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William Starbuch with New York University |
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Date:
Time: 10:45am
Speaker: William Starbuck, ITT Professor of Creative Management, Stern School of Business, New York University
Subject: "Keeping Organizations Effective Over the Long Run"
Although learning can produce benefits, many organizations have trouble with learning. They have trouble learning from their successes. They over-learn successful behaviors and become over-confident. Success rigidifies behaviors and limits awareness of environmental changes. One result is that failures become inevitable. Then when serious problems develop and call for new behaviors, organizations have difficulty unlearning what they learned earlier. Organizations also have trouble learning from their failures – both small failures and large ones. They have strong tendencies to explain away failures as being idiosyncratic and to overlook possible systemic causes. Incomplete and biased reporting keeps top managers blind to impending failures.
To create organizations that remain effective over long periods, one must manage three interdependent subsystems – culture, rewards, and structures. Cultures influence the ability to surface and manage disagreements and the ability to communicate openly. Rewards need to align with cultures and organizational goals, but NASA has limited control over rewards. Structures should focus on communication channels rather than rules. Disagreements between managers and engineers should be useful.
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