Three Important Questions - part #2

When I was actively involved in multiple strategic planning cycles with a variety of different companies each year, I would regularly remind them that the current state of affairs within the company, which got them to this point and that gave them permission and the ability to plan for the future, reflected the decisions made by people in leadership positions and the staff who were willing to execute those decisions when they were translated into a plan, five to seven years ago. In short, where we are today reflects the courage of those who came before us. 

However, with the rise of organizational amnesia, we stumble into the land of planning, thinking that we are the only ones who have ever encountered problems of this magnitude and scope. We think we are the first to struggle and have to make hard choices. The impact of this line of thinking is that we create weak and non-authentic relationships, and ultimately weak and non-authentic teams. Because when we engage in strategic reflection, which will deeply influence future strategic planning, we come to understand that relationships based on trust also have the capacity to take certain strategic risks in order to improve performance. Strategic planning, and later strategic execution, is always based on the ability of all involved to find creative responses to the extraordinary and complex challenges before them. 

Ron Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, and Marty Linsky in their book, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World (Harvard Business Press, 2009) write that adaptive leadership and adaptive planning involves four key activities. First, a leader must observe events and patterns around them, plus collect data and translate it into useful information. Second, they need to interpret what they are observing with the assistance of others. Third, they need to design interventions based on observations and interpretations to address the adaptive challenges they have identified. Fourth, they need to implement what they have designed. All four of these activities are very important. 

However, there are two things missing from my vantage point and experience. 

Cass Sunstein and Reid Hastie in their  article called “Making Dumb Groups Smarter” in the December 2014 issue of the Harvard Business Review writes “Many groups end up thinking that their ultimate convergence on a shared view was inevitable. Beware of that thought.” I would add that many leaders believe that they have the future all figured out before strategic planning has even begun. 

Second, referencing back to the work of Heifetz, Grashow and Linsky on adaptive leadership, they write, “In the realm of adaptive leadership, you have to believe that your intervention is absolutely the right thing to do at the moment you commit to it. But at the same time, you need to remain open to the possibility that you are dead wrong.” This key point is often missed by so many leaders and so many leadership teams, and yet it is so important to their success. 

When we take the time to reflect deeply on the three important questions I wrote about yesterday, we have the potential to understand that those who came before us made the best decisions they could with the tools and information they had. They tried to be creative, adaptive, and courageous in the face of complicated problems and complex environmental conditions. In essence, they did their best with what they had and where they were. And as a result, some days it was great, and other days they were “dead wrong.” 

With this understanding, we must recognize that we will do likewise. We will be great, and we might completely miss the mark. Therefore, we need to humbly consider the aforementioned, three questions and seek honest and thoughtful responses to each one of them. And hopefully, with time and grace, we fall into the category of being great rather than be dead wrong. 

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

Three Important Questions - part #1

As we come to the end of the first quarter of 2023, many people may not realize that strategic planning for the coming 1 - 3 years has already started. It typically begins when a senior leader thinks about the following three questions:

- Where are we now?

- How did we get here from there?

- How will we get there from here?

Given it is still early in the calendar year and since these questions are so big, the answers to them are often revealed through sharing and dialogue with an executive coach, trusted mentor, or assorted other allies and confidants. It is a process of reflection and discovery. The goal is not to find the “right” answer as much as to find a greater understanding.

The best leaders I have met recognize that there are three problems inherent in the concept of strategic planning. The first problem is that some people in leadership positions believe that all the intelligence within the company is centralized near the top of the organization. Thus, this is where the best ideas and solutions will come from. They believe this is the foundation of the company’s success. 

The second problem is that some people in leadership positions believe in the premise of predictable change. For them, the implementation of strategic plans are scripted on the assumption of a reasonable degree of predictability and control during the time span of the change effort. Furthermore, they assume that because they are the smartest people in the room, referencing the first problem, that everyone else just needs to execute the plan, rather than have input into it, or have an insight into how to improve it before or during execution. 

The third problem is that some people in leadership positions have an assumption that with a clear cascading message, and the appropriate related information, everyone will work effectively. Team work and collaboration will abound. In specific, they believe that once a course of action is determined, and once that initiative flows from the top down to the front line that this will engender buy-in and ultimately commitment. 

