How to Manage in a Flat World 10 Strategies to Get Connected to Your Team Wherever They Are

by Whiteley, Philip; Bloch, Susan

• ISBN13: 9780132906159
• ISBN10: 0132906155
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-03-05
• Publisher: FT Press

Summary

How to MANAGE in a FLAT WORLD 10 Strategies to Get Connected to Your Team Wherever They Are Lead Winning Global Teams in Today’s Flat Businesses! Manage, motivate, and communicate with teams that span continents Master all the tools available to global managers, from technology to travel Based on exclusive interviews with dozens of successful global managers In today’s “flat” world, you must get the best from teams that span not just offices, but continents: teams of unprecedented diversity and complexity. Leading those teams, you must deliver better results faster and with fewer resources. Conventional management techniques just won’t do the job anymore. You need a radically new approach to management: one that’s more fluid, more agile, and far less hierarchical. How to Manage in a Flat Worldteaches you that new approach. Drawing on hard-won lessons from today’s most successful global managers, this book covers both high-level concepts and hands-on techniques. You’ll find best practices for everything from building trust to choosing the right times to travel&even maintaining a healthy work/life balance when you’re leading a team that’s operating 24/7! Susan Blochhas spent the past decade helping leading enterprises build leadership capability and effective teams. She has coached business leaders in manufacturing, financial services, construction, retailing, telecommunications, and other industries. Her clients have included Reuters, Prudential, Shell, Unilever, Philips, Sony, BT, Barclays, Standard Chartered, and Accenture. Bloch holds an M.A. in Psychology from Columbia University, and is a fellow of Ashoka, a global charity that supports social entrepreneurs. Philip Whiteleyis a freelance author and journalist specializing in management. He is author or coauthor of numerous books, including Unshrink the People (with Max Mckeown). He contributes regularly to leading business publications, and writes a weekly column on executive compensation for The Times of London. Together, Bloch and Whiteley previously authored Complete Leadership. In a flat world, managers are on the front lines. It is managers who must bring together individuals, teams, and resources from all over the planet. It is managers who must work through differences in language and culture to drive quantifiable results, and be held accountable for those results. Stripped of yesterday’s hierarchical, unquestioned authority, it is managers who must earn the right to lead, every single day. How to Manage in a Flat Worldgives you a complete blueprint for succeeding as a manager and leader in today’s radically flattened and globalized business environment. You’ll learn realistic, proven techniques for leading and motivating teams, wherever they are&using technology and travel more effectively&creating cultures of trust and motivation&coping with ambiguity while providing clarity&and building a balanced, fulfilled life for yourself at the very same time. " Does culture still matter? Yes, but& Discover the “common reference points” that are emerging alongside traditional culture " Bullet trains and mules Integrate the super-fast pace of business and technology with the slower evolution of humans " When there’s no substitute for travel Make the most of face-to-face interactions on a tight budget " Keeping a life, keeping the “real you” Improve your work/life balance in a flat, global business environment

Author Biography

Susan Bloch has coached top teams in many of the FTSE100 and Fortune 500 companies across the globe over the past twenty years. She has lived and worked in five countries: South Africa, North America, Israel, the United Kingdom, and India. Currently, she is on assignment as Chief Culture Officer for the Retail division of Reliance Industries; one of the few western women working in a senior role in an Indian company. Prior to that she was Partner and Head of Thought Leadership at Whitehead Mann where she was operating as an executive coach, working with executive teams and conducting board effectiveness reviews. Previously she was global head of executive coaching for the Hay Group. A Chartered Psychologist, with a M.A. from Columbia University in NY, Susan has co-authored Employability and Complete Leadership, and has produced a number of research publications.

 

