Respect Complexity
In 1913, Gertrude Stein wrote, “Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose” as part of her poem called “Sacred Emily.” For many young leaders and managers, the word “change” could be used in the same manner, namely change is a change is a change is a change. For them, change is just something that happens.
However, for experienced leaders, the word change has great depth and meaning. In some circumstances, the word change means that something needs to be different, i.e. innovation. In other situations, the word change means that something needs to be improved. Without clarity of which definition is being used, many people will be confused and disoriented about how to proceed.
At the exact same time, many young leaders and managers interchange the words complicated and complex. Similarly, this also creates confusion and disorientation. In both circumstances, clarity will only result from a clear understanding of the words being used.
Given the current market conditions, I think we need to help young leaders and managers understand the difference between complicated and complex, because complexity is making execution more difficult.
So, here are the definitions I use as an executive coach when defining the differences between the words complicated and complex. First, complicated change requires expertise, planning, execution, effort, and the tracking of key performance indicators or metrics. The result is a series of predictable outcomes. For example, a car is a complicated machine. An expert mechanic can figure out a problem with it, take it a part, and reassemble it without changing much except the broken part. The car is static, and the whole is the sum of its parts.
On the other hand, complex change also requires expertise, planning, execution, effort, and the tracking of key performance indicators or metrics. However, the result is an unpredictable outcome, because when things are complex, they also are constantly changing or as some people say “dynamic.” For example, a Brazilian rainforest is complex. The rainforest is in constant flux and the weather patterns are always changing. At the same time, the animal species change or can go extinct. Next, local agriculture impacts the water moving through the rain forest. Thus, the whole is far more than the sum of its parts. And most of what we understand about the rainforest, we understand in retrospect. In short, complexity makes problem solving and execution more difficult. And given current events, we are dealing with more and more complex organizational changes and complex market conditions.
General Stanley McChrystal with Tantum Collins, David Silverman and Chris Fussell in their book, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement For A Complex World (Portfolio/Penguin, 2015), write, “Complexity produces a fundamentally different situation from the complicated challenges of the past; complicated problems required great effort, but ultimately yielded to prediction. Complexity means that, in spite of our increase abilities to track and measure, the world has become, in many ways, vastly less predictable.” As they continue, “This unpredictability is fundamentally incompatible with reductionist managerial models based around planning and prediction. The new environment demands a new approach…. developing resilience, learning how to reconfigure to confront the unknown, is much more effective way to respond to a complex environment.” For McChrystal and others, the goal during complexity is to focus on creating the capacity within the team, and a work environment that supports adaptability. Then, with surprising agility and resilience, a team can “solve problems that could never be foreseen by a single manager - their solutions - often emerge as the bottom-up result of interactions, rather than from top-down orders.”
Yet, in the beginning and with the hopes of generating the aforementioned ability to pursue adaptability from the bottom-up, all leaders and managers, whether they are young or experienced, need to respect complexity. They also need to recognize that during complexity, the whole is far more than the sum of its parts. Thus, we need to be clear about what needs to get done, i.e. goals, metrics, and outcomes, but even more important, we need to be clear about purpose. As Dave Merrill, former CEO of Region V Services in Nebraska, shared with me years ago over dinner, “Change is inevitable; what we are trying to do is create purposeful change.” And this is critical during times of complexity.
Build Community
The two of us were sitting quietly together during a break in the all day training on leadership and organizational change that I was teaching. He was the head of HR and had hired me to teach this group of middle managers. We had worked together numerous times and had visited about a wide variety of subjects over the years.
“Where do you think teams actually come from?”, he asked me that afternoon.
I paused before replying. I had never been asked that question in the course of my career, and I had been asked many questions about teams and team work over the years. Upon reflection, I finally said, “I am not sure. What do you think?”
Then, he paused and said “Community. Before we have a team, there is a community within the work place. The individuals who make up a team all come from this work place community, and if the team ever disbands, then they all go back to the work place community. In reality, an individual on a team is both a part of the team and a part of the community. I know why we focus so much on teams, team building, and team work. It is important work. But I don’t think we spend enough time talking about creating a healthy work place community.”
We both sat in silence when he was done speaking. We realized that he had uncovered an important truth. And we both had a lot to think about given this important insight.
Over the years, I have reflected many times on this moment of sharing. I still think it is an important insight. In particular, I think the problem in the world of leadership is that we default to creating teams rather than defaulting to creating a healthy, work place community. As Margret Wheatley wrote in her book, Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time (Berrett-Koehler, 2005), “... humans usually default to the known when confronted with the unknown.” And for leaders, the default is build teams and to talk about the importance of teamwork.
The reason for this choice is that I believe we are uncomfortable talking about work place community, because we do not have the language and the framework about community life that we have around the subject of teams and teamwork. As Wheatley noted, “Life seeks organization, but it uses messes to get there. Organization is a process, not a structure.” And the challenge of creating community is that it is very messy, uncontrollable, and mostly an undefined process. Building a team, on the other hand, is a well defined and organized process that results in a structure that can generate goals and outcomes on a consistent basis. Thus, we default to the known and the familiar, rather than the potentially messy work of community building.
However, if we grasp the depth of this insight and understand the importance of building a healthy work place community, the place from which healthy teams are born, then we need to recognize that both teams and community are nothing more than “webs of relationships,” citing a Wheatley term. As she notes, a community, and also a team, knows the answers to two fundamental questions: “Who are we?” and “What matters?.” Answering these two questions at the individual, team, and community levels takes time, reflection and a lot of patience. But the process of doing this work connects and nourishes the web of relationships on multiple levels. It also creates shared meaning, understanding, and ownership, i.e. a depth of clarity and interconnection. And with these elements in place, the members of the community, as well as the community as a whole, has the potential to act from a place of courage and focus as it faces uncertainty
From my perspective, many young leaders and managers need to understand the value of community building along with the work they are doing to build and maintain healthy teams. Furthermore, they need to understand that they are working with a diverse collection of people, who have different needs, values, and priorities, all of which could be in conflict with each other. Thus, creating a healthy work place community in combination with healthy teams is a worthwhile investment in their time and energy.
In the beginning of this work, I believe there are two key elements to doing it. First, all involved need to build and maintain relationships at the one to one level. Given a community is a web of relationships, we need to devote time and energy into interpersonal relationships. Second, we need to understand that in order to build a relationship we need to focus on talking less and listening more. What experienced leaders and managers know is that great listening is more than being quiet. It actually involves being genuinely curious about other people, particularly how they think and what their life journey has been up to that point in time.
Building a healthy work place community is a strategic commitment more than just an operational choice. It is based on an understanding that the source of successful teamwork comes from a foundation of healthy relationships and healthy community. When we realize this and grasp the significant implications of it, we can position the organization to be nimble and resilient as more and more adaptive problems and situations rise before us.
To be continued on Wednesday.
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