Live as if you were to die tomorrow.

Learn as if you were to live forever.

- Mohandas Gandhi, 1948

Enabling a Productive World

Community in a Single Organization

The Power of We

Direction and Community

“If you don’t know where you’re going you’ll end up someplace else.”

- Yogi Berra

Finding Direction Through

“We” Power

Develop leaders at all levels of the organization. Encourage members to take part.

Organizations poised to thrive …are doing so by harnessing the wisdom and ability of (internal and external) crowds – linking people to share information, innovate and execute.

- Wharton School Publishing and wearesmarter.org

The Power of “We”

“In my part of the world, we have something called ubuntu.It is the essence of being human. We say a person is aperson through other persons. I can’t be human inisolation. I need you to be all you can be, so that I canbecome me and all that I can be.

“It is not, I think therefore I am. It says rather: I am humanbecause I belong. I participate. I share.“

- Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Speech, 1984

Remember – People join things because they want to

belong. Your central mission is to constantly create and share that feeling on a TWO-WAY street.

Need for Transformational

Leadership

• Authoring useful change - cultural reframing and organizational redirection –that is worth the effort. It works to harness the “we” and solve:

- Hints of Simmering Problems of Trust

- Reluctance To Ride Your “Love Train”

( Low excitement, engagement. We come back to the “L” word later)

- Unresolved Support Issues

- Low “Voter” (i.e., member) Turnout

Transformational Leaders are

Enablers

“A transformational leader is someone who can take on the responsibility for revitalizing an organization. They define the need for change, create new vision, mobilize the commitment to that vision, and ultimately transform an organization.”

- N. M. Tichy & M.A. Devanna. The Transformational Leader

And members here today can and should play roles as transformational leaders..

Embrace Culture Change – And Cold

Reality

“Most organizations fail at managing change.

Fewer than 15 percent of companies studied

successfully transformed themselves.”

- John Kotter, Harvard Business School

• Culture change always takes longer than you’d like.

• Lack of stamina and urgency lead to inferior results.

• Existing culture is comfortable and hard to leave behind because it is the accumulated learning of a group.

• Auto-rejection is inevitable.

The Stockdale Paradox

(from Good to Great, author Jim Collins)

Recognize Reality but Keep Faith

Promote and Embrace Culture

Change (while recognizing that Cold Reality)

• Change is Global, Inevitable and Powerful

• Productive organizational communities enable positive change.

• Act to invigorate relationships.

• TEAMwork yields success.

• Commit to shared risk and intense dialogue.

A World Community

• World Communities are Diverse

• Global Differences Can Lead to Balkanization,

War … or Innovation - We Choose.

• Engineer the Use of Internal Diversity as a Major

Asset.

• Members – Offer Up Expertise.

• Don’t Allow Physical Geography to Limit

You.

Diversity

“It is the ONLY form of organizational capital that can produce a sustainable competitive advantage.”

- Robert J. Greene, Reward Systems, Inc.

“The learning leader should stimulate diversity and promulgate the assumption that diversity is desirable at the individual and subgroup levels. (These subcultures) will be a necessary resource for learning and innovation.”

- Edgar H. Schein, 2004

Organizational Diversity

• More than ethnicity and origin.

• Professional Distinctions, Pursuits and

Specialties Constitute your Diversity Advantage

• Create Opportunities to Showcase Individuals

and Sub-groups, Generate Buy-In, Excitement

and Action.

A World Community – And

Organizational Diversity

Leaders must …

• Create and / or capture diversity – use it as a primary organizing tool.

• Assess, organize and celebrate.

• Disseminate what you learn.

• Apply lessons to produce results.

• Connect subcultures (writer experts) and celebrate value.

Commit to Dialogue Intensity

• Dialogue Intensity: A Cultural Artifact or Value Reflecting All Cards-On-The-Table, Productivity – Focused, Urgency-Inspired Discussion that Results in Prompt Action.

• It’s More Than Talk, More Than Holding More Meetings for the Sake of Meetings

Dialogue Intensity

• Think of it as a basic organizational value and action to be injected into group DNA

• Underscores the vital importance of being heard.

• Underscores unwavering commitment to debate, discover and validation of feeling and fact.

• Creates positive climate of openness, engagement and trust.

• Fuels momentum and urgency.

The Feedback Flywheel

The most labor intensive stage is the first, as overcoming organizational communications inertia takes place. Forward movement creates greater ease, efficiency and energy output, but must be continuously maintained.

(Diagram copyright 2007 John M. Castagna)

Invite Invite Invite Invite

FeedbackFeedbackFeedbackFeedback

ListenListenListenListen

AgainAgainAgainAgain

AssessAssessAssessAssess

ShareShareShareShare

CollectCollectCollectCollect

DataDataDataDataRespondRespondRespondRespond

Community / Chapter Type

Organizations Queried

Community/Chapter Organization

Research Recommendations

1) Cultivate Sound / Trusted Top Leadership

2) Build Organization-Wide Trust

3) Build a Culture of Sharing

4) Connect WIIFM to Whole System Success

5) Treat Affiliates as Partners, not Customers

6) Engineer Progress Members See & Feel

7) Be Sensitive to Their Issues, Commiserate, Focus on Shared Solutions

(Thanks especially to United Way of America for assistance.)

