A Wildly Unpredictable Future

Over and over this spring, leaders share with me in private that the future continues to be wildly unpredictable. And as a result, they question how much risk to take and how bold to be in their goal setting. They do not want to be caught flat footed, unprepared, or not easily able to adapt if new circumstances arise. 

In these private meetings, the same executives are sharing with me that their organizations need to have fewer goals and more strategic focus areas. And I concur with their analysis. Leaders and companies need to build in strategic flexibility as they tentatively move forward in the midst of a still wildly unpredictable future.

One way to do this is for all senior teams and then all the other teams to sit down and define the differences between a strategic focus area, a strategic goal, and a strategic priority. Each of these three terms are being inter-changed quite rapidly in meetings this spring. By inter-changing these terms, we are creating quite a bit of confusion down in the organization and at the senior level meetings. 

As a result, people now routinely ask me to define these terms, but I have been very hesitant. Given the many decades of doing this work, I have learned that it is best to let the people within an organization define the terms rather than to choose a generic dictionary definition or a more academic definition. This level of engaged definition work creates better clarity and ownership of the work that needs to be done once the terms are defined and utilized by those who will have to execute the work. In short, when we involve people who have to do the work in the defining of language and the subsequent decisions that go with it, I find that they can be counted on to make smart choices.

This week, sit down and engage in an in-depth group discussion about the aforementioned terms. In the process, you will be creating a strong foundation for ’23, ’24, and ’25.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

An Exercise In Disciplined Optimism

Engaging in goal setting and goal execution is an exercise in “disciplined optimism,” notes Oren Harari in his book, The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell (McGraw-Hill, 2002). As part of this process, we need to remember that in order for someone to be successful in creating and executing a goal, there needs to be two things in place. First, there needs to be an understanding of why this is the goal. Second, there needs to be ownership of the goal. We, as leaders, sometimes forget that achieving a goal requires us to step outside our comfort zone, and in this place, the first thing we often feel is uncomfortable and incompetent which is a loosing combination of feelings. Therefore, clarity about why and ownership of a goal are very important.

Next, in this exercise in disciplined optimism, we need to frame goal setting as a four step process: preparing to set a goal, setting a goal, executing a goal and evaluating a goal. Most leaders set goals and forget about them as they focus on endless operational details. Others, focus on executing them but rarely pause to see if we are doing it well or successfully.

Finally, the best leaders think about what are the primary and secondary impacts that happen when the goal has been completed. They understand that if they want to maintain the optimism that is created before, during and after executing a goal, then all involved need to understand the desired outcomes and the actual outcomes. This sounds simple but it is not easy. It takes time, practice, and thoughtful reflection to do this level of work. 

As we turn our sights toward the summer and the fall of 2022, share the above with your team and engage in an exercise of disciplined optimism. There is work to get done and we want the people involved to know why and to own the process and the outcomes.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Goal Setting is a Master Level Skill

We have gotten so busy in the middle of this on-going global pandemic that we have forgotten that goal setting is a master level skill. First, we assume every one can do it. We also assume that it is easy when in reality it takes time to learn and it takes lots practice to become good at it. 

Second, we have forgotten that the goal of goal setting is not to get them completed, although that is an important part of the process. The goal of goal setting is to set goals that people own, understand and are willing to execute. And then, for people to be willing to do it all over again once the goal is completed!

As we help people become better at this master level skill, we need to understand that the word, goal, means so many different things to so many different people. There is rarely consensus on the meaning of this term and often there is no common language around goals and goal setting. 

To begin, we as leaders must clarify the following terms: strategy, goal, objective, and project. Nine times out of ten when I get called in as a consultant or as an executive coach to figure out why a team or an individual is not executing their goals well, I find that there is a deep misunderstanding around these four words. If we seek effective teamwork, especially when dealing with adaptive problems, we must remember that common language and understanding gives people the capacity to plan well and the capacity to execute well.

Third, having “SMART goals” is a common phrase used around goals and goal setting. With this in mind, let us all recall that awareness is not understanding. Again, when I get called in to solve why change is not working, it always comes down to the SMART goal not being too-smart. In simple terms, these so called SMART goals often tend to be binary in nature as in done vs. not done. They are not designed to generate a series of short term wins.

Referencing the work of John  Kotter in his seminal research from the book, Leading Change (Harvard Business School Press, 1996), short-term wins create credibility for long term efforts. As he wrote, “A good short-term win has at least three characteristics:

1. It’s visible; large numbers of people can see for themselves whether the result is real or just hype.

2. It’s unambiguous; there can be little argument over the call.

3. It’s clearly related to the change effort.”

Furthermore, Kotter expanded on the importance of short term wins in his book, The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations (Harvard Business School Press, 2002). Here, he encourages leaders to “produce sufficient short term wins, sufficiently fast, to energize the change helpers, enlighten the pessimists, defuse the cynics, and build momentum for the effort.” He explains that short term wins “penetrate emotional defenses [held by those who do not want to change] by being unambiguous.” They also “speak to powerful players whose support you need and do not have yet.”

When I have seen the development and implementation of SMART goals that are built around a series of short term wins over time, I know two things. First, that the team will be successful. And, second, I am seeing someone move to the master level of goal setting.

This week, set goals that include short term wins and seek mastery in your goal setting. It is worth the time and energy to do it right.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Now Is The Time For Restoration

We were sitting at the kitchen table, discussing the challenges of leading this spring when she shared with me an interesting observation.

