Page 161 - The Resilient Organization

148 Part Three: Step 2. Building Resilience into the Organization

• Sought to create comfort zones where those illiterate in technology
and telecommunications competition could have learned without
embarrassment (albeit some of this did happen through scenario
planning, for instance).
• Should not have aspired to take over the strategy function of AT&T
(in a clandestine manner) but sought to add value nevertheless.
• Sought to address higher audiences in top management in a more
systematic manner.
• Shared their transformational experience with more people—the
fervor ODD created must have scared the uninitiated within
AT&T.
• Created a wider-based coalition to support their ideas (again, a lot
of this did happen through the seminars, newsletters, networks).

How Management Could Have Better Taken Advantage of ODD
• Stay around longer—AT&T management changed so frequently
that the new guy could never come up the learning curve fast
enough.
• Have a little more courage to engage with people like the ODDsters.
• Involve the ODDsters in actual discussions about strategy—not just
limit their participation to prepared input and other summary
documents.
• Not make strategy by rank and file but invite those who have fresh
perspectives and some new ideas.
• Look beyond the usual suspects and consultants when engaging
people in strategy discussions.
• Go to the company cafeteria to see what’s going on. As one of the
ODDsters—who had gained some fame in the firm as a strategist—
noted: “When I entered the company cafeteria, I felt like one of the
Beatles—everyone wanted to rally around and talk to me.”

When ODDsters Become Particularly Important to Your Firm—and
When You Need to Start Paying Attention to Them
• There is a lot of discontinuous change, and perhaps a move from
regulated to deregulated (or reregulated) environments. Look for
ODDsters for new competitive perspectives.