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Respect

BlogCulture

Consensus Building

by Ron Potter March 2, 2023

I meet on a regular basis with a group of highly intelligent and successful guys.  We have a name for ouselves which is SPACE CADETS.  The story is too long about how we became known by that name but we’ve enjoyed it.

Our topics range across the things we’ve been thinking about: a difficult situation we find ourselves in or sometimes simply curiosity.  But it often deals with how we reach consensus with our team or client.  One of the definitions of consensus from Merriam-Webster is “group solidarity in sentiment and belief.”  You can look up the word solidarity but it often leads back to something solid.  You build something together that is solid and that you’ll all defend.

There are two words in the English language that are often associated with building consensus.

One of those words is discussion.  The other word is dialogue.  Most people think of a good discussion as a way to reach consensus.  Most of us don’t think of the word dialogue.  If fact we often mix the two words up and misunderstand their meaning.

Discussion

There are some interesting ideas that discussion is based on.  They include:

  • Narrow focus
  • Debate of what is “right”
  • Defending certainty
  • Seeking closure

Notice that there is an assumed “right” and “certainty” in the word discussion.  Add to that the narrow focus and seeking closure (instead of understanding) and you begin to see that discussion may not be the best approach to building consensus.  One of the best definitions that I found said that the word discussion is based on the same root word as percussion.  What do you think of when you think about percussion?  Drums!

I played percussion in our high school band.  When we were in an orchestra situation I remember our band director asking me to bring down the volume on the percussion.  But when we were outdoors in marching band, it seemed like he was always asking me to raise the volume.  He wanted more percussion.  Discussion in an open area with lots of listeners may be useful.  But in a small team setting, percussion is not useful.  It seems to have all the negative aspects of the bullet list above.

Dialogue

Dialogue is very different from discussion.  Dialogue is an exchange of ideas and opinions.  Dialogue has some very interesting aspects that you would probably love to have in most instances.  It:

  • Surfaces all assumptions
  • Names and faces defense routines
  • Slows down conversation to create learning and shared meaning
  • Suspends certainty

Suspending Assumptions

The last point in dialogue is suspending certainty.  All of us have certain ideas that we feel certain about.  This is natural and it’s certainly OK as long as we know they come from our own views and observations.  I think we would have a tough time with life if we didn’t have things we were certain about.  But it’s important that they are really our assumptions and another person (especially one with different experiences and coming up in a different culture) may see them entirely differently.

I was very fortunate that my consulting career had me working around the world and being exposed to different cultures.  I remember one team that was made up of people from Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, and the UK.  It was fascinating to see them start talking about a topic from their own culture and history.  Fortunately, this was a team that respected each other and was willing to understand how the different cultures viewed certain topics.

One funny experience I remember was working with a US CEO.  He had gotten tired of people being late for meetings so he instituted the rule that if you were late, you had to stand on your chair or table and sing your college fight song or country national anthem.  From his point of view that would have been very humiliating.  Then one day we were waiting for a meeting to start and I asked him if he saw the people standing outside the conference room door.  It seems that all the Irish were waiting outside the door so they could be late and have to stand on the table and sing their national anthem.  They loved it.

Suspending Assumptions II

A couple of things to think about when you’re suspending assumptions are:

  1. Let go of your own assumptions in order to understand the assumptions of others.
  2. When it comes to your turn, help everyone understand your assumptions and what formed them.
  3. Move from discussion to dialogue to help everyone understand all of the assumptions so that together you can come up with the best team solution.

It’s important to remember that you won’t win every argument and your assumptions won’t carry the day in every instance.  Most often one assumption persuades most of the team but is enhanced by portions of some of the other assumptions.

One way to judge your ability to do this well is how you respond to people after the decision is made.  When someone (who may have been fully aware of your position before the meeting) asks you what the decision of the team was, your answer should be something like, “The team thought this was the best solution.”  When the person says they know that was not your opinion prior to the meeting, say again, “The team thought it is the best solution.”

Keep in mind that we all have different assumptions.  I grew up with three siblings in the same house.  We have certain similarities but, as a whole, we are each very different people.  You’re no better or worse than the other person, you just have different assumptions.

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BlogCulture

Unity Through Diversity

by Ron Potter January 27, 2022

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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BlogLeadership

Are You the Smartest or the Hardest Working?

by Ron Potter November 25, 2021

Jamie Dimon has been a very successful leader of JPMorgan Chase for many years.  He talked of the traits to succeed that I found very interesting.

Traits of Successful Leaders

Mr. Dimon’s list of successful leadership traits included:

  • Humility
  • Openness
  • Fairness
  • Authenticity

He also included a shortlist of traits that don’t lead to being a successful leader.

