Strategic Planning, "Learning Organizations", and Creative Tension…in Dog Speak

"Every act of creation first of all is an act of destruction

because the new idea will destroy

what a lot of people believe is essential

to the survival of their intellectual world."

                          --- Pablo Picasso

Successful organizational and personal change; successful organizational and personal learning, comes individually from within the people, and takes time.  One size does not fit all.  It is not dictated from the top or brought in from the outside, and then completed by the end of the year.  If you don't know that, you should.  

Too many programs still begin with the tenet to gain commitment from the top of the organization; and that is certainly necessary in the development of strategic plans and learning organizations.  I've never been convinced that is totally true for organizational change.  

However, numerous plans, programs and ideas die simply because they only have buy-in at the top.  Mission/Vision statements created by "senior" leadership then vetted by lawyers and handed to the masses on cool wall hangings aimed at building morale.  Apparently some MBA programs missed the Drucker line... "You can't motivate people, you can only thrwart their motivation.  They have to motivate themselves.".   Handing them a wall hanging does not create motivational circumstances.  

How many of us have witnessed a scenario where the “boss” attends a conference, sees a GREAT presentation and returns to the office inspired and espousing the need to "get this program going"?  The minions quickly read the material and then go off running in circles and being “proactive”, hoping to make the boss happy. 

By the end of the month they’re all In Search of Excellence as they try to get Out of the Crisis with Seven Habits of Highly Effective People ; but most often they end up with a new definition of Thriving on Chaos.    The program dies a slow death because the group was focused more on performing for the boss’s approval and not on creating the best outcome for the organization.   By the end of the year, the boss is discouraged, the minions are frustrated, employees are openly apathetic and nobody's talking about the benefit of anything, particularly the "program".[1]

Dog advice: Don't preach "change is constant, our organization is a learning one...", then follow it up with directives like, "have it done by ...." That is called a mixed message in dog speak.   It does great at building packs of angry dogs, though.  
 

Simply put, one of the basics of developing this organizational learning thing is the understanding that people (AND organizations) have been conditioned to be taught rather than to learn.  Think about it…. from the moment we entered school, we have been given grades and approval based on our ability to ingest information and regurgitate "correct" responses to tests.   Then we entered the job market and get ratings on our performance appraisal; and the need to impress our teacher has magically moved to impressing our boss. 

Simply put, from about the age of 5, people have been trained to go into a room, be filled with information and directions, and regurgitate correct answers.  Simply put, people have been taught to perform for approval, which is generally in the form of meeting other people's expectations.  Peter Senge, in defining a “learning organization” astutely positioned the learning organization as beginning with the basic principle of addressing people's need to re-learn how to learn. 

The research-based concept of continuous learning is foreign to most people.  The theory entails education of the individual and the organization, based on five disciplines:  1) continually clarifying and deepening the vision and understanding each individual's ability to create their own reality, 2) unearth the internal pictures that individual's and organization's carry of themselves and other things, scrutinize them, and make them open to the influence of others, 3) create a capacity to "think together" by learning to "talk together", 4) develop and share visions of the future which foster genuine commitment, and, 5) think systemically, which will integrate the other four and fuse them into a coherent body of theory and practice.  

Pretty high-brow esoteric stuff, huh?   Too deep, complicated and confusing for mere mortal dogs?   Not really.  It ain’t rocket science.  It is work though, very hard work; and can't be done in 30-60-90 days.   The concept is one of never ending, always moving. 

Dog advice:  
“Sometimes it’s what you want, sometimes it’s not what you want, sometimes it’s a combination of both – but it’s the whole system which creates that.  If you want to improve, what you do is improve the system; you don’t badger the people to work harder or work smarter.  You don’t threaten them with punishment or promise them rewards:  that’s looking in the wrong place.”
                                                                        --- Peter Scholtes 

You may also have heard about developing a strategic plan.   Many places approach “strategic planning” in the same way the boss did in the fourth paragraph.   I can tell you, as someone who was involved in these things on a regular basis, I have a lot of 3-ring binders with cool powerpoint inserts, that cost a whole lot of money for a minimal ROI.   And they gather dust.  All of the idea and programs inside those binders crying to get out.  

I would go on to say that success in progressing through the strategic planning journey lies in senior leaders (personally and organizationally), working on a mission of con­tinually clarifying and deepening their own personal visions, focusing energies, developing patience, and seeing reality objec­tively. 

