The Fires of the Forge

Planning: Step 1--Define Your Results, Part 2

Got the up to seven key measurable outcomes? That’s the Part A of the Results section. Good. Here’s what’s next. 

Prioritize them. That’s right. Erase the little numbers to the left of each key results and order them from number 1 in priority down to number 7. I know it’s hard, but no whining. You are not paying me enough for me to listen to it. And, in due time, you will see why this prioritization can be very important. 

Okay, on to Part B of the Results section. You see, we’ve got one more thing to do before we leave section 1, Results. If you creative types felt like I squashed both the creativity and the daisy out of your Volkswagen Beetle by throwing the cold water of key outcomes in your face, here’s your chance to change your belief that I am the planning Nazi. 

Those key results you outlined, you could call that Part A: Key Outcomes.

Part B is The One Big Project. Here, you ask a simple question, which is:

What is the single most important project I could accomplish over the next six months?

What is the first thing that comes up? I’d make a note of it. But I’d also let this question work on you a day or two. (It may or may not have any direct correlation to the key outcomes in Part A.)

You will notice I said “the one big project.” Projects have a beginning and an end. What constitutes a big project? You—and/or life—is/are not quite the same afterwards. Maybe it is something that has eluded you in the past. Maybe it is something that has just cropped up. Maybe it came up just now. The One Big Project is something that will stretch you in your achievement of it, that will grow you as a person, may affect life itself as a result, and can be accomplished in six months.

Whoa. What’s this about six months? First, you heard me right, I said six months. If I said 12, you’d spend probably 9-11 of ‘em procrastinating. So we are moving the deadline up. Go head, post to Twitter or Facebook that I am being totally unrealistic, that your creative process takes longer, and that you have now confirmed that I actually am the planning Nazi. 

After you’ve managed to git yer knickers out of yer twist, then I have a recommendation. Step over it. I am unconcerned about your comfort. I am highly concerned about how action will unlock your potential and convert a well-intentioned dreamer into a man or woman of action. There’s work to do. And, contrary to popular belief, it is not time that is a-wastin’. It is your potential that is.

Here’s my advice: Chunk it down. If you’ve got some big grandiose scheme that is going to take years to accomplish (or maybe you know you never will but are going to give it the good fight anyway), chunk it down. What can you accomplish over the next six months?

Here’s my advice: Make it definitive. This is especially important if you are chunking it down. Set an end state that is observable with the human eyes. Here’s one example. Maybe you will be starting a new business and for whatever reason it is not possible to start it in six months and have money flowing in. Well, what can you do? Can you have a business plan done and put to the test by having shopped it at three banks for financing? That’s observable, right?

Or maybe you want to take your honey to Italy this year, but you can’t do it by then. But can you have 70% of the money saved and the reservations made by then?

That’s called chunking it down, and it can be very effective. Especially for those of us who fear success more than failure. Just succeed partially by getting yourself part-way there. J Then the view around the next bend isn’t so scary.

Here’s my advice: Don’t underestimate what you can accomplish in six months. If you cut out the numerous ways you waste time and energy—what warrior’s call eliminating unnecessary acts, and/or if you block a day here or there to truly focus on doing what needs to be done, you’d be amazed at what you actually can accomplish.

Here’s my advice: Don’t pick a project that is in fact a delaying tactic. I see a lot of people pick One Big Project is actually a delaying tactic, getting them ready to actually do the real thing. You might as well call a spade a shovel and change the name from The One Big Project to The One Big Self Betrayal.

My goodness, this one is a doozy, isn’t it? What I mean here is that many of us have a knack for tremendously overengineering things, which is basically a delay tactic—fixin’-to-get-ready-to-commence-to-get-ready-to-act. Here’s what I mean by that.

Let’s say you are going to redesign your business, changing its focus (as I am doing myself). Let’s say you think you need marketing materials, some good business cards and a nice web site to hawk yourself and this new thingy (that’s Sarah Palin talk) you want to provide to your clients. Now, that alone could take you six months. Right?

But let’s say you have a network of 10 people who really care about you and your gifts a lot, about another 20 who care about you and support you generally, and another 50 who you’ve lost touch with but seemed to have a liking for you and what you did for them in the past.

How many weeks would it take you to make 80 outreach calls, explaining what you are intending to do, and asking for feedback on the concept. And then, in that call or as a follow-up, asking whether they know anyone ready for that thingy, or whether they know anyone that might know someone ready for that thingy.

Are ya trackin’ with me? Under option A—write marketing materials, get business cards and set up web site—at the end of six months you could be fully prepared to start selling what you think other people want. 

Or, under option B—network, test and refine the idea through conversations, and find potential beta-clients—at the end of six months, you could have a refined business idea, and, if it truly is the cat’s pajamas you think it is, your business may be so full of clients that you don’t need marketing materials, glossy business cards and a web site. In fact, if your thingy is very hot and people get great results from it, you may need to start asking people to not tell others about it. Howz that? 

This whole diatribe brings us squarely back to the self-deception I posted about in our early introduction to this planning series. Most of us, as supremely confident and competent as we appear externally, believe we need a whole host of props from outside of us before we jump on to the stage of life. 

Jumping on the stage of life is one thing if the point is to play a guitar. Then, it is important to learn to play guitar first. 

