Leadership: Mobilizing Resources

Comment: This is the sixth post of the Leadership Process series. I began this series because I saw a lack of rigor and discipline to leadership. The purpose of these posts is to look at a process model used by leaders. 

The term "mobilizing resources" originated from governmental language when seeking reforms or conducting international aide operations. Nonetheless, mobilizing resources is classic project management. This phase of the leadership process model is where project managers, PMs, make their mark. PMs may be involved in the previous steps to a lesser extent if involved at all. Mobilizing resources is the fundamental activitiy of being a PM.

Mobilizing Resources Background

The problem of effecting a vision, design, or a general effort has been a challenge historically. Visions, designs, and efforts of various sorts when implemented become projects. The discipline for effecting projects originates from operations management and to some extent engineering specifically industrial engineering.  Within these disciplines project management has emerged with the methodologies for mobilizing resources; manpower, money, machinery, and methods. Projects come in many types and styles having associated tooling, tactics, techniques, and practices.

Projects fall into two general categories; continuous and discrete. Continuous projects come in two forms; continuous improvement or Agile. Conitnuous improvements often utilize a Spiral Waterall model. These projects may have discrete points along the way but the project is ongoing and does not fully complete. Instead, there are versions that demark major waypoints. Discrete projects are typically linear having a start and end date upon which the project fully terminates. A special case of projects stems from complexity which can be nonlinear but always has a high degree of uncertainty and dynamic relationships between participants. Often complex projects occur as progressive elaboration events.

Project Managers must assess and know the character of the project type before beginning to organize the project details. For many project managers, the practice of program management is not a foreign concept. Programs lay down the framework for the projects to operate within giving structure, form, and policies for conducting the project(s).

Many organizations offer methodologies for managing projects. The Project Management Institute, PMI, is one such organization which issues its Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK.

Mobilizing Resources

Once leadership has created the vision, built a constituency, and established the capabilities and capacities necessary to move the project forward, the PM begins by initiating the project.  There are many activities and two of the key activities is developing the Work Breakdown Structure, WBS, and the Organizational Breakdown Structure, OBS. The WBS work packages maps to the OBS or who will execute the work packages. Typically, the PM will look for shortfalls in capacity and capabilities. If leadership was on spot desiging the organization then there should be no shortfalls. Nonentheless, the PM occassionally must seek special skills or augement capacity from time-to-time. For example, crashing a project requires additional resources. Resourcing capability for specific work packages is not uncommon. The capabilities resourced are often journeymen or tradecraft skills such as plumbers, electricians, and IT support of various sorts. Professional services (Engineering, Legal, Accounting, etc...) are often contracted as well.

However, resources are not uniquely labor. Money, methods, and machinery are also resources that demand the PM's attention. Money often gets the most attention and tracked in many cases through Earb Value Management, EVM. Methods and machinery are also part of the equation as capabilities and capacity to perfortm work. Methods are most often skills, techniques, and practices. For example, a method could be a means of interstitially coating something. There are numerous methods from electro-plating to Ionic bonding to electro-static paint to perform such outcomes.  Machinery or tooling is another resource. If a process calls for a specific method then the proper tooling or machinery needs to be on hand to perform the work. Sometimes in a project, job shops or shop floors are leased to bring capabilities into the project.

Mobilizing resources often means overcoming political, organizational, and human obstacles. This is often called personality management which is an art more than a science. The science is simple in which humans generally fall into behavioral groups that have collective personalities. The art is knowing how to apply the science and gain productive outcomes from fickle people.

Conclusion

Mobilizing resources is project management. PMs are concerned with manpower, money, machinery, and methods in additional to the project objectives; scope, cost, quality, and schedules. Mobilizing resources is where the leaders vision and strategy are put to task. A key performance indicator is to ask the question, "Did what was worked serve the organization and strategy?"  The concept of measurable organizational value, MOV, serves to answer this question. MOV will be part of the posts on "Assessing Results" and "Plan for Updates".

Leadership: Organizational Design

Comment: This is the fifth post of the Leadership Process series. I began this series because I saw a lack of rigor and discipline to leadership. The purpose of these posts is to look at a process model used by leaders. 

This is an overview of organizational design.

Background

With the down economy and globalization events, leaders have tended to focus narrowly on product lines and specific competitors rather than the big picture. This has resulted in piecemeal  organizational design when a broader picture should have been assessed.

The problem is a narrow focused staff rushes in and architects a new information technology system, software application, or they purchase some new machine to solve a specific need. They rally resources to the new cause and train on it.  Terrific plans are put together to implement these systems. Most often the organization adapts to the technology rather than leveraging the technology in support of the operational objectives and strategy. In short, these organizations fail miserably at designing the organizational structures that support the vision from a leadership perspective.

The root cause of the problem, unfortunately, is that professionals historically either ignore the organizational constructs and processes or refuse to adapt to them. Changes to culture, business processes, and/or relationships often create conflicts and become disruptive to the organization and operations. For many professionals, placing the blame for these outcomes on innocuous things such as technology becomes more bearable. Staff often finds work arounds to the new architectures and ways to maintain empires, stove pipes, and cliques previously built. This is not leadership. Leadership involves putting strategy-to-task utilizing effective organizational design.

The challenge for the leader is overcoming politics, over-regulation or too many policies, cultural clashes, and the unworkable positions. 

Leaders must link the vision and its objectives to actionable activities that contribute meaningful work towards the vision. This requires organizational resources. In doing this, the two most essential organizational qualities are capacity and capability. Without adequate capacity and capability within the organization either something poorly or nothing will get accomplished. Thus, there must be some sort of reconciliation between the requirements of the vision and the capacity and capabilities of the organization in order to effect the vision.  There is a need to take corrective action on the shortfalls and measure the results of the effort.  Meanwhile, the shortfalls should be monitored in order to utilize in strategic planning of the organization later.

"We believe that the centerpiece of corporate strategy for most large companies should become the redesign of their organizations. We believe this for a very simple reason: It's where the money is (Bryan and Joyce, 2007, p. 1.)." Bryan and Joyce argue that organizational design is central to 21^st century business and that older designs are arcane and costly. Bryan and Joyce believe that thinking intensive staff possess the potential for enormous revenues and cost savings. This may lend well to autonomous self-directed cells of a living system discussed below.

Organizational Design

Poor organizational design and structure results in a bewildering collage of contradicting and conflicting activities. For example, role confusion, poor collaboration, high latencies and slow decision-making leading to unnecessary complexity, stress, and conflict. The principles of organizational design involve:

•  Complementary to Objectives: The design must support the desired objectives of not only the project but the organization's as a whole.

