​A few years ago, a friend gave me a gift -- a metal bar with the following question engraved on the face: 

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? 

As I contemplate the new year, the presence of this gift in my office reminds me that often, questions are more powerful to change behaviors and attitudes than goals and resolutions. This "big kahuna" question shakes me up; it requires me to rethink the direction my life is taking.   

 The Power of Questions

Before you finalize your 2017 list of desired improvements, take the time to write down a list of questions. Some questions may be about your family life; others about your vocational goals. Write questions from every facet of your life.

As you consider the questions on your list, be aware of how they open up new directions and ideas. Notice how much richer and deeper your 2017 action list becomes when you first ask powerful questions  

For example, if you need to lose weight, you could easily put "losing weight" on a list of 2017 resolutions. You might even commit to activities, such as visiting the gym 3-4 times a week. But what if you asked yourself questions like these:

What are the risks of my sedentary lifestyle? How will my family be affected if I continue my current practices regarding diet and exercise? How will I feel about myself if I reach 2018 without a change in my exercise routine? How will I feel about myself if I lose 20 pounds this year? What beliefs are at the core of my weight issues? What needs in my life are not being met? What is the impact of these unmet needs on my health? 

 Starter Set

Here are some suggested questions to get you started:

- What is my proudest moment from 2016? On a scale of 1-10 (10 high), what was my level of emotion from that event? How satisfied am I with that level of engagement with life? How would it feel to surpass that this year? What does that tell me about my next step as a professional? as a parent? as a partner/spouse? as a human being?

- What is the most "icky" and stressful thing in my life -- the thing that sticks out and demands to be noticed. What is life trying to tell me? What do I want to be different in 2017? 

- What was the biggest positive change I made in attitude or behavior between December 31, 2015 and December 31, 2016? What growth in character made that change possible? How do I want my character to grow over the next year?  

 
 
Principle:Before building a plan for personal and vocational improvement for the upcoming year, first ask yourself startling questions. Don't settle for a list of goals when you can gain insight into a life-changing breakthrough. 

 
 
Discovery Questions
1. What is a question that someone once asked you that made a difference in your life? How might asking that question again help you frame better goals for this year? 

2. Who can you ask to offer you some mind-jarring questions that can wake you up and re-establish your enthusiasm for life and work? 

3. If you could only ask one question to guide your life and vocational decisions this year, what would it be? (Print out this question and put it in a prominent place in your home or office.)  

What Is Mindfulness?
One of the latest trends in the workplace is practicing mindfulness. What is mindfulness? A contributor to Forbes defined it this way:

When you are mindful…You become keenly aware of yourself and your surroundings, but you simply observe these things as they are. You are aware of your own thoughts and feelings, but you do not react to them in the way that you would if you were on “autopilot”…By not labeling or judging the events and circumstances taking place around you, you are freed from your normal tendency to react to them. (Drew Hansen, 2012) 

Mindfulness, then, is a tool to help us develop the component of emotional intelligence we call "self-awareness." 

 
 
But Does It Belong in the Workplace?
Many of us may be skeptical about the wisdom of such a practice in a workplace environment. Doesn't being aware of our feelings put us at a disadvantage? What if we "lose our edge?" Most of us feel like the work environment is a place to be ever watchful, putting up our armor against a pervasive toxicity. 

 
 
A Story
I recently listened to an interview with a police officer (or cop, as she prefers to be called). Surely if any profession can justifiably ask for an exemption from mindfulness in the call of duty, it is this one. And certainly when Cheri Maples first participated in a retreat designed to train professionals in the art of mindfulness, she had reservations. She expressed her concern to one of the workshop leaders: "I might be in a position where I have to kill somebody." The wise leader responded: "Who else would we want to carry a gun except somebody who will do it mindfully?" 

