Videos [4:43 + 40.01 min]: Transforming Businesses through Information:

Video #1 [4:43 min]: Knowledge Workers
Video #2: [40:01 min]: Alan Mulally- Working Together

Synopsis: Shifting from an industrial to a knowledge-based economy requires a new set of leadership skills and management behaviors, as the man often called the world’s #1 executive coach, Marshall Goldsmith, explains in the first video. Then the CEO Goldsmith used as a good example, Alan Mulally, explains himself in the second video how he actually succeeded leading a complex project.

As you read in Section 13.1, modern societies have shifted over the past 70 years from an industrial society to a knowledge-based economy. Marshall Goldsmith, the man often called the world’s #1 executive coach, discusses during this video interview how to manage knowledge workers successfully. Perhaps the most radical concept introduced in the video is that today leaders manage people who know more about what they are doing than their boss does.

These people are called knowledge workers, which Section 13.1 explains is a result of their contribution to and usage of information in the process of job functions such as planning, acquiring, searching, analyzing, organizing, storing, programming, producing, distributing, marketing, or selling.

So, what are some tips which Coach Goldsmith shared in the video which could help you as a leader or manager of knowledge workers? What lessons came out of this interview with respect to the experience of former Ford CEO Allan Mulally? Next watch the in-depth presentation given by Alan Mulally himself as he explains in his own words some of the key principles that guided his leadership of Ford during a time with multi-billion-dollar losses. What take-aways did you learn?

Alan Mulally is a retired aerospece engineer and manufacturing executive widely recognized for the successful turnarounds of both Boeing Commercial Airplanes and the Ford Motor Company. His leadership at Ford during the Great Recession, in particular, is considered one of the greatest feats in modern business history.

Video #1 [4:43 min]: Knowledge Workers

Video #2: [40:01 min]: Alan Mulally- Working Together