Book Review - Green IT: Reduce Your Information System's Environmental Impact While Adding to the Bottom Line - Peter Ellis

Velte, T. J., Velte, A. T., and Elsenpeter, R. (2008). Green IT: Reduce Your Information System's Environmental Impact While Adding to the Bottom Line. McGraw-Hill. 308pgs. $19.79. (ISBN-10: 0071599231).

With sustainability initiatives and environmental concerns about the impacts of IT on the rise, we have seen a healthy explosion in the literature surrounding the need for businesses to become more sustainable, “green up” their IT operations, and, in general, adopt a more holistic view towards making operations less harmful to the environment. Green IT: Reduce Your Information System’s Environmental Impact While Adding to the Bottom Line acts as a coherent survey of the tactics available to help in this effort, focusing on not just the measures that contribute to increased efficiency, but a review of relevant policy, case studies, and a brief overview of how to begin the change process required to have green IT become an effective engine within an organization.

The book begins with an overview of the field of green IT, discussing some of the common considerations and tactics used when creating green IT initiatives. A brief teaser of concerns about IT that frequently lead to the start of green IT programs flows into an overview of relevant policies and initiatives on a country-by-country basis. These two chapters give a good framework for the need for green IT in the face of increasing regulation and concern.

Over the next several chapters, insights are offered into how an organization actually makes changes to its IT infrastructure to increase efficiency and lower costs. Topics include power usage, cooling, paper use, and hardware purchases. Many of these tips are quite valuable, though frequently can be found elsewhere (there are a handful that I was unaware of before reading the book). Each chapter on a particular type of improvement (reduced paper usage, for instance) suggests a variety of potential considerations, including the amount saved by taking a particular route, the types of calculations that will be involved in determining how to best improve a process, overhead costs, and potential political considerations.

Following the chapters focusing on how to improve infrastructure are two chapters of case studies, one chapter focusing on technology businesses and the next focusing on other organizations that have made strides towards greening their operations. These case studies look at the goals of each organization as well as the measures that they have implemented to become more sustainable.

The last section of the book is split into discussions of data center design, virtualization, how to begin the process of greening an IT organization, and, in the final chapter, how to keep sustainability efforts alive. The most valuable chapters in this section are, from a process standpoint, the final two – many of the points in the first two chapters were alluded to in earlier chapters (though they do give a more in-depth explanation of both topics). These final chapters focus on laying the foundation for a baseline comparison of operations so that change can be measured and tracked, determining tools, processes, and strategies that will need to be implemented to make green IT successful, and how to find resources to assist in the process.

This work takes an unabashedly positive outlook on the topic of green IT adoption; it is abundantly clear as one reads through the content that the authors are very much pro-green IT, almost to a fault. While this is not necessarily a bad trait, it certainly colors the text somewhat. The main issue is that it ignores the potential downfalls of implementing green IT – not all measures are correct for every company, and this book tends towards a one-size-fits-all picture (particularly when discussing virtualization).

Another major issue I had with the book was its inconsistent calculations, which throw some of the math presented throughout the book into question. In at least one instance, manually calculating the numbers yielded a significantly different result -- half of what the authors cited as a potential savings. These errors, combined with fairly inconsistent explanations of how they arrived at certain figures, call into question a good number of the book’s claims. While they are fairly careful to cite some data sources, they only haphazardly documented them – a broader effort to show where numbers, estimates, and figures came from would have vastly improved my confidence in the author’s message. A lack of works cited lists with the book itself makes it hard to track down and verify sources. In general, a feeling that the book is not well-edited drags down the quality of the material.

Overall, the content of the book serves as a good primer to those who are unaware of the process of adopting green IT. Its policy overview and specific breakdowns of each potential area of improvement provide useful insight into just how much needs to be considered when engaging in green IT planning. However, this book should be read less with an eye towards its calculations and justifications than towards gleaning the essential tools needed for a specific organization to shift towards green IT. The justifications will undoubtedly change; no one green IT effort is exactly the same as the others. The tools and tactics, however, remain fixed.

