Labels, mazes and stupefying change

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think_differentFrancis Hesselbein was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America’s highest civilian honor by President Clinton, in 1998. She is founder of the Hesselbein Leadership Institute. Her books have been translated into 29 languages, and she is the recipient of 22 honorary doctorate degrees. She has been awarded nearly every prestigous award of leadership excellence you can imagine, inducted into Halls of Fame, sits on numerous boards, was appointed to two commissions on community leadership by George Bush… You get the idea.

Last week I sat in and listened to an interview as she spoke with my collague Taavo about what it means to be a leader. She kept returning to a few key phrases throughout the conversation. One expression she repeated consistently was “Ban the heirarchy.”

That expression kept jumping into my mind as I read through a study on the relationship between giving heirarchical labels to individuals and its negative impact on their ability to solve complex puzzles. No one I talk to seems to disagree with the fact that as we live in a world of stupefying change, the ability to digest complicated information and then transform it into meaningful ideas or innovation is critically valuable. And yet, we often persist in such debilitating labels.

In the study called Names Can Hurt You, a group of researchers from the World Bank went to rural India and conducted a series of problem-solving tests with 6th and 7th grade students from both the highest and lowest castes. Before the test began, each student was privately interviewed and asked their name, caste, father’s name, grandfather’s name and village. Then they were divided into three groups. Each group was first asked to solve mazes on their own. And then the researchers created a competitive tournament game in which the students were incentivized to perform better. The best performers gained peer recognition and cash.

The first group, known as Caste Concealed, consisted of 3 high caste students (H) and 3 low caste students (L). Because the students were selected from multiple villages, and because none of their personal information was shared with other students, a child might reasonably assume the others are unaware of their caste. As expected, in this group all 6 students performed comparably well on the puzzles, and responded positively to the social and monetary incentives introduced in the competitive tournament game.

The second group, know as Caste Revealed, again consisted of 3H and 3L students. However, at the beginning of the session the researchers read aloud each child’s background information, revealing their identity and caste. In this group all students did not improve or respond to incentives in the tournament portion of the test.

The third group, Caste Segregated, consisted of 6H and 6L students, and again all identities were revealed prior to starting the session. In this group, not only did the students remain unresponsive to competitive incentives, it had a negative impact on the lower caste students. Once their identity was revealed in a larger group they performed even worse when incentivized to do better.

Huh! Imagine that: in team-based problem-solving environments, when certain members of the group are labeled as inferior, they perform worse on complex problems.

Avoid labels, speak in terms of “we.” And in the language of world-class innovative – and non-heirarchical – company W.L. Gore, “No one may commit another.” That is to say, you may invite or challenge people to take on tasks and accountability but you may not commit another person to doing something. In their culture, people have influence based on the compelling power of their ideas and leadership ability to get things done, not based on their title.

The Gap Between Knowing and Doing

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leadership-cartoon

Yes, but what’s remarkable is that he is doing it. He is actually practicing these behaviors, while many leaders are simply talking about them.”
– Jill Klein, Melbourne Business School

I had a conversation recently with Campbell Jones, COO of a large Australian company. He had risen steadily in the organization after years of dedicated work, and was widely regarded as an excellent leader and savvy entrepreneur. So I asked him what things he did on a daily basis that contributed to the high level of engagement clearly found throughout the vibrant company.

He explained a series of consistent behaviors he was committed to. He regularly travels throughout the different operating offices in Australia and New Zealand to meet directly with the people in the company and to spend time listening to their ideas and challenges. He gives local control to people in different divisions of the organization to change or refine how they do their work and supports them with people, funding, and other resources as necessary.

Jones also explained that he intentionally has worked in many different divisions of the company, from marketing to sales to logistics and operations. This diversity of experience and the first-hand knowledge and understanding of the work enables him to relate to, and collaborate with, people in those divisions more easily. He spends as little time as possible in closed-door executive meetings, and as much time as he can working directly with employees and customers in the field.

People clearly trust him because he has demonstrated consistency of action to back up his promises, he has developed deep expertise in widely different capacities in the organization.

