Many of the challenges and obstacles (problems) we face are often best handled if we go through them, not around them. This is true whether we are trying to manage a diet or exercise plan for our self or the implementation of a new IT system for our organization. What often prevents us from taking this direct path is that we all like to feel comfortable. We do everything we can to get there and stay there. Many have written that the key to success is to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Being uncomfortable is an example of a mindset that is especially true for leaders who are trying to help teams and team members resolve differences and respond to the discomfort caused by any form of change. Effective leadership requires more than the practice of a set of skills and methods, it sometimes requires a mindset that is counter to one’s personal style and preferences.

It helps to have a long memory for successes and a short memory for failures. Failures are useful if we can incorporate the learning quickly and move on and through the problems, without slowing down to dwell on the experiences. Focusing on previous successes can help bolster confidence and provide insight while working through the problem at hand, especially during the period of peak discomfort.

Personality preferences, and not just cognitive understanding, will greatly influence the degree to which an individual is more or less comfortable with being uncomfortable. For leaders who are conflict avoidant, adopting this mindset will take time, practice and a strong desire. When we see that working through problems and not around them eventually leads to more effective solutions, we might be more willing to be uncomfortable more often. The unexpected result will likely be more overall success and comfort in experiencing it.

© 2011 Jim Delia

Shifting requirements and/or resources typically brings about the need for change in the structure of an organization. Customer needs may be changing, projected revenues may be decreasing, or both.

When this type of change is contemplated, whether it is at a unit level or across the company, paying attention to the culture is wise. Culture is shaped by the beliefs and values of the people within it and it affects how people interpret experiences (change) and behave, individually and in groups. Understanding what people affected by a restructure expect can help guide how to involve them, and this can have a significant effect on the success of implementation.

Be clear about your purpose and vision. Some good initial questions are:

• Why is the restructure necessary?
• What is the overall goal or target? (What is the problem that needs to be solved?)
• What customer or client needs are driving, or will drive, the decisions?
• What financial (budgetary) assumptions are driving, or will drive, the decisions?
• What personnel changes are driving, or will drive, the decisions?
• What organizational values and priorities need to be maintained? Changed?
• What is the desired future state for the organization?
• Who should be included in the planning? (Cross-section of staff, external stakeholders?)
• How and when will the communication begin?

When formulating a project plan to manage the assignments and activities for restructuring and a transition plan to lead the people through the change, consider these cultural dimensions and the degree to which they apply to your organization.

Directness. Are people conditioned to receive messages that are to the point or are implied messages the norm?
Hierarchy. Do people expect to follow orders from leadership (centralized) or are decisions encouraged and expected to be made at all levels (decentralized)?
Consensus. Do people expect to have their opinions heard and understood before decisions are made or is conflict and disagreement generally discouraged?
Individualism. Are people driven more by self-interest or are they more focused on the organization’s needs?

Remember to see before you do.

© 2011 Jim Delia

The recent events in Egypt will be examined and analyzed for many years to come. There will be many lessons learned that more than a few in that part of the world will consider how to apply to their situations. After watching the process unfold over the last 18 days, one recurring lesson that I was reminded of is that change at any level starts in one room, one space, at a time. In the case of Egypt, the beginning of their revolution may have started in a digital space.

Resistance to change is natural, regardless of whether or not the potential benefits are perceived to be positive. Despite our ability to reason and rationalize, we are bound by a fundamental law of physics – inertia.

As you read this, and contemplate whether or not it is worth your effort to lead or support the change your organization needs, consider that every happening, social movement and revolution began in one room, or one space, with one person engaging another in conversation. Then it grew until enough traction and momentum was created to allow that change to take hold.

Not all significant change can occur in the course of 18 days. However, for it to occur at all it needs a spark, on one day, with one person, in one room or space. The hardest part is your choice whether or not to take the first step. Once you commit to overcoming your inertia, dealing with the opposition and conflicts you may find down the line is actually easier. Have the courage to send that text or e-mail, or setup that meeting. If you do, be inspired. You’re in world-class company.