Textbook Case of Good Work - The Seattle Times - Jerry Large

Kevin Desouza doesn't like waste. I sought him out because I'd read he was getting some of his students to write their own textbook, but that's just part of the story....[LINK]

A Wiki Approach to Writing and Publishing Free Textbooks - WorldChanging Seattle

A nice article on efforts to create a free textbook on Change Management appeared on the WorldChanging Seattle website.

Tulinsky, J. “A Wiki Approach to Writing and Publishing Free Textbooks,” WorldChanging Seattle, January 7, 2009, Available Online at: http://www.worldchanging.com/local/seattle/archives/009273.html

To read about the project, please see - Ideas4Change Blog [LINK].
To learn more about the Global Text Project [LINK]

Term Papers into Textbooks: iNews

An interesting article that describes the work being done by graduate students at the Information School, University of Washington as part of the Global Text Project appeared in the fall edition of iNews

To read the entire issue -http://www.ischool.washington.edu/events/newsletter.aspx

Change the Way You Lead Change: Leadership Strategies That Really Work - Book Review - Jared Cheng

Change the Way You Lead Change: Leadership Strategies That Really Work. David M. Herold and Donald B. Fedor. Stanford University Press, 2008. 176 pp. $25.00. (ISBN: 0-804-75875-1)

Leaders of change bring change using the following principles: promoting advantageous visions, offering clear communication to gain people's trust, selecting suitable individuals to empower, creating a short term win, etc. However, does following these principles lead to an automatic successful organizational change? Simply put, the answer is no. According to research and major trade publications, about 80 percent of all change initiatives end in failure. In addition to this, they state that 31 percent of CEOs removed by their boards were removed due to mismanaged change initiatives. Why is this happening? David M. Herold and Donald B. Fedor coauthored a book, "Change the way you lead change", in response to this question. This book takes readers to explore the "blind spots" that leaders of change often miss while making decisions.

Both David Herold and Donald Fedor are professors at the College of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology, and have a great amount of experience in corporate consulting. In preparation for the book, they “have examined more than 300 organizational changes and over 8,000 individuals who have lived through them” (cover), identified the key factors leading to failure by asking executives recall past change initiative failures, formulated a change model, and validated it against several real case studies. The book, presented by credible authors, is a reliable source for researchers, students, and leaders of change who would like to learn more about change management.

Herold and Fedor challenged the traditional sequence of a change project: “Perceived strategic or business imperatives”
“What do we think needs changing?” (WHAT)
“How should we proceed?” (HOW)
“Implementation” (18)
Personal interpretations, such as leaders’ personal theories, ego, personal agendas, motives, and personality, influence “perceived strategic or business imperatives” and what needs changing. Projects for change that follow this typical sequence usually fail or do not meet expectations because 1) problems are not properly addressed by the proposed change, 2) leaders are inadequate, 3) followers poorly adapt to the change, 4) internal and external events are not carefully considered, and 5) flaws exist in the implementation of the change process (18 – 19). Based on the traditional sequence, the authors add newly introduced components: “who will lead”, “who is expected to follow”, “internal context”, and “external context”. Thorough considerations of these four components determines HOW; HOW leads to three different outcomes: “implementation”, “[altering] elements of the situation” (reconsidering who is involved in a change project), or “[reconsidering] the change” (reconsidering the contexts) (20). This change framework, which takes various components into account to model the complexity of change situations, gives me a different mental image about leading organizational change. Each component of the framework is addressed in detail in the later chapters.

There is a misconception in change management that success or failure is determined by how well the organization does instead of what the organization is trying to do. It is believed by most of organizations that their solutions that address a change imperative are appropriate. However, this is not the case. Herold and Fedor believe that a treatment that addresses a change imperative is just a choice; it may not be optimal and often reflects a leader’s “ego”, “motive”, as well as “personal biases, predispositions, and even deeply rooted and sometimes unconscious processes” (32). Moreover, there’s no corresponding solution that addresses a particular change imperative; for example, restructuring is not the only solution to speed up decision making process. In order to find the best and realistic solution, leaders should take a wide assessment of the change situation and consider the meaning and impact of change to all the subunits (42).

