Edgar Shines

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Edgar Schein

Competencies: leadership skills, team building, talent management, organizational consulting skills, career-consulting skills, process consulting skills, group facilitation skills

Who benefits: leaders, team leaders, organizational consultants, career development consultants/counselors, mentors, executive coaches, group process consultants

Consultant Usage: any professional consultant working on people, culture, career, team issues should be knowledgeable about the profound body of work by this MIT academic

What’s it about? This week I would like to honor one of my favorite people and a great intellect whose body of work goes back at least 50 years. 

The man is Edgar Schein.  His importance, at least to my personal growth, can be summed up in a story.  Many years ago I was taking a two-day class with him.  On the way to class on the first morning I slipped and fell, seriously injuring my right leg.  I hobble off to class anyway, put my foot up on a stool and took a volume of notes as he lectured for four hours.  We had a 2-hour noon break.  A nurse in the class offered to run me over to the hospital.  We went.  I had a broken leg and soon a large white cast.  With the aid of crutches I made it back for the restart of class.

As he continued his lecture he stopped in front of me and asked, “Did you have that cast on earlier today?”  “No,” I said, “I broke my leg on the way to class this morning.”  “Why did you come then”, he inquired?  

“Because I didn’t want to miss your lecture,” was my reply.

And I think that sums up the importance of Edgar Schein and the importance of what he can impart.

The man has covered so many areas it is impossible to cover them in a short column.  So let me quickly suggest you check out one or more of the three books and one seminar I am posting, depending where your interests lie and where your are in your career. 

His newest book (February, 2009) is Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help. He begins with asking the question “What is Help?”  My first reaction was what a silly question.  But as I thought about it, I couldn’t answer it.  He says that all good help must begin with an understanding and degree of trust between the helper and the person or persons being helped.  Anything less is to risk being unhelpful despite intentions.  Help should not be taken for granted.  He moves on to analyze the dynamics of a helping relationship and discusses the responsibility of both parties.

In later chapters he defines different helping roles and he suggests the use of “humble inquiry” as the key to building and maintaining helping relationships.

For those seeking specific information, Chapter 7 is “Teamwork as Perpetual Reciprocal Helping” and Chapter 8 is “Helping Leaders and Organizational Clients”.  Fortunately, given these hard economic times, there is no Chapter 11 (okay, just wanted to see if anyone was still reading).

Organizational Culture and Leadership is now in its third edition.  FYI, Edgar Schein is credited with first using the term “Corporate Culture”.  This book is a classic and if you are a  leader still growing and developing or whose organization is not functioning properly or changing with the times, you need this book.  It is not an easy read; but it is a note-worthy and important book.

Dr. Schein is an academic.  His writing will always reflect his research and the research of others.  His attention to details will not always appeal to the casual readers.  But this book is worth the effort.  A difficult read should not deter readers from this seminal work on leadership and culture.

If you are in career development, career counseling or a related field and you have not read Career Anchors or the more recent Career Anchors: Self Assessment (which I prefer), you are not current with your profession.  If you are just starting out in the field, it is a must read for professional growth.

Unfortunately my timing is terrible in recommending “Leading Change in Complex Organizations“ a seminar for high-level executives and organizational consultants.  The one-week class begins May 31 and won’t be offered for another year.  But it does cost a pretty penny, so maybe now is a good time to look at the course and make plans for next year.  And a word to the wise: Dr. Schein is not going to be teaching this or any class for too many more years.  Get to see him in person…even if you have to break a leg!

Catch you later.

[tags]edgar schein, corporate culture, leadership, leadership skills, leadership and corporate culture, helping skills, helping others, helping and trust, process consulting, team facilitation, team building, leadership in organizations, career anchors, career development, career counseling, career self-assessment, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley[/tags]

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.