• Minimal Critical Specification: The design involves dialogue among those affected. Most teams struggle with over specifications. Thus, a minimal design can allow for teams to learn and adapt more readily. General Guidance is better than specific details.

•  Lowest level problem resolution: Problems need to be resolved at the point of origin. Teams to need find where things go wrong and deal with the variances at that point. People know what good work looks like and if empowered can resolve issues at their level.

•  Clear goals and flexible strategies: Define early on clear and concise performance goals. Do not over specify. Organizational design are living systems rather than robotic machines. There are many ways to get to the same ends. This principle encourages adaptability.

• Boundary Location and Control: Design for desirable sharing of information, knowledge, and experience in order to strengthen learning. Traditional companies typically build structures that limit sharing and problem solving through organizational barriers. The idea is to breakdown boundaries and reduce control.  

• Information Flow: Information must flow uninhibited and self-directed at all level of the organizational design. Control must be subordinate to achievement and learning. In short, it is better to share information and encourage conversations than control information access and limit dialogue.

• Supportive of congruence: Any rewards and support systems must be congruent with objectives and strategies for team-based work structures across boundaries.

•  Human values and design: Any designs must be supportive of relationships, meaningful work, as well as supportive of learning, decision-making, and help. There must be interactive and participatory planning processes involving those affected.

• Learning systems:  Design is an ongoing and reiterative experience. It is critical to build into any organizational design the ability to change and learn. Professionals and staff must have the ability to re-fashion their organizational arrangements as required.

There are scores of organizational design styles and types. The leader must assess the style and types the organization is operating within as this will determine how they leverage the capabilities and capacities. Once gaps and shortfalls are determined in capacity and capability, then procurement of the shortfall must occur. This often involves a make-buy analysis or some sort of organizational strategy to augment capacity and capabilities.  If capabilities are not present at all then the organization must resource them at the adequate capacity.

One of the stronger approaches is to view the organization as a living system or as a nodal network of cells that perform work and communicate among each other. The idea is not to over specify organizational design. Instead, provide guidance and room for the teams and organization to adapt as necessary. Living systems are organizations that have autonomous cells, self-organize, and are in a managed dynamic state of flux. These systems adapt to changing conditions by identifying necessary elements or cells then communicate with these other elements to solve problems and perform pertinent work.

In this living systems paradigm, the leader must assess or look for complimentary fits for capability and capacity augmenting the organizational structures where necessary. Decisions must be made if the augmentations are long term or short term which goes back to make-buy analysis and organizational strategies regarding augmentations.

Once the organizational design is in place then the leader is ready to mobilize resources. This is typically when the project manager is selected and a classic project initiates. This is the next blog posting on the Leadership process.

Reference:

Bryan, L., Joyce, C. (2007). Mobilizing Minds. McGraw-Hill. NY. 

Project Complexity Perplexes Procurements

Comment: This is a paper I wrote for a course on procurements and included in my series Supply Chain Basics. If you have followed my blog posts you may have realized that I am a proponent of complex adaptive systems (CAS). I have found that CAS reflects natural relationships such that organizational latency is reduced, collaboration and information sharing increase, and problem-solving occurs at the point of origin. The business or operation must be properly structured in order to take advantage of CAS. Once again, I have applied this concept to complex projects and procurements.  

Introduction

One of the greatest challenges in project management is complexity which is common to mega-projects but also common to smaller highly integrated projects. Complexity occurs in many dynamic forms such as in scalability, relationships, the tempo of the project, and due to self-organization. Complexity affects project procurement costs due to uncertainty in quantity and timing. In some cases, the actual procurements required remains in question until conditions emerge such that a determination can be made as in progressive elaboration events. The greater challenge is not the actual procurements but instead the management of or adaptability to emergent conditions while maintaining optimal procurements otherwise known as innovative procurements or simply innovation. In complex projects, the project procurement practices of the plan, conduct, administer, and closeout fall short of providing the requisite level of management. How does a project manager design and implement procurement systems or programs that assure optimal procurement processes in the face of uncertainty driven by complexity?

Clarifying Project Complexity

A formal definition of mega-projects does not exist among scholars but the United States government defines mega-projects as major infrastructure projects exceeding $500US million or projects that attract a high level of public or political attention due to impacts on the community, environment, or budgets (Li, Yanfei, and Chaosheng, 2009). Regardless of the definition or whether a highly integrated or mega-project, complexity is present and best described as projects that have a high degree of uncertainty and dynamic relationships among the participants. A closer look at complexity reveals the nature of the project culture. Scalability relates to sizing or the scale of the effort indicating the type of management and controls. Relationships among the participants such as serial, parallel, or nonlinear indicates the participant’s collaborative interest and willingness to cooperate. Self-organization traits of the project participants relate to the ability to adapt to emergent conditions in order to learn and solve problems. The project tempo relates to the rapidity with which decisions must be made and the effort progresses. Projects operating under a compressed timeline must make reliable decisions sooner than projects under normal time constraints. Optimal procurement processes are adaptive to the emergent conditions, minimize overall legal claims, promote quality, and correctly specify materials and services. The project manager must bring these objectives into succinct focus while managing complex projects.

Procurement Planning

Many managers are realizing that the control of overall complexity is a strategic issue for the company (Isk, 2010, pp. 3681-3682). The process begins before the scoping and work breakdown structure is considered by surveying the ground conditions such as the form of complexity, anticipated project tempo, and the nature of the expected procurements in order to begin formulation of the management method.

Project managers reel over uncertainty and the lack of structure. Complexity is typically wrought with uncertainty causing project managers an uneasy sensibility. Somehow, project managers must apply structure to complex projects in order to stabilize the core focus areas and, in particular, the project procurements. Complex environments rely on several key activities; information sharing, transparency, communications, and autonomy. These activities are necessary for the project participants operating under complex circumstances to adapt to emergent conditions otherwise known as the ability to innovate. Complex adaptive systems are the structure of complex environments that can facilitate key activities. Complex adaptive systems, Figure 1, are composed of autonomous nodes and communication pipes between the nodes reflecting a molecular lattice. In this case, the autonomous nodes represent suppliers, work centers, stakeholders, and other project participants. The communication pipes between the nodes pass Information Exchange Requirements, IERs, over the pipes and possess the self-organizing capability of dynamically connecting and disconnecting from nodes as necessary. With this architecture in mind, project managers can begin to overlay policies and practices to manage the complex environment. "Owing to the inherent complexity, it is a challenge to coordinate the actions of entities across organizational boundaries so that they perform in a coherent manner (Surana, A., Kumara, S., Greaves, M., & Raghavan, U. 2005, p. 4241)."

