Harnessing group power, sharing commitment, leading more effectively.

1. Live as if you were to die tomorrow.
Learn as if you were to live forever.
- Mohandas Gandhi, 1948

2. Enabling a Productive World
Community
in a Single Organization
The Power of We

3. Direction and Community
“If you don’t know where you’re going
you’ll end up someplace else.”
- Yogi Berra

4. Finding Direction Through
“We” Power
Develop leaders at all levels of the organization.
Encourage members to take part.
Organizations poised to thrive …are doing so by
harnessing the wisdom and ability of (internal
and external) crowds – linking people to share
information, innovate and execute.
- Wharton School Publishing and wearesmarter.org

5. The Power of “We”
“In my part of the world, we have something called ubuntu.
It is the essence of being human. We say a person is a
person through other persons. I can’t be human in
isolation. I need you to be all you can be, so that I can
become me and all that I can be.
“It is not, I think therefore I am. It says rather: I am human
because I belong. I participate. I share.“
- Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Speech, 1984
Remember – People join things because they want to
belong. Your central mission is to constantly create and
share that feeling on a TWO-WAY street.

6. Need for Transformational
Leadership
• Authoring useful change - cultural
reframing and organizational redirection –
that is worth the effort. It works to harness
the “we” and solve:
- Hints of Simmering Problems of Trust
- Reluctance To Ride Your “Love Train”
( Low excitement, engagement. We come back to
the “L” word later)
- Unresolved Support Issues
- Low “Voter” (i.e., member) Turnout

7. Transformational Leaders are
Enablers
“A transformational leader is someone who can
take on the responsibility for revitalizing an
organization. They define the need for change,
create new vision, mobilize the commitment to
that vision, and ultimately transform an
organization.”
- N. M. Tichy & M.A. Devanna. The Transformational Leader
And members here today can and should play
roles as transformational leaders..

8. Embrace Culture Change – And Cold
Reality
“Most organizations fail at managing change.
Fewer than 15 percent of companies studied
successfully transformed themselves.”
- John Kotter, Harvard Business School
• Culture change always takes longer than you’d like.
• Lack of stamina and urgency lead to inferior results.
• Existing culture is comfortable and hard to leave behind
because it is the accumulated learning of a group.
• Auto-rejection is inevitable.

9. The Stockdale
Paradox
(from Good to Great, author Jim Collins)
Recognize Reality but Keep Faith

10. Promote and Embrace Culture
Change (while recognizing that Cold Reality)
• Change is Global, Inevitable and Powerful
• Productive organizational communities
enable positive change.
• Act to invigorate relationships.
• TEAMwork yields success.
• Commit to shared risk and intense dialogue.

11. A World Community
• World Communities are Diverse
• Global Differences Can Lead to Balkanization,
War … or Innovation - We Choose.
• Engineer the Use of Internal Diversity as a Major
Asset.
• Members – Offer Up Expertise.
• Don’t Allow Physical Geography to Limit
You.

12. Diversity
“It is the ONLY form of organizational capital that
can produce a sustainable competitive
advantage.”
- Robert J. Greene, Reward Systems, Inc.
“The learning leader should stimulate diversity and
promulgate the assumption that diversity is
desirable at the individual and subgroup levels.
(These subcultures) will be a necessary
resource for learning and innovation.”
- Edgar H. Schein, 2004

13. Organizational Diversity
• More than ethnicity and origin.
• Professional Distinctions, Pursuits and
Specialties Constitute your Diversity Advantage
• Create Opportunities to Showcase Individuals
and Sub-groups, Generate Buy-In, Excitement
and Action.

14. A World Community – And
Organizational Diversity
Leaders must …
• Create and / or capture diversity – use it as a
primary organizing tool.
• Assess, organize and celebrate.
• Disseminate what you learn.
• Apply lessons to produce results.
• Connect subcultures (writer experts) and
celebrate value.

15. Commit to Dialogue Intensity
• Dialogue Intensity: A Cultural Artifact or
Value Reflecting All Cards-On-The-Table,
Productivity – Focused, Urgency-Inspired
Discussion that Results in Prompt Action.
• It’s More Than Talk, More Than Holding
More Meetings for the Sake of Meetings

16. Dialogue Intensity
• Think of it as a basic organizational value and
action to be injected into group DNA
• Underscores the vital importance of being heard.
• Underscores unwavering commitment to debate,
discover and validation of feeling and fact.
• Creates positive climate of openness,
engagement and trust.
• Fuels momentum and urgency.

17. The Feedback Flywheel
The most labor intensive stage
is the first, as overcoming
organizational Assess Invite
Feedback
communications inertia
takes place. Forward
movement creates greater Listen
Share
Again
ease, efficiency and energy
output, but must be
continuously maintained.
Collect
Respond
Data
(Diagram copyright 2007 John M. Castagna)

18. Community / Chapter Type
Organizations Queried

19. Community/Chapter Organization
Research Recommendations
1) Cultivate Sound / Trusted Top Leadership
2) Build Organization-Wide Trust
3) Build a Culture of Sharing
4) Connect WIIFM to Whole System Success
5) Treat Affiliates as Partners, not Customers
6) Engineer Progress Members See & Feel
7) Be Sensitive to Their Issues, Commiserate, Focus on Shared
Solutions
(Thanks especially to United Way of America for assistance.)

