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 The Ripple Effect
A Strategy
& Leadership Thought-Starter from Trium
Sept. 2010
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Learnings From A Big Fall
by Andrew Blum, Trium Managing Partner
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 In
business, as in life, there are big falls. And if you're lucky, they
change you.
Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.
You need look no
further than "The Great Recession" for an all-too-recent
example--while the trauma is mostly behind us, the reality is still
upon us. And the effects will very likely be long-lasting.
On the
personal side, I experienced my own big fall this year--literally:
While helicopter skiing in Alaska, I fell about 500 feet down a
particularly steep slope. I suffered a pretty severe tibia-fibia break,
but consider myself very fortunate to have escaped much more serious
injury.
What does this
have to do with Trium and issues related to strategy and leadership?
Nothing. Except there are always
parallels between leading a life and leading a business.
So with this introduction, here are three lessons from my big fall that
could be applicable in your
business:
· Settle
in to the reality of the circumstance.
After the multiple medevacs and surgeries, I found myself faced with at
least six weeks of zero mobility and a long, painful period of recovery
and physical therapy. For a classic "Type A," this new
reality was something I strongly resisted. Of course, the resistance
was futile--my leg was broken, and the denial did me no good. Once I
begrudgingly settled in and accepted the reality of the circumstance,
the remarkable thing is that I began to see new opportunities. Thinking
about these opportunities helped put my mind at ease, in addition to
providing new personal and professional inspirations.
How this
relates to you: In the context
of our work, I often notice there is an extended period of resistance,
denial, or upset when a client is affected by a major hit to its stock
price, a downsizing, or the challenges of a restructuring. The natural,
emotional reaction often triggers people and teams to pull in and focus
on the trauma at the exclusion of everything else--often causing
productivity to halt and the negative effects of the event to amplify
and persist longer than necessary. The sooner you, as a leader, can
empathetically and effectively move the organization from reaction to
acceptance, the sooner some level of productivity will resume.
And with that productivity and the results that inevitably follow,
morale almost always improves.
Read More>
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11 Ways to Build Your Power
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 Knowledge and performance will only get you so far.
Eventually, you're likely to find that
your responsibilities far exceed your line authority, and the only way to
deliver results is by compelling people who don't report into you to
support you and your priorities. In other words, you need them to work
for you even when they don't work for
you.
Dr. Jeff Pfeffer, a Trium Academic Partner and the
Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford
University's Graduate School of Business, says the key to success in
such instances is power: you
need to develop power meticulously and wield it prudently to advance
your priorities.
In his new book published by Harper Collins, Power: Why
Some People Have It and Others Don't, Jeff scrutinizes power and
asserts that there are 11 discrete, tangible ways an executive can
build and exercise power within an organization. He goes deep on each
with aim to bring them to life and ultimately arm you with practical
ideas for how to be more powerful.
To be sure, we don't advocate all of the approaches Jeff
examines (nor does he)--some feel very right any way you look at them;
others, while effective power generators when viewed dispassionately or
in isolation, are simply too self-serving or zero-sum for our
tastes--but you should obviously decide for yourself.
Here are three of his 11 power plays to whet your
appetite:
1. Make the first move. "A surprise move can catch opponents off guard and
secure victory before they even know what's happening," Jeff says.
This notion of a First-Mover Advantage is nothing new, but what is more
novel is his examination of its power when applied inside an
organization. He suggests leaders consistently scan the horizon and be
ready to act before internal rivals and doubters have time to challenge
you. Not only will this approach lead to immediate wins, but the
resulting cumulative track record of victories will only make you more
formidable over time.
Read More>
Invitation: Trium is hosting a "Roundtable"
conversation and cocktail event with Jeff on Thursday, October 7, from
4:30-7pm, at our San Francisco office. The aim: to discuss
practical strategies and tactics for exercising power in your
world. We invite you to be a part of the conversation. To reserve
a space or get more information, click
here.
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Books We're Recommending
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 We're always
looking for good reads that can further our thinking and help us advance our
craft, and ultimately help our client organizations thrive.
Here are a few
books we've been recommending lately:
· Rework by Jason Fried and David
Heinemeier Hansson. Written by the cult-hero leaders of 37signals,
a highly successful open source web application company now starting to
generate attention well beyond the tech world, this is a quick read
that's rich with practical strategy and execution guidance for every
executive operating with limited resources. The authors build off the
premise that you need to think you can do just about anything with less,
and then just do it--by advancing "good enough" over perfect,
not wasting time to satisfy customers who are growing out of your
service, and making managers work the front-lines so they're able to more
efficiently make the right customer-concentric decisions.
·
Success Built to Last: Creating a Life
That Matters by Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery, and Mark Thompson.
Combining quantitative surveys and interviews with hundreds of successful
"builders" including Nelson Mandela, Richard Branson, and Jack
Welch, this book uses inspiring individuals' journeys to inspire the rest
of us. To be sure, we're biased in favor of friend and co-author Emery,
but the book's macro-level takeaway stands entirely on its own: sustained
performance and results come from honest thought, genuine passion, a
mindset of responsibility, and real action.
·
Open Leadership: How Social Technology
Can Transform the Way You Lead by Charlene Li. Written by a former
Monitor consultant turned social media and technology guru, Li argues
that social media and their inherent openness are representative of a
broader societal shift towards more openness... and that leaders need to
adjust accordingly--by giving up controlling ways and instead achieving
end goals by inspiring their people to deliver. So while we don't plan to
start tweeting tomorrow, we do think the author is spot-on in pushing a
mindset of openness. We also appreciate her presentation of different
organizational models for openness depending on the type of organization.
By
the way, if you've recently come across or thought about a book that's
had a profound impact on you, please let us know.
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About Us & The Ripple Effect
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 The Trium Group is
an elite strategy consultancy that helps leaders align, equip, and mobilize
their organizations to solve complex business problems and execute
multi-dimensional strategies. We work at the intersection of
strategy, leadership, and culture--in areas like corporate transformation
and restructuring, post-merger integration, and leadership-driven change
management. Trium's clients span a broad range of industries and
geographies.
We welcome the
opportunity to be your thought-partner or sounding board.
We call this
newsletter The
Ripple Effect because our logo features a single pebble
causing ripples of water in a pond. The pebble is symbolic of how a
single, well-executed action can have a very significant impact. The
ripples also remind us of the collateral effects of every business
action--effects we strive to proactively create in collaborating with our
clients to develop and execute strategic agendas for purpose-driven
change and improved business performance.
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