Figure 1: Complex Adaptive Systems exchange information and self-organize

Supply Networks

Supply networks can be ‘dyadic’ to multi-firm groupings (Brady, 2011). The variety and uncertainty of a supply chain might be extremely high and cause complexity. A typical supply chain can often be complex as a large mesh having members with competing objectives in other supply chains that dynamically reform (Isik, 2010, p.3685). At the most basic level, supply networks vary in structure based on the predictability of demand and complexity of the finished goods. Regardless of the supply network’s detail, the complex adaptive construct can be mapped to it. The greatest concern for a project manager is the supply network’s ability to be responsive and solve problems autonomously or to be innovative. Supplier competitive and self-interest factors detract from the desirable traits of collaboration and innovation. The project manager must put all the traits into balance in order to keep cost low and innovation high.

The more complex, high technology, and high cost the product becomes the more significant systems integration becomes the productive activity of the organization (Brady, 2011, p. 471). Complex adaptive constructs combined with program management provide such integration through teaming.

Procurement Management Program

Cost overruns of 50% are common; overruns of 100% are not uncommon. Project management is of enormous value to the success of mega-projects (Li, Yanfei, and Chaosheng, 2009, p. 100). The source of the cost overruns is uncertainty or risk. There are five main sources of risk; (1) Lack of buyer understanding of the requirements, (2) Language shortcomings, (3) Behavior of the parties, (4) Haste, and (5) Deception (Garrett, 2010, p. 50).

A procurement management program frames and provides guidance in order to address risk factors and strengthen the project procurement process such that cost overruns are reduced to acceptable levels. The underpinnings of a procurement program can be addressed in a structured manner the complex adaptive systems as the underpinnings. As indicated prior, optimal procurement processes are innovative and adaptive to the emergent conditions, minimize litigations or claims in the end, promote quality, and correctly specify materials and services. The objective of managing procurements in this manner is to derive value for the project.

The British Airport Authority was confronted with supplier conflict, poor information sharing, unwillingness to accept risk, and the lack of a consistent process among other issues. The solution embodied two main principles; the client always bears the risk and the work was to be carried out by integrated project teams. The British Airport Authority took on the role replacing the lead firm as systems integrator creating a framework of agreements that led to a value-creating supplier network (Brady, 2011, pp. 475-479).

The centerpiece of a program is the type of contracts and agreements made between the contractors or suppliers that leverage the complex adaptive systems traits. These agreements may be viewed as a teaming arrangement which is an agreement between two or more firms to form an alliance for their mutual benefit in a project (Fleming, 2003, pp. 36-37).

A system of agreements should be developed as part of the procurement management program that frame the level of collaboration and empowerment in a way to reduce destructive competition or conflict, properly assign risk, and solve procurement problems as they emerge. This was a success in the Heathrow terminal project where the approach consisted of four main components in the agreement; a single model environment, the use of preassembly, prefabrication, off-site testing, and just-in-time logistics (Brady, 2011, p. 477). One agreement should frame the project procurement structure as did the Heathrow project. Another agreement should frame guidance for cross-functional teams that strengthen collaboration, information sharing, and problem-solving. This approach was a success in the SHRBC construction project where long term strategic cooperative partnerships yielded a high satisfaction with collaboration and looked forward to future cooperation projects (Li, Yanfei, and Chaosheng, 2009, p. 107). Other agreements with the procurement participants can be developed on an as-needed basis. Once the framework for the procurement program is in place then the project procurement practices of the plan, conduct, administer, and closeout, can be integrated into the overall management effort.

The project procurement practices will follow the Project Management Institutes model as closely as possible. This involves the Request for Information, Request for Quotes, and Request for Proposals as well as contract type selections. The procurement management program could have agreements that provide guidance to the participants in the procurement process regarding the project procurement practices in these areas. For example, several contract types could be utilized during the project in a strategic manner. Cost-plus and fixed fees could be used to reduce cost and manage high uncertainty as the risk management on the buyer and not a lead vendor who may pass the risk around. Firm fixed-price contracts are ideal when uncertainty is low and places the risk on the contractor. Time and material contracts should be sparingly used but serve well in augment labor situations where the buyer has direct control and oversight of hours.

In the end, the agreements provide the necessary structure promoting a successful procurement management program.

Conclusion

Leveraging complex adaptive systems as the structural underpinning of complexity creates a framework for innovation that solves problems and increases value to the project. Layered on top of the complex adaptive systems framework is a system of agreements that frame the communications, information sharing, and collaboration as well as any other structures necessary for the management of the procurements in complex projects. Actors in the procurement process need adequate guidance to collaborate, share information, and communicate. In the Heathrow Terminal project, the British Airport Authority took on the role of systems integrator rather than allowing the prime contractor or lead supplier to perform this task. In doing so, a strategic supply network was created where the level of innovation had been considered low (Brady, 2011, p. 470). The system of complex adaptive framework, agreements, and the Project Management Institutes project procurement practices can provide the program management levels necessary to reduce cost overruns in complex projects.

References:

Brady, T. (2011). Creating and sustaining a supply network to deliver routine and complex one-off airport infrastructure projects. International Journal of Innovation & Technology Management, 8(3), 469-481.

Defense Systems Management College. (2008). Comparison of major contract types. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://www.dau.mil/sites/locations/dsmc/default.aspx.

Flemming, Q. (2003). Project procurement management: contracting, subcontracting, teaming. (1st e.d.). FMC Press. California.

Garret, G. (2010). World-class contracting (5th ed.). CCH, inc. USA. Isik, F. (2010). An entropy-based approach for measuring complexity in supply chains. International Journal Of Production Research, 48(12), 3681-3696.

Li, Z., Yanfei, X., & Chaosheng, C. (2009). Understanding the value of project management from a stakeholder's perspective: Case study of mega-project management. Project Management Journal, 40(1), 99-109. doi:10.1002/pmj.20099

Lind, D. (2012). Integrated project delivery for building new airport facilities. Journal Of Airport Management, 6(3), 207-216.

Project Management Institute. (2008). A Guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK Guide). (4th ed.). Newtown Square, PA: PMI.

Surana, A., Kumara, S., Greaves, M., & Raghavan, U. (2005). Supply-chain networks: a complex adaptive systems perspective. International Journal Of Production Research, 43(20), 4235-4265. doi:10.1080/00207540500142274

Yeow, J., & Edler, J. (2012). Innovation procurement as projects. Journal Of Public Procurement, 12(4), 472-504.