Maples explains the impact of completing the training: "And what happened to me is my heart started to soften and kind of break open for the first time. I had gotten very mechanical about how I was doing my job. I had no idea that I had shut down that way. And I came home and, especially that first week when it was so new and everything felt so fresh, I started to understand that, on a very, very deep level, that it's possible to bring this into your work as a cop because, as my energy started to change, the energy that I got back from other people started to change, even including the people that I had to arrest and take to jail."

Shortly after her training, Maples was called to the scene of a domestic violence incident in which an ex-husband was threatening to hold his daughter hostage during an exchange of custody. Normally Maples would have simply clapped a set of handcuffs on the man and carried him off to jail. But as she practiced the mindfulness techniques, she was able to calm the situation so that the man allowed his ex-wife to leave unharmed with their daughter. Then Maples, recognizing the intense pain the man was in, began to talk to him - human being to human being. She held him and let him cry. A few days later, he saw Maples in a neighborhood store and thanked her for saving his life.

Maples says she came to understand that: "part of the skill set of a police officer was having the ability to employ both the gentle compassion of understanding, when that's called for. But also the fierce compassion of setting boundaries to protect others and and having the wisdom to know when each is called for." 

 
 
Principle:
Practicing mindfulness at work will not make you into a wimp, but it may well turn you back into a human being. 

 
 
Discovery Questions
1. List some descriptors of your work environment. How safe does your workplace feel? What stressful challenges do you face on a daily basis? 

2. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 high, how much is mindfulness practiced by the leaders in your organization? by you? by your team members? 

3. What would the risks be if you practiced more mindfulness in the workplace? What might be the risks if you maintain your current level of self-awareness in the work setting? 

Want More? 
To read or listen to Cheri Maples' interview by On Being host Krista Tippett "The Human Challenges of Police Work," which includes discussion of her practice of mindfulness not only as a cop but later as an attorney and civil justice advocate, click here.

To find out more about coaching and training in emotional intelligence, which includes practice in self-awareness, click here.

Copyright 2016 by Margaret Morgan Maat
 

 



 

The Power of a Story
Two leaders had a critical message to communicate during a team meeting. One brought slides with robust data to show why a major shift in strategy was required. The other told a story about a conversation she had recently had with a client.

The first speaker reached about 25% of his audience. But the other 75% were unmoved by the data presentation, unsure of its relevance. After the second speaker concluded, there was a buzz in the room. Attendees began to ask questions. When they left the meeting, each had jotted down action items to complete to assess the impact of change on their areas of responsibility. In later team meetings, attendees referred back to the "lesson" of the story told by the leader. That message continued to drive change over the course of the team initiative.  

Getting the Brain's Attention
Neuroscience research teaches us that the reason why so much of what we communicate in the workplace is never heard and acted upon is because we do not know how to get the brain's attention. The human brain can hold about 7 pieces of information in working memory at a time. The brains of those with whom we are communicating are already "full", actively engaged with other priorities. How can we present our information with such power that meeting attendees will "open up a slot" for us?
 
Principle:Everybody loves a story.

Discovery Questions
1. Think back on a time when a leader motivated a team or organization to make a major shift in direction.  What did the leader do to engage others?  

2. Reflect back on some of your favorite workplace stories. How have those stories shaped your attitudes and priorities?

3. Consider an upcoming meeting in which you play a role. How can you use a story to engage your audience?

The Biggest Complaint
By far the most frequent complaint I hear from workshop attendees about their managers is this: "I hate being micro-managed." (Then they make a face like a child who has been told to eat her spinach.)

Employees who feel micro-managed have little motivation to offer their best to the organization. How do we resolve this problem?
 
The Obvious (But Inadequate) Solution
Most supervisors are promoted because they are good at a particular skill. When they become supervisors, they continue to do tasks for which they were previously rewarded -- even if they have assigned that work to others. However, the job role of supervisor is not doing the work, but getting the work done through others. Organizations typically address this skill gap by sending supervisors to training.Some will learn to delegate effectively with development and coaching; others will try, but revert to old habits under pressure. 

So solving the problem of micro-management can be trickier than may appear on the surface. 
 
