GE (case study) 25 Lessons from Jack Welch Brainstorming 25 Lessons from Jack Welch: GET LESS FORMAL Idea Management Bureaucracy-free Corporate Culture: GET LESS FORMAL (Lessons from Jack Welch)

   

25 Lessons from Jack Welch

Articulate Your Vision    See Change as an Opportunity

Eliminate Bureaucracy    Stretch    Live Speed

Put Values First    Lead, don't micromanage

Harness Your People for Competitive Advantage

Make Everybody a Team Player    Energize Others

Behave Like a Small Company

3Ss of Winning in Business

GE Leadership Effectiveness Survey (LES)

Using the Best Practice at GE: The Trotter Scorecard

New Management Model

People Partnership

Get Rid of Bureaucracy    Flat Organizational Structure

Managerial Leadership

12 Leadership Roles    Inspiring People

 

 

Best Practices

Jack Welch, CEO, GE – a Corporate Leader

GE: Creating an Extraordinary Organization

Jack Welch Fires an Ineffective Business Architect

GE Work-Out    Six Sigma Implementation at GE

   

Take the "Boss Element" our of your company

"You've got to balance freedom with some control, but you've got to have more freedom that you've ever dreamed of."

Redefine the traditional concept of management making listening to employees an integral part of every manager's job.

Gave employees the right – and the responsibility – to come up with their own ideas for solving problems.

The goal is to give everyone a say in the way the organization is managed – and to keep bosses from dictating every step in the decision making process.

Keep formality and rigidity out of the office
Harness the power of an informal place. "Without needless rules, titles, and approvals people are not afraid to voice their ideas, even they go against conventional company wisdom." In 1980s, form was very important. "Today form isn't allowed. Global battles don't allow forms. It's all substance. Form means somebody is not intensely interested in the company. Somebody on umpteen boards. Somebody off giving speeches all the time. Somebody that doesn't have their eye on the ball. Somebody who has reached the position of chairman as the culmination of a career, rather than the beginning of a career."

Leave your tie at home more often than not

Formality gets in the way achieving great things. Welch believed that the part of the GE success story was the power of GE as "an informal place". No one called him "Mr. Welch," it was always "Jack". He left his tie at home more often than not, held informal meetings, and encouraged everyone to lighten up. At GE Work-Out meetings, employees and managers alike were asked to dress casually at the workshops, in chinos and T-shirts, in order to blur distinctions between managers and workers.

Hold more informal meetings
"Lighten up meetings by asking your staff to "run" the meeting, and suggest "a no notes allowed" meeting as well."

Find simple ways to loosen things up
Introduce flexible working hours, a more relaxed dress code, etc.

Brainstorm with bosses and colleagues frequently
Weave brainstorming into the cultural fabric of your organization.
Brainstormers offer your team members a chance to shine. It's a friendly competition.

Organize a once-in-a-while informal get together
Invite workers with spouses and significant others.

   

Jack Welch advice business quotes

You must realize now how important it is to maintain the kind of corporate informality that encourages a training class to comfortably challenge the boss's pet ideas.

Jack Welch

GE