These leaders push, pull, prod their organizations/people from their “current reality’ to really see a “vision” of what may be.   And, Current Reality and Vision are clear pictures, not some vague hyperbole.   They involve speaking the so very difficult words called “truth”.  Hold a mirror up to the organizaton, and the individuals.  

This effort of moving from current reality to a new world vision generates something called “creative tension”; best described in Picasso’s quote above. 

Creative tension will come on strong as ways to improve and work together evolve in the processes and people.   People will impulsively look at things as “win/lose”; or from a perspective of “us vs. them” in “either/or” situations, rather than looking at what is best for what may be achieved TOGETHER.   They are operating from their long-held need to “perform for approval” and get a good grade. 

And, again, that’s okay.   That’s a normal part of the process.   The trick is to address those concerns in open and honest two-way communication.  This process is part of a longer plan, not a weekly plan, so a lot of things aren’t known and need to be worked out.   A lot of questions don’t have answers, and the need to learn more about some things to be able to formulate the best answers.  Ambiguity may rule, but the chaos may also ultimately bring new order.   (Thanks to Meg Wheatley for "Leadership & The New Science").

Success will be achieved in doing that, and building momentum.  Success will be achieved by keeping that momentum going.   Thus, no dust gathering.  

The principle of creative tension has long been recognized by real leaders.  Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind, so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths, so must we create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism."    

But creative tension can't be generated from vision alone; it demands an accurate picture of current reality as well.  Just as King had a dream, so too did he continually strive to "dramatize the shameful conditions" of racism and prejudice so that they could no longer be ignored.  As noted in the example of the “boss and the program” above, Vision without an understanding of current reality will more likely foster cynicism than creativity.  The death knell for strategic planning.

Many organizations also mistake analysis for action.   All the analysis in the world will never achieve a vision.  Many very smart people fail because they try to substitute analysis for vision.  The “boss” may say something about decisions needing to be “data driven” and "evidence based" – and, whoosh, the minions are off and running for a data analysis program!   Do they assume that if people see data, they will feel the motivation to change…because that’s what the boss said?   Then they are disappointed when people "resist" the personal and organizational changes that must be made to alter their reality.

Simply put, someone must transform the data into information, help it become knowledge, then generate understanding and, ultimately, facilitate the wisdom to find the way.  Get people to WANT to go to the new realities.  Leaders to provide the tools, the resources AND the common focus.  

What some leaders never grasp is that the natural energy for changing things must come from within the people.  Yes, the data analysis is important, but it only tells us where we’ve been, not where we are gong.   How to take action on the data and how we’re going to get to where we want to be…that’s what leadership is for.   One size solution may not fit all of the needs of strong organizations, and the numerous entities embedded within each one.  

Dog advice:   Don't mistake patience for weakness.  It's just the opposite. 

It takes time... and effort… and patience… to see the possibilities; the vision of what is possible to become clear.   Leaders fear that patience will be perceived as a weakness.   This is another common mistake in many places.   Yet, nothing is really further from the truth.   This isn’t just about solving the immediate day-to-day problems.  

Leading through creative tension is different than solving problems.  In problem solving, the energy for change comes from attempting to get away from a current reality that is undesirable.  That is reactive and can be done quickly.   With creative tension, the energy for change comes from seeing the vision of what we want to create.   That takes time.   Success is in solving the immediate problems with the future in mind.  

As the saying goes, “recognize the past, live for today and look for tomorrow”. 

So, simply put, the pursuit of real learning and accomplishing a strategic plan needs not just endorsement and acceptance at the top, but leadership which is willing to accept a challenge to transform the organization's culture.  It needs leadership who understands that such acceptance places an emphasis on continuous learning and compels them to have enough self-confidence to admit that they don't know everything, but they have the resources to find the solutions.  When problems arise, when capabilities are less than ideal, leaders must understand that they can institute effective changes from the top through their own learning.  It needs leaders who can learn, as well as lead. 

That alone can be the biggest challenge. 

People who have changed the universe never accomplished it by changing officials, but always by inspiring the people.

---

[1] The italicized titles are of popular business books by: Tom Peters/Robert Waterman, W. Edwards Deming, Steven Covey, and Tom Peters, respectively.

Speak HR Dog !!

