Source: https://hbrascend.org/topics/
Highlight:
Constructive conflicts are essential to uncover the flaws of processes and advance the organisation
[Quote] Most people want to be liked: It’s one of the fundamental tenets of human behavior. Because of that motivation, many of us have an unconscious desire to avoid conflict. We prefer to “get along,” “not make waves,” and “act as a team player.” We all want to be known as a great person to work with.
The only problem with this mindset is that creative ideas and better ways of getting things done often stem from constructive conflict. Organizations need it to advance. And even in the day-to-day, workplace conflict is still inevitable because organizations are full of bright, ambitious people with different points of view, controversial ideas, and disparate values. There’s no way that we can get along with everyone all the time.
When people hesitate to speak up about poor practices or processes that don’t make sense, it creates a significant amount of unnecessary complexity and fosters a passive acceptance of the status quo. [/Quote]
2) "How To Position Yourself As A Premier Expert, According To Ali Brown" by Ashley Crouch
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/
Highlight:
[Quote] In his book, "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind", Al Ries says, "The essence of positioning is sacrifice. You must be willing to give up something in order to establish that unique position.” Get clear on what you stand for, who you work with, what you do and don't do. Positioning is what you stand for so other people instantly understand. If you are not sure what you stand for, flip it and ask, "Who are you not for? What are you here not to do? What metrics will you not count?" [/Quote]
3) "Ten People You Need To Have In Your Professional Network" by Caroline Ceniza-Levine
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/
Highlight:
[Quote] Market Expert
A good recruiter is an expert in the job market. Other market experts include management consultants, researchers, journalists, securities analysts, academics, and leaders of professional associations. There will come a time when you’ll need expertise about a specific industry, company, or functional area. You want to know different types of market experts to cover a range of industries, companies and functional areas, as well as different types of knowledge.
HR
Recruiters aren’t the only HR contacts you want in your network. I know an excellent employment lawyer that I have referred to various clients for offer negotiation, severance agreements, discrimination issues, or even just a second opinion when something seems amiss. When I need to switch insurance plans, I relied on my friend in Benefits to explain things in simple English. Knowing someone with a background in Compensation can provide feedback on offers. An Employee Relations contact can help with severance or brainstorming a tricky workplace situation. You want to know HR people, both inside and outside your company. Not every question needs to be escalated to HR at your company (most questions probably shouldn’t be!). [/Quote]
4) "Didi Is Rapidly Building Out Driver Services. This Is Really Important. (Pt 2 of 3)" by Jeffrey Towson 陶迅
Source: http://jefftowson.com/2018/09/
Highlight:
[Quote] Two-sided platforms like Didi depend on two user groups staying active on the platform (riders and drivers). And that gets you network effects and other types of “demand side” advantages.
However, not all platforms and network effects are equal. Facebook is particularly powerful with consumers because of its psychology (and addictive nature). Taobao is powerful with merchants because they become dependent on the platform as a sales channel. And so on. Some network effects are more powerful than others.
In theory, driver-rider platforms have some problems in this. It is actually pretty easy for customers to switch to another service. And they only really care about local service (not national coverage). Plus you’re just not using the service all day long, like WeChat or Facebook.
Plus drivers can easily switch to another service or multi-home. Note: Didi is probably counting on this as it goes after Uber’s drivers in Brazil (visiting their office in Sao Paolo this week). And there is not that much stopping a new entrant (say Alibaba or Ctrip) from launching a Shanghai ride-sharing service and poaching drivers and then riders. It may be expensive but they could do it. Note: After a couple of trials, Meituan has announced it is not entering ride-sharing.
Driver-rider platforms, in theory, don’t have a lot of the strengths of platforms like Google search and Taobao.
