diane Arbus to her students (Careful = The sidelines,

per Harriet Rubin in The Princessa)

26. Leaders Love to Work with

OTHER LEADERS!

“Our strategies must be tied to leading edge

customers on the attack. If we focus on the defensive

customers, we will also become defensive.”

John Roth, CEO, Nortel

27. Leaders Set DESIGN

SPECS.

28. Leaders Know When to

CHALLENGE Design Specs!

DESIGN POWER!

29. Leaders Don’t Create “Followers”:

THEY CREATE LEADERS!

Just Ask Jack!

30. When It Comes to TALENT … Leaders Don’t

Income Average!

From “1, 2 or you’re out” [JW] to …

“Best Talent in each industry segment to build

best proprietary intangibles” [EM]

Source: Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)

Home Depot: 7 new growth initiatives ($20B to $100B in 5-7 years)

Arthur Blank: BEST PERSON IN THE WORLD TO HEAD

EACH INITIATIVEE.g.: COO of IKEA to head

international expansion

Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)

“We believe companies can increase their market cap 50 percent in 3 years. Steve

Macadam at Georgia-Pacific changed 20 of his 40 box plant managers to put

more talented, higher paid managers in charge. He increased

profitability from $25 million to $80 million in 2 years.”

Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00)

Message: Some people are better than other

people. Some people are a helluva lot better than other

people.

31. Leaders LOVE RAINBOWS – for Pragmatic Reasons.

“Diversity defines the health and wealth of nations in a new century.

Mighty is the mongrel. … The hybrid is hip. The impure, the mélange, the adulterated, the

blemished, the rough, the black-and-blue, the mix-and-match – these people are inheriting

the earth. Mixing is the new norm. Mixing trumps isolation. It spawns creativity,

nourishes the human spirit, spurs economic growth

and empowers nations.”

G. Pascal Zachary, The Global Me: New Cosmopolitans and the Competitive Edge

Job1: TALENT!

“We have transitioned from an asset-based strategy

to a talent-based strategy.”

Jeff Skilling, CEO, Enron

32. Leaders

LOVE the

Technology!

“Believe in the Internet … MORE

THAN EVER.”Andy Grove, Cover quote, Wired (June 2001)

33. Leaders Out Their

PASSION!

“A leader is a dealer in hope.”

Napoleon

34. Leaders

Know: ENERGY BEGETS ENERGY!

“I am a … DISPENSER OF ENTHUSIASM!”

“Entusiasmatore”

Word invented by Silvio Berlusconi, meaning enthusiast-salesman

“It is impossible to claim that all good teachers use similar techniques: some lecture nonstop

and others speak very little; some stay close to their material and others loose the imagination; some teach with the carrot and others with the stick. But in every instance, good teachers share one trait: a strong sense of personal identity infuses their work. ‘Dr. A is really there when he teaches.’ ‘Mr. B has such enthusiasm for his subject.’ ‘You can tell

that this is really Prof. C’s life.’ ”

Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach

35. Leaders Give …

RESPECT!

“It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He gained respect by giving it. He

talked and listened to the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined shoes the same way he talked and listened to a

bishop or a college president. He was seriously interested in who you were and what you had to say.”

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect

36.

LEADERS SHOW UP!

37. Leaders Make Time to

“Work the Phones.”

38. Leadership Is a Performance.

BELIEVE IT.

“You must be the change you want to bring

about.”

39. Leaders Have a GREAT

STORY!

“A key – perhaps the key – to leadership is the effective

communication of a story.”

Howard Gardner Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership

40. Leaders Create BUZZ!

41. Leaders Give Everyone

a CAUSE!

“Create a ‘cause,’ not a ‘business.’ ”

42. Leaders MAKE MEANING.

Make Meaning: Guide a Discovery

Process [KW]

43. Leaders Pursue

DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE!

1st Law Mktg Physics: OVERT BENEFIT (Focus: 1 or 2 > 3 or 4/“One Great Thing.”

Source #1: Personal Passion)

2ND Law: REAL REASON TO BELIEVE (Stand & Deliver!)

3RD Law: DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE (Execs Don’t Get It: “intent to purchase” – 100%;

“unique” – 0% to 5%)

Source: Jump Start Your Business Brain, Doug Hall

44. Leaders Focus on the SOFT STUFF!

Message: Leadership is all about love! [Passion, Enthusiasms, Appetite for Life,

Engagement, Commitment, Great Causes & Determination to Make a

Damn Difference, Shared Adventures, Bizarre Failures, Growth, Insatiable

Appetite for Change.] [Otherwise, why bother? Just read Dilbert. TP’s final words: CYNICISM SUCKS.]

