A631.9.2.RB_LarsonKurt, Video Debrief of Team MA

After watching the video above, write a well-written reflection blog, discuss how your characteristics would have fit with the makeup and culture of the NeXT startup team. Your reflection should be very specific to the environment that you witness in the video. Make sure that you use your MA results as the basis for your discussion.

I found the video to be very similar in nature to the two articles reviewed in A631.9.3.TA-Group Study, How Steve Jobs hexed NeXT (Nicholson, 1993) and Steve Jobs is back at Apple (Oritz, 1996). As we all know the late Steve Jobs is known as the co-founder of Apple computers, and is but one individual responsible for the modern day computer revolution that has projected Apple to the top of the computer industry from a technological standpoint. Forbes magazine listed (Jobs) who at only 27 in 1982 as one of the richest Americans with at least 100 million in Apple stock.

Jobs, which was instrumental in creating Apple computers in his garage is noteworthy as a most dramatic display of creativity and innovation in the history of Silicone Valley. But for all his visionary and forward thinking, Steve Jobs has been labeled as a myopic and unapologetic snob who is depicted as such a poor manager who encouraged bullying employees, fostering dissention vs. cooperation to the point of over-involving himself in the minutest of details that is reminiscent of micromanagement. Three years later, Jobs was ouster from Apple computers.

Based upon the Management Assessment Profile that was prepared by NextSteps Research, analyzed by Tom Labreque in a one hour and extremely informative debriefs. My leadership style was assessed as “Logistical” with characteristics that Stabilize, Organize, Administrate and Communicate as a confident logistical leader that exhibits a team-oriented approach toward leadership. To quote Tom in the debrief, My team-oriented leadership approach, in conjunction with my logistical approach are instrumental at establishing good lines of communication, are a stabilizing influence in an organization that is responsible for creating rules and structure for an organization and its people.

Conversely when Jobs established NeXT with the objective of creating a workstation and monitor capable of displaying crisp, clear graphics, a microprocessor that is powerful including massive storage for under $3000 per unit to a market targeting universities. Universities were Apples initial objective and true success story back when Jobs was with the organization. In reality NeXT computers were underpowered, cost double the $3000 that universities were willing to pay for even in a basic configuration in spite of investments by billionaires like: Ross Perot, Stanford and Carnegie-Mallon universities and Cannon.

It would appear from a macro perspective that Steve Jobs was concerned with appearances vs. reality. Superficial items like: NeXT company logos, interior design of buildings and the design of the computer itself that was to be housed in a magnesium one foot cube, had many technical problems including the expenditure of almost 1 million on molds and a sanding machine for removal of blemishes and imperfections after the manufacturing process would make the units unaffordable and outside of any idea of creating, manufacturing and marketing with-in the realm of an economy-of -scales concept.

Based upon my assessment and debrief of the Management Assessment Profile prepared for me. I conclude that Steve Jobs leadership style was an extrovert of a strategic nature, displaying characteristics of mobilization, devising, systemizing and envisioning that NeXT was created solely for the purpose of tormenting those who ousted him from Apple and thus started a company with a fundamental flaw. There was no market for another PC, particularly one that was not compatible with IBM-PC or Macintosh operating systems. 

     

References:

Nicholson, D. (1993, Nov 23). Book world; how Steve Jobs hexed NeXT. The Washington Post (Pre-1997 Full text). Retrieved November 26, 2012, from http://search.proquest.com

Ortiz, C. (1996, Dec 21). Steve Jobs is back as Apple buys NeXT. Austin American Statesman. Retrieved November 26, 2012, from http://search.proquest.com

Nathan, J. (1989, Mar 17). Entrepreneurs. Nathan/Tyler Productions. Retrieved November 26, 2012, from https://www.youtube.com

Larson, K. (2013, December 16). Interview by T Labreque. Management assessment profile. Retrieved from http://www.nextstepsresearch.com

A631.8.4.RB_LarsonKurt, Reflective Analysis

Explore the Internet for information based on your own Myers-Briggs personality type. If you have never taken the Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI), you can access a free personality type test at the HumanMetrics website.