A few days later I met with Jill Klein, professor of marketing at Melbourne Business School, to discuss her work. Before our interview, I described Campbell Jones’ successful story to her. In my opinion his success was to be expected. After all, it was common sense that, if a leader behaves with integrity, supports and listens to the people in the organization, and supports and trusts their ingenuity of those performing the work, well… certainly excellence will emerge. In my telling of the story, I recall thinking, “But of course it works! There’s nothing remarkable about this story. Obviously a leader with these traits would drive excellence and innovation for the company.”

After listening to the story, Klein remarked, “Yes, but what’s remarkable is that he is doing it. He is actually practicing these behaviors, while many leaders are simply talking about them.”

Or as Tim Sanders likes to say, “Stay away from the ‘ings’ and spend more time with the ‘eds.’ The ‘eds’ say ‘We tried that. We tested that. We modeled that.’ The ‘ings’ say things like ‘We’re thinking about that,’ or ‘We’re discussing that.’”

Can’t hurt to ask

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TaylorSwiftRecently Annie (then 6, now 7) and I were at the store picking out a card to for her to send to a friend. In the card display was a big section dedicated to Taylor Swift. We examined each card – Taylor Swift looking dreamy, sassy, alluring, or even defiant. Taylor can certainly strike a pose. I asked Annie to pick one.

“I can’t decide,” she said. Then, “Wait, what about that one!”

It was the display poster, the marquee advertising the Taylor Swift section of the greeting cards. “Well, that’s not for sale sweetie. It’s just the banner. You know, the poster for the Taylor Swift cards.”

Annie says, “Yeah. Can we get it?”

There was also a little sign saying the Taylor Swift card collection was being replaced in a few days. I shrugged, “Let’s ask.” I took the poster from the wall and Annie carried it to the checkout counter.

“I can’t find a price on this,” the clerk said. “Well yeah, it’s..ah…the display poster. But the sign says you are getting rid of the cards in a couple days. Can we have it?” The clerk frowned. “I need to talk to the manager.”

We waited and the manager arrived and looked at the poster. “I’m sorry but we don’t own those banners. The card company does. We can’t give them away.” I turned and saw Annie’s face squint in confusion. “But why not?” she asked.

For a second no one moved. Then the manager said, “Tell you what. If you give us your phone number, we’ll ask the card company and call you if they say you can have it.” I was pretty skeptical, but Annie’s face lit up and she carefully wrote down the phone number I said out loud.

We drove home and I forgot all about it. But sure enough about ten days later, the drug store manager called and asked if we still wanted the poster. Within the hour, that Taylor Swift poster was hanging in my daughter’s bedroom.

Just because it doesn’t have a price tag doesn’t mean it’s not available. Can’t hurt to ask.

Taking the long view

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fixitfredIn October of 2003 in Atlanta at a global company meeting, as the new CEO of Schering-Plough, Fred Hassan stood on stage before thousands of sales professionals from around the world and said:

If you are in a position of making a sale and doing something you are not comfortable with – something you won’t feel proud of later, or walking away, I want you to walk away. As your CEO I’m telling you to choose long-term trust and integrity over short-term gain.

He had only been named CEO in April of that same year. His philosophies and opinions were not yet well known throughout the organization. He also knew he was taking a risk in alienating some of the successful sales professionals who were making a killing on short-term transactional quarterly commissions checks. In addition to providing this message of integrity focus, he led the change of the commissions structure to incentivize longer term relationships with customers. He knew some salespeople would leave, and they did.

But something else happened. Starting in that spring of 2004, Schering Plough enjoyed over four years of double-digit growth. Then came 2008, and the growth ran dry for most everyone. Yet even during this period Schering-Plough continued to innovate and introduce new pharmaceuticals to the market, as well as continue to return consistent earnings for shareholders and community. Schering-Plough hired and retained those sales types who took the long view.

In our conversation, Fred put it this way, “People want to do something right and be a part of something bigger than themselves… I didn’t expect it, but I got a long standing ovation that day.”