The difficulty of the above three problems is that they do not create clarity, buy-in, or improved effort. Instead, they perpetuate long standing, leadership myths that are detrimental to the health and well being of the leaders themselves and the company as a whole. For when we believe that everyone in a leadership position has to have the answers to all the problems presented to them, and when we believe that everyone in a leadership position has to be able to fix everything, then we set up people in leadership positions for failure and burnout. 

Nevertheless, we do need to engage in effective strategic planning, recognizing that change is happening all around us, and within the company at the same time. While more formal strategic planning often starts in August or September, this early work done during the late winter and early spring is mission critical to the more formal process. And it begins by diving deeply into the three, aforementioned questions. 

In order to answer the first question, Where are we now?, an individual needs to realize that leaders often suffer from context blindness, namely that people in leadership positions may see the whole organization, but may not be able to see the environmental context within which the whole organization is working and moving through. This is why the best leaders explore this question with an executive coach or mentor, knowing that this individual will ask them questions which will prevent them from suffering from macro-myopia, namely the failure to grasp “big picture” connections. 

In order to answer the second question, How did we get here from there?, an individual needs to realize that leaders often suffer from temporal blindness, namely the ability to see the present without understanding how it has been defined and influenced by past decisions and choices, both strategic and operational. 

Finally, in order to answer the third question, How will we get there from here?, an individual needs to realize that leaders must not only have a vision for the future, i.e. a picture of the future which meets the needs of the customer or person served, but, given today’s difficult challenges around recruitment and rendition of staff, also meets the needs of their employees. 

From my vantage point, one element of answering the third question revolves around the realization that many leaders suffer from relationship blindness, namely they do not perceive themselves to be in relationship with others. In particular as they think about planning for the future, they do not reflect upon and consider how important it is to improve their relationships with others. Recognizing that organizational change is the sum of individual and relational change, we can not as leaders or as a company move into the future and be resilient in the process without improving our relationships. 

When we step back and consider the totality of these three important questions, I think we find that we routinely suffer from organizational amnesia. In particular, we have forgotten our history, and our past strategic choices. In essence, we have forgotten our story of how we have gotten to this point. 

FYI: To be continued on Wednesday.

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

Find Your Inner Teacher

Having spent my entire career teaching, I have learned three important lessons about education. First, no teacher can be the answer to all our problems. We can offer insights and perspective. We can offer guidance when applicable. But the most important thing a teacher can offer is the creation of a safe place to share, reflect, and to be heard.

Second, we are all teachers for each other. When we build safe spaces and safe social networks and communities, we can all learn from each other. We can all share and teach, because each of us carries wisdom, insights, and perspectives that can aid another person.

Third, as Indian sage, Nisargadatta Maharaj, noted: “The outer teacher is merely a milestone. It is only your inner teacher that will walk with you to the goal, for he [she] is the goal.”  As we move forward in life, my hope is that each of us can find and listen to our “inner teacher”. For they are the goal and the solution to all the endings and new beginnings that will come our way. 

This week, walk the path of discovery and seek your inner teacher. It will be a remarkable and rewarding journey.

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

The Ground Remembers

Every October, I get down on my hands and knees, and participate in an annual ritual that combines faith, hard work, and hope. Those who drive by our home  may think I am praying in and around the different late season flowers. And in reality, I am on one level. 

Every fall, I plant hundreds of spring bulbs. I dig holes at various depths and various sizes. Each one is for a different kind of spring bulb. 

This past fall, I planted 565 new bulbs throughout our flower beds. They joined the thousands that have been planted before them. My goal is to have something blooming on the land from the earliest part of the spring all the way into June before the other perennials begin to flower. 

I dug shallow holes for the species crocus on the south side of our house, where the ground, sheltered by the house, warms up first. These are the wild crocus and they come forth at the first hint of warmth within the soil. They are quickly followed by the large Dutch crocus, the favorites of the honey bees waking up from their winter hibernation. 