However, most of us are not learning a new art. Projects that are preparation are often tantamount to delay and therefore self deception in the many other cases where we simply need to speak our heart and apply the God-given gifts and talents we’ve already accumulated and been given, and are simply applying them in a new, more creative way.

[end of motivational speech]

So get crackin’ on defining The One Big Project. Here’s the litmus test:

1. Fear: it strikes fear in the fibers of your body, yet does not freeze you in fear.

2. Passion: it makes your heart sing to think about getting it done, yet you are sober about it.

3. Time: it can be accomplished in six months, or you can define some portion of it that can be.

Congratulations. You've defined the WHAT--the Results--the seven key outcomes and The One Big Project. That alone is quite a lot, and in short order we will move our focus, attention and intention from Section 1, Results, to Section 2, Initiatives. Take a breath, a pause, and reflect. Gather yourself around section 1, and imagine yourself six months from now, with that done. Who would you be? What would you then be capable of?Ponder on that, for that is where we are headed.

 

Planning: Step 1--Define Your Results, Part 1

In this post I will start you working on an “express” version of my planning process. I’d like to make a point first. 

Here's the point: I have already given you an express version of my planning process. If you think you missed it, don’t go looking for a post you missed. Instead, if you look back, from the very first post I gave you what you needed to know. Define your results. Plan the process you will employ to produce them.  Dip down into your source and decide how to transform the counterproductive behavior you think is going to trip you up.

If you had wished, you could have acted on that clarity alone and put it on a single page, no?

What is my point in making that point? It is this. How much of your life have you missed waiting for someone to tell you, in detail, what to do, how to do it and when to do it? There is a little loop here that ties back to the self-deception we've been talking about. 

Self-deception is fed by self betrayal, and self betrayal is to have a feeling to do something you know is true to you and to life, and then denying that feeling and doing something else instead. Knowing to do something, and then not acting on it, hoping and waiting for someone else to tell us what to do, how to do it and when to do it is a key leadership self betrayal, which in turns fuels self deception.

I'd be 20 again. In my own life, if I could subtract the time I've spent waiting for someone to tell me what to do, how to do it and when to do it (an authority "smarter" than me), I’d be 20 again and I’d have more hair, a broader chest and a flatter stomach. And you?

If this strikes a chord in you, too, I have a suggestion. I suggest you recognize this tendency and adjust your approach to planning, acting and living accordingly. If you do, you will get a lot more out of the brief time you are here on earth. I’m 50 years old and just learning that.

This is not to say that a planning process might not help. Perhaps it will. I will give you an actionable slice of mine. And if you will fuse with my process the insight that you perhaps had above, Katie-bar-the-door. You’ll light up your life like you got plugged into the cosmic power plant.

Let’s begin.

What are the seven most important key outcomes you intend to produce over the next six months? 

Think about that.

You will notice I did not start the planning process by asking what you think the purpose of life is, what you think your purpose is, what your vision is, what your mission is, nor did I even ask what your values are. Some planning processes start you there, "so your aim is true." Why didn't I ask, why didn't we start there? Is it because I don’t care? No, I do. Is it because I don’t think those are important? No, they are essential.

So why did I dispense with all the ponder your navel stuff? Because most people I know have some lint in theirs. Not that I go around checking, mind you. But I know. And it is impractical to ponder your navel if it clearly isn’t even clean. Better to get the lint out, and then ponder if that is what you want to do. What’s my point?

Most leaders I know have not mastered the things right in front of them: taking care of what is right in front of you is an intensely practical place to start. I could say quite a bit about this phenomena, where it comes from, what it is, what it means, etc. Yet I am not going to explain why at this time. What I will say is you cannot possibly imagine what this is costing you in terms of wasted psychic RAM, self esteem and personal power. I want you to find out.

Get out a piece of paper (2 if you will be doing this for your business and your personal life) and a pencil and an eraser. Separate the page into three sections. You may want to leave a little more space in the center section.

In the top section write the word Results in the top left hand corner. Right underneath that, write Part A: Key Outcomes and list the numbers one through seven. Now, write out up to seven key outcomes you intend to produce over the next six months. Here is some additional clarity.

1. Notice I said “you intend to produce.” I did not say, “would like to” produce. I did not say “hope” to produce. I did not say “should” produce. I did not say “might” produce. I said intend to produce. I’m not going to dip into talking about the esoteric underpinnings of intention and the power of intent, but do you get my drift? At least a feeling as to why I chose that word so carefully? You. In. Tend.

2. Notice I said “key outcome.” I did not say “goal,” nor “resolution,” nor "intention," nor “project,” nor “initiative” nor anything else. I said “key outcome.”

What is a key outcome? It is something indisputably observable by multiple people looking at it, and more often than not, it is measurable—like sales, revenue, profit, debt, savings, the value or your investments, pounds lost off your bod, total visits to the gym, percentage of your children’s recitals or events missed, number of dates with your spouse, or number of markets you expand into, competitors you acquire, or clients you intend to add.

3. Notice I said “six months.” Is this an annual planning process? Yes. But you do it twice in one year. Why? Because life is now moving too fast to plan once a year. Besides, if you actually follow the process month-in and month-out, you will learn so much that you will want a new plan in six months.

4. Make a clear decision regarding whether to use one plan or two, and whether to do business, personal or both. It is your call whether to have one list of seven with business and personal, to have separate lists, or just do one or the other. If you are new to planning and/or have a history of planning fits and starts, use just one plan. You can make that one plan for work, for personal, or for both. Just following your intuition as to what is right for you.

