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Unity Through Diversity

by Ron Potter

Truth, Love, Beauty, Unity.

You’ve heard this several times from me as a saying from Aristotle.  I actually use it for building teams.

  • Truth – be honest with each other and the team
  • Love – Show respect for each and every member of the team.
  • Beauty – Don’t make things complicated, make them simple.  (I’ve talked about the beauty of Einstein’s genius.  It was not his mathematical genius that helped him stand out as a pillar in his field.  It was his ability to simplify things.)
  • Unity – Work as a team.  Build unity.

In one sense we can view these as a progression.  By bringing out the truth, showing respect for individuals, ideas, and opinions, and boiling things down to the simplest of forms: we can then reach unity.  This doesn’t create uniformity; it creates unity through diversity.

Another Ancient Text

Many of us have heard the story about the Tower of Babel.  Most scholars put the writing of this book as much as a thousand years before Aristotle.  Most of us think this story is about the people of earth at that time building a tower so that they could become gods of their universe.  The reason this might have been possible is that the text says they had one language and the same words.  They had uniformity.  Earlier text indicated that the intent was for a diverse language and people.  The children of Noah (after the great flood) spread about the world and created different tribes and languages.  The intent was diversity.

The story of the Tower of Babel was about building a nation with one language.  In the passage from Genesis 11, God once again caused the nation to disperse into different tribes and different languages.  The goal was always diversity!

Uniformity vs Unity

These are close words but they mean different things.

Uniform: The same in all cases and at all times.  Unchanging in form or character.

Unity: The state of being in full agreement: Harmony.

The keyword in uniform is “unchanging.”  Nothing changes.  Beliefs don’t change.  Arguments don’t create change.  Different beliefs and opinions don’t change.  Referring to Aristotle’s statement, there is no need for Love (Respect) because nothing is going to change.  Without respect for other beliefs and opinions, nothing changes.

The keyword in unity is “Harmony.”  Have you ever been part of a choir, quartet, or jazz band/quartet?  I’ve been part of a choir off and on for many years.  I sing bass.  My sound and notes are very different from the altos and other sections of the choir.  But when we join all of our voices together, we create a wonderful and enjoyable harmony.

Have you ever listened to a great jazz quartet?  There is no written music, just great blended sound.  In fact, any instrument may take the lead at any time.  All of the other instruments listen, blend in, and create a great harmony together.  They create unity.

Uniformity or Unity

We’re seeing a great deal of uniformity in our nation at the moment.  Because of the lack of respect, there is no change, there is no listening.  There are only hard stances with an unwillingness to be open (and show respect for) other beliefs and opinions.  There is no ability to build a great nation in unity.

Business Teams have the ability to overcome this uniformity and create unity.  Business teams have the ability to be together because they are smaller and closer—although I worry about virtual teams. Business teams have the ability to share beliefs and opinions and listen to each other to build unity.

Our nation has less of a chance because of the desire to push an agenda to create a uniform belief (at least at a tribe level).

Build Unity

Build unity where you can.  I believe it’s easier at a team level because of the personal connections and a fewer number of members.  But, where ever you can, build unity on a national level.  This means examining your own “unchanging” views and being open to others’ believes and opinions.

Unity can save us from ourselves.

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Myers Briggs Type Indicator: Diversity – Closing Thoughts

by Ron Potter

Statistics Worth Noticing

There are a few statistics that I think are worth noticing.   I have seen some interesting patterns in corporate leadership teams that are quite different from the US population as a whole.

Thinking

The first observation is that there are five dominant types when I look at corporate teams.   They start with the types that end with the TJ combination.  Remember that T (Thinking) is very logical in their decision-making.  The opposite end of the scale is the F (Feeling).

The word feeling is misleading in Myers-Briggs types (MBTI).  People often assume that you either work and think logically or your feelings tend to take over and may make rash decisions.  A better descriptor might be values.  People who have a preference for F (values) over T (logical) are not illogical.  They’ll weigh all of the logical points of view but their final decisions will be driven by the values they believe the team (and themself) should live by.

Feeling Plays a Large Role (or Should)

As an example, I would often watch leadership teams prepare to make decisions based on the logic of one dimension or another.  Once they have worked through all the logic, an answer might seem very obvious.  Then, if there is a person on the team with the “F” preference, they may ask a question something like this: “I see the logic and I agree with the logic but how do you think our customer will react to that decision?”  The question was not logically based but was value-based.   I’ll notice the rest of the team being silent for a moment as they contemplate the question and then say something like “You’re right.  The customer probably won’t like that at all and we may lose customers because of the decision.”  This often leads to a rethinking of the decision, taking into account both logic and values.

Entrepreneur

Before I show you the interesting statistics, I want to throw in one further MBTI type.  That type is the ENTP.  It doesn’t end in TJ like the other four but it has been classically known as the “Entrepreneur Type”.  I find that with leadership teams, the ENTP (Entrepreneur) type often comes up with a new or innovative approach to a topic but then the TJ’s take over for implementation (very logically based).

