LEVERAGE POINTS for a New Workplace, New World
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July 25, 2000 Issue 2

Welcome to LEVERAGE POINTS for a New Workplace, New World! This e-bulletin, free from Pegasus Communications, delivers news and ideas to help you create both a thriving business and a rewarding workplace community. LEVERAGE POINTS spotlights evolutionary advances in leadership, change management, personal development, and organizational design. Every issue delivers nuggets of innovative thought, practical knowledge, and pointers to key resources in the field.

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IN THIS ISSUE
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WORDS OF WISDOM
Joel Barker, Rosabeth Moss Kanter

FROM THE FIELD
Diversity as a "Strategic Imperative" at IBM

SHOP TALK
How does your organization stimulate innovation? and Readers' thoughts about how humor supports learning

LEARNING LINKS
Encouraging the "Epidemic" Spread of Change

NEW FROM PEGASUS
Gateway to Systems Thinking and Organizational Learning on the Web

NOTABLE EVENTS

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WORDS OF WISDOM
"Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world."
--Joel Barker

"Trying to conduct business while the system itself is being redefined puts a premium on brains--to imagine possibilities outside of conventional categories, to envision actions that cross traditional boundaries, to anticipate repercussions and take advantage of interdependencies, to make new connections or invent new combinations."
--Rosabeth Moss Kanter, "Kaleidoscope Thinking," in Management 21C (Pearson Education Ltd., 2000).

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FROM THE FIELD
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Diversity as a "Strategic Imperative" at IBM

Ted Childs, IBM's vice president of global workforce diversity, is clear about one thing: In today's competitive marketplace, cultivating women, ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, and the physically handicapped as both employees and customers is not just the right thing to do, it's a "strategic imperative." Especially in the international arena, "Diversity of thought and culture and geography and race and gender enables us to bring the best solutions to our customers." In this way, Childs contends, promoting diversity actually saves jobs within the company--an argument that carries weight with some employees who previously resisted efforts to make IBM a more inclusive workplace.

In 1995, the company assembled eight executive task forces to view the company through the critical eyes of different constituencies. Childs chose July 14--Bastille Day--to launch the initiative because "it's . . . a day of social disruption." The groups' recommendations have improved the work environment for all employees; for example, by emphasizing that work-life issues affect men as well as women. The results: Although top management is still dominated by white men, the number of women and minority executives has increased dramatically over the past five years.

Source: "Difference Is Power" by Keith H. Hammonds, Fast Company, July 2000.

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SHOP TALK
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How does your organization or department stimulate
creativity and innovation?

Please take a minute to share your thoughts about this issue at the Leverage Points Discussion forum, part of our new online Community Bulletin Board. Go to: http://www.pegasuscom.com/community.html and click on the Community Bulletin Board and Forums link. Selected comments will be shared in a future issue of LEVERAGE POINTS.

From Issue #1:
What role can humor play in supporting the learning process?

Watch any M.A.S.H. rerun. People in a ghastly work environment using craziness to stay sane and to cope. Maybe we liked the show because we've all had ghastly assignments and vicariously delighted in watching (even fictional) folk cope.
Larry Babb

Humor is one of the great equalizers. If people can see me laughing (both at situations and also at myself), it really seems to break down barriers and open people's minds and their hearts.
Becky Christianson

Great learning programs touch the heart as well as the head. Excitement, anger, happiness, and other intense emotions can be used to capture attention and tap into the learner's capacity to store episodic memories. Humor also helps build relationships quickly by exposing the foibles of the human condition. Of course, the humor must be appropriate and presented in a way that does not detract from the learning message.
David Owens

For more responses, go to Shop Talk. Readers can continue the discussion at our new Community Forums. Look for the "Leverage Points Discussions" forum.

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LINKS TO LEARNING
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Encouraging the "Epidemic" Spread of Change
by Kellie Wardman O'Reilly

How is it that some products suddenly become impossible to keep in stock? Malcolm Gladwell explores this question in his book The Tipping Point (Little, Brown and Company, 2000), in an effort to understand how and why some trends become "epidemics."

Gladwell outlines three basic principles that have an impact on this kind of escalation:
1. Ideas are contagious;
2. Little causes can have big effects;
3. Change doesn't happen gradually but at one pivotal moment.

According to the author, when an epidemic tips out of equilibrium, it is because some change has happened in one of three areas. The first rule of epidemics--The Law of the Few--is that some people matter more than others in a given process or system. The second rule--The Stickiness Factor-- specifies that a message or product must be memorable to spur someone into action. The third rule--The Power of Context-- states that epidemics are sensitive to the conditions and circumstances of the times and places in which they occur.

What do these ideas mean for people who are trying to create dramatic changes in organizations? Gladwell advises focusing on certain key individuals. "If anyone wants to start an epidemic . . . he or she has to somehow employ Connectors, Mavens, and Salespeople . . . to translate the message of the Innovators into something the rest of us can understand."

The Tipping Point theory also demands that we reframe our thinking. Gladwell writes, "[The world] may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push--in just the right place--it can be tipped." Our challenge is to find that leverage point and to set the forces osf change into motion.

Read the complete article.

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NEW FROM PEGASUS
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Gateway to Systems Thinking and Organizational Learning
on the Web

Pegasus invites LEVERAGE POINTS subscribers to help us test our improved Web site at http://www.pegasuscom.com. An official launch is scheduled for late summer. Visitors can now order all Pegasus products securely by credit card. Additional new features include a searchable database of Web sites, an introduction to some of the key concepts of systems thinking, excerpts from Pegasus books, complete conference information, a calendar, and FAQs for customers and prospective authors. You can also easily search for resources by title, author, key word, or subject.

To celebrate the kick-off of our secure online shopping cart, we are offering each LEVERAGE POINTS subscriber a one-time $10 credit toward an order placed on the Web site through the end of August. To receive the credit, you must type the code POINTS in the Priority Code field on the Check-Out page. Your credit will not show in the Order Summary, but will be deducted from the charge to your credit card. Feel free to forward subscription information to friends, clients, or coworkers who might also be interested in receiving this unique publication and receiving the Web-order discount.

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NOTABLE EVENTS
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August 6-10, 2000. The 18th International Conference of the System Dynamics Society, Bergen, Norway. This year's theme is "Sustainability in the Third Millennium." Plenary sessions feature refereed presentations of current developments in system dynamics. Parallel sessions cover the range of work being done by practitioners worldwide. For details, go to http://www.albany.edu/cpr/sds/sdconf2000.htm, send an e-mail to system.dynamics@albany.edu, or contact Roberta Spencer at (518) 442-3865.

See the complete calendar of events.

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FINDING PEGASUS
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