In this book, Warren Bennis has chosen the groups of most talented groups from diverse backgrounds. Walt Disney's top team at the beginning of the making of animation feature films to the establishment of Disneyland theme parks is one among them. Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) of Xerox, Steve Jobs' Apple team, Bill Clinton's Presidential campaign team, the much celebrated Skunk Works, an Black Mountain College and the most influential among them, 'The Manhattan Project' are the others included in the study.
He goes deeper into the dynamics of the team. In his expansive style, he brings out the significant issues playing out on these Great Groups' journeys. At the end, he also summarizes the takeaways as secrets. Though, one has the temptation to go through the summary and keep aside the case studies, the curiosity about the details surrounding these groups makes the reader to go through these accounts.
Walt Disney's penchant for making animation feature film is well illustrated. Though Walt Disney was not acknowledging the contributions by the artists at that time; the artists were eager to contribute. My observation has been that Walt Disney had shrewdly observed the success of shows of collection of multiple animation short films in Paris. It was a good indicator about the people's readiness to watch animations for longer period. Though many show business veterans were cynical; wondering how anybody would watch such animations when they can enjoy beautiful capture of the good looking actors in live action movies! Walt Disney followed his conviction.
Not only he pursued the ground breaking idea, he executed well through the team. He chose the most passionate artists and groomed them for creating the animation feature films. His own passion was evident clearly while he was dramatically narrating the story both before the financiers and employees. Such passion of the leaders is infectious to the group of geniuses. I think, the leader of such groups plays the perfect part of 'dealer of hopes' for the group and energizes the highly talented experts to commit themselves for the larger purpose of bringing the project to life. One may note that, taking the cue from the success of collection of animated movies, Walt Disney chose the story of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' allowing enough room through minimum 10 characters!
Walt Disney was equally driven while he worked on the theme parks. He wasn't happy with the existing theme parks' overall value delivery for their customers. He could see that he can do better than the existing players. That's how he set to create the theme parks. The leaders of the groups of geniuses can clearly see through the gaps in the prevalent system. They can empirically arrive at the right conclusions in spite of the conclusions running contrary to the existing beliefs. The more contrary the conclusions less competition one has, additionally the passionate team has the advantage of underdogs' mentality to deliver better while struggling in the worst conditions. The only factor goes against is the people betting on the leader and the group. This is where the conviction of the leader and the team comes into play.
Largely celebrated Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) inventions were monetized by the likes of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Warren Bennis nails down the disconnect between the great inventions and the failure of Xerox to monetize its own innovations. The PARC team's disdain towards the people in suits in Xerox and the lack of leadership talent in leveraging the best of the innovation and the business teams. Warren Bennis touches upon the struggle of Steve Jobs and many other innovators' struggles to make it big. In the process he briefly delineates the growth of Information Technology industry.
President Clinton's campaign team's efforts provide the diversion and variety but the case study doesn't lack the keen observations by the authors. In my view, the case study on the Black Mountain College makes the best case of how an institution gets formed with great purpose in the leader's mind. Additionally, the study also captures the decline due to the degeneration of the character of the leader or/and the leadership team.
The most inspiring amongst the chapters are the ones on Skunk Works and the Manhattan Project. Probably, they were the ones with the most talented science and engineering talents coming together to save the world, literally!
Whereas the Skunk Works study gives an idea about the leader pursuing higher purpose; also the integrity of the leader to return the funding for the projects where he and his team did not have the conviction. Such acts and intents of integrity on the leadership's part holds the team together and makes them to deliver the best in the most trying conditions. The major aspect is about the team thriving on almost impossible challenges and their ingenuity in coming out with the fixes. This is where, Jim Collin's concept of 'Empirical Creativity' from 'Great by Choice' shines the brightest! In addition, Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson's handling of succession to Benjamin Robert Rich , though the latter was temperamentally opposed to 'Kelly' Johnson is a great example of succession planning by the leader for the furtherance of the original case irrespective of personal considerations.
Manhattan Project was manged well by Major General Leslie Richard Groves, Jr. If I have to see it through the glasses of Good to Great Level 5 Leader inducted was J Robert Oppenheimer as the head of Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer had intellectual power and passion to inspire the other scientists in their respective fields. In a way, with his extensive knowledge of other fields and deep understanding of the subatomic particles and their behaviour, he possessed perfect T shaped skills to lead the team. Oppenheimer had the passion to solve the most difficult scientific problems and he had the matching intellectual capability too. The project was the best vehicle to put his passion and capability for the larger good through the team he assembled. In a 'Good to Great' framework under Disciplined People, Oppenheimer brought the 'whos' first and then gave them the 'whats', the appropriate challenges to solve. Due to secretiveness of the military project, the people who joined could not leave after finishing their projects, they were to serve until the end of the project. As one of the scientists noted that a 'purpose of higher education should be intellectual flexibility'. Many scientists had the intellectual flexibility to try the other fields to help build the atomic bombs. Oppenheimer could protect the scientists from the bureaucracy of military. Oppenheimer showed great leadership qualities in being at the right time to recognize the small successes leading to the completion of the project. He had the knack to identify the right team and the right project for most of the scientists.
Stressing on tolerance for personal idiosyncrasies of the scientists in the group, most of the scientists were so focused on their work, the differences never became the hurdles. In some unavoidable instances, Oppenheimer showed great knack in assigning the right talent for different projects which could satisfy the talent and passion of the persons. The spouses and families of the scientists had tough time in the confined remote area. But all of the trouble was worth taking. In a telling example of higher purpose energizing the teams, Warren Bennis recounts Richard Feynman's observations. Not many were aware of the final outcome of the project due to the secretiveness of the military. Feynman prevailed on Oppenheimer to share the purpose of the project. Once Oppenheimer shared the purpose with the team, the productivity and effectiveness of the scientists skyrocketed. The higher purpose has energizing effect with Great teams in all the fields. Though passion and purposes are subjective, they have great play in the dynamics of great teams.
In the final chapter while summarizing the takeaways, Warren Bennis brings the 'Wansee Problem'. The problem is named after Wansee Conference, where a few Nazi Leaders plotted to eliminate the Jews. The great team dynamics apply to the immoral deeds to as in the case of the Nazis. I think problem needs to be addressed through choosing the people with the True North as the leaders and the team members. Observing the crisis with Rajat Gupta, Phaneesh Murthy and others, and also considering the thoughts of Warren Bennis in the book, one may surmise that the half life of a project applies to people also, especially about True North. Probably, there is a need for the leaders to look themselves brutally in the mirror and realign themselves to True North periodically, though the trappings of money and glory may cloud their conscience. Probably, morality and ethics wasn't a big issue (as it is today), while Warren Bennis wrote the book. But today it's bigger and urgent. The commendable aspect of the book is that, this issue is covered at least at the end, as a cautionary tale. In fact, there is a heart touching account on the success of Trinity Nuclear Test on the 16th July 1945. While Richard Feynman and other scientists were celebrating the success and Oppenheimer quoted Bhgavadgita's Vishwaroop shloka: one of the main contributors was worrying about the implications of the nuclear bombs for the future generations.
I wanted to list the takeaways as covered by Warren Bennis, but I found that they more or less in line with the findings in Good to Great. Down the line, I may add those takeaways as listed by Warren Bennis through the lenses of Good to Great's Hedgehog Concept.
