What Really Matters Vol 1 No 2 2009

Organisations That Matter

What Really Matters!
Volume 1, Number 2, 2009

Gary Ryan & Dr Andrew O’Brien

What Really Matters! Volume 1, Number 2, 2009 – is a compilation of selected articles from
The Organisations That Matter Learning Network from July 1st through to September 30th
2009
By Gary Ryan and Dr Andrew O’Brien
Published by Organisations That Matter Pty Ltd

Level 8, 350 Collins Street

Melbourne, Victoria 3166

AUSTRALIA

Phone +61 3 8676 0637

E-mail: gary@orgsthatmatter.com

Copyright © 2009 Gary Ryan & Dr Andrew O’Brien, Organisations That Matter®

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September 30th 2009 from The Organisations That Matter Learning
Network. Number 3 will be released early in January 2010.

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articles from The Organisations That Matter Learning Network.

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Gary Ryan and Dr Andrew O’Brien

Table of Contents

Shared vision is not a one off event but an ongoing conversation By Andrew O’Brien ......................... 5
How to create a culture based on respect ‐ focussing upon organisational community spaces By Gary
Ryan ........................................................................................................................................................ 7
The mental models behind disrespectful behaviour .......................................................................... 8
Building 'weight of numbers' toward a new culture ........................................................................ 10
.
The Seven Skills of Dialogue By Gary Ryan ........................................................................................... 12
The Conversation Continuum ........................................................................................................... 12
Leadership for kids provides lessons for adults                     By Gary Ryan ............................................ 19
1) Everyone is a leader ...................................................................................................................... 20
2) The Figure 8 of Leadership ........................................................................................................... 20
.
The Figure 8 of Leadership ............................................................................................................ 21
3) Being responsible for your choices ............................................................................................... 22
How to identify your personal values By Gary Ryan ............................................................................. 24
How to stimulate ‘Conversations That Matter’                         By Gary Ryan ........................................ 29
Why ‘Great Service’ means that your staff come first, not your customers! By Gary Ryan ................. 31
Defining ‘Systems Thinking’ – a core leadership skill           By Gary Ryan ............................................ 34
Discover how ‘Structure Drives Behaviour’                               By Gary Ryan ......................................... 39
Student example ............................................................................................................................... 39
Employee example ............................................................................................................................ 41
Elite sport example ........................................................................................................................... 43
Learn to accept your brutal reality, but never lose the faith By Gary Ryan ......................................... 46
Brutal Reality/Faith Model ................................................................................................................ 48
How little ideas can make a big difference when times are tough By Gary Ryan ................................ 50
How doing nothing can be an example of leadership .......................................................................... 53
By Gary Ryan ......................................................................................................................................... 53
How to release mental models that choke ‘Truth to Power’ By Gary Ryan ......................................... 56
What leaders can do to maintain focus on organisational objectives By Gary Ryan ........................... 60
Step 1. ............................................................................................................................................... 60
Step 2. ............................................................................................................................................... 61
Step 3. ............................................................................................................................................... 61
Step 4. ............................................................................................................................................... 62
Step 5. ............................................................................................................................................... 62

How to leverage employability skills for success By Gary Ryan ............................... 64
About Organisations That Matter ......................................................................................................... 69
About Gary Ryan ................................................................................................................................... 70
About Dr Andrew O’Brien ..................................................................................................................... 71
More in this series! ............................................................................................................................... 73
Feedback ........................................................................................................................................... 73
Join us! .............................................................................................................................................. 73
Share! ................................................................................................................................................ 73
Thank You! ........................................................................................................................................ 73

What Really Matters 2009 Vol.1, No.2

Shared vision is not a one off event but an ongoing
conversation By Andrew O’Brien

Far too often I hear executive leaders say “We did shared vision last
year and we will do it again in 4 years time as part of our 5 year
planning cycle”. Managers with this attitude are keen to be seen to
putting a big tick in their management check list and making sure they
are seen to do the right thing and can’t be accused of not knowing
what they are doing.

Taking vision as a one off event is a common approach to vision by
including it in the regular planning cycle regardless of whether the
cycle occurs 10 years, 5 years or annually. This approach is often
linked to the one line statement or a change in CEO yet it fails to
recognise that shared vision compromises much more than just a line
on a page and that purpose, values, strategy, mental models and
current reality as well as a rich picture of the desired future all require
constant attention.

The world can move quickly so constant attention to current reality
and strategy are required. Purpose and values guide our day-to-day
behaviour and decision making which means we need to be continually
aware of and working on them. In the hustle and bustle of day-to –day
work our thinking is influenced and it is easy to drift and develop
misunderstandings.

Shared vision requires constant attention and provides the content for
constant workplace conversations. Basketball Coach John Woden
provided an insight into the need to keep working on vision when he
said “If you go as far as you can see, you will then see enough to go

5 ©Copyright Organisations That Matter® 2009 www.orgsthatmatter.com


even farther” which recognises that as we learn, grow and move
ahead we realise how much further we can go.

In addition to building on our success and recognising changing
circumstances another reason for shared vision being an ongoing
conversation is the turnover in organisations. New people joining the
organization and others leaving so this state of flux requires ongoing
learning and understanding of the shared vision and to be effective the
behaviour and strategy aspects of shared vision must be observable in
action all the time. When they are not observable it is evidence that
you have not achieved shared vision.

Shared vision was recognised as an ongoing conversation by one
senior executive who said, “The development of shared vision within
our company has taken many years and continues to evolve. We
involve many people at all levels within the organisation. It really is a
journey not a fixed destination.”



How to create a culture based on respect focussing upon
organisational community spaces By Gary Ryan

Organisational 'community spaces' such as staff lounge areas, learning
& development rooms, bathrooms, shower facilities (if they exist) and
staff dining/kitchen areas are important areas for staff to relax, mingle
and learn. The way that staff look after these spaces reveals a lot
about an organisation's culture.

When these spaces are left messy they reflect a lack of care and
respect for other staff members. Some people argue that the
"...cleaners are employed to keep the space clean, so we'd be taking
away their jobs if we did it ourselves." Such arguments seem to forget
that most cleaners don't arrive until the evening and I've never
experienced an organisation yet where there wasn't enough work for
the cleaners to do, even if a positive culture of keeping community
spaces tidy already exists.

Behaviours such as dirty dishes left on tables in the staff
dining/kitchen areas reflects a lack of respect for the next person who
might like to sit at your table. Used towels left on the floor of a staff
shower facility reflects the same lack of respect. Who wants to pick up
someone else's dirty towel? Rubbish left in Training & Development
rooms reflects disrespect for the next people using that room. The
people who do these behaviours may not even be aware that what
they are doing is disrespectful, which highlights the power of deep
seeded mental models at work (if you are sure what Mental Models
are, then please see the article What you think affects what you see.)



The mental models behind disrespectful behaviour

The mental models that may underpin these behaviours are quite
interesting and may reflect combinations of the following deep seeded
views:

1) It is not my job to clean up

2) Cleaning is a low level job that is below my status

3) If an area is messy when I find it, why should I clean up after other
people?

4) People were placed on this earth to serve me - I am the centre of
the universe!

