A Blog about Fashion, Foreword Thinking and Good Design - Assignment Example

Leading in a Changing World A Blog about Fashion, Foreword Thinking, and Good Design Leading in a Changing World A Blog about Fashion, Foreword Thinking and Good Design Blog 1: Creating Collaboration Being a leader means making choices about how to produce results. Any team will have a dynamic and how that dynamic is used by a leader has the potential for creating performance levels that succeed or fail to use the talents of the members to their best advantage. The first problem with creating a team is in finding members who can contribute a diverse set of talents that can bring into harmony the goals of the team. A leader in the fashion industry will have very specific goals to reach with strict deadlines. Through collaborative teams, a group vision will begin to focus in the lead designer’s ideas so that a collection will form. Herminia Ibarra and Morten Hansen (2011) discussed the theory of collaboration as a process in which diversity brings broader results to decision making. They state that “Research has consistently shown that diverse teams produce better results, provided they are well led. The ability to bring together people from different backgrounds, disciplines, cultures, and generations and leverage all they have to offer, therefore, is a must-have for leaders (Ibarra and Hansen 2011: 71). Leading in a collaborative environment is the best possible way in which to create highly innovative solutions and products at an elevated level of performance. Difference can bring more balance to the results and a good leader will inspire collaboration. Phillips (2008: 251) discusses the concept of congruent teams. These teams are created with the intentional assignment of roles so that each team member puts into the group work their own expertise. The best results, however, come when the input of each team member cannot be predicted, thus they come up with creative additions to the work through their expertise, but also through their ability to contribute unexpected concepts and ideas. In order to get to this type of diversity and congruency, the leader must know how to inspire collaboration. Collaboration comes when ideas begin to spark further development between team members. The theory that supports this type of leadership is in creating teams through structural interdependence and emergent interdependence that comes together through cognitively diverse team collaboration. Structural interdependence comes from roles that require the skills of a diverse team which are then matched with emergent interdependence as roles are defined with framed tasks. The ‘magic’ occurs as the use of the members and their skills have been ‘misunderstood’, bringing surprising results that will vastly improve the performance for the goals at hand. An example of collaborations that can create surprising results can be seen between fashion designers and architects. Anderson, Nobbs, Wigley and Larsen (2010: 2) suggest that through bringing two types of designers together for store build projects, the results are innovative and exciting. Skills that are diverse and yet complimentary can create projects that are developed through crossed sectors of design ideology which supports the unusual result. This shows how unexpected contributions can provide an overall high level of performance, especially in the fashion world where visual innovations are the key to success. Blog 2: Change Resistence Resistance to change is a part of human nature. When a company decides to create change it is necessary to deal with the human resources of the company through change management. If a company chooses not to lead their people through the change, the consequences can be dire. When a change occurs there are a number of questions that come into the minds of those that will be affected by the change. Self-preservation becomes the central focus of the fears that come with change and it is the job of a good leader to calm those fears so that change can be more readily accepted. Mullins (2010: 753) suggests that there is little that management can do about resistance to change. This is not true. It is true that there is likely to be resistance, but good leadership will provide for ease of that resistance so there are things that management can do to create less resistance. Cameron and Green (2008:128) defined a formula for change management that is as follows: C = [AxBxD] > X The first portion, C, refers to Change with A meaning “level of dissatisfaction with the status quo”, B meaning “desirability of the proposed change or end state”, and D meaning the “practicality of the change (minimal risk and disruption)” (Cameron and Green 2008: 128). The equation of ABD must be greater than the cost of changing. It is the responsibility of good leadership to make ABD perceived as greater than the costs that are involved in creating change. An example of discussing how change can be affected by good leadership can be seen in the example of J.C. Penney. New CEO Myron E. Ullman stated that “The associates are the first customers we sell. If it doesn’t ring true to them, it’s impossible to communicate and inspire the customer” (Purkayasth 2007: 2). The intention of the company was to change the work culture in order to help with a transition towards other more significant changes in the organization. Ullman took note of the very formal work culture in which people referred to superiors through calling them by their last names with Mr. or Ms. in front of the name and were expected to wear very strict work attire into the offices. In order to begin other changes, Ullman first had to loosen up the work culture so that young talent could be attracted into the organization. This worked very quickly and this leadership lubricated the company so that it could be ready for more significant changes. Although change was welcomed for the most part, there was some resistance. New talent had to be integrated with long standing employees. This creates some sense of threat for those who were being challenged