Push Me Pull Me

I recently spotted some interesting research by Ronald Friedman and Jens Forster. They’re a couple of social psychologists.

In 2002 experiements the found that ingrained in our brains is an association between the act of pulling and positive feelings. While the act of pushing is associated with negative feelings.

I think it’s fascinating how interconnected the mind and body are!

Also it’s fascinating that the current business trend to greater consumer pull (rather than organisational push) has a foundation in neuro-physiology! Is this why pull works better in business and organisations?

Applied to communication ‘pull’ is less about pre-designed messages and channels and more about listening, empathisising, provoking, and engaging in the moment. It’s more about letting meaning emerge. It’s less about leading and more about meeting.

Well sometimes anyway.

Future of work

Here’s a cool presentation on the future of work.

http://www.slideshare.net/jbrenman/the-future-of-work-2361479

I like the golden rule of real estate = location, location, location.

The golden rule of work = communication, communication, communication!

Is there anything else?

Thought leadership

I’m sensing an increasing premium on thought leadership at the moment. We’re living at a time of significant change. A time of opportunity surely, but also danger.

Anything that supports and develops better and more creative thinking should be encouraged. There’s a lot more value in thinking differently at the moment. There’s a lot more value in thinking for ourselves. That’s why I love Twitter as a channel for connecting with a wider perspective on what’s happening in the world. Individual ‘tweets’ may be low value, but hearing how others are thinking makes you think differently. Valuable thoughts emerge from the diverse and potent mix of stimulating ideas. It can’t be premeditated though! You just need to let it happen.

In this spirit, here is an intriguing conversation with  Robert Sapolsky (a Stanford neurobiologist) about Toxo!

http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge307.html

It probably has very little to do you’re day job. Unless you’re a neurobiologist!

But I hope it makes you go “wow”. I hope it makes you think about how little we know. I hope it creates an openness to different ideas. I hope it stimulates a curiosity to learn more. I hope it helps you to be a stronger thought leader. And I hope you find it stimulating enough to subscribe to edge.com.

Achievement focus

The All Whites made soccer history a second time by making it into the 2010 football world cup in South Africa. The draw for pool play happens tomorrow in South Africa. Some would prefer that the All Whites are drawn in a tough group. They want the opportunity to play Brazil and other tops sides in pool play. For most of the team it would be there only opportunity to play against the top players in the world.

Not the captain though. Ryan Nelson wants to be picked in the easiest group to maximise the teams chances of making it past the pool stage.  To make it to the last 16 would be the greatest sporting achievement of all time for NZ. He’s not settling for just making up the numbers. That’s achievement focus!

How the Mighty Fall

Just spotted Jim Collin’s latest book. I’ve always enjoyed his previous books – Built to Last and Good to Great. This one is Great to Bad! How once great companies fail. He identifies 5 stages of decline.

1. Hubris born of success.
2. Undisciplined pursuit of ‘more’.
3. Denial of risk and peril.
4. Grasping for salvation.
5. Capitulation to irrelevance or death.

Sobering reading as an individual, team, organisation or civilisation.

I’m thinking of climate change and the current financial meltdown.

I liked this quote – “The signature of the truly great versus the merely successful is not the absence of difficulty but the ability to come back from set-backs, even catastrophe, stronger than before.”

There’s always hope …. if it’s well-founded!

Influence Strategies

One of the most powerful aspects of leadership is the ability to influence others. It is also one of it’s most illusive.

It may be useful to think first about your Influence Strategy.

Here are four possible Influence Strategies

1. The Direct Strategy – used when the relationship is strong, your proposal is within the range of acceptable options and opposing proposals are relatively weak.  Build a strong rational case with the supporting evidence needed to convince your audience. Focus on the benefits of your proposal in relation to your audience’s values.
2. The Indirect Strategy – used when other options may be better positioned than your proposal. Put your specific proposal aside and focus on changing the ground rules for discussion. Change the agenda. If the agenda is rational, make it emotional or political. If the agenda is Process Improvement, make it Customer or another agenda that makes your proposal a stronger option.
3. The Divide & Conquer Strategy – used when parts of your proposal are acceptable and others aren’t. Focus on convincing your audience about those aspects that are likely to be accepted. Build from agreement and a stronger track record. Alternatively, focus on those parts of your audience who can be convinced.
4. The Hold Strategy – used when the timing of your proposal isn’t good. Stop influencing and focus on building a relationship of mutual understanding. The right proposal and timing will emerge.

I’ve always felt that most mistakes start at the beginning. Choosing the right Influence Strategy at the start –  can save time, money and reputations later on.

 

 

Frames

Been thinking a little about influence without advocacy.

I was reminded of an old story of a long ago US presidential campaign. I think it was Roosevelt. The story goes that millions of campaign posters were printed with Roosevelt’s photo. Unfortunately no-one had obtained permission from the photographer. Instead of seeking permission and negotiating a fee with the photographer. Someone suggested approaching the photographer with an opportunity to have his photo on millions of campaign posters. How much would the photographer pay? They accepted his first offer!

I’m not commenting on the ethics!  But it’s interesting how reframing the problem resulted in a significantly different outcome. The frame influenced the choice that was made. Different frames, different choices

There are two frames worth thinking about:

• buy or sell eg. Roosevelt story
• life or death (positive or negative)

eg. Tversky and Kahneman  (1981) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_effect_(psychology)

Others might be:

• simple or complex
• quality or quantity
• vision or execution
• individual or group
• change or status-quo

More soon…

Post growth society

I see September’s HBR focuses on the ‘green’ economy and life in the post growth society. Yes the idea of limitless growth seems to have been exposed as a myth over the last 12 months. But post-growth society?

There will be growth alright, it just won’t be evenly distributed. While the ‘net’ might be flat, some will grow strongly and others contract significantly. I’m already sensing an inspiring and revolutionary undercurrent of activity and change. Expect a significant redistribution of capital and wealth. Keep your eyes open. Stay light on your feet. Make sure you’re on the right side!

Materialism has taken a heavy blow though. About time. Don’t think that will change any time soon.

iLove U.

One the best things I did this year was switch to Apple. iMac and iPhone ilove U.

Apple has just released its new Snow Leopard operating system. It’s radical. Not because it’s bloated with new features. But because it just faster,smaller, cheaper. Never been done before. Congrats Apple. The New York Times reviews it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/technology/personaltech/27pogue.html?_r=1&em

It’s a great example of the power of simplifying. Getting back to what really matters.

Might be useful to consider our own operating system.

What are the few things that make the difference in how we operate in our world?Perhaps we should focus on them. Strip out, outsource or ignore the 80% that generates little value for us. Double the 20% that matters. Would 20% to 40% of our effort improve our result by 60%?

Russian roulette

The track record for organisational change seems poor. Some research puts the success rate for change initiatives at 20% or less. Measured against the expected benefits. That’s like playing russian roulette with 5 bullets!

Almost all of the research seems to focus on faulting the change management process. The problem was poor communication or lack of ownership or insufficient consideration of culture or poor implementation, or …

But how much of the underachievement is because the change itself was wrong? The expected benefits are clear, it’s just that the ‘what’ of the change won’t deliver the expected benefits. I imagine, some change sounds good but isn’t. For example, consolidating process into the ‘back office’, may in fact increase costs and reduce quality.

It seems unfair to criticise the change process if the change itself is flawed. And yet it may not be easy to detect the flaws before the change has been implemented.

With such a bad track  record, a prudent course would be to tread carefully. Perhaps change is best approached as a series of small experiments to trial and validate different changes. Big bang approaches seem too dangerous. When you’re playing russian roulette, it really can be a big bang!