Surfing for Managers

© Copyright 2004 Shaboom Inc. ! All rights

reserved.

Surfing for Managers

How to Lead Your Team and Stay on Board When Change Comes in Waves


reserved.

Mapping the Waves

It’s more than one wave


reserved.

Mapping the Waves

How people experience and adapt to change depends on which wave they ride.


reserved.

!There’s a right way, and it’s the way we’ve been doing things,

!Change means what I’ve done before is no longer valued.

!This is just not fair.

!It’s hard for me to trust anyone who thinks this is a good idea.

The Conformer Wave


reserved.

!Model desired behavior.

!Praise specific performance and progress.

!Provide clear guidelines.

!Provide consistent paths and structures for advancement.

The Conformer Wave


reserved.

! There’s a right way to do things based on proven methods.

! I know my job and nobody can tell me how to do it better.

! Changes that upset my routines and reliable processes are a waste of time and money.

! If my expertise is outmoded, I’m in big trouble. I am my expertise.

The Expert Wave


reserved.

! Respect expertise.

! Give individual attention.

! Frame cooperation and adaptation as skills.

! Provide pathways for applying expertise to learning new skills.

The Expert Wave


reserved.

! I can do this as long as others don’t get in my way.

! Let me at it!

! I don’t get what the fuss is about.

! Can we just get on with it?

The Achiever Wave


reserved.

! Affirm self-direction.

! Coach to develop awareness and appreciation of teams/others.

! Brief, implement, debrief.

The Achiever Wave


reserved.

!Everybody’s right (unless they’re wrong).

!This is complex!

!What does “fair” mean, anyway?

!How do I see this challenge?

!How do they see this challenge?

!How can we frame a common challenge?

The Strategists Wave


reserved.

!Offer choice.

!Acknowledge complexity

!Dialogue, collaboration.

!Creativity.

!Balance.

The Strategists Wave

! No whitewashing.

! Modest, recoverable steps.

! Encourage focus and simplicity.


reserved.

Getting on the Board

The 4-column exercise that follows is from the work of Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey as it appears in their book How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work.


reserved.

…, if they were to happen more frequently, would you experience as being more supportive of your own ongoing development at work?

What sorts of things…


reserved.

Ground Rules

!Listener(s): Your job is to listen, not to not to help.

!DO write out your responses.

!Speaker: You have sole discretion over what you share and in what level of detail.

!DO NOT censor or filter your responses.

No advice! No fixing! No helping!

!DO choose a partner to whom you do not have a reporting or subordinate relationship.


reserved.

The Language of Complaint


reserved.

What’s at stake?

What values, commitments, or convictions do you hold that are actually implied in your complaints?


reserved.

The 4-column worksheet

Commitment

What I’m doing or not doing that prevents my com-mitment from be-ing fully realized.

Competing commitment

Big assumption

I am committed to the value or the importance of …


reserved.

Complaint vs. Commitment! Automatic, reflexive

! What we can’t stand

! Feels whiny, cynical

! Generates frustration

! Complaints = wrong

! Dead ends

! Intentional

! What we stand for

! Feels hopeful

! Generates focus

! Complaint = care

! Goal-directed


reserved.

What are you doing…

…or not doing that is keeping your commitment from being fully realized?


reserved.

The 4-column worksheetCommitment What I’m

doing or not doing that prevents my commitment from being fully realized.


Big assumption



reserved.

Blame vs Responsibility! Easy, reflexive

! Holds others responsible

! Polarizes

! Generates defense

! Dead ends

! Questions for others

! Takes work

! Specific, personal, actionable

! Builds momentum

! Generates dialogue

! Opportunities

! Raises questions for self


reserved.

What fear or discomfort…

… can you notice with respect to how you fall short of fully living up to your commitment?


reserved.

What are you committed …

…to (or committed to preventing) in order to avoid that fear or discomfort?


reserved.

3rd Column Checkpoint

! The “creep out” indicator

! Not noble

! Names a form of self-protection that competes with our 1st column commitment


reserved.


Commitment What I’m doing or not doing that prevents my com-mitment from be-ing fully realized.

Competing commit-ment

Big assump-tion


I may also be com-mitted to …


reserved.

New Year’s Resolutions vs Competing Commitments! Sincere, genuine

intentions

! Creates hopes for the future

! Problematic behavior is shameful

! Attributes ineffectiveness to outside causes (other people, circumstances)

! Rarely leads to significant change despite sincerity

! Genuine countervailing commitments

! Map of inner contradiction

! Problematic behavior is a successful strategy

! Acknowledges complex, contradictory nature of own intentions

! Makes significant change possible by revealing the nature of the blocks


reserved.


Commitment What I’m doing or not doing that prevents my com-mitment from be-ing fully realized.


Big Assumption


I may also be com-mitted to …

I’m assuming that if…


reserved.

Build an assumptive stem.

Positive in 3rd column to negative:

“I assume that if I did not …”

Negative in 3rd column to positive:

“I assume that if I did …”


reserved.

Complete your assumption.

Complete the sentence that starts with your assumptive stem. Write it in the 4th column of the worksheet.


reserved.

Everyday SurfingHow will you use this tomorrow?! Listen! Inquire! Reframe


reserved.

Listen

! For the values or commitment beneath a complaint.

! For the wave.

! For the nature of the fear or discomfort for THIS person on THIS wave.


reserved.

Listen! For big assumptions.

! For openings to reveal assumptions.

! For opportunities to test assumptions.


reserved.

Inquire

! How does this challenge keep us from living up to our standards?

! What could you/we have done differently to experience better results?

! What is at risk? For whom?


reserved.

Inquire! What assumptions are at

work?! What have you/we done to

test these assumptions?! What can we do now to test

these assumptions?! What modest, recoverable

steps can we take to test our assumptions?


reserved.

Reframe!Complaint as commitment.

!Resistance and non-cooperation as competing commitments.

!Fears and discomfort as unexamined assumptions.


reserved.

Reframe: Strategist!Complaint as commitment.

!Resistance and non-cooperation as competing commitments.

!Fears and discomfort as unexamined assumptions.


reserved.

Reframe: Conformer!It’s a challenge and here are the means to meet it.

!These are the steps you can take to succeed now.

!Given your strengths, you can ...


reserved.

Reframe: Expert!Opportunity for you to grow your expertise.

!Adaptation, collaboration, compromise are skills.

!Ambiguity and complexity require technical discernment.


reserved.

Reframe: Achiever!A chance to shine.

!Respect for others as key to achieving goals.

!Adjusting to other styles as learning/leading opportunity.

!Manage energy and relation-ships for long term success.


reserved.

Reframe: Strategists!Now we’re surfing!

!Multiple waves = challenge and growth.

!Complexity Flexibility Possibility

!Feedback (even when it hurts) is a good thing.


reserved.

Follow Up/Request Slides

Molly Gordon, MCCShaboom Inc.Life could be a dream…PO Box 195Suquamish, WA 98392-0195P 360-697-7022F [email protected]

Surfing for Managers

Documents

Transcript of Surfing for Managers