5. Do not have more than seven key outcomes. Here is where I am going to be a hard ass. I want you to focus, and you cannot focus on more than seven things (there’s research to back that up). 

Now I know there are those of you who may think seven is not enough or that you are a lot more sophisticated than that. I know you may have, for example, a scorecard for your business with a lot more than seven metrics on it. For example, you may have 50 metrics on your operations scorecard, and in the words of Austin Powers I say, Groov-vy, ba-by.”

But in that situation you are not focused on 50 things: You are focused on one thing. Namely, understanding what is going on in your business so you can run it better. And those 50 metrics provide a way dissect what is going on in order to do that. So, great! 

Yet in this planning exercise, we are not dissecting your life to understand what is going on so you can run it better. Instead, we are pulling things together, culling out the lesser in order to identify the vital view, and providing you with a point of focus: namely, the vital few things that matter most to you. 

There is, however, a way to bridge these two things together. In this planning situation, you might have a Key Outcome that is “Run the business well”, the basis for that measure might be the percent of the 50 metrics in the acceptable range, and your target might be 90%. With me?

Can you have less than seven? Of course! Seven is the limit, not the requirement.

6. Each of the seven items must have three elements. (Hard ass here again.) 1. Description. 2. Basis of measure. 3. Target number. See insert for examples.

 Go. As in, start writing. Write out up to seven key outcomes you want to produce over the next six months, (Just checking to see if you were awake—did you notice “want” instead of “intend”?) Yes, so, reach deep. Come up with the most important seven key outcomes you intend to produce in the next six months.

You've completed Part A of the Results section--the key results you'd like to produce. Next up, Part B. 

Planning--The Fallacy of the Perfect Plan, Part 3

When you hit that one area of planning (Define Results, Map Actions, Transform Behavior) that seems dumb, scary or impenetrable, an emotion, thought or physical sensation will herald the arrival of the Adversary. What is the Adversary? It is that part of you that runs a countercommitment that up to this point has been as powerful as your commitment to write a good plan, to achieve it, to push yourself into realms where no man has gone before. The Adversary fears the unknown. It loses its grip there. And so it stealthily stalks you continually with thoughts and emotions you think are yours to keep you where you are. In the known. 

A good plan by definition takes you into the unknown. If it doesn't you are not creating, you are reproducing. If you are not creating, you are not a leader. You are a reproducer (which isn't all bad, if you know what I mean). 

The Adversary may try to torpedo your planning with a thought you mistake as your own. Something inside you may say, “This is stupid,” or “I don’t know how to do this,” or “I don’t understand”, or “I don’t have time for this,” or “This is for sissies,” or “This is for corporate people,” or whatever. Whatever the voice says, it will be saying this isn’t for you. It is for people dumber (self-importance) or smarter (self-pity) than you. Could be true, but you might want to poke around the edges of it before you go back to planning like you always have, only to produce the same old results.

Or, the Adversary may trigger anxiety in your body, the almost irresistible urge you have to get up and move, go “do” something (bleeding off energy through activity vs focusing energy through action). And you tell yourself you’ll come back to it knowing full well if you do the game is over and you have failed yourself once more.  

Or it isn’t a thought or a physical impulse but an emotion that wells up—anger (as in, why am I so stupid! Or, Why is this so complicated!), joy (as in, let’s party and NOT do this... there's always next year), fear (as in, Oh sh**, what if I actually do this?) or melancholy (as in, I've never been good at this. All I do is let myself down. Here I go again...). 

Yes, something will likely happen as you hit the one aspect that is your current planning Achilles Heel: It will come initially in thought, or in physicality, or in emotion. And believe me, when the first one fires the others get activated. Watch for this. Keep your wits about you and don’t be so naïve as to think that planning is first and foremost a logical act. It is not. Planning is equally psycho-logical. 

Okay, so you notice the old thought, behavior or emotion the Adversary has squarely aimed at tubing your planning so you stay stuck right here, in the known, with it in control, and repeat this year pretty much what you have repeated every other year in the past. Now what? Good question. So what do you think the solution is, my friend? I only see one option and it is slap-dead simple. Muster the self-discipline and self-regulation to withstand the attempted death-blow and simply step over it or around it. Stay put. Punch through it. And give it my all. In other words, suck it up, kick some arse and show the Adversary who’s boss. Got it? 

“Chance favors the prepared mind,” Louis Pasteur 

Prepared you now are. 

In admonition one, I told you your plan by default will be imperfect because you are and to step over your worry about that. I suggested that you simply work from where you are and what you think you know. And that then, through taking action, your imperfect plan will be continually perfected through that action. And so with you. 

In this second admonition I've told you that part of your blind spot—impacted by your self-deception—has affected your planning in the past and that you may come up squarely against it here. I’ve suggested that you remain alert—like a cat watching a mouse hole—for the first thought, emotion or physical agitation aimed at tubing your planning process (again). And I’ve suggested that you muster from within the depths of yourself the power to absorb (or step out of the way of) the attempted blow, and in a second act of inner leadership that you muster self-discipline and self-regulation to stay with and step over and just do it even if it makes you feel like you are going to jump out of your own skin and run. Or, to put it even more simply, to kick some arse and stop that foolishness. 