Together these five types INTJ, ENTJ, ISTJ, ESTJ + ENTP make up 71% of Leadership teams and 68% of Operations teams.  Those numbers aren’t unexpected but in contrast to a general population where those five types are the preference of only 28%, it paints a very different picture of corporate leadership.

Don’t Misunderstand

It’s important that you don’t misunderstand me.  I’m NOT saying that you should have a preference for one of those five types to be considered a good corporate leader.  If you’ve learned to balance your own thinking on each of the four scales, regardless of your personal preference, you’ll make the best corporate leader.  In fact, it is my belief that many teams and many individuals on teams fool themselves into thinking that the TJ+ENTP types are required and therefore “act” as if they are one of those types for fear that they’ll be “found out” to be one of the “inferior” types.  There are no inferior types, only inferior balance of all types.

The Other Statistic Worth Noticing

The other statistical anomaly I’ve noticed on corporate leadership teams is in the NT/ST area.  Notice that both types have the T component (logical) while some of them also have the N (iNtuitive) component and others have the S (Sensing) component.  They are both logical in their decision-making but some are driven by their conceptual (N) view of the future while others are driven by the facts and details (S) of the present.

The US population, in general, is 10% NT and 30% ST.  Leadership teams are 49% NT and 39% ST while Operations Teams are 32% NT and 50% ST.

Once again, this pushes corporate leadership teams in a much more logical approach to decision-making versus the general population.

Word of Caution

But here’s one word of caution.  Madison Avenue learned a long time ago that we make decisions based on feeling (F) and then justify those decisions based on logic (T).  Neuroscience has proved that to be true.  This also holds true for ideas and thoughts.  We “buy” based on feeling and then justify based on logic!  Don’t kid yourself.  Your feeling, value, emotional side comes into play in your decision-making much more than you think.

Years ago my wife and I were in a Chevy dealership looking for a “sensible” car.  While we were waiting, another salesman and I were drooling over the current Corvette.  My wife finally said, “I see no logical reason to buy a Corvette.”  The salesman and I looked at her as if she was from the moon.  The salesman said, “No Corvette has ever been sold based on logic!”  Guess which model makes the most money for Chevrolet.

Diversity of Thought

Diversity has been used and misused a lot recently.  I think one cartoon recently summed up that misuse:

When we think about diversity from a leadership point of view, we should be celebrating and encouraging diversity of thought, history, perception, and preferences.  This helps us build unity, engage everyone and in the end, make the best decisions.

Respecting team members and their ideas will be key to building unity.  Dividing people into arbitrary groups doesn’t help.  Building respect is what helps.  I’ve built these thoughts around the Myers-Briggs Type Indication.  But working with any valid assessment of personality will do the trick as long as you drop the arbitrary ethnic, racial, or gender division.  Diversity of thought is independent of these arbitrary divisions.

RESPECT the people you work with!

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Myers Briggs Type Indicator: Diversity

by Ron Potter

We can see almost daily comments about diversity.  It creates great division when it seems to be lacking and it’s talked about in glowing terms when it’s promoted as the issue that will solve all of our problems.  The issue I get concerned about is that we think of diversity in too narrow terms.

Most of the time we are thinking about and talking about race or gender.  While these are very important I believe there’s much more to diversity than those two categories.  Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be talking about and focusing on race and gender, I’m saying there is more to consider.

Myers-Briggs Helps with Diversity

A couple of years ago I wrote several blogs focusing on the use of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).  I’ve been amazed at how many questions and comments I’ve received from people wanting to know more about MBTI in general and asking questions about specific situations and wondering if understanding MBTI would help.

This is why I’m starting a short series on MBTI again.  I have not gone back and read any of my previous blogs.  I just wanted this series to be inspired by my current thinking.

MBTI is Not a Label

Most of the teams I worked with wanted to label everyone to help them understand the person better.  I always discouraged this practice and I didn’t like to hear about trained professionals who thought labels were a natural conclusion.  They are not!

MBTI checks for preferences.  Meaning, in a given situation what would your natural preference chose?  This doesn’t mean that you can’t train yourself to look at things from many aspects, not just your natural preference.

In fact, the best leaders I’ve worked with have trained themselves to look and behave in the world in almost all of the MBTI aspects, not just their natural preferences.  I’ve even asked people who work for these great leaders to tell me what they think the leader’s MBTI is.  They can’t.  They can see them perform, ask questions, make decisions using almost all of the facets of MBTI.  It’s one of the things that make them a good leader.

I’m not going to go into great depth with every aspect of the MBTI.  I’m going to focus on the four natural pairs, how they conflict and can also complement each other.  I will also look at the statistics I’ve found that show how much of each time is present in the population as a whole as well as in business leadership teams.