5) It is someone else's problem if this area is a mess when I leave
6) If someone else doesn't like the way this area is when they get
here, then they'll do something about it

7) I'm too busy for this stuff

What I have found very interesting over time is how people who seem
to hold the above mental models, are also the very same people who
become quite indignant when they enter an area and it is not up to the
standard that they expect it should be when they want to use it. In
many ways they hold a very hypocritical view of the world.

Simple behaviours that demonstrate respect for community spaces

Below is a list of 6 simple examples that demonstrate care and respect
for other staff members. I'll follow these examples with a way to build
weight of numbers toward a more respectful culture.



1) When leaving a Training & Development Room, return the room to
its standard condition and set-up, even if that wasn't how you found
the room.

2) Always clean up the space that you use in the staff dining area and
place rubbish in the bin and dirty dishes in the appropriate washing
space if one is provided, and if one isn't provided either take your dirty
dishes home to wash or wash them in the staff kitchen.

3) Leave a staff shower area clean, ready for the next person to use it.

4) Place the paper towels used for drying hands in a staff bathroom in
the bin.

5) Remove litter and cutlery from a staff lounge area as you leave it.

6) Remove out of date posters and information from bulletin boards in
public spaces when you notice them.

Some people do not realise that the internal spaces of the organisation
send a strong message to 'outsiders' about what the organisation is
really like. If your organisation seeks to be respected by the outside
world, then the people within the organisation have to show respect
toward each other and this respect is often demonstrated through how
community spaces are respected.



Many members of this online learning site are full-time or part-time
students. The same principles apply. If you respect others within your
educational institution, then you will respect the community spaces
that you use, always considering the people who will use that space
after you.

Building 'weight of numbers' toward a new culture
The following three steps can be highly powerful with regard to shifting
a culture:

Step 1: Model the behaviour that you desire

'Walk your beliefs' by ensuring that you show respect to others when
you use community spaces. Initially this may involve cleaning up after
other people when you first enter a space, or it might include cleaning
up after them after they leave.

Step 2: Be prepared to explain what you are doing when you are
asked, "Why are you doing that?"

When someone asks you why you are doing what you are doing, they
are effectively opening the door to their learning. Over time I have
found the practice of waiting for people to open their door to their
learning to be far more powerful than 'standing on a chair and
preaching to them'. In this context you must be prepared to be both
patient (a servant leadership attribute) and to be able to explain why
you are helping to keep the community space clean. This is the path to
building 'weight of numbers'. As people develop an understanding of
what you are doing, more and more of them will start to demonstrate



the behaviour and just like an exponential curve rises sharply, a
culture can quickly change when it has weight of numbers supporting
the change. If there are a number of staff that you know who might
already be sympathetic toward changing the culture, engage their
support in practicing the steps outlined in this blog. It really is
amazing how powerful weight of numbers can be.

Step 3: Once the culture is established, include it as part of your
Induction Program for new staff and explain how the behaviours
associated with the desired culture support a deep respect for the
people within the organisation.

If you work in an organisation where your community spaces show
disrespect toward other staff you may be surprised to discover that
other people feel as frustrated by that behaviour as you do. Through
consciously demonstrating the appropriate behaviours you may be
delighted by how quickly weight of numbers can form and a new
culture can form. The impact of improving a culture in this manner
cannot be underestimated. In fact, I strongly argue that there is a
positive flow on effect to performance. Why? People become the best
they can be when they operate within a culture of respect. Who
wouldn't want that outcome?

Please feel free to make a comment on this article by clicking here.



The Seven Skills of Dialogue By Gary Ryan

Dialogue is a much used term. It seems that it is often used as a
synonym for conversation. While this is in part accurate, dialogue is in
fact a form of conversation that is distinct from other forms of
conversation. The ‘Conversation Continuum’ positions dialogue at the
opposite end of the continuum to debate.

The Conversation Continuum

Conversation continuum

Dialogue
Skilful discussion
Polite discussion
Raw debate
More Conventional More attuned to the sources
of group thought and bringing
them to the surface

1 www.orgsthatmatter.com © Organisations That Matter® 2007 - 2009

It is important to note that debate, polite discussion, skilful discussion
and dialogue are all legitimate forms of conversation. Our perspective
is that most people are highly skilled at both debate and polite
discussion and poorly skilled at skilful discussion and dialogue.
Debating is when each person in a conversation has a view that is un-



moving and they seek to sell their view or 'to beat down' opposing
views until their view 'wins'. People often use their positional power to
win debates which is one of the reasons why many people become
very skilled at debating.

Polite discussion is when people have the appearance of agreeing with
a particular view, but do not actually support the view. For a range of
personal, cultural and organisational reasons people choose not to be
honest. Instead, they nod their heads in agreeance or acceptance but
then let others know when they are in the office kitchen that they
really hold a different view. Our perspective is that polite discussion is
a damaging form of conversation and should be minimised as much as
possible. At least in a debate people's positions are clear. With polite
discussion, no-one other than the person themself knows their true
position.

Skilful discussion is what most of us achieve when we are trying to use
the skills associated with dialogue. It is a highly productive form of
conversation and is the result of the generally low dialogue skills that
most of us possess. Like most skills, if we haven't practiced them very
much throughout our lives we tend to be fairly poor at executing them
when we first begin to use those skills. However, many of the benefits
of dialogue such as learning, deeper insights, innovation, shared
understanding and a deeper understanding of vision, purpose and
values can be achieved through skilful discussion. In other words it is
a highly desirable form of communication which demonstrates the
value in practicing these skills even when we may be poor at them.



Dialogue is a form of conversation where people genuinely try to
access different perspectives to enable a new understanding to
emerge. Unlike debate, dialogue seeks to discover a new meaning that
was not previously held by any of the participants in the dialogue.
While difficult to achieve, the seven skills of dialogue can be practised
at any time. Through practice, dialogue skills can significantly enhance
skilful discussion and dialogue itself when the opportunity arises.

The seven skills of dialogue are deep listening, respecting others,
inquiry, voicing openly, balancing advocacy and inquiry, suspending
assumptions & judgements and reflecting. Each of these skills is
explained below.

1. Deep listening

In its most simple form deep listening derives from the conscious
choice to listen. It involves quietening the voice in our heads so that
we can hear the true story of the person to whom we are listening. As
we listen to understand their whole story we literally stay quiet and
just listen. In exercises that we conduct on listening, people often
report that they are amazed at how much they can hear when they
know that all they have to do is listen. Instead of readying themself
for their turn to speak, the listener focuses on understanding the
speaker. Deep listening can occur anywhere, anytime. It could be with
a team member while walking down a corridor. It might be with a
customer in a busy department store or on the telephone. It might
even be with our own partners! Imagine the difference that enhanced
listening could make in that domain! The common element in all



listening examples is the genuine choice to listen. It is both powerful
and important if deep listening is to occur.

2. Respecting others

Voltaire, a French author, humanist, rationalist and satirist is reported
to have said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the
death your right to say it." This perspective lies at the heart of
respecting others. Clearly this is particularly difficult to do when we
interact with people who have contrasting views to our own. Practicing
this dialogue skill therefore becomes imperative if we are to develop
the true capacity to dialogue. While respecting others does not mean
that you have to agree with them, it does mean that you will allow
them the time and space to have their say and you will see it as a
perspective that while you may not understand it, it is a perspective
that is valid in the context that it contributes, even if only in a small
way, to our understanding of the 'complete' picture of whatever is our
area of focus at the time.