Then, various kinds of daffodils from the little ones to the regal and classic King Alfred will bloom. Simultaneously, the early tulips and heirloom species tulips, the original wild ones, will open to reveal their beauty. 

At the height of spring, the Darwin tulips, the classic red and pink tulips, will stand tall and make us all stop and admire their majesty. Later in the spring, we will see the Asiatic hybrid lilies flower as the rest of the perennial flowers open and celebrate the return of spring. 

Before this spring miracle takes place, I spend many hours in mid-March back on my hands and knees cleaning off the winter detritus of leaves, spent flower stalks, and the normal winter kill that comes with the cold. Then, I spread a fresh layer of bark mulch so the spring moisture lasts long into summer and the weeds are suppressed. 

As I participate in this annual spring ritual that started back in October, I am reminded of the lines from a poem called “Reverdure” by Wendell Berry from his book of poetry called The Clearing. As he writes about spring:

“An old grandmother

a little surprised

to be waking up again,

the ground slowly remembers

the shapes of grass blades,

stems, leaves, birds,

cattle, people, songs.”

This spring, after multiple years of living with the weight and challenges of a global pandemic, I celebrate the ground waking up and remembering crocus, daffodils, and tulips. I so enjoy the happiness and smiles that people show as they walk by our house with their dogs and families. 

As the earth wakes up to spring, so do we.  We remember that goodness still exists in the world, and that miracles happen each and every day. We just have to pause, spend a few minutes with some crocus, daffodils or tulips, and remember that the Divine is all around us. And we are blessed beyond measure to be a part of this change in the seasons. 

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

Keep Walking

One Sunday morning in late November many years ago, when walking home from church, our early elementary aged, and youngest son pointed to the far eastern horizon and asked an important question, “What’s it like past there?”

“I don’t know,” I responded. “How about we go find out after lunch?”

Once the noon meal was done and cleaned up, we put on warm jackets, snow pants, hats, and mittens and walked to the back fence behind our home. Then, with assistance, I helped him over the fence and then got over myself. 

We walked through a pasture and then over another fence into a freshly tilled corn field. We walked and walked over the uneven ground until we came to the next fence, the place where he had pointed to a couple of hours earlier.

We paused at this fence and looked to the east. There, we saw more fields, more fences, a small woods, a pond, and after that more fields. We just stood there and looked.

Finally, he reached up, took my hand, and said, “So that’s what it looks like. It just keep going.” 

“Yes, it does,” I replied. 

And when he was ready, we turned around and walked back toward home.  What was unknown was now known. What was pondered was now seen. What was a question was now an answer.

When we commit to a path with heart, we have to realize that the path just keeps going, and we create the path by walking upon it. In essence, the path reveals itself step by step.

Our challenge is to keep walking and to remember that the journey is a pilgrimage for greater meaning and purpose in our lives. Each step is a step toward being more connected to our inner light and to our shared divinity. Each step is a step to being more connected to the oneness that surrounds us all, and the divinity that is present in each and every one of us. 

For when we discover this oneness, we understand that we are all walking different paths to the same destination. So, keep walking your path with heart. It is a sacred journey.

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

Pruning the Apple Tree

The warm winds from the southwest are returning to the heartland, hastening the arrival of spring. The cardinals and chickadees have started to sing their spring mating calls. The species crocus have broken ground on the south side of the house, and will bloom soon, maybe even today. The earth is waking up from its winter slumber. And it is time for me to go and prune the apple tree out east of our house.

Many years ago, my father-in-law gave us this apple tree. It was an old variety that had been highly popular back at the turn of the century. He had bought one for them, and one for us. 

When it came time to prune the tree, I did not know how to do it. He told me to remove the suckers, the broken branches, and the limbs that crossed other branches. He told me to save the fruiting spurs where the buds were. 

As I stood and looked at the tree, I had no idea where to start, because I had never pruned an apple tree. It was not something that we did when I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia as a child. We got our apples from the store. 

So, my father-in-law came up, and we started pruning the tree together. Slowly, I learned the difference between a sucker and a fruiting spur. But I struggled in the pruning process, because I could not envision what the tree was going to become from the pruning we were doing. 

