“No matter how much emphasis was given to impact in the classroom, even when some of the managers came in a team from their own organization, when they went back to their own workplaces, each was alone, with no evident way to connect the learning to their context and use it to make changes.”
From Management Development to Organization Development with IMpact
By Henry Mintzberg It has been said that you should never send develop those other people, but also to a changed person back to an unchanged enable them all to work together to drive organization. In management development changes. programs, we always do. That is because We have labeled this IMpact, because it we disconnect the learner from the natural constitutes a pact for development between context of his or her learning, namely the the manager on the program and his or her workplace back home. team back home. This article explains, first As a consequence, much of manage- our initial efforts at impact, then how we ment development teaches leadership came to IMpact, and finally how this can apart from the place where it happens. It be used to enhance development in and of is participant-focused. Needed instead is organizations. learning that is community-focused, con- nected to the collective experiences in the Self in Silo, or Representative of a workplace, so that we can develop better Community? organizations in the process of developing better managers, rather than just hoping Picture yourself sitting in a classroom, that this will happen as a consequence of whether at a training facility in the organi- having developed them. Put differently, zation or in some public institution such what matters is impact: how the learning as a management school. You are there to comes into the organization, beyond the be developed, sent by your organization to participating manager. become a better manager. Fair enough. But We had been working on this for not far enough. fifteen years in a family of development So picture yourself instead as partici- programs. We made advances beyond what pating there on behalf of your organiza- can be seen in many other programs, but tion, to make it a better place. Replace the not enough. Only recently did we real- image of having been parachuted in, sitting ize what had been holding this back, in in your silo (Figure 1), with that of you as our and other development programs. No a conduit between your organization and matter how much emphasis was given to this classroom, to carry your learning back impact in the classroom, even when some for impact as well as to bring the concerns of the managers came in a team from their of your organization into the classroom own organization, when they went back to to work on them with your colleagues their own workplaces, each was alone, with (Figure 2). no evident way to connect the learning to Of course, aside from programs to their context and use it to make changes. develop managers, which usually pay less This led us to the idea of backing up the attention to developing their organizations managers participating in our programs (as in many of the Advanced Manage- with teams at home, made up of people ment Programs in the prestigious busi- they work with every day, not only to help ness schools), are programs to develop
From Management Development to Organization Development with IMpact 25 Figure 1: Model I – Self in a Development
Parachuted discussing a case—other peoples’ experi- ence—but not for managers to develop and share insights from their own experi- ence. Hence the IMPM sits its managers at round tables in a flat classroom, to facilitate discussion in small groups, which become communities of social learning in their own right. No need to “break out”: the class can switch to small group discussions on a moment’s notice—which make up about half the class time. Managers have mostly been sent to the IMPM by their companies, Figure 2: Model II – Representative of a Development Community (e.g., Lufthansa, Fujitsu, Panasonic, and LG, for most or all of the past 15 years), often several of them so that they could reflect on common concerns around the tables. We have had considerable success in developing these managers, but organiza- Conduit tion development has been another story. IMPact. From the outset, we were determined that the learning of the class- room be carried into the workplace for two kinds of impacts. One is teaching impact, meaning that learners in the classroom should be teachers on the job (mentors, coaches, etc.), to diffuse what they learn to the organization, which usually pay less and to connect this with organization others. The other is action impact, mean- attention to developing the managers in development. ing that the managers should also be them. Perhaps best known have been Gen- As I have described elsewhere (Mintz driving changes in their organization as a eral Electric’s Work-Out Program (Ulrich berg, 2009), management is a practice, result of what they learn. We labeled these & Ashkenas, 2002; Revens, 1983), where a rooted in experience, not a science rooted efforts IMPact—acting on the IMPM—and team from a particular unit (such as a fac- in analysis or a profession rooted in train- instituted a number of components in the tory) gets together to figure out how to ren- ing. So it makes little sense to try and program to encourage it: der tangible changes on the job. In effect, create managers in a classroom, let alone »» Some time after each module, the man- Work-Out brought the workplace into the leaders. What does make sense is to take agers write a reflection paper to link classroom, but for organization develop- people who are managers and enhance what they have learned to themselves, ment, not management development. their practice by encouraging them to learn their jobs, and/or their organizations. So how about programs that do both: from their own experience, by reflecting on These papers have proved to be surpris- develop the organization while developing it personally and sharing such reflections ingly insightful, and have led to many its managers? Below we discuss a family of with open-minded colleagues. tangible changes in their organizations. programs designed to do that. Accordingly, the IMPM was designed »» At a number of the modules, the man- for managers in practice, who go back and agers undertake one day field studies, The IMPM: Shared Reflection for forth between their managing and their visiting facilities of the organizations Management Education and Development learning (in five modules of ten days each, represented in the classroom, to probe over sixteen months). This enables them into issues identified by their colleagues In 1996, questioning the inadequacies of to bring fresh experience into the class- from these organizations. conventional MBA programs (Mintzberg, room for reflection as well as to carry their »» Between the second and third modules, 2004), a group of us from five universi- insights back to the organization for action. the managers pair up and do a manage- ties around the world created the Interna- Given how busy most managers are these rial exchange, to spend the better part tional Masters in Practicing Management days, this program set out, insofar as pos- of a week at each others’ workplaces, (IMPM.org). It had two objectives: to bring sible, to use their work rather than make as guest and as host, to enhance their management development into what more work. understanding of another managerial had hitherto been business education, A tiered classroom, in which everyone world. This has become one of the most faces the “instructor,” may be good for popular components of the program.
26 OD PRACTITIONER Vol. 43 No. 3 2011 »» Alone or in groups, the managers to keep his colleagues and family have usually lived with all these concerns. undertake a venture to make a signifi- informed of his learning. And so they are able to help each other cant change in their organization or »» Many of the participants, have, of work them through, which they do with enhance a change already underway. course, shared particular readings great enthusiasm. Better than a busman’s Ventures at Lufthansa, for example, and PowerPoints with colleagues back holiday! have included setting up a program to home, as have some with their reflec- The details of the ALP are described mentor senior executives in the use of tion papers. on alp-impm.com, but one example can the internet and redesigning the strat- show both how it works and its potential. egy process for the airline business. Yet something was still missing. There was A field visit was arranged to the company Each manager also does a final paper, to a lot of push in this—faculty encouraging concerned about motivating its first line probe into some issue, usually related impacts—but not enough pull: spontane- employees—a passenger railroad. The to a concern at work. ous efforts by the managers to change their friendly consultants bought tickets, rode the trains, interviewed managers at various levels, and so on. They returned home to In effect, every issue is everyone else’s issue, in the sense that report that the company did not need to the managers from all the companies have usually lived with motivate its first-line employees—they were plenty motivated. Rather the sug- all these concerns. And so they are able to help each other work gestion came that it use those employees them through, which they do with great enthusiasm. Better than to further motivate the managers. Asked if she thought the same thing was hap- a busman’s holiday! pening in her own company, one of the friendly consultants answered: “Exactly!”— Some of these components obviously make organizations. Why should that be so, in they just never did a field study at home. work—the program does, after all, give a this and so many other management devel- Another ALP team from this railroad masters degree—but we have designed opment programs? We found out when we went on to drive major changes on the them (a) to blend into what the managers reflected on our learning from two other issue of customer service (Patwell & Sea- are doing naturally, and (b) to be as compel- programs that were inspired by the IMPM. shore, 2006). So organization development ling as possible in terms of the managers’ can work fine in a classroom, as General own needs. And these needs have also The ALP: Organization Development in the Electric had found out with Work-Out. encouraged the managers to undertake a Classroom through Friendly Consulting variety of teaching and action impacts on CoachingOurselves.com: their own initiative. For example: We created the Advanced Leadership Management Development with »» Two Royal Bank of Canada managers Program (ALP), to offer an IMPM experi- Organization Development in replicated parts of the modules with ence—reflecting at round tables and doing the Workplace their staff back home, while at Pana- field studies, etc.