Learning Leader

Lazy delegation

Lazy delegation is where work is given, but the reason for it is not. Lazy delegation is common and it is damaging.

I was briefing some fellow trainers recently to deliver a tailored Change Management course to one of our clients. In this course we had included some material on Viktor Frankl. I was not surprised at all that most of the trainers had not heard of Frankl; he had the misfortune to die in the same week as Mother Teresa and Diana Princess of Wales, so his passing and his life's work did not gain the attention it deserved at the time.

As a young man, Frankl was interned into a Death Camp during World War II. When he arrived, he asked himself the question: "What sort of people will survive this?"  [I remember Jim Collins saying at a leadership conference I attended a few years ago that all good research starts with a great question.]

In short he discovered, that among those who were given the chance - that is, those who were not just taken away and executed -  the survivors were all people who had something to live for beyond the camp, whereas those who gave up the will to go on in that dreadful place usually grounded their hope and their meaning within the circumstances of the camp.

In fact, the guards seem to know this. They devised a special form of torture whereby they took a random detail of prisoners and made them move a pile of rubbish from one end of the camp to the other. It was back-breaking work. The next day the guards would select the same group and get them to move that mound of rubbish back to exactly the same spot it was before. By taking any rational meaning out of the prisoners' work, the guards sought to take away their will to live, to grind them down.

After the War, Frankl went on to found a branch of psychotherapy called Logotherapy (from the Greek word 'logos' meaning 'Word' or 'Meaning'). He devised a cognitive therapy strategy whereby he helped patients to mental health by helping them to connect with what was most important in their lives, to connect with meaning. He set out his discovery and some of his experiences in an amazing book called Man's Search For Meaning.

I tell delegates this story sometimes on our change management courses and I ask: how often do we do the equivalent of getting people to move around the rubbish? By decanting work of any meaning for people, we do just that; and we lose health and motivation from our organisations in the process.

And we do that in projects that start without clear business cases.

And we do that in inflicting change on people without explaining the benefits.

And we can do that with lazy delegation: not taking the care to explain 'why' when we ask somebody to do a piece of work for us.

Learning in the Cloud

Last week I was leading our Change Management Practitioner course (which I love to do). We had a great group of people and I made a little experiment: I created for the delegates a shared notebook on Evernote, one of the free storage systems. Delegates were able to set up a free account, if they didn't already have one, and access notes that I posted there during the week.

Evernote's mission is to store the world's memory, and I must say it does a pretty good job.

Delegates were invited by me before the course to access the free notebook (pictured). As we went through the week, I captured photos from the course of flipcharts, table and floor layouts, and added notes on relevant resources, including an updated Change Management further reading list.

It was easy to set up and operate. Now we are considering creating streams for our graduates by topic on our Facebook page.

I suppose this is what people mean in part by 'Learning 2.0': use Web 2.0 technologies, cloud services like Evernote, to gather and share learning materials.

Right now, I'm enthusiastic, but I'm not sure we've yet landed on the best tool and process. I'd be interested in any views or advice on this, particular from people in management training.

pearcemayfield first to gain ISO9001 through APM Group

News finally came through yesterday that we had gained the ISO9001 Quality Certification ('ISO') through APM Group: a first for us and a first for APMG. So we are all quietly quite proud here.

The journey over the last few months has been an interesting one. My concern has been that the ISO process did not become self-serving but actually did add value.

My colleague, Andrew Rock, is our Quality Manager and he did a superb job. Unlike me, Andrew is a completer-finisher, and is strong on consistency. I am more of a maverick, valuing innovation, ideas and agility. Andrew urged me first to grapple with a thing called Quality Policy, which he said needed to be owned by senior management. (That would be me.)

As I studied what was meant by 'Quality Policy' I began to appreciate that this was where we could set out our stall as to how we, as a company would apply ISO. We could not, as many other organisations have done, take a passive approach to applying the international standard; we hear that many that have done this have found, as a consequence, that ISO then took them places they did not want to go. In some cases, writing it became like boiling the ocean and observing it became excessively bureaucratic.

So, in little over a page, I set out our stance:

• Values-based. Our Values would continue to be paramount and non-negotiable. We've learned what our customer love about us has actually emerged out of our being consistent in living our values.
• Simplicity. 'Keep things as simple as possible, but no simpler.' (Einstein) This became our design approach.
• Outcomes-oriented. Process always needs to serve the outcomes it intends to achieve.
• Value-adding. Only change where there is clear added value in doing so.
• Document on exception. Evidence is not required where the system is being followed, only where deviances have been found. We cannot become a paper-factory documenting the 'normal' to the nth degree.
• Always use best judgement. I borrowed this from Nordstoms in the USA. We live in an emergent business reality. We need to be humble enough to realise that what we codify today as our practice may be ill-suited for the demands of tomorrow. So if we encounter a novel challenge or opportunity, and the procedures are inadequate, guess what? We permit ourselves to decide as best we know how.