by new ideas. Small incentives, such as name badges that put the first names of employees in larger letters, worked to encourage more relaxed cultural changes, which lead to a greater acceptance of the larger changes such as the new employees (Purkayasth 2007: 8). It wasn’t easy to create change and it took time. It was after two years of creating small and large changes to the culture of the company that real results began to finally be shown (Purkayasth 2007: 9). This proves, however, that wide sweeping changes can occur in a company and that it is through strong, secure leadership that changes can be made. Ullman took a formal atmosphere and changed it into a forward thinking work force. Blog 3: Steering Innovation Innovation is the key to the success of most businesses. Although some businesses are driven by loyalty to their product in its stable form – no one can forget the failure of New Coke as it tried to establish a new flavour and it was unequivocally rejected by Coke drinkers – most business thrive or dive dependent upon being able to innovate in their industry. Cooper (2011: 3) discusses the nature of innovation and its place into the market using the most often used example of innovation and its effect on business. Steve Jobs of Apple is that example and his use of technologies that existed and re-inventing them set the technological world on fire and made Apple a formidable player in that field. He did not invent Mp3 players, but the iPod re-invented them. He didn’t invent Smartphones, but the iPhone made them something completely new. Innovation is a key to success. The example of Steve Jobs is important because in order to understand how his leadership created innovation, one must recognize that true innovation is collaboration. Jobs and his charisma may have inspired his people towards innovation, but it took teams of technical engineers and designers to create the high end works that Jobs was looking for to create his position in the market. He was not only looking for great working pieces of technology, but he needed them to be high end design. Jobs needed them to work, but he was not the one who would design how that happened. Innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. It happens within relationships that help to take an idea from conception to the market. In the fashion world innovation has the same amount of importance. One designer who had the talent for innovation was Alexander McQueen. One can look at the career of Jobs and see the same kind of magic appear in the career of McQueen. His history is shrouded in myth and his work takes clothing and elevates it to pieces of art. He also did not work alone or in a vacuum. His collections, like all collections, required working with fabric makers, pattern makers, seamstresses, and even the models in order to convey the innovative designs that he created. Still, it was McQueen that pushed the innovative styles through the process, even sewing labels that included a lock of his own hair in his signature pieces in order to keep something of his body within the works (Gleason 2012: 9). Another fashion designer with high innovation can be seen in the Dubai designer Amul Marad who is taking the abaya to designer limits, creating movement and style in a garment that is necessary in the culture of Dubai and presents restrictions on how it must be created. Through using the limits of the abaya, the style of Amul Murad are elegant, modern, and innovative in their use of materials. This designer also does not work in a vacuum. The designer must use the design team to get the collection to the Dubai runways each year (Ammara 2010). In the fashion world, just like in other industries, it take a team to get ideas into the market. Even in businesses where the person is the brand, it takes the whole team to perpetuate that brand. McQueen, as an example, has left this world but his brand lives on and is designed by someone who was on his team. Without collaboration towards innovation, no product can get into the market and out into the public. Blog 4: Ethical Leadership One of the most difficult ways in which to lead when someone is both plagued and gifted with the ability to create and design is through ethically driven leadership. Vision is a difficult aspect of a person’s talents to manage. Vision can be an obsession that will not leave someone alone until it is fulfilled. It is an entity on its own that works its way around inside the head of the person who is driven by it to create. It can be silenced, shut away, or driven out, but if it is released, it is a monster that can become a part of the way in which someone of talent is driven to get things done. It is easy to see this in the world of celebrity every day. There are always stories of how one celebrity or another has had an inappropriate fit or worse, assaulted someone who works for them. The same can be said for designers who have not got a handle on their tempers, actions, or relationships. People will work with them because they are geniuses, but this does not mean that the way in which they behave has been ethical towards those who work so hard to help them get their vision from thought to creation. Ethical leadership can have a decisive influence on the work product. People will usually respond to positive reinforcement, but high innovation often comes with a cost that does not include positive relationships. Ethical behaviour in leadership may not always have been found in positive interrelationship skills. McCoy (2007: 2) writes that “A successful leader attempts to align the values of the enterprise with those of the individuals who formed it, striving to facilitate a sense of deep meaning and commitment in their work”. In a creative business, sometimes anger, unreasonable demands, and the expectation of the impossible will be a part of how the work gets accomplished. In this case, ethical behaviour in relationship to how people are treated may not be the way in which to get to the best possible end. Normative ethical behaviour is behaviour that is expected and that is defined