Mobilizing a Total Solution
A better question might be: How can we work at multiple levels to build a culture where micro-management becomes extinct? This question yields a multi-faceted approach: 

• Encourage Employee Feedback. Employees are frequently more inclined to complain to others about micro-management than to address discontent directly. We need to work with employees to overcome their fears and offer feedback to supervisors so that they recognize the impact of their behaviors on motivation (and retention). This is a big step for most employees, but without courage and "managing up" skills, few will ever achieve their full potential.
• Re-focus Underlying Motivation. I love this quote from the book Leadership Pipeline: "Skills applied without concomitant values are not applied with enthusiasm, energy, and innovation." It is not enough to acquire the skill of delegation; supervisors must come to "love" making others successful at doing the work they themselves used to do. Getting "juice" from new behaviors requires transformation to new values.
• Re-design Compensation. As long as the way to get a big raise is to get promoted, people who will never love developing others will continue to opt for the management track. Organizations create "micro-management cultures" when they do not offer a parallel track where individual performers can be rewarded financially for staying in a job role that matches their love of "doing the work." Furthermore, organizations must create disincentives to managers who never make the transition from a "do the work" to a "love making others successful" mindset. 

 
Principle: To address motivation issues, work both inside-out and outside-in; encourage individual transformation reinforced by organizational systems. 
 
Discovery Questions
1. What is the biggest complaint employees in your organization express? What has been done so far to address the problem? What is working? What is not? 

2. How would you design a solution that encompasses both individual and systemic change? What levers need to be pushed in tandem for a solution that addresses the problem at its core? 

3. Consider your own motivation level. What would need to change about your behaviors and attitudes to restore your motivation? What would you like to see your organization do differently? What action will you take to be an advocate for both individual and systemic change?  

Different Kinds of Leaders

Organizations require different kinds of leaders, depending on the strategic goals and the external environment. Think of it as a recipe with two ingredients:

1) sustaining leadership - the ability to identify and maintain the systems and processes that have made the organization successful in the past 

2) change leadership - the ability to envision and implement new systems and processes to re-align the organization to current realities   

By identifying what the situation calls for, you can recruit and develop leaders with the right mix of these two components.
 
Types of Leaders

1. Systems Implementer – a leader who will operationalize a proven model for success, monitoring quality and eliminating deviations to ensure continuity from the past to the future (low change leader: 4 parts sustaining leadership and 0 parts change leadership)

2. Linear Improver – a leader who identifies and implements planned incremental improvements in order to better fulfill the current vision and mission (low-medium change leader: 3 parts sustaining leadership and 1 part change leadership)

3. Creative Culture-Builder - a leader who champions and implements a system for soliciting, incentivizing, evaluating and funding creative ideas from within the organization (medium change leader: 2 parts sustaining leadership and 2 parts change leadership)

4. Collaborative Improviser – a leader who affirms past success, but sponsors innovative "skunk works" projects to jumpstart a new direction that is better aligned with the demands of the external environment (medium-high change leader: 1 part sustaining leadership and 3 parts change leadership)

5. Radical Change Leader – a leader who recognizes that the organization will fail without a dramatic shift of direction; is willing to make intuitive, decisive and unpopular moves to turn the organization around (high change leader; 0 parts sustaining leadership and 4 parts change leadership
  
Discovery Questions
1.  What kind of leader are you? How many parts of sustaining leadership are in your toolkit? How many parts of change leadership?  

2. How well matched is your leadership type for the needs of your organization during this time of its development? What can you do to eliminate any gaps?

3. How can you better align your leadership recruitment and development strategy to attract and retain the types of leaders most needed by your organization?

Communicating Change
Q: We work so hard to communicate the change strategy to our teams and organization. We use emails, team meetings, town hall meetings and social media.  But the message is not  getting through. The associates involved in key projects do not seem to understand our ultimate objectives. And they are not engaged in implementing tasks with the big picture in mind. How can we reach them?   
A: All of your communication methods are valid. But there is one medium for communicating change that seems to be missing. If you really want to get your messages heard and acted upon, you must tap into the Informal Power Structure.