I always thought that leaders influenced followers mainly relied on their positional power and charisma. In chapter 4, Herold and Fedor identified several “reservoirs of influence” that leaders of change can draw on: positional (compliance), relational or personal (personal credibility and change savvy), and impersonal (charisma and reputation) (49). Each of the sources of influence has advantages and disadvantages; leaders of change need to know where their influences are coming from and what situation is most appropriate for using a particular influence reservoir (68).

The authors emphasize change-savvy leadership style, which involves the following:
1. Careful entry into the new setting
2. Listening to and learning from those who have been there longer (respecting the history and culture)
3. Engaging in fact finding and joint problem solving
4. Carefully (rather than rashly) diagnosing the situation
5. Being enthusiastic, genuine, and sincere about the circumstances surrounding the change
6. Obtaining buy-in for what needs fixing
7. Developing a credible plan for making that fix (47 – 48)
Change-savvy leadership can help a leader to cultivate personal credibility and reputation (49). Moreover, “possessing strong interpersonal credibility and the display of change savvy are the most potent and enduring buckets of goodwill” (50), which is the key that “allows leaders to convince followers” (46) to support a change.

Case studies introduced in chapter 5 show some interesting patterns. Outsiders that companies bring in to lead change often encounter doubt of their abilities and resistance from the existing organizational cultures. If the leader has a reputation or the charisma, “she is likely to get a chance to prove it. If quick success follow … relationships may be established as follower begin to trust the leader … and the exercise of positional power will be accepted on the basis of improvements in people’s prospects and outcomes” (61). On the other hand,
“if a new leader lacks reputation, charisma, or both, followers expect him or her to first get the lay of the land … If this approach yields improvements in the organization’s prospects, theses leaders will quickly enjoy a filling of their ‘change savvy’ and ‘personal credibility’ reservoirs, which will make further changes much easier.”(61)
The insiders as change leaders usually possess personal credibility; however, successful change leaders “did it mostly through the display of change savvy” (64). Another implication drawn from the case studies is that change initiatives usually end up problematic if leaders solely rely on exercising positional power and fail to establish trusting relationships with followers.

Herold and Fedor also analyzed the “who” component of the framework from the followers’ perspective. The idea behind chapter 6 is about motivation. The authors believe that not all people resist change; it is how much effort that one decides to make. When people face a chance situation, they usually ask themselves: “can I do it if I try?”, “What will happen if I succeed (or fail)?”, and “How much do I value such consequences?” (73) The answers to these three questions determine the level of effort one would make on behalf of change. Factors that influence the answers to these questions are “follower characteristics, personality, beliefs”, “leader behavior and characteristics”, and “contextual influences”; while the former factor has strong influences over the first and the third questions, the latter two factors (leaders and organizations) have a strong effect on the middle components (74). About the follower characteristics, research shows that changes cause the least impact to people who are emotionally stable and conscientious, if appropriate support from leaders is given (78). Knowing how these factors interact with the components that motivate employees, leaders thus can think about what they or the organization could do to bring the best out of individuals, as well as select or train the right people that will better help them to deal with change situations (84).

People’s capacity for change can be represented by a learning curve. Various factors, such as “skills”, “the amount of time and effort (motivation) devoted to practice”, “assistance or support provided by others” (88), etc influence the slope of the learning curve. When change is introduced, the learning curve shifts downwards; the actual performance goes below the pre-change baseline. The actual performance then goes up to baseline and beyond as time proceeds.
The authors suggested ways to accelerate the performance as they stated, “excellent training and good change management practice will mitigate the depth and duration of the performance dip because they begin to address a lot of the issues we have identified. Having skilled people, or people possessing some of the personal characteristics … will speed up adaption” (90). In order to track the degree to which adaption is taking place, the authors suggested the use of metrics, so that leaders can rely on it to make a realistic projections of performance trajectory (98).

