Integrate OD shares expertise and in-depth studies on current business, industry and social trends affecting the way people lead, communicate, and drive change in organizations. Below is a sample of articles and research paper extracts. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, or to receive a complete paper of a study that interests you, at info@integrateod.com.

Founder’s shoes are hard to fill

Financial Times, Money Section, Business Questions, October 24, 2008

I have recently taken over as chief executive of a professional services company after the founder stepped up to the chairman’s role. Focusing on the growth of the business has been demanding, and I fear I have not made enough effort to establish credibility and solid relationships with the management team, which is starting to show signs in lowered morale. How do I balance my responsibilities and the expectations of the board while managing the people dynamics and culture that have grown out of the founder’s very casual management style?

This is a common challenge for new chief executives in founder succession. In addition to the change of leadership, changes involved in taking the business to the next level will inevitably impact employee morale. To secure commitment from team members and their alignment with your new strategic goals, you will need to manage expectations and relationships at the individual and group levels. First, have your leadership style assessed. How is it different from the founder’s style? What shared strengths can you highlight and what new qualities do you bring? Then assess your team. At the individual level, identify the key drivers for each person. For example, what motivates them, how do they make decisions and what is at stake for them in this change? A framework for personality assessment can help you read and understand behavioural indicators of their values and thought processes. Third, map out a strategy for building and maintaining your relationship with each individual. When addressing the group, cater to as many of their collective drivers as possible to foster commitment. Such a personal communication strategy will save you tensions and strengthen your ability to actualise your commitments to the board.

Katinka Nicou is an executive coach and founder of Integrate OD, a consultancy.

Click here for the full article on FT.com

Time to Change

Legal Week, Management Section, April 24, 2008

In the move away from hourly billing, this article looks at various management practices that law firms can apply to become more efficient and hence enhance profitability from assignment and success based fees.

In response to client demands, large law firms are starting to offer alternatives to hourly billing, including fixed fees and success fees, and it is likely that others will follow suit in order to stay competitive. The Legal Services Act is set to further reshape the competitive landscape of legal advice, giving clients more options in the pressure to reduce their legal budget. This is the moment for law firms to ask themselves how they can become more efficient in acquiring and managing cases and transactions, talent and knowledge in the context of these industry changes. In answering this question, law firms can gain insight from what other professional services firms (PSFs) that bill according to assignment or performance, such as investment banks and consulting firms, have successfully implemented and refined for years.

Click here for the full article on LegalWeek.com

A strategy to ease growing pains

Financial Times, Money Section, Business Questions, May 17, 2008

I am the managing director of a successful IT outsourcing company. Over the last 18 months, we have more than doubled both our turnover and staff numbers. However, success has meant that I and my fellow directors have had little time to focus on strategy. This is causing tension at board level. I have heard that executive coaching can be an effective way to help with the situation. What does this involve and what type of programme would you recommend?

You are describing a common phenomenon in growing businesses, and what is often a symptom of incongruence at three levels in the organisation – the individual, the group and the company. Similar to a sailing crew, it is critical that all members know their role and responsibilities in order to manoeuvre the boat in a synchronised way and in a direction towards specified targets.
Good executive coaching should address your issues at all three levels. I recommend a proactive effort to keep your management on the same page, as well as to identify and implement appropriate management systems to support your growth. This would typically include performance needs assessments, workshops to facilitate strategic planning and decision making, and executive coaching for individual managers through regular one-on-one meetings with a qualified coach to review actions and enhance management capabilities. It should also include documentation of ideas to allow for customisation of solutions that enhance both execution and client service. Your company’s rapid growth is a good problem to have, and proper executive coaching can allow you to reach the next level.

Katinka Nicou is an executive coach and founder of Integrate OD, a consultancy.

Clich here for the full article on FT.com

Lonely at the top

Business XL, June 2008

Extracts from the article:

"Though they may have similar goals, mentoring and coaching are very different in approach. Katinka Nicou, founder of organisational development business Integrate, explains.

‘Mentoring is usually done between someone who is an expert in their area and a protégé, while a coach will ask questions that help the executive come to a realisation they would otherwise have struggled to understand.’

Steven Miyao, CEO of New York-based financial consultancy Kasina, has used both mentors and coaches to develop himself and his team. ‘With a mentor you’re looking for specific advice from someone who has been there and done it themselves,’ he explains. ‘A coach’s primary skill is being able to ask the right questions, to identify issues that your business has and make you feel comfortable talking about them. They are very similar to a shrink in that respect.’

Miyao brought in a coach when his company began to struggle with internal communication. As the business grew, important information about clients tended to stay with account managers, rather than being disseminated across the company. The coach interviewed key executives to ascertain where problems were, then ran a series of workshops in which the executives themselves developed appropriate solutions.

