It’s The Journey, Not Just The Destination

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Al Watts

I just returned from ten days sailing Lake Superior.  After crossing from Bayfield to Grand Marais, our plan was to take three or four days circumnavigating Isle Royale, one of my favorite destinations.  Five miles outside of Grand Marais’ harbor LOON’s water pump broke, and with absolutely no wind we were dead in the water.  The bad news was breaking down, waiting three days in Grand Marais for a part from Massachusetts and having to change our plans. The good news was that it didn’t happen in a storm, in the middle of Lake Superior or on a rocky lee shore of Isle Royale.  Also, since we were basically bobbing like a cork just outside Grand Marais’ harbor, likely presenting a navigational hazard, North Superior’s Coast Guard kindly towed us into port.  (Not to mention that if you’re stranded anyplace, Grand Marais is a pretty good deal!)

Whenever sailing LOON, especially on longer cruises, I almost always learn something new about seamanship, and usually lessons that translate to leadership and life.  Lesson #1 on this cruise was “count your blessings, and make the most of the hand you’re dealt.”  Not only were we spared the danger of breaking down in a far worse place; we learned about water pumps, got to explore Grand Marais as never before, rested up and discovered a master marine mechanic (Randy at A&E Marine in Grand Marais.)  As we’ve heard, “wherever you go (or don’t go,) there you are!”  I was reminded that there are simply some things that we cannot control or plan for; we just have to deal with them and adapt.

I was also reminded of a lesson that I learned early, and that is reinforced on every sail: “Get the right people in the boat, and the wrong ones off it.”  Mike, Angelika, her daughter Lisa and friend Zoya were no doubt unhappy about our breakdown and change in plans, but you’d never know. They didn’t overreact, helped where they could and took full advantage of all that Grand Marais had to offer.  They never complained about being stranded in the harbor as our power drained, kept the captain and crew fed, and helped make it an enjoyable experience nevertheless.

After repairs, we had just enough time for an overnight sail to Isle Royale and a day of exploring Windigo’s trails.  All sails out, cruising at a comfortable clip under a starry sky and passing the Rock of Ages light at dawn, we couldn’t have asked for anything more.  As it turned out, we arrived on perhaps the season’s best day; a ranger told us that the prior two days were cold and rainy. Our 18-hour return crossing was uneventful except for an amazing sunset, shooting stars and a spectacular sunrise over Lake Superior.

My biggest takeaway from this cruise was realizing that a journey can be successful even if we do not reach our intended destination.  The lessons and experiences may be different ones than we planned, but if we are open to them may yield more in the end.  The day after we returned, 61 year-old Diana Nyad began her quest to swim the 103 miles from Cuba to Miami.  Injured and sick from exhaustion, she ended her attempt about half way.  She did not reach her intended destination, but I would not call her attempt a failure.  To even set that goal, condition herself for achieving it and accomplish what she did at 61 is inspirational.  Think about 3M’s “failed” attempts at making glue stick that led to Post-It Notes, or when Christopher Columbus failed to find a northwest passage to China in 1492 and what he found instead.

 

Does it look like you might not reach your intended destination? What unexpected opportunities might you take advantage of?  How can you capitalize on the situation?


What lessons can you take away from any “failures” or unsuccessful efforts to reach a destination?

 

It is good to have an end to journey for, but it is the journey that matters in the end.

Ursula K. Le Guin

The pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change, and the realist adjusts the sails.

William Arthur Ward

 

Contact me, and I will be happy to send you my collection of “SeaChange” lessons for life and leadership gathered from over 2,000 miles of sailing adventures.

Fair winds!

