The Transformation Times is a monthly publication from Transformative Leadership Systems and Robert Curtner - Consultants. Our purpose is to provide insightful information about issues and opportunities for leaders, and to engage in dialogue with thoughtful readers. We welcome your comments. See next month's issue for thoughts from our readers.
William Diedrich and Rob Curtner, editors
Bill Diedrich owns Transformative Leadership Systems,
a management consulting firm. Bill is an
experienced process consultant, speaker, and coach who has served
over 60 organizations in education, banking and finance, manufacturing,
health care, the public sector, and not for
profits. His public work-shops include topics such as Leadership,
Spirituality, Change, and Personal
Responsibility. Bill is the author of The Road Home:
The Journey Beyond The Spiritual Quick Fix, available through
the above website.
E-mail Bill at Theroadhome@voyager.net
Rob Curtner is an independent consultant with 17 years experience with corporate training and OD. Rob developed critical people and leadership skills through his earlier career experience managing hu-man services organzations. Rob's areas of expertise include: Developing Problem Solving Teams, Technical Training System Implementation, Performance Consulting, Developing the Learning Organization, and Facilitation of Training and Organizational Change Activities. He is currently working on a safety initiative with UAW/Daimler-Chrysler and a TPM implementation with Technicolor Video Services. Recent curriculum development efforts include Process Mapping and Problem Solving courses.
Email Rob at - curtner.robert@acd.net
Practicing Positive Political Skills
by William Frank Diedrich
A school superintendent is fired because he
refused to go after a competent principal who
certain school board members did not like. A
director of a county agency is targeted by local
politicians who don't like his style. A manufacturing
senior management team cannot correct poor
service to customers because no one is held
accountable. The key manager in the issue is a
favorite of the chairman of the board.
This is politics. As a leader, you cannot rise
above it, stay out of it, or ignore it if you want to be
successful. Every leader, whether the organization is
public or private, profit or non profit, must deal with
politics. The trick is to learn and practice positive
political skills.
The first skill is relationship building. Bob
Moore, Director of Parks for Ingham County,
Michigan, says: "Get out there and talk to people.
Stay in touch with the people who have political
power. Make presentations." As a leader, you need
the support of others, especially those who have
position power. Greet them and meet them.
Discover what they care about--their dreams, their
fears, their family, what motivates them, and what
displeases them. Be a listener. Find ways to help
and to compliment them.
Relationship building does not end with
those who have position power. Talk to people who
are doing the work of the organization. Listen to
their concerns. Make sure that managers, super-visors,
and employees know that you are there to
support them and that you care about their well
being. Building strong bridges to the people you
work with motivates them to care about and respect you.
Teach people about who you are. Make
presentations to those in power in order to inform,
educate, and gain support for your efforts. If people
don't know who you are, they will make it up. You
want the picture people have of you to be framed by
you. You don't want it to be framed by rumor and
speculation.
The second skill is called visioning the
highest good for all concerned. "Vision without
question, is the driving asset for leadership. Vision
incorporates the ability to see the world and
recognize opportunities for growth for your
organization, its members, its customers, and its
potential partners--win-win opportunities in a sea of
perpetual change," says Dennis R. Koons, Chief
Executive Officer for the Michigan Association of
Realtors. The ability to see what course will be most
beneficial for all concerned requires a leader to step
outside of his personal point of view and stand upon
a viewing point.
By consiste ntly seeking what will serve all of
us, you will develop a sense for what is highest and
best. Once you are clear on the vision, everything
you think, say and do must be in alignment with it.
You are the vision holder. Everything you do either
leads the organization to the vision or away from it.
Ask yourself: "Does this action or this comment I'm
about to make help us or hurt us?" Promote the
highest good for all and you will quickly become
trusted. Leaders who create and promote hidden
agendas are not trusted. You need the trust of
people around you in order to get their support.
The third skill combines honesty, integrity,
and compassion. In other words, be straight with
people. Honesty means that you are clear about
your expectations and boundaries. Everyone knows
where you stand. Integrity is doing what you say,
being your true self, and living your core values.
Compassion means that when you are honestly
speaking to someone, you are empathetic toward
his situation. You say it in a way he can receive it
and use it.
Effective practice of this skill has you keenly
aware that everything you say and do communicates
something. Dr. Howard Heitzeg, Superintendent of
Waterford School District (Michigan) states: "When
you are in a leadership position it's always show
time. There is no time when you are off duty." That
time you rolled your eyes; you sent a message. That
time you weren't paying attention to a speaker; you
sent a message. The leader who consistently sends
the same message, privately and publicly about who
she is and about what is important, will gain influence and respect.
Honest feedback to others is essential.
Constantly search for good things to say to people
about their talents and their work. Sincerely let
people know how much you appreciate their efforts.
Appreciation communicated with integrity creates
positive energy in relationships. Enemies will
become friends and friends will become better friends.
Some leaders may say: "Right. This all sounds good, but
it won't work in my organization." If this is you, then
you underestimate your power. A focused, skilled leader is more
powerful than a whole group of unfocused, reactive people.