3. Inquiry

This is the capacity to ask genuine questions. As such it encourages
the use of open questions that enhance our understanding of different
perspectives, or assist in the deeply held mental models that lie
behind many perspectives to come to the surface. The blog The Art of
Skilful Questions provides a range of insights and suggestion to assist
with developing improved questioning skills.



4. Voicing openly (advocacy)

Many of us are quite talented in this skill, at least in part. Voicing
openly is the capacity to say what you think and to be able to explain
why you think what you think. Unfortunately many people struggle to
share their view. All views, if they exist, are important for the
development of a true understanding of a situation. If those views are
not shared, then a part of the picture is missing which is why voicing is
so important in the context of dialogue.

5. Suspending assumptions & judgements

The capacity to explain why we hold the views that we hold lies at the
heart of suspending assumptions & judgements. Much like we hang
our clothes on a line for them to dry, suspending means that we 'hang
out' our reasons for our views. This allows people to look at them,
question them and assist us in developing a deeper understanding of
our perspectives. To suspend your assumptions & judgements
illustrates a willingness to be vulnerable which is a key attribute of
servant leaders (see the articles Dee Hock - an example of a Servant
Leader and The Paradoxes of Servant Leadership if you are not aware
of servant leadership). Should we discover that our views are not
useful through the act of having suspended them before others, we
have the opportunity to adopt new ones. This experience is often
described as true learning.

6. Balancing voicing (advocacy) and inquiry

This is as simple and complex as balancing sharing our view and why
we have it with asking genuine questions to better understand another



person's view, or to allow the group to talk about issues that will
enhance the whole group's collective understanding of a topic. To
practice this skill involves utilising all the skills listed above; deep
listening, respecting others, inquiry, voicing openly and suspending
assumptions & judgements. Even if the other people with whom you
are conversing are not trying to dialogue, practicing this skill
significantly enhances the quality of your contribution to the
conversation. People will notice your enhanced communication skills
because the quality of the conversations within which you participate
will be enhanced by your contributions to them.

7. Reflecting

Our fast paced world offers little time to reflect. However the capacity
to reflect is a big rock (see the article The Rocks and the Jar) and
enhances our communication skills and capacity to dialogue through
considering how we have just practiced our skills. In team
environments it is worth holding a reflection at the end of an
attempted dialogue to recognise where the skills of dialogue were used
effectively and where they could be improved. The article Conducting
an End of Meeting Reflection provides some pointers for such a
conversation.

Summary
People often recognise that practicing dialogue is not easy. It isn't. But
the various skills of dialogue can be practised at any time in any form
of communication, and providing they are used for the purpose of
genuinely enhancing communication, practicing these skills will



provide immense benefits for all involved and result in improved
team/group performance.




Leadership for kids provides lessons for adults
By Gary Ryan

Over the years I have had the good fortune to have been asked to
provide some leadership development sessions for children. I usually
work with adults and many of those adults are highly educated so we
often go into quite complex areas when we facilitate leadership
programs. Working with children therefore poses a considerable
challenge. How do we distil quite complex information into an easily
understood format for children?

The answer lies in having the capacity to understand leadership in
such a way that it can be focussed into some simple concepts.
Through some trial and error I have discovered some concepts that
seem to work, with interesting feedback from the adults who have
witnessed the programs.

Three key concepts have emerged as being the ones that children
seem to be able to embrace:

1) Everyone is a leader

2) The Figure 8 of Leadership

3) Being responsible for your choices



1) Everyone is a leader
Over time I have found some interesting trends when working with
children. When I have asked them to raise their hands if they believe
that they are a leader or could be one in the future, virtually all the
children raise their hand. When I then ask them, "Who are leaders?"
they unanimously respond, "We are!".

What response do you think that I usually hear from adults?

Very few adults raise their hand to indicate that they think that they
are a leader.

For children, the concept that everyone is a leader and they have to
lead themselves seems relatively natural, yet for adults it seems (for
many) quite foreign. When we facilitate leadership education for adults
one of our key themes is that you can't lead others if you can't lead
yourself. My experience has taught me that children understand this
idea, so we adults have a responsibility to continue to help them
understand this concept by re-enforcing that they are, in fact leaders.
To do this, find them making positive choices and recognise them for
it. The importance of choices is explained in the second lesson below.

2) The Figure 8 of Leadership
The attached file Leadership for Kids includes a diagram outlining the
Figure 8 of Leadership.



The Figure 8 of Leadership

Leadership for Kids

Good
Positive Actions Positive Choices
Leadership

Choices

Poor
Negative Actions Negative Choices
Leadership


While my experience with adults is that it takes them a while to
comprehend that leadership can be for bad reasons (equalling poor
leadership) just as it can be for good reasons (equalling good
leadership), children seem to understand this concept quite easily.
This raises the important issue of self leadership, which feeds off the
first concept above, that we are all leaders.

In simple terms self-leadership starts with choices. Some choices are
good choices and lead to good behaviour, while other choices are poor
choices and lead to poor behaviour. The good choices represent good
leadership, and the poor choices represent poor leadership. On many
levels this is quite simple. And it is! Children seem to understand it
and can easily provide many examples of good choices and poor
choices which result in good leadership or poor leadership.



The simple power of the model lies in the fact that children have the
capacity to start making good choices even if they have made some
poor ones. In other words, the start of good leadership is only a choice
away. Clearly the reverse is also true; poor leadership is only a choice
away as well. I recall a child in one session raising his hand and
saying,

"I've been making lots of bad choices at school such as not listening to
teachers and picking on other kids. I thought that I was a bad person
and I didn't realise that I was a leader. But what you're saying is that I
only have to start making good choices and I can be a good leader. I
like that idea. I can do that."

None of us are perfect. We will all make poor choices. Overall
leadership is dependent upon the balance of our choices. Are they
generally on the good half of the model, or the poor half? Over time
we can consciously develop positive habits to enhance our good
leadership through making good choices. Maybe this leadership stuff
isn't so hard after all, which leads to the third and final concept.

3) Being responsible for your choices
Rather than blaming other people or circumstances for our choices,
personal responsibility for our choices increases the probability that we
will make good choices. Once again children seem to easily understand
such a statement. Maybe they see the consequences of their choices
more clearly than we adults do because they have so many adults
around them monitoring their behaviour. Yet when we become adults
often we stop getting that sort of feedback because of many
complicated reasons. What if we adults were to actively seek out



feedback on the choices that we are making and our resultant
behaviours? Maybe such feedback would assist us in better leading
ourselves. And we never know, the better we lead ourselves the more
likely others may be to follow.

In summary, the key features of Leadership for Kids that may provide
some lessons for adults include:

1) We are all leaders;

2) Our choices lie at the heart of effective leadership; and
3) Personal responsibility for our choices will enhance our capacity to
lead ourselves and others.




How to identify your personal values By Gary Ryan

Michelle Hunt, author of Dream Makers (www.dreammakers.org)
describes values as the rudder that we use to navigate our way
through the turbulent waters of life. Without our values we have no
rudder and simply go wherever the current takes us.