20. Moving Forward
1) Sound and Trusted Top Leadership
• Do a Self-Assessment. Do You Tend to Manage or Lead?
Management is not an adequate substitute for leadership.
“Management blunts the soul and spirit of an organization.”
– Bob Danzig, Hearst Newspapers
• Management is necessary but – it is about the moment / about
process.
“The whole purpose of systems and structures is to help normal
people who behave in normal ways to complete routine jobs
successfully, day after day. It’s not exciting or glamorous. But that’s
management.”
- John Kotter, Harvard Business School

21. Sound, Trusted Top Leadership
• Management feeds the body … while leadership ignites
the soul and spirit of a place.
• Leaders work to move constituents from “What I believe”
to “What we believe.”
• Unity is forged – not forced. You can’t manage your way
to unity. You must lead.

22. 2) Building Trust
Essentials:
Demonstrated Competency, Constantly Communicated
Caring – Demonstrated Fairness, Interest and Support
Character – Consistent, predictable, dependable,
respectful and respected.
- Bartolome, Fernando, HBR, March-April, 1989
“The people on your team expect you to be upbeat, positive,
confident and certain they can win.” – Mike Krzyzewski, Duke U.
(John C. Maxwell’s Law of Respect)

23. Building Trust
• The Accurate Communication of Intent is Vital.
“Our perception of intent has a huge impact on trust. People often distrust
us because of the conclusions they draw about what we do.”
• Intent Arises from Motive, Agenda and Behavior
• Motive – Can People Tell That You Really Care
• Agenda Grows Out of Motive - “The agenda that inspires the greatest trust
is seeking mutual benefit.”
• Behavior is the Manifestation of Motive and Agenda
• All Must Be Congruent. Lack of Trust Suggests That They May Not Mesh.
(Quotes from, Stephen M.R. Covey, The Speed of Trust)

24. 3) Culture of Sharing
• Sharing reinforces trust as a two-way street.
• Sharing is reinforced by commitment to acting as a
learning culture.
• Leaders and members must come to terms with their
mutual lack of experience and wisdom.
“I think every good (group) has got to have a partnership
relationship with its members. You have got to work in
their best interest.” Sam Walton – Wal-Mart Founder

25. Culture of Sharing
• Subcultures must be connected, learn
about each other, share and promote each
other’s visibility.
“Laissez-faire leadership does not work because it is in the nature of
subgroups to protect their own interests.” – Edgar H. Schein
• Bring members and leaders together to
articulate shared values.
• Bring members and leaders together to
articulate shared vision.

26. Culture of Sharing
Enables Next Research
Recommendations –
4) Connect WIIFM To Whole Organization
Success, and
5) Affiliates as Partners, Not Customers

27. 4) Connecting WIIFM to the Whole
System
Ensure Long-Term Viability of the Organization by Encouraging the
Heart*
– Build Whole-System Feedback. It Grows Engagement.
– Recognize Contributions and Celebrate Small Wins
– Personalize Recognition
– Show Appreciation for Individual Excellence
“Your real job is to get results and do it in a way that makes your
organization a great place … a place people enjoy.” – Andy
Pearson, CEO, PepsiCo
* Kouzes and Posner, Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders, The Leadership Challenge

28. 5) Partners, Not Members or
Customers
• Customers Buy a Product and Leave; Partners are
Invested in Success.
• Words Matter – Start by Reframing Relationships
through Labels.
• Make Stakeholders Constant Participants in Decisions.
• Make Stakeholders Constant Participants in Celebration,
Creating a Sense of Community, Personal
Contribution.

29. 6) Engineer Progress Every Group
Can See and Feel
• Identify Small “Wins” That Individuals and Groups Can
Personally Enjoy.
• Think About the Value of Fun
• Wins Can Be Honors, Notoriety Achieved
Because of the organization.
• Wins Can Be Honors Members and Staff Receive
for Things Unrelated to business.

30. Progress You See and Feel
• Lead from Behind:
“Wins” Celebrated Should Only Rarely
be Those of Top Leadership Unless It’s
Utterly Extraordinary. (NYT Best Seller,
Elected to National Political Office, etc.)

31. 7) Demonstrate Sensitivity
• Feelings Matter
• The Golden Rule Applies to Membership
Organizations
• Listen, Commiserate and Work Honestly
to Their Issues.
• Engineer Meaningful Dialogue and Action
on Shared Solutions

32. Pulling It All Together
The Whole Package –
Hedgehogs, BHAGS, STC on Hilltop
and Eight Steps to Implementing
Organizational DNA Change

33. Identify Your Hedgehog* Concept
• Core
Organizational
Talent
Matters
• Focus,
Distinction,
Identity
Matter
• You Can’t
Be
All Things
To All
People
(*Jim Collins, Good To Great)

