The Cabin

2011-11-14T14:26:00.000-06:00

The only victims of the Penn State child molestion case are the children. Shame on media for making Joe Pa the victim. He did not follow up, did not pursue, did not take any reasonable action. His legal and moral obligation was not to Penn State but to the children who were harmed. Shame on Penn State for blocking the initial investigation by campus police. Penn State should be punished by the NCAA, forced to forfeit this entire season and forfeit 2012.

Unwilling and Ungrateful

2011-10-30T14:30:00.000-05:00

In this brief piece, I want to begin an exploration of burnout. Some believe burnout is self imposed by workers who can’t take the pressure. Others find that in the current economic and organizational climates, burnout is imposed by business that do not recognize or accept that workers need periods in their work days to decompress.

During the Vietnam era, American military members often recited a refrain for which I do not have a clear attribution; although one source says Mother Teresa.

“We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.”

Many of the service members who recited this also suffered from the stresses of war, constantly being shelled by the enemy, constantly being on patrol in jungles where the enemy hid, constantly being exposed to team members injuries, wounds, and death. Movie watchers saw this portrayed with some degree of realism in Band of Brothers. These military men and women were constantly in a state of high arousal with few or no opportunities to decompress.

Is there a parallel to that refrain in the current economy, the current organizational climate? One source explains the parallel by citing that in the current climate (economic or organizational) there are often mismatches between job expectations and expectations of the person performing the job. Often, organizations place economic consequences ahead of human values. This confusion of values against economic needs of the employee to survive in an unstable work climate may result in lost productivity brought on by stress.

Question, who are the unwilling and why did they become unwilling? It their book, The Truth About Burnout, Maslach and Leiter found several reasons why people become unwilling. They find overwork and lack of control over their jobs as part of the problem.

Another question, who are the unknowing? The comic Dilbert provides an example of the unknowing in the depiction of the pointy-haired boss who reaps all the rewards for himself sharing none with workers.

Why has working become doing the impossible? Although the work may not be impossible to complete, workers feel a loss of community in the workplace. Political intrigue and rumors often force workers to withdraw from those around them.

An example of the ungrateful comes from the movie Office Space. The unit manager who strolled the isles of cube dwellers showed his lack of gratitude in his interpersonal interactions. Today, workers feel that they are not treated fairly and have to deal with values conflict.

Citing Maslach and Leiter again, they write, burnout is a result of “erosion in values, dignity, spirit, and will -- an erosion of the human soul” (pg. 17). This is a strong provocative statement meaningfully explaining “doing so much, with so little, for so long.” The human spirit can become willing again if organizations take steps.

The modern military tries to relieve effects of stress and the resulting PTSD in the field and before and after a deployment. What are organizations doing to combat stress and burnout? The first step organizations must consider is the truth of burnout. Since the bottom line is the bottom line in contemporary business, one truth is that burnout takes an economic toll. Another truth is the emotional toll zapping the strength of workers both mentally and physically.

Organizations cannot afford to have unwilling and ungrateful elements if it wants to survive. Relieving the economic and emotional toll of burnout can take the "un" out leaving willing and grateful. People do not exist because of an organization, an organization exists because of people.

ThinkerToys

2011-10-28T15:25:00.000-05:00

I pulled Michael Michalko's text ThinkerToys off my shelf to find some thought stimulation and came across these little ditties.

Turn a capital "D" on its side, place it on top of a capital "J." What does it remind you of?

How about this... Read both across and down. What do you see?

A I3 C

I4

Maybe a little silliness and maybe a way our rational minds interpret what we see. The umbrella graphic looks like a D turned on its side on top of a J. Left to right, we see A, B, C while top to bottom we easily see 12, 13, 14.

According to Michalko, our minds are performing a SCAMPER.
S - Substitute
C - Combine
A - Adapt
M - Modify or Magnify
P - Put (in order)
E - Eliminate
R - Reverse or Rearrange

Michalko challenges us to "take an existing item and manipulate it into a new idea." He reminds us that everything new is simply a modification of something that already exists. You can SCAMPER your daily routine, be creative, and make everything old new again.

Protests - Deja Vu, the 1960s Revisited

2011-10-16T14:10:00.001-05:00

In 2010, the Center for Representative Politics reported that federal law makers from 2008 to 2009 saw a 16% collective personal wealth increase. Those were the lean years, the Democrat held Senate and House of Representatives years following the Obama election.

The Center for Representative Politics also cited that 261 elected federal law makers are millionaires, that is almost half of the full congress. The 99% movement should have a beef with law makers as well as the 1% of the U.S. population who claim the same distinction.

Wealthiest federal law makers list their investments portfolios as including General Electric and Bank of America as their top company investments. Holding third, fourth, and fifth place were Cisco Systems, Proctor&Gamble, and Microsoft. Apple, IBM, Coke and Pepsi are popular holdings as well. Worry not, big oil and pharmaceuticals are part of the holding mix, too.

The 99% movement projects its anger at big business; however, their focus needs to expand. In a time when 99% are seeing their net worth dropping, the top 1% see their net worths growing. Executive salaries and compensations have soared, some reports say by as much as 350%. Law makers may argue that their 16% net worth increase is very modest compared to executive salaries and executive net worth increases.

Ask someone who falls into the bottom percentile of the 99% if their net worth increased 16% let alone 350%. The 99% movement is much more right for the U.S. than the Tea Party movement.

Like Baby Boomers of the 1960s who willingly faced jail for protesting against Vietnam, for civil rights, and for political change, the 99% movement has a vision of something better. But the 99% movement must not limit their focus to big business. The government and big business are strange bed partners and are both Democrat and Republican.

Congress - The Wealthiest Top Ten

2011-10-16T13:12:00.001-05:00

The 99% movement is picking up steam across the United States and around the world; I, for one, hope it continues. However, lets examine wealth in the in the U.S. Congress.

You probably will not be surprised to learn that among the top ten wealthiest members of Congress, three Republicans have a combined net worth of 551 million dollars. However, that leaves seven places in the top ten and those places are held by Democrats whose combined net worth exceeds 616 million dollars. These numbers were published by newsmax.com from data supplied by the U.S. Congress itself.

Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts was the wealthiest until this September 2011 report showed he dropped to third with a net worth of 193 million dollars. Of the seven wealthiest Democrats, Kerry holds over 31% of the top Democrats net worth.

Fair is fair however. The top two spots are Republican and they own 87% of the three Republicans in the top ten. The number ten position is also Republican with a mere 44 million dollars.

Yet reading this list, notably missing are representatives and senators from New York. Still, five of the seven wealthiest Democrats are from east coast districts in Virginia, West Virginia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Rounding out the seven is a representative from Colorado and a senator from California.

The top place holder is Republican from Texas, number two is Republican from California, and number ten place holder Republican from Florida.

Stated differently, Republican net worth holders are from widely different and diverse states and districts while Democrat net worth distribution is concentrated primarily in east coast states and districts known for rich corporate headquarters.

There are 538 elected federal law makers representing districts, states, and Washington DC. In a follow up piece, you will read how congress has increased its overall net worth in 2008 and 2009 despite the down turn in the national economy.

Will the 99% Movement Continue to Grow?

2011-10-16T10:05:00.001-05:00

Just as Boomers protested against Vietnam, protested for Civil Rights, and occupied college campus buildings seeking change, the 99% movement, though disorganized, is gaining momentum. In a protest in Omaha, Nebraska, as many as 1000 rallied to protest big businesses that headquarter in Omaha.

Data from several sources, including the U.S. Department of Labor, shows the growth of wealth among the top 1% of Americans is grater than the shrinking of wealth among the 99%. Business Insider reports these findings graphically - http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall-street-protesters-are-so-angry-about-2011-10#lets-start-with-the-obvious-unemployment-three-years-after-the-financial-crisis-the-unemployment-rate-is-still-at-the-highest-level-since-the-great-depression-except-for-a-brief-blip-in-the-early-1980s-1.

American Legislative Exchange Council boasts having over 2000 elected legislators among its members as well as many corporate CEOs and business owners. More findings suggest these CEOs and business owners draft "business friendly" legislation presenting the drafts to law makers who, in turn, introduce the drafts as bills to various states' congresses and to the federal congress.

If or when passed and signed by governors or the president, these "business friendly" laws most generally provide businesses, CEOs, and owners protections that the 99% are not entitled to. My research suggests the 99% movement seeks change just as Boomers did in the 1960s.