What I realised was that without doing this, external advisors and assessors might well bring in a culture of ISO that would be mechanistic and legalistic. In turn this could lead to some unintended consequences that would compete against what we needed to be and achieve, and potentially be disastrous.

Richard Rose, our internal auditor, and Andy Taylor, our external consultant, also deserve special mentions here for helping me bridge my intent into the strange language and constructs of ISO.

Now I am certainly not a quality expert. We are working out our salvation as we go along. If you, dear reader, feel this approach of ours is flawed I'd really appreciate hearing from you.

Meanwhile we are popping the champagne to celebrate being the first to gain this through APM Group.

How to be a Leader

I write this here in Bombay (Mumbai), two thirds of the way through a very stimulating 3-city conference series at the invitation of APMG-India. I've been speaking on P3O (Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices), a very clumsy and obscurely-titled product from the OGC Best Management Practice stable that is really quite powerful and well written. I've  had some very positive reactions from Indian delegates, particularly to my use of Prezi.

One of my fellow presenters has been explaining MSP (Managing Successful Programmes). Now, MSP is close to my heart; I wrote large chunks of the present edition. So when this colleague touched on Leadership and said, "Of course, MSP doesn't give you much help in how you actually lead..." it made me think.

First, a best practice guide like MSP can't include everything. The brief is not to be an attempt at an exhaustive body of knowledge. Rather it positions topics such as leadership, benefits realisation, and so on, within the work of a programme; emphasises their importance; illustrates some major techniques perhaps; and shows the interconnections with other aspects vital to delivering a successful programme. It leads you into the subject. It doesn't attempt to be the last word on it.

However, my main issue with the observation that it doesn't explain the 'how to' of leadership is a misunderstanding of leadership. Leaders deal in direction and meaning. Managers manage process and tasks. For a manager, the 'how to' is very, very important indeed, but asking "Why" and attempting to answer that big question for any change - large or small - begins the journey of becoming a leader.

So let's not apply a management approach to conducting ourselves as leaders. Let us engage with finding and engaging with people on the reasons why we need this change, and why it is important them. Then we find we are beginning to grow as leaders.

 

Speaking at Best Practice Showcase in India next week

I've been invited to speak at APMG-India's launch conference across three cities next week. The organisers have asked me to speak on P3O (Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices) which I delighted to do. I'm agreat fan of this management guidance. It has helped me an others make sense of an otherwise confusing management landscape - how to control and make agile timely decisions at a senior level across a complex mix of projects and programmes.

I'll be using the metaphor of a backbone (hence the diagram). We have found clients can exploit a P3O framework to support the frame of the 'change investment' - all the projects and programmes that are happening - as well as using it as a conduit vital and immediate central nervous system supporting timely decision-making.

If there is anybody reading this that will be there, please come and say, "Hello'" to me.

The Conference runs  from Tuesday evening in Bangalore, then Mumbai, finishing on Friday evening in Delhi. Will I get a Tour T-shirt at the end with the dates and cities printed on the back, I wonder? :)

The Leadership Deficit: Why the UK Economy wastes £50bn annually

I thought it appropriate,with the UK Government about to announce in a few days its Comprehensive Spending Review, a less obvious area where we are wasting huge sums annually ... in the real economy.

pearcemayfield now has its own YouTube channel and we've just posted a recording of a presentation I recently gave, both in Brisbane one evening for Yellowhouse, whilst delivering our Change Management Practitioner course, and last week in London, at SQS's iqnite Conference.

It's a five minute video, the first of a series, exploring the concept of the Benefits Value Chain and how we can reduce this huge waste by attending to each point in the chain. It requires a switch of mindset, from the manager's to the leader's. Our argument is that we do not think and act enough like leaders in this change arena. Management techniques alone will not help us.

 

 

Let me know what you think....

The Strategic Moment

One of my favourite passages in Lord of the Rings is towards the beginning of the second book in the trilogy: The Two Towers. Aragorn, as leader of the Fellowship, is now seeing the mission fall apart before his eyes. He is having a bad day. Boromir is slain, valiantly but vainly protecting the hobbits Merry and Pippin, who are now captured by the marauding band of Orcs.

It gets worse. He discovers that Frodo, the Ring-Bearer, is also missing, along with Sam and one of the boats.

What should he do? They have just spent a precious half hour giving Boromir a river burial, as befits this great warrior of Gondor, and time is ticking away. It is urgent! Should he, Gimli and Legolas pursue Frodo and Sam to protect the Ring-Bearer (the ‘Main Thing’ of the mission, perhaps?) or seek to rescue Merry and Pippin from the Orcs?

What he does next is an object lesson to leaders in what I would call the Strategic Moment. To be sure, the situation requires urgent action, but it must be strategic action. If Aragorn makes the wrong call then the consequences could be dire.

‘Let me think!’ said Aragorn. ‘And now may I make a right choice, and change the evil fate of this unhappy day!’ He stood silent for a moment. ‘I will follow the Orcs … My heart speaks clearly at last: [emphasis mine] the fate of the Bearer is in my hands no longer. The Company has played its part…’

For me this illustrates a number of qualities of a good leader in a crisis:

1. He pauses. Despite the pressing urgency of the moment, the good leader actually does something counter-intuitive: he slows down. The cavalry may almost upon the archers but they hold it for the right moment. What is crucial is that the aim is sure.
   
   
2. He faces reality. This is not the time for indulging in denial or retreating into self-pity. Aragorn doesn’t bleat, “This isn’t happening!” (that all-too popular idiom these days) or start to take out his frustration on those comrades who happened to be around.
   No, he calmly faces the situation as it really presents itself. As Max de Pree once said, “A leader defines reality.”
   This not the time for grieving or, worse still, to indulge in the blame-game. As William Durant, founder of General Motors, once said, “Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it.”
   
   
3. He gives the situation his total attention. A strategic moment is a mission-critical moment. In pausing, this is not the time for being distracted. Mental focus is one of the key disciplines of a good leader.
   
   
4. He searches his head and his heart. As Spencer Johnson has written elsewhere, we make better decisions when our head and our heart agree. We make better decisions that are congruent with our value systems and passion as well as making rational, logical sense.
   
   
5. He releases himself from what he cannot do, and focuses on what he can. Strategic decisions are as much about saying ‘No’ to options as saying ‘Yes’ to others. Leaders are always alert to the waxing and waning of what Stephen Covey calls their ‘Circle of Influence’. At times we can influence and control more than at other times; that’s just accepting reality.
   A real source of unhelpful stress is to get frustrated and angry. We tell ourselves that we don’t have as much executive latitude today as yesterday that some on our project aren’t as cooperative or as available today as yesterday, that key stakeholders don’t seem to be as responsive to us as they have been in the past, and it’s not fair! We can’t afford the luxury of a “pity-party” now. We need to assess with the situation as it really is now.
   
   
6. He is prepared to redefine the Mission. The ‘Main Thing’ was to escort the Ring-Bearer to Mordor, but Aragorn reflects deeply enough to make even this mission statement negotiable. He identifies the real ‘critical success factor’ of his mission – to protect as many of his party as he can. What is not negotiable is his value of protecting those whom he can protect. Reflection helps him distinguish values and practice.
   In project terms, this is called ‘reviewing the business case’. In truth, the great project leader will never lose connection with the fundamental ‘why’ of the project. We need to stay connected with the business case, to refine it, re-state it and re-communicate it continually to our team. Out of this we can give authentic direction.
   
   
7. He takes positive action. Follow through a decision with an immediate step towards it. As a leader you need to model the response for your team. This is not the time for ‘paralysis by analysis’. Unless we identify and act upon a positive practical response to the Strategic moment, then no matter if we have done all the above, we have failed. Consider the question, ‘What practical steps can I, as leader, take now, to model and reinforce this new strategic direction?’

I am always fascinated how leaders respond in the crucible of a crisis. These are not just Strategic Moments for the mission, but also defining moments in the character development of the leader, herself.

It seems to me that the first Strategic Moment in a project for the typical leader comes almost immediately. A client requirement is given her which is a dangerous cocktail of ambiguity and prescriptiveness. She probably hasn’t been included in the ‘pre-sales’ feasibility discussions, and this half-baked solution is almost dumped on her as a fait accomplis. What does she do when the Account Manager is demanding an immediate start: ‘Just do it!’ It takes guts, not methodology, to press the pause button in these situations.

However, if she does it enough and make the right call enough times, each time it gets easier. And she grows as a leader.

Peter Jackson’s excellent movie of Tolkein’s Fellowship of the Ring finishes just before this incident in the book. The second movie in the series – The Two Towers- skips this fascinating moment: Jackson has Aragorn hurling himself into pursuit almost immediately. The movie looks at the story, no doubt, through a postmodern lens, a view that can only appreciate the chaotic, the fast-paced and more obviously magical. But here in the book is, I believe, a classic literary portrayal of timeless leadership wisdom.

So next time you have a crisis, and everyone is clamouring for an urgent remedy, press the pause button ... 

…. and have the courage to wait ...

… until your heart speaks clearly.

[First published in Project Manager Today, 2002.]

