Leadership as a Practise

Many discussions on leadership concern themselves if leaders are borne or if leadership can be taught. Previously I have claimed that leadership is a practise (like the practise of medicine) and not just a skill or knowledge. Twitter only allows 164 characters and that is not enough to explain the statement.
Let’s start by attempting to explain how the Practise of medicine works.
• Step 1: Theory
Medical students have to spend a lot of time behind the books before they are allowed anywhere near a patient on their own. They learn anatomy, physics and a whole lot of stuff that helps them understand how a body works.
• Step 2 : Diagnose
Armed with the theoretical background the doctor can now start to attempt to diagnose patients. When medical doctors diagnose a patient, they are checking certain conditions against the theoretical standard. A temperature of 39⁰C can only be a concern if the doctor knows what happens when such a temperature is left unchecked. Obviously they check a whole lot of other stuff but let’s assume it is a simple fever.
• Remediate
Armed now with diagnoses the doctor can apply a remedy to bring the patient’s condition back to standard. Theory, diagnose and then the remedy. These 3 steps are what we refer to as the practise of medicine.
Let’s turn now to question of leadership
• Step 1: Theory
Being a leader calls for a lot of knowledge and theory about what leadership is. What motives people, what make them tick etc. Some of those amongst us instinctively know and get this right. The rest of us have to be taught. If we look at business leaders and political leaders the world over we should be able to get a sense that many of them have no clue.

Step 2: Diagnose
To remedy a situation a leader has to diagnose. Know what leadership is the leader can identify behaviour that is not on-standard. The big difference here is that with leadership the leaders have to diagnose themselves. There are many tools for this. Reflection, journaling, 360 Degree evaluations, leadership surveys etc.

Step 3: Remedy
Armed with diagnoses the leaders have to now apply the fix to themselves. Leadership is about getting to know yourself so that you can lead others. Leadership is not about fixing them. Great leaders look in the mirror.
Similar to the practise of medicine, leaders and doctors don’t always get it right. But they take their craft very seriously and constantly try to do better. Ben Zander sums it up beautifully. “If your team is underperforming, you should go and apologize to them.”

Manage the Damage

Manage the Damage.

Manage the Damage

Mankind’s ingenuity and inquisitiveness has been the deciding factor that has made us the leading primate on Planet Earth. We have brazenly taken to the skies, left footsteps on the moon and we have explored the dark ocean beds, untouched by sunlight. We have prospered and filled the earth abundantly with our knowledge and technology.
What we now know is that all this came at a price. Progress has been at the expense of rainforests, natural habitats, family units and social structures. Our industries have steadily led to the warming of the planet which is leading to phenomena like climate change. Urbanisation and city dwelling is creating social pressures with symptoms like poverty, crime and disease.
The solutions we have engineered have created a new set of challenges to focus on for the 21st Century. We need to take stock of the damage we have unwittingly done during the past century and address these issues.  We have to manage the damage. We have to fix our environment or at the very least stop the stop the damage becoming worse. We have to fix the way we treat and think about people. They are not just Lifestyle groupings, demographical numbers or employees. They are people. We have to think about the way we conduct business and affect the society which we live in.

Perversion of Technocracy

The relationship between an employer and an employee is not a transactional relationship. It is not a simple case of selling labour for money. My labour cannot leave my hands and go into yours. If you are not an economist, regarding labour as a commodity would be a fallacy. The relationship is one of power. Power is accepted when the nature thereof is legitimate. Establishing a legitimate relationship of power would require the holder thereof to yield this power in the interest of those in the relationship besides himself.

The first relationship of power that crosses our path when we come into this world is normally that with you and your mother. The job of the mother is to feed and look after the small and helpless infant. The job of the parent is to care and grow the child. The job of the big is to nurture the small towards maturity.

When we observe the opposite as would be the case when we observe a child begging to get money for a parent sitting on the park bench, we instantly recognise this as wrong and a perversion of what is right. The job of the small is not to take care of the big.

In the workplace we can come across the situation where the employees (small) are there to look after the interests of the manager (big). If the manager does not see his task as caring for and growing the employees, this to then too must a perversion of what is right. A leader’s job is to care and grow those entrusted in their care. This will remedy a lot of the disengagement and ill will found in organisations. It is not the new generation that is causing the problem, it is the old technocratic mindset that is no longer acceptable.