It is important to understand that Jungian types and the MBTI relate to personal preferences for how people interact in the world. No type is better than another type and every type has its own unique ways of being. And, sometimes the assessments do not correctly describe the personality type of the person who took the test. If you feel that the descriptions of your personality type preferences are not accurate, then you probably were mistyped by the test.

Develop a reflection blog describing how the MBTI might be useful to you as you develop your leadership capacity. In your blog, touch on your own self-awareness and also your knowledge and awareness of others.

According to the results of the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator (MBTI) Personality Type test from the HumanMetrics website.  My Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test is as follows:

Introvert (56%) iNtuitive (12%) Thinking (38%) and Judging (78%). They are broken down as follows:

I have a slight moderate preference of Introversion over Extraversion (56%)

I have a slight preference of Intuition over Sensing (12%)

I have a moderate preference of Thinking over Feeling (38%)

I have a strong preference of Judging over Perceiving (78%)

The article Introversion-Extraversion (2010,) discusses that Carl Jung was initially responsible for coining the term as a method of referring to two distinctly differing psychological attitudes. What Jung was referring to introversion as the inward turning of the libido, conversely extraversion is the outward direction of the libido. Jung further believed that an introverts mind, emotions and attention are inadvertently turned inward due to inferior feelings particularly during stressful periods.

Extraverts on the other hand focus their attention toward the outer world with their perceptions, judgments and experiences on people and things. An extravert will draw energy from other people and experiences, and may appear to be shallow to an introvert. Both attitudes are prevalent in all people; however, one is generally preferred over the other.

Intuition over Sensing is functions that are primarily focused on different kinds of information. People are utilizing their sensing function as they gather information through the five senses hearing, feeling, touching, smelling and tasting.

They may also: memorize a speech or presentation, notice clouds in the sky and check the weather forecast, follow step-by-step instructions, taste food or smell a flower.

When an individual utilize their intuition function, they are typically: come-up with ideas and new methods of accomplishing goals, see the big picture, overall trends, patterns and themes, perceive the underlying meaning of individual behavior, create future scenarios or think about the implications of ones actions.

Thinking over Feeling was also found to be utilized during conflict resolution and is hypothesized that the thinking-feeling function of the mind would positively correlate in areas like decision-making function’s.

People that use their thinking function typically utilize logic and impartiality in the decision making process, in areas like: weighing the pros and cons of a career change, follow rules weather they might agree, as it is the right thing to do, make a decision based upon fairness, even if it is less advantageous for them personally.

People who employ their feeling function generally make decisions personally and considering the effects on themselves as well as others and do things like: accept an off of a position because they know people who work there, go the extra mile for an employer because they are valued and treated fairly, Buy an item because they like it, withhold criticism if they believe it would upset the recipient.

The final portion Judging over Perceiving are related to attitudes of how well people have a preference on how they live their lives.

When people are judging they plan, order and schedule, and may do things like: make a detailed shopping list, plan a week of scheduled appointments, organize a holiday, push for closure on issues, begin working early and methodically on projects.

People that perceive are open-ended, spontaneous and tend to go with the flow including things like: take a wait and see attitude, act on the spur of the moment, make a decision as things occur, adapt and act quickly, meet deadlines at the last minute. And lastly the perceiving attitude is directly linked with sensing and intuition.

References:

Introversion-Extraversion. (2010). In The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/login? url=http://www.credoreference.com/entry/wileycorsini/introversion_extraversion

MBTI attitudes and functions. (2008, Apr 30). Dominion Post. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/338354816?accountid=27203

George, M. B. (1991). The relationship between the MBTI and a values conflict resolution. (Order No. 0664570, University of Richmond). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 0-1. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/304033999?accountid=27203. (304033999).

