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Chapter Outlines

Section I

 

Chapter 1: Introduction
I. Our purpose
II. Our approach

a.Sections
i. Progress Model
ii. Progress Making Strategies
b. Insight Pools
i. Special Research Projects
ii. Leadership Literature
iii. Personal Leadership Experiences


Chapter 2: Exploring
I. Attributes of Explorers

a. Embrace uncertainty
b. Question the conventional
c. Trust their intuitions
d. Delight in the adventure
II. Exploring and Progress Making
III. Concluding Thoughts

Chapter 3: Refining
I. Attributes of Refiners
a. Gravitate toward certainty
b. Strongly value order
c. Enamored with precision and clarity
d. Pursue correctness

II. Refining and Progress Making

III. Concluding Thoughts


Chapter 4: Platforms
I. How Platforms Emerge

II. Features of Platforms

a. Platforms are temporary but they are often treated as permanent
b. Platforms don’t necessarily lose their stability, but they often become irrelevant
c. Platform improvements can create deceiving illusions

III. Concluding Thoughts


Chapter 5: Progress
I. Defining Progress

a. Results emerged from conscious decision making and deliberate choices
b. Something—or some condition—has improved the status quo
c. The improvements are legitimately sustainable
d. The improvements occurred through either exploring or refining

II. Implications of the Progress Definition

a. Assessing the degree of progress requires a complex act of judgment
b. Progress always creates new challenges
c. Progress is not inevitable
d. Progress rarely follows a straight line leading from point A to B
e. Progress in one arena can influence progress in other, seemingly unrelated, arenas

III. Concluding Thoughts


Chapter 6: The Progress Model
I. How the Progress Model Works

II. So What?

a. No platform is perfect
b. Progress occurs under conditions of “dynamic stability”
c. Perceptions of the path forward vary greatly depending on your current and projected platform position

III. Concluding Thoughts


Chapter 7: How Explorers and Refiners Make Progress
I. The Explorers Mode of Making Progress

II. The Refiners Mode of Making Progress

III. The Challenges Faced by Explorers and Refiners

a. Fighting the status quo
b. Managing fear
c. Battling fatigue
d. Knowing when to resist

IV. Concluding Thoughts


Chapter 8: Progress Makers

I. The Central Conundrum

II. The Progress Maker’s Response

III. Making the Right Choices


Section II


Chapter 9: Envision the Future with Calculated Boldness
I. Defining the Concept

a. Shun timidity
b. Shun brashness
II. What Inhibits Calculated Boldness
a. The leader overly relies on familiar courses of action
b. The leader lacks awareness of all the potential points of intervention
c. The leader fails to engage in thoughtful and spirited debate
i. Appreciation
ii. Temperament
iii. Education
III. What to Do?
a. Improve, develop or acquire the necessary tools to monitor organizational health and direction
i. The tools may be broken
ii. The tools may be the wrong ones for the task
iii. The tools may be missing
b. Ponder and debate the gateway questions before proceeding
c. Identify system-level roadblocks to progress
d. Calculate the cost of failing to address critical issues
e. Utilize the power of self-fulfilling expectations
f. Learn to tolerate setbacks and recover

IV. Concluding Thoughts


Chapter 10: Cultivate a Focused Flexibility Mindset
I. A Deeper Look at Focus and Flexibility

II. Why is Focused Flexibility so Difficult?

a. Unexamined success
b. Unmanaged stress
c. Dysfunctional sensory mechanisms
III. What to Do?
a. Build frequent iterative loops
b. Search for the optimal environments
c. Improve peripheral vision
d. Manage the amount of stress the organization places on employees
e. Declare war on the terrible triad: excessive planning, overconfidence, and cognitive bias
i. Excessive planning
ii. Overconfidence
iii. Cognitive biases
1. Sunk cost fallacy
2. Confirmation bias
f. Legitimize strategic forgetfulness
g. Designate “project pruners” and elevate their status

