Thats Not How We Do Things Here by John Kotter

Thats not how we do things here is a story written by John Kotter, and it revolves around a clan of marketers that lived in the Kalahari region in Southern part of Africa. The area is subjected to steady growth, but after a while, there is a calamity that leaves everyone panicking. The occurrence of the drought in that region reduced the clans resources, and it was time for them to look for other resources to satisfy them. As things started to be worse day in day out, the harmony that was in that clan started to shutter. All the solutions presented were not working, and they were met with a lot of conflicts and quarrels. The executive teams spend their time in quarrels and even if the workers gave the suggestions, they could not get a little response. The only response they got was, thats not how we do it here.

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In the midst of that confusion, one bright and adventurous Nadia decided to hit the road so that she could gather some ideas and suggestions for her troubled country. She wanted to bring a difference and to change the perspectives of the people who she considered her people and clan. Nadia noticed that almost everyone that was in charge kept yelling like those in her home. While she was on her journey, she made several observations and noted that there were different things that her community needed to learn. She learned that there was a small group that operated in a very different manner.

They worked with a lot of teamwork and agility. The group had developed a best innovative solution that enabled them to find food and evade the vultures. The small group was part of her clan, and she had to come up with a strategy that would make the best worlds combine. She needed to find a way to unite the large, disciplined and managed clan with the small. Inspiring and informal clan before things fell out of place.

Its hard how Nadia would bring the two community into getting a permanent solution. When Nadias friend Ayo who is a guard, claims that he would climb a tree so that he could keep watch of any impending danger does so, he is disciplined, and he later leaves the clan. Ayo loses hope since being a guard was the only thing he knew and wanted to do.

It was at this point that Nadia realizes that there should be another clan that faces the same challenges and that they needed to find a way to meet them and come up with a solution. Nadia leaves with Ayo to search and learns so that they can help their clan. They later meet with Matt who had heard of a clan that needed new members. After they had found new members and they amounted to 50, the clan started to fall apart. The visionary ideas and the leadership ideas that were held by people like Lena were what the clan needed so that they could later join the two clans and be stable and safe.

The Characters

The characters are the major key to developing the plot of the story. The main character is Nadia. She is a young lady who plays out the role of finding the solution of the problem that is in their clan. She symbolizes hope since she believes that if she leaves, she will find a clan that will enable her to learn and have strategies of being a leader where she would save her clan. She knew that her clan needed to have some strategies and not only disciplining the wrong doers. She is the creative one. John Kotter brings her out as brilliant and adventurous and also energetic compared to the other members of her clan.

Her personality was motivating and she was always enthusiastic and outgoing. Meerkat children wanted to follow her wherever she went, and she always thought that it was fun. Her role in the story is that she was influential and that if she said anything people would certainly follow. She was always looking for the ways to make things better in her society. She planned to join another clan members that had innovative ideas so that she could learn and let her clan join with it so that they can learn various qualities for leadership. She possessed qualities of leadership when she was young, and thats why the author used her to portray the role of leadership.

Nadia was very confident and she knew what she wanted. When she was called for the interview, she knew what was expected of her, and she answered all the questions right winning the right to be a leader. She does not wait for someone to tell her that the clan was falling apart. She notices the fact that she needed to do something and when her friend the guard Ayo was relieved off his duties out of indiscipline, she decides to go with him to search for solutions. She knew that leadership meant unity and that why she was in search for another clan to learn from and later provide the solution to her clan on how to manage resources and to be in leadership

Nicholas was Nadias older brother and also the head of the guards.

His role in the story is to show that leadership comes with responsibilities since he was reliable and disciplined. She always looked out for her sister Nadia and could not let any harm befall her and other Meerkats. He believed that for a clan to function well there needed to be discipline and order. He ensured that all the necessary work in the clan was completed. Since Nicholas was in charge of security, he makes sure that any threat that is made against the clan never get to ruin the stability of the clan. He makes sure that he takes the responsibility of identifying his sisters capabilities and for that he made her responsible for the young puppies.