So, my friends, where do we practitioners of leadership expend our energies? Should we work to expose shady practices that harm the middle class? Should we work within the legislative system to route out questionable practices of businesses and law makers? How do we rationalize our leadership against Matthew 25:45, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me?"

Management Builder

2011-05-21T15:12:00.000-05:00

Bruce Winston wrote a little tale of an organization from its founding. In the beginning, the Master Management Builder lifted his structure. The ceiling he called mission and vision. The pillars holding the ceiling The Master Management Builder called planning, organizing, directing, and controlling.

So far Winston’s little book sounds like a refresher in Management 101; yet, there is more. The Master Management Builder noticed how the ceiling sagged in the middle. There was nothing supporting mission and vision; he couldn’t do it alone. To shore up the sag in the ceiling, The Master Management Builder realized the need for a larger, stronger pillar in the center. This larger and stronger pillar became known as staffing.

Staffing is essential to an organization. The Master Management Builder realized that he could not support mission and vision on his own. Staffing gives an organization its strength. Staffing supports the mission and vision.

However, having staffing alone was not enough for The Master Management Builder. He gathered his staff - assistants, managers, and workers - together and began describing the structure, the operation, material needed, and explained that each member of staff shared in the vision and mission. The staff was delighted that The Master Management Builder was open and transparent. This was a “value-added” to the organization.

Notice, The Master Management Builder’s initial view of organization was one of openness and transparency; the structure had no walls obstructing collaboration. The staff was free to move about the structure unhindered, customers could see the inner workings of the organization. There were no secrets.

That was the beginning and as you may guess, things changed and this short piece cannot tell the whole story. However, if you wish, the rest of the story is in The Master Management Builder & His Structure: A story of walls, arches and learning. It is in the learning that we grow our organization.

Obedience versus critical thinking

2010-10-20T10:50:00.004-05:00

How we define obedience and disobedience began way back when we started the acculturating process, yes, from childhood. Simply, we learned that obeying is good and has positive consequences and disobeying is bad and has negative consequences - a trip to the ice cream shop or a trip to the wood shed.

Lets apply this to contemporary business. Do workers feel an obligation to obey their leaders without question? Or, another way, is doing the same old thing the same old way and getting the same old results advancing business in creative and innovative ways? For the sake of keeping your job, you answer the first question yes, and for the same reason, you answer the second no, entering conflict and chaos.

Let me share a math problem in Roman Numerals to illustrate how disobeying traditional processes can turn a wrong answer into a correct answer.

XI + I = X

As you observe, the equation is flat wrong! We obey our senses, and our math teachers, that tell us the equation is wrong. We do not accept this equation as right even though it is presented by a learned person. However, disobeying traditional thinking can open the observer to question how this equation can be made right.

Although your first inclination is to rearrange the Roman Numerals to make the equation right, the creative thinker - disobeying traditional processes - will correct the equation without moving a single numeral. Questioning how this can be sets you on the path toward creative thinking.

We want to obey because it feels good and is safe; we avoid consequences. Yet, situations exist in which we feel conflict and chaos with our senses and desire to obey. Sometimes we face problems that are inherently wrong and feel they must be made right. The creative thinker turns this page upside down to correct the equation.

Serendipity is Manageable

2010-07-06T16:22:00.002-05:00

Horace Walpole coined the word serendipity in 1754 after reading Three Princes of Serendip. They “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.” Today, we have tools at our disposal that allow us to manage serendipity or, at least, place ourselves strategically so that serendipity is possible.

What is serendipity? The traditionally accepted definition of serendipity is “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.” Well then, if events are by chance, how is it possible to place ourselves where serendipity is likely?

In their book, The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion, Hagel, Brown, and Davison relate the value of our social networks (FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) as points of connection to friends and friends of friends who may have tacit knowledge we need and can grow from connecting with us gaining our tacit knowledge.

Imagine a chance reading of friends’ FaceBook wall posts that result in an opportunity to connect with another whom we share an interest. In this situation, we’ve experienced a “chance event in a happy and beneficial way.” What is the likelihood of this event happening had we not had a FaceBook profile, not been linked to our friend, and not been able to read that wall post?

We are not the Three Princes of Serendip making discoveries by accident. We create our opportunities for serendipitous events to evolve. We do not wait for it to come to us; we seek it, manage it, and benefit from it.

Just who do you think you are?

2010-03-15T14:36:00.001-05:00

For ten years before entering academics, I was a retail manager. Among the many tasks of management is the important function of managing people. I preferred leaving open positions unfilled until I found the right person with the right match of product knowledge, personality, and motivation to work in a fast-paced and changing market.

One busy Saturday afternoon a young person who regularly browsed the store approached me directly with a statement, “I know why you have that ‘now hiring’ sign in your window.” I took the bate, “Okay, why?” His reply, “Because you haven’t hired me.”

Yes, I did think to my self, just who do you think you are. However, I asked if he wanted an application, he had one on file; I made an appointment to meet with him on the next Monday afternoon.

During the interview, I realized he did know just who he was. He had a youthful motivation to sell our product, was a product user, knew staff members from his time spent browsing, and had a personality matching our store staff and our customers.

After the interview, I asked him to remove the “now hiring” sign from the window so I could work him into the schedule.

Moral: Know just who you think you are, set goals that are both realistic and achievable, exercise self-confidence, and begin the walk toward reaching your goals. And, never stop learning.

The Letter and the Intent: Obeying the Law

2010-01-31T08:27:00.003-06:00

It was Peter Drucker who cited the difference between management and leadership as doing things right as a manager and doing right things as a leader; many of us share a value system that includes both. Let us consider doing things right from a Biblical perspective.

In the Book of Leviticus, Israelites are told people with open sores are like lepers, unclean and must live separately from the general population (Lev 13:1-2, 44-46). With our modern knowledge of medicine, it makes sense that the Israelites wanted to segregate clean and unclean to prevent the spread of disease. In this sense, doing things right was the right thing to do. Even a clean person touching an unclean person became unclean.

Generations later came Jesus into a Jewish society that lived the religious law versus living the Jewish faith. They were at a point in their society that process was more important than result. Throughout the Gospels we read of Jesus sought out by the religious leaders attempting to entrap Him. Jesus was threatening their status as religious law givers and religious law enforcers. They felt the status quo and their power being undermined.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus heals a leper by stretching out his hand and touching the unclean person (Mark 1:40-45). Jesus told the leper to obey the law, present yourself to the priests, be declared clean, and make the offering prescribed in the law. Jesus admonished him to tell no one how he became clean. Of course, overcome with joy of being clean, the leper could not be silent.

As this passage continues, Jesus is no longer able to enter towns and villages quietly, he is forced to seek rest in the countryside, away from the people. Did the general population see Jesus as unclean or did they see Jesus as something else? The answer comes in the same passages; the people flocked to him.

Jesus was selfless in healing the leper acting out of love and compassion toward another person that polite Jewish society would avoid in obedience to one law. Jesus, conversely, obeyed a higher law given to Moses that tells polite Jewish society to love God and love your neighbor as you love yourself. Did Jesus do things right or did He do right things?

Contemporary organizations in the 21st Century may not employ lepers but they do employ managers and leaders who must balance doing things right with doing right things. For this argument consider the law prescribing miles per gallon of gas a vehicle must achieve. Auto makers obey the law to the letter, doing things right. It is unusual in our contemporary society to read the law and ascribe its intent to our daily practices, building the most efficient vehicles possible thus doing right things.

Like in the time of Jesus, many contemporary organizations find obeying the process of the law is more important than obeying the intent. Is the letter of the law your organizational leper?

Legacy

2009-04-02T10:51:00.000-05:00

Legacy, from legate, to bequeath. Legacy is what you pass on or leave to another. If we argue that imitation is the greatest form a flattery, then our legacy exists in the leaders we lead to lead who imitate our leadership.

As Craig Johnson posits, leaders can bequeath shadows of negative accomplishments or bequeath lighted paths of positive accomplishments. Herein we see a connection to lighting a candle and choosing to hide it in a basket or putting it on a candle stand to light the way for others.

As a professor, I have but a few weeks to interact with students in a course. When I ask how many want to take a class because the subject is exciting, I often get blank stares in return. When I ask how many take a class because it is a requirement, most hands go up. In those few weeks I am not going to see my legacy long term; however, I sense a legacy when suddenly one or two students have that Ah Ha - now I get it - moment.