Moving Forward1) Sound and Trusted Top Leadership

• Do a Self-Assessment. Do You Tend to Manage or Lead? Management is not an adequate substitute for leadership.

“Management blunts the soul and spirit of an organization.”– Bob Danzig, Hearst Newspapers

• Management is necessary but – it is about the moment / about process.

“The whole purpose of systems and structures is to help normal people who behave in normal ways to complete routine jobs successfully, day after day. It’s not exciting or glamorous. But that’s management.”

- John Kotter, Harvard Business School

Sound, Trusted Top Leadership

• Management feeds the body … while leadership ignites the soul and spirit of a place.

• Leaders work to move constituents from “What I believe”to “What we believe.”

• Unity is forged – not forced. You can’t manage your way to unity. You must lead.

2) Building Trust

Essentials:

Demonstrated Competency, Constantly Communicated

Caring – Demonstrated Fairness, Interest and Support

Character – Consistent, predictable, dependable,respectful and respected.

- Bartolome, Fernando, HBR, March-April, 1989

“The people on your team expect you to be upbeat, positive, confident and certain they can win.” – Mike Krzyzewski, Duke U.

(John C. Maxwell’s Law of Respect)

Building Trust• The Accurate Communication of Intent is Vital.

“Our perception of intent has a huge impact on trust. People often distrust us because of the conclusions they draw about what we do.”

• Intent Arises from Motive, Agenda and Behavior

• Motive – Can People Tell That You Really Care

• Agenda Grows Out of Motive - “The agenda that inspires the greatest trust is seeking mutual benefit.”

• Behavior is the Manifestation of Motive and Agenda

• All Must Be Congruent. Lack of Trust Suggests That They May Not Mesh.

(Quotes from, Stephen M.R. Covey, The Speed of Trust)

3) Culture of Sharing

• Sharing reinforces trust as a two-way street.

• Sharing is reinforced by commitment to acting as a learning culture.

• Leaders and members must come to terms with their mutual lack of experience and wisdom.

“I think every good (group) has got to have a partnership

relationship with its members. You have got to work in their best interest.” Sam Walton – Wal-Mart Founder

Culture of Sharing

• Subcultures must be connected, learn about each other, share and promote each other’s visibility.“Laissez-faire leadership does not work because it is in the nature of subgroups to protect their own interests.” – Edgar H. Schein

• Bring members and leaders together to articulate shared values.

• Bring members and leaders together to articulate shared vision.

Culture of Sharing

Enables Next Research Recommendations –

4) Connect WIIFM To Whole Organization

Success, and

5) Affiliates as Partners, Not Customers

4) Connecting WIIFM to the Whole

System

Ensure Long-Term Viability of the Organization by Encouraging the Heart*

– Build Whole-System Feedback. It Grows Engagement.– Recognize Contributions and Celebrate Small Wins– Personalize Recognition– Show Appreciation for Individual Excellence

“Your real job is to get results and do it in a way that makes your organization a great place … a place people enjoy.” – Andy Pearson, CEO, PepsiCo

* Kouzes and Posner, Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders, The Leadership Challenge

5) Partners, Not Members or

Customers• Customers Buy a Product and Leave; Partners are

Invested in Success.

• Words Matter – Start by Reframing Relationships through Labels.

• Make Stakeholders Constant Participants in Decisions.

• Make Stakeholders Constant Participants in Celebration, Creating a Sense of Community, Personal Contribution.

6) Engineer Progress Every Group

Can See and Feel

• Identify Small “Wins” That Individuals and Groups Can Personally Enjoy.

• Think About the Value of Fun

• Wins Can Be Honors, Notoriety Achieved

Because of the organization.

• Wins Can Be Honors Members and Staff Receive

for Things Unrelated to business.

Progress You See and Feel

• Lead from Behind:

“Wins” Celebrated Should Only Rarely be Those of Top Leadership Unless It’s Utterly Extraordinary. (NYT Best Seller, Elected to National Political Office, etc.)

7) Demonstrate Sensitivity

• Feelings Matter

• The Golden Rule Applies to Membership Organizations

• Listen, Commiserate and Work Honestly to Their Issues.

