Today, I met up with Rowan Gilmore - CEO of the Australian Institute of Commercialisation (AIC)

We discussed what responsible and effective leadership means to Rowan and the AIC and he had a few very good points as below.

Before we ventured into what makes a leader responsible and effective, I discussed with Rowan when he had seen responsible leadership at its worst.

Rowan cited the international banking organisations who were seen as responsible in the main for the recent GFC.

The breakdown of many financial institutions was created - often because the right questions were not asked and followed through.

Banks should have long term values over and above the needs to maximise profits and prior to the GFC many people became greedy, self-centred even - not believing or behaving within the core values of their institutions.

Rowan believes leadership should be in line with stated organisational values which then are publicly expressed through desired behaviour of the business / organisation.

Values typically contain expressions relating to ethics (although increasingly these are assumed rather than stated). Often these include ethical values like openness, honesty, caring.

Responsible leadership is aligned with these types of ethical values.

Though many people’s actions - like the bankers referred to above - prove they don't follow ethical values and behaviours.

Rowan went on to discuss how he sees leadership work... This works equally for responsible and effective leadership.

Leadership in business has 3 core areas in the process as Rowan sees it...

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1) Leaders set the vision of where the business wants to head

This is usually presented through scenarios, goals and pictures through carefully chosen words that explain where they see themselves in the future.

This first step in setting the vision will be referred back to and read by staff as what is meaningful to them and creates value.

In the area of commercialisation - vision of the future starts from where the IP all began

Responsible leaders will ensure ethical values are congruent with the vision from the start

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2) Leaders align stakeholders with the vision

All the processes are enunciated, noses are pointed in the right direction so everyone can work in a unified manner.

Responsible leaders will ensure they align with stakeholders who share their ethical values.

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3) Leaders obtain commitment of staff and stakeholders

A promise is a few words until it is delivered.

Leaders ensure tactics are covered and understood

Metrics cover what everyone is doing and when they are all working together...

The visions of the leaders from 1) and 2) above cascade throughout the business or organisation as everyone follows the tactics and strategy that have become their vision.

 

Responsible Leaders take #3 very seriously with their business to ensure it is communicated across all staff and stakeholders so that the ethical values that they have incorporated in their vision are followed.

Responsible leadership ensures everything is measured accordingly and teams are recognised for their achievements.

With these three processes in place, success in business and competitive advantage as a responsible business is defined as everyone puts their best foot forward in replication of their leaders.

Rowan recognises that in theory, this style of responsible leadership is much easier than in practice. 

Often - as with the bankers noted above there are breakdowns because the right questions were not asked and followed through.

He relates this to how leadership within his business in the AIC works...

The Australian Institute for Commercialisation recognises they do not have all the answers for their clients who are looking for how to commercialise their IP in the process of innovation of ideas.

Internally they set up their ideas forum where all staff can share ideas and threads of discussion to enable everyone to put forward ideas.

Every month Rowan works with the management team to evaluate, move forward and discuss how they can commercialise these ideas.

Rowan understands that communication with all leaders and future leaders within an organisation requires support through this communication and decision making.

Collaboration is also very important to help them evaluate IP and proceed with commercialisation.

Working collaboratively with patent attorneys and other specialist firms enables the AIC to work together on many more projects than they would have been able to do alone.

In the field of responsible leadership, collaboration is also key to the future as those who share similar values work together on solutions to major projects facing our society from many different locations.

Many solutions to global concerns can only be treated internationally - through collaboration.

There will also be many more ways to commercialise these solutions moving forward as new generations start to take over more and more leadership positions across business, education, enterprise, government and community focused organisations.

This process will develop opportunity for many people into the future as jobs that currently exist are replaced.

The other day, I had the pleasure of meeting with Dr David Skellern - CEO of NICTA (National Information & Communications Technology Australia).

Since 2005 David has been working on the redevelopment of NICTA's DNA.

With over 600 staff, David is in the business of developing spin-offs. Their 5th spinout 'Cohesive Data' already has been gathering a lot of interest with technology that compresses xml - seriously.

To give an idea - Wikipedia could be reduced in download size by up to 90%.