The risk is in your head

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freestyle-ski-tricksOur twelve year old son walked into the lunchroom at Sugarloaf ski resort a couple weeks ago and said quietly, “I learned how to do a 360.”

I said, “Awesome! That’s pretty cool. How did you learn that?” He said he just decided to do it. Within 24 hours our ten year old and his buddies were all spinning off jumps. Will admitted that the first time was scary but he knew he could do it. He just knew. What yesterday he thought was really risky, suddenly today wasn’t.

I learned something similar about mentally removing entrepreneurial risk from Harris Rosen, founder of Rosen Resorts. Anyone seeing him in the hallway of the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel in Orlando, Florida, picking up bits of trash and straightening plants might mistake him for a custodian or perhaps a fastidious guest. Harris Rosen, founder and owner of Rosen Hotels and Resorts might just be the hardest working man in the business. In person he is quiet, thoughtful, and generous with his time. Well dressed, but never ostentatious, and in excellent health, Rosen swims most every day of the week to remain fit and alert.

Rosen says he purchased his first hotel in 1974, after being fired from a number of companies because he was told that he did not fit comfortably in their corporate structure. He decided it was best that he strike out on his own and has never looked back. With diligence, care, and an indefatigable work ethic, he has built remarkable hotel and resort properties in the Orlando area. Starting with a premonition in the 1970s that the Orlando area would become a much sought-after leisure and conference destination, he worked hard to develop and grow his hotel and resort company to cater to both the meeting and the leisure markets.

From his very first property—a Quality Inn—to his most recent luxury hotel, Rosen has sustained a remarkable curiosity, which enables him to remain vigilant about changes in the marketplace and to adjust his strategy accordingly. In an interview, Rosen talked to me about the importance of marrying hard work with risk-taking:

How do you teach someone to take a risk? For those of us who do on occasion take risks, you must first convince yourself that everything will turn out OK because you will do whatever it takes to ensure its success. For instance, if you don’t have the money to fly to New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts to meet with potential clients, you hitchhike.I think the message is…first have a dream, don’t give up, and always be honest and respectful—and work harder than anyone else, to ensure success.

Of course I stopped launching off jumps a couple years ago. Way too risky.

Only Do What Only You Can Do

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yourfocus

Your focus needs more focus – Mr. Han

Part of what makes us feel valuable, important and useful is getting things done. We fill the quiet spaces with activity and busyness, and it makes us feel like we’re getting things accomplished. And maybe we are, and maybe sometimes we’re just running the same gerbil wheel to give ourselves the sense that we’re making progress. Yet our own growth often comes from attempting what is difficult, and letting go of what has become merely habitual or routine, which others can do better.

I had a conversation with Lisa Vos of Melbourne Business School recently who teaches managers to “only do what only you can do.” That is to say, managers and leaders should focus on those particular tasks and activities which they are truly the best at in their organization, and let others do those tasks and projects which best suit their skills.

As you might imagine, in practice this is terribly difficult to do because managers want to feel important and valuable by getting things done, but have lost sight that it’s the people around them that are likely more capable at handling the specific tasks.

As a leader, by honing your skills and talents on what you are indeed most expert at in the organization, you are not only providing unique and signature value, but also giving control and autonomy to those around you to perform the tasks that they are better suited to. Refraining from jumping in to save the day will create internal tension and anxiety. Vos’ advice is to acknowledge that internal tension and remind yourself that there are people in the organization who are more skilled than you, and that’s a good thing. By curtailing your urge to leap in, you are also strengthening another by letting them lead on a task or project they are better suited to.

Focus, and let go.

Create Value Before You Create Risk

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It can be an exciting time when we decide to initiate a project, build an application, or design a compelling solution. The idea may look brilliant and compelling in our minds and we may feel the urge to tell the world about our latest endeavor. Hang on a minute. Telling people we intend to do something is different than having something to show them. And it’s a long way from having actually done something. Telling others of our intent may be valuable to us by creating an external motivation. That is, if we tell others of our intent, we may feel compelled to follow through on our stated promise. But that expressed intention has little value to those we told and can create a false expectation. Plus, it’s hard for anyone to spread the good news if there’s nothing to show.

