Encouraging leaders to make hierarchical changes through culture
TalentLeadership DevelopmentDr Rita McGrath: Using culture to go beyond hierarchy

Dr Rita McGrath: Using culture to go beyond hierarchy

Dr Rita McGrath is a globally recognised expert on strategy, innovation, and growth with an emphasis on corporate entrepreneurship. Ahead of her keynote talk at the HRD Summit UK, she discusses why hierarchy no longer works in fast-paced environments, as well as talking about the importance of inflection points.

HRD Connect speaks exclusively with Dr Rita McGrath, our keynote speaker at this year’s HRD Summit UK 2019. Rita discusses the need to go beyond hierarchy in organisations, and how the shift to an entrepreneurial mindset is required as inflection points have more severe effects and happen more rapidly.

Dr Rita McGrath

What is your opinion about hierarchies within an organisation?

In the past, Taylorist theories of efficiency dominated how we designed organisations. Managers would segment their employees into functional units, with each function knowing what they were working on, but not much about what others were doing. This created silos and blind spots, as valuable information didn’t transfer across units. This theory also suggested that decisions be made at the “top” of the organisation, because that is where all the information came together. What with today’s fast moving nature, leaders need visibility into what is going on at the ‘edges’ of the organisation, meaning where technology, customers and ecosystem partners are interacting with the organisation. Increasingly, we’re seeing that traditional hierarchy is dissolving. Increasingly, rather than a command and control form of leadership, what we’re seeing is that leaders seek to have people generate a wide variety of options from which they can then choose.

“What with today’s fast-moving nature, the kind of information that you need to make good decisions can only be found at the edges of the organisations”

Can you give a brief summary of what you’ll be discussing at HRD Summit UK?

I’ll be focusing on new forms of leadership and how this relates to strategic inflection points. One of the more important ideas is how to position your organisation to spot the early warnings of change. There’s an interesting phrase that was coined a few years ago called ‘crescive leadership’. This is the whole notion of shaping the options of an organisation that it explores. The theme of the conference ‘the conscious organisation’ is very consistent with the themes of my new book called, ‘Seeing around corners; spotting inflection points in business before they happen’.

What do you think are the biggest misconceptions around organisational structure?

That formal structures are the dominant factor, it’s the structure among individuals that will make the difference.

What is fundamentally wrong with leadership currently?

The notion that the organisation revolves around the leader. Even today, we see people that value their own self-worth in accordance with where they are in the hierarchy. Yes, we need formal authority, but one of the biggest issues is that very often the best problem solvers are the people closest to the issue regardless of their position in the hierarchy. We don’t act on that understanding as much as we need to.

What behaviour traits should leaders be role modelling?

What's Hot

HRD Roundtable Report: Levelling Up Onboarding for the Hybrid World

Roundtable Report HRD Roundtable Report: Levelling Up Onboarding for the Hybrid World 5 May 2022

10m

HRD Roundtable Report: Levelling Up Onboarding for...

Attracting new talent is shooting up the priority list, but also proving more difficult than ever. A...

View event
HRD Roundtable Report: Redefining Company Culture in Hybrid Work Environments

Roundtable Report HRD Roundtable Report: Redefining Company Culture in Hybrid Work Environments 26 May 2022

10m

HRD Roundtable Report: Redefining Company Culture ...

The process of redefining a company culture is a complex one. Culture contributes directly to the da...

View event
Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people

Whitepaper | Talent Development Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people

10m

Learning to win the talent war: how digital market...

This report documents the findings of a Fireside chat held by ClickZ in the first quarter of 2022. I...

View resource
HRD Roundtable Report: Strategies For Re-Engaging The Hybrid Workforce

Roundtable Report HRD Roundtable Report: Strategies For Re-Engaging The Hybrid Workforce 5 May 2022

11m

HRD Roundtable Report: Strategies For Re-Engaging ...

We know hybrid working is here to stay, forcing many organisations to experiment with innovative and...

View event
HRD Roundtable Report: Making it ‘Worth It’ – What We Need to Reward, Engage and Retain

Roundtable Report HRD Roundtable Report: Making it ‘Worth It’ – What We Need to Reward, Engage and Retain 3 March 2022

11m

HRD Roundtable Report: Making it ‘Worth It’ – What...

We know the pandemic has caused many people to revaluate their careers and relationships with work a...

View event
Dave Ulrich: How can business and HR leaders simplify complexity?

Leadership Development Dave Ulrich: How can business and HR leaders simplify complexity?

1y Dave Ulrich

Dave Ulrich: How can business and HR leaders simpl...

HR thought leader Dave Ulrich outlines ways leaders can deal with complexity in an increasingly busy...

View article
HRD Roundtable Report: Using HR Data to Inform Organisational Decision Making

Roundtable Report HRD Roundtable Report: Using HR Data to Inform Organisational Decision Making 5 May 2022

11m

HRD Roundtable Report: Using HR Data to Inform Org...

Historically, HR hasn’t been as effective as it could be in sharing and communicating data with wide...

View event
Digital transformation investment grows but critical skills gaps remain - Coursera report

Digital HR Digital transformation investment grows but critical skills gaps remain - Coursera report

1y Leah Belsky

Digital transformation investment grows but critic...

Covid-19 has accelerated the rate of digital learning on a global scale. Coursera's latest report pr...

View article
Wellbeing in the hybrid workplace: how to successfully drive engagement

Employee Engagement Wellbeing in the hybrid workplace: how to successfully drive engagement

1y Alara Basul | Sponsored

Wellbeing in the hybrid workplace: how to successf...

Remote working has impacted the way we communicate as a workforce, but striking the right balance be...

