Post an evaluation of the 7 S Model as a tool for planning and executing change with an organization. Your evaluation should include the following:

that all seven forces needed to some- how be aligned if the organization was going to move forward vigorously. As we put it, “At its most powerful and complex, the framework forces us to concentrate on interactions and fit. The real energy required to re-direct an institution comes when all the vari- ables in the model are aligned.”

The other seminal idea—that there were Soft Ss and Hard Ss—emerged as well and lasts to this day. I continue to say, over 30 years later, that the power of the 7-Ss and In Search of Excellence (1982) and my subsequent work can best be captured in six words: Hard is soft. Soft is hard. That is, it’s the plans and the numbers that are often soft (the sky-high soundness scores that the rat- ings agencies gave packages of dubious mortgages). And the people (staff) and shared values (culture) and skills (core competencies) that are truly hard—that is, the bedrock upon which the adap- tive and enduring enterprise is built.

We included the Hard Ss (Strategy, Structure, Systems) in our framework, then added the Soft Ss (Style, Staff, Skills, Shared values—or Superordinate goal); and insisted that there was no

precedence among them. Deal with all seven, or accept the consequence—less than effective implementation of a project or program.

At one point, there was a movement to oust me from my office when an Op-ed I wrote appeared in the Wall Street Journal in June 1980, emphasizing the primacy of the Soft Ss. Bob

Waterman saved me, as he often had to do. My favorite certification of our approach came 20 years later from the ultimate Hard S guy, McKinsey alum Lou Gerstner summarizing his IBM turnaround effort: “If I could have cho- sen not to tackle the IBM culture head- on, I probably wouldn’t have. My bias coming in was toward strategy, analy- sis and measurement. In comparison, changing the attitude and behaviors of hundreds of thousands of people is very hard. Yet I came to see in my time at IBM that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game—it is the game.”

While the Soft S emphasis has been my life’s work, I admit to astonishment when coming across a quote by Rajat Gupta—suggesting three decades of staying power for our little model. LE

Tom Peters is coauthor of In Search of Excellence and other best-selling books. Visit www.TomPeters.com.

ACTION: Apply the 7-S model in management.

IN 2008, SOME 28 YEARSafter Business Horizons birthed (in its June 1980

issue) the 7-Ss in an article by Bob Waterman, myself, and Julien Phillips, former McKinsey & Co. Managing Director Rajat Gupta said: “As global leaders continue to refine approaches to organizing their enterprises to ensure profitability and sustainability, there is surely no one size fits all solution that can guarantee success. However, I find that the 7-S framework offers a sound approach to combining all of the essen- tial factors that sustain strong organiza- tions: strategy, systems, structure, skills, style, and staff—united by shared values.”

This article came three years after I, fresh from receiving my Ph.D. in OB at Stanford, was summoned to the firm’s New York office and hand- ed a fascinating assign- ment. Relatively new McKinsey Managing Director Ron Daniel was launching a priority effort to renew McKinsey’s intel- lectual capital. I was asked to look at organization effec- tiveness issues in an incon- sequential offshoot project nested in McKinsey’s rather offbeat San Francisco office.

I began my work with a tour of McKinsey offices and business schools worldwide. I then pondered my find- ings and began making tentative pre- sentations. Progress was slow until Bob Waterman was assigned as my putative boss. Bob was an excellent consultant with broad tastes and an inquiring mind —and he enlisted Tony Athos, a profes- sor at Harvard Business School, to help us turn our ramblings into something crisp, memorable, and user-friendly.

At a two-day séance in San Francisco, Bob and Tony and I, and Tony’s cohort Richard Pascale, arrived, more or less full-blown, at the 7-S framework. The only alteration became Tony’s beloved superordinate goals morphing into shared values. Tony insisted that we develop an alliterative model. It was a move of genius, as it made the model memorable.

The shape of the model was also of monumental importance. It suggested

McKinsey 7-S Model It continues to benefit leaders.

by Tom Peters

MANAGEMENT MODELIt’s more beneficial (and less expen- sive) to cultivate a culture of empowerment and responsibility toward solving prob- lems as they surface. Such a culture is characteristic of those that constantly learn. It’s what Chris Argyris calls dou- ble-loop learning. He notes that learning involves the “detection and correction of error.” Where something goes wrong, most people look for a way to respond to the problem within the paradigm of the organization. In Argyris’ words, “goals, values, plans and rules are oper- ationalized rather than questioned.” He calls this single-loop learning.

An alternative response is to subject accepted goals, values, plans and rules to critical scrutiny and correct error. This double-loop learning may lead to changes in the established paradigm, creating a shift in the way problems and solutions are framed, expanding possible solutions, and providing a bet- ter chance of ensuring that the problem will not reoccur, since the system in which it occurred is now changed.

Beyond knowing you need to ask ques- tions and what questions to ask, you must be aware of how you ask questions. If the way you ask questions makes others feel confronted rather than supported, you won’t get desired results. Your intention is the difference between coaching and coercing. While each of us has an inner wisdom that can give us the guidance, it is often obscured by inner and outer interference. Good coaching helps indi- viduals work through this interference.

To become an effective coach, you need to: 1) ensure your intentions are not coercive; 2) help the coachee to understand the situation, not fix it for them; 3) ensure you’re not just trying to make yourself look good—the goal is for the team (organization) to win, not to be the star player; 4) ensure you’re asking clarifying questions and helping them to come up with the answers; 5) be open to questioning your assumptions and beliefs; and 6) recognize when a question is advice or suggestion disguised as a question.

Mastering the art of asking good ques- tions will make you more effective at managing and developing others, and contribute to improved problem-solving, better decision-making, and increased capac- ity for learning and agility. The biggest personal payoff may be the increased time you realize in your day once your employees start solving problems and making decisions without you. LE

Chris Musselwhite is president and CEO of Discovery Learning and co-author of Dangerous Opportunity: Making Change Work. Visit www.discoverylearning.com.

ACTION: Master the art of asking questions.

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