Synopses & Reviews
Leaders of any description and department are struggling. Society is awash with social technologies; employees want to be included in the conversations and decisions; and management is stuck sorting out how teams should operate using dated leadership models in a new and technologically- sophisticated social world order. Human Resources needs to catch up with technology; Finance continues to operate in a silo; and IT is tripping over both legacy systems and newer, social technologies, while experiencing difficulty adjusting to a more collaborative behavioral model. Most importantly, employees are becoming significantly more disengaged.
Does any of this sound familiar?
There is no easy way to undo what years, and even decades, of outdated management practice have done to leaders. Command and control is rampant, evil and unnecessary. The process of change has to start with the leadership in any organization, and Flat Army is designed to prevent your organization's ship from sinking. Dan Pontefract knows and understands what happens to organizations when employees are unhappy and uncommitted. More importantly, he knows what it takes to create a leadership culture that drives engagement, empowerment and encouragement amongst continued execution. In all of the corporate leadership roles he has had, he held a steadfast belief that a collaborative, connected and participative leadership framework is the only way in which to operate.
Pontefract is currently the Head of Learning and Collaboration at TELUSan international telecommunications organization of 40,000 employeeswhere he and the TELUS team instituted concepts such as the TELUS Leadership Philosophy; a formal, informal and social learning model known as Learning 2.0; and a plethora of open, social and collaborative technologies that, in part, helped TELUS augment its approach to leadership and engagement.
Today, employee engagement at TELUS sits at 80 percent, the highest in Canada for large-sized organizations and in the top one percent globally. TELUS and Dan have received multiple awards from ASTD, CLO and Skillsoft in recognition of the growth of a new culture of leadership, collaboration and learning.
Prepare to be entertained, shocked and engaged. Challenge yourself. Challenge the status quo. Flat Army pushes the boundaries of organization change. It can change yours.
Synopsis
Leaders of any ilk are struggling. Society is awash with new technologies, employees want to be included in the discussion, the conversations, the decisions, and management is stuck sorting out how teams and organizations should actually operate in this new flat yet technologically social world order. Human Resources have become a group out of touch with the technology, Finance continues to operate in a silo from the rest of the organization, IT is tripping over both antiquated and newer technologies while displaying difficulties to adjust to a more collaborative behavioral model. Most importantly, employees are becoming significantly more disengaged.
Does any of this sound familiar?
There is no easy way to undo what years and even decades of management practice have done to us. The process has to start with the leadership in any organization, and Flat Army is designed to provide insight into cultural change. The key components of this change are deploying a Connected Leader mindset, Participative Leader Framework and Collaborative Leader Action Model, coupled by Pervasive Learning and Collaborative Technology models; and being a visible leader who demonstrates the necessary capabilities to embrace change and realize the opportunities change represents.
Challenge yourself. Challenge the status quo. Flat Army pushes the boundaries of organization change. It can change yours.
Synopsis
Arms you with powerful tools for overcoming resistance to change and creating a culture of collaboration, engagement, and employee empowerment Your people are your most valuable asset, and if you want them to excel (and your profits to soar), you'll need to abandon your traditional command-and-control management style and adopt a collaborative, open leadership approach—one that engages and empowers your people. While this isn't a particularly new idea, many leaders, while they may pay lip service to it, don't really understand what it means. And most of those who do get it lack the skills for putting it into practice. In Flat Army you'll find powerful leadership models and tools that help you challenge yourself and overcome your personal obstacles to change, while pushing the boundaries of organizational change to create a culture of collaboration.
- Develops an integrated framework incorporating collaboration, open leadership, technologies, and connected learning
- Shows you how to flatten the organizational pyramid and engage with your peoples in more collaborative and productive ways—without undermining your authority
- Explains how to deploy a Connected Leader mindset, a Participative Leader Framework, and a Collaborative Leader Action Model
- Arms you with powerful tools for becoming a more visible leader who demonstrates the qualities and capabilities needed to become an agent of positive change
Synopsis
FLAT: to be on a level surface, not in a hierarchyARMY: a large group of people who share similar aims or beliefs
FLAT ARMY: an unobstructed flow of corporate commonality
About the Author
Dan Pontefract is the Head of Learning & Collaboration at TELUS (www.telus.com). He is responsible for the overarching leadership development, learning and collaboration strategy for the company. He has driven a philosophical and cultural shift in the way TELUS views and experiences learning. Called "Learning 2.0", it's a social, informal and formal learning and collaboration model for all 40,000+ team members, bringing TELUS to the forefront of learning leadership. Dan also championed the introduction of the TELUS Leadership Philosophy (TLP), an open and collaborative-based leadership framework for all TELUS team members, alongside a litany of social collaboration technologies.
