The New How [Paperback]

The New How [Paperback]

by Nilofer Merchant
Released April 2014
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781491903438

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Book description

What people are saying about The New How

"How are you going to get rid of your Air Sandwich if you don't even know what it is? Provocative and practical at the same time."
--Seth Godin, author of Linchpin

"The New How is informative and provides exciting insights because the suggestions are practical and doable. Merchant gets the new reality--leadership fails not so much from flawed strategy as it does from failed processes of engagement from those responsible for implementing the strategy. In high-performing organizations, everyone acts like a leader, and they own the strategy and take actions to ensure its success. If you care about making a difference, read this book."
--Barry Posner, author of The Leadership Challenge

"Collaboration is a powerful, competitive weapon: this book shows you how to use it to win markets."
--Mark Interrante, VP Content Products, Yahoo, Inc.

"In a world in which the pace of change is ever quickening, collaboration, not control, is the route to a successful organization. This book tells you how to make your organization collaborative. And Nilofer Merchant's writing is a model of clarity."
--Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

"Want to transform your organization into a collaborative enterprise? Nilofer Merchant provides insightful and practical strategies in The New How."
--Padmasree Warrior, CTO, Cisco Systems, Inc.

"Merchant's book is a practical guide for the journey from strategy to implementation. The collaborative tools described here can help companies reach strategic success--and avoid pitfalls along the way."
--Tom Kelley, General Manager, IDEO, and author of Ten Faces of Innovation

Once in a generation, a book comes along that transforms the business landscape. For today's business leaders, The New How redefines the way companies create strategies and win new markets.

Management gurus have always said "people matter." But those same gurus still relegate strategy to an elite set of executives who focus on frameworks, long presentations, and hierarchical approaches. Business strategy typically has been planned by corporate chiefs in annual meetings, and then dictated to managers to carry out. The New How turns that notion on its head. After many years of working with Apple, Adobe, HP, and many other companies, Nilofer Merchant discovered the secret sauce: the best way to create a winning strategy is to include employees at all levels, helping to create strategy they not only believe in, but are also equipped to implement.

In The New How, Nilofer shows today's corporate directors, executives, and managers how they can transform their traditional, top-down approach to strategy planning and execution into collaborative "stratecution" that has proven to be significantly more effective.

  • Enhance performance and outcomes by deflating the "air sandwich" between executives in the boardroom and employees
  • Recognize that strategy and execution are thoroughly intertwined
  • Understand how successful strategy is founded in effective idea selection-a pile of good ideas doesn't necessarily build good strategy
  • Create company strategy and link it to targeted execution, using the practical models and techniques provided