Jo/Hari Window

2009-03-31T15:29:00.001-05:00

The JoHari Window, a tool developed in 1955, is still a good tool today. It has four panes:

1, Arena or open area. What you know about you and what others know about you.

2. Blind Spot. What others know about you that you don't know.

3. Hidden Agenda. This is what others don't know and you are unwilling to share.

4. Unknown: What you don't know and what others don't know.

The ideal is having the arena pane wide open thus minimizing the Blind Spot and the Hidden Agenda. This ideal involves openness, honesty, trust and expressed concern for others over self (Servant Leadership of Super Leadership if you like theories). Do others feel secure with you that they can tell you what you need to know from your blind spot? Do you feel secure with others to share your agenda?

Sensing this security aids you, in your leadership, to accept ideas and recommendations from others in a way that allow you all to collectively manage the unknown.

Leadership: Boon and Bust

2009-02-27T09:25:00.001-06:00

Master your operations. A good leadership team should see boon and bust times as appropriate times to commit their organization to a thorough SWOT analysis. Shouldn’t your house be in order all the time?

Use the downtime wisely. Many leaders have a serious fault. They feel that if they are not working they are not productive. Yet, leaders need down time, not just during down turns. Leaders, managers, followers need to turn off computers, cell phones, blackberries, email and seek rest. It is with rest that comes reconstitution and rejuvenation - a clear head open to new thinking and new visions. It is called sabbatical rest for a reason.

Invest in your people. People make the organization successful in both boon and bust. Leaders need to invest in people at all times. If your balance sheet looks at developing people skills as an expense rather than an investment, your organization is out of balance.

Spread some hope throughout the organization. Whether the business cycle is up or down, visionary leaders never stop scanning the horizon for new opportunities or new threats. Leaders who “Master Your Operations” continually share and seek new thinking new ideas new visions for a better organizational future. The brightest and most innovative ideas are out there on the shop floor. Ask your followers to take the walk with you.

Promoting optimism and good work practices in a declining economy

2009-02-11T11:03:00.001-06:00

Adherence to core values has to be the starting point. Leaders who hold position and title must be seen by workers as both walking the walk and talking the talk. Leaders (strong, high potential followers/proteges) who do not have position and title can do no less.

Be visionary, think beyond the current situation. Envision and share your vision of and for a better tomorrow. If you, leader, spread gloom and doom, you'll receive that in return for your work force.

Set the expectations and mirror the expected behavior. Hubris comes before the fall.

Seek ideas to improve the climate from your work force. Especially seek out young Gen Y ideas. Gen Y is the future not you.

Look beyond processes. Which is more important, the end result or the process for achieving it? Be prepared to toss processes that don't work anymore. Is it time to revise your business model, evolve into something new?

The patient visits the doctor and says, "Doctor, it hurts when I do this." The doctor replied, "Stop doing that."

Is this you, leader?

2009-01-31T11:20:00.002-06:00

One is a leader who has confidence to ask followers what he/she can do to improve as a leader. One is a leader who can open the Jo/Hari arena window, minimalize the hidden agenda and accept what others identify in the blind spot. In this way, followers and leaders can manage the unknown together for the betterment of whole.

Great Leaders & Future Leaders

2009-01-28T09:37:00.002-06:00

What constitutes "great leader," and in whose eyes is the leader great? Moreover, does great leader mean a person sitting atop an organizational chart? I believe our Western focus of great leader comes from the industrial age of leader omnipotence. In a post-industrial era, leaders exist to serve future leaders.

Great leaders are succession planners, knowing their time in leadership is transient. Consider these seven points John Maxwell posits.

1. Leaders who gather followers need to be needed. Leaders who develop leaders want to be succeeded.

2. Leaders who gather followers focus on people's weakness. Leaders who develop leaders focus on their strenghs.

3. Leaders who gather followers focus on the bottom 20 percent. Leaders who develop leaders focus on the top 20 percent.

4. Leaders who gather followers treat everyone the same. Leaders who develop leaders treat people as individuals.

5. Leaders who gather followers spend their time. Leaders who develop leaders invest their time.

6. Leaders who gather followers ask for little commitment. Leaders who develop leaders asks for great commitment.

7. Leaders who gather followers impact this generation. Leaders who develop leaders impact future generations.

How many leaders today will leave a legacy of greatness into future ages?

An Essay on Followership

2009-01-05T10:23:00.002-06:00

Colleges, universities, and scholarly think-tanks generate countless volumes on leadership and followers in relationship to leaders. Seldom do these well endowed institutions consider leaders in relationship to followers, from a followers perspective. As the study of followership evolves, its import on organizational growth grows exponentially.

Historically, followers were considered workers doing the bidding of supervisors and managers. Hierarchy shared only enough information for a worker to do, generally, his job. The worker had no idea how his piece fit into the whole. This industrial age thinking was appropriate in the mid nineteenth and early twentieth century as masses of generally less educated farmers and farm workers left agriculture for a more secure life style in growing industrial cities.

Not only adults entered the industrial work arena, but also businesses employed children as young as pre-teen in dangerous and potentially deadly jobs. Without lengthy belaboring of child labor and multiple incidents of death and dismemberment that lead to strict child labor laws, it is important that there is a link between the agricultural migration to cities and child labor laws. The puzzle pieces are complex and fitting them into an exact pattern is difficult, yet as part of the final analysis, the pieces lead to the establishment of public school systems and required minimum education standards. Over time, public secondary schools, and public colleges began providing advanced educational opportunities to more masses of people.

Workers receiving more education began questioning supervisors and managers who sensed their authority over workers shrinking. Workers began knowing and understanding their organization and knowing and understanding their place in their organization.

Perhaps an example from the text Atomic: Reforming the business landscape into the new structures of tomorrow1 will provide a meaningful glimpse of change. Most scholars cite Martin Luther as the prime mover of religious reform, the Protestant Reformation. It is true that Martin Luther was highly significant for many reasons including translating the bible into the language of the people. However, another person about 75 years earlier had a different role that was perhaps more formidable.

About 1455, Gutenberg, with his movable type printing press, produced the first print bible. Rather than waiting years for a monk to transcribe a bible, manually, word for word, Gutenberg could set type and reproduce hundreds of pages in days. Suddenly, people who could read, could obtain a print bible. No longer dependent on clergy in the pulpit to interpret scriptural meaning, the power of the clergy was broken. Workers receiving an education broke the power of supervisors and managers similarly.

Martin Luther and Gutenberg did not cause the collapse of religion, they changed the face of it. People of faith did not stop being faithful, how they practiced their faith changed. Workers did not bring down organizations, they changed the face of management. Workers continued to work; however, how they worked changed.

Significant change in religious practice and worker behavior did not occur from a top down pronouncement. Rather, the significant changes occurred from the bottom up, from the follower who became aware that something needed change. In the mid 1800s in England and early 1900s in the U.S., sociologists and psychologists began studying something called leadership. Leadership was radically different from management ideas of command and control.

These early studies began telling managers that Machiavellian practices of power over workers were not satisfactory to gain worker compliance. They began teaching that workers do so because they want to contribute to the success of an organization. Past thinking emphasized that organizations exist for people, so they have a place to work. New thinking began emphasizing that organizations exist because of people who work because they want to.

Leadership was first defined about 1815, and, as already cited, studies of leadership began in the mid 1800s. About 1925, one hundred years after leadership as an idea appeared, the first reference to followership occurred. Defining followership sounds similar to a childhood game called “follow the leader.” Followers are an extension of their leaders.

Although these teachings were early leadership insights, they were still top down, applicable in the industrial age. Contemporary business is not industrial in 2008 as it was in 1908 and through the end of World War II. Moreover, technological advances make information available to huge populations over the internet, organizational intranets, and extranets. The idea of supervisors and managers withholding information seems unimaginable in today’s corporations. The internet today is the Gutenberg printing press of 1455.

The shift to followership studies is seen in recent organizational studies that focus to the meaningful work of followers in organizations. Numbers vary, but researchers generally believe that about 75 to 90 percent of organizational accomplishments occur within follower groups who receive about ten percent of the acknowledgement. The research also assessed leaders work in organizations. Although leaders hold position and title, most spend approximately 70 percent of their work day in follower roles.