Four Pairs

Over the next few weeks, we’ll take a look at the four pairs that exist within MBTI.  They are:

  • Energizing – Extraversion vs Introversion {EI}
  • Perceiving – Sensing vs Intuition (SN)
  • Judging – Thinking vs Feeling (TF)
  • Orientation – Judging vs Perceiving (JP)

Each person has a “preference” for one unit of each pair.  For instance, my MBTI is ENTJ.  That means that I have a tendency to be Extraverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging.  Thus ENTJ.

Be Careful

I can’t tell you how many times people have said something to me like, “I’ve taken the MBTI many times and I always come out the same.  I’m an ESTP.”

Be careful on two fronts.  The first is that you are not an ESTP or any other type.  It simply means that you have a preference for a certain set of pairs.

Second, be careful what you remember.  For those people who have said that or something similar to me, I’ve asked to see their previous results.  They are almost always wrong.  They have simply categorized themselves into something they like or that resonates with a particular type but they are totally wrong in what they remember as their tested and identified type.

Scientific

There are a couple of other stories I would like to tell you.  I was once asked by the head of the psychology department in a major pharmaceutical company to help her with her team.  I told her I wanted to collect MBTI data of her staff so they could see how each other approached the world.  She agreed.  However, once the letter went out to her staff I received a scathing email from one of her managers.  She wanted to know how I could expect to promote the work of these charlatans who weren’t even scientists with such an esteem group.  I simply said that her boss had asked me to do it and to hang in there.  As we finished the session, this person quietly came up to me and asked if I could do a session with her team.

A Rose by Any Other Color

Another experience I’ve had over the last few years is that clients would say to me, “We don’t use MBTI anymore.  It’s very dated.  Now we use [name of another product].  I said that was no problem, would they please send me what literature or website they had and how their people fit into this “new” chart.  I would read through the data and then in every case, did a full day session with the team to help them understand themselves and the team in more depth.  They were always amazed at how much I had learned in such a short time.  What I often didn’t tell them that the “new” product was simply MBTI repackaged with different words and colors.

Granted, some of the language is dated and could be upgraded for modern teams to understand better.  But the essence of MBTI is solid and extensive.

I hope you’ll enjoy and learn from our journey over the next few weeks.

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BlogTeamTeam Series

Team Elements – Commitment: Diversity

by Ron Potter

We’re looking at the element of Commitment in our Truth, Respect, Elegance, Commitment (TREC) journey to great teams.

Last week we talked about the trust required in great teams.  Trust of purpose, leader, and team members.  In building that trust we must look at the diversity of thinking and points of view.

Word of Caution

During my career, I have been asked to either lead a “diversity” effort or coach the person who was leading the effort.   The first thing that struck me was that diversity was defined by outward appearance.  Race and gender were the two most common ones but any number of characteristics can be identified.

Inclusion, not Diversity

One of my first reactions was that it shouldn’t be called “Diversity training” it should be named “Inclusion training.”  Because the name identified it as diversity, it seemed like the curriculum was based on emphasizing the diversity rather than turning it to inclusion.

As I got to know the people who were to be part of the process, I noticed that two members thought similar to each other even though they were of a different race and gender.  While another pair almost never saw eye-to-eye even though they were the same race and gender.

Diversity of Thinking

Great teams have learned to respect different points of view and how to work with those differences as simply differences.  Not good or bad.  Not right or wrong.  Just differences.

In my car the other day, I heard an old song by Dave Mason that hits this one right on the head.  The words are:

There ain’t no good guy, there ain’t no bad guy
There’s only you and me and we just disagree

No good.  No bad.  Just disagreement.  Let’s start with the fact that we just see things differently.

Brain Science

Why is that?  Why can we observe the same thing and yet it seems like we see things differently?

One of the tools that have helped answer that question is the functional MRI (fMRI).  The MRI has been around for years but it simply took a snapshot.  The fMRI takes video!  We can actually see movement within the brain.

When our eyes observe an event, the image isn’t simply recorded on our brain and then stored on our “hard drive.”  There are two major flaws in believing that’s how we see the world around us.

Brain Processing Centers

First, are the known processing centers of our brain.

  • Values
  • Emotions
  • Goals
  • Beliefs
  • Ideas
  • Memories
  • Pain
  • Stress
  • Experiences

There are somewhere over twelve processing centers known today and many scientists believe there may be at least twice that many.

What we know from the fMRI is that when an image enters our eyeball and the optic nerve, it is split into at least 127 million bits of information and dispersed throughout the processing centers named above.  The image is then funneled through the ancient processing centers of motion detection and object recognition before being “reassembled” into coherent perception.

Think about that for a minute.  You and I can watch the same event.  But, because I have very different emotions, goals, beliefs, memories. etc. the image that is “reassembled” in my brain can and will be different from the image reassembled in your brain.  We see different things!

