Open Leadership: Post #11 - FINAL

The “Open” Transformation: The author quotes Deal and Kennedy (from their classic book Corporate Cultures)—“’[organizational culture is]…the way we get things done around here…a specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization,’” p. 243-44 in Open Leadership. Leaders drive the vision, set the tone and example, extend the old culture into the new, and develop systems and structures to sustain the transformation—from closed to open. To be sure, the institution reflects the “long shadow” (Emerson) of its leader. Li offers several good examples of leaders taking companies to open leadership. Two in particular are John Chambers at Cisco and Brian Dunn at Best Buy. This book is a read worth spending time with to transform any company from where it is now to a more open, transparent, and hopefully more profitable one in the future.