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Advice Process for Effective Organizational Decision-Making

The Advice Process allows organizations to balance speed and quality of decisions. Use it to create more engaged and effective workers.

Advice Process Summary

The diagram below summarizes the key points to know about the advice process. There is someone – the decider – who will make a decision on how to move the organization forward. They get input from other people in the organization. That helps get to a better decision. And build relationships. They talk to people with experience making this type of decision, people from different parts of org and level to get perspective and the people impacted.

Advice Process Overview

At the bottom of the diagram, we can see the foundation needed to fully implement the advice process. Use of the advice process also help cultivate these. So we don’t need all of it to be in place to get started.

How to Introduce the Advice Process

I use advice cards to introduce the advice process in a gradual way. As a result, we  may develop the foundation of safety and trust. See: Improve Decision-Making with Advice Cards

Advice Process Slides

Here are the slides I created for my Agile2016 and Agile Toronto 2016.

5 Practices for an Agile Mindset

Excited to share slides from my workshop/talk at PMI Professional Development Symposium in Toronto today. Great group. Great questions. A lot of motivated, caring people in the room today.

Agile Mindset Summary

“Agile is both a set of practices and a mindset. Success lies in understanding both “Doing Agile” as well as “Being Agile”. In this hands-on session, 5 key practices to support an Agile Mindset will be demonstrated so that you have some practical tools use immediately at work. You will also be left with some deeper challenges about what it takes achieve Organizational Agility.”

Slides

Top 2 Tips

high-performance-equal-voicehigh-performance-safety

4A’s Leadership Model – How to Grow Yourself

Want to grow and develop quickly? The 4A’s Leadership Model is a simple and effective process for personal growth. In this post, you will learn how to use it.

Stand in the Truth – A Leadership Model Summary

One can see “Stand in the Truth” as a summary of the 4A’s leadership model. When we stand in the truth we discover what reality really is. In this process we learn about ourselves and discover a path for growth.

Why? Our minds are nothing but reality distortion devices. Our minds are designed to add, delete, distort and confabulate (that means to make up stuff) information. When we stand in the truth, we discover how the model of reality in our head is different from external reality. This process is often discomforting and can be painful since we are very attached to our model of reality. Especially our self-image.

Standing in the truth is an essential practice. When we stand in the truth, we can see to the heart of our challenges. To what is really happening. And from this place we may create lasting solutions. When we are disconnected from the truth of reality, all action and solutions will actually lead to more problems since they will fail to address what is really happening.

While “Stand in the Truth” is fantastic guidance, it is too abstract to help us know what to do. That’s where the 4A’s help us.

4A’s Leadership Model

The 4 A’s Leadership Model is very simple:4A's Leadership Model

  1. Awareness
  2. Acceptance
  3. Aspiration
  4. Ask for help

Each step builds on the earlier step. Let review each one in turn.

Awareness

Awareness means that we have a conscious understanding of a particular personality edge or issue with how we show up. We may notice how our behaviour is not getting us the results we want. Or we may notice when the results are what we don’t want.

Sometimes we may get stuck on this step. Something the issue is so outside of our model of reality that we have a hard time even becoming aware of it.

Example: I am aware that I get attached to my ideas and have a hard time really listening to other people. (This is a true example. I do have an developmental edge around this. It’s better and still a work in progress at times.)

Acceptance

Acceptance means that we accept that the thing we are aware of is actually true. We fully believe it to be true. We accept the truth of the situation and are no longer resisting it. We accept how the behaviour impacts our life including those around us.

The opposite of acceptance is denial. When we are in denial, we are aware of something but we deny the truth of it. we choose to believe something else as true.

Even more dangerous is partial acceptance. We use words like, “I mostly see this, but …” Partial acceptance is not acceptance. It’s a self-deceptive version of denial. We are in denial and we lie to ourselves about this. Why? We are not ready to acknowledge we are in denial. So if you see this, simply become aware of this.

Example: I accept that I get too attached to my ideas. And the more passionate I am about the topic, the more attached I get. So really listening to people about culture and leadership can be challenging for me – it’s either a love-in or I have to struggle to really listen.

Aspiration

Aspiration is what we want for ourself. We might also call this desire. When we connect in with our heart, our gut, our highest self, we get a sense of what we want in our life. It may be the cessation of a negative behaviour or the fostering of an alternate more healthy behaviour. It is our deepest hope for ourselves. This is aspiration.

Example: I aspire to share my ideas without attachment. So that people have freedom to believe or to disagree. I aspire to listen to others fully – especially when they are sharing ways of thinking that are conflicting with my beliefs.

