Leadership is changing as the old command and control models are being replaced by models that harness collective intelligence.
Probably the biggest factor challenging conventional management is the massive Gen Y or Millennial generation of young people entering the workforce. They outnumber their helicopter Baby Boomer parents. Younger workers bring with them a new ethic of openness, participation, interactivity and cannot imagine a life without Google and Facebook always within reach.
They are willing to work hard but also insist on work/life balance. They yearn to be coached with constant feedback rather than an annual performance review. They don't respond well to traditional forms of supervision or even hierarchies, preferring to work in collaborative teams. ( Note: For how coaching is different from consulting and how management needs to change to effectively lead Gen Yers, listen to this interview: http://view.vzaar.com/845767/download )
The rise of unstructured work, collaboration, a new generation of knowledge workers, and new suites of collaborative tools are changing the business process. The challenge is to orchestrate intelligence. Companies must customize relationships with customers, suppliers and others, detecting and responding to market and environmental shifts.
Think of a shared canvas where every splash of paint contributed by one artist provides a richer tapestry for the next artist to modify or build on. Whether people are creating, sharing, or socializing, the Web is now about participating. This is leading to a profound change in the architecture of the corporation and how we orchestrate capability to innovate. The mantra "focus on what you do best and partner to do the rest" is serving most leaders of the global economy well. Rather than offloading a process, companies now collaborate.
Products are now mass customized, service intensive and infused with the knowledge and the individual tastes of customers. Because companies must constantly innovate, product life cycles collapse.
It is easier to identify trends and to not only respond to them but to achieve and shape them. Reflect on early signs of change in three core categories: 1) technology, 2) societal shifts and economic change, and 3) customer experience. The goal is to create an informal dashboard to map trends that could translate into competitive threats.
Cross-Industry Pattern Recognition
Smart companies that embrace transparency will prosper. They recognize that proactive transparency increases corporate success and will be an increasingly important source of differentiation in the future.
A set of simple truths--business breakthroughs combine the instinctive hunches of what might be with revelatory insights into cross-industry trends in plan sight. Companies can organize their "dashboards" around these categories that reveal new opportunities for growth:
1. Product and service innovation.
2. Customer impact--a sustainable community of support.
3. Process design--alignment of the "how" of a business with the evolving "what" that customers want.
4. Talent and leadership--the culture that will move a business forward.
5. Secret Sauce--the recipe of differentiation and competitive advantage in a new world of unprecedented transparency.
6. Trendability--the foresight to see the future more quickly and adapt more rapidly to shifts in the landscape.
These six elements can function as a strategic lever to move a company from a stagnating today to a more dynamic future. A new book has been written for any business leader who somehow ended up at a crossroads for whatever reason. Find Your Next is the parable of every fork in the road and the inherent lesson within. It's a story of commerce and customers and leaders and culture. The characters are universal and local, the venues global and domestic, and the wares standard and high-tech.
Andrea Kates: Find Your Next: Using the Business Genome Approach to Find Your Company’s Next Competitive Edge
John Agno: Can't Get Enough Leadership: Book Notes & Coaching Tips