34. Kennedy’s BHAG*
Have the
Courage to
Articulate
Your
Moon
Mission
(* Jim Collins, Good to Great)

35. Make Kotter’s Eight Steps Central to
Your Strategic Plan
• Establish a Sense of Urgency
– Examine market and competitive realities
– Discuss crises, potential crises, major opportunities
• Form a Powerful Guiding Coalition
– Assemble a group with enough power to lead the change effort
– Encourage the group to work as a team
• Create a Shared Vision
– Create a vision to help direct the change effort
– Develop strategies for achieving that vision
• Communicate the Vision
– Use every vehicle possible to communicate the new vision and strategies
– Teach new behaviors through the example of the guiding coalition

36. Make Kotter’s Eight Steps Part of
Your Strategic Plan
• Empower Others to Act on the Vision
– Remove obstacles to change
– Change systems or structures that seriously
undermine the vision
– Encourage risk-taking and nontraditional ideas,
activities, and actions
• Plan For and Create Short-Term Wins
– Plan and create visible performance improvements
– Recognize and reward employees involved in the improvements

37. Make Kotter’s Eight Steps Central to
Your Strategic Plan
• Consolidate Improvements and Produce Still More Change
- Use increased credibility to change systems,
structures, and policies that don't fit the vision
- Hire, promote, and develop employees who
can implement the vision
- Reinvigorate the process with new projects,
themes, and change agents
• Institutionalize New Approaches
- Articulate the connections between the
new behaviors and organizational success
- Develop the means to ensure leadership development and
succession

38. Conclusions
You must integrate culture-based thinking process – all of
the foregoing -- into ongoing organizational leadership
and management. (i.e., STC’s strategic planning)
Learn to become quicker and more
efficient learning leaders.
Remember that cultures that favor adaptation, enable
participation of the greatest number of people in defining
purpose and expressing feelings are always more
competitive.

39. Conclusions
• Articulate goals through tangible ideas:
– Be a speakers bureau for members and staff
– Teach in classrooms, seminars, through
social media
– Invent new competitions and awards
– Be more public and vocal – criticize, use
humor.
– Involve members in speaking, judging, writing
and in social media – and feedback
– Be generous in rewards

40. Conclusions
• Consider organizing organizational segments
not by geography but by your goals (such as
professional definition, value, partnerships, self-
improvement, viability.)
(Underscore commonalities rather than division
and distance.)

41. Final Thoughts
• Avoid Traps :
- Non-systemic approaches disconnect people,
reinforce disconnects, silos, disinterested
subcultures
- Leaders who won’t change their
style (think Lincoln)
- Lack of shared vision: city on a hill
concept
- Lack of willingness to learn – together
Develop your mutual capacity.

42. Final Thoughts – Use K&Ps 5 Practices
of Exemplary Leaders
1 - Model the Way
Leaders establish principles concerning the way constituents, peers,
colleagues, and customers should be treated and how goals are
pursued.
They create standards of excellence and set an example for others to
follow.
Because change can overwhelm people and stifle action, they set
interim goals so that people can achieve small wins as they work
toward larger objectives.
They unravel impeding bureaucracy; erect signposts when people are
unsure of where to go or how to get there; and they create
opportunities for victory.
- Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner

43. K&Ps 5 Practices of Exemplary
Leaders
2 - Inspire a Shared Vision
Leaders passionately believe that they can
make a difference. They envision the future,
creating an ideal and unique image of what the
organization can become. Through their
magnetism and quiet persuasion, leaders enlist
others in their dreams. They breathe life into
their visions and get people to see exciting
possibilities for the future.

44. K&Ps 5 Practices of Exemplary
Leaders
3- Challenge the Process
Leaders search for opportunities to change the
status quo. They look for innovative ways to
improve the organization. In doing so, they
experiment and take risks. And because leaders
know that risk taking involves mistakes and
failures, they accept the inevitable
disappointments as learning opportunities.

45. K&Ps 5 Practices of Exemplary
Leaders
4 - Enable Others to Act
Leaders foster collaboration and build spirited
teams. They actively involve others. Leaders
understand that mutual respect is what sustains
extraordinary efforts; they strive to create an
atmosphere of trust and human dignity. They
strengthen others, making each person feel
capable and powerful.

46. K&Ps 5 Practices of Exemplary
Leaders
5 - Encourage the Heart
Accomplishing extraordinary things in
organizations is hard work. To keep hope and
determination alive, leaders recognize
contributions that individuals make. In every
winning team, the members need to share in the
rewards of their efforts, so leaders celebrate
accomplishments. They make people feel like
heroes.
- Five Practices authors: Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner

47. U.S. Army Major General John H. Stanford, Veteran,
Vietnam, Persian Gulf Wars:
“… The secret to success is to stay in love, (to)
give you the fire to ignite other people, to see
inside other people, to have a greater desire to get
things done than other people.
“A person who’s not in love doesn’t really feel the
kind of excitement that helps them get ahead and
to lead others to achieve. I don’t know any other
fire, any other thing in life that is more exhilarating
and is more positive a feeling than love is.”

48. One Last Thing Every Global
Community Needs
Tap The Power of “We.”
Love what you are collectively about.
Lead through vision.
Learn Together.
© Leadership Teams Network, LLC