Ask for Help

If we control our thoughts and actions, then we simply go ahead and change the behaviour or personality edge.

If you are like me, you may have some awareness that we don’t control our thoughts and actions. So how do we approach growing and evolving? Ah! We need to approach growth and change differently.

I like to think of the human mind as a complex system. We don’t actually control it. All that we do control is our awareness. And if you have ever tried to meditate, you already know it is really hard to even control awareness. So what to do?

Our work is the first 3 A’s. To have awareness, to stay in acceptance and to be connected with our aspiration. That requires effort and attention.

The 4th A is for Ask for help. If you, like me, want to grow quickly, then the 4th A is the secret sauce.

Ask People for Help

The most common use of “Ask for help” is to ask people around us to help. Pick people you trust. People who care about you as person. Explain to them your awareness and aspiration. Then ask them to help: “Hey, when you see me doing this, will you please let me know in a kind and caring way.”

It turns out that this is very practical. Even though it is hard for us to be self-aware, it is really obvious to others when we are stuck in a personality edge. It’s obvious to them because they need to put up with our behaviour. You may notice how easy it is for you to recognize when other people are exhibiting unhelpful behaviours.

Example: I have a standing invitation with my kids, some friends and some colleagues to let me know if it looks like I am getting too attached to my ideas and not listening to others fully.

Ask the Universe for Help

This is the part where we leave the natural, scientific frame of understanding reality.

There are many ancient wisdom traditions as well as modern ones such as The Secret, hold that the universe is designed to give us what we ask for. So this is the second meaning of Ask for help – to surrender the personality edge (which is outside of our control) to the universe.

One may approach this from a spiritual practice or from a purely logical and pragmatic place. Both are lovely.

In my own personal practice, I connect in my heart centre. To my connection with the universe/creation/divine/higher sacred self. This is a feeling, not a thinking thing. Once connected, it’s can be as simple as sharing intent to surrender of the behaviour.

Example: I accept that my pattern of staying attached to my ideas is not in my control and I ask the universe to alter my unconscious mind so that I stop acting like this.

Start with Awareness

Sometimes people learn this model and are not sure where to start. They say: what should I have awareness around?

One good answer is to focus on awareness.

  • Awareness: I don’t really know what edges I have that are harming my relationships.
  • Acceptance: Yup. I don’t know. I get that I do something not useful since I am human and I see it in other people. So it must be in me too. I just don’t know what it is.
  • Aspiration: I want to learn about my edges so I can be a better leader, parent, etc.
  • Ask for help: Hey, I am working on my awareness. When I do stuff that is creating problems, will you please tell me?

Example: I asked some very good friends to let me know when there was stuff going on that I have no awareness of. I was very surprised to learn how my mind was completely deleting information. It reshaped my reality in good ways.

Example: I have noticed a pattern where all the edges I thought I had worked on in the past are all still there. Just more subtle but just as devastating in impact. So if you need to look for something, look really carefully at what you think has been “resolved”. You may be surprised.

4A’s Leadership Model – Where does it fit?

The 4A’s is a super-light-weight leadership model. It is compact and minimalistic.

Some leadership models have many dimensions of leadership, detailed surveys and reports. This is all truly wonderful stuff and can help increase awareness of our edges.

And all we can really focus on is one or two edges at a time. So just notice what edge is causing you the most problem right now and work on that. If you don’t know, just ask people around you – they will be happy to help.

History of the 4A’s Leadership Model

When I was going through the accreditation process with the Scrum Alliance for the new Certified Agile Leadership program, Peter Green asked me: “What is your leadership model?”

I first responded with what I had included in my submission – the VAST Model (Vulnerability, Authentic connection, Safety and Trust). But that didn’t feel like the full story.

I then shared other things I was doing working with leaders and organizations to help them develop. How I would invite awareness to foster growth.

Lovingly Invite AwarenessThis is so important, I have this on the back of my business card:

I realized that that moment that I was “Unconsciously Competent”. I was competent in leadership development but that I was unconscious of how I did it. This question triggered my reflection on how I help people grow.

The Truth Will Set You FreeThe formulation of the 4A’s came together with input from two good friends, Olaf Lewitz and Marion Willeke, during a magical day in Asheville, NC in the days leading up to Agile 2016 Conference. I had all the bits and pieces, but I needed my friends to help come up with the 4A’s. We did this in a T-shirt shop in about 5 minutes. We were there to custom print the model so I could wear the T-shirt at the conference. Here are the first moments with the T-Shirts. As you can see, the first version had “The truth will set you free” instead of “Stand in the Truth”.

 

4A's Leadership Model With Rainbow

Where Does It Come From?

