Category: leadership

Good Society in India

~ Sasha ~ Leave a comment

I’m in India this week, and today I had the pleasure, and challenge, of facilitating a selection of “Good Society” readings with the Acumen India Fellows.

The opportunity to take a step back and be reminded of the words and deeds of the great thinkers and activists throughout history is a rare one, and I thought I’d share some of my favorite excerpts from these readings.

While these excerpts lose some of their richness when taken out of context, I hope they serve to remind you, as they do me, of the great thinkers we have in our corner as we work to build a future of greater rights and dignity for all.

 

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) (link)

“Preamble. Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”

“Article 1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

“Article 6. Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law”

 

Letter From Birmingham City Jail (1963) by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr (link)

“I am in Birmingham because injustice is here…Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

“History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.”

“I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.”

 

The Republic, (390 BC) Plato (link)

“He who is to be a really good and noble guardian of the State will require to unite in himself philosophy and sprit and swiftness and strength.”

 

The Social Contract (1762), Jean Jacques Rousseau (link)

“Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.

“The problem [in creating the Social Contract] is to find a form of association which will defend and protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each associate, and in which each, while uniting himself with all, may still obey himself alone, and remain as free as before… [To do so] Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will, and, in our corporate capacity, we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole.”

 

Development as Freedom, Amartya Sen (link)

“The usefulness of wealth lies in the things that it allows us to do – the substantive freedoms it helps us to achieve. But this relation is neither exclusive (since there are significant influences on our lives other than wealth) nor uniform (since the impact of wealth on our lives varies with other influences.”

“Expanding the freedoms that we have reason to value not only makes our lives richer and more unfettered, but also allows us to be fuller social persons, exercising our own volitions and interacting with – and influencing – the world in which we live.”

 

The University and the Leadership Factor in Nigerian Politics (1988), Chinua Achebe (link)

“Leadership is a sacred trust, like the priesthood in civilized, humane religions. No one gets into it lightly or unadvisedly, because it demands qualities of mind and discipline of body and will far beyond the need of the ordinary citizen. Anybody who offers himself or herself or is offered to society for leadership must be aware of the unusually high demands of the role and should, if any doubt whatsoever, firmly refuse the prompting.”

 

“Leadership”

~ Sasha ~ 4 Comments

A few weeks ago I was speaking to a friend and advisor and he asked me, “what’s your definition of leadership?”

I thought about it, and then thought about it a little more, and a little more… until I realized that I didn’t have a definition. Not a good one, a real one, something that was more than words and that really means something to me.

So I’ve been thinking about it ever since, and I came up with, “giving those around you the desire and the belief that they can accomplish great things.”

His definition, he told me the other day, was simpler still: “winning over the hearts and minds of those you’re leading. ”

Hearts and minds. Minds and hearts. Both.

Yeah, that’s right.

The end of the line

~ Sasha ~ 2 Comments

One day in the not-so-distant future, you’ll get there.  The end of the line.  The top of your organization.  The top of your field.  Nowhere else to go, because you’ll have arrived.

Most likely, that day won’t be within striking distance of the end of your career.  Far from it.  So there you will be, at the top of your game and the top of the ladder you spent all that time and energy climbing.

And then you’ll have no choice but to make a shift.  They’ll be no sense any more (was there ever?) in the obvious milestones of advancement: title, promotion, compensation.  In all the important ways, those things will be behind you.  At which point your yardstick will cease to be how high you can climb and become, instead, the actual impact you are having on the world, the change you are creating for others.

Imagine not waiting until that future date to let go of striving for the obvious markers of success and progress.  Imagine how letting go now, not five or 10 or 15 years from now, would free up all the energy you’re putting into the climb.  Imagine your confidence and sense of relief in recognizing that someday soon you will get there, which is why there’s no need to (and not much result in) continuing to push the rope.  Imagine your ability to focus on the stuff that really matters: the really important, hard-for-the-right-reasons elements of making a difference.

Isn’t this, in the end, what it means to live a life of service?