  • Smartest person in the room
  • Hardest working person in the room

Later in the article, he enhanced these traits even further by distinguishing between management and leadership.

He identifies Management as

  • Get it done
  • Follow-up
  • Discipline
  • Planning
  • Analysis
  • Facts, facts, facts

This is a great list and is much needed to run a business.  But these are management traits, not leadership traits.

Dimon goes on to say that the key to leadership is not just doing the management thing but having respect for people. (Italics mine)

Elements of Leadership

Humility.  This is the number one trait of great leadership that I list in my book Trust Me.  The understanding of humility has taken a wrong turn since the original definition.  Humility is not being a doormat or turning the other cheek.

The original definition of humility meant tremendous power under complete control.   Notice that there is tremendous power.  Much of that power is identified in Dimon’s management list above.  But leadership has this strong element of humility.  One of the key elements of humility is having a deep respect for every individual.  If that respect is not there, it leaves untethered power.

Humility is the number one issue of great leadership.  Humility doesn’t happen without a deep respect for each individual.

Openness.  Some of the words related to openness include accessible, lack of secrecy, and frankness.  Being open means that you’re accessible.  Being accessible in general, people can talk with you at any time about anything.

Being accessible in meetings—because people feel and experience the respect you have for them, they are completely at ease talking about any issue.  And because you’re frank, they also know they can state their beliefs and assumptions and they’ll hear the same from you.  They also know that your frank opinion is not the final say but another point of view to be considered in the “team” decision.

Fairness.  Once again, a dictionary definition is very helpful:  “Impartial and just treatment or behavior without favoritism or discrimination.”  Can you see the equal respect for each individual in that statement?  Being fair with your team means taking each and every opinion and belief as equally valid.

Great teams understand that their individual beliefs and assumptions may not be the final answer but if they feel listened to with great respect, then they believe a great team decision will result.

Authenticity.  Authentic people are the same no matter what the circumstances.  There’s no question that you’ll hear the same thing from an authentic person regardless of who they’re speaking to.  They’ll say the same thing to an employee as they will to their boss.  There is no doubt in anyone’s mind.  They are simply themselves regardless of the situation or person they’re speaking with.

Be authentic.  Not being authentic is clearly and immediately noticeable by anyone and everyone.

Are You a Great Leader?

Or do you hope to become a great leader?  Yes, you’ll need to be a good manager but “good” managers begin to let their leadership traits come through even when they’re in a management position.  Even if you’re just a manager you can let the traits of a leader—Humility, Openness, Fairness, Authenticity—come through.

Great leadership traits always shine brighter than great management abilities.

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BlogLeadership

Being Smart vs Not Being Stupid

by Ron Potter October 28, 2021

It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten

by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.

– Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway.

Most of us would consider Charlie and his partner, Warren Buffet, as being really intelligent.  And yet, here he is saying it’s more advantageous to be consistently not stupid.

Let’s examine those two words—intelligent and stupid.

Intelligent

One definition is “having or showing intelligence, especially of a high level.” (Italics is mine.)

I believe it’s one thing to be intelligent but a very different thing to show intelligence.  We’ve all seen or even commented on the person who is highly intelligent but seems to have no “common sense”.  It’s one thing to be very intelligent about a specific issue but in general, not understanding how the world works as a whole (common sense).

It took me too long to figure this one out.  As a youngster in high school, I was often reminded how intelligent I was.  I just seemed to “get things” like math and physics (not so much chemistry though…) and I had a great curiosity for geography and history.  These were subjects that just came to me.

I wasn’t trying to be the top student but I found I could get acceptable grades just by being smart.

Upon entering Engineering School things were a bit more difficult but once again, I just seemed to get most of the topics without a great deal of effort.  I found I could be one of the fastest at calculations.  I could often just see things and come up with the right answer in my head.  Once again, being highly intelligent seemed to be all I needed.

It wasn’t until I began my career as a leadership and team consultant and coach that I began to realize that being right wasn’t the best approach.  If I acted too smart, there was always someone there to shoot me down at the first opportunity.  My intelligence was not going to help me be a good coach and consultant.

I remember working with one team of a very large corporation that seemed to be stuck.  One of the youngest members of the team asked for some personal time with me.  His first question was “You see what’s going on don’t you?”  My answer was yes.  With that, he then asked, “Are you going to get in there and tell them what they’re doing wrong?”  My answer was no.  He seemed astonished.  Why would I not tell them exactly what I was seeing in order to correct it?  I explained to him that I can’t teach anyone anything, the only thing I can do was to help them learn.

I had learned that being right carried no weight at all.  Helping them learn at their own pace was the only thing that worked regardless of what I was seeing.

Stupid

Stupid is as stupid does.

– Forest Gump.