The Informal Power Structure

To impact the entire team or organization with your change message, look for people who are players in the Informal Power Structure. If you can get the ringleaders in this network to buy in to the strategy, you can be assured that they will pass along their attitude of commitment to others in their sphere of influence. And if they are skeptical, there is a good chance others will follow their lead.

If you want buy-in to the change initiative, it is not enough to communicate your expectations through formal communication channels. Commitment comes when leaders sit down with the ringleaders of the Informal Power Structure and work out a course of action that everyone can support.    
 
Discovery Questions
1. Draw a diagram of the formal lines of authority within your organization. Who are the major players? Where has the change initiative gotten stuck? Where is the change strategy working well?

2. Now identify the major hubs in the Informal Power structure. Who are the major players? What interests do they represent? What is each ringleader's current level of commitment to the change?  

3. How can you connect and build trust within the Informal Power Structure? How can you get the ringleaders to tell you what their resistance is? What do they know about how things really work in the organization? How can you use this knowledge to gain commitment to your change strategy?

An Overwhelming Job Description
The skill set required of leaders today is mind-boggling. Not only do you have to be adept at guiding complex projects with multiple stakeholders through to completion with a reduced budget, you are also expected to have flawless people skills in doing so. 

Some organizations are developing competency models to help leaders define the skills required and then master them. I have seen models with as many as 10 overarching competencies (each with a subset of skills). No wonder leaders are overwhelmed.
 
A Meaningful Model

What is needed to help leaders successfully navigate their role in a continuously changing work environment is a simplified model. One way to envision the leadership role is to picture it as having two components:

- Energy
- Direction

In short, what organizations need leaders to do is to manage two things:

- The energy level of their team
- The direction that energy is moving

When a team's gas tank is next to empty, the leader's role is to find out what is draining the energy and remedy it. A team cannot be productive without a continuous, daily refueling  so that the gauge indicates a full tank. Things that can drain a team's energy include lack of appreciation, inefficient process, conflict, and ineffective meetings.

Once the team's energy is restored, the leader needs to ensure that all that energy is moving to complete projects aligned with the organizational vision and strategic objectives. Effective leaders use tools such as carefully crafted measures, cross-functional process and consistent feedback to keep energy flowing in the right direction. Skillful leaders do not need to over-manage their teams; they set direction and parameters and then allow their teams to innovate and learn their way to the desired destination. When things are off track, the measures set off the alarm, alerting team members to self-correct and realign.
 
Discovery Questions
1  What is the current energy level of your team or organization? What practices do you have in place to monitor team energy, diagnose drains and restore positive energy flow?

2  What processes do you have in place to clarify goals, measure results and provide feedback?

3  What percentage of your time do you spend on each of these two components of leadership? How well is this percentage working for you?

alchemy
[al-kuh-mee] /ˈæl kə mi/
noun

1. a form of chemistry and speculative philosophy practiced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and concerned principally with discovering methods for transmuting baser metals into gold and with finding a universal solvent and an elixir of life.
2.  any magical power or process of transmuting a common substance, usually of little value, into a substance of great value.
 
From dictionary.reference.com
 
The Alchemy of Change
The change process is a special form of chemistry. When I was a sophomore in high school, we participated in labs to explore hands-on the principles of chemistry. We carefully donned rubber aprons, attached goggles to our heads and got out the Bunsen burners and test tubes. We watched ordinary substances transformed into complex compounds right before our eyes -- almost like magic.

Similarly, when we are implementing change process within our organizations, we need to put on our protective gear and bring out the equipment. But the magic of change is what we put into the test tubes. What are the right ingredients for change?
 
Combining Differences
Some people think change can happen in their organizations by putting the visionaries in the room, empowering them to create a desired future and then to announce the result to the rest of the organization. No wonder not much "chemistry" happens.

