Another Take on the Pundits: Try 21 Days of No Complaints!

Just after writing that the pundits were getting me down, I happened upon a program the next day on complaining less. OK. I’m guilty. I should have been kinder to the pundits. But, I do wish they’d be more constructive!

CBC Sunday Morning profiled a Kansas City pastor, Will Bowen, who in 2006 started his congregation on complaining less. He gave out a purple bracelet to anyone who wanted to try: 21 straight days of no complaints! The rule is that if you find yourself complaining, you have to switch the bracelet to the other wrist and start counting all over again.

He has found it takes the average person 4 to 6 months to do 21 days straight. Reverend Will has written a book (of course!) called A Complaint-Free World. His main message: people who get things done are not great complainers. And a quote from Jane Austen: “Those who do not complain are never pitied.”

It’s become a movement where his church has now shipped 6 M bracelets around the world, including Canada.

My interpretation is that this doesn’t mean we must stop noticing issues and problems. Rather, we should aim to re-frame: “How can we move forward on this?” Going around in circles, gossiping and playing around in the mud, is replaced with more constructive and thoughtful actions. Not easy!

It reminds me of “oppositional thinking” where we are encouraged to see the “silver lining” or problem-solve or let go. Sports psychologists use the technique with elite athletes. They know that upside thinking is powerful for unleashing one’s potential.

Certainly, this fits with building more vibrant, healthier and productive organizations. A “no complaint” operating principle is an inspiring leader’s best friend.

See http://acomplaintfreeworld.org/willbowen.html

The Pundits are Driving Me Crazy!

I’m a news junkie as all things related to leadership fascinate me. But the latest cacophony among the pundits about the effectiveness and management of various bail-out plans is becoming unbearable. It’s like going into a noisy room where everyone is talking over each other and at times screeching. Look around and all you see are white teeth, coiffed heads and perfect make up (for the women). No one looks real but they all give the air they know what they are talking about.

Pundits to me are those we see on TV stations like CNN over and over again who have an opinion about everything. Every move by Barack Obama’s administration is dissected to an inch of its life.

I get the impression that results must occur instantly otherwise the strategy must be wrong or it is not being handled properly. The pundits spend their time on the minutia and seldom raise their heads to put the situation into perspective. It’s like a running travelogue with no sensible reference to history, context and what we know about how change happens.

While experienced leaders recognize that resistance after about 30 days of the initiation of a major change is to be expected, I’m not getting that the pundits know this. In fact, in the absence of a balanced view on current events, they are the resistance!

In these difficult times, I expect media to play more than an obstructionist role. Help us sort out the complexities and see some light. Role model healthy dialogue so that we can replicate this locally in our homes and social meeting places. Respect those who are elected and the challenges they face. See how you can help them move things forward by balanced and knowledgeable reporting. Give those who have a deeper knowledge more air time.

For these reasons, I’ve turned to the BBC, CBC and digital media for calmer and deeper conversations. The interviewers and contributors tend to question and explore as a rule rather than tear down. I pick and choose my CNN encounters for such interviewers. Fareed Zakaria and others like him come to mind.

Who knows, I may become a digital junkie to widen my choices as that seems to be the way of the world! The spring issue of Strategy + Business Online makes it clear that online media is gaining rapidly in popularity particularly among the younger generations. Many are online while watching TV. They skip through ads with the aid of their digital video recorders looking for content that suits their interests.

From an advertising perspective, their habits are transforming the business. It took 127 years for newspapers to reach US$120 billion in ad revenues in the U.S. Cable television took 25 years. Online media has accomplished that amount in 13 years.

This more diversified media picture fits well with emerging research on “how to have influence”. In the fall 2008 MIT Sloan Management Review, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield and Andrew Shimberg conclude that leaders who “combine multiple sources of influence are up to 10 times more successful at producing substantial and sustainable change”. Extrapolating to current events, although it looks like he’s biting off more than he can chew, Barack Obama’s “strategy” appears to align with these findings. Time will tell.

These are “wild west” times. “Settlers”, like some of the pundits, demand data before they accord the courtesy of support and encouragement. As in the past, it is the “pioneers” who forge new, sustainable paths. No proof. Just hard work and persistence in the face of the unknown. It’s a formula applicable to every leader in every organization.

Taking the Stress Out of Stress: Invoking the Relaxation Response (RR)

There is no cure for birth and death except to enjoy the interval.

---George Santyana

Lessons in life come from surprising places. Husband Richard, who survived a scary heart event in August 2008, returned from one of his cardio-rehab classes with a relaxation CD featuring Eli Bay. That instantly took me back to the early days of my career as a dietitian and public health nutritionist when I was introduced to Eli and had the benefit of taking his “relaxation response” (RR) classes. It was like I discovered a long lost friend just at the right time. Although his area of passion and interest is never out of vogue, right now it is a priority for survival.