All of this owned by 3 entrepreneurs who have been under the management of Raymond Wong from the University of NSW.

The road ahead looks valuable given the first spinout from NICTA is already in 750 million mobile phones and was last year formerly proved 'system correct' - which is a scientific achievement.

So what does it mean when you have all this success, with companies like IBM knocking on your door for introductions to your staff?

"Well, firstly you may lose a few staff. That has not been unusual with staff growing, moving, developing and invited to Stanford and the like."

But that is what NICTA is all about - encouraging the best and brightest to tackle problems and be challenged. This is a core theme of responsible leadership.

This has been where David has taken the focus - all staff are encouraged to tackle problems - social and world problems

People are pointed at problems, encouraged to be objective and consider:

"Is it going to work?" and "Is it copyable?"

If it's going to work and isn't easily copyable, then let's start considering the commercialisation prospects, which obviously involves the legal IP aspects.

Currently NICTA have about 270 PHD students. The level keeps changing, though all are introduced to the culture that encourages research via commercialisation. Research is encouraged for breakthroughs that will create commercial results.

So how does NICTA manage staff performance? Well, they have been continuosly improving their performance management system. This is combined with a bi-annual staff engagement survey. From there a roadmap is developed that provides annual set of activities with bottom up goals. A top down system also reviews as milestones are met.

It is much more about the qualitative than the quantitative analysis.

NICTA also trained 10 staff in TMS (Team Management Systems) so then they can oversee the future management of staff internally. This has been much more cost effective than training everyone in TMS which would have been unaffordable.

So what is the future?

Well, all staff are continuously recommended to search for opportunities to improve life on the planet. This is a highly engaging and motivating focus and will form the backdrop of all future management and team building and works exceptionally well with a predominantly younger workforce.

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Source:
Total Executive
http://www.TotalExec.com.au

You're probably familiar with the concept of Dunbar's number. The Wikipedia entry defines it as a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person relates to every other person.

This number is set at 150 connections. Dunbar theorizes that "this limit is a direct function of relative neocortex size, and that this in turn limits group size ... the limit imposed by neocortical processing capacity is simply on the number of individuals with whom a stable inter-personal relationship can be maintained."

Not every company caps the number of customers at 150, however. Which means that if they indeed intend to have relationships with their customers (beyond the sales person closing the deal) they need to scale up the number of people who support customers. Each of those people counts personal relationships - family, friends, past colleagues, peers, etc. - in their Dunbar number.

Theoretically, there is a correlation between the customer relationships a company hopes to have, and the number of people dedicated to cultivating those relationships. However, as Doc Searls said so well a few years back, companies are not doing that. Because "Customer Relationship Management" is about management more than customers.

This is one data point.

Lee Rainie, the director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, says: “People who are members of online social networks are not so much ‘networking’ as they are ‘broadcasting their lives to an outer tier of acquaintances who aren’t necessarily inside the Dunbar circle.’”

Which means that since many more people are online these days, there are many more chances they will broadcast their experiences to others. People who are online can also be your customers. When people are introduced to a system where everyone has amplifiers, there may be less relationships, not more.

However, the weak ties in our network have a role and function.

As author Albert-Laszlo Barabasi explains in Linked: “Weak ties play a crucial role in our ability to communicate with the outside world ... [our friends] move in the same circles we do and are inevitably exposed to the same information. To get new information we have to activate our weak ties. The weak ties ... obtain their information from different sources than our immediate friends.”

This is a second data point.

Where is all this leading you? Perhaps you should organize your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system around social. Today at Fast Company Expert blog we explore the question can you just add a "stay in touch" function to your customer relationships management (CRM) to make it social? Will that make it more about customers, thus social, than management?

While we consider and explore the possibility that technology could give us the ability to keep up with it all, I think there is a good alternative for companies that wish to be in service of their customers. It's called community. It takes care of Dunbar's number, and it comes with its own challenges.

First of which is the community size. You need to have critical mass in order to have enough member diversity - some will engage actively, some will watch on the sidelines, some will be somewhere in between.

