Ted Kennedy as Role Model

I admit it: I have little regard for elected officials. So much time and energy is wasted by these people as they underachieve in pursuit of pleasing their local constituents and work to be re-elected. Or so it seems to me. So many wicked problems need tending: health care, 20,000 people dying each day in developing countries, wars, near wars and here at home, a lamentable education system. Where are these people when we need them?

I come by this viewpoint because I'm really lame at politics. Admitting I'm lame means I can either get better at it or dismiss it and those who practice it. Most of the time I chose the latter and proclaim that I'm taking the high road of noble work vs. the dirty work of politicking.

I have not had a client in the last 10 years that has not struggled with the office or organizational politics that is part of the currency of getting work done. Most of us are not very good at politics. This incompetence is different than those who are good at getting what they want at the expense of others. This is often called politics but it is not even close. This is self-serving narcissism and eventually it will get one professional killed.

The politics that I need to be better at and the politics that my clients need to be better at is now being reviewed in just about every devotion to Ted Kennedy and his accomplishments as a Senator after his passing this week. In today's New York Times, Adam Clymer lays it bare for all to see. As does David Brooks and Gail Collins in yesterday's NYT. Both pieces tell of a man who understood from his earliest days that the way to get work done, to make progress on difficult issues and to achieve effective legislation required a sense of the politics of those involved and the importance of building relationships that sustained under pressure. The kind of pressure that always comes up when different agendas need to find common ground.

It is beautiful to read of this man's ability to build close relationships with Republican Senators like Orin Hatch and even former President George Bush. We have been living through a time of such division in our political system and that division has worked its way down to our local communities. While all this was going on, back in Washington DC there was Ted Kennedy, working every day and some nights to find common ground among diverse opinions for the sake of crafting legislation that worked for the majority.

That work was not glamorous. It required studying the issues in great detail, being informed, listening to opposing views and working both sides of the Senate until something good happened while (and this is important) never being concerned if he would be given credit for the outcome.

Ted Kennedy's lasting legacy will be that he legislated better then any Senator of his time. If we want to be more competent at the politics of work and of life, Ted Kennedy is about as fine a role model as we could find.

Thanks Senator Kennedy.

A Slice of Life

I have played golf regularly for 45 years. And I have regularly produced the same results for 45 years. Last week after another mediocre two rounds of golf, I actually gave some thought to this endless plateau of mediocrity. I was surprised by two insights:

The first was that I never thought about how long I’ve been accepting this poor performance. The second insight was how comfortable I was with playing golf (an activity I love) so poorly.

But something else showed up during my self-inflicted golf lobotomy: I was sick of it.

I decided that I either needed to change and get better or get out of the game. What I was specifically tired of doing was slicing my driver off the tee. Aside from all the problems it produces for scoring well, a slice is considered a weak golf shot. I’ve always viewed golf as both a game and a metaphor for my life and now I found myself looking at my game and my life through this “slice” framework and I did not like what I saw.

Something needed to change and so I set about to do just that. In one day I changed my grip, my stance, my ball position at address and my swing plane. Most golfers are both inflexible and superstitious about each of these elements of the golf shot and to change just one is often a trial of patience and discipline. My decision to change “everything” was a bit liberating and it also put me on tilt because I was having a difficult time remembering what I was doing; what was the priority and how to do it all?

There was also something else I experienced; being a beginner. I was almost back to square 1 and while it was hard (still is after playing my first round with all this new golf swing stuff) it was very refreshing and I felt light.

Most all my work with my clients is fundamentally about changing their “golf swing.” I realized that it has been some time since I had a major change project of my own on the line like my clients do. I do need to change my golf game and get better and all these changes to my swing are a challenge but it’s just golf and I’m still only destine to play with my chucklehead friends on the weekend. So the change edge here is both real and not significant to real impact.

What this golf lobotomy really highlighted was how I’ve settled in to my work and lost contact with the edge. I’ve been playing smaller then my aspirations. What I see is that my work needs the same overhaul as my golf swing. Otherwise I’ll continue to play weak and hit my shots due right into the rough. I’ll keep you posted.

Purpose is a Good Place to Start

Changing something by choice and design is different than change that is mandated by another. Organizations make decisions to change some aspect of structures, processes or systems all the time. Those changes are declared by a leader and the organization then sets about to implement the change. Most of these efforts fall short of the intended outcome but we can take that issue up later.

Personal choice to make a change is a powerful starting point for a person. But it is only the start. As mentioned yesterday, the challenge of change is that the rewards are in the future and the hard work is immediate. The gap between these two elements frame the challenge. Our ability to cross that gap defines and reflects much about who we are in the moment.

Purpose for change is a useful conversation to engage. As I write this entry, it is almost the middle of 2009 and in reviewing my goals for the year, I see that I'm hitting some and missing others. Mostly I feel like I am more in response to events than I am designing and producing outcomes. My tendency is to lose contact with the big picture when the events of today become turbulent. If the first part of 2009 has been anything; it is has been turbulent. In all of this chaos, I see that I've not so much lost my way as I have been exposed for not having a more clearly defined purpose. Without a clear purpose, I have been seduced by "other" events. Then boom, the time slips away and impact is lost.


I believe a focused purpose leads to big results. I realized a few weeks ago that I was attempting to do too much, be too much and sought too much. Too much of anything is a move away from focus. I think that the economic turbulence is a perfect opportunity for clarifying purpose. It is essential to determine what aspects of my life, how I spend my time and energy, needs to be eliminated now?