A631.7.4.RB_LarsonKurt, Future of OD

Together, MSLD 630 and MSLD 631 provide an overview of Organizational Development (OD). The courses present an OD view of managing change and organizational transformation. In this final chapter of your textbook, Brown presents two opposing ideas: some as a rapidly changing field keeping up with the times and by others as a fad that will become irrelevant views OD. Given what you have learned over the past two courses, what do you see as the future of the OD discipline?

According to Brown (2011,) Organizational Development or OD as it is affectionately referred, is the discipline that applies behavioral science techniques to managerial problems. It advocates the installation of long range change through the use of opportunities through efforts that are planned, organizational wide and managed from the top by increasing organizational effectiveness and health through planned interventions in an organizations processes and procedures that utilize the knowledge of behavioral science.  With this in mind several items immediately become relevant regarding OD like Organizational Transformation (OT,) which is a large scale program designed to assist organizations with large scale change and the issues generally associated with environmental or technological changes, corporate culture, vision, strategy including strategy change management and changing the organizational culture.

Considering the above observations, including the nature of todays global business and market place, that so many organizations and governments find as the new normal place to conduct business. It would only seem fitting that the discipline of OD would naturally evolves with the changing needs of its customers as a method of establishing a hierarchy of information that its previous and future customers alike can draw from a repository of information relevant to its individual and joint needs as in the case of joint-ventures between organizations and governments.

In other words, for OD to survive like Total Quality Management (TQM) or Lean Manufacturing (LM) it is indicative to seek out new and improved methods of reaching out to current and potential customers, much like TQM and LM has in the past. Much like the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Safety Management System (SMS) that is based upon ISO 9000 requirements. It too looks for improved methods of reaching out to and partnering with government regulatory bodies and organizations to collaborate with and enter into a joint-venture with organizations, for the betterment and sustainability of the craft and business models that OD is seeking to partner with for the continued improvement and development of global organizations.   

Reference:

Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

A631.6.4.RB_LarsonKurt, Transformational Strategies

An organizational change is a change in corporate culture. As we know from discussing what is in Brown (2011,) corporate cultures are the shared values, beliefs an organization holds true and can be a particularly heavy influencer on how its members preform. Changing that culture to better align with today’s global economy and market involves innovation, adaptation that many times may involve the use of an external OD practitioner before, during and after the transformational change. Particularly when the culture is resistant to change and innovations, the OD practitioner can greatly enhance the success of these strategic changes.

Examples of these corporate cultural changes and keeping in-line with an ever-changing market would be Gallery Furniture of Houston Texas. According to its owner Jim McIngvale, Gallery Furniture enjoyed 30 years of profitable sales and growth that ended after the housing bubble burst in late 2007. McIngvale realized that in order to not only survive but grow during the recession, innovation and changing the process by which his employees changed their current culture of behavior, looking for new and fresh methods of delivering to the customer what they wanted was paramount to the continued success of Gallery Furniture.

General Stanley McChrystal discusses how in the blink of an eye the manner in which an organization like the U.S. Army had to accomplish a Transformable Change after 9/11. As Gen McChrystal explains how his traditional leadership was tailored from his father in Vietnam, Robert E. Lee and John Buford and now the environment, speed, scrutiny and sensitivity evolved in such a rapid manner it did not afford people the opportunity to reflect upon the differing complexity and content of the current situation.

Gen McChrystal discussed how the importance of leadership in a force that was spread over 20 countries with organizations that were not necessarily military. He emphasized the importance of the need to get key leaders together not for a face-to-face meeting but through the use of video conferencing, chat, and email and phone conversations. Trust and confidence were the order of the day that needed to be established by all parties and throughout the conflict, building faith was paramount and recognized as a new type of leadership style.   

Although the missions of both leaders were different as one was the owner of a retail organization and the other was the leader of a military organization and subsequently a coalition force. They in their own right shared some common values and struggles in completion of their objectives.

As discussed in Brown (2011,) both leaders had a need to develop their respective transformational strategies in a manner that highlighted core characteristics like: individual autonomy, sensitivity to the needs of customers and employees, support, openness of available communications channel and risk behavior. Sharing the vision, empowering the individual, developing trust and rewarding performance were also priorities that lead both leaders to successful champagnes and objectives.