“Geery, people are taking time off from work to go home and to rest for a couple of days. The past two years have been grueling and intense. And when they come back to work, they are still feeling overwhelmed. Resting is not enough. It is not yielding any form of recovery from what we have lived through.”

I nodded in agreement.

“I think the problem,” she continued, “is that people are just depleted at their core. And they do not know how to recover or how to find the pathway to restoration.”

When she shared this with me, I knew she was spot-on and 100% correct. I knew the feeling personally, and I had seen it professionally. It was a brilliant observation.

Her comments reminded me of an ancient Chinese poem by Chia Tao (777-841):

“I asked the boy beneath the pines.

He said, “The master’s gone alone

Herb-picking somewhere on the mount,

Cloud-hidden, whereabouts unknown.”

I believe that many of us right now are feeling “cloud-hidden, whereabouts unknown.” We want to restore an inner and outer sense of balance. We want to have enough energy to move forward with clarity and confidence, but we have no idea how or where to begin. We just feel drained by life.

Marshall Goldsmith in his book, Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts - Becoming the Person You Want to Be, (Crown Business, 2015) writes, “It’s one thing to engage in depleting activities, but there’s another dimension: how we behave under the influence of depletion. Doing things that deplete us is not the same as doing things when we’re depleted. The former is cause, the latter effect.”

The outcome to living in a constant state of depletion is that we surrender to status quo, and choose to do nothing. Or we make careless choices, not thinking through the impact or precedent that we are setting as leaders.

After many hours of reflection, I think the restoration pathway has many stages to it. I also recognize that each of us as people and as leaders start in different places along the path and move through the different stages of restoration at various speeds.  

While I wish I could clearly map out the whole restoration process, I do know a couple of things about restoration from my own personal experiences, from being an executive coach, and from visiting with people who are helping others along this path.

First, stoping to reflect is critical stage. We need to pause and take stock. We need to step back and look at the whole of our life, at work and at home. We need to discern if we are living to our fullest potential and in a healthy manner.

Second, this act of reflection often results in a stage of remembrance and mourning. We have to grieve what we have lost and experience the normal but, at times, uncomfortable stages of grief that come with acknowledging these losses.

Third, we need to begin the process of learning and understanding new ways to work and live. This special time of restoration may include partnering with friends, coaches and mentors who can offer perspective, insights and support.

Finally, we need to give ourselves some grace along with some permission to keep experimenting on how to live and work in a new and healthy manner. 

The restoration pathway is not linear. Instead it is a dynamic and iterative process where several of the steps can happen simultaneously and continuously. Still, I think it is critical that we prepare ourselves for this work and then commit to doing it. We need to create new beginnings as move through the rest of 2022. Now is the time for restoration to begin.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

The Power of Structured Unstructured Time

Teams have been extremely busy this spring. Some are starting to function better and others are continuing to struggle. Those that are struggling have one common factor from my vantage point. They have broken into subgroups and lost the glue that holds them together as a team.

As a team leader, the first step to dealing with this is to make sure all the subgroups feel valued for their contribution toward the overall goal. This may mean helping the members of the subgroups to have line of sight from what they are doing on a daily basis with what the overall team goal. This is an initial step to building shared identity and shared understanding. Overtime, it has the potential to break down barriers to cooperation and information exchange. 

The second step is to create and to value structured unstructured time. Here, we open up time in our busy schedules to connect with people and to talk about matters not directly related to the task at hand. We value these moments of sharing because we are building relationships with people not just pushing them to get more work done. It also gives us a window into the whole person, not just the person who has a position and job title at the company.

The third step is answer the following six critical questions as a team:

- Why do we exist?

- How do we behave?

- What do we do?

- How will we succeed?

- What is most important, right now?

- Who must do what?

These six questions come from the following book: Lencioni, Patrick. The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business (Jossey-Bass, 2012). I have found them to be excellent and they have often generated new insights and perspectives, especially when a team has broken into subgroups. Often, they create a pathway to greater understanding and clarity which results in the subgroups slowly moving back into the direction of working as one team. And given current events, this is something we all seek and desire.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

One Challenge of Being on a 4-D Team

Recently, I have been thinking over and over about the following passage from Martine Haas and Mark Mortensen’s article called “The Secrets of Great Teamwork” (Harvard Business Review, June 2016).  As they write:

“In the past teams typically consisted of a stable set of fairly homogeneous members who worked face-to-face and tended to have a similar mindset. But that’s no longer the case, and teams now often perceive themselves not as one cohesive group but as several smaller subgroups. This is a natural human response: Our brains use cognitive shortcuts to make sense of our increasingly complicated world, and one way to deal with complexity of a 4-D team is to lump people into categories. But we also are inclined to view our own subgroup - whether it’s our function, our unit, our region, or our culture - more positively than others, and that habit often creates tension and hinders collaboration.”

I believe that the above paragraph should be unpacked sentence by sentence. All 4-D teams and their team leaders need to understand what is normal and common. 

One way to deal with this normal problem is to focus on building shared knowledge. As they explain, “Incomplete information is likewise more prevalent in 4-D teams…. Information won’t provide much value if it isn’t communicated to the rest of the team. After all, shared knowledge is the cornerstone of effective collaboration; it gives a group a frame of reference, allows the group to interpret situations and decisions correctly, helps people understand one another better, and greater increase efficiency.”

This spring, as I have been working with more 4-D teams and their leaders, we have explored team building plans and team maintenance plans. One element of these plans is to increases the creation of and use of common language, perspective and understanding. It takes time to do this but given what the above research points out, it is time well spent.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257