Usually our values become evident when something happens that truly
upsets us. Our values are often the opposite to the things that deeply
upset us. For example, if someone is telling me lies and I have
discovered that I have been told lies, I have a physical reaction to that
behaviour. My values of honesty and integrity have been challenged
by the person lying to me which results in a strong reaction from me.
Similarly, I have a strong work ethic and I struggle with people who
seem lazy and then complain that nobody is helping them. In this
example, my service value is being challenged.

Jerry Porras in his book Success Built to Last suggests that it doesn't
really matter what your values are (unless they would cause deliberate
harm to others), what really matters is that you are aware of what
they are for you. This is critically important because without a deep
understanding of your values you are at risk of behaving in ways that
are not congruent with them.

If you are not sure what your values are, try the following activity. You
will require a pen and four small pieces of paper.



1) Write what you think might be a core value of yours on each of the
four pieces of paper. You can write single words or phrases - whatever
works for you. What matters is that you understand what your values
mean. It doesn't matter if no-one else understands what you write.

2) Life is challenging and sometimes we have to prioritise our values.
Out of the four values that you have written down, which one would
you set aside first. Please scrunch up the piece of paper with that
value on it and throw it on the floor.

3) Life is even more challenging. Out of the three values that you are
yet to set aside, which value would you set aside next? Once again,
scrunch up the paper and drop it on the floor.



De-Brief
How did you feel when you had to select the first value to set aside?
The second one? Your reactions will tell you something about whether
or not what you wrote is more like a core value or not. A strong
reaction to the activity more than likely indicates that what you wrote
is more like a core value than not.

Now, let's go a step further. If you have discovered some core values,
do you ever behave in ways that is far worse than scrunching up a
piece of paper and throwing it on the floor? Maybe you had honesty
and integrity as a value, yet you regularly talk and gossip behind
people's backs, then pretend to be nice to them when they are around
you.

Once we identify our core values we can use them in our day to day
decision making. They help us to do the right thing at the right time.
Sometimes our actions, when driven by our values are not popular.
That is OK. There are times in our lives when we must take a stand no
matter how futile the odds may seem to be. For example, someone
may be getting bullied at work and we see it occur. What would our
values guide us to do?

I recall as a young manager a service repair man who I had engaged
to do a job for me provided me with a bill that seemed higher than it
should have been. This contractor had done work for me before and I
trusted him so I didn't follow up on my suspicions and paid the bill
(which was against our protocols!). A week after the 'job' was
completed he returned to my office for what I thought was a friendly



visit. He handed me an envelope with several hundred dollars in it. He
openly told me that he had over-charged my organisation for the work
that he had performed and the money in the envelope was my share
of the over-payment. If I agreed to continue to contract him and to
approve his work at inflated rates, he would continue to give me
envelopes filled with money.

While not enraged by his behaviour I was not far from that type of
reaction. I literally threw the envelope back at him and immediately
told him that I was reporting him to my boss and that he would never
work for our organisation again. He too reacted strongly and
threatened my physical well-being at which time I picked up the phone
to dial our security personnel. He quickly left our premises, never to
return.

I had not gone to work that day expecting such an event to unfold. I
had nothing but my values to guide me with regard to how I reacted in
the moment when he handed me the money. To this day I am glad
that I had the courage to follow my values. At the time I was on a
very low wage and three hundred dollars was a lot of money. But
there simply wasn't a chance that I would accept it. In telling the story
to my boss I also had to admit that I had not followed proper protocols
when I had suspected the bill had been inflated in the first place. I was
reminded of the reason why our protocols existed and promised to
strictly follow them in the future, which I did.

Imagine if I was not clear about my values and I had accepted the



money. Imagine the ripple effect over time. I suspect that I wouldn't
be writing this blog on this topic, that is for sure!

In another example I recently witnessed some peers provide some
feedback to their colleague. While highly skilled, this person was told
that she put her own success ahead of the team's success. While
difficult to hear, she thanked her peers for their honesty. She realised
that what her peers had told her was true and she needed to improve
in some areas, while maintaining her outstanding performance based
on her technical skills. Her personal value of honesty allowed her to
hear the feedback, accept it and then do something about it. Recently
her peers have recognised her team first behaviours and her respect
amongst her peers has sky-rocketed.

Values do conflict. They conflict on a personal level and they can
conflict on an organisational level. I will write another blog about how
you manage such situations. The most important issue, however, is to
identify your values and to try to live them to the best of your ability.
As you consciously use your values to guide your behaviour, you build
your capacity to take effective action and are better able to navigate
your way through the turbulent waters of life.




How to stimulate ‘Conversations That Matter’
By Gary Ryan

A perspective that we hold about the world is that success is
inextricably linked to the quality of conversations conducted within a
workplace. High quality conversations lead to high quality learning,
which leads to high quality actions and the resultant high performance
that organisations desire.

Creating the conditions for high quality learning is a significant
challenge for most people. If people have a mental model that they
already 'know everything' or that they 'should know everything'
because of their organisational status, title and/or experience, then
high quality conversations are less likely to occur. An openness to
learning, or a desire to learn are literally a pre-requisite for high
quality learning.

Therefore, how can you create a culture that is more aligned to a
learning culture? One way to do this is to use what we term
'Conversation Starters'. I learned this technique off my business
partner Andrew O'Brien back in the mid 1990s. Short articles or
illustrations can be used as way of creating a safe way for people to
talk about issues that otherwise might be very difficult to raise. This is
also why we use a lot of illustrations in our work. The illustrations
provoke different reactions in people, and it is talking about the
different reactions that people have that can create the space for
learning. The same phenomenon can occur with articles, blogs, books
and many other forms of media.



The blogs and discussion forums that we create on this learning site
could be used as a point upon which to focus a conversation within a
workplace. For example, mental models are a concept that not a lot of
people have been exposed to throughout their lives. Through sharing
the blog that defines them and then hosting a conversation about
what people understood from the article, and then relating the
understanding of the blog to your workplace can produce a
conversation that matters. Real learning can occur especially if you
take the step and ask the question, "Ok, so we have created a level of
shared understanding from what we have read, in what ways does the
article relate to our workplace?".

There are many other conditions that are required to enhance the
number of conversations that matter within an organisation. One of
the key messages from Systems Thinking is that everything is
connected. If you understand this concept then you will see that all
our blogs and discussion forums are connected. The clues for creating
an organisation that is able to truly learn so that it achieves the future
it desires is imbedded amongst the many pages of this site. So, if you
see a blog or a discussion that you think might stimulate a
conversation that matters with other people, share it and host the
conversation. Please let us know how you go!




Why ‘Great Service’ means that your staff come first, not
your customers! By Gary Ryan

Southwest Airlines in the USA have been a huge success story, not
just because of their sustainability (they have returned a profit every
year since 1971, including the year 2001 when most other airlines
suffered because of 911, and more recently last financial year when
many airlines were making tremendous losses) but also because of the
way they operate. They are the winner of multiple airline industry
awards, Service Excellence awards and Best Employer awards. While
written in 1996 by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg, the book NUTS! -
Southwest Airlines Recipe for Business and Personal Success highlights
why Southwest has been able to be so successful.

