3 Organizational Responses to Change

Video Transcript:

When it comes to change and uncertainty, there's usually three responses. And two of those responses are growth limiting responses. While one response is a response that allows for growth in the face of uncertainty and change.

So the first response is the ostrich response. And if you know about ostriches, that basically means when change or uncertainty occurs, you put your head in a hole, you ignore it. You shut it out, you block it, you don't pay any attention to it, and you just pretend like it's not happening. So it's like, put your fingers in your ears and go, la la la, la, la. No change, no change, no change. And that's the ostrich response.

The roadrunner response is to run. So when you see change or uncertainty happening or some sort of difficult change or uncertain state of affairs occurring, you run from it. You move from that place to a place of greater comfort that probably looks more like the old place did before it started changing. So you just run from the change and go back to someplace that represents an unchanged state of being.

And then the final way is Wiley. And Wiley Coyote, if you know from the cartoons, is someone who is constantly innovating, trying new methods, new tools, new techniques, new approaches. But never stops. Like every day, gets up and tries again, tries a new product, tries a new technique, tries a new method. And it seems like there's never going to be a point where Wiley can succeed or will actually be able to grasp what he's going after.

What we see in the cartoon is Wiley is constantly chasing this Roadrunner. But he's always getting outsmarted or evaded in some way. But then we also recognize part of why Wiley keeps getting up and chasing the Roadrunner is not because he wants to catch him, it is because he enjoys the process of the chase. He actually enjoys trying out new tools. He enjoys innovating, he enjoys coming up with different methods. He likes the paces that it puts him through because it keeps him entertained and, and probably quite fit.

So I think those three approaches to change really represent the natural responses that people or teams, or organizations have when change is presented. One is to just ignore it, and those who ignore it run the risk of basically getting bulldozed by that change. If you stand in one place while change is hurtling towards you and you just dig your head in the sand or dig your heels in, then what's gonna happen is you're gonna be knocked over by that change. You're gonna be in some way devastated by it because you're never prepared for it.

The people who run from change in the short term, they find that it feels good. They find themselves back in a place of comfort. But the challenge with running backwards is that you never get ahead. If you're constantly running to something that is pre change or represents an unchanged state, then basically you're starting from scratch or you're always behind the curve. You're always behind the state of progress that is happening in the environment. So that looks like you either standing still or regressing.

And then the final one is really evident of, well, when you're responsive to change by being innovative and iterating your approaches and trying different things, what may happen is you find that once you've actually adopted the change, you're like, okay, well what do I do next?

Now I actually have to think of something else to do because after all of this trying and learning and experimenting, I actually got through the change. And throughout that process, I've actually learned and grown a lot. I've learned a thousand ways that didn't work just to get to the one way that did work. And so the next time I'm going through change, I can actually probably get to that change a lot faster than I did before.

So these are three approaches, and I think the first two are approaches that very clearly limit growth. And the Wiley approach is actually the one that is going to help you succeed even before you're actually fully able to master the change.

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How does your team or organization respond to change?

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IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE YOUR FUTURE

CHANGE YOUR STORY.

Create A Strategic Story To Map Your Future In Times of Growth & Change

A Masterplan Is Better Than Goals

Video Transcript:

When you start to reach a certain level of self-development or evolution or even when you're in a position of leadership, whether that just be self-leadership or leadership of others, I think you start to recognize that goals are not enough to drive how you're going to move from the current level to the next level.

Goals are pretty good as a to-do list of of things you wanna accomplish or achieve. But when you're in a leadership position and you have all of these moving parts to orchestrate, goals alone aren't enough to encapsulate all that needs to be considered as the person who is sitting in the middle of all these moving parts and having to be the orchestrator of all those moving parts, or having to be the one who maintains the constant vision.

For that, you need a masterplan. And the master plan it's a term that I borrowed from civic design in that a master plan is basically a strategy for a physical place. For a physical location. So it's a community or a neighborhood or a block and the civic designer develops a master plan for that physical geography to say that this is how it exists now, but over a period of time, this is how it's going to evolve, and this is what the future vision of this physical or geographic location is gonna be.