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Table of contents

  1. Praise for The New How
  2. Dedication
  3. Preface
  4. Introduction: Why Strategies Fail
    1. Before We Fix It, Let’s Understand Why It Fails
    2. Different Types of Strategy Require Different Approaches
    3. The “How” Matters
    4. The Air Sandwich
    5. The New How: Let ‘Em Think
    6. Surely, We Can Do This Important Thing Better
  5. 1. System Overload
    1. Blaming People Only Works for So Long
    2. The Three Systemic Patterns
      1. “Tunnel Vision”
      2. “Ahead of Yourself”
      3. “It’s Not My Job”
    3. The Telltale Signs
    4. Strategy in the Organizational System
      1. Individual Behaviors and Attitudes in Collaborative Strategy
      2. Process for Collaborative Strategy
      3. Organizational Principles for Collaborative Strategy
    5. Naming the Systemic Issues Lets Us Fix Them
  6. I. “Being” Collaborators
    1. 2. Each of Us
      1. When Individuals Step Up Their Game, the Overall Game Gets Better
      2. Perspective Change
      3. Beyond the Title
      4. Each of Us: Co-Creator
      5. Five Practices for Busting Out
        1. Call Out
        2. Be Fully Present
        3. Understand the Why
        4. Live in a State of Discovery
        5. Embrace Contradiction
      6. Sitting Forward, Going Forward
    2. 3. As We Lead
      1. Enabling Organizational Velocity
      2. The End of the Era of the Chief of Answers
      3. The Goal Is Repeated Wins
      4. Transitioning to the Un-Hero
      5. The Seven Responsibilities
        1. 1. Manage Cadence
        2. 2. Generate Ideas
        3. 3. Nurture Safe Culture
        4. 4. Develop Connections
        5. 5. Satisfice
        6. 6. Engage Issues
        7. 7. Trace Topography
      6. Be a Collaborative Leader
  7. II. The QuEST Process for Collaborative Strategy
    1. 4. Phase I: Question
      1. Know What We Need to Ask and Answer
      2. How It All Works
        1. The Question Phase: How It Fits
        2. Working Parts of the Question Phase
        3. Step 1: Identifying the Problem Scope
          1. Problem scope: Roles and responsibilities
        4. Step 2: Fact Gathering
          1. Fact gathering activities
            1. ELEPHANT HUNTING.
            2. INTERVIEWING: MINING WISDOM.
            3. RESEARCHING: GATHERING DATA YOU CAN REFERENCE.
          2. Fact gathering: Roles and responsibilities
        5. Step 3: Sharing the Findings
          1. Sharing the findings: Roles and responsibilities
      3. Sequences of the Question Phase
      4. The Goal: Getting Shared Understanding
    2. 5. Phase II: Envision
      1. Create Options That Matter and Know Why They Matter
      2. How to Do It
        1. Step 1: Option Development
          1. Leading the option development step
        2. Step 2: Criteria Tracking
          1. Start with an open question
          2. Lead the criteria tracking step
      3. Envision Roles and Responsibilities
      4. The Goal: Achieving Viable Options That People Believe In
    3. 6. Phase III: Select
      1. Killing Off Bad Ideas So Good Ideas Can Thrive
      2. Selecting “The One”
      3. MurderBoarding: What Is It?
      4. Steps to MurderBoarding
        1. Step 1: Decide What Matters
        2. Step 2: Sort
        3. Step 3: Test
          1. Step 3a: Reshape ideas
        4. Step 4: Choose
      5. Select Roles and Responsibilities
      6. Sequences of Select
      7. The Goal: Selecting a Winning Strategy
      8. Moving On
    4. 7. Phase IV: Take
      1. Eliminate Gaps by Owning Outcome
      2. The Goal: Taking Ownership
        1. Why Take Is Important
        2. How to Do It
          1. Identify who/what/interdependencies
          2. Take roles and responsibilities
        3. The Artifacts of the Take Phase
        4. Managing Temptations Overall
      3. Wrapping Up
  8. III. Foundations to Successful Collaborative Organizations
    1. 8. Collaborating to Win
      1. What Makes It Work Inside the Corporation Context
        1. First Principles of the New How
          1. Distribute decision making
          2. Demand good followership
            1. EMBRACE TENSION
            2. VALUE QUESTIONS
            3. BE THINKING PARTNERS
            4. ABIDE BY THE RESULT
          3. Reward co-ownership
          4. Set clear goals and then improvise
          5. Be students of the game
            1. DON’T DWELL ON THE PAST
            2. CREATE EXPERIMENTS
            3. INVOLVE OTHERS
        2. The Payoff
        3. Organizations That Win Form Winning Cultures
    2. Epilogue: It’s What We Make of It
    3. Acknowledgments
    4. A. Tools
      1. Tips for Interviewing
        1. Intention
        2. Approach
      2. Building a Findings Framework
        1. Intention
        2. Approach
      3. Speaking Truth with Clarity and Power
        1. Intention
        2. Approach
      4. Tips for Criteria Development
        1. Intention
        2. Approach
          1. Exercise #1: Imagining the future
          2. Exercise #2: Developing competencies
          3. Exercise #3: Exploring new models
      5. Generating Options
        1. Intention
        2. Approach
      6. Burning the Boat
        1. Intention
        2. Approach
    5. B. Resources
      1. Strategy
      2. Collaboration Trends and Tools
      3. Leadership
      4. Tough Conversations
      5. Creativity
      6. Facilitation
      7. Decision Making
      8. Change Management
      9. Listening
    6. Notes
  9. Index
  10. About the Author
  11. Colophon
  12. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: The New How [Paperback]
  • Author(s): Nilofer Merchant
  • Release date: April 2014
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781491903438