Despite founding CEO Herb Kelleher having been retired for a number
of years, the foundation stones of creating a great place to work and
striving to provide great service have continued with current CEO Gary
D Kelly. Through a core set of values that include concern, respect,
and caring for employees and customers Southwest has been an
amazing example of NOT believing the customer is always right.

The fact is, the customer is probably right 99% of the time, but you
have to be prepared to exclude customers from time to time.
Especially if their behaviour is unacceptable toward your staff and
other customers.

I remember experiencing this lesson when I was a young manager of
a fitness centre. We had gone through an extensive process with our
members to create our Fitness Centre Etiquette. It was highly visible



throughout the centre and all new members were inducted to the
etiquette as part of their induction program. The etiquette outlined,
amongst other things, that all members needed to wear appropriate
clothing, including a top. A small group of young male 'body builders'
started training without a top. Several of the staff approached them
and kindly reminded them of the fitness centre etiquette and asked
them to replace their tops. With rude language the young men refused
to do as they were asked. As the manager of the centre I was
informed of the incident and approached the young men. We had a
short conversation where I reminded them of the expected
behavioural standards for members and they replaced their tops.

Unfortunately this behaviour repeated itself on a further two
occasions. A couple of the staff were feeling bullied by the members
and were becoming concerned for their personal safety. I had warned
the three young men that if their behaviour did not change, then I
would have to expel them from the fitness centre. The following day
the young men returned and proceeded to repeat the behaviour. Upon
noticing this behaviour I prepared three cheques for the men, 100%
refunding their membership fees despite three quarters of their
membership period having already been used.

I approached the men and asked them to leave the centre. I had
another staff member ready to call for security assistance if they did
not leave peacefully. I informed the young men that they were not
only expelled from the centre but that they were also not welcome to
return unless they could demonstrate a willingness to support the
fitness centre's etiquette. Amongst a flurry of abuse and threats
toward me, the young men left, cheques in hand never to return.



What was to follow both surprised me and re-enforced the idea that
staff must come first. In doing so, they will serve your customers to
the highest of standards.

Firstly, no less than 35 customers personally spoke with me or other
staff members to inform us that if we had not expelled the three
members they would have left and joined another centre. Given that
each of these people stayed at the centre for many years, the small
investment I made in giving 100% refunds to the three young men
was an investment that paid high returns!

Secondly, the staff who had experienced the poor behaviour of the
three young men all noted how important it was to them personally
that I had supported them. They said that it gave them confidence and
that it indicated that we took the overall delivery of our service very
seriously. So seriously that we were prepared to exclude some
customers if that was in the best interests of both the centre and the
vast majority of our customers.

It is important to note that these experiences are few and far
between. However, organisations have to be prepared to take effective
action on the odd occasion when the customer isn't right. Usually,
taking such action will show your team members that you really do put
them first!




Defining ‘Systems Thinking’ – a core leadership skill
By Gary Ryan

Systems Thinking is both a language and a set of tools that offer a
powerful new perspective to help organisations to solve problems,
avoid problems and most importantly, to learn. The tools available
through systems thinking enable people to understand the reality of
their organisation in a way that emphasises the relationships between
the parts of the organisation, rather than focussing on the parts
themselves. Just as the team who design a car engine must consider
the car's purpose, its required fuel economy and the size of its engine
bay throughout the design process, systems thinking requires people
to consider how their part of the organisation fits into the purpose of
the whole organisation. For example, a Marketing Department exists
for the benefit of the whole organisation, not the other way around.

Five Characteristics That Define a System



1) Every system has a purpose within a larger system.
For example, the Information Technology department within any large
corporation must fulfil the purpose required of it by the larger system.
Should the IT department not fulfil this purpose then the department
would be at serious risk of being outsourced.

2) All of a system's parts must be present for the system to carry out
its purpose optimally.
My body is a system. It contains a number of sub-systems that
contribute to the optimal functioning of my body. One of those sub-
systems is my urinary system that includes my kidneys. Should my
kidneys fail and cease to function I will die if I am unable to find a way
to replace the function that my kidneys play in my urinary system.
That part of my body's system is necessary for my body to function
optimally.

In an organisational context imagine if your organisation didn’t have
an Information Technology department (not even an outsourced one).
It is difficult to imagine that in today’s business environment that your
organisation could function and remain competitive without this part of
the system being present.

3) A system's parts must be arranged in a specific way for the system
to carry out its purpose.
If you re-arranged your reporting relationships so that your Chief
Finance Officer reported to an entry level Graduate, it is unlikely that
your finance department could carry out its purpose effectively!
Therefore it is important that organisational reporting structures are
appropriate for the organisation to function correctly.



4) Systems change in response to feedback.
As the air temperature in an office block is monitored by the
temperature sensor on the wall, the temperature sensor provides
feedback to the air-conditioning system. Once the feedback indicates
that the air is too cool (during winter) the heating is turned on.
Eventually the temperature sensor will detect that the room's
temperature has reached the desired upper limit of the desired room
temperature and this feedback will inform the air conditioning system
to turn off the heating component. Slowly the room's air temperature
will decline until the lower limit of the desired room's air temperature
is reached, triggering the air conditioning system to turn on the
heating once again. This explains why some people can continually
hear the air-conditioning system turn on and off throughout the day.
This example also highlights that feedback changes the behaviour of
the system - in this case the feedback causes the air-conditioning
heating to be turned on or off.

Similarly organisations need feedback from their staff, their customers
and key stakeholders to ensure that they react and respond to the
needs and expectations of those groups.

5) Systems have limits to their optimum function.
The recent global economic crisis is evidence that the world's financial
system reached a limit. The exponential growth of that system
ultimately could not be sustained, so the system effectively shut itself
down causing a number of very large institutions to collapse or be
required to be 'bailed out' by their governments. This is an important
lesson for everyone. The world does not work in straight lines - unless



we hit a limit and the system collapses (or dies!). Systems thinking
teaches us this very important point. The world really works in curves
and the tools of systems thinking help us to understand how the
curves work and how we can work with them.

I often hear people within organisations say things like, “We aim to
grow at ten percent every year for the next ten years.” Such a
statement actually means that the organisation is going to grow at a
very steep exponential rate over the next five years. What is the
capacity of the staff to handle such a high level of growth? How will
new staff be recruited? Is there a large enough talent pool from which
to draw new staff? What are the competitors in the industry doing?
The answers to each of these questions highlights a potential ‘limit’
that could de-rail the projected growth. Systems thinking helps you to
ask these questions and to consider their answers. Nothing grows
forever, at least not at the same rate all of the time.

Systems thinking and learning
Systems thinking is critical for ongoing learning because it teaches us
that learning is essential for ongoing survival. As both the parts of a
system and the broader systems within which our system is a part are
constantly changing, learning is an essential function for enabling
survival to occur. General Motors in the USA was ultimately a slow
learner. The broader system of which it is a part changed over the
past 5 years. The significant increase in the general population's
understanding of global warming, partnered with the significant rises
in fuel prices that occurred over that period, affected the marketplace
in such a way that the large fuel-guzzling vehicles produced by
General Motors were no longer desired. Because learning includes the



capacity to demonstrate foresight (a Servant Leadership attribute) as
well as the capacity to change to the needs of your immediate
environment, General Motors inability to do either of these have seen
it decline in a most dramatic fashion. While General Motors was able to
grow exponentially while its broader environment was favourable, its
lack of an ability to truly learn contributed to its eventual downfall.
Remember, all systems have limits - and General Motors found its own
limits.

