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Effective corporate rebels turn to one another

January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

People who change the world in small and big ways, rebel FOR change they believe will make a difference.  They are also keen observers and want to work with others to make the possible real. Over the holidays I had the luxurious pleasure of re-reading author and leadership activist Margaret Wheatley’s book Turning To One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future.

Here’s an excerpt that captures the behaviors of those with a desire to lead.

Turning to one another

Ask “what’s possible?” not “What’s wrong?”  Keep asking. Notice what you care about. Assume that many others share your dreams.

Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.

  • Talk to people you know.
  • Talk to people you don’t know.
  • Talk to people you never talk to.

Be intrigued by the differences you hear.

  • Expect to be surprised.
  • Treasure curiosity more than certainty.

Invite in everybody who cares to work on what’s possible.

  • Acknowledge that everyone is an expert about something.
  • Know that creative solutions come from new connections.

Remember, you don’t fear people whose story you know.  Real listening always brings people closer together.

Trust that meaningful conversations can change your world.

Rely on human goodness. Stay together.

– Margaret Wheatley

Filed Under: Activating change, Communicating, Corporate Rebels, Innovation, Language, Leadership, Organizational change, Problem solving Tagged With: , , , ,

Rebels at work: Interview with Janet Swaysland of Monster.com

November 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

What fun to be interviewed by friend and client Janet Swaysland, senior vice president of Monster Worldwide, for the Monster corporate blog. Here’s what we talked about.

1.    When you told me you were doing research on corporate rebels my first reaction was, “Why look at the troublemakers? To what end?”  What attracted you to this work?

I heard Carmen Medina, recently retired CIA deputy director of intelligence, talk about how she was part of an informal Rebel Alliance of employees at the CIA, and how questioning assumptions and the status quo helped two rebels at the agency create the Intellipedia, a groundbreaking approach to intelligence that was awarded a Service to America national medal.

I began wondering how innovation and change happens in big organizations. You hear about innovators in start-ups all the time. But not so much in big companies. I was curious about the people in big organizations who blaze new trails and find ways to change business as usual. What are their characteristics? What makes them tick? How do you find them? Could they be an untapped resource for creating more innovative, engaged corporate cultures?

Carmen graciously let me pick her brain for a day about her personal experience as a “heretic” and about the Rebel Alliance at the agency. Then I had to know more.

2.    Are there “good” rebels and “bad” rebels?

There are always those people who are frustrated and bitter, more focused on stirring things up than making things better. Unfortunately those “bad” rebels get noticed while so many of the good rebels do not. The good, or what I call benevolent rebels, aren’t looking for attention. They want to help their organizations succeed, and fix things that aren’t working as well as they could be.

In my quantitative and qualitative research about rebels, I’ve found that these benevolent rebels are creative (88%), curious (82%) people not afraid of risk (88%). They are motivated first and foremost by wanting to feel like they’re making a difference. (92%).  They also tend to be positive, which has led Carmen to say, “Optimism is the greatest act of rebellion.”

3.    What’s most important for leaders and HR executives to understand about rebels?

Rebels have the courage to name the elephants in the room, see new ways to solve problems, bring outside ideas into the organization, and be the first to try new approaches.

However, these change and innovation rebels will make you feel uncomfortable. They call out problems others are afraid to (92%) and challenge assumptions and sacred cow practices (92%), both of which are essential to real innovation, but often shunned in organizations.  They also tend to go around the rules, question executive decisions, start projects without all the official approvals, and ask a lot of questions.

4.    What has surprised you the most in your research about rebels?

Rebels are not motivated by formal recognition or financial incentives. They’re self-motivated to want to make a difference and to solve things that are not working as well as they could. The research found that just 27% want formal recognition. What they do want is to be asked their opinions more often and be invited to work on special teams to solve specific issues.

I was also surprised by what I call the 90/30 conundrum. Approximately 90% of the survey respondents agreed that activating rebels can improve corporate culture and create a more innovative company. Yet only a third said they were very satisfied with rebels’ ability to provide that value in their organizations.