Before I wrap I want to speak to those of you tracking with this at a deeper level, but who may not be really clear on what you are picking up on.

What I am saying is to use your heart to contain your mind when you are planning. When you are purely logic-based, you are in your mind. When you are caught in your emotions, you are in your mind. When you are swinging between your logic and emotions, you are in your mind. 

When you are silent, still, presencing, intuiting… feeling, you are in your heart. 

The heart is the place from which to plan: it should guide your planning and inform your mind. The heart center is your T-1 connection to spirit, not the mind. The mind is not just in this world, but of (identified with) this world. Interrupt your identification with the mind, and connect to the Greater Plan through your heart, and your little plan, over time--through the irrefutable clarity that springs from watching the thistles or figs your works create--grows ever more aligned with the Greater Plan. Your will is not quite so important any more. Your plan is not so little any more. And your spirit flows free and clear through your action.

Also, when the heart leads planning, the mind can assume it’s rightful place, which is to figure out how to execute the direction the heart senses. The funny thing about the mind is that it wants to run the show and yet instantly becomes terrified when doing so (because it knows it is useless leading in the unknown). The heart, now that is all the guidance we need to map out the unknown our plan brings us up against and takes us in to. 

What is the mind's role? The mind is the heart's ally, a brother-in-arms essential in formulating the actions required to convert the unknown into the known, but not responsible for leading that act.

I hope that helps those of you tracking this at a deeper level get the deeper implications you may be sensing. Now, let's wrap.

I encourage you to go all the way through the process I am about to share with you now—every single step all the way through—because you may find—having thrown yourself into the fires of the planning forge—that you have gone where no man has gone before. After all, no man or woman has gone there before. Not exactly. And if you do not go there, leader, if you do not map it out, no one will ever have. No one ever will. And there will be a hole in this universe, a gap in the collective intelligence with consequences you cannot imagine and yet are responsible for. That’s my belief, anyway. You are entitled to yours. :)

“You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold.

That is how important you are.”

Eckhart Tolle 

Now, let's light this candle.

Planning--The Fallacy of the Perfect Plan, Part 2

In my first planning process blog I told you this planning process is different because it addresses all three key aspects of planning: Results, the Process that give rise to the Results, and the Source of what (who, actually) does the Process and produces the Results. That being… You. 

In that first blog I told you a little about the blind spot. What I didn’t tell you directly were two things. One, we are all quite self-deceiving (yes, that includes you), and that it is our own self-deception that keeps the blind spot blind. 

Second, because this self-deception affects all aspects of our lives—our ability to plan included—self-deception will affect you in the planning process we are embarking on here. Let's look at this in more detail, as the second admonition of the Fallacy of the Perfect Plan. It is the correlation of self-deception to the three aspects of planning (see inserted graphic).

The second admonition is you will likely encounter a significant struggle with one particular area of the three areas of planning. You may already know which area—Define Results (Results), Create Action Plans (Process), or Transform Counterproductive Behavior (Source). Before you give up and say this is too hard or too much, or I’m taking to long to get to it, or that it does not apply to you, just bear with me a moment because it is your impatience, anxiety and/or your rush in the past that has tripped you up in planning. Not so? So take a deep breath if you need to, settle down, find center and listen up. 

Could it be the reason your past planning was not as successful or rewarding as you’d like is because your self-deception affected how you conducted your self during the planning process (or later, in the execution of it)? Could this be why your planning isn’t working for you like it should, even though you are a real intelligent guy or gal? And could this be why your most important goals or aspirations elude you, or lack meaning when you do achieve them? Get the picture? 

One of the three planning aspects will probably be easy for you, one will be “ok” and the other may be hard to penetrate or you may bounce off of it (or vice versa) entirely. You will not get out of this process the full impact unless you give your all to all three aspects. And that doesn’t mean all will equally perfect. You only need to be able to look in the mirror and be able to truly say, I gave ALL three aspects of planning my all, and I did not waver. 

So, do you see some potential trouble brewing? In fact, it is already brewed. It followed you here. It is in you. And it affects your planning. When trouble is brewing or brewed, you’ve got three options. First, head in sand. Second, return to the corner and assume the fetal position with pad of thumb in roof of mouth. Third, get yourself a strategy. That's what is coming up in the third and final post on The Fallacy of Planning, our gateway into the planning itself...

Planning--The Fallacy of the Perfect Plan, Part 1

Before we launch into planning, I feel like I have to give you two admonitions. It is somewhat personal in nature, as I have been tussling with it for years.

Here's the first admonition: Your plan will not be perfect. I can virtually guarantee it. 

“In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” Proverbs 16:9 

We are human: we will never know enough to have a "perfect" plan. The Bigger Plan, the bigger movement within which our little big plans fall, that is not just the unknown for us. It is the unknowable. So to take our plans too seriously is simply arrogant.

And yet we are on the physical plane to act, "that faith without works is dead." So why do we struggle so to do so? Why are we born to act, but resist it so? We human beings are a funny lot, aren't we? We love excitement, we love progress, we love to move forward. 

But for far too many of us, it is that we love to think about planning, doing, acting. The funny thing about the mind is it cannot differentiate very much between thinking of acting and acting. Both trigger a sense of excitement. Yet, as the Irish proverb goes, we cannot plow a field by turning it over in our minds. 