Start by creating value. Instead of telling someone what you are considering, or committing to, show them what you’ve already started. Show them the work in progress. Give them something to anchor on. For two reasons:
– What you say you will do, will likely change once you start doing it – for market reasons, design reasons, budget reasons, etc.
– Others understand and respond better to hard evidence, than words.

In other words, speak with action not words. Your action, your prototype, your first cut at it makes for a much more vivid and interesting discussion and collaboration once people have something to anchor the discussion on.

The other powerful and compelling reason to start with action, instead of talk, is that once you get in motion and actually produce something of value, other people will recognize and respond to that creation. In the best circumstances those people you show your work to will contribute, collaborate and spread the word about what you or your team is working on and it will drive energy and awareness to your project. It’s much more difficult and less inspiring to spread the word about what someone intends to do, as opposed to share what you and your team have actually started to work on.

Two surprising motivators

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Over five years ago my cycling partner and friend Erich contacted me and suggested we should ride in the three-day, 180 mile Trek Across Maine. It seemed like a reasonable and fun challenge, and all for a good cause to fight lung cancer. I was in. Then he added, “We’re taking the boys.”

He had two boys just about the same age as our two boys (five and seven years old at the time) and I realized immediately this whole expedition had multiplied in complexity. Understand, Erich is a friend whose intensity and drive is higher than most people I know. When invited to ride with him I learned early on a “ride” often meant about twice as far and twice as intense as I was envisioning. I learned to calibrate expectations to Erich’s world, but this audacious challenge was something new.

We rigged up bicycle contraptions featuring a tandem bicycle, plus a “tag-along” (pictured) to accommodate the three of us. The machine, plus the bicycle bags, known as panniers – loaded with rain gear, snacks, water, and probably a few miscellaneous things the kids claimed to need, all weighed in at over 400 pounds with us on board. This was our “triple-bike.”

My mental orientation going into this venture was that it was my job to do the work, and make sure the kids were safe, fed, dry, and hopefully having fun on this expedition. But over sixty miles per day throughout the hills across Maine it became quickly clear that their effort was valuable indeed. While small, when they chose to work and push the pedals over, from my seat I could definitely feel a difference. So while in my mind the journey started on the strength of my efforts alone, It quickly became clear that the difference in not only speed and energy conservation, but also camaraderie and real teamwork, came down to how well we worked as a team to push through hill after hill on these three days.

For example, if approaching a hill, as my son Will was back there throwing water on his brother and generally goofing off, I could say sternly, “If you don’t pedal now, then at the top of this hill I’m going to put you in the Sag wagon and you can ride the rest of the say in the wagon of shame!” (“Sag” is as in “sagging behind”.  In events with lots of non-professionals, the sag wagon picks up people who have fallen behind or are dropping out.) And this terse warning might get him to pedal harder for perhaps thirty or sixty seconds. Or inversely, I could urge my son Charlie on by saying, “Buddy, if you pedal really hard we’ll get to the top quicker and I think they are serving ice cream at the next rest stop.” And this might bring about an energetic minute or so of focused pedaling.

Neither negative or positive immediate encouragement yielded any long term motivation. It became clear as the hours went by and the ride went on that there were a number of much more powerful motivators that were much more effective, and fun.

Engaged with other cycling teams
It turned out what I had vastly underestimated – completely overlooked actually – was the importance of doing this journey with Erich and his boys, their friends. They would constantly be aware of where our friends were on the road – either ahead or behind – and we would create ways to interact by riding along side and chatting, or goading each other up the hills. And often we would encounter, and ride, with other participants in the event, which fostered a great sense of communal participation in the event.

Connecting with the Why
After the first year we participated in the Trek Across Maine when the boys were then five and seven years old, I decided they needed a greater and more direct understanding of why we were doing the event. In advance of the next year’s event we rode the triple bike around the neighborhood, and the boys would knock on doors, tell the story about what we were doing, and ask for donations to help fight lung cancer. That active participation in gathering donations for the event connected the boys, and our family, with the deeper reason of why we were participating.