Brown (2011,) also states that the Relative Strength of Corporate Culture is characterized through an organizations basic value that are intensely held and widely disseminated through out an organization like the six stanza Ranger creed. Another area that both leaders exemplified in was the Strategy-Cultural Matrix. Much like Brown (2011,) discusses transformational changes can be more effectively accomplished if the organizational culture is taken into consideration. The four strategies or basic alternatives utilized in determining transformational change are: manage the change (risk management,) reinforce the culture (negligible risk,) manage around the culture (manageable risk) and finally change the strategy to fit the culture (unacceptable risk).

To sum up the outlooks and successes of these two fine leaders who realized early on that the key to success is the ability to be totally honest with not only your staff, or in the case of Gen McChrystal, his command. But to be brutally honest with yourself, realizing how Gen McChrystal so eloquently put it: “I came to believe that a leader isn’t good because they’re right; they’re good because they’re willing to learn and to trust.

References:

Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

McIngvale, J. D. (2013). Influencer training helps Texas retailer save millions and prosper in economic recession. [Web]. Retrieved from www.Vitalsmarts.com

McChrystal, S. (Performer) (2011). Stanley McChrystal: Listen, learn. then lead [Web]. Retrieved from www.TED.com

A631.5.4.RB_LarsonKurt, Leading System Wide Change

Typically leaders and managers generally come from the ranks they formally once manage. Exceptions to this would be the military officer who was once enlisted and thus prohibited from assuming a command they were in as enlisted. That said those who once were part of a work force who aspired to and moved to a leadership position, often have conflicting allegiances. Do they owe an allegiance to their former co-workers, those who hired them for their current position, or the shareholders or taxpayer in the case of public service?

In my humble opinion the answer is… all of them which in itself can quickly become a conflicting quagmire of being pulled in too many directions in an attempt to appease, conduct business and maintain previous working relationships and not burn any bridges. But that is one reason why we are hired into leadership positions, for our ability to be flexible, yet still get the job done.

As discussed in Brown (2011,) today’s leaders and managers face changes that are products of both recession and financial setbacks which can inhibit an organizations desire to innovate, transform and renew itself just to meet the changing forces in todays global economy. Mark Herd, CEO of Hewlett-Packard so eloquently sums it up by his analysis: “We cannot live in the past, Hewlett-Packard wants to be on the news channel, not the history channel.       

From my viewpoint for a leader/manager to be successful in an organization, a code of conduct from which a benchmark can be established would be beneficial and prudent for any leader to aspire and grow in a leadership position and become a true asset to an organization, its personnel, suppliers and customers as the case may be. To put it another way, why would any organization relationship want to conduct business with any organization that does not insist upon respect, professionalism and courtesy toward its employees?

A true leader and innovator that I have recently looked favorably upon is Michael Bonsignore, CEO of Honeywell.

Mr. Bonsignore acknowledges that some critical success factors, like cash flow concerns and future earnings were a result of under anticipation of the difficulty of the degree that the merger between Honeywell and Allies Signal were. He further stated that the two differing cultures and organizational methods between the two companies would be ironed out as time progressed by creating a newer culture from the best attributes of both companies.

He says that Honeywell will compensate and reward people that look for best practices from both companies in creating a new corporate culture and punish those who do not. Although I find the latter portion of his statement a bit harsh, I am not in Mr. Bonsignore’s shoes and believe his sincerity is apparent in both his words and actions. Honeywell will be successful simply because of the company’s method of open communications between its employees, customers and the general public.

For example: the Bendix brake issue that plagued an extremely small percentage of the operational school busses. Mr. Bonsignore’s decision to alert       the operators and recall the control units at great expense to the organization, and not wait for individual unit failures is indicative of his willingness to give back to the community. Much like his assistance with home restoration and improvement in communities that Honeywell has a presence.

Reference:

Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall