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Navigating the Territory: Good Ideas for Leading in Complex Environments
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Volume 1, Number 2
September, 2009
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 Greetings! In this issue of Navigating the Territory: Good Ideas for Leading in Complex Environments, I'm continuing some of the themes introduced last month. The article "Partnering for Productivity & Positivity" incorporates some of the work I wrote about last month on Social Action Research. I'm also further exploring David Allen's approach to planning using the question, "What's the next action?" Additionally, there's a book review and a personal reflection on supporting aging parents.
For back issues of this newsletter, you can find them in the archives:
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs076/1102561682356/archive/1102700377250.html
If you have a challenge or a solution that you'd like to share with others, please contact me for inclusion in an upcoming issue. Thanks for your interest and support.
Deborah |
| Partnering for Productivity & Positivity
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by Deborah Reidy
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Research shows that workers who experience a sense of teamwork are
likely to be more productive and have greater job satisfaction. Yet it's not easy for people to work
well together: it takes commitment on the part of each person. Even more challenging are those circumstances where the team is not formally constituted and people have to collaborate across organizational boundaries. While team-building models, activities and strategies abound, one approach to strengthening teamwork starts with the deceptively simple exercise of recognizing and appreciating the relationships and connections already in place that enable people to accomplish the results they intend.
At a recent conference of hospital managers, I introduced a simple exercise adapted from the work of Dennis Sandow. Try it yourself:
- Find a partner to do this exercise with.
- Reflect on something you have accomplished in any area of your life in the past six to twelve months. Write that down.
- Write down the names of all the people who helped achieve that goal.
- Share with your partner how it feels to reflect on that accomplishment.
- Hand your paper to your partner. Ask the partner to randomly cross off three or four names on the list and hand it back to you.
- Then, imagine the people who have been crossed off the list are not available to help you again. How would that affect your performance? How do you feel as you reflect on the people missing from the list?
- Then mentally add those people back to the list. Reflect on what happened to enable the people on your list to accomplish the result you are proud of. What about that do you want to conserve? How might that way of working together be expanded to other people, other projects, other departments, other communities?
After completing this exercise at the conference, the discussion was lively. People commented on how essential each person on their list was to their collective success. In a hospital setting, how well a team worked together could easily be a life and death matter. Although many team members crossed disciplines and departments, they came together with a clear and shared purpose. In addition to producing results, participants also felt a sense of well-being through their collaboration with others. We followed up this brief but illuminating exercise with a discussion of what each participant intended to do back at the hospital to strengthen and expand the collaboration they had experienced.
Clearly, health care is an arena where enhanced teamwork, especially across disciplines and organizations, has an enormous impact on the quality of care. In a recent Boston Globe article entitled No Waiting (August 30, 2009), the argument is made that improving "flow" in hospital settings would significantly improve quality in hospitals and in American health care. The article points out that "...everyone in the building benefits when the flow of patients from one part of the system to the other is smooth...A smoothly flowing hospital saves time and money, but it also reduces stress on the staff and the risk of mistakes." Although improving flow in hospital settings is more complex than noticing and appreciating how people collaborate across organizational boundaries, it is certainly a good start.
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Book Review
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The Answer to How is Yes: Acting on What Matters
by Peter Block, Berrett-Koehler, 2002
Review by Deborah Reidy
| For years, I have used quotes from this book in presentations but I had never actually read the whole book. As is often the case, it took the publication of his 2008 book, Community: The Structure of Belonging (Berrett-Koehler), for me to look seriously at The Answer to How is Yes. Here is my review. Synopsis: The
key premise of this book is that we often get caught up in trying to figure out how to do something
without even examining whether it is worth doing. Block encourages the reader to focus on asking the right question rather than coming up with the right answer. The book is a call to personal responsibility, inviting the reader
to clarify his or her beliefs and then to act upon them. As Block writes, "This book is a discussion of what it takes
to live a life in pursuit of what matters."
Review: I really wanted to like this book. It's full of quotable phrases and it's
visually pleasing. But I found it
to be overly ambitious in scope, and lacking a clear focus that I could
discern. I'm hoping it's one of those books whose depth takes time to reveal
itself, something that is working on you even while you have forgotten that you
read it. Even if it doesn't turn
out to be, there are a number of extremely thought-provoking sections that are
worth perusing. Borrow this book
from a friend before you decide to invest.
Takeaway idea:
"Getting the question right may be the most important things we can
do. We define our dialogue and, in
a sense, our future through the questions we choose to address." |
| Try This |
"Is there too much complaining in your culture? The next time someone moans about something, try asking, 'So what's the next action?'"
from Getting Things Done by David Allen |
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| What We're Up To
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 I've recently spent two-plus weeks on Martha's Vineyard. It's had its wonderful moments, visiting with good friends, enjoying the beautiful beaches here, eating the most fabulous grilled swordfish while watching old movies. It's also been challenging. My parents retired here about ten years ago and their health is in decline. They are fiercely independent. The process of negotiating the support they are willing to accept from others is often frustrating. My sister and I must often remind ourselves that they are both perfectly capable of making their own decisions even if those decisions might not be what we wish for them. I am often reminded of the distinction between "important to" and "important for" that is taught in person-centered planning events. As care givers, we tend to focus on the "important fors" (take your medication, do your exercises daily, maintain a decent weight) and overlook the "important tos" (dignity, privacy, control, a sense of efficacy). It's been a great comfort to talk with friends who are also on the journey of caring for aging parents and to realize that there is no way to do this perfectly.When I'm able to keep my focus on both what's important to and for my parents, I am more confident that I'm assisting them to have the life they want.
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| Upcoming Events
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Virtual Training Events
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Throughout the year, I will be offering free 60-minute Virtual Training Events (teleconferences) linked to the themes in this newsletter.
September 22, 2009, 3 to 4 pm EST
How to Lead Successfully in Permanent White Water
For more information and to register, click on this link:
Reidy White Water Event
October 15, 2009, 3 to 4 pm EST
Partnering for Productivity & Positivity
For more information and to register, click on this link:
Reidy Partnering Event
November, 2009 (specific details forthcoming)
How to Delegate and Get the Results You Want
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Reidy Associates offers customized solutions that enable leaders
and their organizations to succeed in complex and uncertain environments.
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