Courtroom judges will tell you that if two eyewitnesses tell the same story, the judge knows there has been collusion because “no two eyewitnesses ever see the same thing!”  We see things differently!  Just because someone has a whole different take on a situation don’t mean they’re not telling the “truth.”  “There ain’t no good guy, there ain’t no bad guy.  There’s only you and me and we just disagree.”

Memory is Not a Hard drive

Because we’ve been using personal computers now for several decades, we’ve come to think that our memory functions much the same as computer memory.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  When we enter data onto a computer storage device or in the cloud, we can depend on it to be exactly the same when we retrieve it in the future.  However, our human memory doesn’t work that way.  Not only is it modified by the processing centers that we just talked about, but new experiences are also constantly modifying our memory from the moment it’s stored.  Our memory is never an accurate representation of what was first stored in our brain.

Beliefs and Assumption

Because of this science-based understanding, we should start conversations about decisions and difficult topics by having everyone share their beliefs and assumptions.  They’re all valid.  It will help you understand where others are coming from.  It will help them understand your position.  It will actually give the team a great foundation to begin working toward a position of commitment.

Appreciate diverse thinking!  It’s powerful!  It gives us a broader range of perspectives and helps us move forward together.  Every point of view is an accurate one.

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BlogCulture

Belonging

by Ron Potter

A recent EY study looked at the power of belonging at work.  Human beings have a great need to be part of a group.  We can look all the way back to ancient tribes to see this need to belong.  We all want to belong to a family, a community, a place of worship, a team.

Whatever the group is, we want to belong and be accepted.

Virtual World

In today’s virtual world, this has become more difficult.  Almost every client I’m working with is asking about how we feel more connected in this virtual world.  Our virtual meetings tend to be focused on the task at hand with little time for socializing or getting to know each other on a personal level.

One of my clients was recently struggling with this issue because he was part of a global team that had no opportunity to be together face-to-face.  In fact, he was gaining the reputation of being a hard charger who needed to be in control of the situation and the project.

Then recently the global team had the opportunity to be personally together at a team meeting in Europe.  He was thrilled with the opportunity and the outcome.  Because they were all face-to-face he had the opportunity to shake hands, look others in the eye, and socialize after work getting to know each other personally.

When the meeting was over he felt much more connected and had an increased sense of belonging that he had not experienced during the virtual meetings over the last year or two.

The Art of the Check-in

The EY study suggested several tips for building relationships regularly.

  • Seize the small opportunities to connect
  • Check bias at the door
  • Assume positive intent
  • It’s OK to be vulnerable
  • Be consistent and accountable

Seize the Small Opportunities to Connect

Connection is much more difficult in the virtual world so it must be accomplished intentionally.  It’s really impossible to accomplish this during team meetings. I have found that you must be intentional about expecting people to get together one-on-one (even virtually) and spend the time getting to know each other as human beings.  These meetings are not intended to work on tasks but simply to build relationships.

Ask questions like:

  • How are you doing?
  • How can I support you?”

You must genuinely be interested in their answers which means that you must listen with the intent to understand.  Truly understand.  Ask clarifying questions that help you understand where the other person is coming from and the perspective they’re using to view the world.

Years ago there was an elderly woman in our church.  If you asked her how she was doing her answer was “I’m doing fine unless you’re really interested”.

Be Interested!  Get to know who they are and what makes them tick.  No judgment.  Just understanding.

Check Bias at the Door

We each carry our own biases.  We just don’t always see them.

By listening to the other person we can often discover our own biases.  It’s natural.  We all have biases.  But the more you are aware of what they are, the easier it is to understand the other person.

Assume Positive Intent

This one is more difficult than it sounds.  Even though we have biases, we tend to accept them as natural and overlook their impact.  But we often assume that the other person is speaking from their own bias and because it’s different than our own, we can easily fall into the trap of assuming they are not speaking with positive intent.

Again, the best way to overcome this issue is to listen with the intent to understand.  When the other person assumes we are truly trying to understand them and where they are coming from, they’ll begin to drop or admit their own biases and start speaking with positive intent.

It’s OK to be Vulnerable

It’s not just OK to be vulnerable, it’s a must.  If we are not vulnerable with the other person, our biases begin to take over and we are not speaking with positive intent.

If we want the other person to take on a positive intent role, we must do it first.  Be vulnerable.

Be Consistent and Accountable

We’ve all heard the old saying “Do as I say, not as I do.”  Once again it becomes a “you first” approach.

We must first be consistent.  People should see a consistent approach and demeanor no matter what the circumstances or who we are talking with.

Then be accountable.  People are often looking to shift the blame to another person or circumstance.  Don’t be that person.  Admit where you failed or made the wrong decision and be accountable for the results.  It’s the only way to be a great leader or a great teammate.

People Want to Belong

Every human being has the built-in desire to belong.  Belong to a tribe.  Belong to a community.  Belong to a team.