Don’t confuse stupid with ignorance.  Ignorance means “lack of knowledge or information.”  Ignorance is simply a lack of knowledge.  Stupid has full knowledge—you just ‘know better’.

Maybe one of the best ways to look at the word stupid is by examining its antonyms.  These antonyms include brainy, bright, clever, fast, nimble, quick, quick-witted.  Remember that these are antonyms.

That means stupid is not:

  • brainy
  • bright
  • clever
  • fast
  • nimble
  • quick
  • quick-witted

Remember that Charlie says the advantage comes by not being stupid.

Don’t be brainy, bright, or clever.  All of these signal that you’re smarter than everyone else.

Don’t be fast or nimble.  The means you reach your conclusions quickly.  You’re not listening well and trying to absorb what’s being explained.

Don’t be quick or quick-witted.  Quick-witted means coming to quick, humorous conclusions.  This can often mean that you’re covering up your own stupidity by offering a humous statement— that covers up your lack of understanding.

Consistently not Stupid

Charlie says they try to be consistently not stupid.  This means it takes a great deal of effort to continually act in a non-stupid way. 

I believe the key to being consistently ‘not stupid’ is to be consistently humble.

It takes a great deal of effort to overcome our natural desire to be the best.  But being the best doesn’t mean having the answer first and always being right.  Being the best means sharing your opinions when it makes sense and always realizing that they are only your opinions.

Fully respecting others and their opinions makes you the best and goes a long ways toward not being stupid.

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BlogLeadership

Honored and Humbled

by Ron Potter August 19, 2021

This blog is personal.

Alumni of the year

I was recently honored as the Alumni of the year from my high school.  I was very honored and humbled.  The upbringing I had as a child doesn’t seem to be available to many people anymore.  I was raised in a small rural Michigan town that was very stable.  Many of my friends I knew all the way from kindergarten to high school graduation.  Some of them I knew even before we started school.

One of those friends and I have occasionally wondered about what was it about our environment and upbringing that allowed us to work comfortably all over the country and world.  This award forced me to get my thoughts down on paper as an answer to that question

God, Family, Friends, Mentors

As I began to collect and record my thoughts, I focused on these four elements that had made difference for me that carried me through a lifetime.

God

One summer I was attending a Christian Camp run by Bill Glass.  At the time, Bill Glass was the defensive end for the Cleveland Browns.  He was big and powerful, a man’s man, and had everything he needed to be a self-reliant individual.  However, that week he spoke often about his total dependence on Christ being his Lord and Savior and that he would be nothing without him.  His message began to sink in with me and by the end of the week, I had also accepted Christ as Savior.

On the last night of the camp, there was a great deal of singing and asking people to come forward to either declare their decisions or acknowledge that they needed to make a decision.  I was in a row of about a dozen guys, standing third from the isle.

I knew I had to go forward to declare my decision but as a 14-year-old boy was struggling with the issue.  Pretty soon the two guys closest to the aisle went down front.  The guy to my right began nudging me saying that I needed to go down front.  I kept saying that I knew I did but just needed a minute.

Finally, after one more nudge, I turned to him to tell him I knew that I did but when I turned to face him, the entire row was empty.  I was the only one in the aisle!  I knew right then that it wasn’t a human that was nudging me and I immediately went down front.  After that my local church began to nurture me, learning more about the Lord as I grew.

Family

At the banquet were all of my siblings, one of my daughters from Tunisia (the other one was at a wedding in Colorado), and many nieces and nephews.  As I looked and talked with each of them it was amazing that they all knew the Lord and were growing in him.  I know that many families have difficulties and we have our share as well, but because we all know the Lord, we stay close and appreciate each other.

Friends

As I said earlier, many of my friends from high school have been my friends for my entire life.  We remain amazingly close and although jobs and family took us in different directions, we still get together as often as we can.  I cherish those moments and feel very blessed and loved by them.  It gives me great strength.

Mentors

This one was difficult because there were so many.  However, I narrowed it down to two because of time.  The first one I identified was my father.  I’m not sure he would have considered himself a mentor but he was to me.  He had lost a leg in WWII that made his life very difficult but he never let it stop him.  He started his own business that required a lot of physical effort, built his (and our) home, and raised a great family.  And never once did I hear him complain!

And although he only had a high school education, he was a non-stop reader and learner.  I would come home from Engineering School with a new concept I had just learned and couldn’t wait to share with him.  But as soon as I did I would find out that he had been reading about the same concept and knew more about it than I did.  I never could get ahead of him.  The most cherished possession that I inherited was his dictionary.  It is 8 x 10 in size and 8 inches thick.  8 inches thick!  A dictionary.

