“Collaborative Leadership: Building the Organization for the Future” on  Saturday, July 11th, 2020 was hosted by Indian Institute of Management,  Ahmedabad  and TrakInvest.

The guest for the session was Mr. Carlo Giardinetti, Dean Franklin University and Instructor at Harvard Extension School.

Here the link to the 90 minutes webinar recording: Click Here

Key takeaways from the session:   

1.  With changing times, it is no longer the CEO or the top leader at any  organisation that has access to privileged information. It is very  possible and highly probable for the junior-most employee at the firm to  have access to better quality information as compared to the leaders.  This fact needs to be taken into account while managing the employees of  a new-age organisation so that we can better utilize and empower the  workforce for the benefit of the firm.

2. Distribution of  decision making across all employees frees up the senior leadership from  all the burden and responsibility from micro-decision making at all  times. The leadership is then better able to focus on innovation and  vision, while the employees are empowered to take decisions responsibly.  

3. In a study, 60% of the people expected someone to guide them  in terms of their work. These people felt successful if they complete  the work provided by their leader. Hence when you try to provide freedom  of work and ask your employees to take responsibilities, it is  important to provide a structured framework to do so, so that the  necessary output can be achieved from them compared to just an open  ended responsibility where the chances of employees getting lost maybe  higher.

4. This is the reason why 100% collaborative  organisations are idealistic. Realistically, hybrid organisations work  better - In an organization the structure of the organization i.e. the  hierarchy is the bone of the organization. Whereas collaboration and  empowerment are the two main muscles of the organization. Both the bone  structure and muscle help is developing a great organization.

5.  Psychological safety is the most important factor for a team’s success.  What we refer by Psychological safety means that all the employees in  the company must be able freely speak their mind without the worry of  being judged or punished. However, there are chances this could be  mis-utilized by certain individuals as Carlo puts it well.

6.  Surrounding yourself with coaches and mentors who allow you the freedom  to ask and discuss the difficult questions help you stay competitive in  this world.


Some of the additional resources for your reference as mentioned in the session:  

1.  An Article by Mike Lee on "Beyond the Holacracy Hype": Click Here

2.  An Article by Mike Lee on "Research in Organizational Behavior": Click Here

3.  Talk provided by Mr Carlo at MERIT Summit 2019: Click Here

4.  Details about our course at Harvard on "Collaborative Leadership": Click Here

5.  A podcast about Psychological Safety that is at the heart of Collaborative Leadership by Amy Edmondson (HBS): Click Here

6.  A talk on Immunity to Change by Robert Keagan (HBS): Click Here

7.  A Blog on Collaborative Leadership by Slack: Click Here