When he's not cycling, he's goofing around with Denise, Claire, Cole and Cate. You can reach him at www.danpontefract.com.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments x
CHAPTER 1: THE MONA LISA IS SO SMALL! 1
My Fears 5
Whose Job Is Leadership, Anyway? 7
Engaging Defi nitions 9
Why Is Engagement Good? 14
Why Is Disengagement Bad? 16
The Organization vs. Life Itself 18
Why This Book? Why “Flat Army”? 20
CHAPTER 2: HOW’D WE GET SO RIGID? 27
The Grocery Store of Hierarchy 29
Monarchy as a Catalyst? 32
War Games and the Industrial Revolution 34
The Dark Side 36
Organizational Learned Helplessness 41
CHAPTER 3: THE CONNECTED LEADER 46
Open Says Me 48
The Connected Leader Chasm 50
Falling into the Chasm 52
From the Harmful to the Hopeful 55
An Apple Story 55
A Johnson & Johnson Story 57
The Flat Army Philosophy 60
The Connected Leader Attributes (CLA) 61
The Three Be’s of General Sherman 63
The Participative Leader Framework 67
The Collaborative Leader Action Model 69
The Pervasive Learning and Collaboration Technologies Models 70
CHAPTER 4: BECOMING A CONNECTED LEADER 72
Trusting 74
Involving 77
Empathizing 79
Developing 82
Communicating 86
CHAPTER 5: BEING A CONNECTED LEADER 90
Analyzing 92
Deciding 95
Delivering 98
Cooperating 101
Clowning 105
CHAPTER 6: BEYOND THE CONNECTED LEADER 110
Coaching 112
Measuring 116
Exploring 119
Adapting 122
Bettering 125
CHAPTER 7: THE PARTICIPATIVE LEADER FRAMEWORK 132
The Untutored Eye 132
Say It Forward 134
Guanxi 136
Autopoiesis 139
Know Who You Know: Neighbor Networks 140
Putting It All Together 145
The Participative Leader Framework 146
Continuous 147
Authentic 148
Reciprocal 148
Educating 149
Direct Professional and Personal Networks 149
Contribute and Consume 150
Participative Leader Framework in Action 152
CHAPTER 8 : THE COLLABORATIVE LEADER ACTION MODEL 155
Heterarchy Is Not Anarchy 158
Hat Tip to Wirearchy 160
Shell of the CLAM 162
Connect (With Others) 165
Consider (All Options) 166
Communicate (The Decision and Action Plan) 168
Create (The Result) 171
Confi rm (The Result Met the Target) 174
Congratulate (Through Feedback and Recognition) 176
When to CLAM and When Not to CLAM 178
Degrees of Flawless Execution and Collaborative Engagement 182
Worst Practice 182
Bad Practice 183
Good Practice 184
Best Practice 184
CHAPTER 9: LEARNING AT THE SPEED OF NEED 187
Does Organizational Learning Matter? 190
70–20–10 or 3–33? 192
Formal Learning 196
Informal Learning 200
Social Learning 204
CHAPTER 10: TOOLS, RULES AND JEWELS OF BEING A FLAT ARMY LEADER 210
Click Next for the “Cons” of Collaboration 213
Conversation 215
Micro-Blogging 216
Instant Messaging 217
Comments 218
Discussions 219
Email 220
Content 221
Wikis 221
Video Sharing 222
Blogs 224
Webjams 225
User-Generated Content 226
Context 227
Search 228
Personal Profiles 229
Badging 230
Ratings 231
Tagging 232
Collaboration Technologies and Sales 2.0 233
The Technology Strikes Back 235
CHAPTER 11: FLAT ARMY IN ACTION 239
NHS 239
Good Rockin’ Tonite 241
Research in Motionless 244
The Spirit of Hitachi 247
Lessons from Scotiabank 249
Zappos 251
HCL Technologies 252
Flat Army at TELUS 254
CHAPTER 12: THE CULTURE QUEST OF FLAT ARMY 260
Flat Army Philosophy 263
Rolling Out Flat Army 267
Impact: Direct Team 268
Impact: Organization (indirect teams) 273
Afterword: In Collaborative Conclusion 281
Endnotes 285
About the Author 301
Index 303