In particular, he told me to “prune for what the tree will become; what it will grow into, not just for what it looks like right now.” I never really grasped this concept when he told me this, because I could not envision the clipping of a branch here or a limb there and how that would result in a full grown tree. In essence, I could not see the fully mature tree within the sapling that we started with on that sunny spring day. 

Finally, he told me that when you are done pruning, “you should be able to toss a basketball through the center of the tree, and never have it hit any limbs.” Then he proceeded to help me to achieve this outcome. Not every year, but over the course of multiple years, he would come and help me to prune this tree. 

And each fall, the tree would produce lots of apples.  Some years we were bountiful, and other years it was sparse. He told me this was normal, and to keeping pruning every spring. 

Late in his life, we talked about our apple tree. He shared that he was not that impressed with this old apple variety. It did not turn out quality apples like other varieties. I was glad to hear this as I felt the same way about it. Since we did not spray the tree every year, many of the apples were of poor quality. We used some of them, but most of the apples I would pitch over the fence to our neighbor’s two horses who were delighted to be eating them. 

Each spring, I dutifully pruned the apple tree. It was nearly a six hour process including the clean-up. My hand was always sore from clipping so many parts of the tree. And each fall, the apples kept coming. 

Then, one spring after my father-in-law had passed away, I decided to stop pruning the apple tree in the spring. I didn’t really like the apples and it was a lot of work. 

That year and for quite a few years, the apple tree took off like a rocket. It grew and grew, and we were overwhelmed by apples. The harvest was massive. The horses were over joyed and our neighbors even came and harvested the tree, taking the best apples to town to share with people who were less fortunate. I was delighted with this outcome. 

But late one winter morning, I realized that the tree had gotten so big that it blocked my view to the east. I could not see the field behind our house where the horses gave birth to their spring foals. I could not see the place where the hawks came to sit and look for prey in the tall grass. I could not see the sunrise as well on an early spring morning. 

So, I went out with my clippers and my saw, and gave the old apple tree a massive haircut. It was a multi-day process, and in the end, all that was left were the fruiting spurs and a gnarled and twisted old trunk. The tree had moved from being a wild one to a more cultivated and cared for one. As a result, the harvest was less, but the view to the east was much better.

This late winter, I again decided to go out and prune the tree. It was not going to be a massive haircut like years before but it was going to be a pruning cycle that took a fair bit of time and energy. However, this time, I had a different purpose in mind. 

First, this spring, I wanted to enjoy the pruning process, not just the outcome. I wanted the goal to be enjoying the time outside in the spring, and being with the tree and in the tree as I pruned. I wanted to take more time to marvel at the miracle of spring and the beauty of this old apple tree. It may or may not produce lots of apples, but, as I slowly pruned the tree, I realized that it had grown and survived many a harsh winter, and, at times, some poor pruning decisions on my part.

Second, I did not frame up the tree as just an apple tree that would produce apples. It also was a tree that had the potential to be the home for a great tree house if the grandchildren ever deemed this to be something that they wanted to create. As I stood on the ground and looked up into the tree, and as I moved my step ladder around the tree, I could envision an awesome tree house in and around the multiple main branches coming off the solid trunk. And this gave me great joy. 

My late father-in-law could envision the tree fully grown when it was just a sapling and then prune accordingly. I never grasped this concept in the beginning, but now I can envision it becoming a special place for the grandchildren. And one day, they may climb up into that old tree, pick and eat an apple, and enjoy the view from on high. 

Then, I will smile from ear to ear with tears streaming down my face. For on that day, I will see what my father-in-law saw so many years ago, and be blessed by the gift he gave us. 

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

Understand The Path Is The Destination

We are a destination oriented society. We are driven to get there, where ever there may be. And we are supported and validated when we do that. We have our foot on the accelerator and we push ourselves hour after hour. The goal is to accomplish more goals. Exhaustion is a sign of status and accomplishment.