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Lessons From News of the World

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Al Watts

Rupert Murdoch pulled the plug on NEWS OF THE WORLD, Britain’s nearly 170-year-old tabloid journal, in the wake of its unethical and illegal phone hacking practices.  As I heard that, I couldn’t help thinking of the analogy about “closing barn doors after the horses escaped.”  Shocked and appalled as the Murdochs claim to be, it is hard to imagine that apparently years of such unethical practices went unnoticed and not corrected.  But isn’t there a ring of familiarity here?  Think back to the shock expressed, and efforts to distance themselves from accountability, by those involved in Wall Street’s meltdown, the BP spill, Japan’s nuclear disaster and church sex scandals.  These are all instances where more attention to foundational principles, trueness to those principles and the discipline to craft “integrious” cultures would have avoided disastrous consequences.

The kind of integrity that insulates organizations from disasters like those wrought by NEWS OF THE WORLD, BP and Fukushimi Daiichi cannot be bolted on, managed as a PR initiative or separated from foundational business strategy.   It must be built in to an organization’s DNA and reinforced daily.  I would wager that had these four practices been followed by NEWS OF THE WORLD it could have prospered another century and more:

  • Articulate a meaningful mission and core values.  More than likely NEWS OF THE WORLD had something in writing stating its mission and values, as did BP, Fukushima and failed Wall Street banks.  Also more then likely, however, those organizations did not communicate their mission and core values in as many ways and as many times as they could.  For mission statements and core values to be memorable, they need to be articulated in the hiring process, in performance reviews, during training and as part of all internal and external communication.
  • For mission statements and espoused values to be believable, hire, reward, train, measure, hold people accountable and in every other way behave in ways that reinforce them.  I don’t know much about NEWS OF THE WORLD’s CEO Rebekah Brooks, but indications are that she doesn’t exactly epitomize the highest standards of professional, ethical journalism.  Promoting her to editor and CEO, and protecting her as Rupert Murdoch did, communicates volumes about what really counted at NEWS OF THE WORLD.  As Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “What you are doing speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you are saying!”
  • Nurture truth-telling cultures.  No doubt there were some in the NEWS organization, as in BP, Fukushima and failed Wall Street institutions who questioned their organizations’ practices and ethics.  More than likely any who did either left (voluntarily or not,) or valued their jobs more than speaking their truth.  Real leaders need to invite, reward and build capabilities for constructive questioning and criticism, and take care not to discourage it – intentionally or unintentionally.
  • Above all, as Stephen Covey put it: “Keep the main thing the main thing.”  I say this knowing full well how incredibly difficult that is, especially in markets and a world that are hyper-competitive and seemingly more short-sighted and focused on near-term rewards every day.  “Keeping the main thing the main thing” is not what’s happening when the journalistic mission of a newspaper becomes about entertainment or sensationalism to drive sales – any sales.  Nor is it what’s happening when school districts are distracted from their educational mission by a myopic focus on teaching to standard tests, or when a university’s mission gets hijacked by athletic recruiting improprieties to pump up ticket sales or opaque research contracts with drug companies.

The best-of-the-best organizations – the sustainable institutions that attract and keep the best talent and customers – are those with noble purposes and values that possess the discipline and moral imagination to stay true to those purposes and values amid all the distractions in an increasingly competitive, short-sighted world.

I suppose that NEWS OF THE WORLD had to go; as with old boats with rusted fittings that haven’t been cared for, sometimes the rot is so extensive that restoration is impossible.  I hope that instead of just a reactive measure to cut losses and distance themselves from bad publicity, however, that the end-of-the-world for NEWS OF THE WORLD is a wake-up call for the Murdochs to build up “integrious” cultures elsewhere in their publishing empire.  Indeed I hope that it serves as a wake-up call for all organizations and their leaders to do the same.

How well is your organization:

  • Articulating its core values and a mission with meaning?
  • Hiring, rewarding, training, measuring and in every other way reinforcing its mission and core values?
  • Nurturing truth-telling cultures?
  • “Keeping the main thing the main thing?”

(If you really want t know, check out the Organizational Integrity Survey)

 

Winners see trials as opportunities to reinforce values, not abandon them.

Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO


The lame person who keeps the right road outstrips the runner who takes a  wrong one.

