That Harsha case study is a short case study, but it's as real as it gets and it's just loaded with ideas. You got three divisions in a company each jockeying for position and power. The biggest division is led by the biggest personality, Wilhelm Handel and he's not happy while his division has had some of the biggest problems in manufacturing cost and quality, he is not interested in anyone interfering with him, his team, and his division. You ever meet anybody like that? I bet you have. But interference has very much shown up in the person of Peter Strickland, the young, energetic, and well-educated manufacturing expert that the CEO Klaus Langer, brought in to tackle the problem. As the case describes it, Peter has come up with some highly promising ideas to fix the manufacturing myths and to even cut costs further by centralizing and rationalizing raw material sourcing across the three divisions. Somebody that Wilhelm Handel really hates. Finally, there's Thomas Kamarda who runs the surgical products group and he's bought into Strickland's innovations and he's clocked some big wins in his division. At the same time, Kamarda appears to actually be enjoying the troubles and discomfort that Wilhelm Handel is experiencing as Handel lags behind in getting on the train and what needs to get done. What are some of the top Insights you may have come up with in this case. Let me share with you a few quick ones before we get to a central takeaway that I really want to highlight. First, we have classic silo management, don't we? Each division operates on its own, doesn't seem to cooperate much. As Strickland has identified, they've actually been overpaying for raw materials by going their own way. Second, note the approach of the CEO, Klaus Langer. It's pretty interesting. He knows there's a problem to fix. But rather than bringing his top team together to build support, what does he do? He brings in an outsider and leaves it to him. That's Strickland course, Peter Strickland, to navigate across divisions and to accomplish the goal that Langer has in mind right from the beginning. Not only that, but he doesn't do much to support Strickland, does he? No. Strickland is left to his own devices to work the system. If you have a boss that's not going to support you when you need it, it might be the time to look for a new job. Strickland has really tough job. Langer did not make it easy for him. Then third, what's going on with Mr. Handel? Did you notice the short bio, the main players in the case? Did you compare, for example, Handel with Strickland? You've got Handel a seat of the pants, bootstrap kind of guy who went to the school of hard knocks, and you've got Strickland, young, confident, an MBA grad no less. Is it possible that Handel may be a little intimidated by Strickland? That this might be the future. These more highly educated, more professional managers may be entering and Handel might not like it because he's a very different style and very different type. Going a little further, we know that Langer is planning to stepped down as CEO. That's in the case. The CEO is planning to leave and who do you think is next in line to become that CEO? We don't know for sure. The case study doesn't tell you. But my bet would be Handel. Look, he's the most experience. He runs the biggest division and until the recent troubles, he seemed to be flying pretty high. If we put ourselves into Handel's shoes again, a little bit of empathy, put ourselves into Handel's shoes, we might even imagine that his reaction to Strickland has a very strong emotional basis. If he thinks he's the heir apparent and he's so close to reaching the pinnacle of his career, remembering where he started and how hard it must have been to work himself up to the position he holds in the case, and now Strickland is showing him up in front of his senior colleagues know less well, I can imagine what he might say about Strickland. It would probably be a little bit too spicy for Coursera if I elaborated. But again, put ourselves in the shoes of Handel and we could see where his blocking comes from, where it might be coming from, where his emotional reaction to this. He's so closer to becoming CEO, and here Strickland who comes in and just upsets everything. You could imagine. But what about Strickland? This is where I think the most interesting and important insights come from this case. Look, he's come up with a solution to a problem. It appears to be the best solution on the table. But he can't get it through because others, meaning Handel in particular are blocking and disrupting. Strickland solution is to show up Handel in front of others, as I've already just said and to assume that his superior solution will of course be adopted by the company, and that's his fundamental mistake. The reality of organizational life is that being right is not enough. It's a tough lesson. It's a tough lesson, especially for people earlier in their career who are trained to think about best solutions and solving problems. But if the people you need to implement a "Best solution" or to sign off and that solution are opposed. It's simply won't happen. Here again, we flip the switch and we say, it's actually your job to convince those people that they should buy in. Another way to say this is that you need to sell your ideas to others, in your team, and in the overall organization, and they don't have to buy those ideas, those solutions from you unless they want to. Even if you have the best solution, that's a tough sell, that's a tough thing to think about, it's a hard truth, being right is not enough, you need to cultivate support, which requires the ability to energize other people, so they'll be willing to help you to do what you want to do. You have to start to cultivate that support, build those relationships far before you actually need to go to them to sell them an idea, it should be almost step 1 when you start a new job to start to build those relationships. The problem with really smart people is they often think they know more than everyone else, maybe they do, but that doesn't help them when they're trying to get others to buy into whatever it is they're selling. For example, I was coaching in senior executive ones who always seem to be one step ahead of everyone else on her team, at least that's what she thought. One of the biggest challenges she faced was recognizing that other managers didn't necessarily view the world the same way, that meant, that she needed to invest the time to bring them along if she wanted to get attraction really on her preferred projects, and she didn't do that. When you know the right answer, you often can't believe that everyone else doesn't get it, doesn't just see the same thing and fall into line, but unfortunately, organizations don't work that way because people are people, human nature as always. Especially when working with peers, when you don't have direct authority over them, the only way to get momentum towards your preferred outcome is to sell them on that idea. Imposing your superior solution just won't work. The irony is that sometimes the most talented person can make for one of the most ineffective managers. You can see this in sports, for example, where retired superstars often find it very difficult to coach or manage successfully. You know why? Because there now supervising lesser mortals, people that were not blessed with the same degree of innate talent, they just have trouble understanding why they're not getting it. A couple of examples, Wayne Gretzky, the Canadian hockey legend who retired with more personal scoring records than anyone in the history of professional hockey, was remarkably effective as a head coach. The same may be said about Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players ever, if not the greatest, who's never been able to lead a successful basketball team, whether as a general manager or even as a president or an owner. It doesn't matter how smart you are, you still need to convey your point of view and ideas to get attraction. Never assume that everyone will understand how great your idea is as soon as they hear it, this is true for scientists, remember, I talked about that in the context of communication in the previous video lesson. It's true for how you tell stories and how you write books, and how you write articles, you need to motivate and convey your point of view in a way that people connect to, and it's a big problem for less experienced people. Certainly, my own MBA students have a hard time with this lesson, because the way you get into good schools and the way you're successful is by scoring really high and whatever the metrics are, wherever the tests are, but then you go into the real world and there are no tests. You need to convince other people that they need to be on your team, and that's hard, that's a different way to think about it. If you are the more experienced manager and you have younger people that are really smart, really talented, you want to coach them to help them understand from day 1, that the way you get things done is a degree of empathy, a degree of humility for sure, but also understanding that you need to convince other people that it's a good idea, you need to apply that one rule of communication that I talked about earlier as well. The first module is all about change. I've suggested and given you some practice in learning how to change what's needed, how curiosity and courage make a difference, getting out of your comfort zone is important, adaptability, agility, open-mindedness, how you need to communicate the message you want, but if you need other people that come along with you for that change to really take place you've got to confront that counterintuitive, but immensely practical reality in so many instances that being right is not enough. In the next module, we take on the mystery of creativity, undoubtedly one of the most important and really enjoyable parts of our lives for business and for ourselves, and if we're going to be creative, let's go over to my house for the next module.