In chapter 8, the authors focus on the internal and external contexts in which the change and its participants are embedded (100). Factors existing in either internal or external environments play a role that would either enhance or detract change effort. Major factors existing in the external environment are “labor markets”, “legal and regulatory factors”, “economic factors”, “affiliated organizations”, “technology environment”, “demographics”, and “regional and national cultures” (102 – 103). Change leaders can perform an environmental scan analysis and then use the result to modify their decisions on change (104). In the internal environment, “resources” (104), organizational culture” (105), and “culture turbulence” (108) are the three major factors that shape change events. To address culture turbulence in an ever-changing organizational culture, the authors believe that change leaders should examine a portfolio of changes, so that “they can space changes better; they can rearrange their sequence; they can eliminate less essential ones; they can improve change support or leadership so that earlier changes take hold more quickly, allowing for subsequent change to be considered” (111).

In chapter 9 and 10, Herold and Fedor revisit their change framework, put the WHAT, WHOs and CONTEXTs together to derive HOW (how should we proceed?), and use real-world stories to support their idea that successful leaders have thoroughly taken all components of the framework into consideration in decision making. Each component (WHAT, WHOs, and CONTEXTs) is treated independently, allowing leaders explore unforeseen events and search for other alternatives while diagnosing a change situation to come up with a tailored solution.

I really enjoyed reading this book; it not only complements my study in change management, but also enhances my decision-making skills. Herold and Fedor introduced a change framework and thoroughly explained why most businesses initiatives failed because leaders ignored the invisible factors that could help better shape their change decisions. Another realization I made after reading the book is that being a change leader is about getting your hands dirty! A change leader really has to be out there to determine and analyze various factors to come up with a solution tailored for a specific change situation; if two companies share a similar business initiative, one’s successful change plan does not necessarily mean it will be suitable for the other with its given context and people. This change framework serves as a realistic guide that helps leaders to comprehend the full situation and make the appropriate decisions.

The Wisdom of Crowds - Book Review - Al Youngblood

The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations. James Surowieki. New York: NY: Random House, 2005. 306 pp. $14.00. (ISBN-13: 978-0385721707)

Introduction

At the heart of this compelling book is the premise that groups of people are capable of making decisions which are superior to those made by an individual. Groups are found in many types of forms, from mobs of people baiting a woman to jump from a Seattle bridge (p.256), to crowds walking in coordination with one another in a busy atrium, to more sophisticated structures like corporations or governments. Through a variety of montages, news clippings, historical accounts, and the voices of social psychology, The Wisdom of Crowds defines the basis of what constitutes a wise crowd and how that crowd can be harnessed.

It is worth noting that The Wisdom of Crowds is not “meant as a defense of laypeople versus experts,” and instead should be seen as making the case for a diversity of opinions, both expert and lay, that together they can produce a collective solution that is remarkable (p.277).

Types of Problems Crowds Can Solve

Crowds are not boundless in their potential to solve all types of problems. Rather, crowds are more apt to capture solutions for problems where perspectives can shift readily and where there is little available information to help solve these problems.

First, cognition problems are definite in form and usually have defined solutions. In the start of the book, Surowieki describes how a group of people at a county fair were able to accurately guess the weight of an ox when their answers were averaged. For this example, the perceived weight and carcass of the ox were readily known. Markets fit well into the class of cognition. Stocks on an exchange are ideally set to the value which the market has set based upon its available knowledge. It is these agreed-upon “variables” which allow a consistent solution to the equation.

Second, coordination problems involve the position of people in relation to one another, such as in traffic flows, crowded markets, or train schedules. Key to the coordination problem is that each individual makes choices about where to go next based on information at hand. Self-autonomous decision making happens with the guidance of “landmarks” that give some instruction. Culturally, landmarks appear as conventions that no one questions, but that give information to the uninitiated. For example, sitting at a restaurant and being served might seem like an obvious action, but in reality it is a convention of social commerce.

Potentially, one could imagine a large brain that would know the position and movement of all actors and with certitude describe a different state of the system—much as would a central, planned economy. However, the cost and logistical difficulties inherent to such a system make it more of a thought experiment, rather than a viable outcome.

Third, cooperation problems involve a measure of trust in shared action and are the most difficult problems to solve. People should not trust one another, but they often do. Cooperation hinges upon the notion that people want to believe that there is a relationship between accomplishment and reward. Surowieki believes that societies can only operate if people cooperate, often with their own self-interest in mind, and make sure that the “rules of the game” (p.118) are followed. For example, in protection of the transactional system of trade, people will sometimes punish and reward behaviors that are aligned with the system, so-called “prosocial behavior.”

