In today’s “flat” world, you must get the best from teams that span not just offices, but continents: teams of unprecedented diversity and complexity. Leading those teams, you must deliver better results faster and with fewer resources. Conventional management techniques just won’t do the job anymore. You need a radically new approach to management: one that’s more fluid, more agile, and far less hierarchical.   How to Manage in a Flat World teaches you that new approach. Drawing on hard-won lessons from today’s most successful global managers, this book covers both high-level concepts and hands-on techniques. You’ll find best practices for everything from building trust to choosing the right times to travel…even maintaining a healthy work/life balance when you’re leading a team that’s operating 24/7!  The new flat world has both high levels of interconnectivity facilitated by technology and high levels of dispersion within teams and companies, with colleagues often working in different offices, or even different parts of the world. This demands a new set of skills and tools of you as a manager. How to Manage in a Flat World gives you the ten strategies you need to be a high-performing manager. The key is to communicate and collaborate closely with your team, even if you don't see them very often. This practical book includes interviews with managers around the world, and will help the reader make the best use of technology; establish a work-life balance for yourself; know when you need to have face-to-face meetings; lead and motivate your team, wherever they are; create a culture of trust and motivation that will lead to higher performance; and prepare and adapt to change so that you are not left behind.

Table of Contents:
Foreword    xi Acknowledgments    xiii About the Authors    xv Preface    xvii Introduction    xix Part I    The Team 1    “Flat” Teams Need Direction    3 Key Points    3 Followership    4 Getting into Focus    5 Leading out of the Darkness of Ambiguity    6 Behind the Scenes: Teams in Synch with the Business    9 Unity of Focus in Complex Teams    11 Case Study: Coca-Cola: RIP the Department Silo    14 Clusters    15 Case Study: Shell Retail: Huge Workforce in a Dispersed Operation    17 Do We All Have to “Bond”?    20 Case Study: United Biscuits    22 If We Don’t Know Where We Are Going, We Will Probably End Up Somewhere Else    25 Your Own Human Internet    26 Learning Points: High Performance with a Globally Dispersed Team    27 2    The Medium and the Message    29 Key Points    29 What Do We Get from “Being There”?    31 Video-Conferences: An Irritation    33 Why Are We Here?    35 Face-to-Face Can Be Powerful but Must Be Used Well    36 All Businesses Are People Businesses    38 A Level Playing Field in the Same Room    39 An International Team Can Really Fire    41 Benefits to Being the Virtual Stranger    42 Will Face-to-Face Become a Luxury?    44 Are There Hidden Advantages to the Virtual Connection?    47 Native or Nonnative English? Some Notes on Language    49 Onward with Travel    51 Learning Points: How to Get the Meeting Structure Right    51 3    Does Culture Still Matter?    53 Key Points    53 Is There a Generation Y?    57 Is It Really Culture?    59 In Which Ways Do We Differ?    60 In Which Ways Are We All the Same?    61 Individual Case Study: Monika Altmaier, Project Leader Internationalization, Siemens Business Services    63 Group Case Study: European Top Team    66 Defying the Stereotypes: WL Gore & Associates in China    67 Culture Clash Based on Profession    70 Learning Points: Tips to Avoid Stereotyping    72 4    Engage Leadership Skills: Command and Control Doesn’t Work    73 Key Points    73 Can Empowerment and Control Live Together?    74 Can You Learn, Unlearn, and Relearn?    78 How Do You Set Limits?    79 Managing the Bosses: Where Does Followership Fit in?    81 Quality of Relationships, Not Formulae    82 Learning Points: How to Improve Leadership Skills    83 5    Teams Are Not Self-Assembly    85 Key Points    85 What Are Those Special Ingredients?    86 Search Agent    87 Looking for the Global Mindset    87 How Important Is Fluent English?    90 The Hunt for Talent: Recruiting via Networks    91 Building the Right Culture Will Attract the People You Want    94 Learning Points: Guiding Principles for International Recruitment    96 Part II    The Individual 6    EQ Is Not Enough: Intelligence Matters    99 Key Points    99 LVMH: Understanding the Market    102 Alstom: Building Long-Term Connections    104 It Is Not Always Enough to Be a Virtual Leader    105 Understanding the World: Changes That Creep Up on Us    106 Wake Up: The Paradigm Has Already Shifted    108 How Do We Make Learning Continuous?    111 Learning Points: How to Combine Strategic and Conceptual Thinking for Effective Leadership    113 7    Keeping a Life: Questions of Balance in the Flat World    115 Key Points    115 Meeting Face-to-Face Sends a Positive Message    117 Do We Have to Leave the Real Me at the Door?    118 Do We Have to Have the Maximum Everything?    123 Is Multitasking Really Possible?    124 “You Get Work-Life Balance Complaints When You’re Losing”    126 Learning Points: How to Improve Work-Life Balance    127 8    Ten Strategies for Managing in a Flat World    129 1 Leadership Style Needs to Become Empowering and Inspirational    131 2 A Flat World Means Flat Structures    132 3 Recruitment of the Right People Makes All the Difference    132 4 Always Show the Way    133 5 Communicate Often and Learn to Communicate Well    133 6 Teams Don’t Just Happen    134 7 Build Trust: It Is the Foundation of Strong Teams    135 8 Respect Cultural Differences    135 9 Work-Life Balance is the Blessing and the Curse of the Flat World    136 10 Become Part of the Human Internet    137 Implications for Boards, Managers, and Ordinary People    137 Managers Should Be Cut from a Different Cloth    139 Changing the Leadership Model    139 Ways of Being and Doing    140 Lessons from the Movies    141 Lumps and Bumps in the Flat World: What Would Make You Fail?    142 Using Both Sides of the Brain: Transforming Leadership    143 Conclusion: How to Be a Stand-Out Manager in a Flat World    145 The Three Cs of Success in the Flat World    146 A New Language for the Flat World    147 Notes    150 Index    151