The desired future we all want and need can only be actualized when we put very different types of people in a room. Visionaries and nuts-and-bolts implementers. Movers and shakers and dig in your heels late adopters. Exuberant people who are great at brainstorming and quiet people who rarely say a word. Baby boomers with lots of experience and Millennials in their first job. Senior executives and front-line employees. Put them together in a test tube and turn up the heat.  

If you want to make gold, if you want to transmute common substances of little value into things of great value, you've got to follow the recipe. You may get a controlled explosion as these different perspectives and personality types go through the storming process, but the energy created will bond your team members into a cohesive unit who can do almost anything. Pure gold.
 
Principle 4:
To make change happen in your organization, be intentional about creating forums where people with different experiences and perspectives can interact and collaborate. 
 
Discovery Questions
1. Write down the names of two people in your organization who are as different as night and day. Briefly sketch out the different skills, perspectives and experiences each brings to the table. What would the impact be if these two people could come to agreement on a project to transform one small area of your organization?

2. Consider an area of your organization that is foundering because of insularity. How could you create a forum for discussion that would cross functional boundaries?

3. Design a small experiment to put different perspectives in a room together with a stated expected outcome. Consider putting an objective facilitator in place to set up ground rules and monitor process. What incentive could you set up to reward productive outcomes?

Nov. 9, 2015
Q&A Session

Q: How can we manage all of the problems, projects and opportunities on our plate? What do we do first?

A: There is one lever that you need to push, and everything else will fall into place. Find and articulate that "one thing." Then begin to organize your time and priority list around that theme.
 
There Is Always, Ever, Only One Thing
Do you remember this scene from the movie City Slicker?
Curly (Jack Palance), cigarette dangling from his mouth, tries to give Mitch (Billy Crystal) some wisdom for life. As they stop their horses for a moment, Curly asks, "Do you know what the secret of life is?"
Curly holds up one finger and then explains, "One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean sh*t."
Mitch's interest has been sparked. He replies, "That’s great. But what’s the one thing?"
Wise Curly responds with a dry smile. "That’s what you have to figure out."
To view the video clip, click here.

Principle #3:
To solve an organizational dilemma, find the "one thing" that connects all the challenges and opportunities.

Discovery Questions
1.  Write down everything you need to do in the upcoming week. Group the list according to themes and patterns. What do you notice?
 
2.  Consider a time in your life when you were both productive and fulfilled. What does that story tell you about the "one thing" that makes you most happy?

3.  What is the thing your organization does best? How much of your to do list supports that "one thing?"

Q: Margaret, who are the most important thought leaders in change management? Which experts have the best approach?

A: I have learned from many experts, including Kanter, Kotter, Bridges and the Heaths. But if you want to know the people from whom I have learned the most about how to work with organizational change, it is none of these.

Q: Who, then?

A: The great detectives — Columbo, Inspector Morse and Kurt Wallander.

As a change management coach, I’ve worked with different philosophies about the best way to do change. They all have their strengths and their Achilles’ heels. It doesn’t matter which expert’s tools and process you use – the result is unlikely to be all that you hope for. There is no one way that works for every organization.

What you need is not a guru, but a detective. Someone who will refrain from telling you how to do change long enough to listen to the clues that are embedded in your organization’s story. Listen long enough and all the stakeholders in the organization will eventually lay out the puzzle pieces and show you which piece is missing. And where it is hidden.

Every organization has its own personality, history and ethos. There is no one size fits all. Your organization deserves to have a uniquely customized process for change because that’s what works. If you really want to Ignite the Change that will revitalize your organization, remember:

Change Principle #2: Every organization has a unique pathway to sustainable change.

Discovery Questions:
1  Think of three times in the organization’s history when you were at the top of your game. What do those stories have in common?

2  At what point did you realize that what made you successful in the past was no longer working? What can you learn from that?

3  What aspects of your organization are so essential to your identity that if they were lost, there would be no reason to continue? What, on the other hand, is expendable?