HBO Session 3-4

My contribution to the class discussion:

One of the key take away from today's class was the concept of Institutionalizing the culture of change.

Ricardo Semler (Semco), Jack Welch (GE), the CEO of Walmart all brought change to the culture of their organizations.

But does the culture of change exist as long as the person who brought about the change or even beyond that?

I feel that culture is not driven by the individuals. Ricardo Semler through the company policies has made sure that the culture of change is

institutionalized. The hiring policy ensured that the new employees who are recruited are a "cultural fit" to the culture of change. Hence the culture is carried forward

and is not dependent on a single individual.

Key Insights:

CAN group is one of the most fruitful experience at AIM. I realized that the concept of the CAN group is to develop the leader in every individual at AIM. Different people have different expertise in different subjects. Hence as subjects changes, the facilitator or the leader changes. 

Coming to the case, Eric's thought of formulating a strategy for the company through team work did not work.

This reminds us of the importance of challenging  ASSUMPTIONS when the STRATEGIES do not produce the desired results. Eric had a preconceived notion that team work is the key to success. But he has not really though whether a team will serve the purpose in this situation, or there is some other combination like informal group, task group etc which could work. 

Thus i understand now that every failure needs an detailed review of not just the strategy followed but the the assumptions behind the strategy.