Inside JLC: Adaptive Leadership 5: Giving Work Back to the People

Foreign.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us. For number five, as we try to think about adaptive leadership in the context of helping a community accomplish what it wants to accomplish. So to stay out of the jargon game, the folks that are teaching us about adaptive leadership, people whom I really love, Heifit Zelinsky, they're very clear. They're very clear about not making this jargony like, oh, this is adaptive. But we are going to make sure we follow the six principles that a leader is invited to follow if they intend to deal with disequilibrium. And I like the way they think about that. We're going to deal with disequilibrium. And we all have examples of that in our client base. We have examples of that at home. Sometimes marriages create disequilibrium. Sometimes divorces create disequilibrium. And this is Heifetz and Linsky both. They say that especially Linsky, leadership is risky because sometimes we don't see the difference. We don't diagnose the challenges effectively, and we confuse technical challenges, which authority can solve for the most part, and adaptive challenges, which can only be solved by the people that are out there in the field. To your language, Joe and Vince on the deck plate that are getting the work done. So today we're going to talk about giving the adaptive challenge work back to the people. So with that said, Vince, what are you hearing me say we're going to work on today?

Hey, thanks. Good morning or good afternoon, team. So what I heard you say, Ray, was that today we're going to really take a deeper dive from a different perspective on how leaders must understand the difference and the nuances between a technical challenge and things that can be solved via authority and adaptive challenges, which requires a really profound focus on giving the work to the people on the team so that they can really have buy in and tackle the issues at hand.

I love it. And the only additional piece is that if I don't breathe, take time to reflect, I will end up treating almost every challenge as technical. And so there is disequilibrium in the system. There are challenges right in front of us. Pandemic, for example. And how do I respond to this? Effectively? Colleen, did you hear something more or different? Please add on to what Vince said.

Yeah, I think one of the things that I heard you talk about is jargony, how sometimes we don't want this to be just a word or something that you throw around is how can we really talk about this in a way to make it meaningful to Each of the listeners to where they can take these concepts. We always talk about making impersonal practical knowledge so then they can turn around and use some of these key things in how they lead their teams.

Yeah, that's an internalization of the tools, like one of the tools that all of us talk about. And Joe always reminds us to remember the ladder of inference, especially important now that I run to a conclusion. And if I don't test my conclusion, if I am not testing it, I am not going to be able to diagnose this challenge. Well, at the same time, I love the pictures that you have drawn for us, Colleen, in our documents where I got two ladders fighting with each other, they came to different conclusions. Then I got some ladders that got their arms around each other because they're sure that they are correct. And so they're making like a coalition of ladders saying this is what we should do or the boss needs to fix this. So this is really excellent for us. Not to say, I'm going to. At the end of this, I'll give you each a certificate on being an adaptive leader. That's B.S. we're not going to do that. We're going to be here really talking about the. The work of leadership. And I think this is so important, especially because the work of leadership in our world has devolved, in my opinion, Ray's opinion only, into hero worship. I love that guy. I love that leader. Look at that leader's work rather than realizing in this world we're describing today, the practice of leadership can be exercised anywhere in the system. And that's why we're going to talk about giving the work back to the people. Joe, did you hear something more different or did you have another thought?

Just that I think it is very difficult for leaders many times to give the work back to people because leaders have to be responsible for larger domains. That said, usually leaders have some specific area that they have focused in that they consider themselves to be experts in. And many times when you're in a more senior position, there's just no substitute for having a project that you really run that you get your hands dirty on and that you really control. And although it's very satisfying for the leader to do that, it really denies an opportunity to the organization to learn and to grow.

Oh, my God, Bill. So that was the essence of the work I did today. Early this morning, I learned about an admiral that went by the nickname 31 knots. It was Admiral Arlay Burke. And he needed to get. He was in charge of A group of destroyers during the World War II in the Pacific. And they needed to get to a space that his leader said, I need you over here as soon as you can get here. And one of his ships was damaged and they could only produce 20 to 25 knots. He gave the work back to the people and said, we need more than that. And by the time they worked on it for about four or five hours, they got that vessel up to 31 knots. He sent a message to his leader saying, happily, we are now at 31 knots. He ended up going all the way to the chief of Naval operations to take care of us in this post World War II environment. That was his nickname forever. But what he did was gave the work back to the people. I need this help. We need to make this happen. What do we need to. How can we make this happen? And it was through a series of questions and inquiry that he developed that capability for people to try this, try this, try this, try this. Try fail, try fail, try fail, try fail. Adaptive work is all about experimentation. We don't know what to do. Authority can't tell us what to do. His boss couldn't help him get to 31 knots. The story for me was so impactful. As I'm sitting here thinking about, what does this really look like? And then I shifted to the person that was my ultimate teacher in Peter Senge. And he said, it is the capacity of a human community to shape its future. The capacity of a human community to shape its future. Where have you folks seen a human community begin to shape its own future in the context of disequilibrium? We are in disequilibrium, and we need the people to shape their desired future, their desired end state. Where can you guys tell me a little story about that? And I know the three of you, you have stories like this. Disequilibrium. We need to go and get to that space where people can be in a safely dangerous space to help shape this necessary future. Anybody give me a story.