Francis Bacon

 

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Authenticity and the Test of Time

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Al Watts

My wife and I recently had the pleasure of visiting our daughter Alison in China, where she has been living and working for eight months.  There is enough about that adventure to fill a few volumes – most of it very positive.  One interesting experience involved our visit to an “authentic jade factory” after touring the Great Wall.  There were signals, including “certificates of authenticity,” to help us feel confident about purchasing two jade bracelets – one for Carley and one for her sister back home.   Later that day I fastened Carley’s bracelet to her wrist securely for a walk through Bejing’s “Night Market.”  About thirty minutes into the walk we heard a “purclunk;” Carley’s “authentic” jade bracelet laid in pieces on the sidewalk.  (Could experiences like these have led to the expression: “jaded outlook?”)

Eager to capture some return on my investment, I wondered what lessons could be learned from the “jade scam” as we’ve come to call it.  First, I concluded that as with most things, it’s just a matter of time before we can distinguish what’s authentic from what isn’t.  In the case of our “jade” bracelets it was just a few hours (but long enough that we couldn’t do much about it.)  In the case of the recent mortgage crisis, the subsequent economic meltdown and the organizations that spawned them, it took a few years before we realized that all was not what we were led to believe. (And unfortunately, by the time we got wise, also too late to do much about it.)  Likewise with leaders of organizations like Enron, WorldCom, Fannie Mae who were once hailed as paragons of shrewd, effective leadership; most of them are still doing time in the penitentiary now, and their organizations are non-existent.  A serious lack of authenticity, in organizations or leaders, is not sustainable.

There are usually signs that signal a potential lack of authenticity; unfortunately, for various reasons, we overlook them or choose not to believe them.  (One of the best books on that subject is Denial, by Richard Tedlow.)  We want to trust our boss; we want to work for a great organization; we want a great deal.  Authentic leadership means that we not only pass the “trueness” test – that we are who or what we say we are; it also means that we pay attention so we can discern what’s true.  As Max DePree, retired CEO of Hermann Miller, reminded us: “A leader’s first job is to define reality.”  If we desire authentic products, authentic relationships, authentic leaders and authentic experiences, then we bear some of the responsibility for finding them by searching for what’s true, in the same way that “a populace deserves the leaders it elects.”

Since “the jade scam” occurred early in our trip, it of course colored our perspective for the balance of our time in China.  Seeking to avoid a “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me” experience, we didn’t even consider any future jade purchases while there.  Right or wrong, we definitely had our guards up for the balance of our stay.  Of course we experience the same with leaders and organizations that are less than authentic; trust is fragile and easy to lose, but very hard to regain.  The impact of inauthentic experiences is magnified when they occur early in a relationship since no or little “integrity capital” has been built up.  Think of those implications relative to young adults’ first work experiences and how they might color (or “jade”) trust levels with future employers.

Our overall experience in China was amazingly positive.  The country and its people exhibit enormous resourcefulness, discipline, industriousness and pride in their culture.  We experienced, as our daughter had already reported, less anxiety about outright theft and personal safety (with the exception of traffic and drivers!) than in most large U.S. cities.  Our monetary loss from the jade incident wasn’t that great, and it yielded some important lessons plus something to share in my next blog!

 

“Truth is what stands the test of experience.”

– Albert Einstein

“Trust is the great simplifier. If people in business told the truth, 80 to 90 percent of their problems would disappear.”

– Will Schutz

 

In what ways might we be more true to who or what we say we are?

In what ways might we get better at distinguishing who or what is authentic from those that aren’t?

If we have lost anyone’s trust or confidence, what concrete steps can we take to regain it?

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The Company We Keep

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Al Watts

Do you remember being warned as a kid about “hanging out with the wrong crowd,” and that if you did you were likely to get into trouble?  That was pretty good advice, and it still holds true.  These days I think of that when “bad things happen to good companies” mainly because of the “crowd,” or industry that they’re part of.