Power and control

Early morning with no other cars or traffic officers in site, I was sitting and staring at the red traffic light. I was waiting for it to turn green so that I could continue of my journey. Why would I not skip the red light? It suddenly dawned on me that this is a perfect example of power by permission.
Power is granted to us by others. It cannot be taken. Only in the absence of power, controls have to be instituted. Legitimate power is also known as power by permission.
We see the “power” of the traffic light as legitimate because we know that its job is to keep up safe. Similarly people grant us power when they believe that we have their best interest at heart.
The more power is granted the less controls are required. Intersections with lots of accidents may require cameras and even a Points man on duty to maintain order. The less power is granted, the more controls are required. This situation plays itself out in organisations, where we keep on adding controls because we lack legitimate power, ie Power by Permission.
The society we have created is all about getting as much as possible as quickly as possible. Market share, margin growth is all important. This obviously leads only to entitlement and greed. This is not the breeding ground for legitimate power. When we behave as Takers (from the other) we cannot be seen as acting in the best interest of others. This then disqualifies the Taker from the role of having legitimate power. In such a Taker (read consumer) society, Controls are all that can remain, with all it “Taker “members (read consumers) therefor looking for ways to get around the controls.
More controls and legislation is not going fix the problem. We have to adjust our mind-set on how we conduct our lives at work and at home. The only “control” you have is to control your own mind-set. We cannot change the world, we can only change ourselves. You are the project of your life.

Life Amplified

My son, now aged 9, was born with Asperger Syndrome. With all its challenges his life has been an absolute blessing. It has given me insights about the hidden world of leadership and my relationship with the totality of the other.

Everything is a gift and can be used for good. In here lies the rub. The things with gifts are that they are unconditional. You don’t get them because you deserve them. Those kinds of gifts are called rewards. Understand the difference.

My son’s condition brought about a really big insight and changed my life as a stubborn engineer and made me realise that there is more to life than simple black and white answers. In the world of engineering a formula sheet guides you through rapids and unchartered waters. The traditional formulas of parenting do not work with this young man. No amount of discipline or coercion can get him to do something if he does not want to. It becomes better day by day as we learn to navigate the way and gain insight and understanding of what makes him tick as an individual. I get constantly reminded of the importance of explaining the reasons behind actions before doing them. Fear of the unknown is also amplified. The most important that Richard had taught me about leadership is that the reason why I can have so much patience with him and his needs is because I love him. We tried everything in the early days with his “tantrums” and meltdowns even the Nanny’s naughty chair which made it even worse. The solution we found by chance and desperation that a hug is all he needs to calm down. The tactile pressure calms him down within seconds. The traditional parents were wrong, the Nanny was wrong. Love was the solution but in the form or place I looked.

Realise this it has opened up endless possibilities of me looking at things different. I now accept that there must always be a different view. I know now when I think I have the answer that I must stop and look for the many other options that I have missed.

We all need understanding and care from others to function properly. With somebody with Asperger this need is only amplified and not diluted by hidden agendas.

I cannot be a leader, communicate well and lead people with authenticity if I do not love them. I have to get to grips with the word love in terms I have not thought of before. I need to cultivate love and care for those in my care not because I want to get a result from them. If I do that, I dumb-down to become a manager only. I must do it because it is the right thing to do. Management is about getting result regardless of the input received. As long as the results are in, KPI’s are met; Managers don’t care how the job is done. In other words managing people cultivates mediocrity.

Leading people on the other hand is about empowering people, getting them to believe in themselves. Leaders care. Leaders grow those entrusted in their care. Leadership is about creating extraordinary individuals who obtain results far exceeding those obtained by simply managing them.

Lead and Live life amplified.

