In this issue…

• Alignment -
  Not Carrots & Sticks
• Leading for Alignment
• Armstrong Results Forum

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Armstrong Results

Welcome to the Armstrong Results Newsletter!

Our intention with this newsletter is to provide you with ideas and insights for accelerating the development of people and performance in your organization.

At the Armstrong Consulting Group, we develop our clients’ capacity to accelerate business improvement. We help focus and align people on resolving the single most important issue between them and higher performance. To us, alignment is not a "nice-to-do", it is essential for achieving outstanding organizational results.

In this issue, we are focusing on alignment. With alignment, inspired people work together in a fitting direction for the organization. And with alignment, real accomplishment occurs.

Kris Bury

Alignment, Not Carrots and Sticks!
by Lorne Armstrong

A recent Harvard Business Review article on cooperation and change caught my attention. It provides an interesting contrast to illustrate what alignment is and is not. The headline of the article states:

“Managers can use a variety of carrots and sticks to encourage people to work together and accomplish change. Their ability to get results depends on selecting tools that match the circumstances they face.”

This brief statement raises several issues related to causing alignment in organizations. Some of the issues are raised by what is said, some by what is not said.

Alignment is not created by carrots and sticks – carrot and stick thinking makes it impossible to achieve real alignment. Those wielding the sticks and offering the carrots, by the very nature of the implied threat and bribery, create disconnection and separation from those whose cooperation they are seeking.

Full article…

Leading for Alignment

It takes leadership to be open to hearing what is fitting for the organization and to initiate the conversations from which alignment can emerge. Beyond compliance, agreement or consensus, alignment occurs when people can hear what is missing and what ground is available to be taken...and when they can get inspired by responding to that call.

There is a quality of listening required that is more attuned to what resonates than to opinions; more attuned to what can be heard as true than what you already know. It is a quality of listening in which an opinion might get you into the game but the only way to win at it is together. And that requires a willingness to hold opinions very lightly - eager to let go of them at any moment, in favor of hearing something more fundamental.

If you are interested in leading conversations that go way beyond everyone on the "same page", to hearing together what is called for - and bringing powerful collaboration to responding to that - free from "shoulds" and "busyness" - you may be interested in the Essence of Leadership.

For more information...

Armstrong Results Forum

A recent inspiring comment…

The September 25 issue of Business Week has a special section on innovation. In it they quote Jonathan Ive, Apple’s VP of Design (iPod, iMac, PowerMac Cube, Powerbook, etc). Referring to his team he says, “One of the hallmarks of the team… is this sense of looking to be wrong. It’s the inquisitiveness, the sense of exploration. It’s about being excited to be wrong because then you’ve discovered something new.”

Wow! Excited to be wrong! Imagine the power of that in your organization…It sure beats defending your point of view at all costs.

If you have any questions or issues you would like us to discuss in upcoming newsletters, please let us know.

You may email us at ideas@ArmstrongResults.com.

For more information…

     Areas of Focus

• Identify the ONE Issue
• Develop Leadership
• Accelerate Accomplishment
• Embed Powerful Communication

About Us

Armstrong Consulting Group works with senior leaders and teams to develop people and build performance in their organization.

Please give us a call if you are interested in...

• Causing more alignment in your organization
• Leading conversations that establish trust and mutuality
• Listening for a fitting direction for your organization or work group
• Generating conversations where people are excited to be wrong!

"ACG (Armstrong Consulting Group) produced deliverables... more than we expected, faster than we thought possible." Hi-Tech CEO

We hope you have enjoyed our newsletter.

Sincerely,

Kris Bury

email: kris@armstrongresults.com
phone: 403-609-4622
web: www.armstrongresults.com