The other mentor that came to mind for me was my high school physics teacher.  There were many times when I thought he was picking on me.  He would say “Potter, what’s the answer?” or “Potter, come to the board and show us how to solve this.”  It just didn’t seem fair to me.  Then one day I ran into him in a back hallway of our school and felt emboldened to confront him.  When I asked why he seemed to be picking on me his answer was “Because you’re worth it!”  He was the only high school teacher I went to visit after graduating from Engineer School.

God, Family, Friend, Mentors

As much as you might like to be, you will never be God.

Other than spouses, you can’t pick who your family will be.

That leaves friends and mentors.  Cultivate friends that will tell you the truth no matter how painful that will be.  Be that kind of friend to them.

Seek out mentors who will help you grow and develop.  And be one yourself.  Maybe it’s a friend you can mentor.  Maybe it’s someone who you believe has great potential that could use your experience and care.  Maybe it’s a grandchild.  They look up to their grandparents whether they express it or not. Let someone else know they’re worth it!

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BlogLeadership

4 Things that a Leader Should Provide

by Ron Potter February 18, 2021

At the end of the last blog, I indicated that the star leaders of the future will help their teams feel safe and connected in a virtual world.  There are some critical issues that a leader must provide in order to create a safe and connected atmosphere.

Hope

It doesn’t take much reading or watching documentaries to realize that entire groups of people lose their will to live or even attempt to do so when they have lost all hope.  Leaders and teams will face setbacks and failures, but they must not lose hope.

Among the things that a leader or individual can do to provide hope include:

  • Freedom of choice and free will.  Leaders must be careful even when they are well-intentioned.  They may think that a solid plan and direction for the future will help people through a difficult situation but they also need to be careful not to stifle people’s ability to input their own ideas and goals.
  • The arts and creativity.  We all are inspired by various arts (music, paintings, motion, etc) or creativity and innovation.  Inspiration can lead to or renew hope.
  • Goodness and kindness.  These acts of unselfish behavior on behalf of another person will inspire hope.
  • There are many other things that can inspire or renew hope.  Loss of hope is deadly.

Love

The word love can be greatly misinterpreted.  A more useful word in today’s business world might be respect.  When people feel respected, even when their ideas may be at the opposite end of a scale, great things are possible.  I believe this is one issue that makes our current politics so ineffective.  It should be OK to have very different ideas.  In fact, it’s powerful and useful to have different ideas if there is respect for the person and their ideas.  Unfortunately, different ideas are not accepted or discussed with respect.

Respect is required for great leadership!

Joy

Although there is more to joy than humor, humor is a big part of it.  When we’re able to laugh and enjoy the moment with each other (not at the other’s expense) life is so much better.  A touch of humor or a lot of humor is a powerful ingredient of joy.

Peace

The opposite of peace is fear.  From the dictionary, the opposite of fear can be curiosity, trust, courage, or calmness.  What a great list of words.  Being curious is fun and leads to learning more than almost any other word.  Trust is powerful.  Both to trust and to be trusted.  How great is it to be both courageous and calm in times of difficulty?

Hope, Love, Joy, Peace.  These are the new currency for great leadership in a virtual world (or any world for that matter).

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BlogLeadership

Competency will get you…. Nowhere!

by Ron Potter October 1, 2020

Amy Cuddy has written at least three very profound books:

  • When They Trust You, They Hear You: A Modern Guide for Speaking to Any Audience
  • Leadership Presence  – Part of HBR Emotional Intelligence Series (14 Books)
  • Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges

Amy says the first two things people want to know when they first meet you are:

  1. Can I trust this person?
  2. Can I respect this person?

Psychologists refer to these dimensions as warmth and competence, respectively.

Warmth is not measured on corporate evaluations

I often run an experiment with teams where half the team gets a list of characteristics found in a fictitious person.  The other half of the team gets a similar list of characteristics on another fictitious person.

Both lists contain words such as:

  • Intelligent
  • Skillful
  • Industrious
  • Determined
  • Practical
  • As well as a few other descriptions

There is one (and only one) difference in the two lists:

  • One list contains the word “Warm”
  • The other list contains the word “Cold”

I then have the whole team vote on characteristics such as:

  • generous vs. ungenerous
  • unhappy vs. happy
  • reliable vs. unreliable
  • frivolous vs. serious
  • imaginative vs. hardheaded
  • dishonest vs. honest
  • There are 16 total comparisons

(Remember that the lists are identical except for the words warm and cold.)

The group that has the word “warm” in their descriptor attributes the more positive characteristic to their fictitious person.

The group with the word “cold” in their descriptor attributes the more negative characteristic to their fictitious person.

Is a person warm or cold?  This one factor will set our expectations for that person and can be the difference of our trust factor!  Be a warm person.  It pays rewards.