When news broke of the high student loan default rates at for-profit colleges and universities, the whole industry got a black eye. I was reminded of a Tom Peters tweet: that “You are totally a reflection of who you hang out with;” unfortunately that’s true, deservedly or not.  The average 3-year student loan default rate at for-profit colleges is 25% – twice the rate for public colleges and three times the private non-profit rate.  Some for-profit colleges posted significantly higher loan default rates, however (one posted 43%,) while others have considerably lower ones.  (Capella University’s, based in the Twin Cities, is approximately 7%.).

The reality is that unscrupulous players in a particular industry often sully reputations of the rest – guilt by association.  Not all banks engaged in the nonsense that fed our economic crisis, but their reputations took a hit anyway, along with their stock price.  A few not-for-profit hospitals that really operate as any other for-profit business cause them all to come under suspicion.  A few years ago not all insurance companies engaged in the shameful selling of worthless annuities to the elderly, but all were lumped together for purposes of the regulations that followed.

What’s a good company to do?  As Stephen Covey reminded us, we need to “keep the main thing the main thing.”  In the case of colleges and universities, that’s demonstrating learning outcomes, and preparing learners for next steps of their career.  When it becomes just about the money or stock price, educational institutions – for-profit or not – fall victim to confusing a scorecard for the game.  Measures of learning outcomes and accomplishment of learner goals need to be the focus of attention, along with the degree that stated values are modeled and reinforced.

Organizations that do that and demonstrate integrity are justified in arguing against burdensome regulations and oversight for all, just like it wouldn’t be right to punish all drivers on the same roadway for the infractions of a few.   They should also exert positive influence within their profession or industry, for example articulating and enforcing industry or professional standards.  After all, while there are always cases when good citizens get corrupted by the wrong crowd, there are times when it happens the other way around.

Organizations that excel at “keeping the main thing the main thing” and demonstrating that kind of integrity also need to make that a point of differentiation and leverage it for competitive advantage.  Student loan default rates are on our radar screens now, just as physician outcomes, manufacturer “ethiscores” and charity efficiency ratings have become more transparent.  Customers and workers are becoming increasingly better-informed about which institutions live up to their hype or promise, and are demonstrating clear preferences for those that do.

Is your industry or profession one where there is potential for “guilt by association?

Is your organization “keeping the main thing the main thing” and measuring what matters most?  What else are you doing to differentiate yourself or rise above potential issues in your industry?

 

“The essence of an organization lies in what it believes, what it stands for, and what it values. An organization’s works, rather than its words, are the telling assessment of its beliefs.”

John Carver

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Integrity As Strategy

Posted on April 5, 2011 by Al Watts

We’ve heard a lot lately about how integrity lapses are costly, but less about how integrity drives organizational effectiveness and competitiveness.  Part of the reason may be that we associate integrity mainly with only one of Webster’s definitions (the 3rd, actually) – “sound moral principles, uprightness and honesty.”  Webster’s first two definitions of integrity, however, speak to being “sound, whole and complete” – concepts clearly linked to leadership and organizational effectiveness.   But what does it mean for leaders and organizations to be “whole, sound and complete,” and how does that contribute to the bottom line?

Identity is the foundation for organizational integrity – clarity about purpose, values, strengths and “shadows.”  A sense of purpose, grounded by values that people care about, fuel the passion, ingenuity and drive that build competitive advantage.  “Strategy 101” out of Michal Porter’s playbook taught us the value of knowing our core competencies; the field of failed leaders and organizations is littered with those that were blind to their shadows.

Sound leaders and sound organizations are authentic, a second characteristic of integrity that includes trueness to purpose, values and goals.  Organizations and leaders who are what they say they are inspire confidence, credibility and trust – money in the bank when it comes to employee and customer loyalty.

“Alignment” may be a more business-friendly term than “wholeness,” but they are close cousins.  Less energy is wasted in organizations where things like pay, hiring, and performance management send signals that are consistent with stated values and goals.  Attention to staying aligned with the market and world around us are akin to Jim Collins’ “adaptive mechanisms;” it helps assure that we remain relevant and attuned to opportunities or threats.

