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Hot Spots: Why Some Companies Buzz with Energy and Innovation - and Others Don't (Hardcover)

by Lynda Gratton (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 232 pages
  • Publisher: Financial Times/ Prentice Hall (3 May 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0273711466
  • ISBN-13: 978-0273711469
  • Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.7 x 2.5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 46,737 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

"...grappling with perhaps the biggest management challenge of our
times ...Gratton has written a succinct and utterly compelling book. She is
really a kind of one-woman hot spot herself." Stefan Stern, The Financial Times, February 2007

"...confirming [Gratton's] position as one of the few female management gurus globally " People Management February 2007 "Lynda Gratton is set to be catapulted to the very top of the tree as far as management gurus are concerned ... if we could just perfect the Dolly-the-sheep cloning tecnology and get a few more Grattons out there, we would really be in business." - Accounting & Business Magazine April 2007 "This stimulating book ... will bring her a keen readership among business leaders." Director April 2007

"At last help is at hand with a book that engages the reader with real case studies and then delivers with a set of tools and techniques to help you take the first step - and the next, and the next" Human Resources April 2008



People Management, February 2007

...confirming [Gratton's] position as one of the few female
management gurus globally
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great insightful read, 31 Oct 2007
I read this book as I heard Lynda Gratton speak at a conference where I went to hear Emmanuel Gobillot author of 'the connected leader' (which I recommend you read as the ideas are complimentatry to hot spots). I very much enjoyed her speech and I am really pleased I bought the book as it goes into more depth and has more insights. The ground covered in the book is based on research into networks which Gratton and her LBS team conducted. It draws on a number of fileds and applies in all sectors. Much like other books by Lynda Gratton she stays away from the reductive "here are the three things you need to do" school of business writers and offers insights and contextual ideas. This opens the mind a lot more than checklists and forces you to think about the ideas in your context. It also recognsies that the main tool of leadership is to create conditions for hot spots to emerge rather than creating hot spots themselves. With this book she has certainly taken the biggest step towards global gurudom since her last book and it is very much welcomed!
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Power of Thermal Convergence, 10 May 2007
By Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

In this volume, Lynda Gratton explains how and why "boundaryless cooperation fuels innovation...why some teams, workplaces, and organizations buzz with energy - and others don't." The business model she recommends is an "open" one. In fact, it is precisely what Henry Chesbrough brilliantly explains in Open Innovation and in his more recent book, Open Business Models. What is a "boundaryless" organization? GE is probably the most prominent example. (Curiously, there are no references in Hot Spots to Chesbrough, GE or its former CEO, Jack Welch.) According to Gratton, a "boundaryless organization" is one within which people are engaged in "purposeful conversation"; there are no barriers to communication, cooperation, and collaboration; and the organization has an ever-widening "net of involvement."

Those whom Gratton calls "boundary spanners" are very important because they break down the "walls" between in-groups and out-groups. They have a network of relationships that form a natural bridge between the two groups. (Chesbrough calls them "innovation intermediaries.") In a boundaryless organization, people feel energized and vibrantly alive. Their brains buzz with ideas as they share with others the joy and excitement of "exploiting and applying knowledge that is already known and genuinely exploring what was previously unknown." Relationships between and among those involved create a Hot Spot.

"One of the most profound insights about Hot Spots is that their innovative capacity arises from the intelligence, insights, and wisdom of people working together. The energy contained in a Hot Spot is essentially a combination of their individual energy with the addition of the relational energy generated between them." Hence the importance of (a) having a "cooperative mindset,"(b) "boundary spanners," (c) "igniting purpose," and (d) sustaining sufficient "productive capacity." Gratton acknowledges that there is much of substantial value to be learned by examining best practices in exemplary companies (e.g. BP, PgilvyOne, Nokia, and Linux)but also other types of practices, notably what she characterizes as "signature processes" which embody a given organization's character. They arise from passions and interests within the organization. Whereas best practices "bring the outside in," signature processes "bring the inside out."

