“I haven’t met a senior leadership team that actually knows what its doing anymore!”
The quote above is from a thought-provoking talk here by Meg Wheatley on Leadership and employee engagement. A damning comment for sure, but I’m not here to bash “upper management”. They are doing the best they can. In some respects, it’s not surprising that many leaders in c-suites of large organizations don’t have any answers for people. First, they usually sit “at corporate,” far from the action. Second, we know that as information and feedback works its way from the field toward corporate, it gets massaged and made more palatable. So why are we surprised when C-Suite leaders don’t seem to “get it.” It’s not that they aren’t intelligent, capable people, but more that they are operating with less than adequate information (see Meg’s talk for more about this). Instead of waiting for a consistent, clear signal from them on where our organizations need to go, let’s get on with it ourselves.
A better way…
So rather than look up and complain or pine for better leaders, let’s look at what we need everyone (and especially leaders) to start doing to move our respective organizations forward.
1) Pose worthy questions vs. “answers”
No one leader or leadership team can stay on top of the changing conditions on the business landscape. It is almost impossible for them to “know” what the right strategy/answer is, so let’s change our focus. Instead of thinking leaders need to provide people “answers” (e.g. a clear strategy), they need to frame really tough, worthy questions that galvanize the organization, department or team they are trying to influence. By “worthy” questions we mean ones that are difficult and challenging because they address all stakeholder concerns. There is no right way to frame or phrase the worthy question for your organization/department/team, but they have certain characteristics:
- They have a lot of “and’s” in them “How do we _________ and _________ and___________, etc.
- They “grab you”. They are framed in a way that the boldness of the idea has you saying “Wow! That would be cool if we can make that happen!”
For a department an example worthy question might be something like… “How do we improve our service so that customers are singing our praises without raising costs and is simple for us to deliver and maintain?”
So here’s something for each of you to ponder as “homework”…
What is the worthy question for your team that you find compelling and think your team may as well?
2) Invite everyone into the “How” discussion
Step # 1 is all about “what” and “why”. When you move onto the “How” discussion, the key is too invite as many people as possible into this conversation. The rule of thumb I offer Managers trying to lead change is… when you are in meetings with other managers, avoid discussing how things should be done/implemented if people not in the room are the ones who have to make it happen. This advice emanates from something Marv Weisbord said over 40 years ago, but is still true today…
“People have a hard time adopting policies and procedures they did not help to select or invent. It does not matter how good they are .”
So if you want commitment from others vs. compliance, you have to involve them in the process of shaping how this effort will unfold. There is no way around that. If you decide for them, about the best you can expect is compliance.
There are structures available that allow large groups of people to be a part of the change that is necessary, and we have used them with organizations and departments. The problem still today, as Meg points out in the video, is that too many leaders in power prefer control over effectiveness.
3) Let’s try it out…
Once you have your “what” and “why” communicated and you have invited people into the process for figuring out “how”, you show leadership by helping people try out (i.e. prototype) their ideas. Then let customer feedback help teams iterate their ideas forward. The challenge around prototyping involves two notions we need to get past:
1) “I need to get feedback and buy-in from internal types before trying out an idea”
2) “We can’t show customers our idea until it’s ‘pretty’.”
The first one speaks to why most change efforts are better run as “skunkworks” or “side hustles”, because there is no shortage of internal people willing to tell you why an idea won’t work. The mindset you need to take is “I don’t really care what you think about the idea, the question is what do customers think.” This can only be ascertained by getting in front of a customer and getting their feedback.
The second challenge has to do with our tendency to want to make things “perfect” before putting it up for review. We need to get past this notion. Why burn up a lot of energy making something “perfect” if the customer ultimately doesn’t like it. Also, the more energy we put into any prototype, the more attached we get to it and resist modifying it. The design firm IDEO understands and has learned how to be comfortable with rough prototypes. As an example, they were working with an ENT surgeon a while back who was looking for their help in designing a surgical instrument. The picture below is the first prototype they put in front of that surgeon/customer for feedback.
Yes, they actually put that in front of the customer, because they know from experience it will typically take 3-4 iterations before they get to a final design. They also understand that the faster they get feedback from a customer as to whether they are on the right track, the faster they get to a final deliverable.
So, if we want to be more effective in showing leadership…if we want to make our work relationships more effective and enjoyable, we need to engage with others differently. We will need to:
1) Offer a compelling what and why
2) Invite those closest to the work to figure out how
3) Support them in prototyping their ideas forward
Here’s to a better way forward in 2019!
Rich
