Hot Spots

Hot Spots

by Lynda Gratton
Released February 2007
Publisher(s): Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN: 9781605092973

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Book description

You always know when you are in a Hot Spot. You feel energized and vibrantly alive. Your brain is buzzing with ideas, and the people around you share your joy and excitement. Things you've always known become clearer, adding value becomes more possible. Ideas and insights from others miraculously combine with your own to create new thinking and innovation. When Hot Spots arise in and between companies, they provide energy for exploiting and applying knowledge that is already known and genuinely exploring what was previously unknown. Hot Spots are marvelous creators of value for organizations and wonderful, life-enhancing phenomena for each of us.

Lynda Gratton has spent more than ten years investigating Hot Spots—discovering how they emerge and how organizations can create environments where they will proliferate and thrive. She has studied dozens of companies and talked to hundreds of employees, managers, and executives in the US, Europe, and Asia. She has asked the important questions: Why and when do Hot Spots emerge? What is it about certain groups of people that support the emergence of Hot Spots? What role do leaders play? She's discovered a host of elements that together contribute to the emergence of Hot Spots—creating energy and excitement, and supporting and channeling that energy into productive outcomes.

In this groundbreaking book, Gratton describes four crucial qualities that an organizational culture must have to support the emergence of Hot Spots, looks at what leaders can do to encourage them, and offers activities and tools you can use in your own company to increase the probability of them arising. In these days when traditional organizational boundaries are becoming barriers to progress, Gratton offers advice and guidance that you can use right now to increase the probability of Hot Spots emerging in your organization.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Preface
  5. Introduction ELEMENTS FOR CREATING HOT SPOTS
  6. CHAPTER 1 GENERATING EXTRAORDINARY ENERGY
    1. Corporate Thermal Imaging
    2. The First Element: A Cooperative Mindset
    3. The Second Element: Boundary Spanning
    4. The Third Element: Igniting Purpose
    5. The Fourth Element: Productive Capacity
    6. Designing for the Emergence of Hot Spots
    7. Signature Processes
  7. CHAPTER SUMMARY
    1. GENERATING EXTRAORDINARY ENERGY
    2. THE RULES OF HOT SPOTS
  8. CHAPTER 2 HOT SPOTS BURNING BRIGHT ACROSS THE WORLD
    1. Hot Questions
    2. Sunrise in Venezuela: Hot Spots Across BP
    3. Noon in Beijing: Hot Spots Across Nokia
    4. Early Evening in London: Hot Spots at OgilvyOne
    5. Early Morning in Singapore: Hot Spots at Linux
    6. The Decay of Hot Spots: DEC, 1980-1990
    7. Keeping Hot Spots Alive
  9. CHAPTER SUMMARY
    1. HOT SPOTS BURNING BRIGHT ACROSS THE WORLD
  10. CHAPTER 3 THE FIRST ELEMENT: A COOPERATIVE MINDSET
    1. A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Emergence of a Competitive Mindset
    2. The Unacceptably High Cost of a Transactional Mindset
    3. How a Cooperative Mindset Emerges
    4. Assumptions Influence Practices and Processes
    5. Norms of Trust and Reciprocity Emerge
  11. CHAPTER SUMMARY
    1. THE FIRST ELEMENT: A COOPERATIVE MINDSET
  12. CHAPTER 4 THE SECOND ELEMENT: BOUNDARY SPANNING
    1. Boundary Spanning and Value Creation
    2. Boundaries
    3. Learning to Cooperate Across Boundaries
    4. Challenge 1: Being Distant
    5. Challenge 2: Being Different
    6. Challenge 3: Being Strangers
    7. Learning to Cooperate Across Boundaries: Becoming Less Distant, Less Different, and Less like Strangers
    8. Spanning Boundaries Through Purposeful Conversation
    9. Crossing Boundaries Through Boundary Spanners
    10. The Role of Executives in Supporting and Enabling Boundary Spanning
    11. How Nokia Widens the Net of Involvement
  13. CHAPTER SUMMARY
    1. THE SECOND ELEMENT: BOUNDARY SPANNING
  14. CHAPTER 5 THE THIRD ELEMENT: IGNITING PURPOSE
    1. Pulled to the Future Through an Igniting Vision
    2. Propelled to the Future Through an Igniting Question
    3. Energized in the Present with an Igniting Task
    4. When Purpose Fails: Emergence of the Country Club
    5. Good Conversation
    6. Creating an Igniting Purpose
  15. CHAPTER SUMMARY
    1. THE THIRD ELEMENT: IGNITING PURPOSE
  16. CHAPTER 6 THE FOURTH ELEMENT: PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY
    1. Productive Practices
    2. Practice 1: Appreciating Talents
    3. Practice 2: Making Commitments
    4. Practice 3: Resolving Conflicts
    5. Practice 4: Synchronizing Time
    6. Practice 5: Establishing a Rhythm
  17. CHAPTER SUMMARY
    1. PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY
  18. CHAPTER 7 THE LEADER’S ROLE IN HOT SPOTS
    1. Leader as Socrates
    2. Leader as the Creator of Friendships
    3. Leader as the Architect of Signature Processes
    4. Points of Inflection
    5. The Rules of a Hot Spot
  19. CHAPTER SUMMARY
    1. THE LEADERS’ROLE IN HOT SPOTS Key Points
  20. CHAPTER 8 DESIGNING FOR THE EMERGENCE OF HOT SPOTS
    1. Phase 1: Locating Hot Spots
    2. Phase 2: Mapping the System
    3. Phase 3: Linking to Business Goals
    4. Phase 4: Identifying Potential Leverage Points
    5. Phase 5: Taking Action
    6. Conclusion
  21. CHAPTER SUMMARY
    1. DESIGNING FOR THE EMERGENCE OF HOT SPOTS
  22. APPENDIX A RESOURCES FOR CREATING HOT SPOTS
    1. Phase 1: Locating Hot Spots
    2. Phase 2: Mapping the System
    3. Phase 3: Linking to Business Goals
    4. Phase 4: Identifying Potential Leverage Points
  23. APPENDIX B BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH ON HOT SPOTS
  24. APPENDIX C METHODOLOGY OF THE HOT SPOTS RESEARCH
    1. The Case Studies
    2. The Cooperative Advantage Research
  25. Notes
  26. Index
  27. About the Author
  28. ABOUT BERRETT-KOEHLER PUBLISHERS
  29. BE CONNECTED
    1. Visit Our Website
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    3. Participate in the Discussion
    4. Get Quantity Discounts
    5. Host a Reading Group
    6. Join the BK Community

Product information

  • Title: Hot Spots
  • Author(s): Lynda Gratton
  • Release date: February 2007
  • Publisher(s): Berrett-Koehler Publishers
  • ISBN: 9781605092973