Navigate the Swirl: 7 Conversations for Business Transformation

by Richard S. Hawkes

Overview

"The 7 Conversations is a unique model for organizations to grow and innovate in a team-based way with a powerful transformation accelerator."
—Penny Pennington, Managing Partner, Edward Jones

An actionable blueprint for transformational business journeys from Growth River founder Richard Hawkes

Leading transformation in teams, businesses, and organizations is complex, and leaders are expected to know how to do it. Navigating the Swirl provides the clear thinking required to navigate this challenge.

In Navigate the Swirl: 7 Conversations for Business Transformation renowned growth and strategy leader Richard Hawkes delivers a simple and powerful framework that any team can apply to overcome the most common leadership challenges to growing and scaling companies, known as “The Swirl.” In this straightforward book, he draws on decades of experience guiding teams to implement strategic change at companies like Edward Jones, GENEWIZ, Hitachi, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Mars, and Chicos.

You'll learn:

• To understand and lead disruptive change in a complex social system – your company
• Ways to visualize and diagnose the essential working parts of a company
• How to apply an integrated toolset for teams to lead organizational change and business transformation
• How to create transformational journey maps that leaders, teams, businesses, and companies must apply to unleash growth potential and agility
• How networks of teams should work together to develop each other’s leadership and to manage and accelerate change

Written as a practical guide for business and team leaders, Navigate the Swirl: 7 Conversations for Business Transformation belongs on the desks and in the hands of every purpose driven leader.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781119868798
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	04/19/2022
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Richard S. Hawkes is the Founder of Growth River, an international consultancy that guides leaders and teams to create higher performance in businesses and organizations. Its practical mission is to make high-­performing ways of working easier. He works with companies to identify and resolve constraints to success, including Edward Jones, GENEWIZ, Hitachi, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Mars. He sees purpose-driven, customer-­focused, team-based, multi-stakeholder businesses as our best bet for solving the big problems.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xix

A Note To The Reader: How to Use This Book xxi

Introduction: The Swirl xxiii

Part 1 Framing the Conversation 1

1 Understanding Organizations: Social Systems, Not Machines 3

2 Understanding Businesses: The Business Triangle 19

3 Understanding Growth: Dynamics of Organizational Development 31

Part 2 The Evolution of an Enterprise 47

4 The Four Stages of Enterprise Evolution 49

5 A Business Is Born: Stage 1, Independent Contributors 57

6 A Leader Steps Up: Stage 2, Directive Leadership 65

7 A 5:30 Wake-Up Call: The Transition to Stage 3, Distributed Leadership 71

8 A Complete System of Roles: Stage 3, Distributed Leadership 81

9 Leveraging Creative Tension: Stage 3, Distributed Leadership, continued 101

10 High-Performing Teams: Stage 3, Distributed Leadership, continued 115

11 Toward a Flat, Agile Organization: Stage 4: Leaders Leading Leaders 127

Part 3 The Seven Conversations 133

12 Organizations Evolve at the Speed of Conversation 135

13 Conversation 1: Activating Purpose 145

14 Conversation 2: Driving Focus 153

15 Conversation 3: Shifting Mindset 159

16 Conversation 4: Specifying Capabilities and Roles 165

17 Conversation 5: Streamlining Interdependencies 171

18 Conversation 6: Aligning Strategies 175

19 Conversation 7: Implementing Initiatives 185

20 An Invitation to Transformation 187

Glossary 191

Index 239

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“An absorbing business book that brilliantly addresses how to cope with the turbulence of change [...] valuable and actionable counsel for forward-thinking business leaders." - Kirkus Reviews

Editorial Reviews

2022-04-15
A leadership consultant explains how certain conversations can transform a business.

Hawkes uses an unusual but apropos word to define the constant change that most business leaders face: “the Swirl.” The term acts as an anchor in an absorbing business book that brilliantly addresses how to cope with the turbulence of change, culminating in “seven crucial conversations” that lead to organizational transformation. Before enumerating and explaining these, the author logically lays the groundwork by first “Framing the Conversation” in Part 1 and then exploring “The Evolution of an Enterprise” in Part 2. Hawkes urges readers not to jump ahead to the conversations themselves in Part 3; this is good advice, because the initial sections provide a solid foundation for understanding later ideas. The first offers an excellent overview of the business organization, with an emphasis on the underappreciated notion that “teams and organizations are complex, adaptive, social systems.” Hawkes aptly demonstrates how a drive toward “alignment” can help keep Swirl to a minimum in such systems. He neatly notes how every business has three basic elements, depicted in a triangle: “Develop, Sell, and Deliver.” Hawkes also postulates that business growth occurs in “three domains” related to transformational change: “Leadership and Culture,” “Capabilities and Roles,” and “Strategies and Customer Experience.” The book’s second part concentrates on how an enterprise evolves, covering four stages of this evolution in considerable detail. The most engaging aspect is his assertion that these stages revolve around both individual and collective actions within an organization, from “Independent Contributors” in Stage 1 to “Leaders Leading Leaders” in Stage 4. The author clearly describes each of these stages and supplements them with examples. Parts 1 and 2 are so detailed and relevant to modern organizational leadership that they could easily stand on their own, but Part 3 is the heart of the book. Hawkes introduces it by noting that “Organizations evolve at the speed of conversation.” He then devotes a chapter to each of the “Seven Crucial Conversations,” involving such concepts as “Activating Purpose,” “Shifting Mindset,” and “Aligning Strategies.” He elegantly describes each of these in broad terms to avoid overwhelming readers, but he also provides enough detail to give his insights some impact. For example, for “Activating Purpose,” he provides readers with a series of questions, including “Does this team have a leader willing and able to activate a shared team purpose? How will decisions be made in this team? What is the shared purpose of the team? Are the needs of the customers and stakeholders whom we serve clear?” Useful sidebars highlight specific examples and key terms. Hawkes deftly concludes the book by restating what he promised in the introduction: “an operating system” for business transformation, which he sees as “both a human journey and a shared journey.” The author succeeds at this goal, skillfully exposing the complexities of organizations without minimizing uncomfortable realities. Overall, the book provides a fresh perspective on how to provide effective leadership even in challenging circumstances.

Valuable and actionable counsel for forward-thinking business leaders.

Kirkus Reviews