Even the great management researcher and teacher, Warren Bennis, admits that organizations function because of followers who he calls under-appreciated. Further, his research findings explain how important it is for leaders to seek needed information from followers while also emphasizing followers must tell the truth, telling leaders what they need to know not what they want to hear. If you can recall The Four Seasons singing Silence is Golden, you can also recall the concluding lyric line exclaiming, “...but my eyes still see.” Followers who see a need for change have an obligation to fellow workers, leaders, and the organization to speak up. In business, silence is not golden, it is lead.

Is there a reason why scholarly studies on followership do not exist? Are organizations overlooking the potential of followers? To the first question, followership is under appreciated by leaders. Some studies conducted among organizational followers examined how followers felt about leaders thus missing an opportunity to study how followers feel about themselves. To the second question, the answer may appear a simple yes; however, yes is not simple and yes is not accurate.

Terms like postindustrial and postmodern may confuse many people who study organizations, their leadership, and their followership. Perhaps researchers apply industrial age corporate thinking to postindustrial and postmodern organizations. Research that examines socio-technical climate of organizations recognize the interconnections of people across industries, regions, national boundaries, cultures, and languages. The power of followers as knowledge generators is a new phenomenon and an untapped resource. One statistic finds that among ten thousand workers today, technology allows them as many as five million potential interconnections. Their ability to share and gather information make followers knowledge generators and innovative problem solvers for their organizations leading to greater efficiency.

The Boomer Generation reaching retirement presents contemporary business with opportunities to seek new leadership within their existing work force. Developing potential within lets organizations project their values and vision into the future.

Achieving a future projection goes beyond coaching and beyond training and development. Coaching and training and development are top down activities assuring that workers know and perform their assigned duties correctly, efficiently, and repeatedly. Transferring values and vision may appear top down; however, the transfer begins bottom up. A worker who desires upward mobility seeks a leader willing to accept the responsibility of a long-term mentoring relationship.

Leaders who accept a mentoring role in their organization project their interpersonal skills upon a protege developing, over time, a mutual learning experience that develops protege skills as the mentor learns new skills from the protege. Becoming a protege elevates a follower among peers and elevates a follower among leaders. Although the follower still follows, the follower makes a conscious choice to improve work skills, enhance knowledge of organizational politics, and expand understanding of values, vision, and organizational mission. Over time, the protege begins acting like a leader from within the ranks of follower.

Leaders are transient making it an obligation of leadership to grow new leaders. The future of organizations is not within existing leaders, rather it lays among the ranks of followers. Part of visionary leading is seeing the future in existing followers.

Works Cited:

Roger Camrass & Martin Farncombe (2003). West Sussex: Capstone Publishing Limited.

River Rapids and Foresight

2008-12-09T12:03:00.003-06:00

Consider this analogy, as you row a boat on a calm river enjoying the scenery mirrored against water, you can easily forget the nature of a river or fail to recognize the danger of a rapid around the next bend. Are you prepared for it when you hit the rapid? Do you know if it is a class one rapid or a class five? Just as river rapids have stages of difficulty and danger, failing to recognize the difficulties and dangers of action without foresight can bring business into turbulence and chaos it is ill prepared to survive. Having no intention to rehash news the media presents every night, the intend of this short piece simply suggests business has opportunities to see future turbulence and take aggressive steps to avoid the center of the rapids where turbulence is worst.

The current economic blight is an example of business failing to anticipate future. Note, the word future is not preceded with the indefinite article “a” or definite article “the” as writers generally insert. Moreover, future is not an equal and opposite reaction to some applied force as the science of physic teaches. Future is the next second in time that a clock ticks toward and future is a point years and generations ahead.

Therefore, why is business surprised when the river becomes turbulent? Each business affected by the current economic downturn surely has a vision, a statement of values, and some mission statement encompassing vision and values. Surely, business has some kind of strategic plan for operations. Is there a missing element, were businesses foresightful?

Foresight is not having a vision, it is being visionary. Foresight views potential futures on the near horizon and over the horizon. Foresight recognizes that horizon changes can occur slowly as a meandering river flowing between its banks. Foresight also images the river becoming a raging rapid on the horizon. The visionary aspect of foresight allows business to establish multiple contingencies by asking right questions of stakeholders. Asking right questions of its stakeholders, invites people to think strategically. As people begin thinking strategically, they ask more right, foresightful questions. As business begins answering the right questions, it begins seeing multiple answers to each question. The multiplicity of answers resembles the multiplicity of future horizons.

Even as the boat rower, or business, survives the rapids reaching the river mouth, the horizon changed again. Although the rapids are past and the river is smooth and reflective, business cannot remain reflective. The river at its mouth, its delta, poses new challenges. Which rivulet provides smooth rowing into open water, which will snag the bottom on a sand bar?

The person rowing a boat on a calm river can avoid rapids by staying on the calm water, its safe there. Business can stay on the calm water as well, its safe there. However, business exists to serve its constituents, grow its product line, innovate, and change. Growing business, innovating and changing means taking the rapids, taking risks. However, it does not mean taking the rapids without foresight.

Business leader, you have maneuvered the rapids, navigated the delta, and entered the open water. There is a storm brewing, now what!

Reconciliation and Reconstitution

2008-07-09T08:37:00.000-05:00

Seeking out a text to help write a dialogue post, I came across Roger Soder’s (2001) text on reconciliation and reconstitution (pgs 144-148). He contends that reconciliation and reconstitution “take an altering of deep structures and not just superficial change” (pg. 144).

Let us consider the changes Paul experienced on the road to Damascus and afterward related in Acts 9. Paul was a leader who received a dramatic life altering vision, troubled he stayed with Judas, and finally Ananias’ blessing opened Paul’s eyes. Paul’s baptism was his reconciling moment. The reconstitution of Paul began almost immediately and was confirmed in Acts 9:27 in Jerusalem.

Soder presents us with six action points to make renewal possible and they all apply to Paul’s mission.

See the world large not small
We cannot lie to ourselves or others
Insist on seeking truth about what has happened
Make time and resource commitments
Recognize the relationship between reconciliation and reconstitution
Reconciliation exists in a free and open regimes not closed and authoritarian ones

In our renewal, have we taken steps to reconcile and reconstitute?

Holy Bible (NASB)

Soder, Roger (2001). The Language of LEadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Shadowing and Mirroring

2008-07-02T09:35:00.002-05:00

Mirroring of narcissistic leader behavior is always a concern in organizations. However, I counter that such behavior can be forced. Followers, thinking they want to be like the leader may mirror to gain favor. I counter, too, that an organization cannot hire for the position of fool (truthsayer). The fool is likely someone appearing from within the ranks.

Carrying the discussion further, hubris of power leads to casting shadows over people, organizations, nations. My oft cited references from Johnson are found in O’Neil (2004) as well. As O’Neil wirtes, “Collective and cultural shadows are the repositories of fear, hatred, and misunderstandings on a mass level” (pg. 58). Overcoming personal hubris and personal shadows is not easy. Write a list of qualities you dislike in others and narrow the list to things you really hate. O’Neil citing therapist William Miller concludes that the list of things we really hate is “a fairly accurate picture of our personal shadow” (pg. 60).

Johnson, Craig E. (2005). Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership: Casting Light or Shadow (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

O’Neil, John R. (2004). The Paradox of Success: When Winning at Work Means Losing at Life. New York: Penguin Group.

2008-06-26T13:05:00.003-05:00

Renewal is a capstone question taking us full circle to the human focus or leadership. In that vain, organizations exist because of people and not for people. Hence, the human focus. Yet, begs an answer, how or when do leaders know when it is time for rest and renewal?

O’Neil’s (2004) introduction discusses hubris pride. Kets de Vries (2003) defines it as an offshoot of uncontrolled narcissism. What is it about these leaders’ thirsts for power that makes them myopic, unable or unwilling to accept or even acknowledge advice of others?

Conversely, Kets de Vries employs a fool to counter narcissism. The fool may compare to the court jester of medieval times. The fool is to the leader and the organization, a truthsayer who reminds leaders that they are only transients.

A leader balanced with a fool’s folly receives protection from hubris. Being balanced, a leader has capacity for love and work. Love is the human focus of leadership, connectedness and ability to relate to others.

Is it love for the leader and the organization that makes the fool’s role possible? Whom is our fool telling us when it is time to renew from our folly?

Hill, Charles W. L. and Jones, Gareth R. (1998). Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Kets de Vries, Manfred F. R. (2003). Leaders, Fools and Imposters: Essays on the Psychology of Leadership. Lincoln: iUniverse, Inc.

O’Neil, John R. (2004). The Paradox of Success: When Winning at Work Means Losing at Life. New York: Penguin Group.

