Managers
by Clayton M. Christensen, Matt Marx, and Howard H. Stevenson
YEL MAG CYAN BLACK
Managers can use a variety of carrots and sticks to encourage people to work together and accomplish change. Their ability to get results depends on selecting tools that match the circumstances they face.
the primary task of management is to get people to work together in a systematic way. Like orchestra conductors, managers direct the talents and actions of various players to produce a desired result. It’s a complicated job, and it becomes much more so when managers are trying to get people to change, rather than continue with the status quo. Even the best CEOs can stumble in their attempts to encourage people to work together toward a new corporate goal.
In 1999, for example, Procter & Gamble’s Durk Jager, a highly regarded insider who had recently been promoted to CEO, announced Organization 2005, a restructuring
JIM FRAZIER
T october 2006
73
T h e To o l s o f Co o p e rat i o n a n d C h a n g e
Over our many years observing management successes and failures up close, we’ve found that the first step in any change initiative must be to assess the level of agreement in the organization along two critical dimensions. The first is the extent to which people agree on what they want: the results they seek from their participation in the enterprise; their values and priorities; and which tradeoffs they are willing to make in order to achieve those results. Employees at Microsoft, for instance, have historically been united around a common goal: to dominate the desktop. While of course there will always be pockets of employees who are an exception, this theme has defined the company’s culture. The second dimension is the extent to which people agree on cause and effect: which actions will lead to the desired outcome. When people have a shared understanding of cause and effect, they will probably agree about which processes to adopt–
an
YEL MAG CYAN BLACK
Managers can use a variety of carrots and sticks to encourage people to work together and accomplish change. Their ability to get results depends on selecting tools that match the circumstances they face.
the primary task of management is to get people to work together in a systematic way. Like orchestra conductors, managers direct the talents and actions of various players to produce a desired result. It’s a complicated job, and it becomes much more so when managers are trying to get people to change, rather than continue with the status quo. Even the best CEOs can stumble in their attempts to encourage people to work together toward a new corporate goal.
In 1999, for example, Procter & Gamble’s Durk Jager, a highly regarded insider who had recently been promoted to CEO, announced Organization 2005, a restructuring
JIM FRAZIER
T october 2006
73
T h e To o l s o f Co o p e rat i o n a n d C h a n g e
Over our many years observing management successes and failures up close, we’ve found that the first step in any change initiative must be to assess the level of agreement in the organization along two critical dimensions. The first is the extent to which people agree on what they want: the results they seek from their participation in the enterprise; their values and priorities; and which tradeoffs they are willing to make in order to achieve those results. Employees at Microsoft, for instance, have historically been united around a common goal: to dominate the desktop. While of course there will always be pockets of employees who are an exception, this theme has defined the company’s culture. The second dimension is the extent to which people agree on cause and effect: which actions will lead to the desired outcome. When people have a shared understanding of cause and effect, they will probably agree about which processes to adopt–
an