I have a couple of thoughts. First, we were really privileged to have talented, committed people in the organization. When you count how many of our associates who started in the late 80s and early 90s stayed with us for the entire 10-15 years, it is impressive. The staff’s relatively young demographic meant common interest and mutual support, and upside career potential within our company’s context. And the culture that came along with that mix translated into a tolerance for change.

Change tolerance can be cultural, but I think it starts with HR discipline. I believe associates require a secure position, and a market competitive pay structure that serves their personal / family interests. If this is done, there is more indulgence for almost everything, including constant change. If security and competitive pay isn’t addressed, the problem is fundamental and turnover is predictable.

Once that is taken care of, what we all need is:
(1) A career opportunity that we can really commit to,
(2) A defined area to engage our skills that we can call our own, and
(3) The ability to contribute and make a real difference — which btw requires a degree of freedom, and sense of being trusted. There is some very good research out on these three components.

When we did this well, the resulting positive attitude helped bridge those burst periods of extraordinary effort and the understandable frustration of seemingly un-ending process change. I also think that when extra effort led to accomplishment, there was recognition and reward, and promotion – which added to the employee tolerance for change. That is easier to do in a growing company. And although our ranks ebbed and flowed in any one location, we grew from 44 associates to 1,185 over time. Getting extra effort from a team in the midst of downsizing is obviously much more difficult.

Finally, when we were at our best, we didn’t try to do this with central control and top down authority. Authority rested with the branch leadership team including practice leads and PMs and technology SMEs. Change came bottom up…from the client back…and was developed by a network of peer recognized leaders. This is where the critical innovation came from at AIS — and this subject matter expert array developed change concepts better than Jon and I ever did. The practices and disciplines that really made the difference and had national runs were discovered, developed and optimized by Hosking, Pond, Brooks, Garrett, Grollman, Carroll, Woodall, Streveler, Graff, Gill, Cushman, McCleery, Neeser, Harty, Apter, Boyle, Bunker, Pederson, Hatfield, and on and on.

Best ~ Tim

Best ~ Tim

I think there’s a lesson for the creative (ADD) entrepreneur who worry if the business they create will be interesting to them when it’s up and running. Whether they manage the execution side or not, there is always the leadership challenge of moving to the next s-curve. This will keep their creative juices flowing.

Also, first footnotes I’ve seen on a blog.

Greg

I wouldn’t be surprised either way. Alan was always delivering valuable concepts in seminars and symposia, and Jon — with his computational credentials / Ph.D. was a devoted reader of primary research articles including certainly HBR articles. Although, I am sure neither Jon nor Alan would take credit for the (S)igmoid curve concept. The provenance of the application of the S curve mathematical modeling to technology and business strategy is well established. See:
- Abernathy, W.J. and Utterback, J.M. – Patterns of Innovation in Technology, Technology Review 1978 and
- Foster, R. (1986). “The S curve: A New Forecasting Tool.” Chapter 4 in Innovation, The Attacker’s Advantage, Summit Books, Simon and Schuster, New York (NY). pp. 88-111.
Peter Drucker’s The Age of Discontinuity (1969) and Charles Handy’s The Age of Unreason (1990) and especially Handy’s The Age of Paradox (1994) have to be mentioned as great sources on the subject or its precursors. Interestingly, R. Foster published and HBR article in Jan 01, 1991, and about a month later Jon and I had that memorable dinner. In there we may find part of your answer.
Best ~ Tim

Did Jon give Alan Hald the S curve model or did Alan spur Jon’s refinement?

Warren