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Need for Organizational Transformation
When David Falvey joined the British Geological
Survey as CEO, he found a hierarchical
organization structured around the various
disciplines in geology. These divisions operated
as competing empires. There was almost no
collaboration among them on
creative approaches to a customer
problem.
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To become more
innovative, the
organization needed
transformation.
Creating a New Innovation-friendly Organization
“The key to spurring a wave of
→
innovation
was creating a structure and
climate that ended
the internal competition,” says David Falvey. He
stopped the rivalries between divisions not by
dismantling the divisions but by eliminating
people’s affiliation with them – he created a
matrix structure. In this new structure, a
program headed by a manager is responsible for a
range of projects. But the people working on
those projects come from a human resource pool
whose allegiance is to the mission of the
organization rather than to a specific program.
In addition to eliminating internal competition,
the structural change heightened the company’s
external competitive focus, which fostered
increased innovation. “Because the new program
managers no longer “own” staff members, they
have to devise projects that are interesting
enough to attract people. Furthermore, because
staff members don’t have enforced loyalties to
particular groups, they feel free to speak up
with suggestions that can benefit the entire
organization.
>>>
Tao-style
Transformational
Leadership
The
organizational transformation was not easy.
It was very challenging task for a new CEO, a
foreigner coming into a very old organization –
one founded in 1835. People
resisted the change
initially. They hated letting go of their
identification with specific divisions.
To win
gradually consensus for the change, David Falvey
spent two years in discussions with various
groups of employees. The change was more
orchestrated than directed by him. The members
of the organization brought about change for
themselves.
“The Leader is best, when people are hardly
aware of his existence, ... When his work is
done, his aim fulfilled, the people say, 'We did
it ourselves.,‘” taught
Lao Tzu. This is
the Tao
of wise leadership.
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