To Gratton's great credit, after identifying the "what" in the Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2, she focuses most of her attention on "how" and "why" in the remaining six chapters. I also appreciate the provision of information in three appendices, especially in the first ("Resources for Creating Hot Spots"). And I especially appreciate Gratton's decision to want until the final chapter before explaining how to design (or re-design) an organization in which Hot Spots "emerge." The process consists of five phases best revealed within Gratton's narrative (i.e. in context) but I do presume to suggest that Hot Spots are inevitable and can exist anywhere, both physically and electronically. The challenge is to encourage and support them without institutionalizing ("housebreaking") them. That is a very real danger, one which Bob Taylor obviously recognized when he insisted that the Xerox Corporation allow him to establish - with unlimited funding -- the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) which those at Xerox's corporate headquarters (in Connecticut) viewed as a "renegade" think tank. In fact, Taylor and his associates conceptualized the very notion of the desktop computer, long before IBM launched its PC, and it laid the foundation for Microsoft Windows with a prototype graphical user interface of icons and layered screens. Even the technology that makes it possible for these words to appear on the screen can trace its roots to Xerox's eccentric band of innovators. It is possible but highly unlikely that any of this could have been achieved, had the research center been absorbed within the Xerox corporate culture in the 1970s.

Guided and informed by Gratton's observations and recommendations, senior-level executives will be well-prepared to provide the leadership needed to avoid or overcome barriers to innovation within their organizations by nurturing a cooperative mindset, encouraging and supporting those who are "boundary spanners," igniting purpose at all levels and in all areas throughout the given enterprise, and - as a result -- sustain sufficient "productive capacity."

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out two of Gratton's earlier works, Living Strategy: Putting People at the Heart of Corporate Purpose and The Democratic Enterprise: Liberating Your Business with Freedom, Flexibility, and Commitment. Also When Sparks Fly: Harnessing the Power of Group Creativity by Dorothy Leonard-Barton and Walter C. Swap, Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration by Warren G. Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman, and Juice: The Creative Fuel That Drives World-Class Inventors by Evan I. Schwartz .
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Provides a very sharp insight into stimulating energy,innovation and action in your organisation., 17 Mar 2008
At some stage in our careers we will have worked for managers and organisations that stifle your energy and motivation, and your main focus then becomes updating your CV and moving on.

This raises the question how do avoid these situations and revitalise organisations and move from intertia to action?
Lynda Gratton provides an approach that is both thought provoking and provides a five step process that takes you through the key points you need to consider, this is outlined in chapter 8 of her book - "Designing for hot spots." The five steps are:

* Locating Hot spots.
* Mapping the system.
* linking to business goals.
* Identifying potential leverage points.
* Taking action.

The book takes a while to get into the substance of the subject, it is well researched and provides a lot of insights you can relate to on a personal basis.The case studies are focussed more on larger companies eg BP and Nokia and the lack of emphasis on smaller/ and medium sized companies is a weakness that needs addressing.

This is essentially a book about organisation design to produce results. Yet there are no references to any books/material under this heading in the index.It is an omission that could have provided a fuller understanding for the reader had it been dealt with more in more depth.If you are looking for more on the subject of organisation design, see "Designing your organisation" by Amy Kates and Jay Galbraith, published in 2007.

Finally appendix A, sets out very useful guidance for the reader on how to get things moving.

Stan Felstead - Interchange Resources UK.
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5.0 out of 5 stars "Hot Spots - A Collaborative Classic...."
If you are contemplating to make your unit, your organisation and your environment more innovative, exciting and stimulating then "Hot Spots" is a must read. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Deepak Pandhi

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Insightful
I read this book via a recommendation from a UK friend who Skyped me knowing I was involved in culture change at a 120 year old US company. Read more
Published on 16 Aug 2007 by B. Brunner

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