Respect or Competence

In the book, Speed of Trust, author Stephen M. R. Covey lists four characteristics that need to be present before we trust someone.  This list has often helped my consulting when there is obvious (at least to me) mistrust on a team.  However, when I ask the team if they trust each other, the answers are almost always a positive yes.

But when I break down trust to this subset of characteristics, there is usually one where people have a concern.  “Yes I trust the person but….”

The list is

  • Integrity – Is the person always the same person no matter who they are talking with or what the circumstances are?
  • Intent – This one usually revolves around the issue of what is best for the team or company vs. what is best for the individual.  Is their intent focused on the best for others or the best for themselves?
  • Capabilities – The person may be sharp and accomplished but do they have the experiences necessary to work through the situation they face?  Are they capable?
  • Results – Has the person actually produced positive results.? Often people talk a good line or more likely have a list of reasons why something didn’t work.  Did they actually produce results in spite of the difficulties they faced?

When you break down the question of trust into these four components, it’s easier to deal with and identify.

Trust/Respect

Is trust more important than competency?  Or is competency the supreme measure of success and reliability?  If you think competency is the superior measurement, you need to read a chapter from Deep Change by Robert Quinn.  The chapter is titled “Tyranny of Competence”.

Amy Cuddy says “But while competence is highly valued, it is evaluated only after trust is established. And focusing too much on displaying your strength can backfire”.

Be trustworthy first!  It’s the only way your competency will have value.

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BlogTeamTeam Series

Riding it Out or Reinventing

by Ron Potter August 27, 2020

“U.S. Companies Lose Hope for Quick Rebound From Covid-19”  This was a headline in the Wall Street Journal the other day.  Buried in the body of the article was the statement, “Executives who were bracing for a months-long disruption are now thinking in terms of years. Their job has changed from riding it out to reinventing.”  On the same day (unrelated to the WSJ article) this cartoon appeared

I thought the cartoon was very appropriate because I’ve seen so many companies in my consulting career say they’re innovative but act like the cartoon.

Leaders Support Innovation

Leaders are not usually the innovators!  Good leaders support the innovators on their teams.

Let’s take a look at how innovation happens from a Team Leadership Culture framework.

Team Innovation

Team innovation can be the most difficult to pull off but at the same time the most rewarding as well.  However, it does take a few prerequisites for it to work.

Team Size

Many studies have determined that the best size of a decision-making team is seven, plus or minus two.

Once you get above nine people on a team, the ability to reach commitment on any given topic is greatly diminished.  There are just too many factions possible with 10+ people.

If you have fewer than five team members, it’s too easy for the team to form factions of three people vs. one person.  Even though that one person may have the most innovative idea, they will feel outnumbered and it’s too easy for the faction of three to treat them as an outlier or put pressure on them to go along with the majority.

Either way, the dynamics may be killing the innovation.

Keep decision-making teams to seven people, plus or minus two.

Team Attributes

TREC is the outline that brings the right attributes to an innovative team.

Truth.  Being able to speak the truth to each other without fear of reprisal is necessary for innovative teams.

Respect.  Each team member must be self-aware enough to know that their perspective is only a perspective.  It is not “the truth”.  It is not the only way of looking at an issue.  It’s only their perspective and each member has a valid perspective.  If the team trusts that all perspectives are valid, innovation is more likely to happen.

Elegance.   Coming up with an innovative solution that is also elegant (simple, understandable, actionable) is the best solution.

Commitment.  If the team is able to share the truth with respect, commitment can happen.  Even if your perspective was different (or even opposing) to the final direction, commitment means that no matter what, you express your commitment to the solution.  You’re able to do this because you were a member of the team that took all the perspectives into account and “committed” to a team solution.

Team Dynamics

If innovation is the goal, team dynamics becomes extremely important.  Teams have been conditioned to come together for a given amount of time (usually an hour), encouraged to follow the agenda, and finally, make decisions depending on the discussion or reports.  This feels very structured and efficient.  It’s just not good for innovation.

Innovative teams have a different dynamic.

  • They will start as a whole team to discuss the areas of possible innovation.
  • All the perspectives are shared, at least in an outline form.
  • The team then breaks up into smaller teams.  These can be as small as two individuals but should never be larger than three.
  • Deep Work is required.  Deep Work requires spending distraction-free time on the topic, pushing your cognitive capabilities to the limit.
  • Return to the full team with this new Deep Work perspective to hear what we’re learning and then discuss directions we could possibly head.
  • Rinse and Repeat.  Continue this large team, small team (maybe different small teams with each iteration) dynamics until the team begins to zero in on an innovative approach.
Team Decisions

Remember that the word “decide” means that you narrow your options down to a small number of choices (preferably two) and then you put one of those options to death.  You kill it.  You eliminate it.  You stop spending resources on it.  The commitment to the team direction should be powerful enough to put all of your resources towards the chosen innovative approach.