Humans without these positive options for belonging turn to belonging to a gang or a cult or a social media crowd.  None of these are positive in the long run and will eventually lead to destructive behavior for either the person themselves or society in general.

Help people belong.

Help them be welcome.

Help them feel listened to and understood.

It will be the best thing you can do for yourself, the other person, society as a whole.

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BlogLeadership

Disagree without Anger

by Ron Potter

“Just because I disagree with you doesn’t mean I hate you. We need to relearn that in our society.” – Morgan Freeman

Why are good friends able to disagree without getting angry?  They spent time getting to know each other first.

First Rate Stupidity

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”  F. Scott Fitzgerald.

You’ve seen me use this quote several times but always with the focus on the positive results of being able to hold opposing ideas at the same time.

Let me reverse that for this blog:

“First-rate stupidity is holding on to a single idea or philosophy without allowing others to share their point of view that may be different from your own.”

It’s OK to Disagree

I believe this is what Morgan Freeman was referring to when he said that it’s OK to disagree without hating each other.  I’m afraid that our society has fallen into this trap of not allowing different points of view to penetrate our own belief system.  I’m sure there are several reasons for this, including social media, politics, news media.  I get very concerned when we begin to understand how some large tech firms send us to websites and posts they believe fit our profile and seldom show us the opposing view.  This is not healthy!

Listen to all points of view

Years ago I was working with a CEO who believed that he listened to everyone on his team equally so that it encouraged all points of view.  As I watched him work with his team for the first time I saw him put this philosophy into practice.  He did indeed ask every individual on his team to give their input on certain topics so that they could see all points of view.  However, I began to observe an interesting pattern in his questioning.

If someone on his team put out a point of view that didn’t agree with his thinking, he very sincerely thanked them for the input with no further comment.  He would then move onto the next person on the team and ask for their viewpoint.  If that team member seemed to voice a point of view that agreed with the CEO’s thinking he would also sincerely thank them for their input but would then reinforce their thinking because that was what he believed as well.  When he was finished asking for input from each team member, it was clear to me and clear to the team which point of view he agreed with and which one he didn’t.

The team had gotten used to this “vetting ” of ideas and the ones who disagreed with the CEO simply went silent about their point of view and moved forward with the team in an effort to execute the CEO’s point of view as successfully as possible.  Not the best use of team diversity.

Trusted Feedback

When the CEO and I were alone, I pointed out my observation.  He was appalled at his own behavior.  He really didn’t intend to shut off different points of view and didn’t realize that his behavior was doing exactly that.  I’ve mentioned many times in previous blogs that I’ve met few leaders who didn’t have the best intentions.  However, their behavior didn’t match those intents.

This is why feedback in the moment is so important.  It can come from a coach like myself but we aren’t there on a regular and consistent basis.  Everyone must cultivate trusted relationships they depend on to give them straight feedback in the moment that doesn’t really match their intent.

Take stock

How many of those relationships do you actually have?  If you honestly believe you have many, good for you!  It will make you a better leader and team member in the long run.  If you have difficulty thinking of anyone who actually fills that role for you or if you’re concerned that the feedback they give you is intended to protect themselves or make you feel better about your behavior, watch out.  You haven’t developed the kind of trusting relationships you need to be successful and satisfied in life.

 

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BlogLeadership

Elements of Trust

by Ron Potter

In the Harvard Business Review was the following article:

The 3 Elements of Trust by Jack Zengar and Joseph Folkman.

Three Elements of Trust

I think Zenger and Folkman are right on when they identify

Positive Relationships
    • Stay in touch on the issues and concerns of others
    • Balance results with concern for others.
    • Generate cooperation between others.
    • Resolve conflict with others.
    • Give honest feedback in a helpful way.
Good Judgement/Expertise
    • They use good judgment when making decisions.
    • Others trust their ideas and opinions.
    • They can anticipate and respond quickly to problems.
Consistency
    • Are a role model and set a good example.
    • Walk the talk.
    • Honor commitments and keep promises.
    • Follow through on commitments.
    • Are willing to go above and beyond what needs to be done.

Let’s unpack each one of those.

Positive Relationships

Of the five points that Zenger and Folkman make, the three I would pick as the most powerful would include, concern for others, resolving conflict, and giving honest feedback.

Concern for Others

Human beings have an amazing ability to determine if someone really cares for them or is just using them to accomplish a task.  Don’t kid yourself, you can’t fake this one.  If you don’t truly care for the other person, they will do what they are told because of your position but nothing more.  To build winning teams, you need more.  You need people’s energy, creativity, and cooperation.

Resolving Conflict

Resolving conflict relies on good listening.  I identify this skill as

Listening with the intent to respond vs Listening with the intent to understand

It takes a great deal of energy to listen with the intent to understand.  First, you must suspend what you “know”.  People know when you’re just lining up your points to make as soon as you see an opening in the conversation.  It’s even worse if you create that opening by interrupting with your points to counter their points.  They know you’re not trying to understand them.

