organizational leadership Archives

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman. Ori also wrote The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations. Both are good reads and worthy of your time.

The opening chapter set the book’s tone for great learning. Why do we fall for irrational behavior? There would be no excuse for experienced, well educated professionals to stumble so badly? Are we really that close to irrational behavior that could actually endanger the lives of others?

When you want to tell a convincing story you start off with a homerun statement. This captures the attention of everyone.

Ori does this for instance, by sharing the story of an educated, deeply experienced professional. Highly regarded by colleagues both internally and from other companies as a voice of reason and industry leader.

In other words, what changes in behavior allows one to commit such an irrational action that results in the deaths of 534 people? Sway examines in chapter one the deadliest aviation disaster in history. It happened on the small island of Tenerife.

Similarly, this was one of the first investigations to conclude “human factors” as a cause. The investigation suggested his reputation, captain’s seniority, and being one of the most respected pilots working for the airline. The apparent hesitation of the flight engineer and the first officer to challenge pilot Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten contributed to the crash.

Leading Change by John P. Kotter is a much respected book. There are indeed solid points. However there are no case studies or source companies named. Regardless of the lessons, without fully understanding the company or executive this seems somewhat less credible. John is professor of Leadership at the Harvard Business School. So, my expectations were extremely high.

The opening chapter set the book’s tone for great potential. There is much to consider when addressing the need for change within any organization. John provides good insights and his lessons are true to form.

In addition, Leading Change provides a foundation for shifts across companies that require tackling pain points. Businesses must shift to remain relevant in a competitive global marketplace.

John proceeds to explain his eight-stage process of creating major change. there is no need for me to lay out the key framework for his process. There are plenty of resources that address his work.

So, each of his eight stages are broken down into three manageable segments. The introductory segment is to create a climate for change. The largest challenge is who the company or organization’s leadership views change as risk. In addition, the second segment requires the strong, powerful engagements with employees to set up success for changes coming across the board. Finally the last segments is implement and sustaining change.

The book seems to favor large, global corporations. There are elements of the book however that seem to be set in a pre-iPhone era. The book was based upon his 1996 article in the Harvard Business Review This includes stage three, developing a vision and strategy.