Proceed Until Apprehended

In these days of economic turmoil, there is a growing gap between successful organizations and those that are on the slow path to failure.

There seems to be a huge difference in the kinds of employment experiences these organizations offer, as well. It’s a virtuous circle, or “runaway” as Seth Godin calls it, as successful companies engage their employees, get better results, recruit better employees, engage them even more, get even better results, etc. The troubled companies? It’s a circle too (or spiral), but not quite so virtuous.

When we’re considering employment opportunities, it’s important that we ask how we can recognize the good companies. There’s a bit of “greener grass” when you look at any potential employer, but what really makes the difference? Here’s my list.

Real leadership

Topping the list of desired traits in an engaging employer is a leader… a real leader. Leadership can take many forms, and at first glance, many business heads look the part and they certainly have the title. Figuring out if they can actually drive engagement and excitement is something altogether different than appearance or title, though. Jim Collins defines a leader really well in Good to Great. He calls it ”Level 5 Leadership,” and these leaders distinguish themselves through a combination of Humility and Will. I can’t do his full description justice, but my takeaway is that Leaders often put their ego in check as they make choices that are for the good of the company. I’d suggest there’s a simple test: Does your potential leader work on things that create results today and tomorrow or do they work for some distant future? The former makes them look good and feel good. The latter serves the organization more than themselves.

A healthy relationship with ideas

A healthy relationship would mean a conversation takes place… ideas would not be met with a response based on how it’s different than the conclusions that exist already. Are ideas examined or are they disputed? Are external ideas a distraction from the agenda or an opportunity to get better? Ideas need a meritocracy, not a pass-fail response. An engaging environment gives ideas a fair chance.

A reliance on their employees

Speaking of meritocracy, what’s the relationship with employees? I’ve yet to see a business that doesn’t say some version of “Our people are our greatest asset.” It’s come to the point that it’s now meaningless to say it. As with so many concepts, there is often a gulf between word and deed. I think this is most easily seen in the nature of the delegation. Are employees simply researchers for the boss’s agenda or are they asked to help find the direction? The creation of an engaging environment is one where the employees are empowered to pursue and develop the direction even when the boss isn’t around. In the unhealthy ones, the work happens when the spotlight is on, but it dies away when the boss’s attention is elsewhere.

As an off-shoot of this kind of orientation, I find I’ve got a hyper-sensitve response to job ads. When I read a description of an opportunity, I almost immediately classify it as an employer looking for labour or an employer looking for thoughtfulness. I’m sure I shouldn’t be so quick to judge so as to keep options open, but I suspect I’m saving a lot of wasted time, too.

A progressive business model

Another book with some fantastic concepts about successful, engaging businesses is Jeff Jarvis’ What Would Google Do? In it, he presents this gem: “There’s an inverse relationship between control and trust.” This is the foundation of some really exciting businesses. Google, of course, and Zappos, the online shoe-seller, are a couple examples of organizations where the leadership of the organization has ceded significant discretion and decision-making power to the individuals that are doing the work… in some cases suppliers and partners. If the organization is designed in an elegant, thoughtful way, letting go of control puts you in the centre of something infinitely more valuable. A business model that thrives on openness and transparency is also a lot more sustainable and, of course, engaging for employees. This one’s perhaps a bit more subjective to read, but in a conversation with people at the top of the hierarchy, are the gripping the steering wheel or looking for ways to hand over the keys?

I’m sure there’s many other essential elements important to a healthy employer. This is just the list that comes to mind for me. I invite you to share what makes a good employer for you in the comments.

I love books and I love quiet places. By extension, I love the library. I could spend hours in the library just reading near-random books off the shelves. In reality, though, my relationship with the library is somewhat transactional. Primarily, the library serves as an exchange, a place where I check in (online), request pre-identified books, physically go in to drop off and pick up books and pay the occasional fine. I think I’m only using about ten percent of my library. The rest, at least to me, is irrelevant.

Aside from access to printed paper, the library is a quiet refuge, a place to focus a little more internally and find some organized information in a steady stream rather than the firehose of the internet. In truth, there’s lots of places to do that. Any number of coffee shops are happy to have you do that for the price of a cup of coffee. Is the physical space and the money devoted to a library worth it?