—to managers who could sonic some of the module learning was not spare the time required for a masters The second initiative was also inspired by debriefed in “Friday Forums.” program. But in so doing, the focus shifted the IMPM, but back in the workplace itself »» An LG manager, upon hearing in the toward organization development in the and not by any faculty member or manage- classroom about novel ways to take classroom. ment development person. down the partitions between desks, The ALP invites companies to send The engineering manager of a high called home to have this change made teams of six managers—in effect, it offers technology company in Montreal found before he returned. tables rather than chairs—each with a that his new managers were struggling »» When returning from a related key issue of concern to the company, for with their jobs. Having become familiar program,1 the manager of a Mexican example: How do we motivate our first-line with the IMPM (he later did it), he decided factory installed a round table on its employees and How do we understand to use these ideas on his own. He had no floor so that he and his team could and improve decentralization within our budget for training, or support on this reflect on problems as they arose. organization. from corporate, so he simply brought his »» A Motorola manager sent “electronic At three modules of one week each, managers together informally over lunch, postcards” home during the modules, spread over about six months, the man- for about 90 minutes every second week, agers’ work on these issues within and where they reflected together on their expe- across their teams, the latter in a process riences, drawing on conceptual materials 1. EMBA Roundtables, where managers from we call friendly consulting. In effect, every from the management literature. EMBA programs around the world get together for a one week IMPM experience (see www.business- issue is everyone else’s issue, in the sense This went on for about two years, school.exeter.ac.uk/executive/roundtables). that the managers from all the companies with considerable success: members of the
From Management Development to Organization Development with IMpact 27 original team created teams of their own, CoachingOurselves teams, they each went had to remove the legs from a table to get and the teams drove various changes in back to their own workplace. it into his car, and so came the revelation their workplaces. Eventually, that manager Dora Koop of McGill had mused about selling unassembled furniture. and I founded CoachingOurselves.com, to about carrying out the IMPM ventures Thus was born IMpact, a pact between enable managers from other organizations linked to teams back at work, and at the the manager in a learning program and the to do the same thing. They form teams, meeting Danielle Hudon took this a step team he or she designates back at work—of download topics (seventy are available, on further, by suggesting that the teams could reports, peers, associates, whoever makes subjects such as Dealing with the Pres- be established at work to support each of the most sense—for management develop- sures of Managing, Time to Dialogue, the managers in all their activities in the ment carried into organization develop- Developing Our Organization as a Com- program. In effect, why not create a virtual ment. This is now being applied in the munity), and work together, much as did team on the job to do the program too, current IMPM cohort, and early indications the first group. Each topic asks the team by proxy, through each manager actually are that it has the full potential to address to pursue the action implications of its in the program? (One gets a degree, the the problem described at the outset of learning. Fujitsu, for example, is now others get certificates.) This would lever- this article. using CoachingOurselves to help drive major change in some of its divisions. So while the ALP program brought Dora Koop of McGill had mused about carrying out the IMPM the workplace of organization development ventures linked to teams back at work, and at the meeting into the classroom, much as did Work-Out, CoachingOurselves rooted this kind of Danielle Hudon took this a step further, by suggesting that management and organization develop- the teams could be established at work to support each of the ment in the workplace. It was but a small though significant step to realize how managers in all their activities in the program. In effect, why these advances could be combined with not create a virtual team on the job to do the program too, by an IMPM-type program to crack the nut of impact. proxy, through each manager actually in the program? (One gets a degree, the others get certificates.) This would leverage Back-home IMpact teams the learning from the classroom into the workplace, and in the In 2009, after an IMPM module, a group process develop six or more people on the job by sending one of faculty met with HR representatives from two of the companies represented in on the program. that class, Kristin Weidenmann of Luf- thansa (who oversees the IMPM activity in age the learning from the classroom into Getting to Impact her company) and Danielle Hudon of Rio the workplace, and in the process develop Tinto, to brainstorm about these issues. six or more people on the job by sending How can other programs move