We are products of an action-oriented culture. We like movie action heroes and we tend to value mantras like, “Just do it.” We typically reward and admire action, because that’s what we see. Results are what gets measured and what gets measured is what gets done. Given an uncertain and challenging economy with shrinking resources and financial stress, management’s primary focus is usually on taking action to address the urgency of the situation and get the desired results. Managers expect employees to “Start doing things this way.” “Stop doing things that way.” “Trust me, it will work.” Frustration occurs when employees don’t get with the program quick enough.

What’s true is that when dealing with human beings we can’t cut corners and ignore the psychology that drives us. For real, sustainable action to occur more quickly, managers should first focus on the groundwork that people typically need to have in place before they can begin changing the way they do things – to act differently. Laying this foundation involves two often neglected steps.

Step 1 is to be sure that the language and terminology is understood by those who are expected to act or behave differently. Peter Block, the noted author and consultant, has frequently written about the power of language and how change first occurs by changing the language. Semantic misunderstandings are often unknown, yet significant, obstacles to taking effective action. Managers should first be sure that everyone understands the terms being used in the way they are intended, before moving forward with any initiative.

Step 2 is to focus on the thinking. What ideas, assumptions, beliefs need to change in order for the desired action or behavior to take place? Managers need to help provide the answer to the basic motivation question, “What’s in it for me?” Many significant and potentially advantageous initiatives never get implemented effectively, or at all, because management assumes that the merits of a useful idea or solution itself will be instantly recognized and will result in immediate buy-in. Consequently, a lot of management time is spent addressing resistance to change, after the fact, instead of investing time upfront strategizing about ways to help change the thinking before new approaches, procedures, systems, etc. get implemented.

When people are clear about the specific language (i.e. what “merit-based performance” really means), and they have time to think and process anticipated impacts (i.e. what will be lost and what will be gained by acting or behaving in a different way), Step 3 which involves action, can happen in a manner that produces results much more quickly.

I believe that one reason more attention is not spent on addressing the language and thinking issues is because it involves planning, and planning is not sexy. Planning takes time and doesn’t involve any action you can see immediately, so it often gets minimal attention and is abbreviated. Sometimes we need to go slow to go fast. Some thinking regarding the benefits of planning needs to change if we really want effective action to occur more quickly in our organizations. Maybe what our culture needs is to have an action hero like Jason Statham star in “The Planner” and provide us with a good role model.

I found some interesting concepts regarding change and the role of coaching in a book by Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee called, The New Leaders: Transforming the Art of Leadership into the Science of Results, London: Little Brown. Their research suggests that personal change occurs more effectively and sustainably when we are focused on a Positive Emotional Attractor (PEA), rather than a Negative Emotional Attractor (NEA). Focusing on a PEA means building on our strengths which allows us to be more open to possibilities. Often we choose, or are led down, the path toward an NEA that pushes us to fix what’s wrong with us. By following that negative route we usually get “turned off” soon after we begin and positive change rarely occurs.

Typically, if we start on what we want to “fix” first, our fight or flight response is triggered and that leads us to behave defensively, or we quickly find excuses to avoid the effort. We get uncomfortable and we are less open to feedback, and soon lose commitment to making the change. Coaches can help the personal change process by helping to identify the positive reasons for making the change and building on personal strengths in order to achieve some small wins. Once those small wins are achieved, motivation can build, along with a desire to then address weaknesses.

Good leaders are good coaches. They create trust, not fear, and help those they lead find positive, personal reasons to move toward change. This approach is much more effective, particularly as an early change strategy, than demanding quick fixes to personal weaknesses. However, it also takes time and patience to achieve real results. The process starts with a leader’s recognizing and understanding the level of readiness of the individual being coached. By starting where they need and want to begin, the coaching effort can be much more productive for both parties.