There is a part of us with a hard-wired yearning for the unknown: and that is not the mind of the leader. That is the heart of the leader. That yearning is captured beautifully in the opening to every original Star Trek episode where the mission of the ship and crew of the starship Enterprise is read--"... to go where no man has gone before."

Yet, on the other hand, we only want that when it is safe, which means only when we understand it. And that is where the leaders mind (fear of the unknown) can trump his heart (the yearning for the unknown). Can you see the rub?

Life can only be lived forward, and understood backwards.

How can we understand that which is unknown to us before we step in to it to find out? It isn't possible. The only thing you can understand before you step into it is what is known to you. There's an important corollary to this.

Because much of who you are, why you are here and what life really is really is unknown to you (see prior post about the "blind spot"), your plan cannot be perfect. Is that a reason to not plan? That pesky inner judge that holds court continually within finds a slew of reasons to not plan, or to plan half-heartedly, or to half-heartedly execute a good plan. "You will look silly." "You don't even know your purpose. It is therefore a waste of time." "Why risk failing on something you do not even know is real." And on and on.

Let me give it to you straight: all you need to do is to do the best with what you do know now. If you do that, and keep it simple, with every act you take on your imperfect plan, you will perfect it. You have to live that plan forward, and in return for taking the risk of action in the direction of something you know that you cannot truly know or understand beforehand, the imperfection will be revealed. Then what do you do? You adjust. You improvise. And your plan continually shape-shifts. Not in an ADHD way, but in an unfolding way.

And there you stand before it. The imperfect (co-)creator becoming perfected through action. So, if you, too are plagued by an insatiable desire to "get it right" and therefore tend to hold back on planning because you know that you don't know and so why risk failure. Be honest with yourself. You are already failing. You are failing to unfold your full potential at the rate you know you are capable of. So, if you are going to fail, fail forward for goodness sakes.

"You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold.

That is how important you are." Eckhart Tolle

There you have it: give it all you got and start from where you are and with what you know. Then, as you act, your action will be rewarded with something you can't buy. With clarity. And with a huge boost in your self esteem and your understanding of yourself, of others and of life. And, therefore, with power. Clarity and power. Those are two allies you can count on in stepping into an unknown you cannot possibly understand but courses through the blood in the veins of a leader...

Planning--The One Key Principle You Should Know

A very good consultant friend of mine, Lisa, just asked me to share the planning (and execution) approach I am using in 2010. It is the culmination of many years of trying to find the optimum balance for planning. Why is finding the balance so hard?

Planning is tricky. If it is too comprehensive it becomes too complicated and the form (of the planning) trumps the function (of getting things done). If it is not sufficiently comprehensive it becomes too thin, and there is not an adequate form through which to get the things done. In either case, the most important things don't get done. The song remains the same. 

Striking that balance in planning (and executing) is a very personal thing--hence, one size never fits all. Therefore, I know my approach won't work for everyone. No approach will because every person has a different combination of self-discipline, inner-directedness and magnitude of goals.

Planning (and doing) requires inner direction (knowing what is important), self-discipline (getting it done), and time. Most executives (and others) I talk with want the benefits of planning without the costs. Like most things in life, you get out of it precisely what you put in to it. No planning approach will save you from your own self, from insufficient inner direction and/or self-discipline. However, committing to a planning (and executing) approach that is a fit for you, and consistently doing it, can profoundly affect both.

This brings us to a key point: my belief is the purpose of planning (and executing) is not just about getting your goals achieved. It is equally about mastering your self. Therefore, my approach is a fusion of pragmatic planning tools & disciplines and an intensely practical approach to self-mastery, to forging yourself into a leader of stronger mettle in the fires of the forge of planning and executing.

This brings us to the one key principle of my planning approach you should know. It is this. It is not enough to know the results you want to produce (though that is essential). It is not enough to understand theprocess you will follow to produce those results (though that is essential). There is a third essential, and it is the taproot, and it is this.

You cannot sustainably produce results you have not produced before without changing your self.

If you don’t buy that—or if you don’t at least want to test it—then I can tell you there are simpler planning approaches out there that you might want to try. What makes my planning approach unique is that it addresses all three required levels—results (what), processes (how) and source (who—that being you).

The aspects of my planning approach gelled for me when I saw Otto Scharmer’s simple graphic (see insert) and overlaid to his model the various planning tools I’ve developed over the years. (The darndest things often happen when I am dreaming.) Otto uses the graphic to explain what he calls the “blind spot” of leadership today--that is, the lack of understanding regarding the source of our behaviors, thoughts, emotions and feelings. 

What's the net? To understand the comprehensive nature of my planning approach, it may help you to consider that you do indeed have a blind spot, that it is costing you more than you can fathom, and that the next level of leadership and the next level of results will elude you until you begin to illuminate it.

Here's what Otto says:

“Why do our attempts to deal with the challenges of our time so often fail? Why are we stuck in so many quagmires today? The cause of our collective failure is that we are blind to the deeper dimension of leadership and transformational change…

"We know a great deal about what leaders do and how they do it. But we know very little about the inner place, the source from which they operate.

"Successful leadership depends on the quality of attention and intention that the leader brings to any situation. Two leaders in the same circumstances doing the same thing can bring about completely different outcomes, depending on the inner place from which each operates. The nature of this inner place in leaders is something of a mystery to us.

