But attending was not really about taking a peek at another school’s methods. “The fundÂamental reason was that I wanted to have my own skills improved as a manager and leader,” Prof Francis says. “The course did what it said it would ”“ we were both impressed.
“The opportunity of talking about it with 89 other senior executives who have depth and experience is part of what you are paying for ”“ as is being led by someone who is highly experienced and can pull out all the nuances.”
Harvard, Prof Francis says, has developed and crystallised his thinking and given him greater confidence that his intuition about how and what to change were correct. “For me, one of the biggest, most striking insights is the importance of organisational culture. There was a phrase I found very striking, which Ford had pinned up in the boardroom: ”˜culture eats strategy for breakfast’. It means that you can strategise all you like but, if you have not got hearts and minds, it is a complete waste of time.”
–Professor Arthur Francis, Dean of Bradford University School of Management, in yesterday’s Financial Times, page 12
Undoubtedly, a useful lesson to learn.
Willow Creek’s Global Leadership Summit is well worth attending for a much cheaper way of discovering such insights. They’ve used Harvard/Yale business professors in the past.
By the way, Arthur Francis is an Anglican, and was on the vestry here in Glasgow when I was appointed. I’m sure he’ll also be helping the Diocese of Bradford learn that ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’.
Writing as economist who knows more about strategy than culture, I couldn’t AGREE more. It’s pointless to strategize without knowing what organizational culture you’ve inherited. And if your problem is your organizational culture, fixing it is your first order of business.
Ding Ding Ding! All the lights just went on illuminating a very interesting thought for me. I’d been wondering ever since I read this yesterday about whether or how the quote might relate to our Anglican situation (particularly for North American reasserters).
John Chilton’s comment above I think crystallizes something for me. Are we finding the strategy sessions and decisions so difficult and potentially divisive because we (“Network”) don’t have a clear sense of corporate identity and culture yet? Trying to build an organization from the ground up quickly is hard work. Trying to at the same time make huge decisions about the matters we face as Anglicans is even harder…
This is not to fault the Network. Through conferences like Plano 1 (Dallas); “Plano East,” (etc.) and Hope and Future in Pittsburgh, there is obviously a real vision to help create a corporate culture. There has been attention ever since Plano 1 to the Network/realignment’s “DNA” and vision. (I personally was amazed, encouraged and impressed at Plano East how much time was spent on focus on mission, youth ministry etc., rather than merely dealing with the “immediate” crisis at hand.) So I know this need for clear sense of corporate culture and indentity is recognized. It’s just very hard to do that when you’re in the thick and fog of battle. And unfortunately that’s exactly where we are, all the pleas for moratoriums and SPACE having been rejected and ignored.
The fundamental building block of a culture is a definition based on what an organization is, rather than what it is not.