One way to improve this is to build in switching costs for drivers (and riders). You offer drivers lots of services, keep them happy and lock them in. They become more loyal. They build their careers and even businesses on the platform. And they are slow to switch when their car loan and gas are getting discounts by virtue of Didi. Building out driver services is a great way of keeping drivers happy and locking in the best ones – which means better services for riders and a stronger platform. [/Quote]
5) "Former President of Google China Kai-Fu Lee shares his insights into AI lessons in China [Part 1]" by Jeffrey Towson 陶迅
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/
Highlight:
[Quote]
1: China is well positioned for AI’s age of implementation
2. China has an advantage in data – and that is what will matter most in AI
3. Scrappy entrepreneurs are China’s secret weapon in AI
4. AI-driven automation will impact economies based on cheap labor and manufacturing
5. Meituan’s “war of a thousand Groupons” is a good example of digital China
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6) "Former President of Google China Kai-Fu Lee shares his insights into AI lessons in China [Part 2]" by Jeffrey Towson 陶迅
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/
Highlight:
[Quote]
Lesson 6: AI is a competition between batteries and grids
Lessons 7: Optimizations and data network effects are going to get a lot more complicated
Lesson 8: Online-merge-offline (OMO) is next. And it’s awesome
Lesson 9: Government support could really accelerate AI in China
Lesson 10: Some useful slides
- US and China Have Become Parallel Universes
US Model | China Model
Breakthrough VS Fusion + Speed
Technologies VS Applications
Vision Driven VS Result Driven
Light VS Heavy
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7) "Why Strategy Execution Unravels—and What to Do About It" by Donald Sull, Rebecca Homkes and Charles Sull
Source: https://hbr.org/2015/03/why-strategy-execution-unravelsand-what-to-do-about-it
Highlight:
[Quote] In large, complex organizations, execution lives and dies with a group we call “distributed leaders,” which includes not only middle managers who run critical businesses and functions but also technical and domain experts who occupy key spots in the informal networks that get things done. The vast majority of these leaders try to do the right thing. Eight out of 10 in our sample say they are committed to doing their best to execute the strategy, even when they would like more clarity on what the strategy is.
Distributed leaders, not senior executives, represent “management” to most employees, partners, and customers. Their day-to-day actions, particularly how they handle difficult decisions and what behaviors they tolerate, go a long way toward supporting or undermining the corporate culture. [/Quote]
8) "Mentally Strong People: The 13 Things They Avoid" by Cheryl Conner
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/
Highlight:
[Quote] 2. Give Away Their Power. Mentally strong people avoid giving others the power to make them feel inferior or bad. They understand they are in control of their actions and emotions. They know their strength is in their ability to manage the way they respond.
10. Give Up After Failure. Every failure is a chance to improve. Even the greatest entrepreneurs are willing to admit that their early efforts invariably brought many failures. Mentally strong people are willing to fail again and again, if necessary, as long as the learning experience from every “failure” can bring them closer to their ultimate goals.
11. Fear Alone Time. Mentally strong people enjoy and even treasure the time they spend alone. They use their downtime to reflect, to plan, and to be productive. Most importantly, they don’t depend on others to shore up their happiness and moods. They can be happy with others, and they can also be happy alone. [/Quote]
9) "Influencing Stakeholders: Dealing with Power and Dynamics in Teams and Networks" edX online open course by Delft University of Technology
Source: https://courses.edx.org/courses/course-v1:DelftX+LEfE2x+2T2018/course/
Highlight of Chapter 1:
[Quote]
There are two types of management mindsets in engineering leadership:
i) Project Management Mindset: In the project-based mindset, the solution arises from problems, goals and information. First, there is a problem, and we then try to find a solution centered around the commonly agreed problem.
ii) Process Management Mindset: In the process-based mindset, there is already a solution, and we then try to find problems that would map perfectly with the solution that has been prescribed. Process managerial mindset promotes multi-issue game. A multi-issue game provides an incentive for playing the game of give-and-take. On the other hand a single-issue game is an either-or-game – you are either in favour or against the issue and this almost always leads to conflict. A multi-issue game creates much more room for manoeuvre – the game between the actors gains more space and flexibility. A multi-issue game includes incentives for cooperation.
Finally, a multi-issue game promotes learning. Because there are so many issues, a lot of combinations are possible. Some of these combinations will come as a surprise to participants in the multi-issue game. They only discover that these combinations are possible and attractive during the game itself. When these attractive combinations arise, this can result in players changing their coalitions and preferences.
Decision-making
In the project-management mindset, you have analyzed problems, set goals, collected information, designed a solution, and then the time comes for decision-making.