There is a great deal of talk about diversity these days.  Listening with the intent to understand and teaching others to do the same, actually takes advantage of the diversity.  It’s not about our origins, race, gender, or whatever is being thrown into that diversity bucket these days, it’s about understanding.  The diversity identities being tossed around today don’t mean anything if we’re not listening to understand.  Individuals will have very different belief systems, even if they’re part of the same category of people.

Good Judgement/Expertise

The biggest issue to watch out for in this category is what Robert Quinn in his book “Deep Change” identifies as the “Tyranny of Competence”.  Some of my more difficult consulting and coaching times occurred when I had to convince and then help leaders dismiss people who fell into this category.  The first word in this title is “tyranny”.  People who fall into this category are incredibly competent and knowledgeable in their subject matter.  However, they use that competence as an excuse for not developing good relationships.  Every time the person who lives by the Tyranny of Competence is asked to leave, I’ve observed teams blossom into highly effective teams based on trust.

Zenger and Folkman put three elements in this category: Good judgment, trust of others, and they respond quickly.  I believe the middle point of the three —”Others trust their ideas and opinions”—is the hinge that makes the other two work.  One reason that the trusts exist is that there has been listening with the intent to understand.  I can’t emphasize enough how much this element builds trust.  Because good leaders have listened well and built trust, they tend to have good judgment and can respond quickly to threats.

Consistency

I believe consistency requires Integrity.  Integrity comes from the Latin word “integer”— meaning whole or complete.  Integrity means that you are the same person regardless of the circumstances or the people present.  It has a foundation of honesty and character.  Are you a person of integrity?  Are you always the same person?  When you have integrity and are consistent, it builds trust.

Elements of Trust

Evaluate yourself.  Get feedback from others.

  • Do you develop positive relationships?
  • Do you exhibit sound judgment?
  • Are you consistent and would people say you are a person of integrity?

Regardless of the environment, be it leader, team member, family member, or citizen, nothing will carry you farther than developing trust.

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BlogLeadership

He Makes Good Decisions

by Ron Potter

I happened to come across a National Football League (NFL) scouting report of a young college student who wanted to be drafted into the NFL.  The Scouting reports were not good.

The college student also took part in the NFL Scouting Combine where they test physical attributes.  The results of that were not good either.  The reports said he had poor arm strength and athleticism and his sprint times for the 40-yard dash were terrible.

In his report, one longtime analyst said, “I don’t like him. Smart guy. That’s it.”  The only positive part of another report said that “He makes good decisions.”

In spite of these poor reports, this young college student was drafted in that year.  Of the 200 drafted, he was taken at 199.

He Was Prudent

Prudent is not a word we see anymore.  In fact, it doesn’t really sound very flattering.  But the definition of prudent is: The perfected ability to make right decisions.  That seemed to be the only positive thing in his scouting reports and physical analysis.  He was Prudent.

The Perfected Ability to Make Right Decisions

There are two points that you need to pay attention to in that definition.

  1. Right.  It’s easy to make decisions.  It’s not easy to always make “right” decisions.  “Right” in this case means right for the individual, organization, country, and the world in general.
  2. Perfected.  Perfection comes with practice, patience, and wisdom.  It takes time.  You must work at it.  I’ve spent a lifetime trying to perfect my golf swing.  It’s far from perfect but it is better.  Even the pros who will hit thousands of balls a day are trying to perfect their golf swing.

Practice Makes Perfect

We’ve all heard that old adage.  But it’s not true.  Practice doesn’t make perfect if you not practicing the right things or the parts that need to be practiced.  Back to the golf pros, they not only have coaches but lots of technology to help measure and visualize their practice.  They get almost instantaneous feedback on each practice swing.

Feedback

This is why instantaneous feedback is so necessary.  I heard someone once say, if you swat your dog with a newspaper for something he did wrong yesterday, he’ll have no idea what he’s being punished for.  He will only become afraid of newspapers.  This is one reason why annual assessment sessions with employees are so useless.  There may have been an instance several months ago that needs to be fixed.  But by now each participant has formed a memory in their head that satisfies their own needs and ego.  Memory is powerful.

A college professor once had the students in his class write down everything about the day before when the space shuttle Challenger exploded during take-off.  Ten years later, the professor tracked down as many students from that class that he could find.  He handed them their own written record of that day to read over.  One student who had written 14 pages read it through and then tossed it to the side and said to the professor, “That’s not right.  Let me tell you what really happened!”  Ten years later his memory of the incident was more powerful than his recording of the incident the following day.  Memory is powerful.