Organizations and Challenges Faced

The most primary issues that are being investigated is the management of the organization. The story has provoked a wide range of ideas in various areas in the organization. An organization needs to adopt different changes in the environment and come up with innovative ideas. Instead of an organization dealing with conflicts and not implementing some changes, the organization needs to apply some elements that would enable teamwork instead of fighting and learning instead of dictating. For an organization to thrive, it should allow continuous learning, understanding and also diversity. It is up to the leaders to get to lead and change the thinking of people.

Although various factors should be considered, for the organization to rise, challenges need to be solved so that there can be possibilities of rising again after falling. An organization is bound to face challenges like conflicting ideas whereby the worker's solution might contradict the leaders, and a disagreement can affect both the leadership and the workforce. Just like the story indicates when Nadia and her friends join the new clan they learn that the clan is very keen on sharing resources like food and ideas.

In this sense, the primary challenge of an organization is lack of sharing. If the organization cannot share among themselves on plans and strategies that they should implement, then the organizations would not get new innovative ideas that would make it expand and stable. If Nadia did not go to the new clan, she wouldnt have learned the information on sharing and their clan would have remained the same or even worse. The organization is faced with challenges like not showing appreciations to the workers by congratulating them when they have come up with a successful innovative idea. Most leaders do not appreciate or motivate their employees, and that pose a challenge since it feels good and encouraging when one is recognized for their good deeds.

Another challenge facing organization is a rivalry from others and also fights. The story introduces the fact that the Meerkat were once attacked by the vultures terrorizing everyone in the clan. The organization has to promise everyone security and safety, and if this is not obtained, it can be a great challenge to the people who look up to it for safety. Attacks from the rivals are standard, and this means that the organization needs to have a mechanism that would protect it from dangers. Organizations are also faced with challenges like scarce resources or capital. The fact that Meerkat clan experienced a drought for a long time and food became scarce means that organizations can have a shortage of resources to cover their expenditure and all the other costs. The story indicates that over time water and food became rare and hard to find. The budget of the organization can cost more than the income and thus putting the activities and people in dissatisfaction.

The other challenge is the blame game. In this essence, the organization will be put in a situation where they blame each other since they lack the essence of working as a team. The structure of the organization can also be a challenge if it does not focus on solving the problems and listening to the other individuals ideas. The worry for a solution can be so stressing such that the organization becomes exhausted and instead of becoming better, it might worsen. The workers can feel insecure, and they can give inaccurate news that would lead to improper communication making the problem to be worse.

The key takeaways help everyone learn the fact that it is the idea and the vision that a team might have that allows them to have a firm belief and they come together and carry it out passionately. The work of a leader is to keep the people that they believe in them to have hope.

They should be able to keep the other peoples feelings into consideration. The lesson that a team can learn is the fact that if people can be innovative, creative and discipline, even the whole can and be even better. The answers might not all be there concerning an individual problem that the organization could be facing, but if there is promising direction, then one should seek to have a long lasting solution just like the Meerkats residents did to the drought calamity. A leader needs to have qualities that Nadia had in the story. Someone who leads by an example and lives an exemplary life, someone who cares about putting his team needs first and finding the answers to a problem.

Learning occurs daily, and the story indicates that a team needs to come up with rules, measures and procedures. If a group develops the best strategy like what was prepared by Nadias group to restore their clan, then the team will be robust and stable forming a coexisting relationship that aims at moving forward.

I think that there is a great difference when an organization is being managed and when an organization has a leader. When a leader comes up with a strategy that will bring people closer to one another with action like good planning, strategies that touch their souls and encouraging them, then they will come up with the most creative and innovative ideas about development.

Just like people are punished for doing evil so should they be rewarded for their contribution making them feel recognized, it is important for an organization to plan, measure, solve problems and produce reliable results that will bring people back to their senses. For a leader, I have learned that he or she should promise to guide and give direction, motivate and inspire the team so that they could view and discover the opportunity that will be creative enough to enable them to lead a successful and prosperous future. With the changing world, it is time people engage not only in implementing ideas out of metrics but also in finding ideas, dealing with all the barriers and establishing change.