Capitalism is one type of transactional based system which mediates cooperation problems by playing into people’s notions of games and exchange (p.118). Capitalism is imbued with an impersonal mode of interaction, which Karl Marx termed “money nexus.” According to Surowieki, capitalism gained a sense of historicity as the sum of transactions created accumulated wealth and, in turn, a greater sense of purpose. In that regard, capitalism broke the traditional kinship relationships that hinged on lineage and common background.

Cooperation problems are solved by people performing irrational acts (behaviors that are not necessarily in their self-interest) such that in the cooperation of the actor, the structure from which arises the interaction is upheld. For example, it is in everyone’s self interest to cheat on taxes. However, year after year the federal budget still maintains a healthy stock of tax impounds.

In order to explain this behavior, Surowieki describes three cornerstone beliefs that make cooperation possible in the case of political governance. First, people have to trust that there are some good people who will cooperate. Second, they have to trust that the collective political body will perform actions that benefit everyone. Third, the political body must be able to punish those who have done wrong and protect the innocent.

Attributes of a Wise Crowd

Individuals within groups tend to fall into two camps, one that leads to imitation and another that makes decisions in a “herding” fashion (p.46). Imitation, according to Surowieki, is related to how group members view one another and is a rational response to our own cognitive limits. Pattern recognition plays a part in making sense of behavior. Sometimes, imitation can lead to others giving into a pattern and lead to “cascading” behavior (p.53), which usually occurs in minor decisions (p.63). Moreover, people tend to over-emphasize their ability to resolve easier problems than harder ones, and they tend to be overconfident. They overestimate their ability, knowledge, and decision making prowess.

More abstractly, the information cascade can be described in terms of systems dynamics, in which actors create will actions that cause signals to be given to others who have not yet made their decisions. When people follow the information leader simply because they were there first, this information becomes entrenched and “locked in” (p.56) the system. Still, “many people independently choose their action based on their own signals without observing the actions of others.” (p.55) One way to prevent information cascades is to make simultaneous decisions among several related choices.

With this in mind, Surowieki attempts to describe four main characteristics that enable individuals to make choices which are collectively empowering and intelligent.

First, diversity of information means that everyone is able to express their private information, or tacit information, that makes them unique. Diversity, according to James March, adds potential perspectives that group members could not have discovered on their own. Mixed intelligence within a group is always better than a too-intelligent group.

Second, independence of decision means that a group member is able to make their own decisions out of free will and without the interference of those around them. Within small groups, this independence is particularly difficult, given the lack of feedback from group members (p.182). Small groups, in particular, form the basis of juries, corporate boards, and cliques. Another potential problem is the tendency for the most prominent voice to shape the others and in effect cause the group to think alike. Groupthink is a very real problem that arises when there is no viable dissent or when information is not circulated throughout the group. Not surprisingly, an agenda can serve to bring together voices and guide discussions.

A round of divergent opinions in a small group can sometimes lead to a polarization of opinions. Group polarization is not well understood but is somewhat related to how people relate to one another and make comparisons. As more opinions are known, then people will form into subgroups that compete with one another. People with strong opinions are likelier to be able to express those ideas and in effect gather allies during small group proceedings. This is the way that juries reach a verdict and corporate board move about their business.

Third, decentralization within a group avoids hierarchical, well-structured arrangements, where people can use their specialization and local knowledge within decision-making. Surowieki gives the example of Jack Welch of GE who was a proponent of diverse perspectives that avoided rigid structure and embraced multidisciplinary approaches (p.211).

Corporations are emergent entities within the capitalist system that coordinate work and ease distribution of goods. They have “plans, commands, and controls … to accomplish their goals” (p.195) but due to their top-down nature, they are built to hide information (p.209). Surowieki believes that the traditional corporation constrains individual relations and information flow in order to advance the goals of the company. Neatly tucked within the folds of the boss/worker relationship is an uneasy conversation about whether or not the goals of the company are being met. This corporate structure reinforces the lack of flexibility that traditional companies often face.

