Engine For Change

But lots of success. There was no training then! And all I could do was learn by experience. And Christ what an experience. The plaque says, ‘L. Logue, Speech Defects’. No Dr., no letters after my name. Lock me in the Tower.” – Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) in The King’s Speech

These lines of dialogue come from my favorite scene in this year’s Best Picture winner, The King’s Speech.  To read the whole scene, check out pages 131 to 135 in the online screenplay.

In the scene, Lionel the speech therapist is confronted by Bertie, the king, for his perceived lie, attempting to pass himself off as a doctor.  Lionel corrects the record, providing evidence that he never claimed any unearned credentials, and offers my favorite portion of his story, “There was no training then! All I could do was learn by experience.”

So too is the life of someone driving change, no lettered training, only experience and success to guide you forward.  Professor John Kotter admits to the lack of training in strategy implementation in the preface to his book, Buy-in, where he writes,

…the amount of thought and education put into creating good ideas is far higher today than the knowledge and instruction on how to implement those ideas.  In the world of business, for example, the field of strategy has made huge advances in the past twenty years.  The field of strategy implementation, in contracts, has made much less progress.”

If you are looking for a road map to successful implementations, beware falling into the starting trap of Archbishop Lang, who was willing to toss away success for the sake of credentials first-and-foremost.

Keep driving change my friends.  Maybe someday one of us will create the course that leads to some credentials.  Until then let’s let our experience and our success speak for us instead of little letters behind our names.

I’m a rule follower; I admit it.

Yet there is a whole class of rules that I find offensive: Simon Says rules.

A rule is a Simon Says rule if the only reason offered for the rule’s existence is Simon (or Bob or Kevin) says.

Simon Says rules grate on my nerves for at least three reasons:

They are lazy rules issued by lazy leaders.

I have to assume that Simon had some reason for issuing the rule.  Why not share the reason with us followers?  Too busy?  Boo hoo.  Take the time to lead or stop issuing rules.  When a leader doesn’t say why a rule exists the followers usually make up a story, and they are often very wrong about the rules purpose and the leader’s motives.  Acting on their wrong perceptions they can make destructive decisions while believing they are in full compliance with the rules.  Leaders must take the time to say why when they issue and order or they’ll spend time explaining why once the problems start happening.

The are often derivatives of several other layers of “Simon Says” orders.

Too many times we hear, “Bob gave us this new because his boss Dan gave it to him and Dan got the rule from headquarters.  No, none of them said why we should follow this rule.  Yes, I know it contradicts what they told us to do yesterday.  Maybe they will change the rule back next week. They usually do.”  You can’t hear that many times before you want to give up on your whole organization.  Rules often roll down hill, but good leaders don’t just take Simon Says rules; they turn them into stories.  “We’ve got to write in active voice because when we use passive voice we cloud our analytical thinking and hide who is really to blame or who must take action.  We can’t afford to hide behind our passive words any longer.”  That’s much better than, “Write in active voice (because I say so).”

You can never tell in what cases Simon would prefer you didn’t follow the rule.

A Simon Says rule is “Drive at or below the speed limit.” Change that to “Drive at or below the speed limit you will  stay safe and live a long life.”  Now you know to go at or below the speed limit in most cases, and you know to drive slower when the road conditions are bad and go faster when you are rushing someone to the hospital. When leaders link simple rules with value statements they make the rules actionable.

The Bottom-line:

If you lead, don’t issue Simon Says orders and if you follow, don’t settle for Simon Says orders.

Always ask why.  If you don’t get an answer, create your own why statement and share it with your boss and your coworkers.  Maybe your statement will be wrong.  So what?  I bet your boss will correct your wrong why version and then you’ll have much more information about the rule than you had before.

April says, “Drive change because you and the people you lead will be happier if you do.”

Last year I wrote about submitting a paper for the Theory of Constraints International Certification Organization (TOCICO) conference (“Do you fear success?”) and one about not getting selected (“Making a ruckus while failing”).

This year I have better news to report.

I received word today that I’ve been selected to present my paper in a one hour breakout session at this year’s conference in June in New York.

I’m excited to start the process of turning my abstract into a full-length presentation.

I’m presenting this year in my official work capacity, so those readers who work with me can ask me for a first glimpse at my content at work.  I’ll need some trial runs and I’ll need some trial audiences, so your interest is appreciated.

Since I’m presenting in my official work capacity, not as an independent blogger, the actual presentation content will only get to this site after it has been approved for public release.  I’m sorry for the delay.

It’s going to be a busy spring.

Wish me luck as I’m off to not fear success.

We’ll see how I do.

Groupthink: A mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members’ strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.” – Irving Janis

• When you don’t share your opinion with your team because you fear that they will not like you anymore, you are contributing to groupthink.
• When you don’t share your opinion with your team because you were threatened by one of the team members the last time you differed from the group’s aligned position, you were forced to contribute to groupthink.
• When you attack a team member after they share their opinion because their opinion (or more strongly, the facts they presented) would weaken your group’s aligned position, you are demanding groupthink.

