How Leaders Become Leadiators
The times call for leaders who can help others design collaborative approaches to the unpredictable, emerging challenges their organizations will face.
In 2005, I had an encounter that changed the way I guide businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies to make wise plans for an uncertain future. I sat in a conference room with a division leadership team in a large science and engineering laboratory. One of the world’s leading futurists presented them with a framework to assess and engage the uncertain future that would emerge by 2025.
- After 19 years, his forecast of powerful waves of change has become reality:
- inevitable arrival of a global pandemic that could turn the world upside down;
- accelerating flows of refugees that overwhelm borders and increase political instability;
- increasing magnitude and frequency of climate disasters;
- intensifying political and social polarization (international, national, and local) that paralyzes governments’ capacity to solve problems;
- overwhelming flows of information that overload the capacity of decision makers who cope by seeking confirmation inside their own information echo chamber; and
- increasing fragility of a globally interconnected financial system and supply chain, i.e. one important country’s economy “sneezes” and the rest of the world catches a financial cold.
There is now an acronym (V.U.C.A.) that describes this challenging environment that all organizations must engage and navigate.
- Volatile – powerful dynamics and velocity of change dramatically shift conditions that must be managed
- Uncertain – inability to predict and the probability of being surprised increase anxiety and produce unskilled reactions
- Complex – decision makers are overloaded with factors to consider, become confused, and suffer analysis paralysis
- Ambiguous – when leaders are unable to discern what is happening, misunderstanding increases along with mischaracterization of opportunities, challenges, problems, and threats
The futurist’s “solution” to a VUCA world: “Leaders cannot predict the future, but they can enable it by preparing their organizations to adapt.” Fixed, long range plans inevitably become irrelevant amidst rapid change. Rigid structures with limited hierarchical communication flows are too slow and limit creativity. Therefore, leaders must design their organization for the resilient capacity to adapt and respond in new and different ways.
The futurist highlighted the need for a new generation of leaders with the vision, understanding, and skills to build organizations that can adapt with more flexible structures and approaches. This type of leader knows how to build bridges and form new strategic coalitions, partnerships, alliances, and networks in government, business, nonprofit and civil society.
I believe that adaptable leaders must have the bridge-building skills of a mediator, able to connect others, find common ground, and unify. Leadiators:
- confidently engage people with different perspectives;
- skillfully facilitate honest, constructive dialogue;
- courageously face conflict to reconcile differences; and
- tenaciously build sustainable agreements.
Leadiators make increased adaptive capacity their true north. Only then can their organizations navigate change and uncertainty with three fundamental strategies that connect individuals into a cohesive, capable WE:
- BUILD UNITY
- Bring people together with an inspiring sense of purpose, clear shared values and guiding principles.
- Focus them on a compelling vision that motivates their creative, collaborative efforts.
- Seek out partners who can collaborate in coalitions and alliances to tackle bigger challenges.
- IMPROVE AGILITY
- Design the organization’s structure to make values-based decisions that maintain a climate of integrity.
- Cultivate strong communication flows throughout the organization that build trust.
Increase the speed of dynamic, flexible response.
- GENERATE FORCE MULTIPLICATION
- A connected organization increases learning velocity and becomes more than the sum of its parts.
- Facilitate collaborative dialogue across teams and departments.
Encourage contribution of creative ideas throughout the organization.
Leadiators intentionally develop the organization’s adaptive capacity to respond resourcefully to the inevitable, unpredictable changes ahead. How is your organization building adaptive capacity by design?
PRACTICE TIP
Develop and Update your Values Statement You need a values statement as part of the trust and shared understanding necessary to unify. If you don’t have one, begin to develop it. If you have one, review and reconfirm your commitment.
There are four parts to an effective statement. Too many organizations stop after step 1 or 2. Values only come alive with action principles and supporting behaviors.
- The key core values, e.g. big words/nouns like Integrity, Respect, Quality, Service, Innovation that are the standards you want to characterize your work together and with others.
- A brief, clear definition of what everyone (from senior leaders to front line workers) understands the values word means, e.g. Respect – Positive regard for the dignity of all people.
- A set of principles stated as affirmative commitments to act and implement the core values. For example, under RESPECT, “We will create a psychologically safe environment that encourages all employees, managers, and leaders to speak up, ask questions, offer ideas, and raise concerns with leaders and managers.”
- Create a short list of specific, positive behaviors that SUPPORT the value and another list of negative behaviors that DETRACT from the value. Examples: SUPPORTING: Take time to listen to someone when you seem to disagree to make sure you understand their point of view. DETRACTING: Backbiting by speaking negatively to someone else about a 3rd person who is not present.
WORDS OF WISDOM
The things we fear most in organizations–fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances–are the primary sources of creativity.
~ Margaret Wheatley Leadership and the New Science
Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.
~ Helen Keller, Social visionary