View article
How to create a company culture capable of empowering the modern workforce

Culture How to create a company culture capable of empowering the modern workforce

1y Alara Basul | Sponsored

How to create a company culture capable of empower...

While new working patterns that emerged from the pandemic have earned a permanent spot in the w...

View article
WATCH: Connection and collaboration in a hybrid workplace

Leadership Learnings WATCH: Connection and collaboration in a hybrid workplace

1y Amy Kirkham

WATCH: Connection and collaboration in a hybrid wo...

Alison Noon-Jones, VP of People & Culture at Leidos UK & Europe, shares how crucial employee engagem...

View article
Turbulence ahead: Why it’s time to be bold in your leadership

Leadership Development Turbulence ahead: Why it’s time to be bold in your leadership

1y Terence Mauri

Turbulence ahead: Why it’s time to be bold in your...

HRD thought leader and Hack Future Lab founder Terence Mauri sets out why the biggest risk to leader...

View article

Curiosity, empathy, humility, the willingness to be somewhat vulnerable. They all contribute to the creation of psychological safety which an increasing amount of research suggests is highly related to an organisation’s ability to make the right decisions, to be creative and making these decisions going forward.

“An inflection point is something that occurs which changes the fundamental assumptions of which a business is based”

Can you clarify what you mean by inflection points?

An inflection point is something that occurs which changes the fundamental assumptions on which a business is based, so more specifically, it changes the constraints that drive the key metrics in business.  It is very easy for people who have spent their whole careers with one set of assumptions to miss an inflection because it is outside their frame of reference.

The behaviour traits that you listed (curiosity, empathy, humility) how can these become habitual within a business?

This starts at the top, where senior people have a disproportionate influence. Their behaviour sets the standard for the rest of the organisations. They have to live it, and if they’re living it then everyone else gets the message that it’s important. That is in their own behaviour and how they treat people, in how they expect people to be treated.

Can you think of any organisations who adopt this culture?

One of the most significant changes I’ve seen is what’s happening at Microsoft. Satya Nadella, their CEO, has made empathy a cornerstone of his leadership – a big change from the traditional, very competitive, culture at the company.  He has said that empathy was the only way to gain customer love, and usage, which are leading indicators of future success. Things like profit and revenue, those are lagging indicators.  Those are the result of something that you did in the past.  If you want to look to a leading indicator you have to look at things like utilisation, customer love. Microsoft was famous for being internally combative, so that’s a remarkable turnaround.

 “The very phrase of human resources implies that a human resource is like electricity where it just does what it’s told. Where in reality, humans are incredibly ingenious, we can harness that ingenuity”

What would you like to see change in this field in the coming years?

The first thing we have to get our heads around is a different way of thinking of unleashing individual ingenuity.  This notion that humans are really just badly designed robots who should come to work and do one thing and do exactly what they’re told is such a waste of talent and human potential. The very phrase “human resources” implies that a human resource is like electricity where it just does what it’s told. Where in reality, humans are incredibly ingenious, we can harness that ingenuity.

Rita McGrath will be our keynote speaker at HRD Summit UK 2019, her talk will be at 9am on Tuesday 5th February 2019, click here for more details.

Comments are closed.

What's Hot

HRD Roundtable Report: Levelling Up Onboarding for the Hybrid World

Roundtable Report HRD Roundtable Report: Levelling Up Onboarding for the Hybrid World 5 May 2022

10m

HRD Roundtable Report: Levelling Up Onboarding for...

Attracting new talent is shooting up the priority list, but also proving more difficult than ever. A...

View event
HRD Roundtable Report: Redefining Company Culture in Hybrid Work Environments

Roundtable Report HRD Roundtable Report: Redefining Company Culture in Hybrid Work Environments 26 May 2022

10m

HRD Roundtable Report: Redefining Company Culture ...

The process of redefining a company culture is a complex one. Culture contributes directly to the da...

View event
Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people

Whitepaper | Talent Development Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people

10m

Learning to win the talent war: how digital market...

This report documents the findings of a Fireside chat held by ClickZ in the first quarter of 2022. I...

View resource
HRD Roundtable Report: Strategies For Re-Engaging The Hybrid Workforce

Roundtable Report HRD Roundtable Report: Strategies For Re-Engaging The Hybrid Workforce 5 May 2022

11m

HRD Roundtable Report: Strategies For Re-Engaging ...

We know hybrid working is here to stay, forcing many organisations to experiment with innovative and...

View event
HRD Roundtable Report: Making it ‘Worth It’ – What We Need to Reward, Engage and Retain

Roundtable Report HRD Roundtable Report: Making it ‘Worth It’ – What We Need to Reward, Engage and Retain 3 March 2022

11m

HRD Roundtable Report: Making it ‘Worth It’ – What...

We know the pandemic has caused many people to revaluate their careers and relationships with work a...

View event
Dave Ulrich: How can business and HR leaders simplify complexity?

Leadership Development Dave Ulrich: How can business and HR leaders simplify complexity?

1y Dave Ulrich

Dave Ulrich: How can business and HR leaders simpl...

HR thought leader Dave Ulrich outlines ways leaders can deal with complexity in an increasingly busy...

View article
HRD Roundtable Report: Using HR Data to Inform Organisational Decision Making

Roundtable Report HRD Roundtable Report: Using HR Data to Inform Organisational Decision Making 5 May 2022

11m

HRD Roundtable Report: Using HR Data to Inform Org...

Historically, HR hasn’t been as effective as it could be in sharing and communicating data with wide...

View event
Digital transformation investment grows but critical skills gaps remain - Coursera report

Digital HR Digital transformation investment grows but critical skills gaps remain - Coursera report

1y Leah Belsky

Digital transformation investment grows but critic...

Covid-19 has accelerated the rate of digital learning on a global scale. Coursera's latest report pr...

View article