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Leading in Ambiguous Situations

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A helpful chapter on speed leading in the book Taking Control of Your Time points out that leading in the midst of highly ambiguous environments requires a different approach than we typically think.

The typical approach for setting direction is geared for relatively known territory. It goes like this:

  1. Observe
  2. Orient
  3. Decide
  4. Act

This is basically a “ready, aim, fire” approach.

But in unfamiliar and ambiguous territory, a “fire, ready, aim” approach is usually more effective. Here are the steps:

  1. Act
  2. Learn
  3. Adapt

The essence of this approach is that, since the environment is ambiguous, you don’t have a map and can’t even see very far ahead. Hence, you have to move forward by trial and experimentation — similar to the scientific method. As the article says, “speed leaders experiment in order to advance knowledge.”

Many of our problems in leadership come from trying to use an approach for known territory in the midst of unknown territory.

Four Principles of Biblical Leadership

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Here are four principles of leadership we see in Matthew 20:25-28, Matthew 23:8-11 (note: that text is on leadership!), and 1 Peter 5:1-5:

  1. Leaders are not an elite class with special privileges (that’s Matthew 23:8-11).
  2. Leaders should not see themselves as privileged or entitled.
  3. Leaders should not use their power for personal enrichment or to unfairly maintain their power.
  4. Leaders are not to approach people from above, as a virtuoso. Instead, they are to take a position alongside, as a fellow traveler, a partner sharing the same burdens. They look across at others, not down. (Note Peter’s approach in 1 Peter 5:1-4.)

Organizational Health Principles for Businesses, Ministries, and Non-Profits

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After doing a lot of research on an area, I often create a document that synthesizes the most significant principles I’ve learned on the subject. A few years ago I did this on the subject of organizational health. I thought it might be useful to share them with you. In this case, I focused mostly on one book, Patrick Lencioni’s excellent The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive. So these are essentially my notes from his book, organized for the purpose of making them as easy to follow as possible.

Organizational Health Principles

Notes from Patrick Lencioni’s The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, and a few other things.

GLOBAL PRINCIPLES

  1. It is the appreciation for simplicity and discipline that makes one an extraordinary executive.
  2. Success is not so much a function of intelligence or natural ability, but rather of commitment to the right disciplines.
  3. We can become poor leaders if we let ourselves become distracted by overly tactical and political matters.
  4. Organizational health is one competitive advantage that is available to any company that wants it, yet it is largely ignored. And, it is highly sustainable because it is not based on information or intellectual property. It should occupy a lot of time and attention of extraordinary executives (139).
  5. “A healthy organization is one that has less politics and confusion, higher morale and productivity, lower unwanted turnover, and lower recruiting costs than an unhealthy one” (140).
  6. The core idea of organizational health is to create, communicate, and reinforce organizational clarity. 
  7. There are four components to creating a healthy organization: create a cohesive leadership team, create organizational clarity, over-communicate organizational clarity, and reinforce organizational clarity through human systems.

A Framework for Understanding Organizational Management

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I recently received a helpful question from a reader who was looking for a framework to help him think through his business in a comprehensive way. I thought it might be good to make this more broadly available as well, so here’s the main part of what I shared (less the actual links and, of course, the book images!).

Great question regarding frameworks. I agree that discovering the framework behind anything helps you understand it much better. For business and management, I follow the framework Tom Peters gives in one of the first three chapters or so of his book In Search of Excellence, which I find to be super helpful and without holes:

  • Guiding concepts (mission, values, standards; should be unchanging)
  • Strategy (how to get from here to there; changes with environment but must be consistent with guiding concepts)
  • Structure (how everyone is organized to get from here to there; so must align with the strategy and, again, must reflect the guiding concepts)
  • Systems (mechanisms that make things work and keep them running that are woven throughout the structure–things like hiring practices, firing practices, performance management, the systems for executing the specific work of the organization, and so forth)
  • Skills and style (people’s abilities and strengths harnessed in the service of the organization’s purpose)
  • People (the actual people)

I would also recommend Patrick Lencioni‘s book The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, which also presents a helpful framework, though it is a bit less comprehensive than Peters’.

 

 

One of the Best Lewis Quotes Ever

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CS Lewis:

Who can endure a doctrine which would allow only dentists to say whether our teeth were aching, only cobblers to say whether our shoes hurt us, and only governments to tell us whether we were being well governed?

Not even sure how to categorize that, but it has a thousand ramifications. Great insight.

Be Ambitious AND Humble

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Keith Ferrazzi has a good post summarizing a study IBM recently did to identify the traits of their highest impact employees.

Their findings were very interesting. Here’s how Ferrazzi summarizes them:

The term originated in an IBM study that sought to identify the traits of their most high-impact employees. Turns out that ambition alone is mediocre; ambition plus intellectual humility is the winning combination.

Read the whole thing.