by cultural relativism (McCoy 2007: 3). How behaviour is expected in a culture is how ethical behaviour is defined for that culture. Elkington and Hartigan (2008: 10-12) discuss unreasonable people in creative industries as thinking that they know the future and being propelled towards that future through emotion. It is through their charisma that others will follow them and this does not always mean treating others with compassion and in a reasonably civilized manner. Decidedly unethical relationships were examined in the novel The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger who described her experiences working for Anna Wintour at Vogue magazine through fictionalized interpretation. Anna Wintour has been described as notoriously difficult to work with, but she set the tone for the fashion world through her interpretations of collections and editorial eye on the fashion world. She is known to be unpleasant, demanding, unreasonable, and without apology for these traits, but what comes from her nature is a magazine that quite frequently changes and narrows the focus of the fashion world. It is the language of fashion that defines Vogue magazine and no one speaks it more fluently than Anna Wintour (Borrelli 1997: 249). That kind of intelligence comes at a price, however, but in order to work for her there have been many willing to pay the price of admission into her world. Creativity comes without a sense of normative behaviour and this means that the expectations of ethical leadership on that basis cannot be expected. Blog 5: My Leadership Style Leadership is something that is defined by the needs of the product. This means that in order to create leadership, the work will dictate how to put together a team, how to inspire them, and what to expect in the process. In the case of J.C. Penney as it became less formal and more conducive to bringing in younger talent, the CEO had to lead through compassion and through change management skills. He used influential methods in order to inspire workers to adjust to the new culture. This allowed them to move towards organizational change with acceptance and a sense of enthusiasm. This does not work in all industries, however. The fashion industry is filled with people who are working towards creating something that is difficult to reach. Alexander McQueen, like all creative leaders, depends on his team to get to the runway and put on an amazing show. His work was always based on shock value, however, so being flexible enough to work with his vision must have been challenging no matter what kind of leadership he showed. One of his shows required the models to wear very little clothing, their breasts prominently displayed through different ways, and the theme of the show requiring them to be made up with blood and dirt. One of the models walked the runway with a bare chest, her hands covered in what appeared to be blood covering her own breasts (Gleason 2012: 10). This kind of experimentation and creative innovation in visual representation requires that his team work with him, but may not require him to be compassionate to the input of his team to get to the final product. Innovation comes from the leadership of a group. This can mean a great number of things which are intended to get to the final result. The example of Steve Jobs shows that having good ideas requires teams of people to get to something really unique, but it also means that the leader has to push people to get to the place where they have created something that matches the vision of the leader. This is also shown in the fashion industry with the most extreme known example coming from Anna Wintour. Wintour is well known for being unreasonable and demanding to get to the product that she knows is important and innovative in the fashion industry (Borelli 1997, p. 259). In all honesty I do not know if I could lead at the expense of normative expectations of behaviour. Being so immersed in my vision to the point that the way in which I treat people is compromised does not seem like something I can do in order to get to the end product. I also know that the leaders in most of the creative world have to set aside everything that does not support getting to the full exploration of the vision that has set in motion the creative spirit of a business. I am inspired by Alexander McQueen and the way in which he challenged the fashion industry. His work was defined by its spirit of history and the future. As a leader he inspired his team to go to places that were outside of the norm. It would be my hope that I would stand for something creative, innovative, and outside of the norm the way that McQueen managed to create for his collections. Being a leader can be seen in two ways. In the first it is defined by leading people towards a common goal. In the creative environment it is leading everyone towards the vision of one person. As a member of the fashion world I will have to find a way to be a part of the second type of leadership Bibliography Ammara. (9 April 2010). Style by Ammara. Blogspot. 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The power of unreasonable people: How social entrepreneurs create markets that change the world. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School Press. Gleason, K. (2012). Alexander Mcqueen evolution. New York: Race Point. Ibarra, Herminia and Hansen, Morten T. (2011). Are you a collaborative leader? In On Collaboration. Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. [Online] Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=mx7ynV7Y6yMC& printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false (Accessed on 28 March 2013). McCoy, B. H. (2007). Living into leadership: A journey in ethics. Stanford, Calif: Stanford Business Books. Mullins, L.J. (2010), Management and Organisational Behaviour, 9th Edition, Harlow:Pearson Higher Education Phillips, K. W. (2008). Diversity and Groups. Bradford: Emerald Group Publishing. Purkayasth, D. (2007). Remaking J. C. Penney’s organizational culture. ICMR Center for Management Research. 407-057-1. Read More