• Engineer Meaningful Dialogue and Action on Shared Solutions

Pulling It All Together

The Whole Package –

Hedgehogs, BHAGS, STC on Hilltop

and Eight Steps to Implementing

Organizational DNA Change

Identify Your Hedgehog* Concept

• Core

Organizational

Talent

Matters

• Focus,

Distinction,

Identity

Matter

• You Can’t

Be

All Things

To All

People

(*Jim Collins, Good To Great)

Kennedy’s BHAG*

Have the

Courage to

Articulate

Your

Moon

Mission

(* Jim Collins, Good to Great)

Make Kotter’s Eight Steps Central to

Your Strategic Plan

• Establish a Sense of Urgency

– Examine market and competitive realities

– Discuss crises, potential crises, major opportunities

• Form a Powerful Guiding Coalition

– Assemble a group with enough power to lead the change effort

– Encourage the group to work as a team

• Create a Shared Vision

– Create a vision to help direct the change effort

– Develop strategies for achieving that vision

• Communicate the Vision

– Use every vehicle possible to communicate the new vision and strategies

– Teach new behaviors through the example of the guiding coalition

Make Kotter’s Eight Steps Part of Your Strategic Plan

• Empower Others to Act on the Vision

– Remove obstacles to change – Change systems or structures that seriously

undermine the vision – Encourage risk-taking and nontraditional ideas,

activities, and actions

• Plan For and Create Short-Term Wins

– Plan and create visible performance improvements – Recognize and reward employees involved in the improvements

Make Kotter’s Eight Steps Central to Your Strategic Plan

• Consolidate Improvements and Produce Still More Change

- Use increased credibility to change systems,

structures, and policies that don't fit the vision - Hire, promote, and develop employees who

can implement the vision

- Reinvigorate the process with new projects,themes, and change agents

• Institutionalize New Approaches- Articulate the connections between the

new behaviors and organizational success

- Develop the means to ensure leadership development and succession

Conclusions

You must integrate culture-based thinking process – all of the foregoing -- into ongoing organizational leadership and management. (i.e., STC’s strategic planning)

Learn to become quicker and more

efficient learning leaders.

Remember that cultures that favor adaptation, enable participation of the greatest number of people in defining purpose and expressing feelings are always more competitive.

Conclusions

• Articulate goals through tangible ideas:

– Be a speakers bureau for members and staff

– Teach in classrooms, seminars, through

social media

– Invent new competitions and awards

– Be more public and vocal – criticize, use

humor.

– Involve members in speaking, judging, writing

and in social media – and feedback

– Be generous in rewards

Conclusions

• Consider organizing organizational segments

not by geography but by your goals (such as

professional definition, value, partnerships, self-

improvement, viability.)

(Underscore commonalities rather than division

and distance.)

Final Thoughts

• Avoid Traps :

- Non-systemic approaches disconnect people,

reinforce disconnects, silos, disinterested subcultures

- Leaders who won’t change their

style (think Lincoln)

- Lack of shared vision: city on a hill

concept

- Lack of willingness to learn – together

Develop your mutual capacity.

Final Thoughts – Use K&Ps 5 Practices

of Exemplary Leaders

1 - Model the Way

Leaders establish principles concerning the way constituents, peers, colleagues, and customers should be treated and how goals are pursued.

They create standards of excellence and set an example for others to follow.

Because change can overwhelm people and stifle action, they setinterim goals so that people can achieve small wins as they worktoward larger objectives.

They unravel impeding bureaucracy; erect signposts when people are unsure of where to go or how to get there; and they create opportunities for victory.

- Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner

K&Ps 5 Practices of Exemplary

Leaders

2 - Inspire a Shared Vision

Leaders passionately believe that they can make a difference. They envision the future, creating an ideal and unique image of what the organization can become. Through their magnetism and quiet persuasion, leaders enlist others in their dreams. They breathe life into their visions and get people to see exciting possibilities for the future.

K&Ps 5 Practices of Exemplary

Leaders

3- Challenge the Process

Leaders search for opportunities to change the status quo. They look for innovative ways to improve the organization. In doing so, they experiment and take risks. And because leaders know that risk taking involves mistakes and failures, they accept the inevitable disappointments as learning opportunities.

K&Ps 5 Practices of Exemplary

Leaders

4 - Enable Others to Act

Leaders foster collaboration and build spirited teams. They actively involve others. Leaders understand that mutual respect is what sustains extraordinary efforts; they strive to create an atmosphere of trust and human dignity. They strengthen others, making each person feel capable and powerful.

K&Ps 5 Practices of Exemplary

Leaders

5 - Encourage the Heart

Accomplishing extraordinary things in organizations is hard work. To keep hope and determination alive, leaders recognize contributions that individuals make. In every winning team, the members need to share in the rewards of their efforts, so leaders celebrate accomplishments. They make people feel like heroes.

- Five Practices authors: Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner

U.S. Army Major General John H. Stanford, Veteran, Vietnam, Persian Gulf Wars:

“… The secret to success is to stay in love, (to)

give you the fire to ignite other people, to see

inside other people, to have a greater desire to get

things done than other people.

“A person who’s not in love doesn’t really feel the

kind of excitement that helps them get ahead and

to lead others to achieve. I don’t know any other

fire, any other thing in life that is more exhilarating

and is more positive a feeling than love is.”

One Last Thing Every Global

Community Needs

Tap The Power of “We.”

Love what you are collectively about.

Lead through vision.

Learn Together.

© Leadership Teams Network, LLC