Leadership: Building Constituencies

Comment: This is the fourth post of the Leadership Process series. I began this series because I saw a lack of rigor and discipline to leadership. The purpose of these posts is to look at a process model used by leaders. 

Building Constituencies

A constituency is a collective name for stakeholders, principles, champions, and other contributors to the vision. The topic, building constituencies, perhaps makes the leader more of a politician than any other character type. The political style depends on the ground conditions.  Nonetheless, the process is relatively stable.  Often the constituency needs to be convinced or persuaded of the vision both in the beginning and as the leader builds a broader base of support. Thus, constituency building began before arriving at the point of growing a broader base. Let's back track a little first.

In the Beginning...

Putting together a constituency at the outset can be difficult task since the benefits are often obscure and long term. The nature of a vision is complex and can be incoherent during the early development. Thus, the need for leadership. The vision cannot be managed nor implemented by a single entity either. Hence, the need for a constituency. Any vision creates winners and losers. The constituencies are the winners in the vision but not to the full exclusion of the losers. They play a resistance role. The vision needs to be legitimized by key decision makers and vision champions who assert the vision is vital and necessary. In the end, the vision is presented as valid and desirable by the early constituency which are also known as principle stakeholders. 

Building a Broader Base

Broad support for a vision and/or change is frequently absent. The vision must be marketed and promoted in order to persuade the broader base who will benefit from the vision and/or change in some manner. The 'who' participates question focuses on various stakeholders who have the power to help or obstruct the policy. The 'what' question addresses the kind of participation being undertaken. The 'how' clarifies the qualitative aspect of participation. These stakeholders can be internal or external to the organization and can be of various roles to include:

• Information Sharers:  These stakeholders legitimize a vision by brokering information and facilitating communications. They utilize many channels and media. 
• Consultants: These stakeholders exchange views and gain feedback.  They typically will hold all hands meetings, round tables, and other forums for the critiquing of views. 
• Collaborators:  These stakeholders retain decision-making abilities while bringing in external actors to problem solve, design and evaluate, monitor, etc...
• Joint Decision-makers:  These stakeholders are collaborators who share decision-making authority. 
• Power Brokers:  These stakeholders transfer control over decisions, resources, and activities to other stakeholders and entities. The purpose of this is empowerment such that actors can act in their own interest and deliver higher quality deliverables. 

Think of the stakeholder roles as interconnected and building on each other, sharing information, promoting two way communication, and blending views, interest, and collaboration in order to advance the vision meaningfully. A single stakeholder may play several roles or at least change roles as the project progresses.

Participation: Costs and Benefits

Constituency building, by definition, is bringing in stakeholders in order to participate in vision legitimization. Participation options are expansive and based on the objectives established. The leader must manage the participation in order to avoid confusion and a cacophony of activity. There are limits and trade offs to participation. Some checklist questions on participation levels follow:

1. Will the benefits of participation outweight the costs?
2. Will the participation strengthen technical content, legitimacy, or ownership of the vision? 
3. Will including more participants contribute or dilute the vision's objectives and effects?
4. Is increasing participants necessary to adequately design or implement the objectives and goals?
5. Are there conflicts or potentials for conflict between the participants and expectations?
6. How much time will be required to incorporate participants and does that conflict with the schedules?

Increasing or decreasing participation creates a variety of issues. The key element of deciding if participation is necessary or not is the benefits over the cost.

Who should Participate?

Who should participate in the first place is a big question that requires careful consideration. A major concern is that a participant does not take over the vision with self-interest. Thus, the focus is limiting participation from this perspective. In a democratized culture, control over participation is slim as everyone should exercise a say. In this case, there will be competitive efforts and conflict. Leaders will need to manage the conflict. The greater effort is opening up the vision beyond the inner circle rather than limiting participation. Leaders will want to focus on participants who have the greatest stake in the vision.

A stakeholder register and analysis will aide in identifying the key actors.  Basic questions need to answered in selecting the key actors.

1. Who are the vision's winners and losers?
2. What does each actor offer for its interest?
3. Will the participant improve quality of vision formulation and performance?
4. Will the participant homogenize the group?
5. Will excluding or minimizing a participant create vision hardship?
6. Will the participant cost more than it contributes? 

Once again the key question is regarding cost and benefits, question 6.

Mechanisms

This brings us back to the stakeholder types mentioned earlier. Increasing participation reduces unilateral and autonomous decision authority but higher participation is not inherently better. Nonetheless, the mechanisms of participation reflect the stakeholder types.

• Information Sharing: This is foundational to participation.  Controlling information remains with the leaders or visionaries. The notion is that participation in the vision is transparent, responsive, and accountable.
• Consultative: Participants are invited to share views in specific venues. This must be a transparent and sincere attempt to listen to views or it will backfire.
• Collaboration: This is a effort of cooperation across organizational and external boundaries. Successful consultative efforts migrate into collaborative efforts as part of relationship building. 
• Joint Decision-making:  Collaboration dove tails often into joint decision making efforts. 
• Empowerment:  Leaders empower actors or stakeholders to pursue self-determined objectives and goals. This may include capability and capacity building in support of the vision and its objectives. 

In Conclusion

More participation means increasing democratization. Most large organizations are matrices of various sorts. Matrix orgaizations operate well under democracy and leaders are more akin to a politician. However, if the leadership remains hierarchial and in full control then participation is nullified. Leadership must assess and determine the degree to which control is relinquished and the participants are empowered. The process begins by sharing information, consulting with the participants, permitting collaboration to occur, the allowing the participants control over certain decisions which ultimately empowers the participants who then effect the the vision for the leader.

Comment: The workplace is always a learning crucible. Matrix organizations increased in occurence over the last 15 years in large numbers disrupting hierarchial regimes. Many professionals have been struggling in these new environments to find ways to manage and to lead. I have been highlighting  methods, tactics, techniques, and practices often used by democratic governments to advance policy reforms then applied them to the workplace. Employing these concepts could help gain improved results. Please stay tuned as the posts will continue to detail the leadership process model.

Leadership: Change Management

Comment: This is the third post of the Leadership Process series. I began this series because I saw a lack of rigor and discipline to leadership. The purpose of these posts is to look at a process model used by leaders. 

Change Management

After the vision and goals are set, the leader is now focused on putting the vision to task. There are two aspects of putting the vision to task; the introduction of the change caused by the vision and changes to the vision's goals as an ongoing process of incremental gains. The two aspects are considerably different.

