An everyone culture Becoming a deliberately developmental organization

Robert Kegan

Book - 2016

"In most organizations nearly everyone is doing a second job no one is paying them for-namely, covering their weaknesses, trying to look their best, and managing other people's impressions of them. There may be no greater waste of a company's resources. The ultimate cost: neither the organization nor its people are able to realize their full potential. What if a company did everything in its power to create a culture in which everyone-not just select "high potentials"--Could overcome their own internal barriers to change and use errors and vulnerabilities as prime opportunities for personal and company growth? Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey (and their collaborators) have found and studied such companies-Deliberately De...velopmental Organizations. A DDO is organized around the simple but radical conviction that organizations will best prosper when they are more deeply aligned with people's strongest motive, which is to grow. This means going beyond consigning "people development" to high-potential programs, executive coaching, or once-a-year off-sites. It means fashioning an organizational culture in which support of people's development is woven into the daily fabric of working life and the company's regular operations, daily routines, and conversations. An Everyone Culture dives deep into the worlds of three leading companies that embody this breakthrough approach. It reveals the design principles, concrete practices, and underlying science at the heart of DDOs-from their disciplined approach to giving feedback, to how they use meetings, to the distinctive way that managers and leaders define their roles. The authors then show readers how to build this developmental culture in their own organizations. This book demonstrates a whole new way of being at work. It suggests that the culture you create is your strategy-and that the key to success is developing everyone"--

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Subjects
Published
Boston, Massachusetts : Harvard Business Review Press [2016]
Language
English
Main Author
Robert Kegan (author)
Other Authors
Lisa Laskow Lahey, 1955- (author), Matthew L. Miller (-), Andy Fleming, Deborah Helsing
Physical Description
viii, 308 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-292) and index.
ISBN
9781625278623
  • Introduction: Culture as Strategy
  • 1. Meet the DDOs
  • 2. What Do We Mean by Development?
  • 3. A Conceptual Tour of the DDO Edge, Home, and Groove
  • 4. In the Groove Practices and Practicing to Create an Everyone Culture
  • 5. But Is This Any Way to Run a Business? The Strictly Business Value of
  • 6. Uncovering Your Biggest Blind Spot What You'd Be Working On in a DDO
  • 7. Creating Home Getting Started toward Becoming a DDO
  • Epilogue: A New Way of Being-at Work
  • In the internet age, how much longer will we settle for an IBM Selectric culture at work?
  • Notes
  • Index
  • Acknowledgments
  • About the Authors
Review by Choice Review

Kegan and Lahey (Harvard Univ.) incorporate adult-developmental theory to enhance organizational profitability, improve honesty in communications, reduce political maneuvering, and increase solutions to intractable problems. The focus of the theory is to allow people to grow in all major activities of the organization and reduce their motivation to hide weaknesses and manage other's impressions. The authors investigate three Deliberately Developmental Organizations (DDOs) that exemplify the theory. Next Jump, an e-commerce tech company, has programs such as the Personal Leadership Boot Camp to overcome negative mindsets and exercise leadership through regular feedback from peers and managers. The Decurion Corporation includes ArcLight, a real estate and movie theater arm of the company. It incorporates "fishbowl" conversations among managers that uncover multiple perspectives on problems. Bridgewater, the world's best performing hedge fund, has radical transparency with glass office walls and recordings of almost every meeting. All DDOs consider errors as learning opportunities, cultures built through teams and people development, and timescales of projects set for growth. The book includes a chapter on uncovering your biggest blind spots. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. --Gundars E. Kaupins, Boise State University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.