If they just were like, here are the goals for this plot of land, or Here's the goal for this community, that's a little too simple because when you're transforming physical geographic space and it's a huge amount of space with a lot of moving parts, there's infrastructure, there's neighborhoods, there's homes, there's commercial areas. A lot of things have to work in concert to make this vision a reality within this physical space. And that takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of negotiation, takes a lot of conversation, it takes a lot of campaigning, it takes a lot of re-explaining the vision over and over again. Sometimes you may have a priority for the current year that maybe the budget isn't there, or you ran into an infrastructure roadblock and you've gotta deprioritize and come up with something else that still pushes towards that full master plan vision.

And so when we find ourselves in leadership positions, and that position of a leader is really that same idea of having to transform something that is comprised of a lot of moving parts. Transform that over time from where it is now to what it will be when it's this future vision, then you have to have a master plan, even if that thing that you're evolving over time is you as the leader.

So this is why I promote not only having goals, but also having a master plan that stretches over a period of time, and that is flexible enough to evolve and adapt as the situations change. As you encounter roadblocks, as budget or resources are not available or are available, you can have this overarching master plan that you can refer to over and over again to recenter yourself on the long-term future vision while still having all of the pieces you need to do on a day-to-day, month-to-month, year to year basis, to keep progressing along a timeline that will lead you to that vision.

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Do you manage your team or business using goals or do you have a masterplan?

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IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE YOUR FUTURE

CHANGE YOUR STORY.

Write your next chapter with a story-based strategic framework that evolves as you do.

4 ways executive leaders benefit from active ESN participation

In a recent conversation with a group of Internal Communications professionals that I work with, they expressed their frustrations that the executive leaders in their region aren’t posting regularly on the company’s recently-launched enterprise social network (ESN).

“When I go to LinkedIn,” one of them shared, “I see my leaders posting there. They could be posting some of that same stuff on the company’s social network, but they don’t. Why?”

There’s a clear value to executive leaders from a social network like LinkedIn. This is where their peers are, where other leaders in their industry exchange ideas, where they build their personal brands as experts in their fields and champions of their personal causes. If execs can clearly see the value in external social networks, how do we get them to see similar value and personal benefit from actively engaging in their enterprise social networks?

In my mind, there are at least 4 key benefits that executive leaders can instantly receive from ESN participation and engagement.

Benefit #1

Pulse – I.e., getting a read on what your people are talking about, needing, lacking, wanting, etc. Formal surveys are good, but not always necessary and survey results don’t always present the ‘real’ story. Asking a question on the ESN and seeing real-time feedback from real voices is more valuable and often more actionable than static data collected from a formal survey. When the two tactics are paired, the real-life ESN insights that survey data doesn’t always show can be instrumental in determining what to do with survey results.

Benefit #2

Personhood – Employees have a tendency to deify or enshrine their leadership. In their eyes, you are most likely seen as the Wizard of Oz; but your people really need to see you as the man behind the curtain. Not some great and powerful leader that they have only heard rumors of or have to jump through hoops to receive audience with, but a real-live person who walks on the same ground they do. What struggles do you have, what business problems are you solving, what books do you read, what do you do in your spare time? What are you passionate about? Who. Are. You. Even?

Benefit #3

Culture – What are the values that your organization promotes? What are your values as a leader? Do your people know what your values are? Can they point to you demonstrating those values on a regular, everyday basis – not via grand initiatives or pronouncements, but just your daily going about? For instance, if curiosity is one of your company’s values – what little things are you doing to be curious throughout the day or week and how can you share that more openly?

Benefit #4

Problem-solving – What’s asked in the open gets answered much more quickly and effectively. As a leader, you don’t have all the answers. You shouldn’t. But if you’re only taking your business problems to your lieutenants or the other execs in your immediate circle, you’re not tapping into the power of the network of bright, capable, experienced employees in your organization. You’re also missing an opportunity to demonstrate how problem-solving can be a community-wide effort. Pose some of your current business challenges on the ESN and watch how the answers and ideas start flowing. Also – this gives the entire organization to feel like they’re a part of what’s happening, that their voices and opinions could influence the company’s leaders and decision makers.

Without question, today’s executives are busier than ever, so posting on their company’s social network can feel like just one more thing to do. But when execs reframe the benefits of participating in their organization’s internal network, it quickly becomes apparent that the ESN is an untapped opportunity for the savvy digital leader.

