Consensus Through Conversation [antikvár]

FOREWORD BY PIERRE GAGNON Former CEO, Mitsubishi Motors of North America My years at Saturn and Mitsubishi taught me that inclusive leadership is one of the most powerful tools in business today. The command and control model of management is now obsolete. In today's complex business environment, there has never been a greater need for including others in critical decisions. Yet, I have found very few business leaders who are comfortable with the notion of deciding by consensus. They feel they are giving up power and prestige. Having used the consensus approach for more than a decade, I strongly believe that consensus decision making yields higher-quality and higher-commitment decisions. It is not, however, a process that is easily implemented. To make it work, a leader must have a deep-rooted, fundamental belief that broader participation in decision making yields much higher-quality decisions and incredibly faster execution. I was fortunate to learn the process at Saturn, but truly experienced the unbelievable power of consensus at Mitsubishi. When I arrived at Mitsubishi in April 1997, I found a fragmented company with an unclear brand identity, disappointing product quality, and an adversarial relationship with dealers. It's no wonder the company had lost money for ten consecutive years in North America. I was informed a month after joining the company that the Japanese parent company was seriously considering pulling out of America. Needless to say, I felt an enormous sense of urgency to change the business fundamentals of the U.S.-based company. We immediately formed twelve change teams to tackle the critical areas of the business, from product quality to brand development. I urgently needed to fully I ' mi . i i V I ;i. > f : '1 ¦ . > i ¦ 'r. :