Isn’t this why anyone who gets to the “top” discovers that it’s really just a starting line?

A wasted day

~ Sasha ~ 1 Comment

Think about it: on a day when you swing for the fences, you might swing and miss.

A miss means a complete miss, a whiff, an air-ball, and all the associated jeering (we think) from the peanut gallery.  Wouldn’t it be embarrassing, and inefficient, to be completely wrong, to put a big idea out there that goes nowhere at all, one that’s just plain wrong?  Wouldn’t it, objectively, be a waste of time to work on something all day long and have it amount to nothing?

We have no time to waste!  Let’s tick through our To Do list, take the meetings that are on our calendars,, chip away at the projects that others have asked us to work on.  We know, at least, that on a day like that we will never have accomplished nothing.  This not only feels safer, it’s also what we were taught to do for a major portion of our lives.  It’s where good grades come from and how we got good reviews at our first and second jobs.

On the other hand, hitting “send” or “publish” on an outlandish, important idea; digging in and doing the work that no one asked you to do; spending time with people who will push your thinking and take your work to the next level…none of that is linear at all.  And so we are faced with our anticipation of the possibility being totally wrong, of our idea missing the mark, of being embarrassed, of discovering that, at least at this moment, we’re not that good at coming up with The Next Big Thing, and, staring that anticipation in the face, we decide to keep on playing small and safe for long enough that soon enough that’s the only thing we do.

The question becomes: which really is the wasted day?  The one where you tried for something big and failed, or the one where you didn’t step to the plate, didn’t take the shot, didn’t put yourself on the line?

Never trying anything can’t be a strategy for getting from here to there.  Nor can waiting until you’re “in charge,” because: 1. You shouldn’t be put in charge until you’ve shown that you can make new things happen; and 2. If you’re put in charge without having learned how to make important things happen, how will you suddenly know how to break away from the task orientation that had served you so well for so long?

Have you ever met with your boss or a peer and had them tell you: “you’re doing great work, but I’m giving you a terrible review because you played it too safe last year?”   Have you ever told that to someone else?

What does it take to get us to start playing big?

Barbara Grant – Management Practices for the Social Sector

~ Sasha ~ 2 Comments

I admit it, going into an all-day training called “Management Practices for the Social Sector” I was feeling, uh, skeptical.  I’d heard great things from colleagues who’d done the training, but I was suspicious.

Man was I wrong.

Barbara Grant has been running her own training and consulting practice since the early 90s.  Before that she had roles of increasing seniority at Microsoft including her last job running all of training and development for Microsoft’s most senior executives.  And before that she worked in the prison system.  She’s been there and done that.

Barbara was tough, funny, and insightful.  She was practical and dynamic in going where the group needed to go yet also keeping us to our agenda.  She presented a number of frameworks that we could and will actually grab on to and use, and gave us a shared vocabulary that will allow us to have different conversations internally.

In short, if you work in nonprofits and are looking for a great trainer, I’d recommend looking Barbara up (and no, she doesn’t even know I’m writing this post).

We covered a lot in just one day – a coaching formula Barbara calls, simply, “heart, tree, star;” a situational leadership framework; a model for task and work prioritization; a facilitated conversation around decision-making styles, all of which I found impactful.  But probably the thing that hit me hardest over the head was her presentation of Argyris’s Ladder of inference:

 

The basic notion is that, as human beings we have a natural adaptive mechanism to filter out information based upon past experiences, and in so doing we create a self-reinforcing worldview – about people or about situations – that limits our ability to really see  what is happening and draw new inferences or conclusions.

So, for example, I clearly have a ladder of inference about group training sessions: based on experiences in the past in which I didn’t find management training valuable, at the start of the session with Barbara, rather than just taking in the observable data I’m sure I selected data that affirmed my worldview, added meaning and then made assumptions based on that worldview…and on and on up the ladder.   And of course every time you get up the ladder you use that information to reinforce the ladder, further narrowing the data you choose to see and the stories you choose to tell yourself around those data.