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Kisha Solomon is an Atlanta-based writer, knowledge worker and serial expat. She writes witty, poignant stories about the lessons she’s learned from her life, work and travels. She deals with the sometimes frustrating and often humorous side effects of being black, female and nerdy. When she’s not writing working or travelling, you can find her in deep conversation with herself or her four-legged familiar, Taurus the Cat. www.lifeworktravels.com

Remembering Malcolm

I’ve been meditating a lot on leadership lately.

On what it means, on how you come to be one, on the leaders I respect and admire. 

It’s not for nothing. I’ve been in a leadership training class at work for almost 6 months now. So it’s a theme that I’m engrossed in regularly. I remember one of the first questions posed to the class of middle and senior managers: Are leaders born or made?

It seemed an obvious answer to me. Leaders are made. It was therefore quite surprising to see an unexpected number of my classmates respond that leaders are born that way. It revealed more than I cared to explore at that time. 

In a different leadership session, with a different group of people, we were asked to bring 2 pictures of leaders who inspired us. I brought a picture of this man. Provocative, yes. But true.

A photo of a young Malcolm X, smiling

Malcolm has been an inspirational example of leadership for me since I read his autobiography in high school. Primarily because he and his life is a testament that becoming a leader is a process, perhaps a neverending one, but definitely one that will require you to stretch beyond your current boundaries, master a new level of skills and discipline, use that to accomplish great things, and then repeat the cycle again.

In his early life, Malcolm was an orphan, a pimp, a numbers runner, a thief, a convict. When that life had taken him as far as it could, a new life possibility was presented to him. He accepted and became a scholar, an orator, a community organizer, a husband, a father, a hero to some, and a villainous nuisance to others. When he was effectively cast out of that life, Malcolm was forced yet again to create a new life for himself - the first one he would create of his own volition, not just as a reaction to his environment and circumstances. It’s this life that we know the least about, because it was cut short before he could bring his newly defined self into full existence. 

At each stage of his life, however, Malcolm was a leader. He distinguished himself among both lowlifes and high-born with a natural charisma and a willingness to ‘take the weight’. So, then... are leaders like Malcolm born? Or are they made?

We are all born with everything that we need to achieve greatness. But we must be made ready through the experiences life presents us and the ways we respond to them. This is the lesson that Malcolm Little, aka Detroit Red, aka Satan, aka, Malcolm X, aka, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz taught me.

It’s the reason why I brought a picture of him into a corporate classroom, and it’s one of the many reasons that I, and many others will take a few moments of time today to celebrate the anniversary of his birth.

Happy birthday, brother Malcolm.

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When No One Knows The Way: 5 Steps To Make Your Mission Statement A Way Of Working

Management Issue:

My client has been in her role as lead of her team for the past year or so. She’s put a good deal of her efforts into strengthening the team culture and creating a more collaborative and client-focused mindset within her department.

At the beginning of the year, she worked with other members of the organization’s executive team to develop a mission statement for her department. Shortly after it was finished, she proudly shared the new mission with the team in a town hall style meeting. Months later, she’s dismayed at how few people on the team have grasped the mission – she randomly polled a few of her staff about the mission statement a few days ago, and some didn’t even know that a mission statement existed!

Naturally, she’s disappointed that the team hasn’t adopted or isn’t fully aware of the mission. How, she wonders, can she get her team to not only know what the mission is, but live it everyday?

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Training your team on your organization’s mission statement is not a once-and-done activity. Many organizational leaders put a great deal of effort and thought into the creation of their company or department mission statement, carefully crafting each word until it conveys a message that both inspires and succinctly describes what the organization does.

But once the hard work of creating the mission statement is done, the task of getting employees to learn and embody the words of the mission statement is the next big hurdle – one might rightfully conclude that this is the hardest work of all.

As a result, mission statements often end up being treated as canned corporate speak or a motivational poster without real-life impact. Organizations who move beyond this mindset and successfully instill the mission into their employees are poised to experience profound shifts in organizational culture.

So how do they do it?  Here’s one approach for taking your company’s mission statement from words to action.

From Mission To Action

5 Steps to Turn Your Organization’s Mission Statement into a Way of Working

Step 1: De-construct the mission statement

Take action phrases from the mission statement and develop both marketing and training materials around them. Do the same for adjectives and descriptor words.