Emerging Mindsets

The story of Care and Grow and Lean or actually the anti-story if such a word exists (some of Etsko’s big Engelse woorde also seem made-up to me) started way back in the 17th century. The age of the scientific method had arrived. The wisdom of the Great Chain of Being was no longer the accepted worldview. The worldview of pre-modern societies was that reality existed in different planes beginning with matter moving to body and then to emotions, mind and spirit. Not all the pre-modern society described the Great Chain in a similar way, but all nearly all viewed realty with the common theme of an external reality (matter and body) as well as an internal reality (heart, mind and spirit). Some had 12 layers of existence, others only three, but the theme remained the same. It will be worth your while to “Google” the term at some point.

The rise of the modern worldview impacted the views of reality in a fundamental way. Society, now under the guidance of the scientific method started to view only the external reality as important. People’s performance, behaviour and the results achieved was all important but at the same time the internal reality of the individual was discarded as not important. These could not be measured or validated and therefore according to the industrial mindset did not exist or was of little consequence. The Great Chain views of matter reaching to God were replaced by matter and matter only. Scientific materialism was born. Science became the new omnipotent force. This mindset is now very much part of our lives. The focus on the external reality has brought us great progress and prosperity but at the same time has not brought an equal amount of abundant happiness to our societies. It has been reported that 26.5% of the citizens of the USA have experienced a form of mental distress the past 12 months. This is shocking and alarming figure. The book Selfish Capitalism goes to great length to explain the connectedness of this phenomenon to the consumer/material mindset. The most prosperous and modern society is suffering despite all the gifts of the industrial mindset and materialism. Some are saying and I agree, they are suffering because of it.

The past two decades has been saturated with different business methodologies and executives have been very keen to embrace them in an attempt to increase market share and profits. Taking now the aspects of external reality which we now have briefly explored in mind lets focus on business improvement interventions like Lean, SixSigma and TOC. With this world view as a lens we can now observe that the bulk of these methodologies are on providing tools to management teams to solve their problems from an external reality point of view. Very little work and attention is given to the internal reality. The internal reality of the organisation as well as those of individuals do not receive adequate or any attention. The focus is on the application of the tools.

History has shown that the often these externally focussed tools lack to provide sustainable result and the new state is very difficult to maintain. I would like to hypothesize that the reason for a lot of failure is not the incorrect application of tools as the consultant will try to get you believe. I believe it is a function of our worldview. The focus on external reality and the invalidation of the internal reality of individual and organisations are at the root of intervention failure and even business failure.

There is an “Emerging Mindset” that is providing us with a different view reality. This mindset is not going to the replace the “Industrial mindset”. Rather it is complementary and transcending in nature to the Industrial mindset. The new views are not that the modern mindset is wrong; it is just that the application was just too broad. The new mindset builds on the old. Relationships, abundance, consciousness and continuousness are in addition to the old. The Care and Grow model of Schuitema is part of this “new” mindset. It has brought the pre-modern worldviews into a modern context. The “OR” mindset is making way for the “AND” mindset. The pre-modern views were to mystical and the modern views to technical. The post-modern views included both in a relevant and balanced manner.

The work of Schuitema and the Care and Grow model focuses on the internal reality of people and organisations. This is the crucial aspect to restore our view on reality. This mindset can exponentially increase the success rates of Lean interventions and the like. The model exists to give practical guidelines on how to Care and Grow an individual in your employ. The root of this model is that we have to invert the traditional way of means and end thinking about leadership. Employees have to become the end and not just the means to get things done. Results are still very important but only as a measure to see how successfully we are growing the employee. It is as important as in the past, but only for a different reason. To not acknowledge that half of reality is important and thus for practical reasons does not exist for us; is not modern thinking. It is actually very primitive, just as primitive as to say the earth is flat. Modern man has to acknowledge both aspects of reality. The “AND” mindset is crucial for prosperity into the 21st century and beyond.

Sources: Beyond Change management by Anderson and Ackerman, 2010

                 Selfish Capitalism by James, 2010

The Art of possibility – Ben Zander

Robot labour, the way of the future?

In 1886 corporations received the right to become human, seen as natural persons in the eyes of the law. No they want to make robots do the work of the humans. What the heck is going on? Why turn everything upside down.

I read a discussion on LinkedIn tonight about the viability of replacing human labour with robots. I am not too worried about this actually being achieved as most companies cannot even get their ERP systems to work properly.  Generally ERP systems just record what the humans are doing, imagine us getting it to do something useful.  All I see happening  is a lot of consultants lining up for cash.