I made it up based on my own understanding of how I develop myself. When I realized a few years ago that my ability to help others is limited by how I show up, I have been very deliberately developing myself and working through edges. I have learned many things from many traditions and people.

The most significant influence is from the teachings at Oneness University in India – the place where I go to learn and grow. There I learned very deeply how to see the truth of how I am as human being. How my mind works. How reality is perceived. This is where the phrase “Stand in the truth” comes from.

Another key influence is Buddhism. The key phrase that lives in my mind is:

Suffering is caused by resisting reality.

I see standing in the truth as a way to cease resisting reality. As a way to reduce suffering. As a way to begin real and sustainable growth.

Where To Learn More?

The 4A’s is a key part of my ongoing Certified Agile Leadership Training classes. Please join me to learn more about this and other ways of growing ourselves, and our organizations. Attending a Oneness course in India or via livestream is also an excellent option.

10 Secrets of Agile Transformation

Want increased success with your Agile Transformation? Here are the 10 most important Navigation Secrets for Execs and Coaches. In this post, I share key lessons I have learn over years of industry experience.

This presentation came out of a webinar I ran with Maria Matarelli to help generate interest in execs and coaches for my upcoming Certified Agile Leadership Training.

10 Secrets of Navigation

I have worked hard to boil years of learning into the key actions. Enjoy!

  1. Clarify Purpose by asking “Why?”
  2. Focus on Org Goals, not “Agile”
  3. Increase Safety for Leaders
  4. Increase Awareness of Organizational Context
  5. Increase Awareness of Global Context
  6. Clarify Focus of Initiative
  7. Honour Leader’s Freedom to Choose
  8. Build a Shared Understanding of What Culture Is
  9. Clarify Leader’s Role in Transformation
  10. YOU Are the Limit for Transformation
  11. (Bonus) Growth Can Start Anywhere

These collectively may be thought of as a playbook or set of patterns that I have seen emerge with successful Agile transformations. But remember, every situation is different it’s important to adapt and fit to your context.

Slides – 10 Secrets of Agile Transformation

Low Levels of Organizational Awareness

Poll: 50% of Organizations Have a Low Level of Awareness

One very interesting result from a poll is that the level of organizational awareness of how things are actually working is not in very good shape. Surprisingly, a whopping 50% reported Low and 30% reported Average. My conclusion is that org awareness is a key inhibitor for inviting transformation.

Webinar

Where Can I Watch The Webinar?

You can watch the replay of the webinar here.

Where Can I Learn More?

Some of this material is written up in my blog. Many of the slides have links to full articles explaining the concepts so you can learn more that way.

The best way to really understand this stuff is to spend time learning with me. Please join me in a Certified Agile Leadership Training class.  This is a new program by the Scrum Alliance designed to help execs and coaches learn the essentials of navigating Agile transformation and fostering and Agile organization.

 

Organizational Behaviour Follows Leadership Behaviour

One of the most important lessons I have learned over the last few years is that Organizational Behaviour Follows Leadership Behaviour. Lasting improvements can only start with leaders modeling new behaviours. I use this all the time to help leaders choose what they really want for themselves and their organizations.

Current Organization Behaviour is a result of Current Leadership Behaviour

Current org function a reflection of leadershipThink of your organization. It has certain characteristic or properties that determines how well it functions.

Q: Who is responsible and can take credit for how the organization is functioning?

A: The leaders of the organization. They are responsible for the organization and how it is changing over time.

On the left we see an illustration of structured, low-flexibility organization resulting from one kind of leadership and culture.

When we examine culture and leadership closely, we see that they are two sides of the same coin; neither can really be understood by itself. On the one hand, cultural norms define how a given nation or organizations will define leadership—who will get promoted, who will get the attention of followers. On the other hand, it can be argued that the only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture.

– Prof. Edgar Schein, MIT Sloan School of Management

New Organizational Behaviour Requires New Leadership Behaviour

Future Organization Results from Future LeadershipImagine we want a new kind of behaviour in our organization. For example, we want to be more agile – able to be nimble in the market and innovate our products and services to delight our customers and make waves for our competition. The image on the left illustrates this.

Q: What kind of leadership will be required in this new way of working?

A: Different from what we have now!

If we want to have a new way of working, many things will change. In particular, leadership which fosters culture will need to be very different.

Growth Starts with Leaders

Since Organizational Behaviour follows Leadership Behaviour, we can see that leadership is the limit for growth in organizations.