"… in the arena of management and leading transformational change, we know very little about these inner dimensions, and very seldom are specific techniques applied to enhance management performance from the inside out. In a way, this lack of knowledge constitutes a “blind spot” in our approach to leadership and management.”

In short, the blind spot is that we do not understand our own source, the inner space from which we operate. All the imbalance you see in the world today is nothing more than a mirror of our collective blind spots. So, if you want to change your results, work with the blind spot. If you want to change the world, work with the blind spot. If you want to establish right relations, teamwork, co-operation and collaboration with those around you, work with the blind spot.

My hope is that you will find that the planning approach I will share with you in the next post provides to you a partial solution to the problem Otto highlights, that "very seldom are specific techniques applied to enhance management performance from the inside out." I believe you will find, if you consistently follow the planning and execution process, that you will not only achieve results that have eluded you, but you will begin illuminating your blind spot, freeing your self to be a leader truly relevant to these times, and becoming an epicenter of the transformational change the world needs at this time. Charity, it seems, truly starts at home. That is, with developing the leader in us. Planning (and doing) is a wonderful form through which to do that, to purify your metal, and to become a leader of a stronger, more fluid... mettle.

Book Recommendation and the Art of Perception

I have clients ask me from time to time for book recommendations. I received a recent inquiry from a very remarkable, up and coming leader I'll call Jane. Jane is a VP with COO aspirations, and she could well achieve that goal through developing her leadership. 

We just took her through a thorough review of her personality style assessments (DISC, Values and Personal Talent Skills Inventory) helping her "mine" for her highest-leverage development areas. She took to it like a fish to water and was very open and non-defensive. Most executives seem to want to use such a review to reinforce what they already believe to be true. Not Jane. She was more like a lioness on a hunt.

At the culmination of her assessment review, she asked for a book recommendation based on what we'd seen in her assessments. Jane's assessments showed her skills were already very highly developed. Therefore, my response to her was not a specific leadership skill development recommendation: my recommendation was a foundational one.

I am posting my response to Jane here, because the recommendation applies to all leaders. And my response to her was not just a book recommendation, but also a cursory explanation of why learning to work with our our perception is essential if we are to enter the fires of the leadership forge. I hope you find the explanation useful, and that you consider the reading the recommended book. The timing is great as we enter the new year.

Dear Jane,

As Einstein said, 'we can't solve problems at the same level of thinking we used in creating them.' What does that mean, and how does it apply to you and this wonderful question you have about what book to read based on the information we see in your assessments?

First, no matter what dimension of leadership you want to shift, a shift in perception will be required if you are to sustain the change. A lot of leaders don't get this: they don't understand why the just can't change a behavior, an approach or add a skill and get the effect they desire. That is logical, right? Yes. And no. It is logical, but the source of our doings is not logical, logic or the mind. For that reason, changing the "doing" without changing the underlying source is temporary at best.

What is the source our doing? Who knows? Who can know? But there is a linkage you can work with between the source of your doing and the doing itself. That is your perception. And while we cannot know how perception operates, we can learn to work with it. The advantage to that is that whatever change we want to make in our leadership, it is supported by learning to actively work with our own perception. 

For the reasons I outline above, the greatest power you can have is the power to shift your own perception. When you do that, four things happen. 

One, you begin to see that life is not what it appears to be. 

Two, you see that your own beliefs are assembling your current reality (including the things you want to "fix" or "improve"). 

Three, you see that there are aspects of life that you have not been aware of and are therefore handicapped.

Four, you begin to see that working with your perception has the power to change anything in very specific, tangible and practical ways.

That is a more direct, cut to the chase version of what some of the well-known business writers are saying when they, in each their own way, say, "If you want to change the world around you, change your self--it's an inside-out job." They say that, but they skirt around (or don't understand) why. Well, there you have it. My belief is your capacity as a leader and your ability to learn new approaches and apply new tools are all predicated on your capacity to learn to shift your own perception. 

There are a number of tools you can use to begin to master the art of perception. And there are some good books as well. Most of them are incomplete, most take too long to get to the point, and most do not make the information very actionable. One day I'd like to write a book about that, as there clearly is a needed book on the subject, written for business people. 

In the meantime, a good book available now on the subject is a recent book called Immunity to Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey. It is on my list of books I recommend because learning to work with perception is foundational for everything else.

Thanks for the question. If there is some specific aspect of your leadership you want to shift, I'd be glad to point you toward a specific book for that purpose. But based on what I know about leadership, where I feel you are, and where the organization you are proud to be a part of is at, I'd start with this book.

Best,

Otis

Update from the Field (Literally)

My wife Sara and I have been quite busy this spring looking for our new house and property. That's been an interesting adventure and very energy and time-consuming. I've owned three homes in my life, but since 2002 have been a rolling stone, living in Park City, Boulder, Atlanta, Santa Fe and now Portland. Sara and I met in 2006 and married in 2007. I lived in Atlanta then, I moved to Santa Fe where she lived knowing that would simply be a launching pad for us to find our place somewhere else.

It seems strange to be looking for property that may be the last land we own. Every prior situation where I have owned property has felt temporary. Mainly, I suppose, because I have always seen a house and property as someplace I live while I work. If work moves, I move. If I move, I change houses. Therefore, I've always been kind of passing through, if you know what I mean. Upwardly mobile executive types who've be so over the past three decades know what I mean, anyway.