Balance

2008-06-26T13:02:00.002-05:00

How do organizations create balance between work, life, and organizational expectations? Let me refer to Johnson (2005) who relates the need for leaders to exercise spiritual disciplines within the organizations. The three disciplines are inward, outward, and corporate. Exercising each in balance is a chore. The inward disciplines focus on inner, invisible, dimensions of spirituality (meditation, prayer, fasting, study). Outwardly, are the visible impacts of our relations with others (simplicity, solitude, submission, service). Corporate disciplines are those done in community (confession, worship, guidance, celebration).

Johnson likens the spiritual disciplines to casting light over an organization. Therefore, it is possible to link hubris’ lust for power as casting shadows over an organization. Leaders, taking an organization from good to great, practice professional will and personal humility.

Organizations do not create balance, leaders create balance.

Johnson, Craig E. (2005). Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership: Casting Light or Shadow (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Rice, Kenneth (2008). Blackboard post, LDSL709. Regent University, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Take a Pause

2008-06-12T15:08:00.001-05:00

The seventh day, Sabbath, sabbatical, refer to the Biblical period of rest. Genesis 2:2 (NASB) gives first reference to seventh day and rest. In academics, many institutions offer professors a sabbatical year, usually every seventh. Biblically, Leviticus 25:5 (NASB) refers to the sabbatical year. The sabbatical year allows a professor to exit the classroom and the academic environment to travel and learn new things. When a professor returns from sabbatical, they are refreshed, energized, and ready to share their newly gained perspective with students.

Rest is a theme occurring throughout Biblical text. Mark 6:30-32 relates the apostles’ reported to Jesus their work and Jesus responded to them understanding their need to rest in seclusion.

As Christian leaders, organizational heads, do we allow our people true Sabbath or sabbatical? Do we tell our people to turn off their computers, cell phones, and blackberries to go “away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves” (Mark 6:32)?

Maslach and Leiter (1997) point out that workers produce more and receive less compensation while their seniors receive abundant compensation. Romans 12:2 & 8 urge we be renewed in mind and contribute generously to the needs of others. Our minds and others’ minds need rest.

Holy Bible (NASB)

Maskach C. & Leiter, M. P. (1997). The Truth About Burnout: How organizations cause personal stress and what to do about it. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Sabbath Peace

2008-06-12T15:04:00.002-05:00

Why do people of faith feel a need to visit places of religious significance? What do these people sense as they wander through shrines to one or another Saint? Who hasn’t visited the U.S. WWI cemetery at Verdun or the WWII cemetery near the French beaches of the English Channel and not felt a deep emotional peace?

Sabbath Peace (Shabbat Shalom), as Mackenzie (2007) offers, is more than a sensing peace; it is a condition of reconnection “with that inner place that reminds us of the importance of love and its consequences…” Mackenzie continues that Sabbath Peace is a “place and time” for healing and making whole.

When we exclaim, “Peace of Christ,” we exclaim in Christian terms Shabbat Shalom. Rest in the Peace of Christ.

Beecham, Robert (2008). Sabbath Rest: Introduction. Bible Studies for Growth in God. Retrieved June 12, 2008 from http://www.growthingod.org.uk.

Mackenzie, Donald (2007, August 5). Shabbat Shalom: Fed by Sabbath Peace. University Congressional United Church of Christ: Seattle, Washington. Retrieved June 12, 2008 from http://www.universityucc.org/worship/Sermons/2007/20070805.pdf.

Personal experience at the U.S. WWI Cemetery near Verdun, France.

Personal experience at the Basilica of the Blessed Virgin in Trier, Germany. Reported as the shrine where Jesus’ vestments reside.

The Future of Innovation in Education

2008-03-29T11:12:00.002-05:00

The Task Force On The Future Of American Innovation finds troubling evidence that U.S. Colleges and Universities are falling behind other nations in awarding undergraduate science and engineering degrees, areas where greatest creativity and innovation has existed over time. The 2000 data indicates the U.S. awards about 5.7 science or engineering degrees per 100 degrees awarded. European countries award about 8 to 13 per 100, Japan equal 8 per 100, and South Korea is 11 per 100. Graduate degrees in science and engineering finds the U.S. trailing Europe by 350,000 degrees awards and trailing Asian countries by over 750,000. At the doctoral level, U.S. numbers are a little better. About 89,000 of 114,000 doctoral science and engineering degrees came from U.S. schools. However, 2001 findings tell that non-citizen aliens hold 57 percent of postdoctoral positions in the U.S. A conclusion to draw from these numbers is that students entering college are not prepared for the rigors of scientific and engineering exploration and the associated creativity of examination.

The Task Force On The Future Of American Innovation http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:vfV358zV8_QJ:www.futureofinnovation.org

2008-03-26T18:24:00.002-05:00

Innovation is an idea whose time has come. Innovation is sweeping business globally to the extent that small agile organizations seem to innovate at each new business cycle. Large mega corporations that practice risk aversion find themselves caught playing innovation catch-up against great odds.

Authors across the leadership and management spectrum advise in favor of risk taking. Beyond risk taking, they advise in favor of mistake tolerance. This is a difficult change for large organizations to accept; however, evidence supports it.

Organizations truly committed to innovation reward efforts toward creativity. Research conducted by Michael Tushman and Charles O’Reilly III found that it was not money that motivated workers to stretch their thinking; it was recognition from leaders and managers for their accomplishments that provided the greatest incentive.

Conversely, risk averse organizations spend more management time forecasting goals and focusing on making them, reducing costs, and delivering results . Peter Senge addresses the risk aversion as an addiction to quick fixes rather than a strategy of innovation.

Michael L. Tushman & Charles A. O’Reilly, Winning Through Innovation: A Practical Guide to Leading Organizational Change and Renewal (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing Corp, 2002).

Brian Christian, Strange Bedfellows: Innovation and Risk Aversion [article online] (DASO Consulting LLC December 2006, accessed March 25, 2008); available from http://www.dasoconsulting.com/StrangeBedfellows.doc.

Peter Senge and others, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, (New York: Currency Doubleday, 1994).

Learning Loops

2008-03-24T10:53:00.003-05:00

Winning at innovation, leaders must look beyond single-loop learning toward spiral learning. The living organic system theory is a theme consistently trying to relate organizational change and individual behavior as part of the greater whole. Some expand it to their belief in synergy. Holding your point, “The challenge for leaders is to create an environment that engages people in their passions so they naturally become creative” is correct, do we then presume accepting the notion of work places become learning laboratories? Senge et al (1994) propose several points affecting a learning laboratory, three presented here (Senge, 1994 pg. 173).

1. Show how the systems structure directly produces patterns of behavior.
2. Explore how behavior will change when different aspects of the structure are altered.
3. Unveil points of leverage that might otherwise be ignored.

Casual loops present a general description of a desired outcome while giving no indication of affects over time. Your cited Fairholm principles add what Senge et al missed in their discussion – paradoxes, and perhaps paradigm shifts. Tushman & O’Reilly (2002) relate the role of managers to realign and reshape organizations in a way reflecting changes in their industry.

Does the system unleash human potential or human potential unleash the system?

Jenks, Deborah (2008, March 21). Creativity in Life-giving Systems. Blackboard Post, Regent University.

Senge, Peter M, Kleiner, Art, Roberts, Charlotte, Ross, Richard B., & Smith, Bryan J. (1994). The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday.

Tushman, Michael & O’Reilly III, Charles A. (2002). Winning Through Innovation: A Practical Guide to Leading. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Creative Learning Organization

2008-03-20T18:18:00.004-05:00

Tushman and O’Reilly (2002) offer an eye-opening glimpse of creativity in large organization. In one example, they explain how arrogance caused a large company to falter. In another, they present evidence of an organization looking toward the future and seeing its product eclipsed by another of its own products. Between these two organizations, one sees groupthink evolving into a false sense of greatness and in the other a sense of we can be better.

The take away lesson is that of being ambidextrous (pg. 167). While being a master of or over a product, ambidextrous organizations exercise their “…ability and willingness to understand and work with the forces around you” (Senge et al (1994, pg. 194) to see possibilities beyond the original structure. Another view is that of having a creative orientation that either personally or organizationally asks, what can I/we create. Again, Senge et al explain organizations taking this stance become more confident and competent. They state, “By nearly every yardstick, including the ability to appear ethical and responsible, this is a dynamic organization, an organization of winners” (pg.228).