A significant aspect of systems thinking is the Structure Drives
Behaviour concept. A client with whom we work recently experimented
with changing the seating arrangements for its team meetings - and it
has discovered that something as simple as changing the structure of
the seating arrangements can have a vast impact on the quality of
conversations across the team. The enhanced quality of conversations
has led to enhanced learning. Almost immediately a number of Key
Performance Indicators have improved for the team and feedback
from team members to each other and the management team has
increased exponentially. By its own recognition, this team is now
learning whereas before it was, well, not learning at all!

In reality I have barely touched the tip of the iceberg with regard to
how systems thinking can help an organisation to learn. Our learning
community includes more resources and programs regarding further
development of this skill, and future books will include more
information on this topic. Please feel free to make a comment on this
article by clicking here.



Discover how ‘Structure Drives Behaviour’
By Gary Ryan

Whether you are a university student, an employee of a large
institution or an elite athlete, the structures that we operate within
and use ourselves have a significant influence over our behaviour.
Let's look at three examples, one from each of the three domains
mentioned; a student, an employee and an elite athlete.

Student example
Over their first semester at university a pattern emerges whereby a
student constantly hands their assignments in after the due date. The
student regularly asks for extensions and while they are occasionally
provided, they are usually refused. The student loses marks because
of handing the assignments in past the due date. The student's grades
are poor and the student blames the system for not helping him/her to
be successful. While the student has an external focus and believes
that others 'should' do this and that to help, the chances that their
grades will improve is limited. They first must stop and look at the
structures that they use for assignment writing and other habits (read
structures) that they have regarding study patterns, class attendance,
commencement of assignment writing etc. For the sake of this
example, the student regularly waits until the weekend before an
assignment is due to start the assignment. Often assignments for
different subjects will become due at a similar time in the semester.
Why? Because the structure of the semester system dictates that a
certain range of weeks will be most logical for assignments to be
completed, especially if the structure includes two assignments, a
presentation and finally an exam at the end of the semester. If you
have several subjects with this basic structure, then it is little wonder



that the assignments are due at similar times. This is our first example
of the concept structure drives behaviour. The structure of the
semester mixed with the structure of how the marks for each subject
are established dictates when lecturers are likely to determine when
an assignment is due.

To be able to take effective action the student must first understand
the broader structures at work. In other words they need to
understand how the structure of the semester affects when
assignments are due. The student must then adjust their own study
structures. An ad-hoc approach to study is in itself a structure. For
most people such a structure would be an in-effective one. Changing a
structure results in a behavioural change. In this example the student
needs to identify what outcome they want (i.e. improved grades) and
then work back to identify what structures they should adopt to
increase the chances that the outcome that they desire will be
achieved. Possible structures could include:

1. Commencing assignments as soon as they are announced
2. Setting aside a certain number of dedicated hours of study per
week to each assignment
3. Only ever asking for extensions under extenuating
circumstances such as an illness

Structures need time to be implemented so that they become habits.
Creating new personal structures can be hard because they require
personal discipline to be implemented - so engage your friends for
support. Let them know what you are trying to do and ask them to be
'hard on you' if they see you slipping back into your old structures.



Employee example
One of our organisational clients includes a large national sales team.
While the sales team has been relatively successful over a long period
of time, a problem emerged whereby the organisation's management
were frustrated by the apparent lack of knowledge sharing and team-
work amongst the sales team. For us this immediately highlighted a
probable organisational structure that was driving this behaviour. Our
first question to management was, "How are the sales team members
remunerated?".

The managers responded, "They all have a base salary and then
receive commissions for their sales volume. Their commissions usually
far exceed their base salary which is why so many of them are very
highly paid."

Our second question followed. "How are the commissions structured?"

"On sales volume as we just said"

“We understand. What is the percentage if individual to team based
commissions?"

"Well, it is 100% individually based. There is no team based
commission."

As they answered the last question the 'penny dropped'. No wonder



there was minimal knowledge sharing. The sales team members were
effectively 100% in competition with each other. If one sales team
member was to share information with another sales team member,
then they might risk another sales team member 'stealing' their client
and the subsequent commission. It would take an extra-ordinary
person to not have their behaviour influenced by such a structure!

"OK, so we'll change the structure to a team based commission. That
will solve the problem!" the management team responded.

"Whoa, hold your horses! If you want a mutiny, then change the
structure as you have suggested. If you want to keep your sales team,
then you have to start where they are at and the new structure has to
be able to demonstrate that the majority of the team will be better off
under a new structure. So you'll need to negotiate a starting point with
them. Your overall sales volume will need to increase as a result of
increased teamwork - otherwise why would you change? So you must



be able to demonstrate how your change in structure will result in
more money available for commissions. You may have to start at
something like 85% individual and 15% team based commissions to
start with. Experiment over a couple of years with the full involvement
of the team until you can find the right balance and the right structure
for the outcomes and behaviours that you desire."

This example highlights the power of organisational structures. Often
when our first reaction to a behaviour that we don't like is to blame
individuals, we should slow ourselves down and ask, "What
organisational structures might be driving this behaviour?".

Elite sport example
A sports star was provided with some feedback about his performance
that indicated an underlying behaviour that was not in alignment with
the stated game based behavioural standards for all team members.
The star had received this feedback on several occasions but nothing
had appeared to change - the behaviour persisted. While a structure
existed for the feedback to be provided (which is often an
uncomfortable experience) a structure DID NOT exist to 'back up' the
feedback. In other words, there wasn't a consequence for not
changing this behaviour. The player had effectively learned, 'If I say
sorry then the discomfort of the feedback will go away and all will be
forgiven. I'm a star so I'll still be playing the next game anyway."

Because a structure did not exist to 'back up' the feedback, over time
such feedback would hold little if no long term impact. Yes it was
uncomfortable when the issue was raised, but the discomfort would go
away quickly and things would return to 'normal'.



Finally a structural change took place. The player received the
feedback and was informed that if the behaviour was to continue again
then he would be 'dropped' to a lower grade until his game based
behaviour improved. The player was provided support to introduce
some new training structures that would help him improve the
required behaviours. Several coaches volunteered to provide the
required support. Over time the player continued to implement the
new training structures and his game based behaviours achieved and
exceeded the required standards. The important part of this story is
that the player continued with the new training structures and the
threat of being 'dropped' was real as other 'stars' later experienced.
The broader playing group also learned that the new structure was
real. No matter who you were you had to perform to the required
game based behavioural standards.

In this example we see structural change at several levels. The senior
coach made a structural change by implementing a consequence for
non-conformance to expected game day behaviours, irrespective of
'star' status. Secondly, the player demonstrated that they had heard
the feedback provided by his team-mates because he did something
about it. He introduced some new training structures and maintained
those structures so that he could master his behavioural deficiencies.