Introduction of Change

Introducing change is a challenge and involves the art of persuasion. Often change at face value is rejected. Leaders must put together some sort of strategy to introduce change and the vision. This most often means that people must gain incremental buy off on the goals first before introducing the greater vision. This is the Secret of Socrates.

The process begins by assessing the environment. A leader will consider the level of tension or apprehension between the present and future states. The buyoff process involves knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation. Knowledge is cognitive and reasoned. Whereas, persuasion is affective or sentient, feeling. The objective is to use just the right amount of knowledge in order to persuade people.

Knowledge communicates complex information relationships that may reveal an epiphany or revelation. The leader may use elevator speech, myth busting, wake-up calls, and repeating visible messages in order to grab the attention of the audience. However, the facts are held to just enough. Next the leader will attempt to persuade by transforming the knowledge into actionable causes through emotional connections, personal touch, analoguous stories, a shoulder to cry on, addressing fears, building identity, shocking realizations, and expressing sincere thanks. Successful persuasion removes tension between present and future states as well as engenders a belief in the need and ability to change.

In practice, there are several steps and they can be thought of as building the foundations for a constituency. Leaders will:

1. Test the waters. Leaders will dabble goals, strategy, and visions being formulated in small trusted circles by throwing ideas on the table and observing reactions to them. Leaders may test the waters more formally by porting a proof of concept.
2. Plan strategy for change.
3. Build awareness of need for change, spark interest, knowledge and persuasion.
4. Gain feedback and listen
5. Take time to reflect and empathize; I feel your pain.
6. Identify principle actors:
• Innovators
• Early adopters
• Early Majority
• Local sponsors
• Guru review
• Corporate angel
7. Respect resistance

Introducing a vision is change and change must be persuaded more than educated. The strongest approach to change is to have the core group, a constituency, recognize the need and to take ownership of the vision.

Ongoing Change Management

At this point the vision has been adopted. Pursuit of the goals has been ongoing and the need to make course corrections or add in a major change is necessary. This aspect of managing change is more formal and rigorous. There are numerous methods for change management. We will skim the surface in this post and return this topic in the post 'Planning for Updates'. Nonetheless, change management is rooted in documentation, baselines, deliberate planning, risk assessments, and communication.

A good change management program involves an understanding of roles, responsibilities, and adherence to project evaluation success criteria. Change management is a management program that requires a formalized change management method with the leader involved. A three phased method applies well to this type of change management:

1. Preparing for change; this is be discussed in a later post, 'Planning for Updates'
2. Managing change; this is the change management program in which changes are vetted.
3. Reinforcing change; this is a leadership duty involving core principles such as commitment, motivation, consequences, etc... This is be discussed in a later post on 'Core Principles'.

Typically, managing changes are documented and reviewed by a convening body of some sort. The base constituency, usually stakeholders, is usually involved in the decision to accept a change as well. Affects or impacts on cost, scope, quality, and schedules are assessed. If the change is adopted then it is integrated into the schedule and work packages are assigned.

Overall, ongoing change management is an integrated process beyond simply approving changes.

Leadership: Goal Setting

Comment: This is the third post of the Leadership Process series. I began this series because I saw a lack of rigor and discipline to leadership. The purpose of these posts is to look at a process model used by leaders. 

Goal Setting

Perhaps one of the most often overlooked efforts in leadership is goal setting. Some people confuse goal setting with vision and objectives. Goals are benchmarks or significant achievements along the way used to assess progress towards the end state or objectives. Goals are usually the outcome or conclusion of a major effort or phase. Hence, the vision becomes a project and broken into major smaller but significant projects or phases, each a goal toward the overarching vision.

Leader should think of goal setting as performance management and having the characteristics of motivation, encouragement, rewards, and consequences. When applied correctly goal setting spurs people on to great accomplishments in projects.

Goals should be organized logically and prioritized. Leaders must consider the amount of effort and resources necessary to achieve the goals. Sometimes goals are unattainable for a variety of reasons. For example, the Navy had a vision for a vertical takeoff and landing stealth bomber, A12 Avenger. They set the goals and began development of the airframe. However, a critical goal relied on the technological achievement of certain material kinds and a projection was made that the technology would emerge. As time passed the material technology never emerged, the weight of the airframe increased significantly as a result, and the cost to drive the projected technology was unreasonable or unknown. Therefore, the vision was abandoned. 

There are types of goals; immediate, short term, and long term. Immediate goals look into the future for a very small period such as 1 to 4 weeks. Short term goals look into the future for a period extending from 2 months upto about a year out. Long term goals can be from 1 to 10 years into the future. However,  the temporal term can be replaced with milestones. This typically occurs when time is not a factor but performance is an essential factor. Thus, at the expense of time high quality, exact precision, or very accurate milestones are achieved.

F.R.A.M.E. 

Knowing what a goal is and how to discern the goal's term is important. Just as important is how to set the goal. The acronym F.R.A.M.E. can aid is understanding this process.

Find: Search your vision for logical break points or major achievements necessary for the vision to become a reality or put into effect. Identify possible strategies to reach each goal. Select the best ones.

Realistic: Goals must be realistic and achievable. Aim high but achievable.

Aim: Get focused. Outline specific plans to accomplish the strategies. Publish direction to follow and achieve the goals. An unwritten want is a wish, a dream to never happen. The day you put the plan in writing is the day it becomes a commitment.

Method:  Find methods or means of achieving results that fit the strategy.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help.  Work hard to realize the goals.

Evaluate: Results should be measurable and discernable.

S.M.A.R.T.

Another acronym, S.M.A.R.T.,  with a slightly different focus can also aid in goal setting practice.

Specific:  Goals should be specific enough that we know exactly for what we are striving towards.

Measurable: Goals are measurable. There should be an answer as to when the goal is attained.

Actionable: Goals must have activities that produce results.

Reviewed: Goals must be scrutinized and monitored with regular progress checks. Have an interested but disassociated party monitor and hold you to the goals.

Tangible: Goal results must be tangible, observable, or otherwise empirical.  Vague or ethereal results will be difficult to demonstrate successful achievement.

Performance Management

Performance management in foundational to leadership. Motivation and commitment drive towards achievement. Motivation is a nurturing activity of leaders that is coupled with rewards. Rewards are recieved for "doing something right" and should not be thought of in a negative manner of 'just rewards'. Rewards are recieved in a timely manner. Commitment creates accountability and is what sets the path to reach the goals. Inspiration plays a major role in spurring people to maximum performance. People need to feel like they are a part of something bigger than themself. Encouragement is the fuel that keeps the potential moving forward. Consequences are the result of positive or negative performance.   These qualities push to complete all of the steps in the Goal process.  Leaders must be flexible as small victories lead to hugh successes. Why goals fail:

1. The goal was not written down.
2. Rewards for achieving the goals were not thought through or considered.
3. The goal was unrealistic or not specific enough.
4. The goal is not really believable or little commitment exists.
5. Lack of stability as goals keep changing or switching goals with the weather. 
6. The person who set the goal has not told anyone else for added accountability, help and support.
7. The goal was not incorporated into a realistic plan that includes measurements, timelines and resources. 

