Articulate

We live in a society where “there’s an app for that!” speed is good and solutions are more valuable than problems. But we know that isn’t true. In our work, our homes and our communities we see (and if we are honest, we experience) unease and discomfort; often around important, complex situations which truly concern us.

I’ve had a number of experiences and conversations lately which have highlighted the value of sitting with discomfort. This might be as simple as resisting the urge to do something else when I’m not sure what to do or how to begin. It might be as profound as being prepared to be with someone who is in distress and risking feeling some of that distress myself.

My tendency is to rush in to make things tidy and “nice”. I’m learning to pause. Not as a negotiating tactic, but as a way of being alongside the person I am with and in the situation. I often don’t get it right, but when I do I find that the conversation has authenticity and space is created to think and respond more effectively. In contrast, a glib response or rushing to suggest a solution or give advice doesn’t honour the person who is sharing in discomfort.

Yesterday I attended a session on facilitation skills. One comment that struck me was when a colleague said that she had learned ask herself whether making an intervention as the facilitator was in the service of the group or to make herself feel better. Sometimes maintaining the discomfort is in the service of those we work with.

And sometimes there are no words. I recall a facebook message from an ESL teacher who has many students with family and friends in dire situations in their homelands. In the face of her students’ concerns she asked “what do I say?” It requires strength and courage to be alongside others but not to say anything when words are not enough.

I’m not advocating wallowing. Feeling uncomfortable or unease is part of changing, doing things differently or recognising the complexity of a situation. I’m learning to sit with it a while before making a more considered response.

When my daughter was small she was desperate to learn to ride a bicycle. But she was very nervous about falling off. So she would sit next to me and demand, over and over, “tell me how to ride a bike…” There is only so much theory that is useful before you have to actually get on and peddle!

My recent foray into twitter reminded me of this. You can’t understand it without getting in there and trying it out. This approach challenges me; in my work especially I like to gather information, make connections and craft a response. Not necessarily taking a lot of time over the process, but my preference is to give a considered view, not an off the cuff reaction.

How is it going? I’m finding twitter interesting. I’m not a frequent twitterer (or tweeter, or twit - I’m still learning the vocabulary!) and hashtags remain somewhat mysterious. I’ve responded when I meant to retweet and I still feel I’m making it up as I go along. I’m keeping my involvement contained. I have a (very) small group of followers, and I follow only a small number of people and organisations. Do I want to spend a lot of time there? No. But I’ve subscribed to a fabulous blog that I wouldn’t have come across otherwise. And I’m looking forward to using twitter at events to connect and communicate with other participants in new ways. Notwithstanding my L plates, a couple of my tweets have also been picked up by folk far outside my usual circles.

I mentioned to a colleague last week that I need to get brave in order to make the most of opportunities to do new things. Like engaging with Twitter or learning to ride a bike getting brave means not just thinking about it or listening to other’s experience, although both might be helpful. Getting brave means getting out there and doing it, risking falling off, and learning as I go.

What are you being brave about this year?

The last few weeks have not gone entirely to plan. Now I like a good plan, so this has been both frustrating and a useful reminder of things I know but don’t always practice. So what have I learned and hope to hold on to as life resumes its normal pattern?

I’ve been reminded that perfection is over-rated and that often something is better than nothing. Yes I know, “if something is worth doing its worth doing well” and I agree. It's worth doing as well as it needs to be done. It is possible to get stuck believing that because some things are truly important, they need to be done absolutely properly and therefore need more (and more) time and information. But often action, even if flawed or incomplete, is what is needed otherwise activities get planned but not done. In a seminar on leading in uncertainty recently I was struck by the presenter’s assertion that as things become more uncertain we can rely less and less on data (which tells us about the past). Rather action is necessary because uncertain futures are created by the actions people take.

Not pursuing unnecessary perfection links to reminders to spend my energy wisely and to pick my issues carefully. Always true, but especially if I’m unable to do everything I would like and have to decide what to say “no” to. The flip side to this not to close the door prematurely on future opportunities because I can’t do it today (I don’t have to), it might not work out (it might) and if something else happens I won’t be able to (make the decision then, not now).

When I can’t do it all I need to get the support I need. I see self reliance as a virtue so this is a tricky one for me. Strategic vulnerability is the key. By this I mean letting some key people (who I was confident would be supportive) know what is happening rather than maintaining a façade. My openness allowed them to be their best, responding in a professional and personal way. It deepened our engagement, built mutual understanding and gave me the support and strategies I needed to get over the bumpy patch.

I’ve also been reminded that the important things (activities and relationships that give direction, wellbeing and joy) are rarely urgent and can too easily left for another day while I get on with being busy. But busyness without firm underpinning is exhausting and ultimately ineffective. So I will take time and try to spend it wisely with a long term view.

I’ve been involved recently in a number of conversations about knowledge management. One of the interesting things I’ve noticed is the tensions around

• capturing information which is fast changing and fluid
• the best ways of sharing information, or knowledge, usefully
• being innovative, creative and responsive in a corporate environment where consistency and corporate memory are also valued.

These tensions have led me to think about stewardship; an old fashioned term which points in two directions.