So it could be stories around how so-and-so doesn’t prioritize the work we’re doing together; so when she’s late for a meeting I retell that story to myself rather than consider that her flight might have been delayed.  Or how another person is always getting the plum assignments; so when she goes on a work-related trip to Paris it must be because she’s a favorite and not because in her prior job she worked in Paris and has a lot of business contacts there.  And on and on we go up our ladders.

It’s such a simple framework, yet just being talked through it by Barbara I quickly saw it everywhere, and I realized how my ladders could be short-circuiting my ability to really listen, to process new information, to be adaptive in my worldview.

The bit that really hit me in the gut is that I know that I’m generally quick at processing information.  And then I got to wondering: could it be that I do this not only because I objectively process things quickly but also because I’m really quick to build ladders or use existing ladders? A sobering thought, but also freeing when you have a new framework to carry around, one that gives you the freedom to check your ladders at the door.

Just a glimpse of a great day in which Barbara gave us real gifts, ones that I know I’ll carry around and use for a long time.  Maybe she can help you too.

 

FDR and persistent experimentation

~ Sasha ~ Leave a comment

Acumen’s CEO Jacqueline Novogratz shared this with our team last week.  It’s from FDR’s 1932 Commencement Address at Oglethorpe University.

Especially today, our task is to remake the world which we find before us.  We have no other option.

Amazing how wisdom is so timeless.

The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. The millions who are in want will not stand by silently forever while the things to satisfy their needs are within easy reach. We need enthusiasm, imagination and the ability to face facts, even unpleasant ones, bravely. We need to correct, by drastic means if necessary, the faults in our economic system from which we now suffer. We need the courage of the young. Yours is not the task of making your way in the world, but the task of remaking the world which you will find before you. May every one of us be granted the courage, the faith and the vision to give the best that is in us to that remaking!

– Franklin Delano Roosevelt

How do I learn?

~ Sasha ~ 8 Comments

Back in May I realized that Peter Drucker’s Managing Oneself was a cornerstone piece of writing that I need to reread annually.  Its simplicity of language belies a depth of clarity and analysis about what it takes to understand oneself and, from that strong foundation of self-knowledge, build a successful personal and professional life.  I’m grateful to my friend and colleague Ankur Shah for sending it to me.

While most of the topics Drucker covers about self-knowledge and taking feedback were topics I’d expected to see, I was pretty taken aback by the section titled “How Do I Learn?”  I’d just never given the questions he asks any thought.  An excerpt:

How do I learn? The second thing to know about how one performs is to know how one learns.   Many first-class writers – Winston Churchill is but one example – do poorly in school.  They tend to remember their schooling as pure torture.  Yet few of their classmates remember it the same way.  They may not have enjoyed the school very much, but the worst they suffered was boredom.  The explanation is that writers do not, as a rule, learn by listening and reading.  They learn by writing…

Some people learn by taking copious notes.  Beethoven, for example, left behind an enormous number of sketchbooks, yet he said he never actually looked at them when he composed.  Asked why he kept them, he is reported to have replied, ‘If I don’t write it down immediately, I forget right away.  If I put it into a sketchbook, I never forget it and I never have to look it up again.’  Some people learn by doing.  Others learn by hearing themselves talk…

Am I a reader or a listener? and How do I learn? are the first questions to ask…

I found this perplexing because I honestly had no idea if I was a reader or a listener.  I didn’t find school torture at all, I read like crazy, so it seemed like I had to be a reader.

But the more I sat with that answer the less right it felt.  My best insights come by talking things through with people.  It’s only through hands-on, digging in conversations that things become real to me, that I can imagine how a solution will interact with the real world – what will and won’t work, and what’s holding something back.  I’m a talker/listener.

