Customer Reviews

The Responsibility Virus: How Control Freaks, Shrinking Violets-and The Rest Of Us-can Harness The Power Of True Partnership

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Roger Martin has lain down business organizations in the therapist chair, but you won't notice it because the author avoids skillfully the psychological labels currently in vogue.

If you often wonder about why you end up working more than others, why some people don't understand what you clearly state or why everybody sees what is wrong in the company and they don't do anything to fix it, this book is for you. It goes to the root of the problem, explains it plainly and offers a step by step program to solve it. The book also provides a better understanding of what's behind the Enron debacle and the government agencies mishandling of security issues before, during and after September 11.

It doesn't matter if the reader is a CEO, a manager, a professional or a secretary, he or she will find familiar faces and situations; people that could be your boss, your vice-president of sales or your managing editor. Why do we have the chance to see ourselves and others in these pages? The book is simply about human nature. It deals with the underlying emotions, culture and language that make many bureaucracies what they are: an incompetent and unfulfilled mass of otherwise intelligent, good and hard working people.

Martin explains that lack of collaboration between leadership and other parties in the organization brings an unbalanced approach to responsibility. The author describes what he calls the "heroic leader", which takes more responsibility that he or she should. Conversely, the other parties react giving up responsibility. Once the leader is unable to meet the goals, he or she sits back and takes the position of the followers. Meanwhile the frustrated followers take responsibility for their part, but because they can not attain the needed broad or bold solutions, parties induce the leader to take again more responsibilities that he or she can handle, and the infectious cycle of dependency starts again.

The mysterious Responsibility Virus is nothing more than the very human fear of failure. According to Chris Argyris, cited in the book, there are "governing values" that guide the way we interpret and deal with the world. They reside so ingrained in human nature that they apply to people across ages, cultures, economic status, and educational levels. Humans-Agyris claim--will always try to win, maintain control, avoid embarrassment and stay rational in any situation. Fear of failure triggers the governing values and they make us either take more responsibility (fight) or abdicate responsibility (flight).

Martin proposes the use of some "tools" to improve collaboration (choice structuring process), eliminate the mistrust and misunderstanding (frame experiment) and to balance capability and responsibility (responsibility ladder) among the parties in the organization. All these tools have the general objective of untying the person from the situation that requires attention and put aside the biased frame of mind from which we see the problem. Once all the parties involved in decision-making have a better perspective of the issue, they are in a position to find a middle ground between capabilities and responsibility.

It is at the end of the book, redefining leadership, when Martin describes the leader as what sociologists or psychologists would call a mature personality. According to the author, a leader should be capable of splitting responsibility through dialogue, apportioning responsibilities in keeping with capabilities, but more importantly, making apportionment discussable and subject performance to public testing. Although he doesn't mention it, you have the sense that it is the leader a significant carrier of the responsibility virus and also accountable for spreading his or her fear of failure throughout the organization.

In these times of leaders finger-pointing at each other and frustrated managers turned into audacious whistle-blowers this book is a timely required reading to understand not only organizations but the world around us.

Ever notice how offices (maybe even yours) are split between the doers and the idlers? Ever notice the resentment that accrues in workplaces where control freaks do everything and ne'er-do-wells do nothing? Ever wonder how such jaded office environments came to be, and whether they ever could change?

Well, step right up, dear reader, because this book decodes the phenomenon that cruelly saps the morale out of even the most capable of offices. Labelling this task imbalance as the `responsibility virus,' Roger Martin seeks to render a diagnosis and prognosis of this nefarious sickness. Martin, with the assistance of psychological and biological principles, explains how the basic `fight or flight' response leads many to assume too much or too little responsibility in times of stress. This results in a causal chain reaction where the other workers correspondingly take positions on the opposing end of the spectrum to best complement this initial game opening. As Martin ably explains, these positions are never static; over-responsible persons eventually become under-responsible, and vice versa. This is essentially a never-ending dance that may eventually destroy an entire office.

So what to do, you ask? Martin proposes four separate strategies that are designed to purge the workplace body of this virus, all of which may be used on their own or in combination with the others, depending on the state of the virus' evolution and the players' goals. These different methods all have the share the same central goal: maximizing inter-office collaboration and thereby ridding the workplace of the responsibility virus. They are all very easy-to-understand and readily adaptable to many workplaces. Martin's generous use of case examples also provides a context to identifying problems and their respective solutions.

Martin's most intriguing strategy is to redefine the nature of true leadership and, by extension, corresponding `followership.' Martin entreats the reader not to accept the canard of the `man on the horse;' the heroic, all-knowing, all-powerful leader who can jump into the fray at any given moment and single-handedly solve a vexing problem, while his minions listlessly stand by waiting for the hero to save the day. Rather, true leadership fosters collaboration; followers contribute to the best of their abilities and open lines of communication are maintained throughout the various levels of management.