I had just walked out of teaching a class on “Mental Models”; and someone referred to me as an “HR Guy”.   My immediate thought was, “Please don’t call me an ‘HR Guy’.   I hate it.  I hate the ‘HR’ stereotype.   I hate the “mental model” that it conjures up in too many people’s minds.  I am not an ‘HR Guy’, and I’ve been working for 35 years to change the stereotype.  I fear I’m losing the battle.”  

As many of my colleagues may suspect, I have no formal training in the subject of Human Resources.  My degrees are in Economics (Socialist and Healthcare…who knew?), my heart was in Journalism.  I stumbled into HR when it was primarily old men who were either not good at the “real” jobs in their companies or they were injured on the job and couldn’t do anything productive, so they were assigned to “Personnel”; and then blamed for everything wrong in the company.    Strangely enough, I honestly believe a lot of people still think most HR departments are staffed that way and have no understanding of “business”.   Over the years they’ve come to believe that HR departments are only good for hiring, firing, creating policies and then telling people what they can’t do because there’s a “policy”.  When all else fails, people can always blame HR.  I get headaches, and heartaches, from such things.  

Originally, it was just a job for me, an income and a means to an end.  I came in with the idea of getting out of it when I finished college and law school.  I did one but not the other, and by then it was too late.  I was having fun doing this thing called “human resources” and someone told me I was good at it.  I’ve always been a sucker for a compliment. 

Anyway, I got into HR by opportunity, not by conscious selection.  I learned it by doing it.  I started before computers, or blackberries, and when “management by walking around” was what we did to communicate and keep in touch, and not a slogan or part of a job description.  I was lucky enough to have someone as a mentor who thought I’d be “exceptional” at it and give me a chance.   I might say he was right, since I’ve been called “exceptional”… and a lot of other adjectives that can’t get printed here. 

The years have a lot of fond and fun memories.  One of them is my first Wisconsin Hospital Association HR meeting some 20 years ago.  I was fresh from five years working overseas for a large international healthcare system and was still getting acclimated to the “Midwest”.  I walked into the meeting at a resort in the Dells and there was a conference room full of older men in bad sports coats, perma-press slacks and short sleeve shirts.  I felt like Arlo Guthrie on the train to New Orleans (listen to the song, you’ll figure it out.)  

Now, the field of HR is changing; and drawing a much younger and more progressive individual into its ranks.  The old men have been replaced by men and women who live to “tee it up” in their “networking sessions” and “add value” with their “out-of-the-box” thinking, as they “deep dive” into various “awesome” subjects and try to “get a seat at the table”.   I still don’t go to the meetings, I’m not PC enough and I get lost in the buzzwords.   

I do have to say one thing about those “old guys” though, they actually knew a lot about the companies they worked for.   It now troubles me, that very few of the new HR managers I’ve seen have ever actually “worked” in the fields where they practice Human Resources.   Sad by-point to that statement is the number of managers in any field who have actually “worked” in the businesses they manage is declining rapidly.  How can management people understand the “work” and the people and the cultures, if they never get out of their offices after they got out of their classrooms?  

So, you may be asking, what does he think “Human Resource Management” is anyway?   Well, it’s kind of like that famous definition of pornography:   “I can’t really define it, but I know it when I see it.”  

I can tell you what it isn’t.  It isn’t writing policies and procedures.  Policies don’t make the organization work right; PEOPLE do … and working with the people, to get their job’s done the best they can… that’s “Human Resource Management”. 

Likewise, Human Resource Management isn’t doing compensation surveys, satisfaction surveys, turnover surveys, or any surveys.  Compensation surveys are always my favorites.  I’ve done a lot of them and paid consultants to do more.  Do you know the number one thing that ALL compensation surveys have in common?   I’ll bet you do.  When you give the survey to the people who asked you to do it, they respond with the comment, “this is good, but … WE’RE DIFFERENT HERE.”   I just smile and bite my tongue. 

And Satisfaction surveys?   I understand the need to do them, and good ways to use them, but if an organization really needs to do surveys to tell them what their staff is thinking or feeling, then I’d start looking for better managers.  As that great HR guru, Bob Dylan, once wrote, “you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind’s blowing.”  If you need a survey to tell you how your staff feels, then you’re already in trouble.  If you’re a manager, get out of your office, cancel a few meetings, and go see which way the wind is blowing.  That’s Human Resource Management. 