It takes courage and confidence to practice
these skills. Courage doesn't mean that you don't
feel fear, and confidence doesn't mean you are
always right. It means that you don't allow fear and
doubt to drive your behavior. A fear driven leader is
reactive and ineffective. Allow your values, your
vision, and your spirit to drive you.
Competency comes with practice. Practice
these skills and practice using courage and
confidence. Don't wait for others to change their
ways, treat you differently, or see it your way. It's
not likely to happen. You take the lead and you set
the political tone in your organization. Reach in and
reflect on who you are. Reach out and touch others
with the best of who you are. You will discover
greatness you never knew you had.
Comments or questions for Bill? Contact
Theroadhome@voyager.net
Lessons from the Problem Solving Classroom
by Rob Curtner
Starting in 1994, I have been teaching problem
solving, facilitating problem solving meetings, and conducting
independent research on problem solving education and methods.
The lessons of this experience are summarized here in order to
assist other problem solvers and those wishing to improve organizational
problem solving effectiveness.
Help Strikes Again
Where do problems come from? This is a basic
question having to do with causality. The specific
cause or causes happen in some type of space or
system. The complexity of the system leaves us
unable (or unwilling) to try to predict systemic
outcomes of actions. The action or inaction which
caused a problematic event to occur is important to
identify so we can avoid reoccurrence and establish
or re-establish control over the situation. In a
systematic view, the solutions of the past can often
cause the problems we face today. One part of the
organization takes action that causes problems for
another part. I call this "help strikes again".
Problem Finding, Denial and Getting Lost
In the organizational context, events defined as
problems have to do with both perceptions of
leadership, (What gets measured is what gets done)
as well as our expectations about what is expected.
When expectations are met…no problem. When
change messes with expectations, we get interested
in doing something to restore the (sometimes false)
sense of steady state. Denial is easy and collective
denial is pervasive. This is why we have to measure
the right stuff. Short term profits, false measures of
productivity and quality can hide problems which are
potentially fatal. The organization that is chronically
in crisis, putting out fires, is hard pressed to define
problems well.
The Value of a Methodology - "Why am I at
this Meeting?"
At work, we go to lots of meetings. Most meetings
involve some stage of the problem solving process.
But when different people at the meeting are not at
the same step in the process, the result is another
meeting, guaranteed. For example, person one
attends to try to get a definition of what is wrong
and how that affects the big goals of the
organization. Person two wants to know the facts,
what, where, when and how much. Person three
insists on knowing why this has happened. Person
four knows why and wants to decide what action to
take. Person five wants to prevent reoccurrence.
Person six wants to plan the implementation of the
solution. Another person wants to see the big
picture of all the problems facing the group. In my
experience they are all at the right place, but the
effectiveness of their efforts can best be improved
by taking the problem solving steps in order and
documenting them. This develops consensus and
focus at each step and actually saves time.
Agreement provides buy-in for making the solution
work.
The Five "Whys?" and Root Cause
I define problem solving as the process of gathering,
sorting, organizing and analyzing information to
make wise choices. One error is to use the "Why?"
question incorrectly. The wisdom of asking "Why?"
up to five times in order to determine the limits of
our understanding about the causality in a system is
a well known tool. Often the 5 Whys becomes the 5
Whos. Our tendency is to find someone to blame.
Often the best answer after 5 Whys is, "I don't know
why." Then, solving for root cause is only necessary
after we first agree that we don't know why. When
we determine the root cause, we may be surprised
at how simple it is or confounded by how expensive
it is to fix. The boundary we place on the problem's
surrounding frame often limits our ability to
determine the best course of action.
Getting Unstuck - The Creative View
- Purposefully pause and notice things.
- Focus your creative energies on just a few topic
areas that you genuinely care about and work
on these for several weeks or months
- Avoid being too narrow in the way you define
your problem or topic area; purposefully try
broader definitions and see what insights you
gain.
- Try to come up with original and useful ideas by
making novel associations among what you
already know. When you need creative ideas, try
to focus your attention, escape the boundaries,
and create movement within the problem
definition.
- Pause and carefully examine ideas that make
you laugh the first time you hear them.
- Recognize that your streams of thought and
patterns of judgment are not inherently right or
wrong; they are just what you think now based
primarily on patterns from your past.
- Make a deliberate effort to harvest, develop, and
implement at least a few of the ideas you
generate.
Good Problem Solvers Are…
What makes good problem solvers good?
1. Good problem solvers know more, and what
they know, they know differently -- their
knowledge is well connected composed of
concepts, experience and patterns.
2. Good problem solvers tend to focus on structural
features of problems; poor problem-solvers
focus on surface features.
3. Good problem solvers are more aware of their
strengths and weaknesses.
4. Good problem solvers are better at monitoring
and regulating their efforts.
5. Good problem solvers tend to be more
concerned about obtaining elegant solutions
versus quick fixes.
Questions or comments? Contact Rob at:
curtner.robert@acd.net