To be fair, I can think of a few other things the library offers. It’s a place of “trusted” information with professionals that can help you find data and knowledge that’s vetted, tested and approved. There’s also education programs and lots of obscure books that can introduce you to new worlds. There is support for businesses and access to databases.

The fundamental contract we have with the library – we’ll pay tax dollars so you can make information available – is a deal whose death knell is fast approaching. It’s not that libraries haven’t kept their end of the bargain, it’s just that the internet makes it faster, cheaper and infinitely more efficient to stay home and get the same. I certainly love the focus on ideas that comes with reading a printed book, and I want that from the library. I could do without the big, air-conditioned building and all the administration. I suspect that there’s an Amazon-style model of book exchange that could lower our taxes by a good touch.

I don’t think the library is going to go anywhere anytime soon, though, and its disappearance would not be my first choice.  My first choice would be to rethink libraries and shift them from a role of providing information access to leading us in learning how to manage our information. We’re experiencing an epidemic in our society right now. We’re losing ourselves, our purpose and our intentions to a glut of information. Libraries can be a big part of the solution.

Many of us don’t know how to manage all of the information that’s now so easily accessible. Heads bent down in the Blackberry prayer, texting at inappropriate times, the interruption of important conversations for the randomness of a ringing telephone, pulling an all-nighter in Second Life, watching another episode of Deadliest Catch instead of going to bed at a decent hour, mindlessley surfing Fail Blog… all this media can easily sidetrack us. Often, we don’t choose to apply our attention, our attention is simply stolen by whatever is in front of us. The library is the antithesis of “unplanned” attention, and building our capacity to be deliberate with our attention could be their cause.

If the library’s mission were to be, “We help people control the information,” they could:

• Help their users develop strategies to sort their daily stream of information
• Provide classes on keeping a clean email in-box
• Help users prioritize their information needs
• Communicate the importance of being deliberate with one’s attention
• Provide coaching on how to find and establish information feeds that are meaningful (I’d go to a course called ‘Getting Value from Twitter’)
• Help their users make personal learning plans to pursue their interests
• Research 101: Provide formal instruction on how to find information (and determine its credibility)
• Developing simple, flexible guides/frameworks for individuals to undertake self-directed study

I see this as being more valuable than a university education in many ways. Who needs university when the information on any topic is at your fingertips?

If you can find it when you need it.

Information and learning is now DIY. With information’s ubiquity, the barriers to knowledge are now our ability to search, sift and absorb. We would thrive with teaching focused on how to do this well. The library is in a pretty ideal position to take on the role.

Have you ever been intensely frustrated with a work team that doesn’t seem to get it? It may be that the roles are ill-defined, the processes are haphazard and inefficient or there is simply no purpose to align efforts. Forget about “systems thinking,” these teams are organized for knee-jerk reactions. When an issue comes up, watch the thrashing that ensues. Ultimately, the team isn’t getting to any results.

If you’re seeing this, what’s the right response? If we look around us, it’s clear that one of the most common responses is to wait it out for a bit and see if things get better.

Seriously, have any of these things ever gotten better on their own?

More likely – actually, always – this results in a continued ineffective organization. The problems remain undefined, the potential solutions go unexamined and those that are propagating the problems continue their path unabated.

Wishfully thinking the mess will resolve itself is not a realistic strategy. It’s a defense mechanism that keeps you from taking emotional risk. It keeps you safe on the sidelines, smug in your knowledge that it sucks.

But that’s OK. Fair enough. If you don’t want to get in the fray, I think that’s your right. However, this strategy should not be accompanied with your continued frustration with the situation. You don’t get that right. If you are choosing to quietly wait for someone else to lead the way out, you’re making a decision to also endure it until it gets better. You’ve gotta pay that price. By the way, it’s your burden, and yours alone. You don’t need to unload it on an unsuspecting confidant so you can temporarily feel better. Sit with it. Stew on it. Maybe, if it becomes uncomfortable enough, you’ll realize you shouldn’t just wait it out.