However, the benefits of proper goal setting are immense:

1. Suffer less from stress and anxiety
2. Stronger focus and unity of effort.
3. Shows greater confidence.
4. Improves performance.
5. Followers are more content. 

Goal setting is a critical element of the leadership process following vision identification and precedes change management. Setting proper goals sets the stage for greater achievements and progress towards the vision. Leaders set sage goals.

Comment: During this post, we hit upon many things. Of these things were character qualities such as rewards, motivation, committment, etc... After I complete the process post I will begin looking at these qualities to some degree. At any rate, this completes the section on Goal Setting. The next topic is Change Management from a leadership perspective.

References:

Woolfe, L. (2002). Leadership secrets from the bible. MJF Books, New York.

Leadership: Problem Identification

Comment: This is the second post of the Leadership Process series. I began this series because I saw a lack of rigor and discipline to leadership. The deliverable is a vision statement. 

Leadership: Problem Identification

Discussion: Identification of a problem is not as easy as it sounds. Often the issues out in front or on the surface are only symptomatic of a deeper root cause. Moreover, the problems leaders address are different than problems the everyday person deals with. Leadership seeks to improve things by getting at root causes and adjust culture, direction, and other broad sweeping concerns. The problem identified is foundational to the vision formulated. Hence, the deliverable of problem identification is a vision that improves or corrects a problem condition.

There are methods and techniques for getting at the real problem in order to formulate the right vision. Please note the use of ‘real’ and ‘right’ terms. For leaders, a virtuous and realistic focus is an essential method and part of character that infuses into the vision in order to be appreciated by all. Returning to the methods and techniques for getting at the real problem there are several approaches to root cause analysis (RCA).

One must understand the difference between problems and symptoms. Problems originate out of underlying structural relationships among a system’s components. A system can be human, physical, or organizational from which the problems and symptoms emerge. A symptom is the outcome or effect of the problem and can be mistaken for the problem itself. One technique is the ‘Little Boy’ method who asked, ‘but why?’ to every answer. The ‘multiple why’ process can be used to unpeel the onion until the root cause is exposed. This approach is simple and effective for linear relationships that lead to a root cause.

Another RCA approach is to ask the 5W’s; What, Why, When, Where, and Who. This approach unpeels the onion in a different manner by looking for patterns in the causes; human, physical, or organizational. Often multiple interrelated causes are revealed. The recursive nature of these two approaches can be taken to the origin of the universe at the extreme. The leader must ask the ‘so what’ question and stop at a useful or purposeful point using good judgment and a little common sense.

Five Step Root Cause Analysis

The first two approaches were more or less shooting from the hip methods. A more formal approach is Five Step RCA. This approach considers the Customer or end user, Actors, Transformation processes, Worldviews, Owners or stakeholders, and Environmental constraints (CATWOE). More in depth questions are asked at each stage.

The root-cause identification process:

1. Define the surface issue or problem, the starting point. 
2. Collect Data 
3. Identify Possible Causal Factors. Some of the tooling to get at the causal factors includes:
   • Appreciation: Ask the ‘so what’
   • The Why’s: Ask why until you are at the root cause
   • Drill down: Breaking the big picture into manageable components.
   • Cause and effect diagramming: The classic TQM fishbone method.
4. Identify the Root Cause(s) 
5. Recommend and Implement Solutions. The solution is the vision the leader desires to pursue to resolve the identified root cause problem.

Problem identification hands off to vision formulation. A vision is the deliverable of the effort.

Vision Formulation is to Begin with the End in Mind

Vision is to be strategic and focuses diverse constituencies on a big picture. Vision is most often a departure from the status quo and may not even be readily apparent to most people until a leader reveals the vision. Ideally, that is a Ah Ha moment. In formulating vision one cannot easily take the current and extrapolate to the future. The future must be mapped back to the present in order to develop the roadmap forward. As Stephen Covey states this, "Begin with the end in mind."  

Beginning with the end in mind means that once the problem is defined one can generally make a judgment on what the situation should be. Hence, the differenital is the problem. The basic components of vision are:

• Intent: This is a sweeping statement of purpose that usually states the problem that will require some sort of action. For example, to restore market to normalcy.
• Objective: This is the goal or criteria of success usually stated in terms of actionable intent. For example, to achieve market normalcy ensuring diversified control of supply points.
• End State: This is the outcome of the objective and intent. For example, a market operating under fair and competitive market conditions.

A future model is the vision. Future modeling is siginificantly different in that it cannot be achieved most of the time by the natural course of action or current path. Future models require leadership to make the necessary adjustments in order to arrive at the future model. The idea is that leadership not only formulates the vision but also lays out the roadmap to achieve the vision. Often this is called Performance Management.  Moveover, leadership can be positive or it can be not so good in the visions sought. Leadership begins with problem identification then formulates a vision of how the conditions should be.

Comment: This concludes the problem identification post.  The next post will discuss goal setting or developing the roadmap.

Chronos' Anomaly

This post was inspired while I was driving along Sunday morning 21Oct12. I started school during the 1960s. We were living in Hawaii. My school room was open air on three sides sitting atop a bluff over looking the North Shore. I would sit in class looking down the beach watching the waves wash up underneath the palm trees. Despite the serene and picturesque views, I recall the Vietnam War, a War in Angola, and the Six Day War against Israel. I saw many images of drugged out people and my grandparents had to put sympathizer flags on their door to prevent civil rights rioters in Camden, New Jersey from destroying their home. At a young age, it seemed to me that war and violence was a way of life. The socialist were marching and rioting as well. Jane Fonda was pleading that if we only understood communism we would be on our knees praying for it before sitting in a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft battery sighting US war birds flying overhead in 1972.

Chronos' Anomaly

I walked out the door early this Sunday morning into a comfortably crisp temperature and brilliant blue sky. Dew on my pickup truck was glowing crimson as morning sun beams pierced the green canvas.  The birds sang out. I jumped in, put the windows down, and headed out for a coffee at the local coffee shop. With that nostalgic crack and a hiss, the AM radio station was playing songs from the 1960's. In a resounding snap, I was flashed back to the era of the music and driving an ole pickup coming up on a 1960's coffee house.

