Leadership is not rocket science

How do you make work meaningful?

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In a recent post I spoke of some scenario planning I was recently involved with where I proposed a scenario coming out of this economic turmoil we're in that I call the meaningful work economy.  Having potentially lost a lot of wealth, homes, jobs and maybe more, many boomers aren't willing to just workaholic themselves for more 'stuff' and titles and just plain more work.  And the younger generations have it right from the get-go.  They're not going to work beyond what they have to unless it makes a difference - unless it's meaningful for themselves and for others.

First of all, this can be challenging, especially for boomers, who have (as a generation) focused on doing what it took to get ahead and accumulate more all their lives.  Given a choice, this generation chose to be practical rather than following their passion.  so they're going to have a challenge just breaking that conditioning.

And even if they can break away from being 'practical', how do you make work meaningful?

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• The meaningful work economy (ravitangri.typepad.com)
• Think anew, Act anew: Scenario Planning (cognitive-edge.com)

The meaningful work economy

There is one emerging scenario in today's uncertain and volatile world that I believe is very likely to emerge, at least in part, and impact industries and work far and wide.

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As a member of the National Board of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS), I recently participated in a scenario planning exercise with Randy Park to lead into strategic planning for our association.  We identified many factors changing in the years to come, and, naturally, the economy came up as a significant concern, along with different generations, changing demographics and other issues.

Based on some of the critical issues identified, we started to identify possible future scenarios.  Let me state here that the purpose of scenario planning is not to predict the future, but to identify a range of possible future scenarios so you can better plan for the future.  However, that said, one scenario emerged that I believe will take shape in some form in the next few years.

During our discussion with the CAPS board on the economy, we started identifying possible extreme scenarios of the economy staying sluggish, and business going more local, and the 'opposite' of the economy taking off again. As we debated these options, it occurred to me that there was a third pole that was, to me, far more likely to emerge - the Meaningful Work Economy.

Boomers have saved their entire lives for retirement, only to have it all disappear overnight, it seems.  There seems to be an awakening (finally) that money and material gains aren't all there is.  Add to this the fact that the younger generation (Gen Y/Nexus) won't be workaholics just for the sake of work like the Boomers are (and even Gen X to a large extent).  They want meaningful work, and if it is meaningful, they will work long hours.

Customers, too, want to make a difference and to work with organizations that make a difference.

If there is any opportunity in all that we've been going through the past several months, I think it's an awakening to the fact that materialism just isn't enough any more.  We need to have purpose.  We need to have meaning in what we do.  We need to make a difference.

And that will be (is?) a pretty cool awakening.

That's my 2 cents.  What do you think?

Why things fall apart when there's no shared purpose

Yesterday I blogged about how the military is incredibly effective at innovating and breaking every rule in the book when they're at war, when they have a clear purpose and mission. They just don't know how to do it when they're at peace, when their is no clear purpose or mission.

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I've learned that crises play the same role in most organizations as wars and peacekeeping missions do for the military - and that may be why most organizations spend so much of their time stressed out in crisis.  When there's no crisis, they're not really sure what to do.

I learned this (again, at a deeper level) while I was working with a leadership team of an organization in the midwest last week.  We spoke of how people came together, listened to each other and made things work when things hit the fan.  The problem was that, before things hit the fan all of that wasn't happening.  Each person/department was going off in their own direction, focused on what was important to them, and those things were often not in alignment with each other. They had no common shared purpose (that they fully bought in to) that framed all their individual tasks and gave meaning to them.

When a crisis hit, they came together with a shared purpose and worked together wonderefully.  When the crisis passed, they went back to their own silos and priorities.

This organization is not unusual - in fact, it's pretty typical.  Our conversations just helped me realize once again the incredible need for a shared purpose that everyone buys in to and lives (ie: not one that stops being relevant once someone stops reading the fancy plaque on the wall).

Is that why so much of North America lives in one crisis after another? 

That's my 2 cents. What do you think?

Why people are having trouble finding the new 'rules' of the game

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If we want to discover the new game and how to play it, we have to go beyond what we know.

And there’s the problem.

Going outside of what we know, of what’s familiar to us, is uncomfortable.  And so we go back to what we know and wonder why it doesn’t work anymore.