5.    Is there a rebel inside everyone? Should there be?

I think there is a rebel in everyone, but our rebel spirits has been suppressed. We have a couple of generations of people in the workforce who have been rewarded for keeping routine things going and for conforming.  That goes for everyone from CEOs to front line workers. The result is complacency, fear of doing things differently, and resistance to change. People complain but don’t act. Rebels are the kind of people who act.

6.    How can organizations bring out the inner rebel-ness of their people?

There are many ways. The most essential is creating more collaborative ways to lead and manage. The days of leader-as-hero are over. No one person — or handful of people –has all the answers or the best answers.

To activate the inner rebel in their people, leaders need to set clear purposes or missions, ask questions that challenge people to think in new ways, and then create safe, collaborative ways for people to get involved in creating the ideas that support the mission.  When I guide collaborative sessions where people dig into meaty issues, real magic happens; the power of diverse thinking coupled with people’s desire to create something bigger and better than they could alone or in their departmental silos is pretty amazing. No surprise, this type of involvement and collaboration is what rebels most want with their companies.

7.    Can people really afford to be rebels – making change can be risky — when they are just trying to hang on to the jobs they have?

If you are a “keep the routine going” person you face far greater risks than someone with the skills and courage to question the status quo and create new approaches.  When things get tough – as they always will — who do you want to keep on your team?  The benevolent rebels who see ways to improve and have the fearlessness to pioneer new ways? Or the person who keeps the engine running? Who do your most talented people want to work for?  Safe, complacent Charlie or innovative, risk-taking Charlie?

Rebels are proactive thinkers and creators.  There will always be a market for those skills in capitalistic economies.

8.    Are you a rebel?

All my life. Like Lady Gaga, I was just born that way. Sometimes my velocity for seeing emerging patterns and opportunities — and wanting to do things in new ways — has put people off. A boss once told me, “You’re always three years ahead in spotting what’s next. You have to help us catch up with you.”  I wish someone had taught me early on how to more effectively introduce new ideas and navigate organizational politics to get those ideas adopted.

My struggles as a benevolent rebel is one reason why I’m so intent on helping rebels learn how to be more effective change agents inside big organizations. Similarly, my admiration for leaders who embrace and empower rebels is why I’m driven to help leaders be more effective and courageous.

 

Filed Under: Activating change, Corporate Rebels, Leadership, Organizational change Tagged With: , , ,

Speaking the truth: protesting a sad leadership story

October 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A physician friend recently told me that she was depressed about her work.  It wasn’t just that her hospital was focused more on financials than healing, it was something much, much more serious to her.

Hospital executives no longer valued the physicians’ opinions. In fact, a passionate and respected department head had just been fired because of remarks made during Grand Rounds in the presence of an executive from another hospital.

“So if we speak the truth to try to improve medicine and our medical institution, we get axed,” she said. “How are we ever going to change health care if we can’t talk about the real issues? How are we going to be able to care for patients when we feel under-appreciated and demoralized? I’ve given my professional life to this institution, but seeing how we get treated for our commitment makes me think it might be time to leave.”

Today when I saw this photo from a Wall St. protester, I realized how dangerous it is for well-meaning people to speak the truth. And yet, how will we improve and grow without new ideas and the benevolent rebels with the courage to challenge assumptions and the status quo? You can’t just keep firing the rebels who speak up and expect that the rest of the organization won’t be deeply affected, which in turn affects business outcomes.

Do executives even realize that their companies have turned into fearful corporate cultures? If not, why? If they do, how are they stepping up to lead in ways that acknowledge fear and uncertainty — while recognizing bravery and truth telling in service to the organization’s vision?

In the coming months I’ll be talking with executives about leading in an age of disruption and uncertainty, as well as with benevolent rebels who have walked out of corporate positions to walk on to new organizations where their questions, opinions and passions are valued.

Is there someone you think I should interview? Suggestions gratefully welcomed!

Yes, the times are a changin.  We need great leaders and truth tellers now more than ever.