Pulling straight into a Mayberry styled street parking spot, I climbed out and slammed the door shut with a heavy weighted thud and hollow sound of a solid steel. The bell on the door jingled announcing my arrival. The shop's musty smell and aroma of fresh brewed coffee mixed in waves churned up by the ceiling fans. From a high shelf above the counter, a radio reverberated the canny sound of music and news throughout the shop. Swirls of dust spun in the beams of sun light flooding through blinds and store front glass. I sat upon an aluminum stool at a cheesy green Formica counter lined with an aluminum strip, ordered a coffee while pulling the stacked sections of a read newspaper towards me, the date was July 1969.

As I sipped on the coffee, the 1965 song Eve of Destruction drummed in, "The Eastern world, it is exploding; Violence flarin’, bullets loadin’..." The people next to me spun around and walked out. The song continued, "Yeah, my blood’s so mad feels like coagulatin’; I’m sitting here just contemplatin’; I can’t twist the truth, it knows no regulation; Handful of senators don’t pass legislation... When human respect is disintegratin’; This whole crazy world is just too frustratin’... Think of all the hate there is in Red China."

Fresh from church, a man and woman stepped up to the coffee bar. As I glanced over, the woman held her purse up in front of her bright yellow outfit, smiled, slowly nodding her head downward then back up. The radio hissed and cracked again as the 1967 song For What it is Worth hauntily echoed, "Paranoia strikes deep; Into your life it will creep; It starts when you're always afraid; You step out of line, the man come and take you away. It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound?; Everybody look what's going down."

Taking the last sips from my ceramic cup, I spun off the stool and headed out the door. The truck chugged as it turned over then sputtered to a smokey start. As I drove along the path that brought me here, the Sun was bearing down on the road ahead. Heat puddled and the horizon warbled in the rising heat. I reached down twisting the radio knob in a loud click and buzz the radio faded in. The tinny sound of Elvis let out the 1962 song Return to Sender.

The dusty road swirled behind me when in a flash the road became newly paved ahead of me. I arrived home and clicked the TV on. The new anchor was highlighting fighting in the Middle East, failure to pass budget legislation in Congress, and China holding the US debt over us. Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan was speaking out. The newspaper on my table talked of socialism and takeover of the economy by the government. For what it's worth, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances.” Perhaps the acts are in rerun or it just that history repeats itself.

History has turned the page, 
The miniskirt WAS the current thing, 
Teenybopper WAS our newborn king, 
And the beat goes on, the beat goes on.

Leadership Series

Leadership and Success

In the movie Office Space, the staff labored throughout the movie to produce the TPS report which was illustrative of the modern workplace having waste, mindless work, and uncaring leadership in organizations. The parody song My Cubical is also about the mindless unproductive outcomes of the modern workplace. Even the movie 9 to 5 highlighted an uncaring boss and employees who promote and line the pockets of those above them without reward. In short, Office Space, My Cubical, and 9 to 5 exemplify poor leadership with no sense of direction and the impact on people under them. The trumpet is sounding from many individuals that leadership is faltering, weak, or misguided. These individuals feel lost performing senseless or meaningless tasks in organizations that seemingly go no where. Even the American political situation has fallen victim to poor leadership. Decisions, programs, and reforms cost a lot of money but yield weak or poor results.

As I reviewed the body of works, I noted an apparent gap linking leadership to results and success. Perhaps those authors assumed success or that successful results were just a natural outcome of any leadership endeavor. To claim leadership, without objectives, goals, and an end-state is to maunder aimlessly in never ever land.  In my view, leadership without a focus on results and success is failed and empty leadership. Achieving unfavorable results or non-success is success in itself but only if the leader set out seeking specified results and success. The leader learned from that effort. There is nothing to be gained or learned from lack of focus other than to get focused.

Leadership is not rocket science or something a few people are born with. Leadership has three core competencies involve framing ideas, building social capital, and mobilizing resources that are learned abilities. Anyone can be a leader and with some training a more effective leader.

I am pulling posts together in this series to focus on leadership. I see these postings as applying to all levels of leadership. This is a summary of the Leadership and Success posts as well as some tooling and character postings.

Success:

Success is Not an Entitlement

Success is Getting Up More Than You Fall Down

They Told Me I Was Crazy

Law of Cause and Effect

Leadership:

Leadership and Success

The Leadership Process

Problem Identification

Goal Setting

Change Management

Building Constituencies

Organizational Design

Mobilizing Resources

Assessing Results

Planning for Updates

Bottom Up Leadership

Community Leadership

Character Qualities and Tooling:

Dale Carnegie: All the Principles in One Post 

Proving Yourself on Your New Job

Decision Making Overview Brief

Tattoo on Your Soul

Aliens Cause Global Warming

The Genius of CS Lewis

The Law of Cause and Effect

Comment: Many people move through life reacting to life rather than molding and shaping their life.  They cause the effects they experience without realizing that they have full control over the outcomes.  This essay by Brian Tracy hits home that everyone can control their destiny. 

The Law of Cause and Effect
By
Brian Tracy

Everything happens for a reason; for every effect there is a specific cause.

Aristotle asserted that we live in a world governed by law, not chance. He stated that everything happens for a reason, whether or not we know what it is. He said that every effect has a specific cause or causes. Every cause or action has an effect of some kind, whether we can see it and whether we like it or not.

This is the granddaddy law, the “iron law” of Western thought, of Western philosophy. The relentless search for truth, for the causal relationship among events, has led to the rise of the West in science, technology, medicine, philosophy, and even warfare for more than 2,000 years. Today this focus is driving the technological advances that are changing our world so dramatically.

This law says that achievement, wealth, happiness, prosperity, and business success are all the direct and indirect effects or results of specific causes and actions. This simply means that if you can be clear about the effect or result you want, you can probably achieve it. You can study others who have achieved the same goal, and by doing what they did, you can get the same result.

Success is Not an Accident

Success is not a miracle, nor is it a matter of luck. Everything happens for a reason, good or bad, positive or negative. When you are absolutely clear about what you want, you only need to copy others who have achieved it before you, and you will eventually get the same results that they have.

This is referred to in the Bible as the law of sowing and reaping, which says, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that also shall he reap.”

Sir Isaac Newton called it the third law of motion. He said, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

For you and me, the most important expression of this universal law is: “Thoughts are causes and conditions are effects.”