The case of the forager bee and the hive are used as an example of how decentralization works. Bees forage for nectar without knowledge of where to look for food, but nevertheless, still manage to return to the hive and advertise by a “wiggle dance” (p.26) the location and abundance of food. How does the hive benefit? Simply put, by casting as wide a range of possible paths for bees to do their work. The case for decentralization rests with many bees working simultaneously in their own self-interest.

Fourth, aggregation is a mechanism through which individual decisions can be brought into a collective expression. Surowieki gives the example of decision markets where rational actors trade in the beliefs of the relative value of an item, like the Iowa Electronic Market (IEM) of presidential elections or the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HFX) for actors and movies. Surowieki believes that corporations have not yet tapped the potential of decision markets, and that strategy decisions could be made more flexible with more collective inputs, rather than the sole input of one key decision maker. Corporations, such as Eli Lilly and Hewlett Packard, use decision markets to take the pulse of a particular market segment and begin to form strategy.

Conclusion

The Wisdom of Crowds is a very detailed book which on first read might seem to be tangential. But then again, this is the nature of diffuse, divergent information. It is difficult to know what is reliable, what is important, or even what is meaningful. Therein lays the domain of collective wisdom. Because groups are merely the sum of their parts, one central lesson from The Wisdom of Crowds is that by “cast[ing] our net as widely as possible” (p.276) with a divergent set of individuals, groups can tap into the hidden wisdom of localized knowledge for the greater good. Businesses can gain tremendous insight into their markets and change themselves. Collective decision making is a direct challenge to our widely held notions of “leadership, power, and authority” (p.281), and, as such, if the corporation is to remain a viable entity in the Internet age, it must embrace some of the attributes of the “wise crowd.”

Leadership Wisdom from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari - Book Review - Subramaniam Ramasubramanian

Leadership Wisdom from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. Robin Sharma. HarperCollins, 1998. 254pp. $18.00. (ISBN: 0-00-638562-1)

The meat of the book is around mastering 8 rituals that are practiced by visionary leaders. The way these rituals are presented to the audience is unique. Yes, as the book title suggests, the rituals are delivered from a Monk. The entire book is revolved around two characters – Peter and Julian, the Monk. Peter is a CEO of a software company called GlobalView and Julian is an old friend of Peter, a successful lawyer, eventually becomes a Monk. Peter’s company is in the brink of failure. The employees of GlobalView begin to agitate among one another. The interpersonal relationship between Peter and his employees also gets worse day after day. In short, GlobalView gets to collapse. At this moment, Peter’s old friend Julian comes back and teaches the 8 leadership rituals that helps Peter to gain the much needed leadership wisdom. According to Robin Sharma, the author of the book, to become a leader, it is important to lead thyself before trying to lead others. Self discipline is the quality that he was referring to. I totally agree with author views, to be a successful leader, one should be a leader of thyself. Developing one’s own character is dependent on cultivating a strict self discipline, perseverance and patience in all the tasks one performs.

In chapter 3 of the book, the author reiterates the importance of having a vision and how important it is to have a vision in one’s life. As I was reading, I was reminded by a powerful quote by Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam (Kalam) former President of India where he says “Thinking is progress. Non-thinking is stagnation of the individual, organisation and the country. Thinking leads to action. Knowledge without action is useless and irrelevant. Knowledge with action, converts adversity into prosperity”. I thought the author and Dr. Kalam agreed on same lines. Everybody should think, thinking coupled with knowledge and action wouldn’t be stopped by any force in the world to achieve one’s vision. Only people who have a vision, a dream to be achieved would be successful. Even author of the book agrees to the fact people who have “committed” vision would spontaneously develop actions. By committed vision the author meant to keep one’s vision as a vow. A vision that would be achieved at any cost no matter what happens. A powerful thought indeed. I feel people wouldn’t find hard to set a vow vision. Problem would also not happen for people to take actions or to acquire knowledge. The biggest challenge would arise for people to sustain the thinking capability, to continue the learning and to perform the value aided tasks on a daily basis.