Structures have an immense affect upon people’s behaviour. When
you notice a pattern in the behaviour of people that does not match
your expectations, first ask, “What structures may be driving this
behaviour?”. Exploring your structures will prove to be far more
powerful in identifying ways to improve performance. Usually people



tend to blame people when ‘things aren’t right’. Often it is not as
simple as that!




Learn to accept your brutal reality, but never lose the faith
By Gary Ryan

One of the activities that we regularly conduct in our workshops is
called Turning Points. Participants are asked to reflect on significant
moments in their lives that if they had not occurred the participants
believe that they would not be where they are today. Quite often the
discovery of one turning point leads to the discovery of other related
ones. For example, when I was five years old and in my first year of
formal education, my parents fought the school that I attended to
ensure that my twin brother and I were in separate classes. Their view
was that despite being twins, Denis and I were unique individuals like
the rest of our nine (yes that is correct!) brothers and sisters and we
needed to be able to grow up to become strong independent people.
The school had a different view at the time. In the early 1970s the
view of the education system was that twins should be kept together
to reduce the pain associated with separating the twins.

It is true that I suffered from the separation from Denis, while he
wasn't bothered in the slightest by our split. In fact I cried every
morning for the first three weeks of school and Denis used to have to
come into my class to hold my hand. He would say, "Are you right
yet? I want to go back outside to play!". I'd cry some more and when
he would leave I would run to my bag that was on a hook outside the
classroom, grab it, escape from school and run home 2 kilometres
down two major roads. As my mother didn't drive she would discover
me hiding behind the couch or under my bed at home and then frog-
march me the 2 kilometres back to school! As I mentioned earlier this
went on continuously for three weeks. Can you imagine the pressure



that my parents were under to succumb to the school's desire to have
Denis and I in the same class. Fortunately they didn't and eventually I
got used to the idea that we were going to be in separate classes.

While I didn't realise it at the time, this period proved to be a
significant turning point in my life. For whatever reason I had been
highly dependent upon Denis when I was young. I relied on him to
form friendships when we first went to school which is one of the
reasons why I found life so difficult without him. As I look back I am
very glad that my parents 'stuck to their beliefs' and kept us in
separate classes. While it was difficult at the time I simply had to form
friendships myself. In doing so I started to develop my own
independence which was to prove critical five years later.

As a 10 year old my parents asked me where I wanted to go to
secondary school. My father was a carpenter and my brothers had all
chosen to go to technical school to learn trade skills. Denis had made
up his mind that he didn't want to go to a college because he "...didn't
want to have to do two hours homework every night." I, on the other
hand looked down at my hands and saw ten thumbs! I had absolutely
no interest in becoming a tradesman and had avoided swinging the
hammer in the garage with my father all my life . I had performed
very well academically and said to my parents, "Well, I think I want to
go to university, so I need to go to college. I don't want to go to the
technical school."

My parents asked me what I thought I would do at university and I
told them that I had no idea and that, "I'll work that out before I get
there!" My father, bless his soul supported my decision and went and



found a second part time job (to add to his full time job and his
already existing part time job) to enable me to go to the local boys
college.

For me these turning points are related because I am completely
confident that if my parents had not supported me as a five year old in
a way that enabled me to develop independence, I cannot imagine
that five years later as a ten year old I would have had the courage to
ask to go to a secondary school that was not only different from my
twin brother, but different to all my brothers. Collectively these
turning points have been so powerful that I doubt very much that I
would be writing this blog if they had not occurred. My life and career
would undoubtedly gone down a very different path.

Brutal Reality/Faith Model

Accept your
brutal reality

Never lose
the faith




Each of these turning point stories involved experiencing difficult
times. The first three weeks of my school life was difficult. While
difficult for different reasons, going to a different secondary school to
all my brothers was also difficult. Yet I knew that it was right for me. I
now hold three degrees and am completing doctoral studies part time.

Like these brief stories that I have shared with you, participants in our
workshops have often highlighted how many of their turning points
have occurred as a result of the lessons that they learned from the
difficult times in their lives. The Brutal Reality/Faith Model highlights
that if we are prepared to accept the challenges that often come with
turning points and to maintain the belief that one day we will be better
off for the experience, it is amazing how turning points can turn lives
for the better. A challenge can be maintaining the faith that you will be
better for the experience while you are in the midst of a difficult
turning point. My life has taught me to hold that faith. How have your
turning points turned your life and how have they made you what you
are today?




How little ideas can make a big difference when times are
tough By Gary Ryan

Recently I had the good fortune to perform an assessment on a
division of a large financial organisation for the Customer Service
Institute of Australia (CSIA). As both a Senior Assessor with CSIA and
through our own OTM Service Strategy I have had the opportunity to
observe many organisations who are striving to deliver great service
to their customers.

More and more organisations have recognised the importance of
treating their staff as their Number 1 customers (see the blog
Providing Great Service Means That Your Staff Come First, Not Your
Customers) and there is a strong link between that approach to
employees and the provision of great service. I also observed a
number of terrific little practices that have produced significant cost
savings and efficiencies for the organisation's with whom I have been
working.

The team from the financial organisation that I assessed last week
shared a couple of significant results from implementing 'little ideas'.
Last year the staff in the call centre were required to complete eight
weeks of overtime leading up to the end of financial year. With 120
staff in the Call Centre that creates a significant salary overhead. This
year only one weekend of overtime was required to complete the same
amount of work with the same number of staff.

A serious question is, "How did they create such a remarkable
efficiency improvement?".



There were two 'little ideas' that drive the response to this question.
The first was that over the past year they have created a work
allocation system that more evenly distributes work, including
ensuring that the work performed by the more senior staff in
'coaching' other staff is recorded as 'real work' for the coaches. In the
past this work was not recorded as 'real work' for the more
experienced staff so their system included a dis-incentive for
experienced staff to share their knowledge. As part of a continuous
improvement program where staff submit suggestions, a simple idea
to change the system so that the 'coaches' were recognised for their
'coaching' significantly changed the behaviour of those people. The
resultant behavioural change also meant that less experienced staff
started to access knowledge far more quickly than they had previously
been able to access existing knowledge. The result was that new staff
were more quickly gaining the right knowledge at the right time which
enabled them to become more efficient in their work.

The second 'little idea' that has caused a major efficiency improvement
for the team was as simple as pressing a button. Through the
continuous improvement program that the Call Centre has created for
its staff, one of the team members noticed that each of the 120
computers in the Call Centre took five minutes to 'boot up' at the start
of each day. There are a number of security firewalls that cause the
slow boot-up time but these are considered necessary by the
institution for security purposes. One of the staff who arrived early
every morning decided that while her computer was 'booting up' she
would spend the five minutes walking around and pressing buttons
until all the computers were activated, rather than staring blankly at
her screen.



This meant that when the other staff arrived all they had to do was log
in and they could commence work immediately. If you do the math
and multiply 119 computers by 5 minutes, by 5 days by 50 weeks you
will discover that it adds up to over 14.3 days of extra productivity
over the course of a year. Two little ideas, one big saving.

The key factor in these examples is that the organisation has created a
culture where submitting ideas is considered normal. I was also shown
a number of ideas that have 'not grown legs and won't be
implemented' and management is happy about that. From their
perspective if two little ideas each year can produce such a significant
benefit, then the system is working above expectations!