Philip Whiteley is an author and journalist, specializing in management, particularly the areas of leadership, motivation, and strategic people management. He has written numerous articles for The Times, Personnel Today and Coaching at Work among other titles, and has appeared on BBC Newsnight discussing the portrayal of the workplace in the media. He is author of People Express, Motivation, Unshrink the People and Complete Leadership and his books have been translated into six languages. Now based in the UK, Philip has previously worked in Latin America.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
About the Authors	p. xv
Preface	p. xvii
Introduction	p. xix
The Team
"Flat" Teams Need Direction	p. 3
Key Points	p. 3
Followership	p. 4
Getting into Focus	p. 5
Leading out of the Darkness of Ambiguity	p. 6
Behind the Scenes: Teams in Synch with the Business	p. 9
Unity of Focus in Complex Teams	p. 11
Case Study: Coca-Cola: RIP the Department Silo	p. 14
Clusters	p. 15
Case Study: Shell Retail: Huge Workforce in a Dispersed Operation	p. 17
Do We All Have to "Bond"?	p. 20
Case Study: United Biscuits	p. 22
If We Don't Know Where We Are Going, We Will Probably End Up Somewhere Else	p. 25
Your Own Human Internet	p. 26
Learning Points: High Performance with a Globally Dispersed Team	p. 27
The Medium and the Message	p. 29
Key Points	p. 29
What Do We Get from "Being There"?	p. 31
Video-Conferences: An Irritation	p. 33
Why Are We Here?	p. 35
Face-to-Face Can Be Powerful but Must Be Used Well	p. 36
All Businesses Are People Businesses	p. 38
A Level Playing Field in the Same Room	p. 39
An International Team Can Really Fire	p. 41
Benefits to Being the Virtual Stranger	p. 42
Will Face-to-Face Become a Luxury?	p. 44
Are There Hidden Advantages to the Virtual Connection?	p. 47
Native or Nonnative English? Some Notes on Language	p. 49
Onward with Travel	p. 51
Learning Points: How to Get the Meeting Structure Right	p. 51
Does Culture Still Matter?	p. 53
Key Points	p. 53
Is There a Generation Y?	p. 57
Is It Really Culture?	p. 59
In Which Ways Do We Differ?	p. 60
In Which Ways Are We All the Same?	p. 61
Individual Case Study: Monika Altmaier, Project Leader Internationalization, Siemens Business Services	p. 63
Group Case Study: European Top Team	p. 66
Defying the Stereotypes: WL Gore & Associates in China	p. 67
Culture Clash Based on Profession	p. 70
Learning Points: Tips to Avoid Stereotyping	p. 72
Engage Leadership Skills: Command and Control Doesn't Work	p. 73
Key Points	p. 73
Can Empowerment and Control Live Together?	p. 74
Can You Learn, Unlearn, and Relearn?	p. 78
How Do You Set Limits?	p. 79
Managing the Bosses: Where Does Followership Fit in?	p. 81
Quality of Relationships, Not Formulae	p. 82
Learning Points: How to Improve Leadership Skills	p. 83
Teams Are Not Self-Assembly	p. 85
Key Points	p. 85
What Are Those Special Ingredients?	p. 86
Search Agent	p. 87
Looking for the Global Mindset	p. 87
How Important Is Fluent English?	p. 90
The Hunt for Talent: Recruiting via Networks	p. 91
Building the Right Culture Will Attract the People You Want	p. 94
Learning Points: Guiding Principles for International Recruitment	p. 96
The Individual
EQ Is Not Enough: Intelligence Matters	p. 99
Key Points	p. 99
LVMH: Understanding the Market	p. 102
Alstom: Building Long-Term Connections	p. 104
It Is Not Always Enough to Be a Virtual Leader	p. 105
Understanding the World: Changes That Creep Up on Us	p. 106
Wake Up: The Paradigm Has Already Shifted	p. 108
How Do We Make Learning Continuous?	p. Ill
Learning Points: How to Combine Strategic and Conceptual Thinking for Effective Leadership	p. 113
Keeping a Life: Questions of Balance in the Flat World	p. 115
Key Points	p. 115
Meeting Face-to-Face Sends a Positive Message	p. 117
Do We Have to Leave the Real Me at the Door?	p. 118
Do We Have to Have the Maximum Everything?	p. 123
Is Multitasking Really Possible?	p. 124
"You Get Work-Life Balance Complaints When You're Losing"	p. 126
Learning Points: How to Improve Work-Life Balance	p. 127
Ten Strategies for Managing in a Flat World	p. 129
Leadership Style Needs to Become Empowering and Inspirational	p. 131
A Flat World Means Flat Structures	p. 132
Recruitment of the Right People Makes All the Difference	p. 132
Always Show the Way	p. 133
Communicate Often and Learn to Communicate Well	p. 133
Teams Don't Just Happen	p. 134 h
Build Trust: It Is the Foundation of Strong Teams	p. 135
Respect Cultural Differences	p. 135
Work-Life Balance is the Blessing and the Curse of the Flat World	p. 136
Become Part of the Human Internet	p. 137
Implications for Boards, Managers, and Ordinary People	p. 137
Managers Should Be Cut from a Different Cloth	p. 139
Changing the Leadership Model	p. 139
Ways of Being and Doing	p. 140
Lessons from the Movies	p. 141
Lumps and Bumps in the Flat World: What Would Make You Fail?	p. 142
Using Both Sides of the Brain: Transforming Leadership	p. 143
Conclusion: How to Be a Stand-Out Manager in a Flat World	p. 145
The Three Cs of Success in the Flat World	p. 146
A New Language for the Flat World	p. 147
Notes	p. 150
Index	p. 151
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