In chapter 8 the monk pitches how important it is for leaders to change. The key problem that the author brings about is that people generally resist change. We the students in current change management class know the reasons for resistance. The solution that the author proposed could have easily been guessed by everyone. Yes, surrender to change is what author said. Right from start of this chapter, I questioned numerous times, why in earth people would want to surrender to change. What factors would motivate people to surrender to change? The answers to the questions were revealed as the chapter went by. As learnt from John Kotter, change management guru, the main reason for resistance to change is fear. The solution well resonated from monk’s solution as well. People are apprehensive to change. The author goes on to say knowledge is the best medicine to fear. In my life I have felt this wisdom to be true in so many occasions. I joined my previous employer as a fresher. With no prior work experience I couldn’t understand the processes that were in place. When entrusted with work, I still remember the stress, the pain that I endured during that time. Management team members probably well understood the situation in prior and to allay my fear I was given training on the processes that were in place and I started feeling comfortable from there on. The point being is simple I didn’t know it was a change management exercise at that time. The scenario just struck when the author mentions “knowledge is power”. Going forward, the author also points to the fact that mere knowledge gaining is not just enough, what weighs more is the degree to which the knowledge gets into practice.

The other most important ritual that the author brings is about personal effectiveness. The Monk when counters with a question from Peter on how to manage time, he was presumably seeking a few effective time management principles. I just got more curious on reading the solution. According to the author, solution to the problem doesn’t lie in time management but rather lies in “Time Leadership”. “Time Leadership”? Yes, as one might have judged, it is about individual’s ability to lead the time. A unique principle indeed I thought. As I was settling to dwell more about the principle, an example from Dr. Kevin Desouza, Assistant Professor, Information School, University of Washington struck. I still remember the day, it was in autumn 2007, and I was enrolled in one of his classes. One day he shared his views on time management to the entire class. According to Dr. Desouza, it’s always easy for everyone to come up with a to-do list for a particular day and achieve the items in the list one after another but the real challenge lies when one tries to create an accomplishment-do list itself and try achieving them. From my understanding, the accomplishment –do list has to do more with associating a value to every task that one intends to do. Yes, creating an accomplishment-do list is a challenge but the results of creating a one and implementing those value based tasks on a daily basis would definitely help achieve one’s vision. I was also able to correlate the above scenario to be the answer for one of the questions raised by Dr. Desouza in the present Change Management class. The discussion was around resource allocation for IT projects. The resource allocation matrix (Desouza, 2007) was at the point of discussion. As quoted by Dr.Desouza, most of the resources are devoted for day to day operations in an IT department. Little or no resources are being invested in business transformation activities. Performing those business transformation activities would bring the real business value of IT. This was the question “how to transform IT from performing doing routine operations to tasks that would have an impact in the business? “. Probably, “time leadership” and execution of an accomplishment-do list are the answers to that question, I thought.

In chapter 10, the leadership ritual that the author brings about is “self-leadership”. To be a visionary leader one has to a leader within oneself – a true adage indeed. Personally I have always tried to bench mark success for myself and tried to achieve it. On achieving success, setting the success bar tougher has always been the goal. Benchmarking success with others doesn’t hold appropriate at all times. “Success on the outside begin within” - a line that made me to retrospect deeply. From a change management perspective while Kotter’s eight-step change process truly paves the way for bringing a change (John Kotter). I believe most of the steps are directed to change others – creating urgency, empowering others rather a bringing a change within oneself. I totally agree with Robin Sharma, visionary leader need to always practice “self - leadership”, a ritual that is very much needed to bring change among others. Another key point that the author tries to bring out is that leaders seek perfection in all the tasks.

In conclusion the book “Leadership Wisdom from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” from Robin Sharma is a book to be read. I though agree to the fact that the author really makes readers dragged too much on certain chapters quoting excessive examples from Saint Yogi Raman. At that point I felt the book to be more philosophical and by reading a few examples in the book I almost felt that these principles might just not be suitable in today’s world. However, on the whole, it’s was an interesting book to read and to learn the basics of leadership wisdom.

References:
Desouza, K. (2007). Agile Information Systems. New Delhi: Elsevier.
John Kotter, D. C. The Heart of Change Real - Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations. Harward Business School Press.
Kalam, A.. Retrieved from Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam : http://www.abdulkalam.nic.in/