In an organisational setting, stewardship picks up the idea that a steward acts on another’s behalf to use resources wisely. Stewards must be mindful that whatever we have at our disposal is ours to use but does not belong to us. Resources need to be used for the good of the organisation. This is what good managers do. Not for themselves, but for their team, while also ensuring that what their team achieves contributes to the organisation’s objectives.

Stewardship is also about building something so it is better when you leave than when you arrived. This is one thing good leaders do. But again, not for themselves. Although recognition may follow, the best leaders are not primarily motivated by what they gain but by what they create. Fundamentally, people are important. Managers cannot manage without them; leaders who have no followers are delusional!

I’m not suggesting that people are “soft resources” to be used or managed for organisational ends. Far from it, but people working together is how information is generated, shared and used, how innovations occur, how organisations serve their various customers and meet their goals.

In a different context I heard someone comment that we are rightly focused on being effective but that we also need to be affective. To have what we do come from the heart. I’d argue that the quality of our interactions with others and our stewardship will be better if they are affective too.

Leadership. We know it when we see it. We applaud it with flurries of commentary, social media posts and tweets. We bemoan the lack of it in an environment where leadership has been overtaken by politics, short term gain and lack of vision.

Perhaps it’s time to take a larger view.

I recently reviewed 10 Virtues of Outstanding Leaders by Professors Al Gini and Roland Green. They explore the moral basis for leadership (and followership) with good leadership characterised as being anchored in ethical behavior. At heart it is about motive: ethical leaders exercise leadership for the common good, not for their own greatness. Results are important; Gini and Green also argue that someone who demonstrates virtue and has the organisational capabilities required yet who fails to deliver is not a leader. And followers have responsibilities too. We get the leadership we allow!

The virtues Gini and Green identify are • Deep honesty • Moral courage • Moral vision • Compassion and care • Fairness • Intellectual excellence • Creative thinking • Aesthetic sensibility • Good timing and • Deep selflessness

It can sound idealistic and removed from reality but writing about the protests in Turkey and the government’s response , Thomas Friedman quoted advisor on governance Dov Seidman “ …moral authority is now so much more important than formal authority… Moral authority is something you have to continue to earn by how you behave, by how you build trust with people….every time you exercise moral authority, leading by example, treating people with respect, you strengthen it”.

It is easy to denigrate others for their lack of leadership. But if Gini and Green are right and “what was true thousands of years ago remains so today. The quality of life of a community whether it is a political unit or a business corporation depends on the character of all its members and on the virtue of its leaders”; whether a leader or a follower we need to identify key virtues to develop, practice and make habitual.

Al Gini and Ronald M Green, 10 Virtues of Outstanding Leaders: Leadership and Character, 2013, John Wiley & Sons

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/turkeys-strongman-learns-democracy-is-about-more-than-just-elections-20130622-2opct.html

Passion. I confess, it’s a word I’m uncomfortable with. It brings to my mind business televangelists. And even if I had a passion for something my understated, introverted tendencies mean I’d likely not tell you!

Having and following a single minded passion can rule out too many perfectly good alternative options and doesn’t leave room for other important, necessary, but less exciting things. It also gives too easy an excuse for not actually doing anything while “working out what I’ll do when I grow up”.

So while finding and following your passion might be fashionable advice, what I suspect works for many of us is the connection between productivity and engagement . When we work on something successfully we become engaged in it. I’m not praising the mediocre, but this is more about attitude and hard work than about dreams. It’s about seeing where our efforts fit into a larger picture so we can do the boring bits - and every job has them - because of what they contribute to.

And attitude counts. I had coffee this morning with a friend who is a poet. She mentioned colleagues who undertake an exercise to write a poem a day, every day, for a month. By doing this their perspective shifts and they begin to see the poetic all around them. In our professional lives perhaps we need to focus on doing good work really well, becoming engaged in it as we experience success, and then, just maybe, becoming passionate about it as an outcome, not as a goal.

Some of these ideas are a response to Mark Babbitt’s post “Follow your passion” SUCKS as career advice and Tony Wilson’s AHRI HR Practices Day keynote where he touched on the link between productivity and engagement.

The manager as gardener. This image sticks with me from the book Manager Redefined by Thomas Davenport and Stephen Harding. They see effective middle managers as creating an ecosystem which allows employees to flourish. So taking this analogy further (and probably further that Davenport and Harding intended) what gardening tasks do managers do?

Pruning is determining what not to do. It’s so easy to keep adding new projects and tasks without deciding that some activities are no longer useful. Even though we do them well, we need to stop. Judicious pruning also encourages new growth.

Weeding removes obstacles. Dealing with small issues early before they can grow and take over . Removing unnecessary policy, procedures or structures that get in the way or take up resources at the expense of desired plants. Removing the weeds gives people the freedom they need to do their jobs.

Fertilising is not dumping manure! It is providing what is needed to support healthy growth: resources, information, and encouragement.

Protection finally, supervisors might need to provide protection from harsh organisational sun and wind (or careful exposure when weaker plants need to toughen up).

The gardener’s work is constant. Small interventions made regularly rather than a bulldozer when the plot is overgrown and weeds have got out of control (although occasional remodelling will be necessary). Wise gardeners know that the garden alters day by day. A garden where nothing changes is either plastic or dead.