There are only a small number of options around developing an agile organization:

  1. Support leaders on a transformational journey to become the future leaders.
  2. Exit the leadership of the organization and replace them with leaders with the desired mindset/culture. This is exactly what was done with the NUMMI joint venture by GM and Toyota.
  3. Abandon the goal of developing an agile organization.

I don’t see #2 very often in my practice. It does happen, though. Here is a recent article about a CEO who fired his management team in order to shift the culture.

In my own work helping leaders, I always offer a choice between #1 and #3. After all it’s their organization. I used to really want leaders to pick #1, but now I am less attached and focus on creating safety and control for leaders.  And now I have had more leaders pick #1. And helping leaders on this journey is what I am about.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Glenda Eoyang who shared a very important teaching with me when I was in one of her trainings: “The organization is a fractal of the leadership team. Whatever you see in the leadership team, you will see in the organization.”. It also applies to each leader: “Whatever is in the head of a leader, you will see manifested in the leadership team.”

Olaf Lewitz created the wonderful question: “Who is responsible for the current organization?”

Leader is the Limit for Growth

I noticed a pattern early on in my career helping organizations use Agile as a way to grow their capabilities: The Leader is the Limit for Growth.

I am speaking about the most senior person involved in the change initiative: Director, VP, or CEO. How they show up as an individual would determine how far the change initiative could go.

Leadership Characteristics Needed for Growth

What are the qualities that I have seen missing? What is it that limits these leaders?

Here are some questions that we might ask:

  • Do they value people as human beings?
  • Do they trust others?
  • Do they admit mistakes?
  • Do they seek to learn and grow?
  • Do they have humility?
  • Is their ego in check?

If we take these all together we might create a summary as: The Consciousness of the Leader. See also: VAST Model for Leaders.

Leader is the Limit

The more conscious the leadership, the greater the possibility for growth. My Culture Bubble Model, shows how the consciousness of an organization is connected with the governance structures. How the most senior leaders in an organization show up is a key driver for this.

There are two options in any change initiative:

  1. Upgrade structures to match consciousness of the leader.
  2. Co-evolve leaders and structures.

See also related posts:

I Hired You to Fix My Organization – Not Me!

I am often hired by organizations who want me to help them with Agile. The usual requests are to “fix their staff”, “fix their process” or “make people collaborate”. My strategy is to bring the conversation to Doing Agile vs Being Agile dilemma – very early on. If there is interest in looking at “Being Agile”, then they discover that it’s not just about staff. It’s about them. And how they show up.

Then they have a choice: Do they want to start change with themselves? Or just “Roll out Agile”?

How to Express Empathy – Avoid the Traps!

It was the Fall of 2011 and I began to cry as I was reading Brene Brown’s book I thought it was just me. I discovered that at age 42 I was unable to express empathy. This came as a huge shock.

In this post you will learn the common empathy traps that we tend to fall in. Once you know the how to avoid the pitfalls, you’ll be ready to start building your emotional muscles. Fortunately for us, awareness and a little practice goes a long way to improving empathy.

Why care about empathy?

The practice of empathy builds trust and increases safety in your family and work environments. It supports the social fabric required for communication and shared activities. A world with empathy is nurturing and supportive – it creates an environment where people can be creative and take risks.

Empathy Traps (Anti-patterns)

Most of us have a basic understanding of how to express empathy.

The HUGE PROBLEM is that we are really good at BLOCKING EMPATHY to protect ourselves from feeling.

Photo by Sydney Sims on UnsplashImagine someone is in emotional distress. By blocking their emotions from our reality, we can avoid acknowledging and connecting to their pain. In the short run, this is great – we avoid pain. In the long run, we destroy the fabric of our relationships and our environments.

Three common traps and pitfalls are indicated in the diagram below. I am (sadly) an expert in the use of each one and am still working on being authentic and not running these anti-patterns.

Empathy - Pitfalls and Traps

Trap #1: Even Worse – the basic idea here is to compare the person’s problem with someone else’s problem that is even much bigger. On the surface this may seem like we’re helping them: we’re letting them know that their problem is not that substantial and that surely this will help them see how unimportant it really is. What we are really doing is that we are saying that their problem and feelings are invalid or unworthy. Brene calls this “stacking the deck” and give this example from being trumped in cards: “I’ll see your ‘drunk mother’ and raise you a ‘drug-addict sister'”

Trap #2: Look on the Bright Side – in this approach we ask people to focus on the positive outcome of the situation. Remember the saying “Every cloud has a silver lining?” or “The glass isn’t half empty, it’s half full.”  While I believe strongly in both of these statements and the related NLP technique of reframing, these have no place whatsoever when seeking to express empathy. When we focus on the positive, rather than acknowledge a person’s feelings, we ignore and dismiss them as unimportant. The net result is that we invalidate the other person. Hint: once someone feels fully heard and supported in their emotion, it maybe it may be appropriate and helpful to help them see the bright side.

