Bill Veltrop:

Let's make you the CEO of a large corporation. What things would you do in the first 100 days that would trigger an irreversible shift toward growing that organization's intelligence?

Mike McMaster's response:

What would I do in my first 100 days:  

An answer to the question requires a background.  What someone does will be based on their principles, their models and their experience.  To summarise my principles:  

- Values are the core of identity and this is a key to success.  What I mean by that is values are present and operationally visible.  

- Human beings will achieve things when co-operating, when in dialogue, when in relationship, that is beyond anything we can imagine.  

- Human beings are self-generating and in an environment of strong principles  will generate rich patterns of behaviour that are unique in the world.  

- The intelligence of the organisation is always greater than the intelligence of any individual in it.  

My interest is in rethinking an industry and an organisation so that it is a unique contribution to the possibilities of society and its marketplaces.  

Then we need to consider what IÃd do immediately before those 100 days.  To the extent possible, IÃd engage in a great deal of dialogue, observation and thinking before the official 100 days began.  Anyone taking a job will have spent at least some time getting familiar with the situation, whether or not they think they can win and settling for themselves that they are a match for the challenge.  After this, and before arriving, IÃd meditate for some time on the whole.  This would involve quiet time to "be with" my impression and my thoughts and try to sense what was wanted by the market, the organisation and the people in it.  

Now, for the official 100 days.  Most of the following is in order of starting but not as linear nor distinct as indicated.  The activities would tend to overlap but would all be completed in 100 days.  

10 days, IÃd meet with various groups in the following way.  IÃd arrange three 3hour sessions per day with at least three different groups.  One would be the executive team.  One would be a cross-functional group of upper management.  One would be a group of young "high potential" managers, project leaders and professionals.  These groups would engage in the meetings for 3 hours each day and then conduct their regular work, by phone and computer with full secretarial support so that the thinking would be interspersed with regular work.  After a few days of this, IÃd ask each what they were doing, what they were focusing on during those work times - and probably get reports from their secretaries.  These meetings would be to inquire into what the most important issues of the organisation are and, once aligned, on how we were going to share that understanding broadly through the company.  With this group, IÃd also consider the existing organisational design and what could be done to increase connections, distribute accountability and share understanding.  

20 days, IÃd spend time in dialogue various parts of the company and various groups in rethinking the nature of the industry, the nature of the business and how it might be re-invented.  I would also use this time to visit major sites and share my core values and principles in open dialogue.  

10 days, I'd engage with groups representing the stakeholders in the two biggest, most complex issues facing the organisation in a structured process with software support (ISM) to align on the key factors of these issues and developing action plans.  

30 days, formulate a "core text" which states in powerful language what the core values, principles of organisation and strategic questions are.  This "core text" will emerge from dialogue as a mix of the way it has been consistent with the way it is intended to be.  The document will create a gap between what is and what might be and make clear that the gap is intended to be moved into and that there will always be a gap to be filled.  The "core text" will be published in many ways using many media so that it is accessible as an operational document to the whole organisation and available for comment and dialogue without being dependent on formal structures for that dialogue.  

30 days, empower and enable the first wave of ideas so they are implemented and push the organisation to a threshold where the ability of the existing structure cannot handle the energy and initiative of the individual employees and the various teams and departments.  This time will also involve creating practices and structures to support the development of organisational intelligence.  These will include infrastructure but me more focused on behaviour and simple, local efforts within some few strong practice areas.  

What would be "irreversible" about this?  The focus of attention on increasing intelligence of the whole and of everybody in it.  Operational issues would be left at the appropriate level for operational levels and the "higher" levels would become focused on the areas that justify their level.  If they are interferring in levels which are not appropriate to them or doing things that are other than enabling to those levels, these would be stopped immediately.  That is action that will be noticed and also indicates that a different design is in operation.  

The other major focus will be on understanding.  As understanding increases - which the source document and practices to go with it will accomplish - then intelligence will increase and, once begun, people will not let go.  

Finally, increased connections and distributed accountability will register changes that will both produce immediate releases of energy and announce that things are changing.

B. V.:

I really appreciated your touching on what you would do to prepare yourself for this CEO assignment before Day 1: The dialogue, observation and thinking; assuring yourself of goodness of fit; meditating on the whole. This feels solid, and would surely have a powerful influence on the who, what, how and when of your first 100 days.  

I'm curious about how you go about "meditating on the whole." For me, the predawn time is special for that type of reflection. I have a practice of showering, doing yoga stretches and then doing some select reading that serves as preparation for thinking on paper about challenges such as your "CEO assignment." Do you have specific habits or practices, or are you using the term "meditation" in its broader sense?  

I also appreciated your summarizing what you refer to as your principles up front. I found them powerful and revealing. I want to get clear on them before going into what you imagined doing in you first 100 days.  

Imagining you as new CEO, I read your "principles" as your commitment:  

o     To put explicit emphasis on making your values (I.e., what's really important to you.) present and operationally visible, and that you would be encouraging that for the organization as a whole.  

o     To create a context that supports members co-operating, being in dialogue and in relationship. When this is happening, you believe they will achieve things beyond what we can imagine.  

o     To create an environment of strong principles that supports the self-generating nature of individuals, so that they may generate rich patterns of behavior that are uniquely contributory in the world.  

o     To focus explicitly on organizational intelligence, (Which you assert to be greater than that of any individual) in a way that increases consciousness of it as a vital capability to be nurtured and developed.  

o     To have this CEO assignment be an opportunity to demonstrate the unique contribution that organizations can make to the possibilities of society and its marketplaces.  

I've taken some liberties with your wording. I do that to test my understanding of your principles.