Remember that definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?  And yet that’s exactly what most people revert to when they’re pushed out of their familiar zones.

It takes courage to step out and explore the new game

If the old rules said you had to put on masks and roles, then maybe the way to find the new way is to step forward as your authentic self.

If the old rules said to hoard information and use it sparingly, then maybe it’s time to share information and insights.

If the old rules said the leader had to have all the answers, then maybe it’s time to admit that you don’t.   Things are so complex that it’s tougher and tougher for one person to have the ‘answers’ or the ‘vision’.

Instead, today’s leaders have to admit that they only have part of the puzzle, and then go out and engage the other players to collectively find the way through.

 And all of this takes courage.

The game has changed - so what's the winning strategy today?

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The turbulence caused by the economy is just one part of a deeper, broader change that is sweeping the globe.  Look at all the transformational change that we’ve experienced the past few months:

• This global recession/depression
• Obama’s election
• Realizing that the way we’ve been doing business just doesn’t work
• Admitting that our health care systems, our education systems and so much more are broken and unsustainable as they are
• Realizing that we are at the turning point of saving this planet (and human life) – or not
• And so much more

While these may seem huge and beyond your ability to control, they may already be starting to hit home for you and people you know. 

You may even have a vague sense that things are very different now, and that we’re not going back to the way things were.

All of these are symptoms of a far more fundamental shift in the way you think, in the way you act.  You may not be totally clear on exactly what’s happening, but you may be one of those who’ve sensed that something has shifted at a very deep level.

What worked in the past won’t work any more

Wherever you look – business, health care systems, education systems – it’s becoming more and more apparent that you just can’t keep going the way we’ve always done things.  If we keep doing things the same old way, in just a few years our health care system will demand 100% of the government budget.  And that’s just one example.

In auto industry, union and management, who have traditionally been at loggerheads, are working together in ways they never would have even thought of doing a few short months ago.  Unions are accepting significant pay cuts that they never would have short months ago.  While some Chrysler workers may still be trying to hold out, GM's workers have given in to the inevitable. 

Back then, the union played their role and management played theirs, and there were clear lines you did not cross.  You had to watch everything you said.

Today, those old ways of behaving, posturing, toeing the party line – there’s no time for that any more.  Things have changed so much that people are left without their ‘crutches’ of their roles and their agendas.  They all know that going back to their habitual ways of dealing with things would spell doom for them all.

It may not be to that extreme in every workplace, but there were always expectations of how you were supposed to act in different situations.  Showing up as your authentic self, ‘with your guard down’ usually wasn’t supported.  You had to hold your cards close to the vest and be ‘professional’.  Information was power, and you didn’t share it unless you got something in return.

That's my 2 cents.  What do you think?

The secret to engaging your people in today's economic times

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In a recent article called Why We Love Bad News and How it Supports the Recession, Ray Williams explores the human fascination with bad news, and how bad news like the recession can be almost addictive.  This makes it more essential than ever to help employees develop new habits of optimism to find ways out of the challenges they face.

The good news, according to Williams, is that we can change our habits and 'reprogram our brains'. 

"The best thing individual people can do to help our economy recover, is move toward a more positive, optimistic frame of mind by not seeing and reading negative news about our economy on a frequent basis."

What's more, research shows that optimists are happier, healthier and they live longer.

So what does this have to do with leadership?

Everything.

As a leader, part of your job is helping your people to focus on what is working, what your strengths are and what the opportunities are.

If they come up with problems, do you take the problem over, or do you coach them to come up with solutions?  If they are focused on their losses, do you help them focus on their assets (Time magazine says that jobs are the new assets, not stock holdings and pension plans)?  If they are dwelling on what they can't do, do you help them discover what they can do?

And, of course, before you can help your people see things differently, what are you doing to change your own outlook?

That's my 2 cents.  What do you think?

46% of all managers don't have faith in their CEO's ability to lead through this crisis

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A worlwide study conducted by Booz and Company in December 2008 showed that:

• 40% of senior managers don't believe that their leadership has a credible plan to address the economic crisis
• 46% of senior managers are not sure that their leadership could carry out the plan (credible or not)
• 51% of managers below the CEO and CXO level don't believe in their leadership's ability to make their crisis plan work
• 1/3 of all CEO and CXO-level respondents don't have confidence in their own plans

What's more, struggling companies aren't doing anything more than they did before the crisis, and companies that are stable and strong are not focusing on building on their strength, but rather on cutting.