If only the wishful thinker would propose a solution, the benefits are tremendous.

• You focus a conversation on a problem that others haven’t seen, or at least have been afraid to acknowledge. Groupthink can drive a wedge between a committee and reality. Diverse perspectives can bring a committee back.
• You introduce an alternative path. This often defines the parameters of future conversations. Everybody gets busy supporting or fighting your plan… others aren’t even considered.
• You make a statement about what kind of participant you are. You are one that bring solutions, not problems. That puts you in a special, rare category.

The cost for all this? Well, as Ghandi said, “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.” On the first attempt, in all likelihood, they ignore you. Perhaps you’ll be so fortunate as to get some eye-rolls or scoffs. They at least heard your point. If you keep it up, you’ll have the success of your audience sitting up ramrod straight and telling you all the reasons it can’t be done. That’s when you’ve got them right where you want them. With persistence, I believe you can make a difference.

More plainly, the cost is how it makes you feel. It’s not particularly comfortable in the moment. It’s just right. That’s integrity, and it has the ability to make you feel unsettled and at peace in the same moment.

I’m in a pretty timid organization, a bureaucracy where having eye-to-eye conversations about real issues is to be avoided at all costs. I would LOVE to have more ridicule and more fighting of my ideas. As it stands, I’m pretty sure I could propose the purchase of a beaver to sharpen our pencils and I wouldn’t get a response. You know what, though? I feel a lot better pushing for what’s right and getting nowhere than remaining silent and by default becoming a supporter of what’s wrong.

Some of you reading this know that I have Multiple Sclerosis. I’m pretty lucky with it, and after 10 years since my diagnosis I’m hardly any worse for wear.

I’ve been watching with a great personal interest, of course, the development/discovery of a “liberation procedure” to address Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency (CCSVI). It’s posited that people with MS may have restricted veins slowing the flow of blood out of the brain. In theory this could cause problems with increased cranial pressure and iron deposits in the brain. This is pretty exciting news and has offered more hope for MS sufferers than other potential treatments in the last few years. It’s also a completely different paradigm than what has conventionally defined MS.

This makes for a fascinating study in how different people react to the introduction of a fundamentally different paradigm. I would assume this idea will eventually be proven or disproven, but for now it offers a potential new way of thinking about Multiple Sclerosis and a different approach to treating, or even curing, this chronic illness. It is a game-changer or a significant derailment of the “real” efforts. How are people reacting? How should they react?

There are plenty of MS sufferers who want to start doing treatments immediately. I can’t say that I blame them. While some are actually advocating for the complete and unqualified acceptance of the theory and treatment, I think they’re in the minority. Most advocates for “rushing” the procedure simply want to act now and measure as we go. They argue for a “learn by doing” approach. As their quality of life is slipping away with every day and this relatively safe procedure may offer stark, life-changing results, they don’t have the patience for the studies that would 100% confirm or refute this theory.

There are also individuals and organizations that are calling for research and confirmation of this theory before the procedure is offered to the general population of sufferers. This would be the position of our federal government and the MS Society. This one doesn’t make quite as much sense to me, and I would like to understand it. What are the possible reasons to advocate restraint?

It draws attention from our long-term efforts

There are a lot of thoughtful people working on solving the MS riddle. They’re organized, they’re relatively well funded and they are seeing results. The availability of drugs that offer real improvements have proliferated in recent years. Having MS has a different, much better prognosis than it did when I got diagnosed. We seem well on our way to killing this thing by a thousand cuts. In fact, it seems to be just a matter of time.

Time. That’s a bit of a problem for many sufferers. Rarely – if ever – does this illness get better with age. While I’m all for researching the illness and improving our understanding, this argument doesn’t hold water for me when there’s a very promising theory that isn’t getting enough of the pie. Perhaps we can call this reluctance a “fixed cost affinity.” If you’re a bureaucrat or a politician, I think it’s a lot safer and blameless to say, “We devoted our resources to the 10 year-project that’s got millions sunk in to it. The investment ultimately didn’t pay out, but it was a smart investment” than to say, “We went with the unfounded vein theory from left field.”