From my on work with groups in school, I can tell you that between 5-7 per group is a good number. Conversations that help bridge across groups, or even help groups rotate should help with expanding relationships and broadening the trust base within the community.

For a community to sustain itself you want also to have good participation among members. That's why it's often smart to have a community facilitator. Because customers are the lifeblood of your business, this is potentially a c-role, as Connie Bensen explains.

Community shouldn't be just for the brand. It should be in service of its customers.

I used to create the content for the speaking tracks at a yearly Rendez-vous we organized at a boutique consulting firm where I worked. I just came back from a customer conference - 300 were in attendance. I had the good fortune of meeting many for the first time in person, which still makes a tremendous difference in relationships.

The event was aptly named, the future is now. There has never been a better time to make the case for customer community. And yes, your company or business should have a Chief Customer Advocate. I'd go so far as saying that this position should be in the marketing group. Which may be interesting for companies that have sales and marketing reporting into the same person.

There's plenty to think about when it comes to community. Have you built or facilitated a community or a social network? Do you consider them the same thing? Why/why not?

 

[a graphical representation of the Dunbar's number. A group photo from The Future is Now] 

Source: Conversation Agent

By: Patrick Lencioni

Addressing the Dysfunctions

To begin improving your team and to better understand the level of dysfunction you are facing, ask yourself these simple questions:

- Do team members openly and readily disclose their opinions?
- Are team meetings compelling and productive?
- Does the team come to decisions quickly and avoid getting bogged down by consensus?
- Do team members confront one another about their shortcomings?
- Do team members sacrifice their own interests for the good of the team?

Although no team is perfect and even the best teams sometimes struggle with one or more of these issues, the finest organizations constantly work to ensure that their answers are "yes." If you answered "no" to many of these questions, your team may need some work.

The first step toward reducing politics and confusion within your team is to understand that there are five dysfunctions to contend with, and address each that applies, one by one.

The Dysfunctions

Dysfunction #1: Absence of Trust
This occurs when team members are reluctant to be vulnerable with one another and are unwilling to admit their mistakes, weaknesses or needs for help. Without a certain comfort level among team members, a foundation of trust is impossible.

Dysfunction #2: Fear of Conflict
Teams that are lacking on trust are incapable of engaging in unfiltered, passionate debate about key issues, causing situations where team conflict can easily turn into veiled discussions and back channel comments. In a work setting where team members do not openly air their opinions, inferior decisions are the result.

Dysfunction #3: Lack of Commitment
Without conflict, it is difficult for team members to commit to decisions, creating an environment where ambiguity prevails. Lack of direction and commitment can make employees, particularly star employees, disgruntled

Dysfunction #4: Avoidance of Accountability
When teams don"t commit to a clear plan of action, even the most focused and driven individuals hesitate to call their peers on actions and behaviors that may seem counterproductive to the overall good of the team.

Dysfunction #5: Inattention to Results
Team members naturally tend to put their own needs (ego, career development, recognition, etc.) ahead of the collective goals of the team when individuals aren"t held accountable. If a team has lost sight of the need for achievement, the business ultimately suffers.

The Rewards

Striving to create a functional, cohesive team is one of the few remaining competitive advantages available to any organization looking for a powerful point of differentiation. Functional teams avoid wasting time talking about the wrong issues and revisiting the same topics over and over again because of lack of buy-in. Functional teams also make higher quality decisions and accomplish more in less time and with less distraction and frustration. Additionally, "A" players rarely leave organizations where they are part of a cohesive team.

Successful teamwork is not about mastering subtle, sophisticated theories, but rather about
embracing common sense with uncommon levels of discipline and persistence. Ironically, teams
succeed because they are exceedingly human. By acknowledging the imperfections of their
humanity, members of functional teams overcome the natural tendencies that make teamwork so
elusive.

Patrick Lencioni is a featured speaker at the 2009 World Business Forum(Visit: wbfny.com) taking place at Radio City Music Hall (R) in New York City on October 6-7, 2009 and also leads the Special Management Program "Patrick Lencioni & Building Winning Teams (Visit: hsmglobal.com/us/lencioni)." taking place on several dates in New York City, San Francisco and Canada.