A Culture of Innovation

Moving the culture of an organization towards innovation usually centers around one word.

Decide!

As we’ve talked about the word “decide” lately, I hope it has become clear that the word decide means that you put one option to death in order to put your resources toward a different option.

Leaders and leadership teams will often decide on a direction but neglect to let the organization below them know that they’ve decided not to spend resources on other options.

Organizations are full of people who love the security of their job.  They’ve spent years learning the job, getting better at the job, and feeling secure that they can go to work every day and do the job.  They’re “secure.”

But, if you are now saying to them, “We’re heading in a different direction and we don’t know yet where it will all lead.”  They can often feel scared or at least insecure.  They may or may not mention this insecurity but they will wonder

  • Do I have the skill set to do the new job?
  • Will my job, group, division be eliminated?
  • Will I be asked to relocate to a different department or location?
  • Am  I back to ground zero in terms of my skills and worth to the company?

Without any clarity on these and other topics, people will tend to come to work every day and continue to do what they’ve always done.  They’ll seek security in doing the known rather than be lost in the unknown!

Open, Transparent, Humble

In times like these (which means now, in our current environment) it’s important that leadership is open with the organization.  Let them know everything that you know.

Be Transparent.  If people feel like they’re not getting the whole story, they’ll either go back to what they’ve always done or abandon ship.  Your best people, the ones you need the most will abandon the ship first.

Be humble.  Don’t give them the impression that you have all the answers when you don’t.  Let them know that you and the team are doing their best with uncertain circumstances.  Taking this approach will also bring forth more innovative ideas that you wouldn’t otherwise hear.

 

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BlogCultureCulture Series

Culture – Consistency: Agreement

by Ron Potter December 19, 2019

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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BlogCultureCulture Series

Culture – Involvement: Empowerment

by Ron Potter October 24, 2019

Organizations with highly empowered employees have a couple of things in common:

Processes Pushed Downward

The first common point is that processes are pushed down the hierarchy to the lowest possible level.  When I say processes, the survey measures explicitly Information, planning, and decisions.

This point starts with the genuine belief that the information needed for good planning and decision making resides with the people closest to the action.  I used the words “genuine belief” because I’ve seen too many leaders and leadership teams proclaim that the needed information resides and is better understood at levels below them but their ego and position keep them from letting go of their own beliefs and assumptions.  They also believe they are the leaders of the organization because they are smarter and know better what to do then those who have not yet reached their level in the company.  If you’re a member of a high-level team, be very, very careful that you don’t let that ego prevent you from hearing and understanding the information from the people who are closer to the action.

During my blog series on being a Leader, I talked about the Sweet Rewards of Humility.  You can follow the link below if you have more interest.

My point is, you must be a humble leader in order to empower your people and organization.

Positive Impact and Involved

The second thing that organizations with highly empowered people have in common: Employees believe they can have a positive impact and are therefore highly involved in their individual work and the work of their team.  They are good at integrating their work with that of their team.

Integrating Work with Others

The key to positive impact and involvement? Integrating with others.  It takes good teamwork.  We’ll look at the elements of a Team Orientation in a future blog.  But for now, let’s remind ourselves of the aspects of building a good team:

  • Truth: Being able to speak the reality of a situation.  This ability must reside both in peer-to-peer relationships as well as a top-down, bottom-up relationship.
  • Respect:  We must respect the opinions and observations of everyone.  When people feel respected, they are willing to share and integrate their work with others.
  • Elegance: Good integration of work means reducing the friction caused naturally between different parts of an organization.
  • Commitment:  Integration means that sometimes, other parts of the organization must benefit.  It is possible to improve each part of the organization but not to maximize each part of the organization.  A good team requires a commitment to the best for the overall company, not just a particular part of the organization.
Empowerment is required for good involvement.
Good involvement is a requirement of a great culture.

 

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BlogLeadershipTeam

Team and Leadership: Summary

by Ron Potter July 15, 2019

Over the last several weeks we have been reviewing and expanding on the elements of a great team in our Thursday blog.  At the same time, our Monday blog has been exploring more detail on the elements of great leadership.  These are the first two legs of our Team Leadership Culture (TLC) model.

In general I believe it’s important to build a great team before working on leadership skills but in reality, it’s difficult to accomplish one without the other.  In many cases, they are tightly coupled and interdependent.

Today let’s review the elements of team and leadership and see how they fit together.

Elements of Team

Truth – Respect – Elegance – Commitment

Elements of Leadership

Humility – Development – Commitment – Focus
Compassion – Integrity – Peacemaking – Endurance

Interdependence

Let’s start with the elements of Team and look at the interdependence, overlap, and alignment with the Leadership elements.