Filed Under: Activating change, Corporate Rebels, Leadership, Organizational change Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

New eBook: 20 ways to be a more effective rebel, change agent

October 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Some practical advice for rebels and change agents for becoming more effective in activating change. A pdf of the eBook can also be downloaded on the Foghound Resources page.

Foghound 20 ways to be effective rebel

View more presentations from Lois Kelly

 

 

Filed Under: Activating change, Corporate Rebels, Innovation, Leadership, Organizational change Tagged With: ,

Rebel awarded Medal of Honor

September 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Marine Dakota Meyer disobeyed orders so that he could  try to save three dozen comrades trapped in an Afghan ravine. Last week President Obama awarded him the prestigious Medal of Honor.

When benevolent rebels break the rules in order to do the right thing, they morph  into leaders. But these people are usually reprimanded or punished for rebelling against orders, policies, people with higher titles.

How inspiring that a man with courage, conviction and a love for his fellow soldiers was recognized for rebelling for the right reasons.

Rules and policy in any organization are meant to guide, not to dictate.  Challenging rules is part of leading, and leading should not be limited to people with certain titles.  The more people understand an organization’s purpose and values, the more empowered they should feel to step in and make decisions that uphold those values and purpose.  There’s little upside to compliance in any organization — especially in life or death situations.

Like many rebels I have studied, Sergeant Meyer wasn’t all that interested in the recognition of the Medal of Honor. His one request: to be able to talk privately with President Obama. Rebel research shows that these folks want to do right, and have an opportunity to be heard.  As The New York Times reported:

Mr. Meyer showed little inclination to celebrate receiving the Medal of Honor. His one request to the president while he was in Washington was that the two men have a beer together, which Mr. Obama and Mr. Meyer did on Wednesday evening in a patio near the Rose Garden.

Congratulations to Sergeant Meyer and to the United States for recognizing what it means to lead, even if it means disobeying orders.

 

 

Filed Under: Activating change, Corporate Rebels, Leadership, Organizational change Tagged With: , , ,

Does you organization support culture of change, innovation?

June 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

 

Does your organization support a culture of change and innovation?

While most leaders want to be more innovative, often their cultures, business practices and management values don’t support such an environment.  Foghound’s study on corporate rebels found that just 34% are very satisfied with rebels ability to provide value in their organizations.

Here are six questions for leaders to consider as they assess how “change and innovation-friendly” their companies really are.

  • When you look in the corporate mirror do you see a culture open to new perspectives?

“Rebels often butt heads with their supervisors who want helpers not idea people. Rebels don’t want to hear, “That’s not the way we do things around here.” Foghound Corporate Rebel survey respondent

  • How do you lead management discussions so that people learn how to make decisions within a paradox of innovation?

How do you balance getting work done – with finding new ways to work? With adhering to standards – with taking risks? With rewarding employee cooperation – with recognizing employees for challenging the status quo?

  • Does your culture create obstacles or opportunities for people with the courage to challenge assumptions and ask new questions?
  • If people are your most valuable resource, how are you creating ways to tap into their collective brilliance? How do you make diverse perspectives heard?
  • Who and what filters new ideas? Are they helpful filters — or blinders?
  • Do your corporate values and beliefs encourage behaviors needed to innovate? (Or are your values rather bland and safe?)

Foghound Corporate Rebel Study: Value Rebels Provide to Companies

 

Filed Under: Activating change, Corporate Rebels, Innovation, Leadership, Organizational change Tagged With: , , ,

The new science of problem solving and creativity

January 6, 2011 By 1 Comment

To develop more innovative ideas, we have to stop using conventional  right brain/left brain brainstorming techniques.

The reason?  Nobel-prize winning neuroscientists have found that the big “ahas” come from a model of the brain called “intelligent memory.”  When we learn something new our brains connect it with what’s already in our memory bank. When different pieces combine  into a new pattern we have an “aha” insight flash.

This scientific finding means that we need to develop alternative ways to traditional brainstorming.

Just as the intelligent memory concept has replaced the old two-sided brain theory in neuroscience, companies need to replace brainstorming with methods that reflect more accurately how creative ideas actually form in the mind,” writes Columbia Business School professor William Duggan in “How Aha! Really Happens” in the winter issue of Strategy and Business.