This is an important moment – the go/no go moment. In the process-management mindset, the difference between decision-making and the other stages in the process is not so clear-cut. Because of the multi-issue game, decision-making is actually a continuous process.The decision is not made, it emerges.
Then there is this: anyone with a project-management mindset also knows a large number of tools and techniques that are effective in a project. The rule of thumb is: tools that are effective in a project do not work in a process (that involves multi-issue game).
Take a simple tool: a deadline. In a project, a deadline is an incentive to achieve something on time. But what happens if the mayor who wants to build an offshore port in our case study sets a deadline for all the other players? For example, if she says that a decision must be made by September 1st: Nothing.
Why should the other actors take any notice of this kind of deadline? Even worse – the actors can ask themselves a simple question. Who will have a problem on September 1st? The mayor will, but her opponents will not. Because they know that the mayor will have a problem, the deadline could even serve as an incentive for delay.
The final question is: what makes you successful as a leader? What are the evaluation criteria for good leadership in a networked world (that is wicked, unstructured, with interdependencies and dynamism)?
The criteria for success in a project-management mindset are often threefold: Have you achieved your goals? Have you done it on time and on budget? Of course, these criteria are not appropriate for a process of multi-issue game in a networked world.
In the multi-issue game setup, the first criterion to evaluate whether you are a successful leader: are you satisfied with what you have achieved?
You may have something different from what you were originally looking for – and the question is therefore not or not exclusively whether you have achieved your original goals.
The second criterion: is there a trust among the other parties and have good relationships emerged with them?
Remember that, in an interdependent, networked world, you will encounter these other parties again and you are dependent on the other parties. If you have gained a lot but the other parties are highly disappointed – that can be extremely damaging in future processes.
The third criterion: have you learned something? If, through interaction with multiple parties and by means of a multi-issue change process, you achieve what you wanted at the outset, you have probably learned nothing.
Other parties can block your initiative but other parties and other issues can also improve your initiative. Then you will have learned something.
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Highlight of Chapter 3:
[Quote]
Anybody who is proficient in process management leadership approach (that plots multi-issue game) of almost always will be confronted with a dilemma:
On the one hand, anyone active in a network environment will need to make use of the multi-issue game strategies in order to achieve his or her interests.
On the other hand, anyone who continually uses these strategies can eventually be seen as unreliable.
There are five rules that need to be aided by the actors in multi-issue game throughout the decision-making process (de Bruijn, 2018):
1. Don’t dance on a dead man’s grave – the loser deserves respect
Usually decision-making leads to a win-win situation but it is not always possible. In that case, the loser should be treated with respect. The main reason for this is that the winner will most likely meet the loser again in a following round of the process. Dancing on a dead man's grave could lead to revanchist behavior.
2. Do not affect the core values of other actors
This rule applies to both professional as personal values of actors. Core values are values that affect the core of his right to exist. Trust plays an important part in this rule and is a basis for collaboration.
3. A powerful actor should not use its power
One of the essential characteristics of a network is interdependency: actors need each other's support and collaboration. Each actor in a network has means of exercising power, but these can be unfairly divided. Though, actors should use their power restrainedly. This is called the power paradox (Rosenthal, 1980).
4. Consultation and interaction should never be refused
This rule of play is especially important when one of the parties has a major chance of loss. even if it is extremely clear to the parties that the loss to the party in question cannot be avoided, the rule of play that consultation may not be refused applies.
5. Respect the principle of reciprocity: one good turn deserves another
Duties are reversible. Actor A owes actor B something in the knowledge that actor B will owe actor A something next time. Those who give a gift acquire a right: 'a gift is received with a burden attached' (Mauss, 1990, p.41).
[1] Bruijn, J.A. de. Heuvelhof, E.F. ten. (2018). Management in Networks. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Ltd.
[2] Rosenthal, U. (1980), De Machtsparadox: latente machtsuitoefening en geanticipeerde reacties. Beleid en Maatschappij, 7, 292-296
[3] Mauss, M. (1990). The gift: The form and reason for exchange in archaic societies. (W.D. Halls, Trans.). Abingdon: Routledge. (Original work published 1950)
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