So I'll try to lead off. You know, as I listened to you explain this last segment, Ray, what I was thinking of was the importance of the leader to focus the crew or to focus the team on one's vision. If you can focus a group on the vision, you recognize that the people that you're responsible for are not going to. They shouldn't have to respond to your personality. Right? They should adapt to your priorities. And so vision is very important. I was in a leadership role, and my organization was responsible for passing some Regulatory requirements, national regulatory requirements, and standards of excellence that defined our ability to practice safe care for people. And people were working really hard, but the work wasn't getting done. And we went through a dry run and found that on the surface, boy, we looked really nice. But underneath that water where the work was happening, things had broken down and we were failing. And had we been surveyed at that particular week, our organization would have failed. And so then I had to get the crew to focus on the vision. And it took some while. I had to make some changes, right? Some people who were doing certain jobs that weren't the best fit. We had to make changes in leadership. And eventually the team was able to move forward. And we successfully achieved that outcome, which was one of the best survey compliance reports in the enterprise. So eventually we were able to turn things around. The way that I tried to do that was to focus the group on the vision and not my personality.

And then you let them go. You let them do it.

Let them go and do it. My job is to support them.

This is just magnificent. You also did something else. A previous set of podcasts we did was about how to transition your leadership team into a very high functioning leadership team that embraces innovation. And one of the recommendations in the literature was to make sure that once you identify the necessary roles and responsibilities, you get the people in your leadership team that match those roles and responsibilities. You did that. Some people were on the bus that didn't need to be on the bus any longer. They needed to go somewhere else. And then this is the pivot that is so important. You gave the work back to the people. I've watched cos give the work back to the bad. The board of directors, which is not a typical shareholder board of directors. They're more like an extended cabinet in the naval military environment. And those men and women, once they understood it was my deal, they collaborated, they worked together, and they shifted toward a readiness expectation, a vision of readiness together. And there was nothing that the triad, the commanding officer, the commandmaster chief, or the XO could do. There was no authority to exercise that needed to happen in the hospital areas where they were providing patient care. What a great story that was, Vince. Thank you. Colleen or Joe, you got one for me?

Well, I think the one that comes to mind is the situation that many of our colleagues are working through right now with the Defense Health Agency. Again, the formulation some time ago, but the services and the dha, I think, have been struggling for some period of time to figure out, okay, what are the new lanes and what is the new work, what is the different work, and who is responsible for getting it done. It's a mix of organizations, some of which have done execution, some of which have not, some of which were good at execution, some of which were not good at execution. I think this period of transformation, instability, change, however you want to think of it, it's a time of figuring out how the work gets recast under the leadership of the DHA and how the DHA sets forums for effective communication and listens to the people who are doing the work and responds to the problems and execution.

That's brilliant. So a lot of times when. And I just love your example, so the people in authority, they have authority, they can solve problems. They cannot solve the cultural problems that they're running into or the learning problems that need to be addressed because there is disequilibrium between authority, governance, oversight, and what should be happening out there in the hospitals. What I just love about you and Vince and I always tell you, thank you for your service, but it is so heartful for me to say that to the two of you. No matter what was going on at the leadership level, where they were solving technical problems, getting resources, whatever they're doing, they're doing the actual visionary work. How do we enable this command to demonstrate complete readiness when necessary, medically ready whenever. Whenever we need a sailor or Marine to be deployed. And that is happening right now in our world. They're ready. I just think the things you guys have done is. They're magnificent. And Joe brought up that other piece. There's disequilibrium between. This is like a. Almost like a corporate world. They would call it a takeover. There's disequilibrium and we can solve the technical problems at the highest levels of leadership. The real work is where the. The rubber meets the road, so to speak. Or that. Don't particularly love all those metaphors. That particular place sits among the people who do the work through collaboration and through learning, they can actually meet these expectations. This is so much about learning. And what Vince and Joe and Colleen do is they give people tools for learning. How do we learn more effectively? How do we learn what we need to learn to accomplish this vision? That was really great, Joe. Colleen, what are you thinking?

Yeah, no, I just. What's resonating with me is, I think many times, as you mentioned, leaders want to be the hero, the one to fix, the one to come up with this brilliant idea that is. And this vision that's going to help everyone move forward and get that desired Result. And what I'm hearing from my colleagues and their story is that perhaps another way is to pause, to reflect, to provide your team an opportunity to surface their thinking. And if that team is too far detached from the actual problem itself, how can we engage those people who are closest to this issue so we can get the data and the information we need to make the most effective decision and to make a decision that's going to actually produce the desired result. Right, because that's what it's about. Anybody can make a decision, but is it actually getting the impact desired?