These two small and simple changes in mental orientation – collaborating with others and connecting with purpose – created a powerful sense of engagement in the event, and translated into big pedal power (read: team performance gains).

Change the Aspirations, Change the Outcome

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Be the change you wish to see in the world
– Mahatma Gandhi

Let’s just agree – just for the moment – that your company cares more about your own personal and professional development and livelihood, your family’s health and well-being, your local community’s civic integrity, the broader environmental impact of the company’s footprint, building a positive value chain in which stakeholders at all points of inflection on your product’s journey from cradle to biodegradable rest are supported, and even weigh decisions with a long-view lens with the expectation that decisions today have immense brand-impact downstream – and cares more (or at least equally) than making a profit. If this were true, your company’s incentive and value system would reflect an expectation that you would contribute on these dimensions in proactive and meaningful ways. You might be expected to take time to exercise or attend conferences and workshops to develop your own physical and mental capacities. There might be some peer pressure to talk more about the difference you and your team made in developing sustained customer value, rather than high-fiving fat commission checks and bonuses. There might be some big initiatives measuring your team’s contribution to civic well-being. What we measure is what we get back in return. In other words, what we persistently ask questions of, we grow, develop and achieve toward those inquiries.

CLIF Bar CEO Gary Erickson founded CLIF in 1992 with partner Kit Crawford with a vision to make a great-tasting, healthy, organic snack bar, and while they did achieve this, meanwhile Gary’s mind kept drifting to the places that inspired him and the employees of the company: where they rode their bikes, where they spent their free time, and the communities and beautiful country they lived in. As a result, CLIF doesn’t have one bottom line, they have five. They measure their success against Five Aspirations. While constantly being adjusted and refined by the employee community, CLIF is measuring their success based on how well they are doing against their Five Aspirations they have set forth for themselves:
• Sustaining the brand
• Sustaining the business
• Sustaining the planet
• Sustaining the people
• Sustaining the community
How these metrics are valued remains up to the employee community to define, and yet are discussed, debated, and edified in writing such that each associate understands the stated metrics on how CLIF will evaluate performance against these values. To pursue these goals, employees might organize their colleagues to support their own local charities, or collaboratively measure their progress at the gym, or maybe share details of the time and energy they’ve devoted to coaching little league.

Sure, we do this now in our own lives. And then when talking to colleagues, and the reactions are often, “Good for you, how do you find the time?” because implicitly the professional expectation is that performance is measured against contribution to profit. If you have any time for time to make considered and thoughtful decisions by taking a break and trail-running with your dog, …well, that’s just because you’ve already fulfilled the profit punch-list, you’ve already fed the hungry maw of fattening investor equity. CLIF has empirically demonstrated that by sustaining (and measuring) not only the business, but also other dimensions targeted at driving human and social and community and environmental value, companies can prosper successfully on multiple dimensions.

Rick Warren reminded me years ago that the etymology of integrity is from the Latin integer, which means “wholeness” or “oneness.” When we give ourselves and our colleagues permission to bring our whole selves to work, we can begin to achieve, and define, our success against metrics far greater than shareholder value and company profitability. Consistent studies reveal that when we place progress in meaningful work as our paramount motivating factor, then cultures thrive, mood states elevate and companies profit all the more.

Building Cathedrals

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This story has been retold many times, in different ways, but the point is the same.

Christopher Wren (1632-1723) was a famous English architect and builder. As legend has it, he was walking past three stonecutters working on the rebuilding of St. Paul’s cathedral. He asked them each what they were doing.

The first worker said, “I am earning six pence a day.”
The second worker said, “I am cutting this stone true and square.”
The third worker said, “I am helping Sir Christopher Wren build St. Paul’s Cathedral.”

Peter Drucker interprets this story illuminating the three perspectives of:
“I am making a living for me”
“I am doing my best work for a reason I do not connect to” to finally
“I am willingly contributing to a greater purpose and meaning, for which it will take many hands and a guiding leader to accomplish.”

Connect higher. What’s your point of view?