even specified that the vehicles should not be allowed to leave the work sites without their tyres being cleaned. As the other public utilities were notorious for their inefficiency, the interface with those agencies was handled by taking additional responsibilities to ensure that there was no public discontent. For instance, when traffic diversions had to be made, DMRC appointed additional personnel at important signals to help traffic police in maintaining smooth flow of traffic. Though it was clearly not its responsibility, DMRC also undertook road widening and road repairs where necessary to ensure that no road was closed at any time and people were not inconvenienced in any way. In the same way, power, water supply, sewerage and other issues were also proactively addressed.

Right through the process, there were regular community interaction programmes. People were provided advance intimation and regular updates by using several media. Help lines were available to report difficulties. As a result, the project consistently enjoyed a great  image in the eyes of the Delhi residents, and received their support.

When top managers emphasise the content of change at the expense of process, they may wrongly perceive the process from a limited perspective of education and exhortation. Change involves a long and difficult journey, and managers need to listen to diverse views, keep making changes in a variety of settings, and keep up the momentum of the change campaign. An important set of leadership challenges pertain to: building supportive coalitions; evaluating the interests of people whose support is needed; altering people’s incentives for change; framing and crafting the message in a way that evokes support; instituting a process that is open, transparent and inclusive; consulting as widely as possible before making a decision; attending    to  the   timing      issue;      and

sustaining the momentum as mobilising is not a onetime activity. This requires a blend of logic, emotions and values.

Leader as Systems Architect
In the celebrated case of Nissan’ s turnaround, Carlos Ghosn, the new leader, found that the organisation had very capable people, but the organisation’s architecture in terms of its hierarchy, procedures, policies, and decision-making processes had contributed to a culture of learned helplessness. Compartmentalisation of functions/ roles, and rivalry between departments/ divisions had reached such an extent that there was a culture of blaming each other for organisational problems. Employees had lost both the focus and the energy. Changing anything seemed to be a huge task beyond any individual’s capacity.

To convert this learned helplessness into learned optimism, the leadership altered both the structure and the culture of the organisation. Cross-functional teams (CFTs) were set up to address critical issues. CFTs were supported by a number of thoughtful interventions, and so they became instrumental in creating a strong foundation for the remarkable turnaround of the company.

A key leadership challenge is to facilitate modification of mindsets by attending to four requirements: exposing people to alternative perspectives; enabling people from different functions to work together; identifying and removing roadblocks to modifying existing routines; and creating new routines to focus the organisation’s attention on continuous improvement. Leadership establishes a context that facilitates these four requirements. This is done by creating an appropriate architecture that is made up of roles, responsibilities, systems and procedures. We refer to this important leadership role as that of a systems architect. As a systems architect, leaders create  cross-functional    linkages    in    the