Katzenbach Foresight

July 2010

The Katzenbach Center at Booz & Company focuses on the development and application of innovative ideas in the areas of leadership, organization, culture, and human capital. The center promotes new thinking on achieving breakthroughs in higher performance, developed through active collaboration with clients and thought leaders around the world.

As we understand the importance of fresh thinking and innovation for decision makers, we want to share our insights with you directly. The Katzenbach foresight Newsletter will be sent out periodically to inform you about our latest ideas on leadership, organization, culture, and human capital. The content is authored by the Katzenbach Center team and is designed to be clear, compelling, easy to apply, and relevant.

We appreciate your interest in the Katzenbach Foresight Newsletter, and we welcome your comments and questions. Please feel free to send us your feedback or contact the authors of each article directly with your comments and questions.

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Best regards,

Jon Katzenbach
Senior Partner, Booz & Company

In this Issue

Fast Track to Recovery
Leading outside the Lines Can Turn Survivors into Winners
The so-called worst recession of modern times has left the human side of many organizations poorly equipped for recovery. After surviving the crisis, they are traumatized, in some cases like “a deer in the headlights.” And enterprise cultures—particularly the informal elements that influence behaviors—are now more negative than positive. In many cases they are severely damaged. Leading the informal organization out of the woods needs to start right now; it cannot wait for strategic planning, or corporate restructuring, or some other formal initiative. Now, more than ever, leaders must bring the “informal” out of the closets and out from under the chairs, and use it proactively to energize the enterprise.download (1.4mb, PDF) >

Leading Outside the Lines Featured on Harvard Business Review Blog "The Conversation"
In a series of recent blog posts, Jon Katzenbach and Zia Khan give insight about the ways managers can lead outside a company's formal boundaries. The posts are related to the book Leading Outside the Lines and discuss topics like viral spreading, proud to be cheap organizations, positive peer pressure, and navigation of informal networks.

HBR blog: Positive Peer Pressure: A Powerful Ally to Change >

HBR blog: Spreading Critical Behaviors "Virally" >

HBR blog: Proud to be Cheap: The "Secret Sauce" of Low-Cost Winners >

HBR blog: How Fast Zebras Navigate Informal Networks >

Katzenbach Foresight Recommended Reading

Leading Outside the Lines

How to Mobilize the Informal Organization, Energize Your Team, and Get Better Results

Every enterprise has an informal organization as well as a formal one. The formal is the side with which businesspeople are usually more familiar. It consists of analyses, strategies, structures, processes, and programs—all codified in memos, charts, and PowerPoint presentations. These tools are designed to align decisions and actions. The informal is generally less familiar. It consists of emerging ideas, social networks, working norms, values, peer relationships, and communities of common interest—the elements that often hide beyond the boundaries of the formal. In Leading Outside the Lines, authors Jon Katzenbach and Zia Khan make the compelling case that it is in the less familiar, informal world that magic happens … yet one without the other is unlikely to sustain peak performance over time.read more >

The Right Fight

How Great Leaders Use Healthy Conflict to Drive Performance, Innovation, and Value

Harmony and alignment are not always the best way to get the most out of organizations. Contrary to conventional management wisdom, leaders can unleash creativity, innovation, and the productive potential of their employees by strategically employing “right fights.” The fundamental premise: A certain amount of struggle and stress energizes organizations and individuals, leading to optimal execution.read more >