This is a pretty stark picture.  As I've said before, the rules of the game have changed, and too many people are still trying to play by the old rules of the game.  What this information is telling me is that people are finally waking up to the fact that the emperor has no clothes.

First we have to recognize that the old ways are not working. Then we can start looking forward to explore new ways to move forward.

Great video showing the root of today's situation

Rick Wagoner Leaving - Bad move or sign of new times?

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Many people are surprised today by Rick Wagoners 'firing' by President Obama.  However, I see this is the most prominent concrete sign that things are really changing - that the 'old rules' (which created much of the ka-ka we see in today's economic uncertainty) no longer apply.

GM is certainly a poster-child of the way things were run in the latter half of the 1900s, and today it shows the ROI of that style of management.  As Rosabeth Moss Kanter says, the plans that they submitted to Congress were nothing new - doing the same old thing the same old way, just more cost-effectively.

Those plans did not go deeply into what has caused the problems GM and so many other corporations are facing today - how things are done, how things are led.  We've talked a lot about leadership over the past several decades, but if you look at the research that's been conducted, overall leadership has not shifted that much.  It's been just that - talk.

One of the key pillars of effective leadership is challenging the way everything is being done - including your own leadership - and that's something that GM just did not do.  It's like that old definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.  Their new plan - we'll just do the same things more cost-effectively.

This economic uncertainty is forcing us to look at how we do things - it is creating a an opportunity for those who are ready to truly transform themselves and their businesses, and I applaud the fact that Obama and his team recognize real change from moving deck chairs on the Titanic.

Are you ready to take advantage of the opportunity in these times?

What are your 2 cents?

"This has happened before and it will happen again"

In reading a post in Jim Clemmer's blog, I was reminded of this saying from one of my favourite shows.

As Jim outlines with 4 key quotes, The turbulence and uncertainty the world is experiencing is not new.  It happens in times of significant change.

When complex systems (such as our society) evolve, they don't do it in a progressive or linear fashion.  The buzzword for the evolution that these systems undergo is bifurcation.

When the system is in chaos, two distinct ‘paths’ of evolution appear.  One leads to the breakdown of the system, and the other to ‘breakthrough’ into a new state that is resistant to the chaos that began this rapid phase of evolution.

So many of our current systems are breaking down and are unsustainable - businesses, our health care systems, our education systems, how we treat the planet, you name it.  The way that we behaved before led to this chaos.  What is starting to emerge are new ways of being and doing, as I discussed in my last posting.

Right now, both the 'old' way and the emerging way are all around us, creating even more confusion.  Our desire to 'hang on' to the familiar and our uncertainty about what is emerging to take its place are keeping us from letting go of what we know. And that's part of the journey.

Yesterday I was on a call as part of a hosting team for an Art of Presence retreat we're holding in Greece in May.  We were discussing the difficulty people are having in committing to this work because it is so leading edge.

Because of the economic uncertainty, they're being held accountable for more results.  They also know that they need to engage people in new ways, and many are stretching themselves with development opportunities like training in the Art of Hosting Meaningful Conversations.

However, it's harder for some to justify a retreat where you're investing time to be still enough to clear the clutter outside to better tap into the deeper wisdom you have  within you.  And yet, the cause of much of the ka-ka we're experiencing - the heart of the 'old' way - is just 'doing' without taking time to connect to our inner wisdom, without tapping the wisdom of all those around you.

It takes courage to go to the edge, and that's fine. Everyone has to go when they're ready.  The Art of Hosting - the 'DNA of the learning organization - was way out there not long ago.  And the people who need to be there will be there.

And the fact that more and more people and organizations are understanding that they need to deepen their skills in areas such as the Art of Hosting gives me great hope.  That's part of slowing down, engaging others, finding new ways.  That's what will let us choose the right path through this time of chaos and bifurcation.

Because "this has happened before and it will happen again."

That's my 2 cents. What do you think?