Weekly Pulse by William Meller | Week 27, 2022

Weekly Pulse is content curation and highlights from readings, books, podcasts, insights, ramblings, and other interesting things I discovered and digested during the week.

So, let's go with some discoveries from the week!

#1 - What Leaders Really Do

#2 - Double Loop Learning in Organizations

#3 - Parenting: Who is it really for?

#4 - Revamping Your Business Through Digital Transformation

#5 - Is Your Company Actually Set Up to Support Your Strategy

#6 - The Habit Loop

#7 - Book Notes: Succeeding with Agile - Mike Cohn

What Leaders Really Do

Source:?Harvard Business Review?

Author:?John P. Kotter

Year:?2001

Summary:?They don’t make plans; they don’t solve problems; they don’t even organize people. What leaders really do is prepare organizations for change and help them cope as they struggle through it.

3 Highlights:

"...?Management and leadership both involve deciding what needs to be done, creating networks of people to accomplish the agenda, and ensuring that the work actually gets done. Their work is complimentary, but each system of action goes about the tasks in different ways...."

"...?The most pernicious half-truth about leadership is that it’s just a matter of charisma and vision—you either have it or you don’t. The fact of the matter is that leadership skills are not innate. They can be acquired and honed. But first, you have to appreciate how they differ from management skills..."

"...?Management is about coping with complexity; it brings order and predictability to a situation. But that’s no longer enough to succeed, companies must be able to adapt to change. Leadership, then, is about learning how to cope with rapid change..."

Double Loop Learning in Organizations

Source:?Harvard Business Review

Author:?Chris Argyris

Year:?1977

Summary:?Why are employees reluctant to report to the top that one of their company’s products is a “loser” and why can’t the vice presidents of another company reveal to their president the spectacular lack of success of one of the company’s divisions? The inability to uncover errors and other unpleasant truths arises from faulty organizational learning. Such habits and attitudes, which allow a company to hide its problems, lead to rigidity and deterioration.?

3 Highlights:

"...?The discovery of this formula and of the general principles upon which it is based has, of course, no emotive value..."

"...?The second comment I would make is that research on double-loop learning is in its infancy. To my knowledge, the experiment with the six presidents is the first of its kind anywhere. Also, apparently, there is no organization of any kind that has a full-fledged model that goes beyond Model II. We have to implant these new learning systems to see how we can ensure their take hold and grow. ..."

"...?It is not easy to create organizations capable of double-loop learning, but it can be done..."

Parenting: Who is it really for?

Source:?Sivers Website

Author:?Derek Sivers

Year:?2017

Summary:?Derek Sivers shares how his life changed since his son was born and how his life changed doing e parenting things, things that are also for himself. And that’s an idea worth sharing.

3 Highlights:

"...?Nobody else can play with us like this. Everyone else gets so bored. Of course, my adult mind wanders to all the other things we could be doing. But I let it go and return to that present focus...."

"...?By cultivating his long attention span, I’m cultivating my own.?By entering his world, I’m letting go of my own, like meditation.?By broadening his inputs, I’m broadening my own...."

"...?I thought I was being selfless. But actually, like most things we consider selfless, they benefit me as much as him..."

Revamping Your Business Through Digital Transformation

Source:?MIT Sloan Management Review

Author:?George Westerman and Didier Bonnet

Year:?2015

Summary:?There is no shortage of stories about companies that create amazing innovations with digital technology. By using mobile devices, social media, analytics and the cloud, savvy companies are transforming the way they do business. To gain the most business benefits from today’s digital technology, it pays to question key managerial assumptions.

3 Highlights:

"...?Humans have their place in customer interactions. But not all interactions with humans are actually valuable to customers. At points where people simply serve as a customer interface or a vehicle for customizing services, customers may find it more convenient to interact with machines..."

"...?In the past, automation worked best for standardized, repetitive tasks. You needed people for tasks that involved manual dexterity, verbal comprehension, advanced visual discrimination, or unstructured conditions. But innovations such as IBM Watson, the Google self-driving car, and new flexible robots are redrawing the boundaries about what kinds of work can be automated. For instance, computers can now write corporate earnings previews and sports stories. Pharmacy automation has moved from identifying dangerous drug interactions to actually filling pill bottles, improving safety, and freeing employees for other tasks..."

"...?Transitioning to the new digital world does not necessarily require you to completely discard the old in favor of the new. The change is more subtle than that. Examining your strategic assets through a digital lens can help you identify which assets will keep their value, which ones won’t, and which ones you may be able to use in new ways. Look for ways to leverage assets that you have and that fast-moving digital startups do not. Then, use these to establish and grow your digital advantage..."

Is Your Company Actually Set Up to Support Your Strategy

Source:?Harvard Business Review

Author:?Eric Garton

Year:?2017

Summary:?For every company wrestling with evolutions in its strategy, success depends as much on matching the operating model to those evolutions as it does on the soundness of the strategy itself. Your operating model must define ways of working and behaviors that actually bring your company’s strategy to life.?

3 Highlights:

"...?What high-performance behaviors are nonnegotiable, and how do you make sure that you’re enabling and reinforcing them? What is your approach to risk-taking, experimentation, testing, and learning? And finally, does the operating model support the company’s strategic mission with the right combination of people, process, technology, and tools?..."

"...?If your company’s promise to its customer is the lowest costs, is everyone focused on cost control? If your reputation is built on superb service, is everyone — not just the front line, but even back-office functions like accounting or legal or procurement —highly attuned to how they affect the customer experience? ..."

"...?If your company’s operating model can’t deliver on your strategy, or needs to be upgraded to match the evolution of that strategy, start the redesign with your leadership team not by digging into the details, but by pulling up and agreeing on a few basic principles. Clarity and simplicity are the watchwords here...."

The Habit Loop

Source:?Article of the Week

The habit loop consists of three elements: a cue, a routine, and a reward. These elements help understanding how to change bad habits or form better ones.

Changing a habit demands training and dedication, which is the most significant factor in an individual's success.?

And everyone who wishes to alter a habit must first learn to adjust their own habit loop, change their cues, and train new routines to acquire new rewards.

Because people and habits fluctuate, the nuances of identifying and modifying patterns in our life vary from person to person and behavior to behavior. Furthermore, different desires drive each person's habits.

Book Notes: Succeeding with Agile - Mike Cohn

Source:?Book Notes of the Week

This is the definitive, realistic, actionable guide to starting fast with Scrum and agile to succeed over the long run and making Scrum and agile work.

This is not a book for those who are completely new to Scrum or agile. There are other books, classes, and even websites for that. If you are completely new to Scrum, start with one of those.

Mike Cohn, a leading agile consultant, and practitioner gives thorough ideas, compelling tips, and real-world case studies based on his unrivaled expertise in assisting hundreds of software firms in making Scrum and agile work.

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