Senge, Peter M, Kleiner, Art, Roberts, Charlotte, Ross, Richard B., & Smith, Bryan J. (1994). The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday.

Tushman, Michael & O’Reilly III, Charles A. (2002). Winning Through Innovation: A Practical Guide to Leading. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Law Nine

2008-03-19T14:35:00.003-05:00

Senge (1990) is also an author I often cite and he asks if the organization has a learning disability. He cites a mountain of unheeded evidence of problems that managers and employees may be aware of but are unable or unwilling to respond to and correct. The nature of work in many U.S. companies is, “I am my position” (pg. 18). Our scope of work is just our part of the whole and our success is not the whole just doing our part correctly.

From the same eleven laws of organizational learning, I cite law nine: You can have you cake and eat it too – but not at the same time (pg. 65). To facilitate organizational learning, the conundrum facing leadership is recognizing that solutions do not fit neatly into either/or choices. The learning organization may face a need to do both either and or to achieve the greatest advantage.

The best way is not the easy way. A solution is not the solution. Simply accepting a solution may leave the organization searching for a problem to fit the solution.

Senge, Peter M. (1990). The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday.

Building Blocks OR Stumbling Blocks

2008-02-29T13:50:00.002-06:00

Organizations with long rich histories find themselves steeped in tradition, honor, discipline, and excellence. Many are the strategic leaders whose actions are mythical in proportion and whose stories take on heroic god-like stature.

In Dead Poet Society, we have to recognize an organization that became dysfunctional adhering to antiquated ideas of education. Liberal creative thinking was akin to liberalism, destructive to good order and discipline of the students or good order and discipline of the school (?).

For the church, I propose that within the traditions of faith, leaders can reframe leadership. This does not appear to usurp discipline and tradition within the greater hierarchy, rather is appears as a way to make parishioners feel closer to their faith community through sharing the responsibility of caring for one another – another way of defining leadership.

The myths of heroic leaders and the traditions of the organization are important building blocks but must not impede innovation and creative thinking by becoming stumbling blocks.

Bolman, L. G. & Deal, T. E. (1997). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Hill, C. W. L. & Jones, G. R. (1998). Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach (4th Ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

RAMming Education

2008-02-21T15:48:00.003-06:00

Barber asks a vital and interesting question, “Does your product (church, class, medical practice, etc.) have it's own Facebook page?” In the switched-on age of Generation Y, traditional means of reaching an audience is vastly different. Apple, in an iPhone commercial boasts that anyone can view a Facebook page even when away from a computer.

Education is vastly different today because of technology. Face-to-face lecture halls are fading as schools shift emphasis to andragogical teachings methods. Trends toward electronic classrooms, cohort teaching, and distant learning allow students and professors to connect over time and space. Students and professor “get acquainted” through campus blogs, personal blogs, and other web based resources (Facebook, MySpace, Skype, etc.)

At Bellevue University, the shift began in 1996 when the Center for Distributive Learning began managing the first online cohort of the University. In 2005, the University President’s annual report claimed, “We now have students in all 24 time zones and both poles” (Muller, 2005).

Students once thought teachers rammed education down their throats. Now, professors RAM education.

Barber, Fred (2008, February 20). Tightening Product and Process Innovation. Blackboard Post Regent University: Virginia Beach.

Utterback, James (1994). Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Trust Exchange

2008-02-06T14:42:00.000-06:00

One thing that comes to mind when discussing trust is the context in which leaders and followers exchange trust. Yukl (2006) defines this relationship in terms of reciprocal influence. This becomes the basis for Leader-Member Exchange Theory. Just as we studied cultures in context, organizational relationships exist in both high and low exchange context. If the reciprocal trust is high, leaders are likely to reap high creativity from followers with the obverse being true in low exchange relationships.

We assume loyalty, mutual trust, respect and affection exist in the high exchange context; however, some research cited by Yukl adds additional elements. Included are individual attributes common to leader and follower, “negotiating latitude, incremental influence, shared values” (pg.118).

There remains the need to study relationships over time. Does exchange develop and evolve in similar ways as mentoring relationships? Unfortunately, we are mobile society changing jobs and allegiances quickly and often.

Yukl, Gary (2006). Leadership in Organizations (6th Ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Tools and Resources

2008-02-06T14:41:00.000-06:00

Searching through many leadership texts, I came upon DuBrin (2004) who opens the discussion of creativity in leaders and manifesting it upon followers through personality. He uses words like nonconformist and thrill-seeker as part of creative personality. Then he launches into intellectual with words like curious and divergent thinker. A funny line he uses to drive home creative thinking is, “People who are not creative suffer from ‘hardening of the categories’” (pg. 333). Consider this example: cell phones were simply communications devises until Microsoft and Intel diverged thinking, created chip sets allowing internet use on cell phones, and creating a whole new market.

How do leaders facilitate creativity and innovation in followers? According to DuBrin it is

1. Continually pursue creativity
2. Take risks and encourage risk taking
3. Avoid innovation for innovation sake

Give creative workers tools and resources, give them time and space.

DuBrin, Andrew J. (2004). Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Sharing a Shred Vision

2008-02-01T15:09:00.001-06:00

Lets take sharing vision a little further to suggest that visionary and motivational leaders are those who take time to mentor, to develop relationships with followers, and especially their protégé. While your leadership may inspire me, are you mentoring me in a way that transfers vision and values in a way that transforms me into a disciple?

O’hair et al (1998) provide a map of mentoring benefits for the protégé, the mentor, and the organization. For the mentor, the protégé provides support. In return, the mentor influences others on behalf of the protégé and gives public recognition of the protégé. As the relationship grows, so does friendship and role modeling. The protégé learns the politics of the organization with the mentor promoting the skills of the protégé.

The organization benefits as the protégé grows in skill and knowledge returning to the organization what the mentor taught. The protégé demonstrates values, shares vision, and promotes leadership in the organization.

Beyond creating a shared vision, leaders need to share a shared vision with younger members they can mentor. Thus, sharing a shared vision helps cultivate interpersonal relationships, manage conversations, and increase mutual admiration between leaders, protégés, and other members of the organization.

O”Hair, Dan, Friedrich, Gustav W. and Shaver, Lynda Dixon. (1998). Strategic Communication: In Business and the Professions (3rd Ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Word, Light & Spirituality

2008-01-31T16:54:00.001-06:00

The Second Vatican Council altered the liturgy of the Catholic Mass. One piece no longer a part of the Mass is what we older Catholics call The Last Gospel. The Last Gospel is the first chapter of the gospel of John 1-18. Thinking about these verses and the American slang use of word, one can use the slang integer word to denote agreement, understanding, even acceptance of the passage as truth. In terms of leadership, Christian or contemporary business, the word as truth aids in the formation of dialogue leading to open conversation and creativity.

“In the beginning was the Word” word.
“and the Word was with God” word
“and the Word was God” word.

However, it cannot end there. As the first chapter continues to explain the casting of “the True Light” over the world, we acknowledge leaders’ necessity to cast their true light over an organization, bring it out of darkness, and “enlighten every man.”

A contemporary leadership writer, Johnson (2005) links leadership and spirituality calling it coming to grips with evil. He explains for leaders to cast light over their organizations, they need spiritual development and develop spiritually inwardly, outwardly, and corporately.

Know the word, be in the light and cast it upon the world, and be spiritually developed – such are precepts of Jesus then and now.

Holy Bible - NASB

Johnson, Craig E. (2005). Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership: Casting Light or Shadow (2nd Ed.). Thousands Oaks: Sage.

Retrain Creativity

2008-01-22T15:32:00.000-06:00

The Oxford English Dictionary explains the origin of creativity as coming from late Middle English as being of divine nature. From Latin creat, meaning produced. Similarly, innovative derives from Latin innovare, meaning renewed or altered and in novare, meaning into new or make new. Therefore, creativity allows organizations to produce something new (innovation).

To an astute question, consider what makes a business creative, who are the creative thinkers? Juanita Weaver writing for SCORE says that creativity is not an activity of a creative few. She writes, “We are all creative. You may not even think you are creative, but that is not true. Creativity is our birth right, it is part of what makes us human.” She adds that diminished creativity results from social norms and life experiences. Consider what many a junior military member has experienced and heard, “You’re not paid to think.”

To reverse trends that may stymie creativity, business leaders must retrain themselves to acknowledge their creativity, retrain themselves to recognize the creativity of others, and retrain their organizational members to think and be creative.

