The wave of democratic change that started in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia and has since hit the rest of the arab world carries significant lessons not only for autocratic state leaders but also for business leaders.
The Arab dictators are being removed from power because they haven’t been able to foresee and implement an unavoidable and massive change: the democratization of their regime. It will only have taken this single additional act of tyranny in Sidi Bouzid to start an unstoppable process: the change supporters, who had until then stayed passive, suddenly decided to become active, starting a group dynamic, encouraged by the belief that there would now be far more to lose staying silent than taking action. Suddenly the barriers to change don’t seem unremovable anymore; change is at hands. Things can then turn into chaos, such as in Lybia, or into a (relatively) smooth transition if a sufficiently supported leadership or coalition emerges, such as in Egypt or Tunisia.

Business leaders, although some of whom may show signs of autocracy, are luckily far from mad and dangerous dictators. They can even be inspiring and brilliant. Nevertheless, the same rationale is absolutely applicable to a leader who has neither the vision nor the courage to implement unavoidable change. The organization is then in danger of losing touch with its people who suffer from the situation. Until an apparently unimportant event occurs that triggers an uncontrolable chain of events, ultimately bringing a change that would have been much less painful and chaotic, had it been anticipated and prepared in time. What lessons can be drawn? I suggest the following three.

First that no strategy nor modus operandi is sustainable without a critical number of people supporting it. This may seem naive or idealistic to a GM whose unpopular task is to cut costs by 20%. Well the danger is precisely to by-pass the necessary dialog, and I mean not one-way communication but real two-ways conversations, that will help establish clarity, a necessary first step to adhesion.

The second lesson would be: watch out for signs of change, by listening to your stakeholders: clients, employees, local authorities, suppliers, labour unions, ONG’s,… Of course a leader would have to clone himself several times to achieve all that by her/himself; so another solution is to organise this process , make sure to spend selected time on the field and share this state of mind with her/his teams.

Third, there is no limit to the energy created by a group of people who have taken full ownership of a change that touches them individually as well as collectively. Too often change leadership fail because leaders don’t sincerely apply those principles that they are very well aware of: involvement, dialog, empowerment, transparency to name a few.

In a growing number of organizations, leaders are applying these lessons to drive a change that proves to be more and more inevitable: Corporate Social Responsibility.

La vague de changement qui s’était formée en Tunisie, continue de grossir en Egypte et on ne sait plus trop où elle va s’arrêter. Aux dernières nouvelles, la Syrie serait concernée; qui sait si le mouvement ne va pas bientôt s’étendre à d’autres régions du globe? Je serais curieux de savoir ce qu’en pensent les responsables chinois.

Les dirigeants éjectés, ou très sérieusement menacés de l’être, par leur peuple, sont punis pour ne pas avoir su mettre en place le changement: celui de la démocratisation de leur régime. Lorsqu’un dirigeant, quel que soit le type de son organisation, n’a ni la vision ni le courage de conduire un changement pourtant inéluctable, il semble qu’il finisse toujours rattrapé par ce changement. Il suffit d’une goutte d’injustice pour que le vase déborde: les supporters du changement, jusque là passifs , deviennent actifs, encouragés par la dynamique de groupe et la conviction qu’il y a désormais  davantage à perdre à ne rien faire qu’à prendre l’initiative. Les choses se font alors malheureusement avec des risques élevés de violence et de chaos. Ces risques deviennent mitigés si un leadership suffisamment fédérateur émerge, qui saura alors donner et tenir un cap.

Les responsables politiques, élus locaux, mais aussi dirigeants d’entreprises ont des leçons à tirer de l’analyse de ces révolutions. D’abord que rien n’est durable sans l’adhésion d’une masse critique de gens. Ensuite que refuser les changements inéluctables, représentatifs de tendances lourdes, peut ensuite se payer très cher. Ce sont les organisations qui anticipent, préparent et mettent en oeuvre ces changements suffisamment tôt qui réussissent. General Electric est un bon exemple.

The recent Toyota crisis reminds me of an MBA course session by Pierre Casse about the emotional cycles of life: happiness and depression. I can still hear his words when he introduced his model: “life is good; you feel great, confident, everything is going your way to the point that you become a little complacent and…You make a big mistake and you slowly realise the consequences, you sink into deep depression…” I wonder to what extent this fits with the Toyota leaders’ current emotional state. I don’t doubt they will manage to come out stronger from this crisis although this is based on nothing else than intuition. Here are a couple of interesting insights I came across:

• Joel Kurtzman from the HBR reminds us of his consulting experience with Toyota 30 years ago and tells us that their problems start at the top. The company he experienced back then was one in which the leaders, among whom Eiji Toyoda at the forefront, had tremendous respect for their workers. He listened to them, trusted and empowered them. For example he gave the workers on the assembly line authority to stop the line if someone detected anything that might affect product quality.  In fact everybody considered quality more important than profits. This common purpose is precisely what Joel Kurtzman believes has been missing recently, starting from the top: a failure of leadership and a loss of respect of the workers.

• Robert E. Cole, also from the HBR tells us that the crisis didn’t come out of nowhere, significant warning signs had been detected. For example, the number of vehicles recalled had increased sharply from 2003 to 2005.  Apparently Aijo Toyoda, the current CEO, has been attributing the crisis to the recent rapid growth of the company, leading it to invert its priorities: volume and sales became nr1 while quality and safety fell to nr2.

However challenging a context is, I don’t believe it can be seen as the root cause of your problems but more a highlighter of its consequences. I trust Joel Kurtzman’s judgement that Toyota has partly lost what lead it to success. The challenge  for them is that they will never be able to get back to what they were 30 years ago. They must change to reinvent a new Toyota way that builds on their traditional strengths and fits with the demands of a growing world leader. And eventually go from depression to happiness again until…

The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) just published the outcome of a survey conducted among Fortune 1000 companies to identify the Top 5 leadership competencies of tomorrow. Respondents were asked to write in the top five words or phrases that came to mind to describe the leadership competencies they perceive will be critical in the future. This is what came out (for some strange reason, only 4 headings are listed, 5 though if you count leadership agility and flexibility as separate items).


Leadership agility and flexibility

“Tomorrow’s leaders will need to be able to manage on the fly,” says Kevin Oakes, CEO of i4cp. “Not only will they need to be mentally agile and flexible, they’ll need to instill those qualities in others, even while keeping things from becoming chaotic. I picture them as excellent business athletes.”

Innovation

Another of the top five competencies is innovation. “Innovation is, in fact, one way to stay agile,” notes Oakes. “You react to changes in the business environment by doing things differently and by quickly inventing new products and services that help you gain a competitive advantage.”

Communication

In an environment where the world is awash in social media and instant messaging, leaders will need to be exceptional communicators, able to cut through the morass of information overload with well-honed messaging.

Change management

The critical nature of change management is highlighted not only in the write-ins but in other parts of the i4cp study as well. When i4cp asked about the degree to which organizations emphasize certain management competencies, it found that the more that organizations stress change management skills, the higher they score on i4cp’s Leadership Success Index.

“From this perspective, the future is already here,” notes Oakes. “Change management skills will not only be needed for the future, they’re paying dividends now.”