But the times they are a changin'. Sara and I feel we are to find and buy some acreage, establish a relationship with it, and connect with community--of the small, local kind. I can do my business from anywhere. At least what I do now.

Yet here's the difference. Doing this with Sara, with this land, and with community--this is now my primary work. My vocation will now revolve around that, rather than where I live revolve around my vocation. That is such an odd feeling.

Yet this is not a change in direction: this is an expansion of possibilities. I know in my heart that I am to work in the realm of leadership, and in supporting leaders in making the shift into these new, post-industrial times where the current form of leadership isn't relevant any longer.

I know that evolution is moving more quickly than leadership has been evolving, that the imbalances we see all around us today are affected by this old form of leadership we cling to, and that leadership is the domain in which I will make my difference in the world. I am blessed with remarkable opportunity in that realm, an incredible company in Texas to work with, and I will give-and-take as much as I can to help them in their journey.

After significant challenges in finding this property (a two year quest) and negotiating through significant issues with the seller and the lender, here we are. We are now under contract (and through the inspection and renegotiation process) to buy 11 beautiful acres in Oregon's wine country. The photos you see here are from that property. The first photo is the house on the property. Very humble, serviceable, and it should hold us for a number of years until we build a sustainable, eco-friendly home on the land.

The second photo is looking east, out the driveway leading into the property. In the near distance you see my sister, brother-in-law and realtor at the entrance to the drive. In the farther distance, the rolling hills of Yamhill county.

Seven years ago I sold my executive home in Park City, Utah, put my skis on top of the car and left that life. I could not have imagined how my life would unfold. How my life would change. The remarkable woman I would meet and marry. The family I'd connect with in the process. How my work would evolve. And that we would be moving to the Pacific northwest to beautiful land adjacent to a 100 acre property with a vineyard on it.

This is Sara, my wife, walking that property the same day those other pictures were taken. I was walking alongside Sara and saw something inexplicably change in her as we walked up the driveway there, together. I started snapping pictures as we both walked, trying to capture an image of what I was seeing and sensing.

A man only needs to glance at his wife and sense what I sensed to know with great confidence that they have found is good--in this case, is their home. He knows in his heart it is simply a matter of him doing his part to make it happen. If you are a male, I know that you know what I mean. It is that feeling you get that you'd move mountains for that woman because of the goodness in her heart and the trust and belief she has in you.

As crazy as these times are, life goes on. There is something deeper. Something changeless, timeless and formless. As churned as the waters have become on the surface, there is stillness down there, underneath, running deep. I sense it in my wife, underneath it all the worry that comes with these changes and times. I felt it as I walked across the rolling hills of this land, feeling it in my blood as my cells mysteriously recalled what my English/Scottish ancestors felt as they walked their heather- and thistle-covered hills in a misty rain. But mainly, I sense it in the depths of my self.

As times become more uncertain--where credit markets and financial icons wobble, fears of pandemic are the news of the day, where the earth labors with ecological issues and a fever, and businesses attempt to find a way forward in a brave, new world--there is something deeper we can find. Leadership, maybe. Roots, well, perhaps. But I think it is love, the kind that comes from having both feet planted firmly on the ground while having a feeling for the direction one needs to move, coupled with a feeling for the next action one needs to take to get there, coupled with the courage required to overcome not knowing exactly what the journey, much less the destination, looks like.

I guess that is leadership, in a general sense. And for me, a male, it is also some specific part of maleness that I'm learning about.

That's where I am at on my personal journey, and as the demands on my time and energy lessen a bit as we work through the rest of the process of buying and moving to this new property, I will get back to writing here about leadership and emotional intelligence. And yet, in an oblique way, perhaps I did just that.

Manifesto: The Introduction

Let’s confront the brutal facts about leadership. Let’s confront them because collectively we are in trouble, because individually we are concerned, and because if we don’t confront the brutal facts there is no one to blame but ourselves.

For decades now, leaders have focused on producing short-term growth without understanding the long-term implications. What are the implications? Institutions are now crumbling. The planet is sick. Markets are unstable. More people and businesses are vying for limited resources. People are scared. And we’ve shifted the burden of our indulgence in clinging to this way of business and of life to our children and future generations.

The cold, hard fact is leaders are producing these results. And what are the results leadership is producing? Results no one wants.

Now, here’s the problem. Each of us believes it is not us that needs to change. Each leader believes it is all the other leaders in all the other organizations and institutions that needs to change. The net? No one thinks they really need to change.

So what do we have? Everyone waiting on everyone else. Let's call a spade a shovel, shall we? That is not leadership. That is a fusion of ignorance and cowardice.

Our ability to change all this is totally dependent on our ability to see ourselves as part of the system that is creating the problem. There is no other way out. The only way out is through the system itself.

If we see the problem as being outside of ourselves—that it’s other leaders producing those undesirable results, that it is all the other institutions that are failing—we will not change. If no one changes, the system will not change. If the system does not change, it will crumble.

Another cold, hard fact? By refusing to see the system within ourselves and by not making the required changes within ourselves we continue to support the system that is now failing us. We are all implicated. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide and no one to blame.

Each individual leader must change. What does that mean, that each of us must change?

•    It means the quality of our perception must change.
•    It means the quality of our attention must change.
•    It means the quality of our actions must change.