Truth => Humility – Integrity – Peacemaking

To build a great team, members must be truthful with each other.  Truthfulness requires Humility, Integrity, and Peacemaking from the Leadership Skill List.

Humility

Humility has been misunderstood and misused in recent years.  Often people think of “turning the other cheek” or even being a “doormat” in order to be humble.  The original meaning of the word meant great power under complete control.  Humility doesn’t mean you’re powerless.  In fact quite the opposite.  It means that you have tremendous power.  Enough power to crush your opposition.  But when you’re humble, you choose not to use that power in a destructive way but to use the power for intense learning and curiosity.  Humble people may be the most powerful people in the room but are focused on individual and team learning through curiosity.  Humble people assume the other person may know something they don’t or have a very different perspective that’s worth learning.

Integrity

Integer also comes from the same root as integer.  It means whole, complete, sound and even incorruptible.  A person of high integrity is the same, complete, whole person no matter where they are or who they are with.  You can always trust they are and will be the same and say the same thing no matter what.  This is essential for the Truth required on teams as well as Commitment.  If you can’t trust that someone is genuine and has integrity, it’s difficult to get at the truth or sustain commitment.

Peacemaking

Peacemaking is also a word that we’ll see associated with Truth and Commitment.  Peacemaking is not the absence of conflict and different opinions.  Peacemaking understands that differences of opinion is natural for human-beings but has figured out a way to work through the differences and conflicts in a healthy productive way.

Respect => Humility, Development, Compassion and Integrity

Building and maintain respect with a team requires a leadership style built on humility, development, compassion, and integrity.

It’s important to note here that when I use the word leadership, I don’t mean the identified leader of the team.  I have observed people of all ranks and positions being leaders.  True leadership comes from your actions, not your position.

Humility and Integrity

We talked about humility and integrity in the Truth section above.  The same issues apply to Respect.

Development

From my book “Trust Me” development is described as “Leaders who accept the truth and train others to seize the benefits of adversity, loss, and change.  Growing people and giving them opportunities is one of the best ways to show respect.

Compassion

There have been a few clients through the years that didn’t believe compassion had anything to do with business.  In their minds, business was logical and should be dispassionate.

I’ve often used an old adage to counter that thinking:  “I don’t care how much you know until I know how much you care!”

When people feel like you care for them as a human being first, they feel trusted and respected.

Elegance => Commitment, Focus, Peacemaking

Commitment and Focus

I’ve combined these two but they do go together in many ways.  It requires a firm and aligned grip on the goal and purpose of the team to accomplish the required tasks in the simplest way with the least amount of friction.  Make the goals and purpose clear and then make sure everyone is committed.  This will eliminate much of the territorial behavior that happens with teams.

Focus is under attack more than any point in history.  All of our modern devices are determined to capture our focus thereby scattering our attention.  Our own egos also drive us to accomplish more things and be in more places than necessary or even possible.  Staying focused on the goal and purpose is the only way to keep things Elegant.

Peacemaking

Peacemaking was discussed above.  In making sure that things are accomplished in the simplest way possible, it will take a great deal of peacemaking to settle territorial disputes.

Commitment => Commitment, Peacemaking, Endurance

Commitment and Peacemaking

These two were also discussed above.  In terms of Team Commitment, it will take a strong commitment to the goal and purpose of the team.  It will also take a great Peacemaking/Decision-Making process.  Our earlier blog on Team Commitment talks about the process that provides a win-win environment which is essential to reach full commitment.

Endurance

I used the TREC (Truth, Respect, Elegance, Commitment) acronym because it looks and sounds like the word TREK.  A TREK is described as a long arduous journey.  Especially one involving difficulties and complex organization.  Building a great team is a long arduous journey.  It takes great leadership to deal with the difficulties and complex organizations.

Team and Leadership

That’s the summary of the first two elements of TLC, Team Leadership Culture.

  1. Build a great team
  2. Development great leadership skills
  3. Create the culture to achieve the goals and purpose

The Rest of the Year Adventure

Over the next several months we will be talking about Culture, the third leg of TLC.  We’ll be doing this in our Thursday morning blog posts.  Our Monday blogs have been dedicated to the Leadership aspect of TLC.  For the rest of this year, we’ll be using Monday’s to blog about things that provoke some thought.  These usually come from my daily experiences in life, what I observe in the world, an article or book that makes a point that I think should be shared.  They won’t happen like clockwork every Monday morning but simply when something strikes me as worthwhile.  Stay tuned.