In all, this is a persuasive read that is very ably argued. Although I felt the conclusion was a bit rushed (where Martin makes a u-turn from his central argument that people's actions are dictated by their governing values), readers would be hard-pressed to write the book off as unhelpful. Use it in your business life or even your personal life; the book is a powerful suppressant of the responsibility virus.

Every business person learns the principle of delegation. We're told, over and over again, to do it. It's usually offered as a rhetorical question: "Could you delegate this?" with the implicit meaning of "I think you probably can." Martin offers some excellent advice on what LEVEL of delegation to apply and points to the main reason why delegation often fails in practice: people usually go with an all or nothing approach.

What is unique about Martin's style is that he treats the book almost as a negotation with the reader. He knows this is going to be hard, and he spends some time describing the nightmare scenario of what will happen if we fail. It's a very compelling and engaging way to write.

The "virus" takes its life from the fear of failure. Failure offends values that,whether we understand them or not, govern how we approach the world. Researchers know that deep inside we desperately want to:

* Win, don't lose
* Maintain control
* Avoid embarrassment
* Stay rational

Sadly, the prospect of failure violates all of the above values: failure equals losing; after failure, someone else takes control; failure is profoundly embarrassing; and it is well-nigh impossible to maintain rationality while all this is going on. The prospect of all of the above triggers the deeply-ingrained response to fear: the fight-or-flight mechanism. Fight equates to seizing responsibility to make sure that failure doesn't happen. Flight equates to abdicating responsibility to make sure that failure doesn't happen to you specifically.

Eventually, something snaps. The over-responsible boss keeps soaking up responsibility from subordinates nudged into greater under-responsibility. The boss feels that there was nothing to done about it because subordinates lacked necessary skills and weren't willing to develop them. I saw this first-hand when working for an electronics firm in Japan. It is one of the biggest challenges facing Japanese corporations, and can be a huge barrier to progress in any overly-hierarchical organization.

Martin describes a number of tools for inoculating against the Responsibility Virus. I focus here on one tool, The Responsibility Ladder. The Responsibility Ladder provides boss and subordinate with a language for talking about division of responsibility. Each rung of the ladder represents a relatively modest step, not a huge leap.

With the Responsibility Ladder firmly in mind, Martin describes ways the boss can respond: "It feels like you are dropping this problem in my lap. Can we try going a bit higher up the ladder? If I work on a solution to this problem, will you watch and learn so that next time you can work it out on your own? Or, if I help with the initial structuring of the problem, can you take it from there?"

The key to suppressing the Responsibility Virus is to inoculate yourself against that first reflexive step into either over- or under-responsibility. Recognizing the dangers of the Virus, combined with a tool like Martin's Responsibility Ladder, will help you match capability to responsibility assumed. This, in turn, builds confidence and capacity, rather than initiating the downward slide toward failure.

THE RESPONSIBILITY LADDER

1. Consider options and make decision, informing other party subsequently
2. Provide options to other party along with own recommendation on choice
3. Generate options for other and ask other party to make choice
4. Describe a problem to other party and ask for specific help in instructing it
5. Ask other party to solve problem, but make it clear you will watch and learn for next time
6. Drop problem on other party's desk and indicate helplessness

Our Rotman School of Management has organized public author events for Prof. Roger Martin's new book, "Fixing the Game: Bubbles, Crashes and What Capitalism Can Learn From the NFL". These will take place in New York (June 7), San Francisco (June 21), London (Sep 22) and Calgary (Oct 25). Details: www.rotman.utoronto.ca/events

This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the underpinnings of defensive communication that results in failure.Case studies are used effectively to illustrate the responsibility virus at work. Tools are offered to deal successfully with this virus in everyday interactions.

Anyone who has ever worked in an organization has witnessed the paralysis that sets in with failure, reprimand, disappointing results or unfulfilled expectations. That recognition is palpable throughout this book. The deepening loss of power that follows seemingly small pitfalls or mediocre human interactions is extremely damaging and spreads to each and every aspect of an organization. Martin does a great job of both carving out the territory of these viral disempowerments, and of showing us how to bring greater authenticity to our work and communication to turn around these conditions. A correction in the psychological or cultural environment can be powerfully segued into an opportunity for more strategic thought and alignment of behavior with an organization's vision. Having seen so many of these cultural viruses do irreparable harm to both people and business results, the book has become a wonderful addition to an arsenal of tools that is never complete. I highly recommend The Responsibility Virus to business-people of any level of authority.

Amie Devero, Author of Powered by Principle: Using Core Values to Build World-Class Organizations

This book explains in very simple terms why some people are so driven while others just go on a cruise and the relationship between the two.
If you ever feel overwhelmed at work and often find yourself wondering why others don't pull their own weight - this book is for you.
If you feel like you could do so much more at work if only given a chance but lack the confidence or the knowledge to go for it - read this book.