The job of management is to work with their staff, listen to them, and gain their input, ideas and feelings.  Then carry those messages back to their bosses, who carry them to action and a response to the staff.  THAT’S Human Resource management.  

Likewise, good HR management isn’t just winning the “Employer of Choice” award, the Baldrige Award, the “Best Place to Work” or any other such recognition that seems to attract some people like flies to flame.  I mean, seriously, how many places give out awards?   It seems that they’re everywhere.   Eventually every company will get one from somebody and we will all have achieved high-level mediocrity. 

The Baldrige Award is my poster child for missing the point.   Malcolm Baldrige, by the way, was a real-life cowboy.   He was also Secretary of Commerce under Ronald Reagan, from 1981 until his tragic death in a rodeo accident in 1987.  I’m not going to give you a biography of him but if you’re interested just Google him.  You might also look up Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Improvement Act of 1987 - Public Law 100-107, and read why it was created.  Then peruse the winners of the awards… and what happened to some of them after they won.  But, the point is that Malcolm’s intention was not for businesses to pay bazillions of dollars just to try and win his award.   He wanted to improve the quality of the world.   He would probably be the first to admit that most American’s don’t even know what his award even is.   Do you?   Why don’t you ask your friends and neighbors if they ever heard of it and what it is?   Thank you.  You just proved my point about “awards”.  

But, don’t get me wrong.  Winning awards is great recognition for the organization.  However, real Human Resource Management is building the organization into one that can carry on that exceptional level of performance beyond the award ceremony.  An organization that performs well year after year, and where the majority of staff actually WANTS to come to work there – that organization practices good Human Resource Management. 

Alas, I am now an elder in the family of HR managers.  I’ve had the senior accreditation for the practice of Human Resources since 1981, which is before most of the HR people of today were born.  I’ve forgotten more than most know… but that doesn’t make me special, it makes me experienced…and forgetful…and, well…old. 

I still don’t attend too many meetings and rarely, if ever, attend any HR professional association meetings.  They scare me.  I keep up with new trends, new regulations, any legal issues, and other relevant things by using my computer or reading any number of journals that cross my desk.   I don’t attend meetings just hear about policies, compensation programs, or “best practices” or “network” with a lot of “awesome contacts”.  I really do get queasy around people of any age who talk like that.   Seriously, I get visual impressions of people with an inch deep understanding of their real work. 

So, you might ask, why have I stayed in this profession for so long?  Simple answer: I love it, I really do.  On most days, it’s still fun; and thrills come in architecting and building the systems of real human resource management.  I enjoy taking our “HR” people and giving them the opportunity to become good business people who know how to keep the “human” in human resource management.   Ask anyone in my department what is expected of them.   The answer won’t be remotely connected to traditional HR functions. 

Outside of my department, I get a whole lot of reassuring pleasure out of working for any employee, physician, manager, or anyone to get something accomplished and watching them succeed.   It’s hard to describe how good it feels to find ways to help someone with a problem and have it work out okay… personally or professionally. 

So, I guess if you want to call me an “HR Guy” – go ahead.   I hope that the mental model of “the HR guy” is better than it was years ago, and it is getting better all the time.  I hope. 

Synchronicity

It's been awhile.   Too long.   Too many thoughts wanting out.   Too many assumed reason to keep them in.  Feeling too mentally and physically down.   The redeeming thing now is that I can assume no one reads these anymore, so the environment has changed.   Who knows?   I don't.  
Anyway, let's phase in slowly.   Way too dependent on technology.  That's a given.   Went to dinner last night at a new place.   Beautiful setting, outdoor table.   Good service, good drink, good food.   
Midway through the meal a friend and group take up the table next to us.   Greetings exchanged and good tidings expressed.   
Meal finished, time to head home.   Collect the doggy bags and off we go.   20 miles later pull into the garage and realize that my phone was left on the table.   
The near panic of realization that everything -- too much of things --- is on that phone.   Phone numbers, addresses, photos, calendars.   A call to the restaurant produces the "no one's turned one in", and is responded with details about where we were sitting, the waitress description, etc.    
Halfway through the call, a voice comes on the line, "this is Mark, I got your phone. I'll bring it for you tomorrow."   
Yes I do.   Synchronicity.   Shit happens for a reason often indeterminate.  
After that the evening was peaceful and uninterrupted.   
Hmmm.