Connections

2008-01-18T11:16:00.000-06:00

I am very much in support of journaling. In the undergraduate cohort programs I teach, weekly-posted journals allow participants to reflect on the previous week. They report events from work, personal events, and learning experiences. The journals open opportunities to participants to connect and interact on a personal level. There is creative sharing through their inter-connection.

In an earlier DSL course, we examined socio-technological connections and interpersonal relationships. We now use technology in ways previously not anticipated. Sproll & Kiesler (1998) address first and second level effects of technology. The first level is the anticipated gains in productivity of technology. However, more important, is the second level. At the second level, people are more creative because they pay attention to things differently and depend on people differently.

Paper journals gave way to electronic diaries, and electronic diaries have given way to blogging – thinking differently, writing differently, connecting globally.

Sproull, Lee & Kiesler, Sara (1998). Connections: New ways of working in the networked organization. Cambridge: MIT Press.

New Teach

2008-01-18T11:13:00.000-06:00

In her article, Snyder (2003) iterates the need for educators to develop creative thinking skills in students. She shifts the paradigm from traditional patters of education to patters that combine “knowledge and imagination to stimulate adventurous thinking versus merely generating … ideas leading to only one conclusion.”

The debate is actually two fold; one, faculty fear that some students will not participate. Two, faculty fear they will loose control of the classroom. Combing these, institutions fear the educational content is insufficient.

Since many adjuncts are professionals working in the field that they teach, they bring experiences to the classroom that a full time faculty member may not possess. This does not demean either professional, rather, suggests that adjuncts share practical skills while full professors share academic knowledge.

While I agree adjuncts receive lower pay for work, most adjuncts are supplementing their income through teaching. More important than pay is institutional recognition that adjuncts bring creativity form experiences to their classes.

Reference:

Snyder, Kimberlee D. (2003) Ropes, Poles, and Space: Active Learning in Business Education. Active Learning in Higher Education (4) 159. Retrieved January 17, 2008 from http://alh.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/4/2/159.

Organizational Creativity

2008-01-12T17:02:00.000-06:00

Consider what makes a business creative, who are the creative thinkers? Juanita Weaver writing for SCORE says that creativity is not an activity of a creative few. She writes, “We are all creative. You may not even think you are creative, but that is not true. Creativity is our birth right, it is part of what makes us human.” She adds that diminished creativity results from social norms and life experiences. Many a junior military member has heard, “You’re not paid to think.”

To reverse trends that may stymie creativity, business leaders must retrain themselves to acknowledge their creativity, retrain themselves to recognize the creativity of others, and retrain their organizational members to think and be creative. Michael Michalko offers a way to become creative. In his book, Creative Thinking, he shares the value of seeing what others are not seeing and thinking what others are not thinking.

It is difficult to find leaders and organizational members who have not heard the term brainstorming. Brainstorming opens the mind to creative thinking. Brainstorming allows thinkers to see connections of unrelated things. Morse connected relay stations for exchanging horses on stage lines with relay stations on a telegraph line to boost signal strength.

Why and how does creativity occur in leaders?

2008-01-10T17:54:00.001-06:00

Answering this question, I realize that it mirrors the chicken and the egg debate. Leaders do not begin their careers in leadership; hence, we separate leaders from leadership. Maxwell (2005) makes the distinction that anyone can lead from anywhere in an organization. According to Maxwell, leaders must be resourceful in finding “creative ways to make things happen” (pg. 290). A comparison of a worker today and a leader tomorrow results in the following (Maxwell, 2005).

To reach the level of future leader, Cave (2005) echoes Michalko (2001) that leaders need kick starts. Cave starts by telling leaders to keep daily journals of the previous day. He says to include “ideas, dreams, problems, and rambling thoughts.” Moreover, he advises carrying a journal, “Use your journal to record your thoughts, ideas, and observations during the day. Write in a creative quotation, affirmation or a technique to use this week. Make the journal your constant companion.”

A slow process of change is occurring at one school where I am an adjunct. Rather than continuing to pursue pedagogical teaching, the andragogical approach of involving and engaging students in their learning creates a more fulfilling learning experience for both student and professor.

References:

Cave, Charles (2005). Creativity Web: Resources for Creativity and Innovation. Sidney, Australia. Retrieved January 10, 2008 from http://members.optusnet.com.au/charles57/Creative/index2.html.

Maxwell, John C. (2005). The 360° Leader: Developing Your Influence from Anywhere in the Organization. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Michalko, Michael. (2001). Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press.

Oral Tradition is the Future

2007-11-01T11:09:00.000-05:00

Paul and his disciples preached in the oral tradition. Paul wrote letters to central figures in an established Church, not because they of appointment or anointment as leaders as much as they could read. Being able to read meant they could share Paul’s messages with the congregations. The converts in Corinth (Cor. 1:26) were poor and underprivileged.

We also read throughout Paul’s letters an urgency to remain faithful to true teachings, not swayed by false teachers or false practices. Many of these letters came to the Churches by messenger, a disciple of Paul bearing both the written letter reinforced with oral instructions.

In the expanding Church of the Southern Hemisphere and Asia, we must drop our western thinking and actions in favor of teaching the word through the oral tradition, as did Paul. My daughter, a Peace Corps volunteer in The Granedes, writes of the beauty of Church tradition there and how much more meaningful it is to her than Church at home. She explains celebrating faith is as important (more perhaps) as the practice of religion.

Keller (2007) provides this meaningful glimpse into celebrating faith when he quoted, “If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith” (Philippians 1:22-25).

Hence, we cannot maintain our western sensibilities that tell us to print millions of bibles in many languages. We must grasp that those receiving the printed bibles cannot read and they become as useful as the Sears catalogue in an outhouse.

Back to the Future

2007-10-17T11:16:00.000-05:00

Pagan does not mean heathen, non-Christian. From the Latin “paganus” it means villager, “pagus” means country district. “Paganus” also means civilian, bastardized to mean heathen, not enrolled in the army of Christ. The future of Christianity resides in the city not in the village or countryside.

Tim Keller (2006) proposes the future of Christianity is urban, city within a city. This is a parallel to Paul’s establishment of Church communities within urban areas of his era. Why is this likely? Keller admits it is a matter of culture and society. He writes, “As the city goes, so goes the culture. Cultural trends tend to be generated in the city and flow outward to the rest of society.”

The future of Christianity resides in the tradition of evangelism while using jobs in arts, science, business, the media, and others as tools for evangelism. A building called church remains the focal point for gathering; however, global outreach beyond cities likely occurs in small home church groups lead by a church deacon or elder (Tutus 2).

Recall the quote above, to reach the pagans outside the city requires a city on a hill to show God’s glory (Matt. 5:14-16).

Holy Bible (NIV)

Keller, Tim (2006, May). A New Kind of Urban Christian: As the city goes, so goes the culture. The Christian Vision Project, Christianity Today. Retrieved October 17, 2007 from http://www.christianvisionproject.com/2006/06/a_new_kind_of_urban_christian.html.

Oxford American Dictionaries online.

Dialogue for Reconciliation

2007-07-24T11:31:00.001-05:00

As we continue to research cultures, the evidence mounts against following process as though processes are more important than the product. As we strive to resolve conflict, our low context culture wants to suppress conflict by force or manage it by adjudication.

Our concept of time does not allow for dialogue, listening for understanding, seeking root causes for conflict, and through mutual reconciliation, transforming relationships. Our bond to our culture is an historical monologue of one culture associating only with like-minded people. Even biblically, Jewish Christians could not accept gentile as Christian because they were not Jews. Over time, dialogue opened minds and hearts.

We can no longer suppress or manage conflict; we must resolve it through dialogue and reconciliation with our global neighbors.

Ingrid Shafer, The Power and Promise of Deep-Dialogue, (Global Dialogue Institute, January 2, 1999, accesses July 23, 2007 [article online], available from http://astro.temple.edu/~dialogue/case.htm; Internet.

Right VS West

2007-07-19T18:35:00.001-05:00

Continuing the “rightness” dialogue, one condition affecting conflict is the individualistic notion that people have to fit into neat little squares. As Elmer (’93) posits, having people in the right square tells a leader how to treat them. Moreover, as Elmer writes, leaders do not need to know a person to know how to judge them. Even the term judge takes on a negativist perspective.

Our Western scientific sensitivities cannot accept the Asian tradition is a shaman expelling evil spirits from a building before occupation. However, Christian tradition is laden with exorcisms (Matt 10:1, Mark 1:27, 6:7, Luke 4:36, Acts 8:7) and westerners accept it.

