Practical Ideas for Thriving in Complex Times

The following article comes from Inc Magazine, by Geoffrey James, April 23, 2012.

As organizational and leadership consultants, we strive to nudge leaders and teams towards the extraordinary category, using useful and practical processes, teachings and events to demonstrate the power of acting from a place of authentic power.

Enjoy the article and share your own extraordinary stories! 

In a recent article in Harvard Business Review entitled “New Project? Don’t Analyze—Act,” authors Leonard Schlesinger, Charles Keifer & Paul Brown summarize surprising new insights from research on serial entrepreneurs and how they initiate new, innovative projects in a climate of extreme uncertainty while minimizing risks.

We are spending more and more time helping groups learn to experiment with new ways of doing things in order to find the solutions that work, and I was struck at how this was precisely how serial entrepreneurs thought.

The following summary offers an excellent perspective for leaders and influencers seeking to “start something new” within the current climate of uncertainty.

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We have worked with several clients recently and walked away with an ironic understanding: one of the biggest challenges leaders face right now is how to navigate paradox.  There are many examples, but here are a few that pertain to leaders meeting the needs of their people and their position:

• People want a clear vision and direction, yet they want autonomy to do what they think is most important
• There is a need for greater risk taking and experimentation in environments that have no tolerance for failure
• There is a growing expectation and need for greater collaboration both internally and externally, requiring more time and greater levels of buy-in among stakeholders, yet there is still the expectation that leaders make quick decisions and provide direction within tight timeframes and deadlines
• Budget and resource stresses are slamming head long into increased expectations of productivity; in government, public resources are on a steep decline while public expectations of service are higher than ever
• In our efforts to solve big challenges we are torn between doing small, easily actionable tasks to get things moving versus embarking on larger, more systemic initiatives that take longer and require more time, resources and stakeholder buy in

Scything wheat, hammering a nail, splitting wood, sledding downhill, surfing a wave, performing a summersault, playing the piano--all of these have something in common: working with momentum.  Momentum: mass in motion aiming to remain in motion.  In the broader sense, we might say it's whatever already has life or energy.  When we tap that energy we expend less of our own.  In exchange, we give up some control--or so it seems.

Ever watch someone new to wielding a hammer?  Typically they choke up on the handle, which gives them more control and costs them more effort.  Not letting the head swing freely and do the work for them, they have to employ more muscle to drive the nail home.  Often "control"--of the type I mean--requires two things: exerting unnecessary effort and forfeiting the benefits of momentum.

My personal mantra for 2012 is more momentum, less effort.  I'm wanting more trust and less "control," more swing and less struggle, more grace and less death-grip in my life.  I want to be more like a compact fluorescent bulb: putting out the same light with less unnecessary heat while requiring a lot less energy. 

Last weekend I attended a workshop entitled “Overcoming the Immunity to Change.” The presenter, well-know developmental psychologist and Harvard professor, Robert Kegan, is an authority in the field, known for his witty, engaging style and rumored to be retiring soon. The compelling topic, plus an opportunity to see a master of adult learning theory in action, drew me in.

He began by telling a story about a study in which heart patients were told by their doctors that they needed to change their habits and take daily medication in order to live — yet only one in seven was able to do so successfully. An extreme example, it tells of how we humans tend to struggle with changing, even when it could be a matter of life and death.

Kegan asks: why does this happen? It seems so illogical, so counter-evolutionary, yet haven’t we all seen this? Haven’t we lived it?