Another interesting perspective on this story is the way that a
downturn creates innovation, if you let it. While I wasn't provided a
statistic from this organisation to support what I am about to say, my
suspicion is that there a number of people still working in the call
centre who might not have their jobs if the efficiency improvements
had not occurred. When you consider the human impact that losing
your job in a downturn can create, that is a significant benefit not only
for the organisation but the staff as well.




How doing nothing can be an example of leadership
By Gary Ryan

One of the most important roles that a leader has is the development
of the people that the leaders serve. Often this means letting those
people take the lead even though their level of performance may not
be at the same level as the leaders.

Recently a client (let's call him John) shared a story where he had
battled to resist his own internal urge to 'takeover' from one of his
team members (let's call her Amy) when it became apparent that Amy
was uncomfortable performing the task she had agreed to perform.

Amy had agreed to be the host and welcome a High Court Judge to
their team, and then thank and provide a summary of the judge's
speech to conclude the evening. After struggling through her initial
welcome John had become quite concerned that Amy's performance
was not up to his standards, despite this being Amy's first time at
performing such a role. As his discomfort rose, so too did his desire to
'save' Amy by taking over from her. John knew that he could have
done a better job and was concerned about how Amy's introduction
would reflect on the organisation if it wasn't rectified for the
concluding sections of the event.

Taking this type of action in this instance would have by many
people's standards reflected great leadership. After all, who wants to
run the risk of their organisation looking poor because of someone's
poor performance? Something inside John, possibly his social
intelligence, told him to 'hold his nerve' and to do nothing. That is



right, John consciously decided to do 'nothing' (which, if we wanted to
get technical, is in fact a conscious choice to do something that in this
example was to not intervene). In leadership the choice to do nothing
is often far more difficult than the choice to do something!

John's intuition was justified as Amy recovered her poor welcome
address by completing an outstanding thank you and summary of the
judge's speech. The judge even commented on the quality of Amy's
listening and was appreciative of the fact that at least one person had
clearly listened to him! Amy was delighted and received a significant
confidence boost from having worked through her challenge.

When reflecting on the evening John had mentioned to me that no-one
other than himself had been aware of the leadership challenge that he
had faced that evening. Leadership is very much like that. A great deal
of the work by great leaders goes unnoticed, especially when the
leader is holding themself back for the sake of the development of a
team member.



John also noted how delighted he felt when Amy had 'delivered' at the
end of the judge's speech. His delight came from multiple sources. The
first was that he was delighted for Amy because he knew that she
would have been disappointed with her welcome and introduction
(which she later confirmed) and that she would have been stressing
about the summary and concluding remarks (which she also
confirmed). To overcome those stresses and to perform so well was
exciting because it showed Amy that she could recover from a poor
start and it would also give her confidence moving forward into her
next development activities. The second source for John's delight was
that he had been his own master in this little episode. On previous
occasions he had stepped in and 'saved the day', or so he had
thought. After this experience his thoughts about the previous ones
were, "What if, instead of saving the day, I had actually reduced the
development of those people so that I could look good?" It is an
interesting question, isn't it!

Leadership is not always about being the person out the front making
all the noise. Often, true leadership comes from having the personal
mastery to let others lead. In this way, doing 'nothing' can be just as
effective as doing 'something'.




How to release mental models that choke ‘Truth to Power’
By Gary Ryan

"Before I was announced Captain of the club", shared John,
"Whenever an issue came up, I would always first look at the Captain
for his response. I even did this when someone said something that
was funny - I'd check the Captain's response before I said anything. It
was as if I didn't even have my own mind. When I look back now I
realise that I had a view that because the Captain was the Captain,
he'd automatically know the answer to whatever issues were raised.
You know, somehow he'd been dipped into the font of all wisdom."

John continued, "Then I became Captain and one of the first things I
noticed was people looking at me and waiting for my reaction and I
realised that they were now doing to me what I had been doing to the
previous Captain. And it wasn't just a few of the players, it was
everyone! But I know that I'm not the font of all wisdom because I'm
learning too. If I already knew everything about being Captain then
how could I improve over the next three to four years? I can't imagine
that I won't improve which therefore means that I'm not as good now
as I will be in the future. This also means that right now I won't know
the best way to handle every issue that comes up. I'll know a few
because I've been around a while now, but I won't know everything.
The pressure you feel to have an answer, "the answer" is incredible!"

After a period of time John added, " When I wasn't the Captain I recall
a few times when I actually did have a different opinion about what we
should do, but I never raised them because I thought to myself, "Oh
well. The Captain knows best so we should do what he thinks.



Otherwise he wouldn't be Captain.” Guys, please don't do that, if you
have a different view to me I need to hear it. My view might be wrong.
More importantly when we put our different views together maybe
we'll all see something better that none of us could see on our own."

What an insightful series of comments. John (not his real name) is the
Captain of an elite sports team with whom I have worked in Australia.
These comments were made in relation to an explicit conversation that
I was facilitating with John and the rest of the Leadership Team with
whom he was working. The purpose of the conversation was to raise
their individual and collective awareness of their mental models
regarding leadership. The other members of his Leadership Team
remarked that they too had shared the "font of all wisdom" mental
model regarding the person holding the title of Captain. They also all
agreed how ridiculous such a mental model was and how debilitating it
probably was to their performance and their capacity to present a
different view to those in positions of power. Yet they also agreed, and
I observed in practice, just how difficult such a mental model is to stop
from a behavioural perspective.

This brief conversation provides a detailed insight into the collective
mental models about leadership that are both flawed and limiting in
the context of Truth to Power. Truth to Power is the capacity for
people who have less real or perceived power to be honest and direct
with people who hold more power. In the example provided by John
and his team-mates above it is little wonder people find it difficult to
hold alternate views with those in power. Similarly it is little wonder
that those in power often behave in a defensive way when people



present a different view to the one they hold. Quite literally the issue
of 'saving face' becomes real.

Elite sportspeople are often described as "jocks who can't think for
themselves". My experience could not be further from that description.
The elite sportspeople with whom I have worked closely have been to
a person, people who are intelligent and willing to learn. Very rarely,
including in the corporate world where we work extensively have I
experienced such an open and honest conversation as the one
described above. John's willingness to be vulnerable to his team-mates
by suspending (please see the blog on the Seven Skills of Dialogue)
his mental models about his role and how they had changed as a
result of becoming the Captain was a privilege to experience. John's
intention for sharing this information was to open the door as far he
possibly could to enable his fellow Leadership Team members to be
honest with him and to not default their views to him simply because
he was the Captain.

While we never used the term 'Dialogue' the Leadership Team were
actually holding a dialogue about their individual and collective mental
models about leadership. John was concerned that if he wasn't explicit
about his transitional experience from not being the Captain to
becoming the Captain, then it would not be until the next Captain was
in his shoes that the new Captain would have an opportunity to
understand this perplexing situation. It's not hard to imagine a group
of ex-Captains sitting in a cafe joking about how they had all been
labelled the 'Font of all Wisdom" even though they knew that they
weren't!


What Really Matters Vol 1 No 2 2009

What Really Matters Vol 1 No 2 2009

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