So in re-addressing my purpose, I have started to eliminate projects, type of work, and activities that do not support impact and distract me from my purpose. As a consultant to individuals and organizations, my usefulness is to reflect, integrate and facilitate the best change practices and processes for my clients that build their community. Relationships are central and everything else is derivative.

Before you get moving too far down your change path, get clear on your purpose. What is your purpose for being here? Who benefits from you being on purpose? What are the consequences to you and others when you lose your way? These are questions that need to be addressed and answered. Much has been written in the last year about how we have lost our way, that our priorities have been lost, our values mixed up. That could be so. Getting back on track starts with being clear about my purpose.

Why Changing is a Challenging

Changing anything is difficult for several reasons. A reason: the reward we seek is in the future, sometimes way out in the future and what we have to do and experience (discomfort, frustration, work and daily persistence) must start immediately. We are not a society of delayed gratification so for most of us, changing something about ourselves starts as a challenge within a challenge.

Another reason: We are giving up something we know well when we change. Generally we don't resist the change (it usually makes logical sense to us), we are resisting loss. The stepping from the known into the unknown.

Another reason: We have a pretty good idea that this step into the unknown must be permanent if we are to achieve the coveted change. Permanent; that is like forever, for all time. When we fully understand that time concept, it is not logical, it becomes emotional. Permanent loss is not something we think, it is something we feel. It can cause much resistance, denial, anger and pain.

Another reason: Getting across the "goal line" takes longer then most of us think. A common fail point of change is people's grossly underestimating the time and effort it will take to make the change. We stop too soon. Often we stop within sight of the goal.

So in the face of these reasons why change is challenging, how can we navigate the process? That is the next post.

What Changes When IT Changes? (The Prologue)

I've been away. While away I've been paying attention to all the fuss in the economy and to my own responss to that fuss. I read the Financial Times every day because it is a great newspaper. It is proving its worth now as it covers the complexities of the recession. The depth and width of change that is happening everyday is breath stealing.

All this change is Burning Platform of Change (BPC). It is the change that is forced on a person or a company or an industry or a country or a planet when events on the ground gives one no other options. It's either death by fire or you take your chances jumping from the high platform into ocean turbulence.

While this activity is change, it is rarely the type of change we seek. It never occurs at the right time or at a pace that we can absorb. BPC comes at us like water shot from a fire hose and surviving is our primary strategy. As this global recession rolls forward, we are witnesses destruction as many entities do not survive and the people associated with them suffer real loss. It's been said that people do not fear change, they fear loss. There is a great deal of both moving through lives today.

This creative destruction is being forced on us by large structural and process failure in organizations and governments. Most of us are moving through these occurances with a "response strategy." We are working to make the most out of the pieces that are left after the descruction has hit us. This response strategy is useful in the short-term but it has no legs to carry us for the long-run.

This is one of the great historical moments in modern history. We are living each day of this long moment when the order of so many structures and processes are being trashed and tossed aside.

To be replaced by what?

The answer to this question lives in the act of creating. Creating new structures and process demands change but it is change by design, not BPC. I'll explore this change by design over the next few days because while it is the best type of change, it is also the most difficult to pull off. Having a strategy to execute that change is helpful. Stay tuned.

Patty Stonesifer and Adaptive Leadership

Patty Stonesifer shares her leadership growth experiences during her time as leader of the Gates Foundation. Her interview with Bridgestar is a nice experienced based road map for how to deal with wicked problems.

This turbulent time is the result of many factors but one aspect that has avoided scrutiny is the specific failings of global leaders to see the future and find the courage to make difficult decisions.

The work of Ron Heifetz and his Adaptive Leadership frameworks are essential leadership competencies for these times. We all must step up our competency to lead. Turbulence is now a way of organizational life and knowing how to make progress in these conditions is the leadership moment of truth.

A Development Strategy for a Lifetime

I am a collector of structures and processes that hold the possibility of self-development, organizational improvement and dare I say global health. My collection of structures and processes includes approaches that most would agree are proven. Six Sigma, Systems Thinking and Model I/Model II to name a few. At the other end of the development spectrum, there are processes like Encounter and Community Building, Dialogue and even some straight ahead yelling and screaming.

I reject stuff that will not hold up across broad groups, different organizations or at the individual level. As a collector I feel free to cherry pick these approaches for strengths while leaving behind the non-useful parts. I then attempt to put these pieces together new forms of development and test them on myself. If they show promise, I share them with others.

This approach to development is a bit edgy at times but it can be rich in discovery. At the same time, I am always seeking simplicity. I’m looking for the development equivalent of Danish design: clean, simple, and highly functional. I discovered just such an approach and wouldn’t you know it, I found it living with the Buddhists. Seems we can count on Eastern wisdom to give us simplicity and challenge all wrapped together.

Here is a Buddhist approach to self-development, organizational improvement and global health in five simple but not-so-easy-to-implement steps:

1. Confess My Faults
2. Approach What I Find Repulsive
3. Help Those I Think I Cannot Help
4. Anything I Am Attached To, Let It Go
5. Go Places That Scare Me

In my next few entries, I’ll talk about what I have learned about myself while practicing this development strategy. For now, consider how these five “interventions” might play out for you. Oh and these things often make me crazy.