With gross domestic products (GDP) in freefall around the world and the American consumer in a funk, rising anxiety is a given. While we’re grappling with adaptive business strategies to ride the chaotic wave, why not invoke the relaxation response more intentionally as one of the soft strategies?

Since all things financial dominate our thoughts, the relaxation response is both a hard and soft “tool” for leaders. Here’s why:

--Job stress anywhere costs billions of dollars a year in worker absenteeism, turnover, lost productivity, accidents and visits to health care providers.

--Stress in the workplace has been rising steadily for decades.

The specific numbers are well-documented by Statistics Canada, the American Institute of Stress, health researchers and various survey organizations. Unchecked and unmanaged stress costs. In today’s environment, this is an area where the actions of leaders can turn the tide.

Leaders who are positive and upbeat yet truthful about the challenges create a better context for counteracting the negative effects of stress. In effect, they set the stage for employees to open the door to the relaxation response. The perception of hope and “we can do this” more likely activates “good” hormone responses (serotonin and dopamine) than “bad” (cortisol and norepinephrine). The messaging must be repeated with substance behind it frequently as practicing the relaxation response makes us more hardy or resilient in the face of constant stressors.

Better still, this is a time for leaders to incorporate opportunities for employees to engage in stress-reducing practices. These include yoga, Tai Chi, meditation, exercise in general and simple relaxation exercises (for example, abdominal breathing and imaging).

Herbert Benson first described and pioneered the relaxation response (RR) as the physiological counterpart of the fight or flight response. Benson’s observations have since been verified. The innate RR functions as a protective mechanism against excessive stress.

The RR is a powerful tool for combating the costs of a world in turmoil and elevating the quality of our lives while we ride the wave of change.

It’s a must for all leaders.

See http://www.elibay.com/ for more information.

Tags: relaxation response, stress

Halve the $1.3 trillion United States Deficit in Four Years? Now That's a BHAG!

We refused to leave the problems of our common welfare to the winds of chance and the hurricanes of disaster.

---Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)

I have frequently encouraged leaders to adopt “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” (BHAGS). Otherwise called stretch goals, they set a challenging line of sight for everyone in an organization, harnessing and focusing energy. I picked up the strategic thinking concept almost 15 years ago from James Collins and Jerry’s Porras’s Built to Last research. After listening to Barack Obama’s special joint meeting of Congress last evening, I came away astounded by his boldness and ambition for the United States. When I heard his goal around the deficit-reduction, it was as if James and Jerry had been talking to him.

Barack Obama’s pledge to cut the United States $1.3 trillion deficit in half by the end of his first White House term made me gasp. Now I really know what a BHAG is! I cannot even fathom how he will do it. Neither can the pundits who are generally laudatory about his big dreams, confidence, decisiveness, inspiration and his “walking the talk”---openness, transparency and accountability. But when people shake their heads and conclude it can’t be done, that’s likely the time to sit up and take notice.

Collins and Porras said that BHAGs should “reach out and grab you in the gut”. They should be “tangible, energizing and focused”. And, above all else people should “get it right away with little or no explanation”. Well, I can attest to “grabbing me in the gut”! We “get it” and the goal definitely fits the other criteria. At the same time, this is a “shock and awe” strategy. Not your typical war gambit. Given the massiveness of the debt and the structural weaknesses underlying the problem, this has caught our attention, as I gather a BHAG is meant to.

For those who like data, these BHAGs no doubt make you nervous. “How does Obama ‘know’ that he will do this”, you might ask? Well, he doesn’t. Although, we can assume he has undertaken some serious number-crunching with his very bright advisors and staff.

Big goals and visions are characterized by one key quality: there is no proof they will happen. As Joel Barker pointed out in one of his videos in the 90s, pioneers made the data. They created the results by rolling up their sleeves and venturing out into the wilderness, the frontiers where they had never been before.

So, it is with the Obama administration’s deficit reducing BHAG. George’s Bush’s Iraq war might seem the same. The irony however is that President Bush failed to pay close enough attention to the data before initiating the war in Iraq and while he oversaw the unfolding story. It was only in 2007 that Bush changed course with a surge of troops and a paradigm shift in strategy: setting up platoons in every neighbourhood of Baghdad to work jointly with the people. That strategy appears to have had positive results albeit after much carnage and heartache.

In this instance, because Obama attests to “learning as he goes” as did Lincoln, FDR and many other great leaders, he will likely adapt his strategy (the "how" of getting there) frequently because of an openness to the unfolding story. As a consequence, the probability of success---finding the path forward that “works”---is much more likely.

Colour Your World to Boost Management and LeadershipPerformance

Red helps us focus on detail. Blue on creative thoughts. So researchers at the University of British Columbia’s School of Business claim in a study with 600 graduate students published in the Journal of Science.

Here’s another “soft” tool for a leader-manager’s tool kit. Decide what you want to achieve and change the setting accordingly as in live theatre.

When you want your staff to think strategically, cloak the work environment or meeting room in blue. Turn up the spectrum to red for all the detailed planning. Apparently, just changing the colour of computer screens helps boost the right kind of thinking.