How can I learn to learn what I need to learn to accomplish the desired state? It just keeps regenerating itself. So an example would be I've watched the three of you teach people how to reflect, how to notice the ladder, how to recognize your own mental models, how to recognize how their whole holding you hostage. Then the question is, do they have the time to think about it? Do they have the time to collaborate? So one of the greatest gifts that I think a leader can give to the community so the community can exercise leadership is time. Time to be together, to think, to reflect, collab. Not just alone, but collectively and collaboratively so we can accomplish what's necessary. So giving the work back to the people. I have a quote from one of the pieces that Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky put out and says adaptive challenges require the involvement and commitment of the stakeholders. It requires it. It's not just a nice idea, it's required. Otherwise the level of disequilibrium will be sustained. Think about some places that we work right now where that level of disequilibrium is still going on. We have not been able to resolve it. Give the work back to the people once you identify. And again, remember when we started, the first job of the leadership team is to determine, get on that balcony and look at the practice field. Make that determination. Is this a technical problem and challenge or is this adaptive? Adaptive simply means we don't have an easy, you know, top down solution for this. We're not sure. We need the collaboration of everyone to figure out how to get there. Now back to Peter Senge, my great teacher. The capacity of a human community to shape its future. The capacity of a human community to shape its future. So gang, there are people listening to us that love and admire you. Here's a chance for you to do the same thing we do all the time. What's one thing you would say to somebody that wants to, how do I do this? Well, how do I give the Work back to the community. I think you each had a great little story, so now let's do a little. Here's a. Here's a little bit of advice. And it could be anything from making sure there's safe space or they know the tools for learning. I don't care what it is. Pick one. But give the listeners one idea that they can bring forward from this conversation. Who'd like to go first?

Okay, I'll go. So the advice I would give Ray would be ask open ended questions, don't make proclamations.

That's beautiful.

And don't be afraid to include the hard questions in there. So how are we doing on transparency? How are we doing at building trust? You know, we're only going to achieve readiness by working together more closely. So how are we doing on that relationship? So whatever your goal is, you know, think about those questions and don't be afraid to go there and display the vulnerability to ask those questions.

I love it. Joe, you got to lean in. We have to lean into the discomfort that can be there. Otherwise we're going to gloss over crap and we're not going to get to the heart of what's really going on. It's beautiful. Thank you. Colleen or Vance. Who'd like to go?

I'll go. Colleen always has such wisdom. To part now like she's a great closer. Is that in my opinion, if I had one thing to say, I would say as a leader, to be very intentional with closing the loop with your people. So as you're having a discussion, you really want to make sure that there's a shared understanding or a collective understanding the room so that everyone's walking out the door with the same understanding and mindset of what the intent is. If you can do that, that really goes a long way. So that would just be my backup. Joe says ask open ended questions and then to me, close the loop to ensure that the team and the members understood the same information as it was being communicated.

That's brilliant. So we go from that. You know, I have, as a leader, I have an interest in communicating my meaning. Then somebody now has their meaning, then there's shared meaning. And finally the biggest thing in the work that we do, how do we get to common understanding? No alignment without even common understanding about what the hell is the adaptive challenge that we're facing right now. That was really excellent. Thank you, Colleen.

Yeah, I think I love what my colleagues laid on the table. And I would also say that we could have the best common understanding with all of us. However, if I do not have the right people in the conversation. I'm really not truly surfacing the necessary information for us to move forward and to identify whether or not this is adaptive or technical. Once we have identified that, who are the people that are touching the issue? So my invitation would be before you engage in those conversations and do exactly what Joe and Vince mentioned, look around who's touching that problem. And if it is the low man on the totem pole, boy, you want to ensure you're inviting that man or woman to sit at the table so you can engage them in these conversations where you do create safe space, where you do close the loop and you develop a common understanding of the information. So now you can. Whatever course of action, however you decide to move forward in addressing this adaptive challenge, you have the key pieces of information to help you create, collaborate to create a more highly probable solution that might work.

Yeah, I love it. Disequilibrium is there. Get on that balcony, look around, help people deal with. Almost like you're a grief counselor dealing with the change that's unfolding in front of them. And make sure that we know once the adaptive challenges identify, identify and clarify that we bring all the people to the table that can represent those that touch the problem. That was magnificent. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. You guys, thank you for being with us. Hope you enjoyed it. This is almost the last one. We have one more we're going to do, which I think you'll like. It's about protecting the voices of authority. What does that mean? What does that look like? And why does it even matter? In fact, that's our next podcast. Thank you very much for being with us and we really appreciate you for taking a little bit of your time. My name's Ray. We'll see you next time. Sincerest thanks for listening to this episode of the Everyday Leadership Conversations podcast. The Jorgensen Learning center offers a variety of programs for individuals and organizations to enhance their communication and leadership skills.

To find out more about programs and.

Upcoming webinars, check out our events page@gojlc.com.