Head: (5 of 5)
Heart: (3 of 5)
Leadership Applicability: (4.5 of 5)
Howard Guttman, a New Jersey-based management consultant, does not have a lot of faith in the complex initiatives that have consumed his profession for the last several decades.  Total Quality Management, Business Process Engineering, and other popularly prescribed management initiatives all cost time, money and resources with little or no return on investment, he says. Instead, organizational leaders should keep things simple, pushing the responsibility for action, decision-making and results down to the level that can most effectively accomplish them: the functional team.  "Great teams make great organizations. Period," He says.

This shift to a distributed, horizontal operational model, however, is easier said than done.  It requires major changes on the part of the individuals, the teams, and the executives-not superficial changes but internal changes in mindsets, behavior, communication and interpersonal relationships as well as roles, responsibilities and deliverables.  It is best, according to Guttman, to direct this shift in response to a significant business challenge, rather than to an organizational chart revision or other arbitrary top-down directive. 

This kind of change starts with the top leader.  He or she must undergo his or her own fundamental shift in perspective, and then explicitly model the behaviors that make for high performance team players and teams. The leader must learn to let go of ego as well as decision-making responsibility. He or she would do well to solicit feedback from the team and modify his or her behavior accordingly.  This not only furthers the leader's position as role model, but also frees up his or her time to concentrate on high-level strategy and driving the overall visions. 

To help individual team players change and mold themselves into a high performing team, leaders should first create a sense of urgency-a "burning platform for change in response to the business challenge-and then ease the psychological barriers to change by providing reassurance, support, and coaching when necessary.  Leaders should help the team align team on business strategy and goals, and allow it to define its own protocols of behavior.  The team should also be encouraged to critique itself to ensure that all of its members have the right skills to succeed. Celebrating and rewarding success with generous compensation tied to high level goals is another important component to supporting and sustaining change.

One key change that team members must make is to think of themselves as accountable not only for their own performance, but for that of their peers. In order to do that, they need to have superior influencing skills. Influencing requires effective self-assessment, including directly asking how others perceive them and accepting that feedback. It also requires the ability to assess where themselves and others stand on a particular issue, and strategies to resolve differences. Learning to be both assertive and cooperative, to listen actively, to communicate directly and resolve conflict are all components of influence. These influencing skills can help people advance up "the accountability ladder," from being accountable for their own performance and direct reports to being accountable for their peers, their leader's success, and for the success of the entire organization.  To make these changes, people need both shift in mindset and an opportunity to increase their skills.   

In supporting the team members in this extensive change process, leaders need to be able to adjust their behaviors to the players varying levels of engagement or skill. Low levels of both means the leader needs to prescribe and direct; moderate levels mean the leader needs to coach and instruct; moderately high levels means the leader needs to collaborate and partner; high levels mean the leader needs to inspire and empower. It is important, then, for a leader to learn to share power, but not give it up completely.  Moving to a horizontal structure does not mean that the leader becomes submissive or is never directive, only that he or she be flexible and very aware of what's going on at the individual and team levels. Only then can he or she provide the safe and supportive environment necessary for people and teams to make the lasting changes needed for high performance.

Guttman fills out the book with numerous examples from top corporations complete with quotes and perspectives from named executives that he has worked with and/or interviewed. He also has detailed chapters on each step of the process to shifting to a horizontal organization, including how high performance teams align and develop themselves, how they make decisions, how they manage meetings and develop protocols, and how they communicate and resolve conflict.  He follows with a chapter describing how to go from building great teams to building great organizations.  At the end of the book he goes into how to solve specific challenges, and an Appendix listing skills needed for great team members.  The book is dense with information, but many headings and subheadings will help guide the reader to the most relevant sections.   Buy it.