Put another way, “Thought is creative.” Your thoughts are the primary creative force in your life. You create your entire world by the way you think. All people and situations in your life have only the meaning you give them by the way you think about them. And when you change your thinking, you change your life, sometimes in seconds!

The most important principle of personal or business success is simply this: You become what you think about most of the time.

This is a great discovery upon which all religions, philosophies, metaphysics, schools of thought, and theories of psychology are based. This principle is as applicable to individuals as it is to groups of individual and organizations. Whatever you see or experience is the expression of the thinking of the people behind the phenomenon. Ralph Waldo Emerson recognized this when he wrote, ”Every great organization is merely the lengthened shadow of a single man.”

Your Choice, Your Life

You are always free to choose. In the long run, no one forces you to think, feel, or behave the way you do. Rather, you choose your emotions and behaviors by the way you choose to think of the world around you and about what is happening to you.

Dr. Martin Seligman, of the University of Pennsylvania, calls this way of reacting your “explanatory style”. It is the way you interpret or explain things to yourself. It is the critical determinant of everything you are and everything you become.

The good news is that your explanatory style is learned. This means that it can be unlearned as well. Your way of explaining things is under your control. You can interpret your experiences in such a way that you feel happy and optimistic rather than angry or frustrated. You can decide to react in such a way that your responses are constructive and effective. You are always free to choose.

Your thoughts and feelings are continually changing. They are quickly affected by the events around you. For example, when you receive a piece of good news, your attitude immediately brightens and you feel more positive towards everyone and everything. If, on the other hand, you unexpectedly receive some bad news, you can immediately become upset, angry, and short-tempered, even if the news is inaccurate or untrue. It is the way you interpret the event to yourself that determines how you react.

How You Can Apply this Law Immediately

1. Examine the most important parts of your life – your family, your health, your work, your financial situation – and observe the cause-effect relationship between what you think, say, feel, and do and the results you are getting.
2. Analyze how you really think about yourself in relationship to the kind if life you are living. Be absolutely honest. Consider how your thoughts in each area are causing, creating, and maintaining the situation around you. What changes could you make in your thinking to improve the quality of some part of your life?

References:

Misner, I and Morgan, D. (2004). Masters of success: proven techniques for achieving success in business and life. pp 47-49. Canada.

Proving Yourself on Your New Job

Commentary: Nearly everyone today is moving through new positions and companies on a rapid turnover rate since 2008. Most people have been in their jobs a long time before this high degree of turnover began and may have found it difficult to adjust in a new company. These post highlight the works of Michael Watkins. In his book he highlights the activities to improve your success rate at all levels of employment.   

Proving Yourself on Your New Job

The first 90 days: Critical success strategies for new leaders at all levels

Ch 01: Promote Yourself

Ch 02: Accelerate Your Learning

Ch 03: Match Strategy to Situation

Ch 04: Securing Early Wins

Ch 05: Negotiate Success

Ch 06: Achieve Alignment

Ch 07: Build Your Team

Ch 08: Create Coalitions

Ch 09: Keep Your Balance

Ch 10: Expedite Everyone

References: 

Watkins, M. (2003) The first 90 days: Critical success strategies for new leaders at all levels. Harvard Business School Press. Boston, Ma.

The Leadership Process

Comment:  Leadership is a deliberate and methodical process of rallying people to a cause they feel they have a stake in then skillfully achieving the end state. Leadership does not stop with the vision but requires one to become a leaders of leaders as strategy is put to task. The leadership process model is an overaching framework that leaders follow.

The Leadership Process

Many people think of leadership as a passionate charismatic person that others identify with and adoringly  follow sheepishly. They may feel a sense of safety, community, and camaraderie under a leader. However, leadership is much more than a father figure. Leadership results in durable and tangible impacts in the lives of people. Poor leadership damages lives and causes real injury to more than just those who follow them.  Understanding the core leadership processes shown in Figure 1, will aide in understanding how to make the choices and develop positive leadership results. Leadership centers on formulating vision and achieving goals by leading people to the end state.

Problem identification is at the root purpose of leadership. Leaders see something that is not correct, not just, or not right. They have an internal calling, moral compass, or moral imperative to take action in order to fix the problem arriving at some vision or end state. One of the challenges is correctly identifying the problem. Often people latch onto a symptom rather than the root cause. Leaders are good at determining root causes.

Once the problem is correctly identified, the leader sets goals or objectives then puts together some sort of strategy to achieve the desired end state. This initiates a strategy-to-task effort. A leader must ensure the top intent becomes bottom action and is thinking about this challenge at this point. The goal setting process is distinct from goals / changes or change management. 

Leaders must have a following. Therefore, they must build a constituency of stakeholders and followers. These people are the advocates or evangelists for the leaders vision. They have a stake in the outcome and believe in the objective. Often stakeholders bring resources to the effort. 

The vision or goal has some sort requirements that draw upon capacities and capabilities that are not  fully or currently available. Identification of the organizational design exposes requirements and determines the resources necessary to advance the vision towards the goals and end state.

Resources are mobilized to procure the shortfalls and build broader base support for the objectives. The outcome of mobilizing the resources creates the conditions and elements for the objective to be realized. Resources include manpower, money, materiels, and means or methods of advancing the goal. 

An assessment is made whether or not the end state has been achieved. If not, then an assessment is made to determine the shortfalls and adjustments that are necessary to move forward. 

Once the assessment shortfalls are determined, then there is a Plan for Updates that adjusts the goals and objectives for another go around until the endstate is achieved. 

The leadership process model applies well to most any vision or actions that a leader chooses to pursue. Vision that struggles to build a constituency usually falls by the way side. It is also possible for the leadership, vision, and constituency to pursue questionable and even unethical or immoral visions. The model degrades or falls apart under these conditions and those visions usually are imposed rather than develop.

Leadership Builds on Democratization

Current leadership models focus on democratization of design and the process. This is commonly thought of as reform in which the leader attracts a constituency because the constituency's have a stake in the outcome. While the leader brings focus, direction, and puts a framework to achieving the vision or end state the constituency mobilizes the resources and skills necessary to effect the vision. Understanding democratization processes and management of the stakeholders and other followers is essential to success. 

In the course of the leadership process, leaders may use Effects Based Outcomes, EBO, to put strategy-to-task ensuring top intent becomes bottom action. They may employ Measurable Organizational Value, MOV, to ensure that the actions they are taking result in measurable effects and contribute value to the organization.  

Overall, leadership is multi-faceted. Many folks fail to realize that there are leaders of followers, leaders of leaders, and leaders who lead leaders of leaders. Most of all, one individual may have to fill all three roles but most often only focuses on only one role.