Prudent Decision Making

Prudence is a process.  It has well-defined steps that will need to be practiced to reach perfection.  The Prudence process requires Trust, Diverse Points of View, and a Good Process

Trust

In my book, “Trust Me” I list the eight elements of trust.  Those elements are self humility, development of others, commitment to learning, listening and creating unity, focus on the issue, compassion for others, personal integrity, not avoiding constructive disagreement, and finally endurance to stick with it to the end.

Diverse Points of View

We hear the word diversity used a great deal these days.  But diversity by itself is worthless unless there is trust.  Trust must be established first.  Without trusted diversity of thought, there is no perfecting of the decision-making process.

Good Process

Prudent decision making is not haphazard; it is a well-defined process.  It can be simplified into three words: Deliberate, Decide, Do.

Deliberate.  Because “time is critical”, most corporate teams don’t do enough (or any) deliberation.  Other reasons I’ve encountered for not deliberating well include:

    • “We already know the answer.”  This happens because of ‘group think’ and ‘selective attention’.  If we don’t have the trusted diversity of thinking, it’s easy to fall into these traps that make us think we already know the answer.
    • This is only one right answer.  This means that all the other possible answers are wrong.  Leadership teams shouldn’t waste their time on truly right-wrong decisions.  Leadership teams should be spending their time on dilemmas.  This means they are dealing with right vs right decisions.  These are the hard decisions.
    • I believe what I see or I remember.  (See the “Feedback” section above.)

Decide.  One element of good decision making is described in something called Triple Loop Learning (Originally developed by Gregory Bateson and extended by Chris Argyris and Peter Senge).  The first step in triple loop learning is to share openly and honestly your beliefs and assumptions about the topic up for decision.

Do.  Having reached a decision through this process, the do part becomes much easier because all the parts of the team are working together.  There is full commitment from each member of the team.  I cover  “Prudence” in previous blogs–take a look to get more detail than we covered here today.

So who was that young college student that was drafted 199 out of 200 that year?  Tom Brady.

No other quarterback has appeared in more than 5 Super Bowls, let alone claimed over 4 rings.  Tom has played in nine Super Bowls and won six of them.  This weekend he will play in his tenth Super Bowl with the opportunity for his seventh win.

He makes good decisions!

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BlogCultureCulture Series

Culture – Consistency: Agreement

by Ron Potter

Agreement that leads to commitment is a long, arduous process.  It requires building great teams that listen to each other, respect each other and use a great process to reach agreement.  Agreement leads to commitment which leads to better execution.  This commitment happens in the face of initial positions that may be counter to the final agreement.  Reaching agreement is hard work.

Culture Elements

Items that the Denison Culture Survey asks about include:

  • win-win solutions
  • consensus or agreement is reached on difficult issues
  • while the process may be long and arduous, it’s always easy to reach agreement in the end
  • is the agreement in line with the core values
Intact Teams

These questions are focused on teams that work together.  We’ll look at building coordination and integration across the corporation in the next blog post.  But coordination across the organization never happens if we aren’t able to reach agreement within teams first.

Agreement and commitment were the subjects of a series of blogs that I wrote in the first half of 2019 on building great teams.

Respect

Reaching agreement within teams requires a great deal of respect for each member of the team.  Good leaders should expect that each member of a team has either a slight or dramatic different point of view.   This diversity of thought is what leads to great decisions.  But only if there is respect within the team for each person’s point of view.  If there is an element of right and wrong or someone believes they know the “truth” while everyone else simply has a different perspective, a true agreement cannot be reached.

Culture Survey

The culture survey does a great job at pointing out the symptoms of agreement or disagreement.  It doesn’t actually help us solve the problem but clearly identifies if a problem exists.  If the culture survey indicates there is a lack of agreement, that should serve as a big red flag that lots of internal work is required to build up the respect and processes of teams.

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BlogLeadership

Poke in the Eye with a Sharp Stick

by Ron Potter

How much does your point of view affect the conversation?

Joshua Spodek, author of Leadership Step by Step was about to interview me for a podcast episode on his website. Or so I thought.

Josh and I had spoken a few times and I had recently read his book. Josh is good at putting together his own podcast on his website and I wanted to learn. But after a few minutes into our conversation with Josh asking me what I wanted to talk about and me asking him about how he would like to conduct the interview, we both realized we had made different assumptions. Josh thought I wanted to learn by conducting an interview with him. I assumed he would conduct an interview with me and I would learn from the experience.

But, those misaligned assumptions left both of us thinking about where this thing was going and what was wrong with the other person. When we both realized what was happening we had a good laugh and even told some stories of previous experiences of misaligned assumptions. It ended well because both of us had a desire for it to work and both appreciated the value that the other person brought to the conversations. Business meetings don’t always go that well.

The assumptions we start with shape our understanding of the conversation.

What’s the point of your point of view?

  • Defend your position?
  • Win the argument?
  • Gain power over the other person (your victim)?

Or

  • Learn?
  • Listen?
  • Share your assumptions so that we can build a new outlook together?