toward Impact was on our minds, the last day of one on the program. Moreover, because impact in combining organization develop- the module having been spent discussing these would be teams of people who work ment with management development? A with the class how to achieve it, including together all the time, they could become in number of the pedagogical elements with using CoachingOurselves.com as a bridge their own right potential communities of which we have been working seem appli- to the workplace. learning and development, carrying their cable in such programs. During that module, a number of fac- insights into actions. »» The classroom seating is most obvious: ulty members had used the Lufthansa air- As I described in another article having managers sit at round tables line as an example, since three people were (Mintzberg, 2009), small teams at middle in a flat room to explore their learning there from the company. But after this was management levels may be more effective in small groups can be very effective, done a few times, these managers pointed in changing an organization than forced without losing any of the possibilities out that one of them managed in main- efforts from the “top.” Such managers are of providing lectures and doing case tenance, another in IT, the third in cargo, often deeply committed to the enterprise, studies, etc. It simply helps the partici- and none in the airline itself. They formed and sometimes ideally connected as well: pants carry the learning into their own a team in the sense that they all worked for close enough to the operations, where contexts. (We have, by the way, used Lufthansa, but not in the sense of working ideas often begin (and get lost), yet able to this in conferences with as many as in the same place, let alone in the airline appreciate the big picture. Bear in mind 200 managers.) aspect itself. Unlike the managers in the that many a big strategy has grown out of »» IMpact teams can also be used with any a little initiative, as when a worker at IKEA modular program where the managers
28 OD PRACTITIONER Vol. 43 No. 3 2011 Henry Mintzberg is Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at the Desautels Faculty of Man- go back and forth between the work- References place and the classroom. Instead of agement at McGill University in sending the participating managers Mintzberg, H. (2004). Managers not MBAs: Montreal, and a founding partner back to a disconnected context, it A hard look at the soft practice of manag- of CoachingOurselves.com. He is engages colleagues in context on the ing and management development. San the author of fifteen books, includ- learning and the changing. Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler and ing Managers not MBAs, Tracking »» We have used CoachingOurselves as Pearson. Strategies, and Managing, and a bridge from our classrooms to the Mintzberg, H. (2009). Managing. San Fran- IMpact teams at work. Since many of cisco, CA: Berrett Koehler and Pearson. he is working on an electronic CoachingOurselves topics mirror con- Mintzberg, H. (2009, July/Aug). Rebuild- pamphlet entitled Rebalancing cepts presented in the classroom (on ing companies as communities. Har- Society. . . radical renewal beyond crafting strategy, organization design, vard Business Review, 140-143. Smith and Marx. For much of facilitating communication, etc.), the Patwell, B., & Seashore, E. (2007). Triple the past fifteen years, in col- managers attending the program can impact coaching: Use-of-self in the laboration with colleagues from use these topics to brief their team back coaching process. Victoria, BC: Patwell at work. And standing alone, Coaching Consulting Inc. Canada, England, France, India, Ourselves brings this pedagogical Revens, R. W. (1983). The A.B.C of Japan, China, and Brazil he has approach into the workplace directly. action learning. Bromley, England: been working on new approaches »» Issues of concern that arise at work Chartwell-Bratt. to management education and can be taken into the classroom for Ulrich, D., Kerr, S., & Ashkenas, R. N. development. The International friendly consulting, and results of this (2002). The GE Work-Out. New York, Masters in Practicing Management can be carried back to the workplace for NY: McGraw-Hill. change in the organization. has been running since 1996; the »» Various IMpact or CoachingOurselves Advanced Leadership Program teams in the same organization can and the International Masters meet in a forum to share their insights for Health Leadership since and consolidate their learning about 2006. He can be reached at the whole organization. OD consultants [email protected]. may be especially helpful in consolidat- ing such learning and encouraging changes as a consequence. »» Several of the individual elements, such as the managerial exchanges, can be used as programs in their own right.
As I hope I have been able to show, in the development of organizations, a few simple ideas can be carried a long way. Accord- ingly, isn’t it time that we got past the lone wolf view of development, that a changed individual will magically change an organi- zation. The anthropologist Margaret Mead wrote famously: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Send a changed man- ager back to a small group of thoughtful, committed colleagues and watch how an organization can be changed too.
From Management Development to Organization Development with IMpact 29