For all of the potential benefits to good coaching, there can be an unforeseen challenge to incorporating it as a management practice in the workplace. That is, everyone may not view coaching as a positive. I was reminded of this recently while working with a client and discussing the topic of performance management and the supportive role of coaching. I asked about the word “coaching” and how it was viewed in their organization and I was told that the word has a negative connotation for some because it is associated with problem performance. We are shaped by our experience.

The idea of being coached can be viewed as a positive or negative based on influential experiences, some beginning at an early age. A close family member had a high school sports coach who would pull each and every player out of the game right after they made a mistake. They were then derided and made to sit on the bench and reflect on what they did wrong. Conversely, when they did something right, it was ignored and taken for granted by the coach. Consequently, whatever growth and improvement occurred for the various team members happened very slowly, if at all, because the level of fear and lack of trust that existed kept morale and motivation low. I can’t help but wonder how those individual players will view and respond to coaching by their managers when they eventually enter the workforce.

Leaders, even with positive intentions, may want to accept the fact that viewpoints can differ regarding coaching. The potential impact of the language and labels leaders use and take for granted, may not always be understood. Even a helpful word (to me) like “coaching” may trigger a negative response even before it begins.

Next week is my birthday. And as the day approaches I recall that an advisor recently told me that my life is likely half over. Since I’ll be 51, I am OK with that prospect.

There remains a lot to look forward to in the future. I’m still planning new business ventures, meeting new friends, planning and creating memories with my family and most of all continuing to learn. For me the learning is not just focused on acquiring professional knowledge. That never ends. There is always some new approach or concept about people and how we behave to read about, or some new situation or challenge in the workplace that catches my attention. However, some of the most universal learning for me comes from developing my skills in sailing and music, two pursuits that bring me a lot of joy and pleasure, along with pain sometimes.

As I am still rehabbing my “sailing elbow”, I’ll offer more thoughts about the impact of sailing in a future post. Focusing on music, I have always been a big fan of rock drums and have followed various drummers throughout their careers since my early teens. John Bonham and Steve Gadd were a couple of my icons, Regrettably, although I saw Gadd a few times, I never got to see Zeppelin play live. At rock concerts, I was one of those few in the crowd to jump up and applaud after a killer drum solo.

I learned a lesson when I was persuaded by a friend to take up playing the drums 2 ½ years ago. We were at a break at a Steely Dan concert talking about music and I was lamenting that I had never learned to play drums, even though I have been a huge fan of the instrument. His message was simple, “why not start now?” So I did. He plays bass guitar and as it turns out, he started playing bass around the middle of his life as well. A few drum lessons were followed by practice sessions in my garage, where we have since added some other players and now can proudly call ourselves a garage band.

Here’s the kicker, so to speak. The real lesson was that learning something new and fun remains a humbling experience. My ego is continually challenged when I can’t play a beat or a drum fill in the way I hear it on the recording. I had to accept the fact that I was incompetent and that I would fail a lot – until I didn’t. For a while it would have been easier to stop. I am improving (so my band mates tell me). Still, learning is not easy, despite the rewards. Professionally I am continually working to persuade people to learn new skills and develop new habits, and my journey to learn to play drums is a useful reminder of how demanding learning can be, especially for adults.

My bass player friend that inspired me to learn got me tapped into the joy and benefits I could receive by investing the practice time and applying real effort. Most importantly he was patient and realized that I had to start when I was ready and at my level of ability. Despite the perceived benefits, an attractive goal or objective can best be reached when we are willing to accept that fact that quick successes are not always realistic when the desired change is significant. As each of us marches (or plays) to our own drummer, if we can be patient and keep our ego from getting in our way, we have a much better chance of leveraging the learning.

I delivered a series of workshops this past week on resolving conflict. I tried to emphasize how to minimize and prevent conflict – when possible. Whenever I am discussing personal behavior change, I often hear that the real problem is “my boss” or “my co-worker” and that “they should be in the session.” Of course.

