Category Archives: Leadership

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Stop Arguing about Truth

I just came across one of those paragraphs in a book that I read, reread and then had to blog about!

Several years ago, organizational theorist Karl Weick called attention to enactment in organizations – how we participate in the creation of organizational realities.  “The environment that the organization worries about is put there by the organization,” he observed, adding that if we acknowledge the role we play in this creation, it changes the things we talk and argue about.  If we create the environment, how can we argue about it’s objective features, or about what’s true or false? Instead, Weick encouraged us to focus our concerns on issues of effectiveness, on questions of what happened, and what actions might have served us better. We could stop arguing about truth and get on with figuring what works best.  (quoted in Leadership and The New Science by Margaret Wheatley, p.37).

I feel like this has been my experience this past year.  Lots of anger and hurt feelings over decisions that everyone participated in creating that led to a pretty negative outcome.  It might be time to stop arguing about truth and take a look inside.  We’ve been asking the wrong questions.

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Everything Is A Mess

I’m doing some serious business planning these days.  I’ve quit a job I’ve been doing for a couple of years.  I’m rebuilding my business and I’m excited about what’s coming.  I’m also feeling discombobulated.  Well, maybe not quite discombobulated but certainly ‘out of sorts’.  I really just like using that word if possible.

One thing I have learned in my journey so far is:  Change is always messiest in the middle.

My husband is painting a room in our home right now.  It is a perfect example for me of the mess of change.  The planning for his home office/guest bedroom wasn’t messy at all.  We talked about what we would do and then he went and picked the paint colour.  Then I went back to the store with him and picked out the right paint colour. OK – that could have been a little messy but after being married this long he knows when to let me have my way.

Yesterday, the room was dismantled, the walls washed, trim taped and some sanding done.  You know how that goes.  Everything small enough to be carried out of the room is now redistributed in other rooms in our house and today the painting starts.  The plan is to have everything back in place by the end of the week.

For now, things are messy.  

It is a metaphor for my life right now.  I’m in the middle of the mess.  I’ve got an idea of what the end product will look like but it has involved tearing apart a lot of things.  The difficult thing about life change is that it usually goes on for quite a bit longer than a week.

I read quote recently, “To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.  Henri Bergson, French Philosopher.

I have no idea when all the parts will be put back in place.  In the mean time I just have to keep working at it.  Keep preparing the room and taking the time to make sure I don’t rush the change but take the time needed to really ask all the questions to make sure that I don’t miss anything important as I move forward.  I don’t want to paint myself into a corner or paint around the furniture.

If things feel messy in your life right now that’s OK.  You are probably in the middle of something.  Trust the process.

 

 

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The Real Me

This summer I returned to school When I was doing the residency for my MA this summer, one of the faculty asked me the question, “What would it take for the real you to show up?“  I was taken aback by this question. The context was a discussion we were having about my realization that my personal values didn’t line up with the corporate values of a client. As time went on I was feeling more and more tension with this client and wanted to make a decision.

Her question has stuck with me.  I find myself asking it over and over again.  In recent years I have spent a lot of time showing up for other people, showing up how I think other people want me to show up and avoiding showing up as me altogether. Some where along the way I got the idea that to say what I want and to focus on who I am was selfish.  I’ve made some big decisions since my residency. I am bringing closure to some areas of my life.  I realize some relationships are not allowing me to flourish.  I need to find a way for the real me to show up.  Is that selfish?  I don’t know.  Is it honest?  Yes.

This year has been about change and transition.  I’ve been blessed with an opportunity to step out of a sub-culture that was suffocating me.  I’ve been able to have a TOOT (time out of time) to really think about who I am and where I am going and how to walk with integrity.  It’s really easy to get caught up in doing things just because you don’t want to let other people down or for them to think less of you.  If I am only showing a part of myself then thinking less of me might be threatening.  If I show up authentically and you think less of me – well, that’s OK.  At least you made the decision on something that was true.

“Above all, do not appear to others what you are not.” – Robert E. Lee

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Systems Thinking and Scapegoats

Going back to school is proving to be a lot of fun and a lot of work.  With so much writing required it is hard to keep up with a blog.  I’m using one of my blogs as a learning journal so this one is being neglected.

I am doing a course on Leadership in Organizational Systems.  It is both just in time and too late depending on which situation I reflect on.  I’m re-reading Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline as part of my reading.  (Updated enough that I had to replace my old copy!)

There is a quote I had to share.  He says it well  and challenges my tendency to be linear in my thinking.  He says:

In mastering systems thinking, we give up the assumption that there is an individual, or individual agent, responsible.  The feedback perspective suggests that everyone shares responsibilities for problems generated by a system. that doesn’t necessarily imply that everyone involved can exert equal leverage in changing the system.

But it does imply that the search for scapegoats – a particularly alluring pastime in individualistc cultures such as ours in the Unites Stated — is a blind alley.

I think we’ve all seen this play out in organizations.  Let’s get a new person to lead us and our problems will be fixed.  How’s that working for you?

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The Green Eyed Monster

As I mentioned in an earlier post this month I plan to write on the topic of vision.  This is the first time I’ve been as intentional as picking a monthly topic.  It is part of a bigger plan to try and put together something more formal (perhaps an ebook).

As often happens since I made the decision I’ve come across countless articles on vision.  You can infer what you like from that happenstance.  You might think I’m attracting vision or you might think that I’m just more aware of the topic and as a result noticing anything on the topic.  I’m more inclined to go with the last theory.

The reason I am writing on vision is not because I want to flog the dead horse of vision statements. We can only hope churches and corporations are revisiting those manufactured vision statements that have more to do with what they think they should be doing than what they really feel inspired to do. No, my interest in vision has to do with transformation – a topic I am quite interested in.

After spending over 20 years in organizations with an eye on helping people grow, move forward, take action, etc.  I’ve noticed that there are a few things that need to happen for someone to really change.

The first one is vision.  We need to have a vision of what we want to be like to put it simply.  The clearer it is the better.

So to kick start this topic – what person do you envy? It might not be your typical vision casting question but I think it’s a good one.

Who do you wish you were?  What person do you hear about and think – I wish that was me?  It doesn’t have to be one person.  Maybe you have several people who you envy.  You might envy someone because of their career and someone else because of their community.  It doesn’t matter.  Make a list of a few people you envy and why you envy them.  It’s a part of sorting out your vision.  We’ll add to this discussion this week.