Beware the horrors and terrors that groupthink produces.  While you may think you are saving the group from discord or drama or days of discussion, you are really destroying–perhaps subtly, though often overtly–the group’s ability to function successfully.

When you observe a group deep into groupthink and you want to break them free, it will be an act of courage to point out the groupthink to them.

Why it is an act of courage?

Because the group norms that keep them in groupthink will make attacking your position appear, from their perspective, both rational and essential for the sake of their group.

I’ll admit I haven’t done enough research to be able to tell you a few great tricks for how to free a group from group think.  At this point all I can tell you is avoidance techniques:

1. Know the term, groupthink, and be on the lookout for it growing in your groups,
2. Don’t allow your own behavior to drive groupthink in your group (e.g,. ask the group regularly who disagrees and allow them to share their full position without question instead of forcing your opinion upon the group), and when all else fails
3. Summon up the courage however you can to act forcefully to free those you see deep into groupthink.  Offer them a different position. Stand firm with your facts when they attack.  Take your beating and bear your consequences.  You may not win, but you  just might wake them up.

Extra Credit: You no doubt have heard of  the loss of Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986, but did you know it is an often cited example of the real dangers of groupthink.

Read the wikipedia entry on Roger Boisjoly, an engineer who spoke out against the consensus and could not prevail in time.  He is quoted as saying, “the caucus called by Morton Thiokol managers, which resulted in a recommendation to launch, ‘constituted the unethical decision-making forum resulting from intense customer intimidation.’”

You haven’t really lived John Kotter’s 8 steps for leading change until you’ve experienced Step 6: Generating Short Term Wins.

If you haven’t experienced it, let me share a bit of what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like.

You open your e-mail to find your inbox a buzz with messages darting back and forth amongst a team.  Unlike the typical team e-mails of deadlines, frustrations, and finger pointing, these team members are debriefing–quite happily–the launch of their program from the day before.  As each e-mail comes in you see more exclamation points, and they are exclamation points of true excitement, used to set off real exclamations of joy.  I love those e-mails.

You hear the wins in the way their voices light up as they talk about what they accomplished, how they can do even better next time, and even what didn’t work that can be corrected.  The atmosphere is open, people are supportive and the culture of mutual support rings out through their voices.

You feel the win because you can sense that this is a place you want to be, to stay, to be a part of.  You can feel the team drawing closer together as they talk about how to go after their next win.  They want the feeling again that they had yesterday, the feeling of a purpose fulfilled.

Winning joyfully isn’t the first step though.  It is the culmination of the earlier five steps (Acting with Urgency, Developing the Guiding Coalition, Developing a Change Vision, Communicating the Vision, and Empowering Broad Based Action).

If you drive change, you too can rapidly progress through those early steps and explode toward your own joyful wins.  All you need to do is:

1. Create the  urgency inside yourself to create the change,

2. Share your urgency with others who will then voluntarily join your cause,

3.  Create a vision with them (e.g., By October we will have done…),

4.  Share that vision with the people you need working with you and supporting you, and

5.  Start acting–do something!–to bring about that vision and ultimately get your own joyful win.

It is possible.

I’ve seen teams of every level in an organization and in organizations of all types follow this pattern and create their own joyful wins.

I bet you can too.

Why not try?

Many organizations stop their changes too early.

Someone writes an instruction and the boss signs the instruction then the task is done and everyone goes back to life as usual.  Did that instruction create change?  Could you see a difference in the organization’s behavior because of the new instruction just by it being signed? Probably not.

When you’re driving change, your effort doesn’t stop with creating the idea.  It ends when you can see the difference the change has made in, with and for your organization.

As you walk around your organization, are people using new words, behaving differently in a meeting, creating new things or generating bigger and better outcomes (if that’s what you’re after) because of your change?  If you can’t find the physical evidence or see the difference then you aren’t done with your change.

Don’t stop too early.  Claim the win of signing the instruction, then lower your shoulder to the hard work of creating a different organization because of it, one person or one group at a time.

You’ll be successful as long as you keep driving change.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” – Albert Einstein

As you look toward this week, don’t be disheartened by those around you still clinging to driving people to change.

Driving people to change: using some coercion (e.g., orders, fear of negative consequences, removal of positive consequences) to externally compel someone to change.

Take comfort in your knowledge that their opposition is expected, yet it will not defeat you.

This week, choose to drive change and make the amazing real.

Driving change: choosing a change for yourself and clearing the obstacles for others to internally choose the change too.

What’s the first thing you can do this week to show your great spirit to the world around you?

How will you drive change today?

In my last post, “Life Outside the Fences” I introduced you to the concept of an organization made up of sheep, wolves and a new addition: sheep dogs.

Tonight I want to elaborate on that concept and dive into the minds of the wolves.

First, how do you define who is a wolf?  You can’t absent your perspective on the person.