Step 2: Create marketing and training materials

Suggested marketing materials:

• Wall posters of the mission statement with action phrases or descriptors highlighted and explained

• 3D toys, puzzles, games, figurines, etc. that demonstrate the action phrases or descriptors in some way or have action phrases or descriptors printed on them

• Suggested training materials:

• Self-directed eLearning modules – a la the security essentials training

• Recorded video presentation of a member of leadership explaining the mission and its importance

• Animated explainer videos

Step 3: Include mission statement in required annual training

Require that each employee attend an annual introduction or refresher training that includes or exclusively focuses on the mission statement. Require the training to be completed within the first 30 days of employment for new hires and once a year for existing employees.

Step 4: Provide and promote ongoing experiences

When launching a new or modified mission statement, provide 2-3 experiential learning activities or sessions within 6 weeks of revealing the new mission statement. Experiential training should be designed to create ‘a-ha’ moments that allow participants to act and reflect on the concepts of the mission statement.

After each training session or after all sessions are completed, recommend and regularly encourage activities for your team to continue ‘living the mission’, including:

• Book clubs – read and discuss business-related books that focus on the action phrases and descriptors in the mission statement

• Internal improvement projects - suggest and work on internal-facing improvement initiatives that embody the concepts of the action phrases and descriptors in the mission statement

• Community service projects - plan and participate in external activities and hands-on projects that embody the concepts of the action phrases and descriptors in the mission statement

• Informal social groups - encourage small group participation in fun, social activities that are aligned with or themed with the action phrases and descriptors of the mission statement

Step 5: Encourage and reward demonstration of the mission in action

Create a rewards and recognition program to identify, recognize and reward projects or teams that have demonstrated the action phrases and descriptors highlighted in Step 1. Be sure to focus rewards and recognition primarily or exclusively on team and group efforts, not individuals. This will serve to encourage teamwork, asking for help, collaborating and having shared experiences; and will discourage isolation, ‘hero’ behavior or the tendency to ‘pick favorites’.

Further reading:

https://www.fastcompany.com/3032696/3-ways-to-take-your-company-mission-statement-from-words-to-actions

 https://blog.clickboarding.com/how-to-improve-employee-engagement-make-the-mission-clear

Kisha Solomon is an Atlanta-based writer, knowledge worker and serial expat. She writes witty, poignant stories about the lessons she’s learned from her life, work and travels. She deals with the sometimes frustrating and often humorous side effects of being black, female and nerdy. When she’s not writing working or travelling, you can find her in deep conversation with herself or her four-legged familiar, Taurus the Cat.

the superglue - my first taste of project management

One of the most interesting jobs I had was when I worked at a busy coffee shop in Midtown Atlanta. My coworkers were a diverse cast of characters from all kinds of backgrounds, and our customers were an often amusing mix of discerning coffee snobs and folks who just needed their morning cup of joe.

Each morning when I came into work, I was given a different position to play. Some days I’d be the cashier – keying in transactions and filling pastry and drip brew orders, other times I’d be the barista – creating all of the fancy espresso-based beverages. But my favorite team role was a position called the Superglue.

The Superglue was so named because it was the position that, quite literally, held it all together. If the cashier was out of change, the Superglue would go get it. If the barista was low on 2% milk, the Superglue would refresh the supply, so the barista could keep serving up the espresso. If the line got especially long, the Superglue would first get the queue formed in an orderly fashion, then start pre-filling orders so customers wouldn’t be too delayed. If there was a lull in the action, the Superglue would do a quick interim cleaning of the work area to make sure the back of the house remained presentable.

Unlike the cashier or the barista, the Superglue wasn’t assigned any one specific task, but assisted with all of them. I guess you could say that the Superglue’s one task was to make sure that all the other tasks were performed as efficiently as possible with maximum support to the team and minimal displeasure to the customer. I didn’t know it then, but by ‘playing Superglue’, I was getting my first taste of project management.

As a project manager you don’t really do any one thing, but you must be reasonably skilled at or have a deep understanding of everything that all the other players on the team do. You also have to possess a certain empathy for the customer, being able to see through their eyes and respond to their needs no matter how sophisticated or simple those needs may be. Like the Superglue, a good project manager is an enabler that has the ability to support a diverse set of personalities, and respond to ever-changing needs while making sure that the quality of the process isn’t compromised.

 And like the Superglue, you usually end up consuming a lot of coffee when no one’s looking.