And then I started to think about all the reading that I do – what do I make of that?  Specifically, I started thinking about how well I recall things.  There are a lot of people in my life who have incredible memories; my wife is one and I know I don’t hold onto information the way she does (wish I did).  As a stark reminder of this, last month, just before I threw out 15 feet worth of 10 year old business school cases, I flipped through a few of the binders and was humbled by how little I recalled of the more than 1,000 cases I’d read. (Existential crisis on the cost of business school left for another day)

If I’m a listener and a talker who loves reading, and if I read to push my thinking, then I have to do something about reading differently.  It occurred to me to make my reading a bit more like blogging, by forcing myself to process information by capturing it and writing it down.  My parameters were to make the notes as visual as possible, to keep it to a page, and to focus on big concepts.

I had my first go at this for another “must read and reread piece” last week – The Theory Behind the Practice: A Brief Introduction to the Adaptive Leadership Framework by Heifitz, Grashow and Linsky.

What I’ve learned so far from this is:

  1. The decision that something I’ve read is worth processing in this way is itself important
  2. The little drawings of people and all the visuals help a lot.  For example the person holding the flag is the “leit,” (source of the word “leadership”) who went out ahead of the army carrying the flag.  He was often killed.  Kind of impossible to forget the heat you take as a leader with that little drawing floating around in my head.
  3. For the way my mind works, all I need the notes for is prompts, so they can be brief.  That is, without the notes a year from now I’d only remember 25% of the big concepts in the piece (e.g. the difference between technical and adaptive leadership will stick either way), but the moment I see high-level prompts in my notes I’m transported back to the full concept.  No need for the notes to provide all of those details

Creating these notes was easy enough to do with a 31 page HBR article.  I suspect for a 250 page book it will take more doing, but I’m going to give it a go, because if I can’t boil it down what are the chance that it will affect my actions for more than a month or so?

What about you?  Do you know how you learn?  Once you’ve figured it out, what do you do differently?

Action is

~ Sasha ~ 2 Comments

Action is staking a claim to something.

Action is a means of taking ownership.

When you move first (on a project, on an idea) you mark a territory as yours.

You require others to say “hey wait a minute, we were going to….”

Maybe they were going to, but you did first.

IDEO.org is coming!

~ Sasha ~ Leave a comment

Big announcement!  The wonderful folks at IDEO (the design firm that created the computer mouse…yeah, the original one) are launching IDEO.org.  In their words, IDEO.org is “focused on spreading human-centered design through the social sector and improving the lives of people in low-income communities across the globe.”

Or: bringing world-class design thinking to 3 billion more people.

IDEO has been at this for a while, including the Ripple Effect project to improve delivery of safe drinking water to the poor, and more recently they’ve been in Ghana designing sanitation solutions for urban households.  They’re also offering up a free Human-Centered Design Toolkit for social enterprises and NGOs, and an 11-month fellowship for leaders across multiple sectors to work directly with the IDEO team.

The full launch will be this fall.  In the meantime, please blog, tweet, and spread the word in real-life conversations.  Send any questions to info@ideo.org.

No resumes

~ Sasha ~ 1 Comment

I recently learned from an old friend who has a soon-to-be college-age son that, in addition to the test-prep tutors, that kids who now want to get into the best colleges have life tutors.  These are people who tell the kids (and their parents) which courses to take and which activities to get involved in so that they can demonstrate the leadership potential and diversity of experiences that colleges are looking for.

Yuck.

Is this really what we’re teaching the kids who have the most opportunity in our society (which means, by and large, that they have the most opportunity in the world)?  That they have to manufacture a kaleidoscope of experiences to put on paper so that they can – from the best high schools – get into the best colleges to get the best job to get…to get…to get….what?

This isn’t a zero sum game, it’s a negative sum game.  In exchange for increasing the (purported) likelihood of getting into the “right” school we are reinforcing the notion that struggle, reflection, falling short and self-discovery are and should be easily traded in by our so-called best and brightest.  We are teaching them that the best thing they can do with all of their privilege and promise is to game the system.

Someday, when all of their careers go well, they won’t need a resume.  Someday they will need to trade on real accomplishments and reputations that precede them;  on judgment and character and vision and moral fiber; and all the awards and merit scholarships and test scores and class rank will be long forgotten.

When that moment comes, when they have to dig deep, what will they find if this is what we have been teaching them?