Although training and coaching can be effective when people are highly motivated, one of the most powerful and effective approaches to influencing others to change their behavior is to model it yourself. This works at an individual and organizational level. The adage is definitely true that actions speak louder than words. People respond (learn) at a more visceral level by what they observe.

Modeling is double-edged. It may also have an undesired affect if our actions are incongruent with what we say or claim to be important. This type of incongruency might be considered hypocrisy by others and can actually destroy what we are trying to accomplish. Being more self-aware would help dramatically.

Despite positive intent and the best ideas for ourselves and others, we fail as leaders, managers, supervisors, peers, friends, parents, spouses, partners, etc. when we are not careful in avoiding hypocritical behavior. Hypocrite may sound like a strong word, that we are reluctant to attach to ourselves or others, but it may be the appropriate word.

Hypocrisy is more than just annoying. When the stakes are high it impacts the degree to which we trust each other and our institutions. When a manager says it’s important that the team supports each other, and then that same manager bad mouths one member behind the back of another – that’s hypocrisy and that’s a problem.

Our good ideas are usually not enough to influence and lead others in the direction we want them to go. The best ideas and intent are meaningless when we as individuals or as organizations act hypocritically. The result can even be a setback in credibility and trust that can take a long time to recover from, if at all. Unfortunately there are daily and high profile, examples of hypocritical behavior from politicians, business leaders, sports figures, etc. Let’s use these examples as reminders of what not to do.

I believe that sometimes we focus too much on what we think, our positive intentions, and not enough on what we do, our contradictory behavior. How do we act like a hypocrite at work or at home? Are we not getting the results we want or the relationships we want because our behavior contradicts what we say is important?

Yes, modeling can be very powerful. Beware and be careful.

“Change
it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fall that’s all
But the world looks just the same
And history ain’t changed…”

-Pete Townshend

And so it goes… or does it?

History is changing, right under our noses. Maybe it was a fitting coincidence that the dot-com revolution peaked in January 2000. A nice clean start to the 21^st century. Yes, this is the 21^st century. Almost ten years into it, doesn’t that still have a far away, tomorrow-like ring to it? Thanks to the hyper-changes brought about by the speed and reach of the web, what worked yesterday isn’t working today, and likely won’t work tomorrow. There are enough lessons around us to make that point (see GM). We got the call. Some of us got the early wake-up call. For the rest of us, the alarm has definitely gone off and it would be a mistake to hit the snooze button this time.

Leaders, in any field, at any level, would do well to consider the benefits of organizing around a different set of precepts to fulfill their purpose and continue to thrive and deliver products or services. Now is the time to really do something about getting people out of their mental and organizational silos and not just sit around in meetings talking about it. If you continue to be a slave to artificial constructs like your existing org chart, don’t be surprised if you find yourself and your organization behind the curve once again, continuing to play defense when threatened by increased competition or diminishing revenue. We keep hearing that an improved economy won’t mean we can go back to business as usual. Instead of staying in your bunker, hoping the smoke will clear, you have an opportunity to plan now so that you can charge forward later.

We hear the call to “Take risks. Innovate. Change.” Sounds smart doesn’t it? Have you really figured out what this means? Are you stuck trying to figure out what the boss really wants? Don’t wait because the fundamentals are more important now than ever. As a 21^st century leader you might start by doing these simple things:

1. Focus on what your core business is. What are you good at? Is there still a need for what you offer or how you offer it?
2. Evaluate your talent. Who is good at doing what? How motivated are they to help come up with new ideas and solutions? Who isn’t adding value?
3. Spend time determining how best to get your talent focused and aligned. What should they be doing? How should they be doing it? What support do they need?
4. Take a look at the reporting structure. Does it still make sense? Look at the individual units or even departments. What would happen if you blew up the boxes and started over?

This should be Management 101, right? Then how come you, your boss and your organization aren’t really doing it? Granted, it isn’t easy, but it doesn’t have to be too complex if you plan, take one step at a time and make the effort a priority. This is leading. Do you still want to wait for permission?

“To Change something, build a new model…”

- R. Buckminister Fuller.