Neil Baker Consulting and Coaching
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog

Trapped?

3/31/2014

 
Picture
When people act in ways contradictory to their stated values and principles, it creates a trap. If we call attention to the contradiction, we risk conflict and uncomfortable exposure for the other person.

That can lead to another contradiction—we say we value openness and honesty, but tend to stay quiet about the problem in public and complain in private. Research from Argyris (2010) has found such self-contradictory behavior to be quite common even in successful organizations. This occurs with difficult situations, especially "when problems to be solved are likely to be upsetting and threatening to all concerned." Traps impair collaboration and problem solving.

Four methods to decrease risk in addressing the trap: (1) treat imperfect adherence to stated values as an expected, normal human reaction to complexity and pressure; (2) explicitly state a desire for and pursue mutual reflection and inquiry; (3) self disclose about our own uneasiness and contradictions; and (4) appreciate the other’s good intentions. For an excellent brief review of the work of Argyris, see Senge, The Fifth Discipline, pages 232 – 240.


Humble inquiry

3/28/2014

 
Picture
Quality of relationships at work is facilitated by asking questions with genuine intent to learn. But, this is a surprisingly hard art and skill, especially under stress. For a list of useful questions, see:Questions that drive change.

Before a team ever meets....

3/28/2014

 
Picture
The most powerful determinant of team success may happen before a team ever meets. Researchers (Wageman et al, 2008; Hackman, 2011) estimate that the highest contribution to eventual team performance is the quality of pre-work a leader does in defining team purpose, composition and design.

Quality of team launch is second. Real-time coaching is a third, though small, factor. Of interest: the best coaching appears not to have much benefit for teams without good up-front design; and individual coaching of team members does not lead to much improvement—the team needs to be coached as a whole. 


Having trouble staying up-to-date on leadership?

3/27/2014

 
Picture
Having trouble keeping up with models of leadership? Latest count: more than 110,000 leadership books on Amazon.

Historical data from Amazon.co.uk shows 14,000 books in 2003 to more than 85,000 in 2014 (from Keith Grint, Leadership, 2010). If the search is narrowed to "organizational leadership" you “only” need to read 20,000 books--maybe if you did not eat or sleep for a full year you could keep up.

More data:49,990 books on Amazon on organizational change and 86,799 on change management. Finally: 559,000,000 Google entries on leadership today, 25,300,000 on organizational leadership.


A critical factor for successful teams...team norms

3/27/2014

 
Picture
A critical factor for successful teams is all too frequently done poorly or not at all—clear team norms.  In research on 120 senior leader teams from many industries, teams with outstanding performance (48% of teams studied) had much higher rates of clear norms than those with poor and mediocre effectiveness (Wageman et al, 2008).

Another researcher found clear norms to be more strongly associated with team effectiveness than any other factor that was measured (Hackman, 2011). Though conceptually simple, team norms are about creating group behavioral habits and this takes collective vigilance, repetition, and patience.

The good news about humanness

3/25/2014

 
Picture
Multiple researchers (e.g. Ellis, Argyris) find that, no matter how smart and successful people are, everyone falls into counterproductive behavior at times—especially under complexity and stress.

The good news: this means that at any given moment what we see around us as lack of communication or "people" skills could, not infrequently, be a temporary, quite human reaction to complexity and stress.

And, at any given moment, there is likely to be a large amount of unused leadership capacity in any organization to tap into. For more research see: Invisible Barriers to Communication

The elephant in the room

3/20/2014

 
Picture
At a recent workshop on leadership, 94% of 153 participants from different organizations stated they currently face a challenging work situation due to problematic relationships and that the situation significantly impacts their work-lives.

59% of these situations had been going on 6 months or longer.

In “The Elephant in the Room,” Diana McLain Smith states that how we handle relationships is a critical CHOICE for success in organizations---that is, the outcomes are not fixed by personality and disposition.

The workshop data suggests that relationship issues are a particularly large elephant.


The impact of a visionary speech

3/20/2014

 
To what extent can you expect your most visionary speech to move others to action in the workplace? See the article The impact of a visionary speech.

Picture

Behavior = function (person, environment)

3/20/2014

 
Picture
Right now, what percent of leaders face a challenging work situation with problematic behaviors in people and which, if improved, would significantly impact their work-lives?

At a recent workshop, the answer was 91% of 263 leaders.

The main causes of situational behavior are captured in Kurt Lewin’s equation  B = f (P, E)—behavior (B) is a function (f) of the person (P) (e.g. personality) and the environment (E). In tough situations, the human tendency is to blame (P). The ability to influence change depends substantially on focusing on (E).


The need for "collective intelligence"

3/20/2014

 
Picture
“Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.” (Laurence J. Peter, quoted in Conklin, 2005).

Too often the need to sustain a state of indecision is not sufficiently recognized and inadequate solutions are generated. Holding multiple, competing perspectives in dialogue can be tough and unpleasant (Kaner, 2007, calls this the “Groan Zone”).

But, the rewards are high--“collective intelligence” and resourcefulness can emerge. (Conklin 2005)

.

Being human is unavoidable

3/20/2014

 
Picture
Being human is unavoidable.

“The most liberal estimate is that people can process consciously only about 40 pieces of information per second. At any given moment, our five senses take in 11,000,000 pieces of information per second.” (Wilson, Strangers to Ourselves, 2002).

So, the odds are, at any given moment, we are more likely than not to be missing important data about ourselves. This is one reason why creating ongoing feedback loops in the moment is so important.

    Leading Blog
    Subscribe
    Subscribe to receive periodic free articles and tools for subscribers only. 

    Categories

    All
    Brain Science
    Decision Making
    Dialogue
    Engagement And Motivation
    Feedback
    Meetings
    Positive Psychology
    Power
    Practice Of Leadership
    Reactivity And Reflection
    Teams
    Tools
    Vision

    Archives

    March 2020
    February 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    October 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    November 2015
    August 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014


    Contact Neil

Copyright Neil Baker M.D., 2020 all rights reserved
Neil Baker Consulting and Coaching
Bainbridge Island, Washington,
Photos used under Creative Commons from blondinrikard, bertknot, ymturner, jurvetson, HikingArtist.com