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EXECUTIVE SUMMARIES SEPTEMBER 2017

SPOTLIGHT

Leading Transformation

In this package we examine how GE undertookthe massive task of transitioning from a classic conglomerate to a globaltechnology-­driven company.

page 053

How I Remade GE

During his 16 years as CEO, Jeffrey Immeltled a team of 300,000 people through recessions, bubbles, and geopolitical riskand engineered a radical makeover of GE, repositioning the firm as a digitalindustrial company looking to define the future of the internet of things.

Writing on the eve of his announcement tostep down from the company’s helm, Immelt shares what he learned about leadinga giant organization through massive changes. He outlines several lessons:

•  Bedisciplined. This means nesting initiatives within one another and staying awayfrom new ideas that don’t fit.

• Soak. Effective leaders don’t react instantly to emerging trends; theyread, contemplate, and listen until they believe to their cores that the worldis profoundly changing.

•  Makeit existential. Every time Immelt drove a big change, he treated it as if itwere life or death.

•  Beall in. You can’t regard a transformation as an experiment—“You won’t get thereif you’re a wuss,” Immelt says.

•  Beresilient. Transformation requires staying power, and leaders need a thick skinto see it through.

•  Bewilling to pivot. Even as you’re making a major commitment of resources, youneed to accept that you’re unlikely to get the strategy perfect out of thegate.

• Embrace new kinds of talent. GE now has more senior people from outsidethe company than at any time in its history and has increased its employment ofwomen, minorities, and workers from outside the U.S. It has transformed itsculture and operating rhythm, choosing speed over bureaucracy.

Immelt’s legacy at GE will be a complicatedone. During his tenure earnings tripled and market share reached record highs,yet the P/E ratio plummeted and the stock price underperformed—no doubt in partbecause the payoff from some of his bets won’t be clear for a long time to come.

HBR Reprint R1705B

MANAGING YOURSELF

Could Your Personality Derail Your Career?

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic page 134

Two decades ago the psychologists Robertand Joyce Hogan created an inventory of 11 qualities, ranging from excitable todutiful, that when taken to the extreme, resemble the most common personalitydisorders. Subsequent profiling of millions of employees, managers, and leadersreveals that most people display at least three of these “dark side” traits,and about 40% score high enough on one or two to put them at risk for careerdisruption. For example, being excitable may help you display passion andenthusiasm to coworkers and subordinates, but it can also make you volatile andunpredictable. Having a deeply skeptical, cynical outlook makes it hard tobuild trust. And diligence, in excess, can morph into procrastination andobsessive perfectionism.

The author discusses the individual traitsand suggests how to manage them, which involves identifying the ones that tripyou up, modifying some of your behaviors, and continuing to adjust in responseto critical feedback. In the process, you can greatly enhance your reputation,your career, and your leadership potential.

HBR Reprint R1705M

FEATURES

Leading Teams

The Overcommitted Organization

Mark Mortensen and Heidi K. Gardner | page 068

By assigning people to multiple teams atonce, organizations can make more-efficient use of time and brainpower and do abetter job of solving complex problems and sharing knowledge across groups. Butcompeting priorities and other conflicts can make it hard for teams withoverlapping membership to stay on track. Group cohesion often suffers, andpeople serving on several teams concurrently may experience burnout.

Through extensive research and consulting,the authors have identified several ways that both team and organizationalleaders can reduce the costs of multiteaming and better capitalize on itsadvantages. Team leaders should launch the team well to establish trust andfamiliarity, map every member’s skills, carefully manage time across teams, andboost motivation by emphasizing opportunities to learn. Organizational leadersshould focus on mapping and analyzing patterns of team overlap, promotingknowledge flows among teams, and buffering teams against shocks.

All this represents a significantinvestment of time and effort. But organizations pay a much higher price whenthey neglect the costs of multiteaming in hot pursuit of its benefits.

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FEATURES

Sustainability

Managing Climate Change: Lessons from theU.S. Navy

Forest L. Reinhardt and Michael W.Toffel  page 076

It’s time to move beyond “No Regrets”efforts.

The U.S. Navy operates on the front linesof climate change. It manages tens of billions of dollars of assets on everycontinent and on every ocean, which take many years to design and build andthen have decades of useful life. This means that it needs to understand nowwhat sorts of missions it may be required to perform in 10, 20, or 30 years andwhat assets and infrastructure it will need to carry them out. Put another way,it needs to plan for the world that will exist at that time.

The navy is clear-eyed about the challengesclimate change poses. It knows that the effects of a warmer world will expandthe geographic scope of its mission and increase demand for its military andhumanitarian services. Climate change will also decrease its capacity todeliver those services, as the risk of damage to its bases and ports increases.

This article examines the navy’s approachto climate change and reflects on the implications for business.

HBR Reprint R1704H