IV. Concluding Thoughts


Chapter 11: Enlarge the Circle of Engagement

I. The Concept

a. Note that the term “enlarging” suggests that progress makers formulate an artistic judgment about who to include in the circle, and by necessity, who to exclude
b. Notice the word “circle” denotes a self-contained completeness or wholeness
c. Note the presence of the noun “engagement” suggests the importance of cultivating commitment
II. Why Don’t We Enlarge the Circle?
a. Expediency
b. Ego
c. Anxiety
III. How do You Enlarge the Circle of Engagement?
a. Assemble a diverse, but collaborative team
b. Communicate in a collaborative manner
i. Exploring and respecting differences
ii. Promoting a spirit of inquiry
iii. Encouraging people to express doubt
c. Seek and discover the unifying point of commitment
d. Moderate the influence of status and roles
e. Sense and seize moments of acceleration
f. Add talent to the team in a thoughtful sequence
g. Routinely take stock and evaluate progress
i. They assess the role structure: do they have the right people in the right roles?
ii. They assess the performance of employees in their roles.
iii. They regularly assess their progress: are we really making progress on our key success factors?
IV. Concluding Thoughts

Chapter 12: Foster the Growth of Investment-Worthy Employees
I.Defining the Concept
a. Growth-fostering environment
b. Investment-worthy employees
II. Barriers
a. Leaders lack the disposition to invest in others
b. Leaders lack the discernment to properly judge talent
c. Leaders’ investments are small, narrow or misguided
III. What to Do?
a. Craft a talent investment approach
i. Talent proposition
ii. Talent acquisition
iii. Talent development and retention
b. Diversify your investments in employees
i. First, it suggests that progress makers avoid hiring clones
ii. Second, it suggests that progress makers properly mix the types of investments they make in individuals
c. Make routine talent investments
d. Regularly measure, analyze and discuss the performance of your talent investments
e. Routinely re-balance the talent portfolio
f. Cut your losses
IV. Concluding Thoughts

Chapter 13: Seek, Nurture and Evaluate Actionable Ideas
I. Defining the Concept
a. What types of ideas are deemed fair game?
b. Who decides whether an idea is actionable?
c. What time frame constitutes “actionable”?
II. Phases to Generate Actionable Ideas
a. Seek
b. Nurture
i. Willingness to be candid
ii. Tolerance for setbacks
iii. Patience
1. They must tolerate the necessary developmental cycles
2. They must patiently tolerate failures
c. Evaluate
III. Barriers
a. “Sharp shooting”
b. Insular mindset
c. Phase imbalance
IV. What to Do?
a. Build “discovery time” into the schedule, surroundings, and job duties
b. Cultivate employee imagination
c. Pay attention to “lead users”
d. Use the right skills at the right time
e. Articulate criteria used to evaluate ideas at different phases in the process
f. Evaluate ideas by examining attributes rather than relying on initial impressions
i. Praising the investment of personal energy
ii. Providing perspective
iii. Allowing for reflective stubbornness

V. Concluding Thoughts


Chapter 14: Select, Detect, and Correct the Proper Errors
I. Background

II. Error Management Framework

a. First, you have to select the type of errors you want to identify and the appropriate radar for the situation
b. Second, you use the selected radar to detect errors
c. Third, you correct certain errors exposed by the radar detector
III. The Counter Forces
a. First, the natural human tendency to “save face” often inhibits employees, managers and executives from acknowledging mistakes
b. Second, the “confirmation bias” amplifies all of our error-deflecting tendencies
c. Third, organizational cultures can inhibit proper error management
IV. What to Do?
a. Conceptualize the errors you wish to monitor
i. Exploring errors
1. Did we exercise due diligence before launching the innovative venture?
2. Did we fail early enough in the process?
3. Did we identify lessons learned?
ii. Refining errors
b. Systematically document and analyze errors to discern underlying error patterns
c. Evaluate, recalibrate, and adjust the radar detectors
d. Adjust error detection and correction responsibilities of stakeholders
e. Champion productive—as opposed to defensive—learning
V. Concluding Thoughts


Chapter 15: Practice Receiver-Centric, Strategy-Based, Feedback-Driven Communication
I. Defining the Concept
a. Receiver-centric
b. Strategy-based
i. First, what are the communication goals?
ii. What are the core messages?
iii. What is our general plan to move forward?
c. Feedback-driven
II. Barriers
a. Spray & pray strategy
b. Technology-driven communications
c. Gap between desire and resources
III. What to Do?
a. Select a rich and meaningful signature message
b. Use multiple, credible channels for important messages
c. Translate your agenda for different audiences
d. Robustly download major decisions
e. Identify, listen to and utilize opinion leaders
f. Harvest concerns and convert them into action items
g. Encourage upward communication
h. Check the effectiveness of communication

IV. Concluding Thoughts

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