Yet, to overcome or avoid conflict, use local traditions, introduce change in a way that does not upset patterns of behavior, use know practices as building blocks, and teach the change so that others can perform without the outsider overseeing (Elmer, pg. 61).

As we see evidence of democracy and capitalism emerging around the world, we quickly claim our rightness without viewing the culture of democracy from their context. Do we forget that democracy is Eastern and Mediterranean (Greek) not an invention of the West?

Duane Elmer, Cross-Cultural Conflict: Building Relationships for Effective Ministry, (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press).

Holy Bible. NIV

Personal experience, living in Asia.

Dialogue versus Communication

2007-07-17T16:47:00.001-05:00

Use dialogue versus communication to build trust across cultures. I am taking the position that the contemporary meaning of communication is lost in the devices we have to communicate with. Dialogue, on the other hand comes to mean “meaning through or from speaking.” In my mind, speaking is missing in communication. We no longer close the feedback loop because we hit send button on email or other IM device and cannot be sure the other person received and understood the message.

I use the JoHari Window as an example of trust building through dialogue. Whether individualistic or collective culturally, dialogue lets us become more comfortable and collaborative with others. The Arena or Open area of the JoHari Window lets light in on us and lets our light shine out on others. When we enter into a new relationship, the open pane is not open too much; however, as we build the relationship, build the trust, we become more free to share our feelings and emotions.

Gudykunst and Kim write about an effective communicator being able to show respect and positive regard, be non-evaluating, and taking turns talking (pg. 273).

Conflict arises when I am convinced that my point is better than your point and I WILL DOMINATE THE CONVERSATION UNTIL YOU CAPITULATE!

Avoidance of ad hominem attacks is deeply engrained in our system or rightness. Yet, let us acknowledge that Jesus did not condemn the sinner only the sin.

Gudykunst, William B. and Young Yun Kim. Communicating With Strangers, an Approach to Intercultural Communication. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2003.

Hsi Yen Duen (1999, April 26) Johari Window, (Copyright April 26, 1999, His Yen Duen, accessed July 3, ’07); available http://www.noogenesis.com/game_theory/johari/johari_window.html.

What do you mean - communication

2007-07-14T19:56:00.000-05:00

When we use the word communication, are we using it correctly? Do we resolve conflict through communication? Contemporary studies of communication continue to express their methods of teaching with the focus on establishing shared meaning of the symbols of used to construct messages. Shared meaning of the symbols seems to express low context and monochronic process orientation.

Is dialogue the activity we hope to achieve when seeking conflict resolution? Consider the Greek derivatives, dia, legein, and logos, then, dialogue becomes meaning through or from speaking. Dialogue is not a process of breaking a message into individual elements. Dialogue is taking the message as a whole to discover its entire meaning. Dialogue slows the speed of conversation as participants take time to listen and reflecting on the message. Dialogue is an open flow of ideas, collaborations, and consensus building. Therefore, it does not have any preconceived termination point or desired outcome. Dialogue appears to represent high context polychronic orientation.

Gerard & Ellinor provide this statement, “…that it creates a community-based culture of cooperation and shared leadership. It moves groups from the dependency, competition and exclusion often found in hierarchical cultures to increased collaboration, partnership and inclusion.”

What else is conflict resolution supposed to do?

Gerard, Glenna & Ellinor, Linda. What is Dialogue? (California: The Dialogue Group, 2007, accessed July 14, 2007); available from http://www.thedialoguegrouponline.com/whatsdialogue.html; Internet.

Indiana University, Self Study of Department of Communication Studies 1996 – 1997: What is Communication? (Indianapolis: Purdue University, 1997, accessed 12 July, 2007). Available from http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:QhTJAyJSIlkJ:planning.iupui.edu/406.html+what+is+communication&hl=en&amp;amp;ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=us&client=firefox-a; Internet.

Self-Concept

2007-07-13T13:44:00.000-05:00

The Zen tells of a farmer whose barn burned to the ground. The farmer accepted this catastrophe by exclaiming that since his barn burned, nothing blocks his view of the rising moon. A former co-worker, himself a Zen, explained that the farmer surrendered his material possessions to see what is really important. Matthew 7:4-5, instructs us to remove the lumber from our eyes before trying to remove a speck from our neighbor’s eye.

Presented for discussion, conflict resolution, interpersonally or across cultures, asks participants to set aside their belief in rightness, their material possessions, and their blinders blocking vision. Gudykunst & Kim (2003) ask us to consider our own self-conceptions (pg. 277). Our self-concepts of our rightness block our ability to consider the self-concepts of others. We see our group as the in-group and another group as an out-group. We accept that knowledge is power; hence, knowledge of another’s self-concept as aligned with our own, may make interpersonal or inter-group conflict less likely.

If your barn burns, will you see the rising moon or has new lumber been delivered?

Gudykunst, W. & Kim, Y. (2003). Communicating with strangers: An approach to intercultural communication (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

Holy Bible. NIV

Suntree, Susan (2001). Wisdom of the East. New York: McGraw Hill.

Instinct and Shared Leadership

2006-12-28T13:46:00.000-06:00

The natural world is an excellent classroom for the study of leadership and survival. How contemporary business leaders learn their lessons from the classroom of natures instinctual survival helps them learn how their business can survive threats both internal and external.

It is unlikely anyone will argue migration of geese is a natural instinct. On a bright spring or crisp fall day, looking into the sky one sees flocks of birds on their migration to summer or winter nesting grounds.

Looking at these flocks, one sees their V-shaped formation with one bird at the tip of the V. How do we define the front bird? We call it the lead bird – leader. How do we define other birds in the V? Is the word used, follower?

Nature, therefore, helps us define the relationship of follower to leader. However, that is only part of the lesson. Researchers studying bird migration tell us the lead bird moved to the front, not because of supremacy within the flock, but because it was rested from following in the less turbulent air behind the leader. The same aviary research teaches that the lead bird feels no shamed falling behind in the V. The goose flock multiplies its strength by sharing the lead among all birds.

Another example that nature research shares is the behavior of the common flickertail of the North American plains. These little animals poke their heads from their burrows and appear to scamper and frolic in their villages. However, upon close examination of these flickertail villages, one sees the playfulness of the animals and others set as sentinels ever alert to danger, ready to give the warning if danger approaches. These little animals share the role of sentinel among all adult members.

Are the flickertail’s sentinels group leaders or simply guards constantly scanning the horizon for danger? Long-term research of flickertail colonies tell of role changes, sentinel today, scampering and frolicking tomorrow. Here again, we observe shared leadership. When one sentinel sounds the alarm, other sentinels echo the alarm. The entire group quickly runs for the shelter of a burrow. They do not re-emerge until sentinels observe the area is clear of the threat. The village survives another day.

These two examples of animal behavior suggest it is instinctual in nature to maximize strengths, overcome weaknesses, capitalize on opportunities, and minimize threats. What does the animal kingdom know instinctively that in contemporary business becomes a strategic choice to align, fit, or match resources and capabilities to the demands of the business environment? Animal survival and business survival depend fitness matched with resources and capabilities – knowing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

The animal examples presented here do not support the leadership style referred to as heroic. One bird or a single flickertail does not lead the flock or village. Not one animal is the single charismatic leader that influences the entire group to self-sacrificing and performance at high levels. In these groups, it is a group effort to share leadership and through shared leadership, discover together their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Shared leadership in contemporary business recognizes that all members of the group have skills and abilities giving them collective expertise that they do not have individually, synergy.

Synergy offers the business group or team an opportunity to self-manage, share leadership. Decisions are collective with different members rotating in the role of providing direction or coordination based on the individual’s expertise. Team members naturally gravitate toward tasks they are good at and take the lead on those projects in which they are strongest.

Through synergy, self-management, shared leadership in teams and organizations, we begin to discover that teamwork provides business/community interaction that is instinctive to geese and flickertails. John Maxwell offers a view of membership on a team by saying, “I believe that people should strive for the top of their game, not the top of the organization” (pg. 17). The lead goose did not start there.

i. Hill, C. W. L. & Jones, G. R. (1998). Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach (4th Ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
ii. Yukl, G. (2006). Leadership in Organizations (6th Ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson, Prentice Hall.
iii. Ibid.
iv. Maxwell, J. C. (2005). The 360° Leader: Developing your influence from anywhere in the organization. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.