These are learned associations. They might not apply universally to all cultures. So, before embarking on such an adventure, it’s best to check out with staff the colours in their mind’s eyes which trigger creative or detailed thinking.

Antidotes to Uncertainty: Adapt and Innovate

Financial history is a roller-coaster ride of ups and downs, bubbles and bursts, manias and panics, shocks and crashes.

---Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money

We are learning from our current worldwide financial crisis that the assessment of risk and uncertainty are two different concepts, two different thinking modes. Risk relates more to what we already know projected onto a number of future scenarios. As Niall Ferguson explains, risk is measureable uncertainty. That leaves real uncertainty as unmeasureable and thus as unknowable. Ferguson quotes John Maynard Keynes from his 1937 book General Theory: “There is no scientific basis upon which to form any calculable probability whatever. We simply do not know.” If only more of us were Ph.D. trained mathematicians!

Because surprises do happen despite our best efforts, leaders are in a bind. If the “long view” generated through strategic and scenario planning is limited (yet still relevant for mitigating risk), what can a leader do to off set disaster (uncertainty)? Darwin long ago gave us hints—adapt to our environment or perish. “The wild rewards the capable, adaptable and instinctive” explains Gino Ferri, professor at Laurentian University author of The Psychology of Wilderness Survival.

Anyone who has taken survival training knows that adapting is no easy matter. It’s down right scary. Leaders need some help!

Given the difficulty of figuring our how to adapt, one predominant message for leaders is to surround ourselves with great people who are diverse in expertise and who do not necessarily share our point-of-view. If “a team of rivals” worked well for Abraham Lincoln, as historian Doris Kearns Goodwin contends, then it should work now. This means reaching out to one’s broader network and replicating the “team of rivals” at other key nodes.

A second important message is to set up an environment for innovation. But, people can’t innovate well in an environment of fear. With daily job losses everywhere in the world, it’s hard not to feel anxious. The “team of rivals” approach fits well with setting the stage for novelty in thinking according to creativity researchers. The depth and breadth of knowledge elements available with minds from different disciplines and experiences increase the opportunity for unusual possibilities from which to choose---for real innovations. They suggest, in addition, that leaders consciously develop a positive emotional environment of surviving and thriving despite uncertainty to foster the creative spirit.

According to Teresa Amabile and others, there are spin-off bonuses to an emotionally positive work environment. The effect lasts for days. If the leader works at stoking the fires of hope and possibility, the positive feelings can last indefinitely, as well-documented in current brain research. These are greatly assisted by the joy individuals feel when generating ideas. It seems our brains and our beings thrive in such environments.

There is ample evidence from the history of long-lived organizations that adapting and innovating are central to survival. This is encouraging for all leaders grappling with the chaos we are facing.

Arie de Geus’s template for survival in a turbulent business environment provides further guidance. In his study of long-lived organizations (The Living Company), some more than 400 years old, he found four “habits”:

1. Sensitivity to the environment (learning and adapting)
2. Cohesion and identity (building a community with a cause)
3. Tolerance (ability to build constructive relationships with other entities within and outside itself)
4. Conservative financing (ability to govern its own growth and evolution effectively)

If, as Ferguson observes from his study of the history of money, that booms and busts are products, at root, of our emotional volatility, then, the lessons from surviving the “wild” can temper such ups and downs in our favour. This takes leadership of the right kind. Not greed. Not self interest. Not every “man” for himself. Instead, it heralds leadership which trumpets teamwork, respect for each other, including divergent views, and the certainty that together we can adapt, innovate, survive and prosper.

Barack Obama's Spirit Has Taken Hold of Me

The world’s in a big dance. Everyone is a belle at the ball of an unprecedented historical event. For those that get suspicious when walking into a room of smiling people, this must be unnerving. Yet, the warmth and goodwill swirling around our feet and heads seems infectious. Is it possible that the more generous feelings towards each other catalyzed by the arrival of Obama at our doorstep are manifesting themselves in all manner of acts of kindness?

As a sample of one, I have found myself taking unusual steps towards helping others. The acts of kindness have come out of the blue as if they landed on me from afar and I just had to pass them on. These actions are in addition to my normal pattern of “being there” for others. I suspect that millions upon millions of others are also finding themselves leaning more towards others than is typical.

We appear to be witnessing the favorable impact of an inspiring leader. This is encouraging. Although we face extremely difficult times, just maybe our collective willpower will enable us to get ahead of the curve.

Historian Niall Ferguson who has been on a round of interviews about his new book The Ascent of Money paints different scenarios for the future, some quite grim. But he does believe that innovation and collaboration globally can get us through.

These we know are powered by our imaginations and feelings of goodwill. Barack Obama has given us a nudge. Provided he keeps up his end of the bargain, and we have no reason not to believe he means what he says, we may find that the flywheel of change and transformation gains traction and speed quickly.