To change perception, attention and action requires development in four dimensions:
•    Two dimensions are at the individual level: Self Awareness and Self Discipline.
•    Two dimensions are at the collective level: Group Awareness and Group Discipline.

When those four disciplines are developed, the nature of our perception and attention is heightened.

When the nature of perception and attention is heightened, individuals and groups shift the inner place from which they function. Unforeseen, creative breakthroughs surface.

When that shift happens, people begin to operate from a space of future possibility that they feel wants to emerge.

Becoming capable of facilitating that shift is the essence of leadership today.

This capacity requires that we learn to open our mind, open our heart and open our will.

We cannot open those three portals—mind, heart and will—and remain the same people we were before. We won’t be the same people because:

• to open mind, heart and will requires mastery of our own thoughts and emotions.
• mastering our own thoughts and emotions changes the very nature of our perception.
• to shift perception means to see life in a new way.
• to see life in a new way is to see ourselves in a new way.
• to see ourselves and life in this way involves seeing our purpose, our power and our tremendous responsibility.
• to see all this is sense the future that wants to emerge through us.
• to act on all this develops the capacities we need in order to enable and allow future to emerge through us.

Listen. The problems we face are not insurmountable. Further, dealing effectively with the root problems will unleash something all of humanity (and the planet) is longing for. I don't know about you, but I find that incredibly exciting and inspiring.

You and I are responsible for facilitating this: that is how important we are.

No one can tell us how to become a leader capable of facilitating this shift. No one has mastered it, so there is no master. Therefore, we cannot become a student or an apprentice. There is no time left. We cannot wait for masters to develop. Each of us must begin to simply do it and to develop the mastery through action.

The remainder of this document provides a framework and some resources. I am actively using the framework and the resources as I work to become a leader capable of facilitating the shift within my self, within the groups I work with, within the institutions I am a part of, and within the global dynamic I have the honor to be a part of.

You may or may not find the framework and the resources useful. It is, after all, just one person’s way and one person's experience. But if it helps you develop your own framework, find your own resources, and, more importantly, to become a leader capable of facilitating the shift, then sharing it with you will have accomplished my intention. And that is what will now follow.

Lastly, if you have been waiting for your invitation to join in, it's here. I invite you to join in with the individuals who are now engaging on a most remarkable journey--becoming the type of leader capable of facilitating the process of helping groups of people shift the inner place from which they function, and therefore tapping the innovative and paradigm-breaking solutions we need to some of the most daunting problems humanity has faced.

To accept this invitation is to set out on a journey of personal transformation first and foremost, and, therefore by definition, a spiritual one. It is a journey that transcends religions, dogma, cultures, ideologies, borders and all the other arbitrary boundaries we've used to separate ourselves from others and to justify doing what we do to one another. The stakes are high. The potential is even higher. And you and I are ready.

Now, I will share with those who are interested what I can of my own framework, of the resources I use, and of my experience in using both. I wish you well on your journey.

An Update

I have become increasingly clear about where leadership is at and how emotional intelligence ties in to that. My life is changing right now in pretty significant ways.

I am now working with one client, full-time to support them in a major transformation effort. The net of that is that I am not really teaching leadership any more, but simply doing it.

I am also seeing that as I attempt to do leadership (the old physician heal thyself thing), just how flawed the current model of leadership I use--that we all use or try to adapt from--is.

As that shift is happening, I am becoming more clear that part of my purpose for the next year is to share that journey with others. That impacts this blog.

Lastly, my wife Sara and I have gone under contract to buy 11 acres of land in Oregon's wine country, a two-year dream we have been working on together to begin a new way of life and of living.

All of this is dramatically impacting my perception. I am becoming increasingly attuned to life, to my purpose, to what is important, to where I feel the need to move towards.

This past week I went to see Otto Scharmer--author of Theory U--and participate in his workshop Leading Profound Innovation. That was a remarkable experience, and I highly recommend his work and his workshops. I had some powerful insights there, and flew directly to the one client I am now working with for a year. Wow. Right out of the learning lab and in to the field.

Friday morning, before catching my plane, I had a chance to meet with my friend, Gary, to discuss what emotional intelligence is, how it relates to leadership, and how leadership is related to the problems of the day. That conversation pretty much filled up the large whiteboard in his office.

As all the above has been working on me, in me and through me, my thoughts and feelings about leadership, emotional intelligence and the problems we face today have been gelling. As I flew home from the workshop with Scharmer, from working with my client and from talking with Gary, I knew it was time to start writing my "manifesto".

My manifesto will simply be a document within which I state and share:
1. I think the current form of leadership is dying and why;
2. the framework I am using to become a leader relevant to these remarkable times;
3. the resources I've read and that I use to support each facet of the framework; and
4. an invitation to each reader to accept personal responsibility for the problems we collectively face

I don't know how long it will take me to finish the document. What I do know is that as I work on each part, I will share it with you here. I've written the introduction, which I will now post. I hope that if you find it useful that you will share it with others.

I hope that, over time, a community of leaders will form around using this framework, modifying it, adding to it, and, more importantly, supporting one another actively in making the shift. Whether that will happen, time will tell.

Right now, it is just step by step. My next steps are to embody the content of the manifesto in my own life and work, and to write it as I am moved to do so by shifts in my perspective, insight and experience. That is what you will be seeing here.