‘It was helpful to have someone come in and help us organise our thoughts,’ says Miyao. ‘The other benefit was that bringing the coach in was like a guarantee that something was going to get done – otherwise the issue could have been buried.’

A spirit of openness and trust is essential in coaching and mentoring. It’s particularly important when personal problems begin to affect business performance, as Integrate’s Nicou explains: ‘In many cases people are held back by something in their past – anger, fear or lack of self-esteem,’ she says. ‘You can sit down and evaluate every option and every possibility, but that’s not going to solve the problem.’

In such cases, Nicou uses an array of techniques including hypnotherapy and neurolinguistic programming (a form of psychotherapy) to get to the heart of the issue. ‘Coaching helps people to see more possibilities than they can see themselves, but also helps them feel more powerful to act on those possibilities,’ she states."

Click here for the full article on BusinessXL.co.uk

The Complexities of CIO Leadership: What Makes a Successful CIO?

Advances in technology are seen by Chief Executive Officers (CEOs)as the single most important driver of change in today’s business environment. Yet, according to CEOs surveyed by the Economist Intelligence Unit, most Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and their organizations are not delivering the value expected of them by their businesses (The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2005). Moreover, as technology and information needs vary substantially between organizations and industries, there is no clear definition of the CIO role and its responsibilities. CIOs who want to succeed in their jobs are struggling to strike a balance between delivering flawless operational support while offering strategic technological advantage for the competitive advancement of their businesses. Success in the CIO profession is becoming less about best practices and more about staying in tune with the business’ constantly changing needs and opportunities.

These challenges indicate that the performance expected of a CIO in today’s business environment demands a broad set of leadership skills and characteristics. Yet, the dynamic complexities of the CIO profession have received insufficient attention in Leadership research. Few empirical studies have been done to investigate what differentiates successful CIOs from their challenged colleagues in how they carry out their expanding leadership responsibilities. This study aims to investigate common practices and behaviors among successful CIOs, and whether Leadership and Adult Learning theories can be applied to help challenged CIOs be more successful in their organizations. The findings point to a need for both Chief Information Officers and their senior leadership peers to assume greater responsibilities in integrating IT with strategic business initiatives. This demands a complex set of leadership skills, mainly with regards to management and executive relationships.

Click here for an extract of the research paper.

Spirituality in the Workplace: What are the Implications on Modern Organizations as Society Embraces New Concepts of Spiritualism?

Today’s increasingly unpredictable environments, new technologies, and fluctuating economies are spurring the emergence of a new spiritual movement, that is having a strong influence on the way many organizations are run.  The ever more prevalent forces of global competition, downsizing, and reengineering are increasing the levels of uncertainty in many aspects of people’s realities, and have generated a workforce of employees who seek value, support, and meaning in their lives. This finds expression not only at home but also on the job. Workers as well as leaders look towards greater spiritual and religious accommodation in the workplace as a source for achieving such meaning and support. This paper will throw light on the new concept of spirituality as experienced in the workplace and provide examples for the notable correlation between organizations’ levels of spirituality and their efficiency. As a case in study, this paper will focus on Southwest Airlines, as this company demonstrates a strong sense of spiritual-based values guiding its organizational goals and practices. A few suggested frameworks and models for practical application are discussed.

Click here for an extract of the research paper.

The Implications of Leadership Succession and Strategic Change on Organizational Learning

This paper examines the implications of founder leadership succession and strategic change on Organizational Learning. It uses the frameworks of the Learning Organization and Knowledge Creation to identify ways of facilitating adaptation to change and sustaining innovation and competitive advantage. Strategic frameworks for designing such programs and tactical interventions for knowledge management, leadership development, and team focus are explored.

Aligning Human Capital with Strategic Goals

Organizations, as networks of people, hold their ultimate potential in the relationships within and around the business and the way in which knowledge is utilized to support the achievement of the company’s strategy. In knowledge-intensive organizations, information sharing is critical because intellectual assets, unlike physical assets, increase in value with use. Moreover, when a company gains a knowledge-based competitive advantage, it becomes even easier for it to maintain its lead and ever harder for its competitors to catch up. Nevertheless, many organizations spend vast portions of their Human Capital Development budgets on organizational learning with few, if any, specified business objectives and without means to measure the impact of the learning on business performance.

Learning involves making use of information. By relying on experience, organizations use knowledge they have acquired, disseminated, and integrated. Learning acts to reduce transaction costs, support decisions, and shape behavior. It provides a link between the different functions, helps frame problems or opportunities, and guides decision formulation and implementation. Not surprisingly then, learning should be seen as a fundamental capability/competence of the organization, because it facilitates the various business processes, such as development of new products and services. This paper explores how Organizational learning can be applied to drive business strategy and results.