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BlogTeamTeam Series

Team Elements: Summary

by Ron Potter July 4, 2019

We’ve just finished our series on building great teams.  Years ago I named my consulting company Team Leadership Culture, TLC for short.  Over 30 years of consulting work plus another 20 years in the engineering/construction industry and software development I experienced this combination to be the winning formula for great success.

Team

Build a great team first.  While great leaders certainly increase the opportunity for success, if they don’t work together as a team, the final result is always a failure.  Build the dynamics of a great team first.

Leadership

If you’ve built a great team, increasing leadership skills will greatly enhance your opportunity for success.  If your goal is to do something really great or overcome great difficulties, add powerful leadership skills to great team dynamics.  Next week we’re going to look at these two elements in combination and you’ll also see great overlap that makes it difficult to accomplish one without the other.

Culture

There is plenty of research that companies and teams with great cultures rock!  Starting in a couple of weeks we’re going to look at the elements of great culture.  But, it’s important to note that it’s impossible to build a great culture without great teams and great leadership.

Great Teams

So let’s recap the elements of great teams.  I use Aristotle’s “Pursuit of Happiness” as the model of great teams.  Aristotle describes four levels of happiness.  Level 4 is the highest of the four pursuits and the one that Aristotle says all humanity seeks.  He describes it with five words: Truth, Love, Purpose, Beauty, and Unity.  I have not concentrated on Purpose because I believe business teams usually know their purpose.  However, if the purpose of the team is in question, that must be corrected first or all else fails.

I’ve also translated the four remaining words into terms that are better understood in a business environment and also make them easier to remember.

Truth (Trust)

Great teams know how to speak the truth with each other and also view their environment in a very truthful way.  We have numerous stories of corporate failures when the leader or the team just doesn’t believe the external environment is going to change enough to affect them.

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”  Tom Watson Sr., IBM, 1943.

“Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.”  Henry Ford

On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors: John Z. DeLorean’s Look Inside the Automotive Giant

Speak the truth about your industry and customers.
Speak the truth with each other.  Great teams are built on great people who have entirely different perspectives.  Figure out how to share those different perspectives with each other and speak the truth.

Respect (Love)

This combination of Trust and Respect has been observed and chronicled throughout history.  Modern research reveals that psychological safety is essential for great team performance.  Psychological Safety is bringing Truth and Respect to the team.

Elegance (Beauty)

Elegance or beauty is all about simplicity and clarity.  Most leaders and teams think of organization structure when they think of elegance.  Do they have the best structure that invokes simplicity and clarity to get the job done?

Many of the leaders I’ve worked with through the years have asked me which organizational structure is the best.  They are never really satisfied with my answer because I tell them it doesn’t make any difference.  Organizational structures are simply lines on a chart to help direct large numbers of people to accomplish great things.  But all organizational structures are artificial.  They’re just a means to organize work and people.  Every company I’ve ever worked for is in the process of shifting from one org. structure to another.  No structure is perfect and no structure last forever.

Work on simplicity and clarity regardless of the structure.

Commitment (Unity)

Getting to unity is the ultimate goal of any team.  Commitment is the outward expression of team unity.  I’ve selected the word commitment because of this outward expression and because it brings all the elements together as TREC.  Hopefully thinking of TREC reminds you of the real word TREK which is defined as a long arduous journey.  Using TREC to build a team is a long arduous journey but it’s well worth the effort.

Always the Engineer

I graduated from the University of Michigan with an engineering degree.  I guess I still think like an engineer regardless of the task: Great structures, great software, great teams.  So here is my engineering formula for building great teams with TREC:

[ (T x R) + E ] x C = Effective Teams

Truth times Respect, plus Elegance, all times Commitment equals Effective Teams.

Let’s take a snap quiz.  Pick a team you’re a member of and score each element of TREC on a zero to five basis.   What’s the maximum score for the equation?  [ (5 x 5) + 5] x 5 = 150

Least Impactful Element

Which element has the least impact on the overall score?  Elegance!  Let’s say you score a 5 on all elements except Elegance which is a zero.  Your total score would be 130.  Increasing  Elegance from zero to five increases the overall score from 125 to 150.  And yet, when things aren’t going well, one of the first things I see leaders do is change the org. structure.

Most Impactful Element

Which element has the most impact?  Commitment!  You can score the maximum on Truth, Respect, and Elegance but if your Commitment score is zero, your overall score is ZERO!  Just increasing it from zero to three improves your effectiveness score from zero to 90!  Build Commitment!

Team Effectiveness

It’s hard to improve any one element at a time.  There is no way you will build commitment without truth and respect.  Respect will never be realized without speaking the truth and committing to the team.  Building teams is a TREC, a long arduous journey.  But when I talk with those of us who have grown gray over many years, our best memories are the great teams we worked with and what we accomplished together.

Take the journey.  It’s worth it!

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