Story:
Hacking the Paradigm at Its Roots

I currently teach a course in Managing Organizations and People to students in the MBA Program at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. This current challenge, creating leaders everywhere is one I find most exciting and ripe for real innovation. When I first found out about the challenge I was in preparation for my next class starting in May of this year. I have found great value in having students deliver an oral presentation to their classmates as a final exercise for this class and decided that the "leaders everywhere challenge" was perfect for this purpose.

In groups of three or four students developed an oral/visual presentation for their classmates which they delivered in class the second week of June this year.As usual around finals I knew the students were pressed for time, especially time to create both a group and visual presentation. And as usual they delighted me with their productions. Here are three of their Hacks in no particular order.

RAMP: Radical Approach to Managing People, a one year graduate level educational experience teaching Radical Management Practices, delivered through partnerships with corporate sponsors and participating universities.

• Training in the art of “leading without power.”
• Hold leaders responsible for increasing the stock of “leadership capital” within their organizations.

The Lateral Performance Review: Replace or supplement the traditional manager-to-direct-report performance review by having employees offer performance reviews on their peers in dialogue with managers. Include facilitated follow up conversations to resolve any issues that may involve difficult or challenging conversations. 

Create More Opportunites to Lead Everywhere

1.Break big units into smaller units, thereby creating more opportunities for individuals to become full-fledged business leaders

2.Systematically de-emphasize the formal hierarchy in favor of more fluid, project-based structures

3.Work to legitimize the notion of “bottom-up” leadership through communication and recognition systems