Many of us working in Corporate America know all too well that management hops on and off buzz word bandwagons faster than Miami Heat fans after LeBron took his talents back to Cleveland. Now I usually don’t get caught up with these buzz words/motivational slogans as they all pretty much preach the same thing lately (“get things done and make sure you’re engaged and smile while doing it”) but one in particular caught my attention recently. I had the privilege of sitting in to a Business Area dashboard review and a particularly alarming trend had appeared on a program. It was readily apparent to the Business Unit VP that this trend had been present for some time and was the result of poor teamwork that would result late contractual deliveries. The VP went into the typical feedback/follow-up actions but followed it up with some great knowledge on leadership when she exclaimed “You can pull a rope anywhere you want to but try pushing it and you’ll get nowhere.” She further expanded by going into how there were two types of leadership styles: push (directives, power-based approaches, compensation leverage, performance reviews) and pull (values, appreciation, mentoring, example-based). Push leaders try to make people do things. It is very difficult to have a amicable work relationship when you are forced to do something and manage by instilling fear and repercussion. Pulls leaders lead in a manner that people choose to act.  They manage their team by creating a desire to work, learn, and grow together. Either way you end up in the same place. The latter however creates a path of least resistance to success. She later followed up the meeting by sending out the link to the article. The article can be summarized in the following bullet points:

• Pull leaders don’t give orders; they create social systems that inspire people to join
• Pull leaders take responsibility for the success of their organization and their people
• Pull leaders work to become attractive to others
• Pull leaders align and inspire with values
• Pull leaders are stewards of their organizations and employees
• Pull leaders architect their social and organizational space
• Pull leadership isn’t easy

What do you think of each style? Is it more appropriate to use one style over the other? Should you be flexible and use both?

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4339.html

http://zengerfolkman.com/10-ways-to-pull-rather-than-push-for-results/

As an employee of a fellow defense contractor, my ears perked up a little more than usual when Professor Cook mentioned one our competitors in class, Lockheed Martin.  And the story that followed was even  more compelling. It took Lockheed Martin 143 days to create a world class fighter jet in 1943…and no that is not a typo. The seemingly  “impossible” was completed and this was before we made our most dramatic  advances in technology and even before the study of project management caught on in academic fields. So how was the “impossible” made “possible”? It was accomplished through the implementation of a Skunk Works team which still operates today and continues to produce revolutionary technology in the defense industry.

So what is a Skunk Works team? A Skunk Works team is a small team of highly motivated and capable individuals that is taken out of its traditional working environment and given almost endless freedom from their corporation’s standard, procedures, rules, and regulations to create cutting-edge products or services on limited funding and under strict timelines. Kelly Johnson, the chief engineer at LM and mastermind of the Skunk Works project management technique, created a set of 14 rules that should be used in implementing Skunk Works. The 14 rules can be read in link 2.  Although the rules outlined by Johnson were for a government/defense environment, the basic concepts can be boiled down to three concepts: “First, it’s more important to listen than to talk; second, even a timely wrong decision is better than no decision; and third, don’t halfheartedly wound problems–kill them dead (2).”  These rules emphasize the importance of leadership and decision making for effective Project Managers. Without these qualities,  the team will not work optimally which will impact cost, schedule, and performance which cannot be sacrificed in critical R&D projects.

The ideas have recently drifted outside of R&D projects.  One example is Malaysia Airlines, which created “laboratories”to bring together teams to tackle specific issues such as boosting sales, increasing customer satisfaction, and reducing overhead costs among other. The group stays committed on its task for an extended time ( ~month), until it has fulfilled its agreed-upon “exit criteria”. The idea has gained so much traction at the company that the airline’s CEO believe working on such a team, “is not a job; it’s a calling”.  Another uproot of Skunk Works is the creation of  creative workspaces that boast bright colors, open layouts, and more flexible workplace regulations that foster the sharing of ideas and risk-taking. Many of the most successful companies in the world (Google, Apple, Amazon,etc) have mastered the creative workspace and continue attract the brightest talents and push the limits in their respective industries.

1-  http://www.economist.com/node/11993055

2- http://www.fastcompany.com/3001702/rules-successful-skunk-works-projects

3- http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/skunkworks