Cuts in charitable funding are what I'm talking about

In my last post I spoke about stress and simplistic responses to the call to make public sector budget cuts. Well we are seeing a lamentable expression of that now.This morning the BBC had feature illustrating this:

Charities have warned cuts in local authority funding in England may threaten services they provide.

via www.bbc.co.uk

The case of Croydon Accessible Transport, a charity quoted in the item, despite mobilising a large a critical volunteer workforce, has had its local government funding withdrawn. Quoting the BBC article:

Martin Brookes, of think tank New Philanthropy Capital, said voluntary groups would need to prove their worth.

"There are some charities that are simply not doing good enough work or they can't prove how good their work is - they're more vulnerable than others," he said.

"The vital thing for charities to do is to invest in demonstrating their impact, proving that they deliver vital, valuable services and that they should be exempt from cuts."

This is exactly the point I would make. In these austere times, the Business Case now becomes crucial, even in the charity sector. The trick is producing measurable contributions that keep in step with public agency strategic objectives. Make clear how your charity helps my council meet its service levels needs to be clear and the case powerfully made.  

Then the discussion could become, "If you withdraw my funding, this will be the social impact of it, and the additional demands on your service delivery."

Let's have some joined-up thinking here, rather than panic measures.

Stress makes you stupid: why this matters to public agency decisions

A few years ago I co-presented with Helen Whitten of positiveworks to the title 'Stress Makes You Stupid'. We used a piece of technology called 'biodots', little circular stickers which we gave out to delegates. If you stick a biodot onto the back of your wrist you can watch it change colour according to your skin temperature; and skin temperature, I was told, is a good indicator of your stress level. When you are stressed, your body diverts oxygen from the brain to your muscle groups to aid the 'fight or flight' response. However, the depletion of oxygen levels in your brain impairs your ability to think deeply, reflectively and wisely - not that you need to do in a moment of threat!

However,the point it that chronic stress reduces our analytical and conceptual abilities to almost habitual thinking patterns. We miss opportunities because we are always living in stress, and lack of oxygen doesn't allow us to see possibilities.

Right now executives teams of public bodies all across the UK are under great stress. They will have to live with unprecedented budgetary challenges for the foreseeable future,and the future they foresee is not very far ahead at all. Just getting through the next financial year seems like a huge achievement. These decision-makers are asking themselves, "How can we maintain services whilst making 25% cuts in budget?"

My concern is that stress is shaping their approach with, shall we say, less-than-smart thinking. This quality of thinking will not allow them to conceive that this is an opportunity for positive transformational change, and that maintaining service levels is even a possibility.

Stressed public executives will miss opportunities for transformational change - radical changes to the way services are delivered, such as rationalising and sharing delivery with other local agencies. They will slash services, because their thinking abilities in this climate of stress will funnel them into limited EITHER-OR thinking.

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras found in their research that all organisations of outstanding performance reject this 'Tyranny of the OR', and instead adopt the 'Genius of the AND', insisted on more creative BOTH-AND thinking. Where are our public leaders who can do this now, who can achieve necessary budget cuts AND maintain service levels?

Today there is an opportunity to transform positively the delivery of public services in the UK. But will the stress that these chief executives live under allow them to believe this is even possible?

Switching Mindsets

 As early as last August I heard Dan and Chip Heath, authors of the excellent Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Take Hold and Others Come Unstuck , speak at a leadership conference in Chicago about their forthcoming book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard . Their first book was about effective communication, and this next work would be about influencing people, organisations and societies to make a switch in their behaviours. I was eagerly looking forward to this book.

I was not disappointed. As a leader of an organisation and also as someone who leads change management courses and workshops, I greatly appreciated the insights and stories. There are a range of established change management models out there, but what the Heath brothers present us with is a simple, accessible model, a model leaders and change agents can get to grips with quickly, not matter what their level or experience.

I particularly enjoyed the story of the aid worker from Save the Children challenged with making a national change in post-war Vietnam with virtually no budget and pulling it off, of how abusive parents were coached to a different pattern with their children, of the Brazilian rail company ALL that was able to achieve a dramatic turnaround with a simple operational script, of the woman physician who achieved the realisation of a breast care centre with a shift from weeks of waiting for results to results being given before the patient leaves the building on her first visit. All these vivid stories are interleaved with helpful 'clinics' where the reader is invited to work through a real change challenge using the model.

Most helpfully the authors make the case that apparent resistance to a change is often not out of stakeholders' negative attitudes, but rather because the means to effect the change are often unclear or badly shaped by the leaders themselves.

We have already begun to use this model in our consulting assignments with our clients and within our own company, and we will include it on some of our courses.

Switch is certainly the best business book I have read so far this year and a valuable addition to the canon of change management books.