To a low level employee, everyone may appear as wolves, committed to keeping them fenced in and brutalized every moment.

To a mid level manager, maybe those below are sheep and above are wolves.

I’ve found an interesting curiosity in organizations.  Those people who most seem like wolves often are just sad little sheep and you can see it if you can shift your perspective.

Imagine a local vice president lording over his factory or regional distribution center.  To all, or most, at his location he is the alpha wolf.  No one is his equal.  Yet, if he were visiting the corporate headquarters where everyone is a vice president of something, wouldn’t he look like just another sheep fitting himself inside the fences his bosses have built for him?

In the military they tell the same tale, but it is about the number of Admirals and Generals at the Pentagon.  In the field Admirals and Generals are rare and precious, the alpha wolves of their commands.  At the Pentagon they are coffee runners for those Admirals and Generals with more stars on their shoulders.  It’s a curious thing to see, if you ever get to see it, how the power system shifts depending on where you stand. It’s especially telling to look at an organization not from within the organization, but outside, observing it.

Back to the point for tonight: Getting into the minds of the wolves and winning.

If you are a sheep dog and you want to be your most successful, assume that everyone sees you as a wolf until you can convince them otherwise.  No matter the rank of the person you are talking to, from the entry level worker to the president of the company, if you are outside the fences, you are first and foremost a wolf.

Also assume that everyone in your organization is, if you could get the right perspective, a sheep in someone else’s eyes.

That means these wolves/sheep will be watching your behaviors with a curiosity towards your motives.  Do you want to become their boss and create fences for them?  Do you want to take their sheep away?  What are you after? How will you hurt them?

Because of these questions they will closely watch you, watching how you treat people, how you share your ideas, how you celebrate others, and so much more.

Your power, under their watchful eyes, is in using this grand opportunity to lead them by example, walking your talk and showing through your actions your commitment to driving change.

You may be the first one who’s ever shown these fearful wolf/sheep a kinder way to lead change.

Don’t be shocked if they get in your face, telling you that you are behaving like all the other wolves, driving people to change, even when you aren’t.

In this case I can truly say that it’s not you; it’s them.

In the face of their attacks, don’t be swayed to abandon your driving change behaviors.  Don’t be moved to resort to their tactics of threats, intimidation and coercion.  Stick to what you know works: driving change.

Teach those wolves (who are often sheep too) that you are there for them and their success too.

You’ll surprise yourself at how much you’ll get done.

Why not try?

In organizations there are often only two groups of people; the sheep and the wolves.

The sheep are the people fenced in by their boss’ orders and their job descriptions, held fast in their pens by the roving wolves who are ready to bite at the ankles of any sheep that tries to do something before being asked or ventures out away from their narrow role in the organization.

From a sheep’s perspective, all those other people in the organization that are not in fences must be wolves.  Though the sheep have encountered some wolves kinder than others, they can’t recall anyone outside the fences who wasn’t trying to control the sheep for their own gain.

What do you get in an organization full of sheep and wolves when you introduce people who are driving change?

Driving change: choosing a change for yourself and clearing the obstacles for others to internally choose the change too.

The sudden creation of a third group of people: sheep dogs.

The sheep dogs don’t want to hurt the sheep; they want the sheep to flourish.

The sheep dogs aren’t on the side of the wolves; they want the wolves held a bay.

The sheep dogs are those people in the organization wandering outside the fences of their boss’ orders and their narrow job descriptions, but instead of driving the sheep to change, they are clearing the way for others to choose a life outside of the fences too.

If you are a sheep dog, your problem, as you are introduced into a traditionally sheep-versus-wolf organization, is that both the sheep and the wolves immediately assume you are a wolf.

What else could you be? You are outside the fences.

Why else would you have left the fences except to gain power over others and inflict your will upon them?

Is there any other reason?

Yes, there is.

Driving change is about stepping out of your fence because the organization needs it, you feel it, and you can do it.

Driving change requires you to be outside the fences with the wolves but requires that you resist any urge to  exercise your will over others.

Instead you must direct all your energy to exercising your will over yourself, getting yourself moving first, then creating movement in the sheep and the wolves by your example and your commitment to them and the organization.

Be a sheep dog.

Drive change.

Why not try?

Fun note: Watch the movie “Babe” for a visual example of a sheep-versus-wolves organization transformed through an ultimate driving change sheep dog (okay, sheep pig).

Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” – T. Vince Lombardi

In organizations I too often hear the stories of individuals (ladder climbers, attention seekers) versus the team or the organization.  These individuals too often have convinced all the other team players that the only way to be a team player is to not be an individual.

I hope that legendary Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi helped me convince you that a great team is made up of the strongest individuals, giving their best, committed to the team’s success vice nameless, faceless team members each doing a duty as assigned.

The best teams I’ve worked with and observed have been packed with individuals, each different from the next, fiercely committed to the team’s success.

Be that individual, set the example and watch your team succeed.

Why not try?