Integrity means that we are accountable – for results that we commit to, for keeping our brand promise and for resources that we influence.  “The key to growth (for leaders and organizations,) as Stephen Covey reminds us, “is to learn to make promises and to keep them.”

  • How would you rate the effectiveness of your organization leveraging these dimensions of integrity for competitive advantage?

  • What should your organization’s next step be to navigate Identity, Authenticity, Alignment or Accountability more effectively?

 

My new book: Navigating Integrity – Transforming Business As Usual Into Business At Its Best, explores these concepts in depth.  You can “Look Inside” and order it now at Amazon.com.  Included with each book is a pass code for accessing the online Leadership Integrity Survey, a self-assessment for leaders to get a fix on how they are navigating Identity, Authenticity, Alignment and Accountability.

On April 15, join us at the Metropolitan Ballroom in Minneapolis for ASTD-Twin Cities’ monthly meeting: “Integrity – Your #1 Strategy.”

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Values? What Values?

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Al Watts

When I help organizations articulate their core values, the lists look very similar.  I often see values that are variations of integrity,” “honesty,” “service,” “excellence,” “quality,” “trust” and “stewardship.”  That’s fine as long as people really mean those values; after all, they are the same values and concepts that have motivated people’s highest efforts for centuries.

The real value is in what happens before the final list of values is drawn up and what happens afterward.  What needs to happen before is an organization-wide process of some kind that engages participants, including the organization’s leaders, in discerning what their highest values are and need to be.  The process here truly is as, or even more important, than the product; it is the conversations like what people care about, what gives them pride, what their customers need, what motivates them and what turns them off that eventually yield understanding about what really matters and what will serve as the organization’s compass.

What needs to happen afterward is that the values truly serve as the compass for decisions and behavior.  When confronted with choices like investments, potential business directions, hiring, discipline or what to communicate, leaders need to incorporate consideration of values in their deliberations.  In my work with many independent physician practices, I witnessed the unraveling of several joint business ventures and merged practices when differences in cultures or practice values were not sufficiently taken into account.

I’ve watched other physician groups and professional practices struggle and in some cases derail on account of hires that were values mismatches, recognition for production despite behavior that violated values, and pay schemes that sent the wrong messages..  Most importantly, in any organization the leaders, including board members or trustees, need to model desired values; when they don’t, values quickly lose credibility and their power.  The culture and leaders’ behavior need to grant “permission” and even encourage feedback or “flags” that call attention to any dissonance between values as stated and values as practiced.

Leaders that do the best job of articulating and modeling their values will be the ones who inspire the greatest trust and engage their followers.  Organizations that effectively articulate, model and reinforce values that resonate with their members will win the talent wars in coming years.  All who demonstrate values that are important to customers will enjoy a distinct competitive advantage.

What are your organization’s stated values?

How do you see those values modeled and reinforced?  How don’t you?

 

(Adapted from Chapter Two, Identity, in Al’s new book: Navigating Integrity – Transforming Business As Usual Into Business At Its Best)

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‘Got Courage?

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Al Watts

What would be true if we could summon ten percent, twenty percent or more courage? What unpleasant or even disastrous circumstances might be avoided? What might we achieve that otherwise we can only imagine? Just in the context of recent headlines what might be different?

Courage is a universally admired virtue, and one typically associated with bravery on the battlefield, heroic rescues or physical trials. That kind of courage is admirable, and we are all better off for it. Tomorrow’s challenges will call for additional forms of courage, however – capacities that will be especially important for leaders and organizations to demonstrate and cultivate.

Courage stoneWe will need the courage of entrepreneurs and other pioneers who to put their ideas, innovations and resources on the line, without any certainty of success and distinct possibilities of rejection. Our recent economic climate has been especially challenging for those with untested ideas and business propositions; the temptation is strong to invest energy and resources in only the sure bets. To succeed, entrepreneurs’ courage will need to be matched by the “en-courage-ment” of markets and investors.