Over the past 18 months I’ve been using several new strategic ideation and problem-solving approaches  based on intelligent memory with much success.  Although I must confess corporate clients initially feel uncomfortable and wary with these new approaches because they are so different from traditional  “brainstorming sessions.”

Some of the elements that I find very effective in helping clients find the “aha insights”:

  • Reflecting on previous experiences and why they worked. This relaxes people, gets them off of  focusing on the problem at hand.  During a one or two-day session I ask people to look at these patterns of past success and what they might mean. Inevitably helpful connections are made.
  • Forgoing a logical order: I use exercises and conversations that seem to wander in order to help people wander through possibilities and previous experiences.  Wandering results in far more significant outcomes than a straight path.  Often someone will ask, “where is this going? Are we going to be able to come up with ideas to our situation today.”  About half-way through the day, they begin to see the magic of taking a non-linear route.
  • The art of good questions: being asked provocative, unusual questions is one of the best ways to trigger thinking and conversations that lead somewhere. I joke, though seriously, with friends that my questions are my art.  The most challenging part of guiding people to “aha’ insights is asking questions that open, deepen, and often explode thinking. Questions that tap into what they know in unusual ways, breaking lose new patterns and connections.
  • Photos, superpowers and metaphors: other techniques that tap into the intelligent memory is the use of photos, superhero superpowers, and metaphors to see, frame and understand situations in unusual new ways  — ways needed to connect new dots. Again, people often wonder what the heck I’m doing to their heads using these approaches.
  • Avoid conference rooms! Working in conference rooms is an energy killer, especially if sitting at a conference room table.  It’s so stultifying that I no longer will do collaborative workshops in this format. Far better to have a big room, some chairs you can move around, lots of wall space for sticking up ideas.
  • Do we really need to spend all day?: People spend so much time doing strategic analysis and developing strategic plans and allot so little for thinking.  Yet if you don’t have the strategic ideas, the planning is for naught. There’s some weird feeling that spending a day  thinking is wasting time.  Clients often ask, “Do we really need to spend five hours? Couldn’t we do it in two?”  Well, no. The way the brain works it takes at least two hours to mentally get into a place where your brain is relaxed enough to actually think creatively and begin to make the types of new connections that give you that brilliant flash of insight.  If you really want to tap into collective brilliance. If you really want ideas that will make a difference, chunk out some time and chill. I like to use the advice  from a consultant who helps  high-powered attorneys  improve their performance:  “don’t just do something, sit there.”

So as you look at innovation and problem solving, look for new ways that tap into the true science of the brain and say goodbye to traditional brainstorming. It just won’t get you where you want to go fast enough because of the way our brains are wired.

As William Duggan writes:

“Eventually, we can expect more techniques based on the new science of intelligent memory to replace methods from the previous paradigm. Companies that get there first will have a distinct advantage. What innovation does your company use, and in which paradigm do they fit, the old view of the mind or the new?

Filed Under: Activating change, Innovation, Problem solving Tagged With: , , , ,

Creating new categories: social marketing delivers needed trust, emotion

April 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Marketing as usual when you’re trying to create a new product or service category is doomed to fail.

The ads, the messaging, the press releases, the events are likely to fall flat for two reasons — people don’t trust information from companies and most marketing information is factual, filtered and rational.

Social scientists have proven that logic is ineffective in getting people to change their behavior and adopt new types of products. Similarly, so are most marketing campaigns. Harvard Business School professor John Kotter has said:

“Behavior changes happen mostly by speaking to people’s feelings. In highly successful change effort people will find ways to help others see the problems or solutions in ways that influence emotions, not just thoughts.”

As for trust, the 2009 Edelman Trust Barometer finds that people’s trust in companies, the media and CEOs is at an all time low. Approximately 62 percent of the 25 to 64 year-olds surveyed in 20 countries said they trust companies less than they did a year ago. In the U.S. trust in a company’s CEO is at an all time low — just 17 percent  trust what a CEO has to say. Trust in business magazines is also down, from 57 percent to 44 percent.