It costs money and creates risk for what may turn out to be nothing.

My guess is that this argument is at the foundation of most efforts to minimize the wide-spread application of the CCSVI liberation procedure. It’s an argument that says we shouldn’t put people through this when we’re not sure it will work. Let’s spare them the hassle until we can assure them it’s good for them. I appreciate the inherent protectiveness of the position, but what if it turns out to do something profound? Was the caution and delay worth the additional suffering? If you look at the “costs” of this diagnosis and procedure, you’re looking at a set of imaging scans and a procedure similar to an angioplasty. Let’s say it’s as risky as liposuction. How much study went into that? Now factor in the fact that as we delay, people are losing their ability to walk. The math doesn’t seem to add up.

Besides, because it`s surgical, isn’t the line between trial and delivery a bit more blurred? I can see that we need to use caution when we`re experimenting with a drug with unknown side-effects, but with this procedure the surgical risk is clear, and it`s really minimal.

The science doesn’t make any sense

This is the weakest of arguments. History is filled with paradigm-shifting discoveries that didn’t make any sense. Just because it wasn’t thought of before has no bearing on it’s applicability. There seems to be some ongoing presumption that if it isn’t the model you discuss with your colleagues or the one your professor told you about, it can’t be right.  That’s not how it works. Challenges to the status quo, be it the shape of the earth or the science of multiple sclerosis, should be met with opennes and humility. We’d grow more. To say we should proceed with caution because this isn’t how we were thinking is ludicrous. That’s dragging your feet because it makes you uncomfortable. If there’s an off chance this works for MS sufferers, I`d rather take care of their discomfort and let the discomfort of admitting you didn’t see it sit for a bit.

I don’t think I’m hiding the conclusion I’ve drawn so far. I think the people that fight change or even the spectre of change are keeping us from being effective on this one. New factors are now present in this environment. Trying to sustain the old environment is entirely unhelpful.

I’ve spent the last two weeks shuffling around my house in a fog suffering from an MS relapse myself. I am so fortunate to have a case of MS that has proven to be very mild compared to so many of my contemporaries. I sometimes find it hard to want more and better for myself when I’m doing comparatively well. Nevertheless, my quality of life diminishes when this illness gets a grip, and when I beat it back, life gets much better (and I start blogging again). If I get the opportunity, I’ll take the liberation treatment.

Sometimes we can’t solve a problem because we’re too close to it. We work it so much that the prescribed boundaries of the problem become untouchable. What was originally established as an assumption becomes a given.

That’s dangerous thinking that we can all get caught in. Creating a deliberate practice of stepping out of that “can’t see the forest for the trees” mindset is important for our success.

You can do it in a number of ways. The list I come up with is by no means exhaustive:

• Invite in some fresh perspective. Someone who is not familiar with the problem won’t have accepted the same restrictions as you.
• Take a break and do something else. Take a walk, do a puzzle or listen to some music. Give you brain a breather, and a broader perspective.
• Engage in something completely unrelated and connect it back to the problem.  How are the essential factors in growing a good wheat crop similar to your challenge? Name ten things that are green and describe how they relate to the challenge.
• Picture your problem from above. Review it from a helicopter. Look different?
• Redefine the timeline. What does it look like five years out? Changing the timeline can remove some barriers.

There’s another practice that I wanted to explore a little more. That’s a technique I sort of intuitively do that I’m calling the 90 degree rotation, though it’s probably more appropriately entitled “Turn it upside down.” It goes like this: take your problem and any sort of organization, hierarchies or linear processes that are part of it. Try and describe your challenge from a direction different than how you’ve been thinking about it.

Trying to complete a work process through a traditional hierarchy? What if the responsibility was given to a cross-functional team?

Trying to spread a message? What if it wasn’t through mass media, but spread through individual followers?

Coordinating a large group through rules and expectations? What happens if they’re given the outcomes they have to achieve and left to their own leadership and organization?

I don’t think my effort to name and systematize this concept has worked, but I needed to share it anyway. It’s the incorporation of a foreign (near opposite) perspective so that the givens can be laid bare. Should they really be off the table, or are they just off YOUR table?