We will need the courage of authenticity – trueness, truth and transparency. Leaders and institutions displaying the courage of trueness remain true to their mission and values; they persist in the face of adversity while adapting as needed. I agree with Howard Schultz, Starbucks’ CEO, who said “winners use adversity as opportunities to reinforce their values; losers use adversity as an opportunity to abandon them.” For example, it is easier (and requires less creativity) to abandon commitments around nice-sounding values like “environmental stewardship” or “community citizenship” when the chips are down and so is the bottom line. Without the courage of trueness, it might become easier for some not-for-profits to focus more attention on growing their margins than on fulfilling their missions.

We need more leaders and organizations that model and cultivate truth-telling, including the capacity to face “inconvenient truths” and articulate unpopular opinions. We hail the behavior of whistleblowers like Sharon Watkins at Enron and Mark Zachary at Countrywide, and created legal mechanisms to protect them, because there is generally much at stake to stand up and say out loud: “This is wrong!” There was no doubt significant pressure and much at stake preventing workers on the BP oil rig that blew from voicing greater concern over violation of safety protocol. Truth-telling need not be that dramatic; it might take the form of a board or committee member calling attention to facts that others would rather not face or of stating an unpopular opinion. To paraphrase Andy Grove, Intel’s CEO, if leaders lack the courage to face brutal facts, brutal reality sets in.

Boat and sharksAuthentic leaders possess not just the courage of their convictions, but the courage to have their convictions challenged. “Truth” is a team sport; our communities and institutions will be better off when we collaboratively seek truth instead of attempting to convince each other that we already possess it. When already convinced that we alone know the truth we end up with the entrenched positions, gridlock, vitriol and even violence that politics has descended into instead of true dialog in the public’s best interest.

Winston Churchill helped us understand that “courage is not the absence of fear, but acting in the face of our fears.” Why can some do that and others not? Why can we in some circumstances but not in others? In a recent New York Times Science article I learned that part of the answer has to do with our brain’s subgenual anterior cingulate cortex – a thumbnail-size bundle of neurons that moderates between our cognition and emotion, and serves to dial down our amygdala, fear’s “central headquarters.” Getting back to my original question, though, how might we summon that ten, twenty or more percent courage that could make all the difference?

I like to think of courage as “heart,” and in fact the word courage comes from the French word for heart: “couer.” Just as we strengthen our heart muscles by exercising them, part of how we can strengthen our courage is to exercise it – first with smaller challenges, then larger ones. First we find the strength to voice unpopular opinions in small meetings with peers, then with our boss, and eventually in large meetings where the stakes are even higher.

Another way to fortify courage is to remind ourselves of what matters most; knowing what we live for can give us the strength to deal with almost any how. On a personal level we can remind ourselves of an important purpose, values we hold dear, loved ones or how we want to be remembered. Organizations too can draw on their sense of purpose, remind members of their work’s impact and importance, and draw upon organizational values or stories for inspiration.

Rock climberSometimes we lose courage and fail to act because we’ve told ourselves stories about, or exaggerated potential consequences. We fear rejection, for example, believing that the rejection will be personal versus the rejection of just an idea. Sometimes organization members don’t speak up because they fear job consequences when there has been no history of that, or perhaps an isolated incident many years in the past under different leadership.

A supportive community – family, friends or coworkers – encourages the heart. We need to keep company with those who support our courageous steps and provide that support to others. Organizations that wish to strengthen their courage reserves need to en-courage innovation, truth-telling and other courageous acts.

Courage and integrity are pretty much inseparable; where we find one we will generally find the other. In my book Navigating Integrity – Transforming Business As Usual into Business At Its Best, I share more examples of ways that courage can help us navigate four integrity challenges that most leaders and organizations face: Identity, Authenticity, Alignment and Accountability.

What aspect of your life or work would benefit from exercising more courage?

What strategies might you employ to build up your personal courage capacity?

How might more displays of courage benefit your organization?

What strategies might your organization employ to build up its courage reserves?

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