When you finally realize that your assumptions are just that, assumptions, you then have a fighting chance for something good to emerge.

Each person is so unique in their background, experience, education, learning method and any number of variables, you should naturally assume each person will have a different assumption on a given topic. All of them valid.

The validity of assumptions is a complicated topic and is tied up in the complexity of assumptions. What makes an assumption valid for you?

  • Facts, logic?
  • A good feel for correctness?
  • Conceptually valid?
  • Promotes good will?
  • Maintains relationships?

All these reasons are valid. But only one may be valid for you. That’s OK unless you begin to assume that your judgment of validity is the only valid approach. Then you’re dead wrong. All assumptions are valid for the person who holds them. Our job as leaders and team members is to listen to and understand the diversity of assumptions and then build a team view that will create team commitment.

If the point of your assumptions isn’t to build toward a joint, collaborative team assumption and commitment, then you’re just poking people in the eye with a sharp stick.

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Absurd!BlogIn-Depth Book Reviews

Absurd!: Leaders Cannot Be Trained, but They Can Be Educated

by Ron Potter

“Training leads to development of skills and techniques…Education on the other hand, leads not to technique but to information and knowledge, which in the right hands can lead to understanding, even to wisdom. And wisdom leads to humility, compassion, and respect—qualities that are fundamental to effective leadership.”

I like the word develop rather than education but I believe the principle is the same. Early in my consulting career, I wanted to teach leaders everything I had learned. I figured out very quickly that I couldn’t teach anyone anything, all I could do was to help them learn. The only thing they would learn was what they were ready to learn and what they wanted to learn. Beyond that, I couldn’t teach them anything.

New or prospective clients wanted me to provide an outline of my “training program.” I often had a hard time explaining that I didn’t have a program, we would figure out what the leader or team needed at that moment and would learn it together. Farson says is well: “Training makes people more alike. Education, because it involves an examination of one’s personal experience in the light of an encounter with great ideas, tends to make people different from each other. So, the first benefit of education is that the manager becomes unique, independent, the genuine article.” They develop integrity. They lead from who they are. Farson further says: “Managers can gain better self-understanding, learn about their own interpersonal selves, their reactions to and the impact on others, prejudices and blind spots, strengths and weaknesses. A better understanding of themselves and of their feelings gives all managers added trust in their perceptions, reactions, impulses, and instincts.

The following are words that appear in this blog. Go back and read them again with thought and reflection. There’s a lot of buried treasure in these words.

Wisdom leads to:

Examines:

Managers [Leaders] become:

Leaders are not alike. They are unique and whole.

I’m continuing my series on an in-depth look at a wonderful little book that’s twenty years old this year. The title is Management of the Absurd by Richard Farson. You may want to consider dropping back and reading the previous blog posts about ABSURD! I think it will put each new one in great context.

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Absurd!BlogIn-Depth Book Reviews

Absurd!: People We Think Need Changing are Pretty Good the Way They Are

by Ron Potter

I love this statement by Farson: “Business and industry spend billions of dollars each year to train, encourage, and reward their employees – and to install security systems.”

I remember a statement by Steven Covey (author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) that he could always tell the level of trust in an organization by how many rules and systems they had in place. The more the rules, the less the trust. I have also found this to be true. To me, the apex of this is when every member of the top leadership team is expected to know every detail about their operation. It’s stated as an indication of competency but in reality, it’s an indication of lack of trust.

Farson further elaborates by saying, “Situations, more than individuals, are what produce the difficulties, even though it almost always looks as if it is individuals who are fouling up. The better managers try to fix situations, not people, by making structural changes in their organizations.”

In addition to the structural changes, my experience is that building trust must be a regular focus of leadership teams. Like any conditioning, if you’re not constantly working on trust, it slowly erodes. And like any erosion, at some point, the dam breaks and it’s completely washed away.

Farson makes the point that most employees are trying to do the best they can. I agree. People really want to be productive, successful, valued, encouraged, and encouraging. It’s usually the system, structure, leadership, and lack of trust that discourages them from doing their best.

One of his closing statements in this section is, “When we build a team of people, we may, at the outset, wish that its members were different from what they are—we think this one might be too shy, that one too boisterous, another too cerebral, and so on. But once the team is built and begins working together, something pleasantly surprising happens. Instead of continuing to want to change these people, all those characteristics that may have concerned us at the outset become qualities we come to appreciate as simply being part of the way these people are. Absurdly, we find that we really wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Diversity is the key to great teams. But not diversity alone. It’s when the diversity is honored, trusted and appreciated that makes great teams. How much are you working at honoring, trusting and appreciating your teammates?

I’m continuing my series on an in-depth look at a wonderful little book that’s twenty years old this year. The title is Management of the Absurd by Richard Farson. You may want to consider dropping back and reading the previous blog posts about ABSURD! I think it will put each new one in great context.

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