“Soft” Is “Hard”

PASSION RULES!

45. Leaders

KNOW They Can Make a Difference!

“A real superstar is mean in a particular way. He is Michael Jordan or

Cal Ripken, greedy for records and history. Armored and self-contained, his

inner core is a hard knot of physical talent and fierce will. Nothing penetrates that core, and anybody or anything that

gets too close is out of his life.”

Michael Sokolove, “The last Straw”

46. Leaders

LISTEN!

47. Leaders LOVE

“POLITICS.”

48. Leaders

LEARN.

49.

Leaders???: See Below

50. Leaders

Know WHEN TO LEAVE!

Bottom Line2001

Have you changed civilization today?

Source: HP banner ad

“Let’s make a dent in the universe.”

Steve Jobs

#49

I. Personal Stuff …

Indefatigable

“indefatigable” … “courage” … “love the thrill of the hunt” … “must not have just a desire to win, but a need to win” … “enjoy doing things they don’t know how to do” … “seek out discomfort zones in order to gain new experiences” … “willing to piss

people off” … “LEADERS NEED TO BE THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR ON

ROLLER BLADES”

You Must Care!

“Leaders care!” … “The true definition of leadership is service.”

… “genuinely care” … “Leaders CARE!” … “Leadership is service.”

… “LEADERS SERVE.”

Real!

“Leaders are living individuals whom employees can smell, feel, touch their

presence” [the elevator test] … “Leaders love their work. That passion is infectious.” … “ ‘It’s only business,

not personal’ … IT ALWAYS IS PERSONAL.” … “If you love what you

do, it shows. You cannot fake love and succeed.”

Integrity

“ooze integrity” … “certain things I’ll never do” … “shoulder the

unpleasant tasks”

Miscl.

Know yourself … Aware of your impact on others … Have an

Honest Coach … Take breaks

II. Tactics …

“Sweat the small stuff” [cultural giveaways: the clean parking lot,

etc.] … “Build/Design” beats “Design/Build.” … Ferret out the truth/Find cool internal sources:

LEADERS NEVER HEAR THE TRUTH … “COMMUNICATE

RELENTLESSLY” … ASK BETTER QUESTIONS …

“Hire smart – go bonkers – have grace – make mistakes – love

technology – start all over again.” … “Leaders are never afraid to walk away from business.” … “Leaders select their battles

carefully.” … “A leader must hear the wrong notes.” …

“Leaders have a kid alive in them.” … “Leadership is the PROCESS of ENGAGING PEOPLE in CREATING

a LEGACY of EXCELLENCE.” … “Real leaders don’t always get their

way.” [creative director]

Thank You, 267 FOFC!

POTUS

The (Leadership) Perspective from A58.

KENNEDY. Visionary. Fresh. Lousy pol.

Rejuvenated America. Set the table for LBJ.

JOHNSON. Great pol. Gutsy pol. (Civil Rights Act.) (GUTSY pol = Visionary?) Sucked into swamp, uncharacteristically. (Vision-less? Or: Who woulda

known?)

NIXON. Visionary. (Foreign Affairs.) (Pick your causes:

Couldn’t care less about “domestic stuff.”) Fab #2: HAK. Torpedoed by lack of character. (But: ALL POTUSs OBSESSED

BY RE-ELECTION.)

FORD. “Tone Man.” (Just what we needed.) No vision. (Or: Tone =

Vision?) Mediocre pol. Who cares? (Thank you,

Jerry.)

CARTER. Visionary. (Sorta: Negative visions are … well … Negative.)

Lousy pol.

REAGAN. (True) Visionary. K.I.S.S.

(Benefited from Carter’s negativism.) Delegater. Good pol. (Ron & Tip.)

BUSH I. No vision. Mediocre pol. Calm after RWR. (Sorta like Ford.)

(We’d had enough Vision!)

CLINTON. Vision. (Thwarted by TCI/The Character Issue.) (Too

much “vision”: health care.) Great pol. (Billy & Newt Show.) (Character “hangover” killing Dems in Bush II.) (Legacy =

CONFUSING.)

(B-I-G) Lesson:

Leadership is only “simple” to

the simple-minded!