Leading Outside The Lines Summary

For teams to be effective, the most important strategy for managing change is engagement. In chapter eight of Leading Outside the Lines, it discusses how Michael Sabia, the CEO of Bell Canada, was facing a challenge in the organization and described it as being “stuck”. He explained how they introduced all sorts of well-planned strategic, organization, and operating programs, but they had very little impact on the staff. The front line staff was not changing their actions or behaviors fast enough, so he knew that the leaders were doing something wrong. He stated the many of his leaders were not convinced that they needed to change their approach. Sabia knew that there old ways of managing were not going to yield success in the new highly competitive

He started seeing some progress based on the most recent employee survey from various leaders and arranged to meet with them. After meeting with the supervisors, they identified common behaviors that set them apart from the other managers, which included: knowing your people, recognizing success, maintaining the course, use facts to make decisions, and broaden the work. Sabia then presented these findings with his leadership team, but they felt that those common behaviors were obvious and simple, but not effective. During lunch Sabia noticed how the frontline supervisors were energetic and engaged with one another soon apprehending exactly what was missing from his leadership team. He realized that the organization didn’t need structured programs, budgets, executive approval, and new role definitions. He decided to create a team that consisted of like-minded and mutually respected people and have them share experiences and learn from one another. This would create a community that would attract other like-minded people and then attract the curious-minded. This team was given a space to talk, exchange ideas, and share

Each member will offer an example of a change initiative and explain how a team could be effectively mobilized for this initiative and supported to create a successful outcome. Use weekly readings in your analysis.

My example of a change initiative will be changing the culture in the workplace. As we know, workplace culture is the character and personality of your organization. It is what makes your organization stand out or unique. Workplace culture is important because it is what attracts talent, engagement, employee satisfaction, and it affects performance. Leadership is a factor, which plays a critical role in changing or developing workplace culture. For instance, if leadership wants to change the culture of the organization it must first start with them. Leaders have to be willing to change themselves before trying to change something about their organization (Katzenbach & Khan, 2010, pgs. 195-196). Everyone has some behaviors that can use some adjustments that will make better use in their roles. Adjustments need to be made at the top for any type of change to be effective at the bottom. The way leaders communicate and interact with employees is a place to start evaluating when attempting to change the culture in the workplace. Also, expectations should always be clearly communicated as well as their visions and goals for the future. Leaders should build trust with their employees to make them feel safe. Without trust, employees will be disengaged with their work,