In country such as South Africa where a vast amount of the workforce is structurally unemployed this would be an ethical issue as well.  The question would be why do you want to automate. Is the work dangerous, unhealthy or just plain icky (cleaning out the sewer for example) you consider it. Or are you trying to automate a wasteful operation. Will you require it to work 24hrs when you actually only need it to run 3. I can hear the Financial boys whining at this. Oh the overheads, we are wasting overheads. Nevermind the sales, that’s the Sales managers job.

If we are talking cost, the danger is the cost not put on the balance sheet. Robots don’t do continuous improvement, yes you will argue, most workers don’t either. This is missing the point, as the reason they don’t CI is found in the way we as management treat the workforce. Besides biting their heads off when admitting to a mistakes there is a greater systemic issue. Normally we few labour as a cost, an undesirable overhead. What does this view do the psyche of the worker. How will you feel going through life knowing everyone sees you as undesirable. I can remember how this feels, even if the rejection was caused only by one 17-year-old girl, many years ago when I was 18. Imagine if the whole world looks at you with this attitude. Unwanted, undesirable, wish you were gone. Do we still wonder why they enjoy a good toy-toy once in a while.

Our role is to create an environment where workers are desired and the end to a means. Work needs to become a way of improving society, a way to bring meaning to other people’s lives besides our own. We need to roll back the damage of 1886.

Are we only on earth to see who dies with the most toys. Beyond satisfying basic human needs, comfortable retirement, cash for our kids when we pass, overseas holidays and a flashy car parked in Santon, Why is money still important. Why can enough not be enough. When will you have enough to be willing to share?

Who made up these rules? I really want to know. The question to ask is how are we going to create a new society, when companies are objects and the workers are human.

Killing Snakes – Leadership and Lean interventions

Leadership is often sited as a major contributor to the success or failure of a a Lean project or intervention. Besides giving the necessary support in the form of time and money, personal involvement from managment also goes a very long way towards success.

This does not really tell us what leaders need to do to. Do they give blanket approval for all things called “Lean” and simply cheer the troops on? Is this all they need to do?

 Bureaucracy is a major killer of productivity and created by management? Thought leaders like Goldratt claim that the leading cause for inefficiency in business is “Policy” related.

Policy imposes on the organisation the controls management deemed fit to reduce risk. A seeminling sensible approach of fudicary consious manamagment teams.

 Reality is:

• The more control you impose, the less control you have. Every time you impose a control you shift the accountability from the person doing it to the person controlling it. In other word dis-empowering.
• Control adds waste. Value-adding control does not exist.
• Control is organisational equivalent of weeds. If you do not continuously remove them they sprout like mushrooms.

 What do leaders need to do practically to get rid of the bureaucracy that drags the business down? The reason bureaucracy exist is to add safeguards and control to reduce risk towards the organisation. So for us to convince managment to do something we will have to adress the risk to the organisation as well.  

This brings us to a well loved term in any “Lean Practitioners” book. Empowerment! Sucjh a lovely word. We need to empower the staff. Get them part of the decision making!, make them responsible for their own quality and maintenance, TQM, TPM, etc.

 What the heck does empowerment actually mean? Do we hand over the power and stand back and blaim the failures on the inept staff and shout “Told you so!” when the dust settles.

There is way to deal with this systematically and with great diligence. The Care and Growth model gives us an excellent guide how to deal with this.

•  Empowerment is the incremental suspension of control
• Each step of suspending control suggests a greater degree of trust and entrustment

              Whenever you shift a control you need to ensure that the person who is going to be held accountable has      the means and ability to do what is required from them.

 5 Steps to empowerment

1. Identify the next step.

2. Train.

3. Test ability.

4. Hand over the means.

5. Hold accountable.

  Bureaucracies cause all process to go though twist and turns and therefore we call them snakes.

 Killing Snakes

• Identify the snakes
• Identify the ideal
• Identify and remove superfluous controls
• Ranks remaining controls ito risk
• Identify the means and ability associated with each control

 Next week I’ll include some practical examples of Snake killing using Schuitema’s methodologies.