General Motors: Whitacre must change the operating system, not the software

Today’s announcement by General Motors that the current CEO, Fritz Henderson has resigned after just five months is no surprise. The US auto industry has been in The Big Rut for quite some time, and one of the key indicators of any organization in that stage of decline is its inability to self-diagnose the problems it faces. Appointing someone as CEO who has been at General Motors his entire career is as blatant an example of a lack of self-awareness as is possible to exhibit.

In Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey’s most recent, remarkable book “Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself” (which, despite it’s title, is far from a perky self-help book – it’s a phenomenal resource for organizational change), the authors – discussing leadership development – draw a distinction between getting better at what you do, and utterly transforming what you do. They use the metaphor of changing the entire operating system (transformation) instead of just adding more files and software (getting better at what you currently do).

Fritz Henderson was, I’m sure, capable of adding more files and software to GM’s already horrendously bloated organizational hard drive. His entire career equipped him to do just that. Unfortunately, what’s needed at GM is an entirely new operating system – a completely transformed way of doing business. For the sake of the US auto industry and all its dependents, let’s hope GM’s Chairman, Ed Whitacre, gets it.

Sadly, his former tenure (more than 40 years with SBC / AT&T) doesn’t presage much of an appetite for wholesale transformation.

“Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself” – on Google Books – on Amazon – on 800CEOread

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About the Author

Les McKeown is the Founder and CEO of Predictable Success.

Les is the author of "Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization On the Growth Track - and Keeping It There". "The Synergist: How to Lead Your Team to Predictable Success", "Do Lead: Share Your Vision. Inspire Others. Achieve the Impossible" and most recently "Do Scale: A Roadmap to Building a Remarkable Company".