Trap #3: Problem Solving – rather than be with the person in an emotion, we immediately jump to problem solving mode: How can we fix this problem? Typically, we start by assuming the person has invited us to solve their problem by telling us about their situation. (Why else would they tell us?) With this trap, we avoid acknowledging or recognizing the emotion and keep it just to the facts of the situation. We discuss how the situation came to be so it can be avoided in the future.

What to do about this?

  • Notice when you are running these anti-patterns and STOP TALKING. Saying nothing is much better than falling in these traps. Rewind the conversation if you need to. It’s never too late to go back.
  • Be kind to yourself. You are human like the rest of us. You’ve probably been running these patterns for years and years – it’ll take time to get better.
  • Take a deep breath and practice your empathy muscles. Yes! You can learn these skills. See below for one way to do this.

Four Elements of Empathy

The following infographic show four elements of empathy as defined by Theresa Wiseman:

Four Elements of Empathy

These are:

  1. See their World – to be able to see the world as others see it. This mean that you cognitively understand what they are saying and can see it from their point of view.
  2. Appreciate them as Human Beings / No-Judgement – to be nonjudgmental. I have restated the original “non-judgmental” in the positive, so it provides an actionable checklist. Judgement is actually another trap. We go into judgement to discount the persons situation so that we can avoid experiencing their pain. For us to express empathy, we need to see the person as a human being – someone who is valuable in their own right. Warning: this can be very difficult to overcome. I have an upcoming post on the “Anatomy of Peace” that will help clarify.
  3. Understand Feelings – to understand another person’s feelings. We need to get in touch with our emotions in order to truly connect with another person’s feelings. There is lots of brain research on mirror neurons and how we are neurologically wired to relate to other human beings. A common reason to skip this element of empathy is that we don’t have our own emotions sorted out. So, you may need to do some of your own mental housekeeping in order to be in a place where you can acknowledge other people’s feelings.
  4. Communicate Understanding – to communicate your understanding of that person’s feelings. The final element is that someone feels like they are understood – that they are seen and heard. This part for me has been a real struggle since I often don’t know what to say. Here is a great phrase from Brene Brown that can be used verbatim or as a starting point: “It sounds like you are in a hard place now. Tell me more about it.”

My Experiences with Empathy

It has been a little over a year since I developed a clear intent to increase my practice of empathy.

The good news is that I am much better at it. Over the last year, I have seen many people touched by the simple act of listening and just being there for them. It is so simple and so powerful.

The bad news is that I still struggle at times. I respond without thinking. Or my own feelings or wounds interfere with my ability to see someone else as a valuable human being. Continued and persistent success with empathy requires higher levels awareness of ourselves as well as healing of past trauma.

The ugly news for us a society is that the empathy deficit is very large. I have noticed that it is commonplace for people to avoid emotions and empathy altogether. Many are lacking empathy skills and, far worse, not even aware that they are missing.

I encourage you to make a difference in the world. Practice empathy on your own and tell others about how they can too.

Acknowledgements

I am deeply grateful to Brene Brown for creating such a wonderful book – I thought it was just me (but it isn’t) – it has helped me in so many ways. The subtitle of the book is “Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame”, but men are in just as desperate need for reclaiming empathy and courage in a culture of shame.

Thanks to my dear friend Olaf Lewitz who suggested I read Brene’s book which has launched me on a tidal wave of change. I would also like to thank Pierre Lagacé and my “Gifts of Imperfection” meetup group for a chance practice empathy.

Update 2020: What I Learned Since I wrote The Original Post

As I look back on this work, I realize the most important part of growth is not just learning what good looks like but learning how to identify the traps and challenges that often go without notice.

The other, perhaps more profound learning is that empathy is “table stakes” or a basic requirement for human relationships. I have learned that it is an effective steppingstone to start the journey towards compassion.

The journey for me has been to walk through my own darkness so that I am comfortable with myself. It is only from that place, that I can be comfortable with the darkness, the challenge, the hurt in others. I find I no longer need to block my feelings and experience a genuine response of care for others when they are in suffering. For me today, crying is not a shock, it’s a happening that is welcome. Empathy is a way of being, I have an ability to hold a person, without expectations or trying to do it “right”. My heart is more open to express authentic connection.

To quote Nickelback:

“If everyone cared and nobody cried

If everyone loved and nobody lied

If everyone shared and swallowed their pride

Then we’d see the day when nobody died

… I’m Alive”

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