People & Strategy Winter 2015 Vol. 38 Issue 1 - 47

One Ford plan. Mulally began writing this
plan after his initial interview with Bill Ford
during the plane ride home from Detroit to
Seattle on July 30, 2006.
Using a blank piece of notebook paper,
Mulally jotted down several word and phrases: performance, product, process, people,
leadership counts, too much capacity, downward pricing pressure, great competitors,
auto culture, and key financial metrics.
Mulally's stream of consciousness began with
his goal to make the world's best cars with
profitable growth for all. To this day, the goal
of One Ford remains "an exciting viable Ford
delivering profitable growth for all."
How could Mulally so quickly and accurately define a goal that stands the test of
time? After only one meeting, how could
Mulally outline the foundation for a plan
that delivered superior performance over the
long-term and incorporated all three determinants of organizational health? Because
Mulally knew the right questions to ask during his initial meeting with Bill Ford.

Asking the Right
Questions
Anyone who interviews for a new job understands the value of learning as much as possible about the challenges facing the
organization prior to the initial meeting.
Some realize asking good questions during
the interview builds on their understanding
of the organization and its challenges. Yet
few show the level of discipline illustrated by
Mulally. Asking the right questions involves
three interrelated actions: conducting
research, posing inquiries, and reflection
(see Exhibit 1).
EXHIBIT 1. FRAMEWORK FOR
ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

Hoffman's 2012 portrayal of Alan Mulally
included multiple examples of this executive
conducting research, asking questions, and
reflecting. When FMC board member John
Thornton called Mulally to tell him that Bill
Ford wanted to talk to him about running
the company, Mulally's first action upon
hanging up the telephone was to rally his
family. His children searched the Internet
and forwarded information about the company and the Ford family to their father.
Mulally also conducted his own research to
learn everything that he could about FMC
and the automotive industry.

Yet, the emphasis in the phrase knowledge
sharing is often on the formal methods of sharing knowledge, particularly technological
approaches such as stored documents and
sponsored networking platforms. The knowledge-sharing literature has predominately
focused on the ability to share knowledge via
technical approaches (Wang & Noe, 2010)
with limited consideration of the inclination
to share knowledge via relationships. Even so,
the literature suggests that the technical ability to share knowledge is either diminished or
enhanced by the inclination to share knowledge.

During Mulally's initial meeting with Bill
Ford, Mulally asked a number of intense
questions, including inquiries into the rationale for so many brands, the strength of the
dealer network, and why global assets
weren't leveraged.

Knowledge-sharing relationships are interpersonal relationships defined by the ability
and the inclination to share knowledge relevant to organi zational performance
improvement initiatives. The emphasis in the
phrase knowledge-sharing relationships is
on relationships and the informal nature of
the knowledge sharing that occurs during
dialogue and other personal connections.

After the meeting, Mulally demonstrated
reflection by sitting down at the desk in his
hotel room and jotting down concepts from
the discussion on a blank piece of paper-
about Bill Ford, his home and family, the
opportunity at Ford Motor Company, as
well as the challenges presented. This process of jotting down concepts and taking
time to think allowed Mulally to consider
whether moving forward was the right decision for him, which propelled Mulally to the
next set of 'right' questions. Was there
enough money left to save FMC? Was there
enough time for him to make a difference?
(Hoffman, 2012)
In this example, research and reflection were
primarily individual activities. However, the
research would not be accurate or complete
without successful inquiry. Not only did
Mulally have to be prepared to probe deeper,
but Bill Ford also had to be willing and able
to answer questions about the challenges
FMC faced. This is the essence of a knowledge-sharing relationship.

Knowledge-Sharing
Relationships
Knowledge is an important factor for organizational health. Knowledge sharing is a
significant tool for building capacities for
resilience and the delivery of superior performance. Noted knowledge management
authority Larry Prusak argues the key to
prosperous organizations is knowledge
shared through relationships.

Peter Senge defined dialogue as the ability of
participants to think together. Thinking
together requires the interactions of research,
asking questions, and reflection. Senge also
discussed a role for dialogue where the focus
is on acting together by reaching agreement
and making decisions to create the desired
results. Senge claimed that teams, not individuals, are the fundamental learning unit in
organizations. Comparing a team to a jazz
ensemble, Senge concluded what really matters is knowing how to play together.

Connectors and
Collaborators
One type of knowledge-sharing relationship is
a connector. Connectors identify information
and people valuable for performance improvement initiatives. In the late 1980s, Mulally was
chief engineer for a new jet program and then-
FMC CEO Donald Petersen was a member of
Boeing's board of directors. Petersen suggested
Mulally study Ford's work on the Taurus. As
a connector, Petersen introduced Mulally to
Lew Veraldi, the leader of Team Taurus.
Mulally was speaking with Ford personnel and
studying FMC's successful performance
improvement initiative almost two decades
before he became Ford's CEO.
Team Taurus illustrates a second type of
knowledge-sharing relationship, collaborators:
individuals who think and act together on an
organizational performance improvement iniVOLUME 38/ISSUE 1 - 2015

People & Strategy Winter 2015 Vol. 38 Issue 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of People & Strategy Winter 2015 Vol. 38 Issue 1