8. Practical Wisdom With today’s rapid change, increasing complexity, and high levels of uncertainty and ambiguity, knowledge is not enough and many leaders are finding it difficult to reinvent their organizations quickly enough to adjust. For leaders to cope in today’s fast paced and ever changing world they need to help their teams and organizations convert knowledge to ‘practical wisdom ’.
Who’s in the audience? How do you make this a practical exercise?
But first.. Who am I & what gives me the privilege to stand here before you today?
Why is leadership important? Because without “social influence”.. Moving people to action on S.P.E.C. … nothing will happen.
People complexity Unique Individuals (experience based) 3 generations driven by differing needs / wants Connected minds & easy access to information
Empowering your team.. Managing from the middle.. The execution of an idea is always more important than the brilliance of the idea
Practical Wisdom = S.M.A.R.T.E.R. approaches - Too much left to “common sense”.. Every person has an individual experience & therefore perspective / unique understanding of “what you mean”
These are the traditional basics of being an effective leader.. And you’ll need them in order to get get everything done.. But.. This is the “how” you do it. But I want to present the “what” you need to do.. Why drives What drives How.. Who, When & Where..
The skills they don’t teach in your MBA program
How to weave in the basics? Time Management, Effective Communication (Delegation & Getting Things Done) Motivating Teams & Individuals Goal Setting & performance Reviews Recruitment, Interviewing & On-boarding Customer Centric Practices
The leader as philosopher Wise leaders practice moral discernment and can assess and judge goodness in every situation and build this capability in others. Nonaka and Takeuchi suggest leaders can build this capability in others by sharing experiences and articulating the value judgements made. Kitotsubashi University in Tokyo creates a 'knowledge forum' where "executives share their most compelling life experiences and defining moments of failure and success, both on and off the job". They suggest sharing of "experience, particularly gained by facing adversity or failure" is helpful in cultivating the ability to make judgements about goodness.
The leader as the master craftsman Wise leaders grasp the essence of an issue and are able to act decisively. The VPS leadership framework describes this as "distilling and synthesising interconnected and multiple sources of information to grasp the essence of issues in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment". Toyota executives and employees employ 'five whys' to ensure they get to underlying issues and use this to project a vision of the future, and engender teams to determine what needs to be done to realise the vision.
Wise leaders create environments which breakdown hierarchical barriers and enable senior executives and employees to learn from each other. They create formal and informal opportunities, called 'ba' in Japan, for leaders at all levels to interact, construct meaning and learn from each others' experiences. For example, the newly elected president of a large Japanese trading and investment companies started 'kurumaza' (sitting in a circle) meetings that took place once month during lunch or after work. The circles were open to any employee who registered on the internet and helped the organisation to explore challenges and come up with innovative solutions. Bottom up 'ba' enable employees to gain firsthand experience of how clients experience their products or services. Nonaka and Takeuchi provide the example of a pharmaceutical company which develops dementia medicines and sends all of its researchers for periods to take care of patients, so they understand the broader context.
Wise leaders use stories and metaphors to convert the essence of their actual experiences into tacit knowledge for individuals and groups. Stories and metaphors can help to convey complex messages in ways that capture the imagination, are easy to understand, remember and repeat.
Wise leaders exercise political power, understand the viewpoints and emotions of others and leverage these to achieve success. "They carefully consider timing - when to make a move or to discuss issues" say Nonaka and Takeuchi. They bring people together and combine and synthesise knowledge and efforts to provide a unified drive to achieve goals. They are able to "hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time" by thinking in terms of ‘both and’ rather than ‘either or’ which assists them to deal better with high levels of ambiguity and complexity.
Most importantly, wise leaders foster distributed leadership by sharing their knowledge and wisdom. They show a balance between self confidence and humility and are comfortable sharing powerful, personal lessons of failure. They encourage teams to work together to review successes and failures, and learn from work. They allow others to shadow them to "learn about practical wisdom by observing an exemplar's behaviour" say Nonaka and Takeuchi and they use "formal system[s] of apprenticeship, which allow mentors to share experiences, contexts, and time".
“ M” is also for “leading from the middle”
Practical Wisdom = S.M.A.R.T.E.R. approaches - Too much left to “common sense”.. Every person has an individual experience & therefore perspective / unique understanding of “what you mean”
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