I believe that social media and its first cousin, word of mouth marketing, are critical for a company intent on creating a new product category. All too often, however, companies spend more on mainstream marketing when building a new category because it feels safer, the tactics are more familiar, you can create “things” like brochures and advertisements, and you can make sure the “key messages” from the research are included.

While those elements certainly play a role in a marketing strategy, think social first. Here’s why:

  • People trust other people like them more than marketers, CEOs, governments, analysts. (See Neilsen Buzz metrics trust research) Why not sponsor an online community where people can share experiences and get and give help from people they trust?  This is likely to speed trial, if not adoption. As importantly it will help you as a marketer better understand obstacles and objections — and see the arguments people use to overcome those obstacles.
  • After people like them, people next trust outside subject matter experts. Why not sponsor an editorially-independent blog/community and invite outside experts to share their views of the new product or service category?  They’ll be much more believable than your company blog. According to the new Edelman research, 59 percent of those surveyed said an academic or an independent expert on the industry or issue would be very credible.
  • Most marketing communications is based in logic, and that  doesn’t work when trying to change behavior.  The passionate, real, credible conversations are happening among people in new social forms.  The emotion infused in these conversations is what influences change and adoption.  Yet marketing and advertising agencies tend to filter and focus on key messages, and too often  advertising designed to trigger emotion comes across as phony.

Social media conversations are unfiltered, trusted and genuine.  And that’s what you need when taking on the formible challenge of creating a new category.

Filed Under: Activating change, Advertising, Social media strategy, Word of mouth Tagged With: , , ,

Here Comes Everybody — Maybe

July 14, 2008 By 1 Comment

[photopress:Here_Comes_Everybody.jpg,full,pp_image] If you want to really understand how social media/tools are changing how we work, play, activate change and live, pick up Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. And if you are seriously considering communities as part of your marketing strategy, Do Not Pass Go without reading this.

Here are some of my takeaways:

There are three essential pieces of a community, starting with purpose:

1. Why: what’s the the promise of the group/community? Why would anyone want to join or contribute? “Creating a promise that enough people believe in is the basic requirement. The promise creates the basic desire to participate. ” Note: in my experience this is where marketers usually spend too little time. Or, rarely challenge their own. assumptions.

2. How: this is where you figure out which tools will help people do what the community is all about. Note: too many companies are buying tools and then trying to make a community fit the tools. A recipe for disaster — or, at a minimum, enormous frustration.

3. Rules of the road: this the what Shirky calls the bargain: “If you are interested in the promise and adopt the tools, what can you expect and what will be expected of you?”

People have always wanted to share and help one another. Pervasive, easy-to-use communications tools and ” the collapse of transaction costs makes it easier for people to get together — so much easier, in fact, that is changing the world.” “Social tools don’t create collective action — they merely remove the obstacles to it. This is why many of the significant changes are based not on the fanciest, newest bits of technology but on simple easy-to-use tools like email, mobile phones and websites, because those are the tools most people have access to and, critically, are comfortable using in their dauly lives.”

Incentives for participating are not financial: Attention, the desire to see your work spread, the desire to help others and be helped.

Why some communities grow and others don’t: “They grow if enough people care about them, and die if they don’t.” (This goes back to getting the promise right.)

How did you do that?: communities where a group of people help one another get better at some share task or interest — called communities of practice — are especially pervasive and appealing. The basic question that can trigger a community of practice: “How did you do that?”

Not everyone needs to be passionate, participate a lot: in the old model we had to work hard to get people passionate enough to act, because acting was a lot of work. Today you can have a handful of highly-motivated people participating a lot — and “people who care a little participate a little, while being effective in the aggregate.”

A small number needed to get things started: “The number of people who are willing to start something is smaller, much smaller, than the number of people who are willing to contribute once someone else starts something.” Tap into a small core of passionate people; don’t expect a lot of people to contribute at the get-go. Many are more comfortable adding to what someone else has started.

Filed Under: Activating change, Books, Communities, Social media strategy Tagged With: , , ,