Making a commitment to a path with heart begins with the understanding that the path is the destination. There is no goal but to stay on the path. It is a “joyful journey,” referencing the earlier quote by Carlos Castaneda, rather than an exhausting one. It is a path where restoration and rejuvenation are integral to clarity, commitment, and confidence.

When we seek, discover, and then commit to a path with heart, we are willing to be 100% present to each step and each choice along the path. We seek to be here and now in the present moment, the place where miracles and blessings are born and happen all around us.

A very long time ago, I was participating in a Tai Ji class when the teacher asked a wonderfully insightful question: “Are you looking at the moon or are you looking at the finger that is pointing at the moon?” Our challenge in life is that we often get distracted and focus on the finger pointing at the moon. Thus, we miss the beauty of a full moon rising in the night sky.

The same is true on a path with heart. We often become distracted and get caught up in the minutiae of details, goals, and plans. We seek to make progress on the outside rather than to be present to the union of the inner reality and the outer moment. 

For when we commit to a path with heart, we learn that each day is filled with many opportunities to be 100% present to the beauty around us and within us. There are numerous “all moon moments” happening. We just have to open our hearts and see them. The goal is to stay on the path and to embrace the journey. The path is the destination.

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

Embrace Your Imperfections

It was a beautiful spring morning and I was washing the breakfast dishes, looking east as the sun rose. Tears were streaming down my face as Peter Mayer sang the song, “Japanese Bowl”, from his album called “Heaven Below.”

“I’m like one of those Japanese bowls

That were made long ago

I have some cracks in me

They have been filled with gold.

That’s what they used back then

When they had a bowl to mend

It did not hide the cracks

It made them shine instead.

So now every old scar shows

From every time I broke

And anyone’s eyes can see

I’m not what I used to be.”

I know the feeling of being broken and cracked open. I know the feeling that my old scars and wounds are visible for all to see. I also know the slow journey of  restoration, and the work of mending those cracks. 

Candice Kumai in her book called Kintsugi Wellness: The Japanese Art of Nourishing Mind, Body and Spirit (Harper Wave, 2018) writes that “Kintsugi is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold - built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, you can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art. Every break is unique and instead of repairing an item like new, the 400-year-old technique actually highlights the “scars” as a part of the design. Using this as a metaphor for healing ourselves teaches us an important lesson: sometimes in the process of repairing things that have broken, we actually create something more unique, beautiful and resilient.” 

Years ago, Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, one of the earliest pioneers in the mind/body health field, and one of the first to develop a psychological approach to working with people with life-threatening illness, described working with a cancer patient who was struggling. The patient drew a picture of herself as a vase covered in cracks. She felt like her life was breaking into pieces. 

One day, this patient asked Dr. Remen to see the picture again. The patient worked some more on the drawing and then showed it to her doctor. Each of the cracks she had originally drawn now had yellow light pouring out from them. She told Dr. Remen that the cracks were where her inner light could shine through. She had transformed her view of her illness from a problem to an opportunity to live in a new way.

As we walk a path with heart, we will experience moments which are challenging on the inside and the outside. We will feel our scars, our pain, and our difficulties. They do not go away just because we have committed to walking a path with heart.

Instead, we have to accept our past choices and experiences. We have to realize that we did the best we could with the information we had and the history we had experienced. We also need to understand that everyone around us has their own scars, and their own history. We are a community of broken bowls moving forward one step at a time. 

With this perspective, I have learned to embrace my own imperfections and to have compassion for those around me. I give grace and forgiveness to myself. I show it to others, too. With this perspective, I continually seek oneness and acceptance of my own and our collective cracks instead of following a path of separation and alienation because of our cracks.

On that beautiful spring morning, my wife, Jane, stood beside me, and put her hand on my back. We listened as the final verses were sung.

“But in a collector’s mind

All of these jagged lines

Make me more beautiful

And worth a much higher price

I’m like one of those Japanese bowls

I was made long ago

I have some cracks you can see

See how they shine of gold.”

A path with heart is a healing path and a challenging path. And as we travel on this path, we must embrace our flaws and imperfections, and not judge others who also have them. We must not hide our cracks, but honor them. We must always remember that they are filled with gold and we are beautiful and whole just as we are.

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