Jean-Louis Barsoux

How do people come up with truly original ideas? The answer is to think outside the box--way outside. For the past decade, Cyril Bouquet, Jean-Louis Barsoux, and Michael Wade, professors of innovation and strategy at IMD Business School, have studied inventors, scientists, doctors, entrepreneurs, and artists. These people, or "aliens," as the authors call them, are able to make leaps of creativity, and use five patterns of thinking that distinguish them from the rest of us. These five patterns--Attention, Levitation, Imagination, Experimentation, and Navigation--lead to a fresh and flexible approach to problem-solving. Alien thinkers know how to free the imagination so it can detect hard-to-observe patterns. They practice deliberate ways to retreat from the world in order to see the big picture underlying a problem. And they approach ideas in systematic ways that reflect the constraints of reality. Through surprising and compelling stories, the authors show how readers can use this method to develop out-of-this-world ideas. ALIEN Thinking can help any of us find innovative solutions to the most difficult problems.

Do you have an employee whose performance keeps deteriorating--despite your close monitoring? Brace yourself: You may be at fault--by unknowingly triggering the set-up-to-fail syndrome. Perhaps things started off swimmingly. But then something--a missed deadline, a lost client--made you question the person's performance. You began micromanaging him. Suspecting your reduced confidence, he started doubting himself--and stopped giving his best. You viewed his new behavior as additional proof of mediocrity, and tightened the screws further. In The Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome, Jean-Francois Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsoux show how this insidious cycle hurts everyone: employees stop volunteering ideas, preventing your organization from getting the most from them; you lose energy to attend to other activities; and your reputation suffers as other employees deem you unfair. Team spirit wilts as targeted performers are alienated. But the set-up-to-fail syndrome doesn't have to happen. The authors provide preventive measures, such as loosening the reins as new employees master their jobs. If the syndrome has already erupted, Manzoni and Barsoux explain how to discuss the dynamic with your employee and reverse the cycle.

Does this scenario sound familiar? An employee you manage slips up somehow: a missed deadline, a lost account, or a weak presentation. You decide to oversee that person's work more closely. After all, if your direct reports aren't delivering, it's your head that will roll. To further your frustration, the more you 'help', the worse the employee's performance becomes. What's going on? In this eye-opening book, leadership experts Jean-Francois Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsoux expose a disturbing and surprisingly rampant phenomenon. While common wisdom assumes that so-called poor performers fail in spite of their boss' best efforts, this book demonstrates exactly the opposite. In many cases, a boss' attitudes and behaviors actually cause or 'set up' certain individuals - including those with great potential - to fail. Based on ten years of study into boss-subordinate relationships, Manzoni and Barsoux show that this Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome is not confined to relationships with the proverbial 'boss from hell'. Even respected leaders - whether CEOs, teachers, or coaches - get caught up in it. The problem stems from the fact that while most managers empower and encourage star performers, they tend to micromanage and control perceived 'weaker' performers in ways that stifle self-confidence and drive. The unwitting result: the latter group lives down to expectations, rather than living up to its true potential. The cost of the Syndrome, say Manzoni and Barsoux, goes well beyond the lost productivity of a few individuals. It also threatens to derail careers, takes a heavy toll on morale, and hampers overall organizational results. Through dozens of interviews, illustrative stories, and compelling research, they show how readers can: determine whether they are involved in a set-up-to-fail dynamic, Recognize the mental biases that cause bosses to trigger the cycle; understand how subordinates contribute to fueling the problem; take specific steps to interrupt the cycle through proactive interventions; and, prevent the Syndrome altogether by managing relationships differently. For anyone with influence on an individual's potential, this book offers powerful ways to improve performance - and quality of life - in any organizational setting. Jean-Francois Manzoni is Associate Professor of Management and founding director of the research initiative on High Performance Organizations at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. Jean-Louis Barsoux is a Senior Research Fellow at INSEAD.

This fascinating book is an account of management in the contemporary French business world. The formal nature of work relations and the rituals of French business life are analyzed and set against the role of senior executives, and the book looks at the corporate culture of four leading, but very different companies * Michelin* L'Air Liquide* L'Oreal* Carrefour. Also included is an examination of general management attitudes to labour relations, and the book includes an overview of the distinctive features of French management, future trends, and the changes that further European integration may or may not bring.

This fascinating book is an account of management in the contemporary French business world. The formal nature of work relations and the rituals of French business life are analyzed and set against the role of senior executives, and the book looks at the corporate culture of four leading, but very different companies * Michelin* L'Air Liquide* L'Oreal* Carrefour. Also included is an examination of general management attitudes to labour relations, and the book includes an overview of the distinctive features of French management, future trends, and the changes that further European integration may or may not bring.

Managing in Britain and Germany compares British and German managers' behaviour and views of their work, and seeks to explain the differences. Based on a two year comparative study by British and German research teams, the book challenges the universal view of management presented in so many management books, by showing how differently German middle managers think and act. These differences are then unravelled and traced back to their various roots: ranging from the particular (nature of the job, product or organisation) to the general (the society's institutions and values). Written by leading management experts from Britain and Germany, the book provides useful lessons and insights for practising managers and for those studying management everywhere.

Twelve lively accounts are given, based on searching interviews, of very different kinds of managerial jobs. They paint a picture of what the job is like, the work that the individual does, and how he or she feels about it. The jobs are compared and lessons are drawn for career guidance, selection and management development as well as how far managerial skills are transferable. The accounts can also be used as case studies and questions are provided for students.

Twelve lively accounts are given, based on searching interviews, of very different kinds of managerial jobs. They paint a picture of what the job is like, the work that the individual does, and how he or she feels about it. The jobs are compared and lessons are drawn for career guidance, selection and management development as well as how far managerial skills are transferable. The accounts can also be used as case studies and questions are provided for students.

Managing in Britain and Germany compares British and German managers' behaviour and views of their work, and seeks to explain the differences. Based on a two year comparative study by British and German research teams, the book challenges the universal view of management presented in so many management books, by showing how differently German middle managers think and act. These differences are then unravelled and traced back to their various roots: ranging from the particular (nature of the job, product or organisation) to the general (the society's institutions and values). Written by leading management experts from Britain and Germany, the book provides useful lessons and insights for practising managers and for those studying management everywhere.