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Dave Smith is an associate with Booz Allen Hamilton and a student in the Ph.D./D.B.A. program in Values-Driven Leadership at Benedictine University. He is a retired U.S. Air Force officer.
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Dave Smith is an associate with Booz Allen Hamilton and a student in the Ph.D./D.B.A. program in Values-Driven Leadership at Benedictine University. He is a retired U.S. Air Force officer.
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One of my favorite bosses became
locally famous for one “duck walks into a bar” joke. During a serious crisis, when lives were at
risk (literally), he walked into the operations team crisis room – looked
around at the frantic group– and without any preamble began telling the
joke. I don’t remember the punch line,
but everyone remembers the way the joke cut through the tension and energized
the team. It was an unusual but
brilliant stroke of leadership. The team
rallied, chose a course of action, and was successful in mitigating the
immediate crisis.
Today, as we face daunting
challenges presented by limited resources, environmental impacts, and
stakeholders’ demanding complete transparency – we need creative and brilliant
leadership. But what does that mean? Does it mean well timed interventions? Or, do we need quick, incremental solutions that can be added to our
existing processes?
In their book Embedded
Sustainability, authors Chris Laslzo and Nadya Zhexembayeva explain that our normal mental models of
leadership (well-timed interventions and emphasis on choosing the correct
course of action from possible alternatives) won’t solve today’s multifaceted
and interrelated environmental, resource-based, and transparency issues. Leaders need additional skills to meet the
challenges. Just as the challenges have
become more complex, so must our leadership skills. Four key skills are
identified by the authors: design,
inquiry, appreciation, and wholeness.
Design: Leaders worldwide
normally think of leadership and management as decision-based. The leader’s job usually boils down to
choosing the best course of action from several well-crafted alternatives.Design thinking turns that paradigm around.
Instead of making hard choices between defined alternatives, design
thinking seeks easy choices among difficult to create new solutions. Naturally, to develop those new solutions we
need to find the root issues through inquiry.
Inquiry: Asking questions – especially the right
questions – is very important in our complex business environment. One example is the large firm which initially
asked, “What does it mean to be the best in the world?” After struggling with that question, they
were energized by changing the question: “What does it mean to be the best for the world?”
Appreciation: Instead of
identifying gaps and failures, appreciation leads us to analyze success and
duplicate it. This type of appreciative inquiry is being used by industry
leaders like Walmart and Green Mountain Coffee to make both large and small
changes that lead to increased profits, reduced costs, and more sustainable
business.
Wholeness: Design
thinking, inquiry and appreciation lead naturally to more holistic solutions
for both product and people issues. Wholeness means seeing the who, what, how, and why as interrelated. In practical terms, that may mean more
life-cycle thinking about products, or more stakeholder involvement (both
internal and external).
So, back to my boss and his duck
in the bar…. His somewhat unconventional leadership solved the immediate issue
and was successful in the short term. However, the root issues in the organization required new and different
leadership thinking. What about your
organization? How is a
course-of-action-based decision model working for you in the current complex
environment? Are you stuck in a loop of
well-timed interventions solving short term problems? Are you “bolting on” solutions in an attempt
to solve business problems rooted in deeper environmental, resource, and
transparency issues? Or - are you
thinking new thoughts?
Dave - I love this article. Thanks for the lighthearted, yet thought provoking entry.
ReplyDeleteDave, Very good stuff. Wonder whatever became of the duck .. .
ReplyDelete