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Navigating the Territory: Good Ideas for Leading in Complex Environments
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Volume 2, Number 6
July, 2010
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 Greetings! I need your help! This month, I almost decided to give up on this newsletter. It's been a year since I published the first issue, and it was originally intended as an experiment. As you can probably imagine, each issue takes a significant effort. I'm just not sure it's worth it.
Please help me decide whether to continue and, if so, what would be most useful to you. I am fully aware that there is a vast amount of leadership material readily available...more than any of us could read, never mind apply. I would really appreciate it if you would take a minute to answer the following questions:
- Why do (or would) you read this newsletter?
- What specific topics would interest you most?
- Should the articles be longer or shorter?
- Should I send it out more frequently, less frequently or the same (one a month)?
- What would really improve this newsletter?
Thanks for your help.
For back issues of this newsletter, you can find them in the archives:
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs076/1102561682356/archive/1102700377250.html
Thanks for your interest and support.
Deborah
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Inspiring a Shared Vision: Why Is It So Hard?
| By Deborah Reidy
Recently,
leadership researcher and writer Jim Kouzes stated that in all his years of
collecting data on leadership practices, leaders consistently score lowest in the
category of "inspiring a shared vision."
He and his colleague Barry Posner have collected data from over a
million people since 1983 on the characteristics that constitute exemplary
leadership. From that research,
they've identified five practices, one of which is Inspiring a Shared Vision (For
more information, go to Leadership Challenge).
I wondered
why leaders consistently scored lowest on that practice and what could be done
about it. Here are some of my
ideas:
1. "Inspiring" is a quality we think only describes
Mother Theresa. How many of us get
up on Monday morning and say to ourselves, "Gee, I think I'll be inspiring
today"? But what if we think of inspiring as an accessible quality: Something
to do with living the vision we ask people to share, and inviting them to live
that vision as well? Action
Item: Place your (organization's)
vision statement in a prominent spot where you'll see it. Everyday, commit to fully living some part
of that vision and invite your people to live it themselves. If you do not have a vision, well,
there's a place to start.
2. Sharing isn't easy. People insist on having their own ideas about what's
important and they won't readily give those up in order to share. Of course! You wouldn't want people to compromise on something as fundamental
as a vision of the future. Action
item: Acknowledge the legitimacy
of different points of view, articulate your vision and link it to the aspirations,
interests and values of others. Ask them to share their vision.
3. It's hard to focus on a vision of the future in
the press of day-to-day operations. "Vision, what vision? I've
got the XYZ report to get out by close of business today!" Action Item: Take personal responsibility as a leader to connect elements
of the vision to whatever people are working on. Remind people of the connection between their daily and
weekly activities and the shared vision. The leader's job is to see both the forest and the trees and to help
others make that connection.
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What is Vision?
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What we aspire for...the end we hold in mind.
A picture of what it looks like when your
purpose is realized.
If purpose is a general direction, vision is
a specific destination.
While purpose may be abstract (explore
space), vision is concrete (put a man on the moon in ten years).
From "Leading Successfully in Permanent White Water," Dave Flanigan & Deborah Reidy
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Article Review
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The Creativity Crisis
by Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman, Newsweek, July 19, 2010
Review by Deborah Reidy
Creativity and its relationship to leadership has been of interest to me for a long time. This recent Newsweek article describes the well-researched decline in creativity that's been emerging in the United States since 1990, especially among children from kindergarten through sixth grade. The article notes the possible consequences of a decline in creativity: "A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 'leadership competency' of the future. Yet it's not just about sustaining our nation's economic growth. All around us are matters of national and international importance that are crying out for creative solutions, from saving the Gulf of Mexico to bringing peace to Afghanistan to delivering health care."
Synopsis: The article defines creativity as "production of something original and useful." To be creative one must use divergent thinking (generating many useful ideas) combined with convergent thinking (combining these ideas into the best result). Drawing upon current research in neuroscience, the authors assert that creativity can be learned through practice, and that creativity training can have a strong impact, although real improvement doesn't happen overnight. Several examples of creativity training for people of varying ages are described.
Review: Excellent and very actionable article. I was especially interested in the description of a project undertaken by students at the National Inventors Hall of Fame School, a public middle school in Akron, Ohio. Teams of graders were tasked with the challenge of reducing the noise in the library. They approached their challenge using the following steps: Fact-finding, Problem-finding, Idea-finding, Solution-finding, Plan of Action, Presentation to Others (extending the learning). I was also interested to learn that half of the commonly used techniques to spur creativity don't work, including group brainstorming!
Takeaway Ideas: Techniques that do work:
- Get moving
- Reduce TV watching
- Ditch the suggestion box
- Follow a passion
- Take a break
- Don't tell someone to "be creative."
- Explore other cultures
The Creativity Crisis - Newsweek
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| What We're Up To
| This Must Be the Season for Strategic Planning!
Maybe it's the economic turbulence or just the start of a new planning cycle, but it seems like many organizations are engaging in strategic planning. I'm currently in process with two organizations. While preparing a proposal for a third organization, I discovered that in the past five years I've facilitated plans for fourteen organizations or projects. While each is different, I've discovered that there are some basic steps that produce a high quality result. These include:
1. Planning to plan: Finalize the scope of the project, discuss the
kinds of information to gather, the methods of gathering the information and the
sources of information.
2. Conducting the Environmental Scan: Identifying trends in the
environment, collecting demographic data and conducting stakeholder interviews
using a variety of approaches. Following the information-gathering phase, the data is analyzed and
organized to present to a group of stakeholders who will be responsible for
creating the plan.
3. Strategic Planning: This is the core of the planning
process. It includes consideration and "digestion" of the results of
the Environmental Scan, creation of shared vision, mission, core values, strategic priorities and broad strategies. A final step of this process is
the development of an operational planning framework that guides more detailed
planning which will take place within units of the organization.
4. Operational Planning: This can be done using small groups within a large group framework
or it can be done by departments on their own, using an operational planning
framework. This part addresses how the broad strategies will be
implemented in more specific ways.
5. Putting the Pieces Together: Typically a subset of the group that met to conduct step 3
will reconvene to put the pieces of the plan together and to lay out the
sequence in a reasonable time frame.
6. Drafting the final plan, which may include some fine-tuning.
7. Approving the final plan.
8. Follow-up: Fine-tuning the plan as it is in initial implementation
phase. Subsequent follow-ups assess progress toward implementation
of goals and make adjustments.
Of course, other approaches can be incorporated into the process, such as scenario planning or the use of Appreciative Inquiry, but the basic steps remain fairly constant. And the key point is that strategic planning is a process, not just a meeting or a document, with important activities that must occur throughout the process in order to ensure successful implementation.
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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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