respectful confrontation

A friend and colleague, Joe Weston, has authored an amazing book entitled “Mastering Respectful Confrontation.”  It contains inspiring practices and exercises that help the reader open to personal freedom and empowered, collaborative engagement – based on a workshop he developed and delivers around the country.

Joe’s Respectful Confrontation workshops are designed for corporations, organizations, government bodies and for individuals who seek lasting change in the areas of communication, productivity, time and stress management, impactful leadership, empowerment, personal freedom, and fulfillment.  Here’s an interview Joe gave recently about his work:

I highly recommend his approach in a world where there definitely needs to be a better way to be in conversation with one another.  Great work Joe!

afraid of change?

A few months ago I came across Harvard Business Review’s Management Tip of the Day: “3 Ways to Quietly Promote Change“.   This article is grounded in the belief that 70% of all corporate change initiatives fail.  It also promotes Harvard Business Review’s book “HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Change” – a collection of articles designed to help executives lead organization’s through transformation.

The title of the article should have been “How to Sneak Change in While No One is Looking” and the more I thought about it, the more I began to wonder why are we so afraid of promoting change openly.  Of course my first thought went to the strong headwinds that President Obama has faced in his effort to change the way our government functions in this country.  But is opposition to change a reason to try to manipulate it quietly, rather than promote it openly?

There are any number of reasons people are afraid of change:

• Fear of the unknown.
• Self doubt.
• Fear of what others will say or think.
• There is comfort in the familiar.
• Failure to see “what’s in it for me”.

While there are probably others…along with variations on these themes, these are the ones I see play out most often in the corporate world.  While I agree with HBR’s premise that “change is a multi-stage process…not an event”, I’m not sure that quiet persuasion is the best way to ensure successful change.  What do you think?

leadership in turbulent times

I discovered a blog this summer that offered “12 Leadership Guidelines for Leading through Learning in Turbulent Times”.  Here are a few that deserve emphasis:

Understand that we will never get back to normal: While it is comfortable to want to seek the status quo, “normal” in times of a crisis is constantly changing. Leaders need to move on to seek better ways of doing things, letting these new ways become the new normal.

Think like a child: Try to live “in the moment,” not allowing business to consume every moment. Work/life balance can exist, even in a crisis.

Take care of your emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being: Don’t put any aspect of your well-being on hold. While change and uncertainty at work are draining, you cannot allow them to take over your life.

You can read the full list here. 

It was interesting to read through this list after just reading a Harvard Business Review interview with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. 

He recounted that when Starbucks ran into trouble two years ago he soon realized that his first challenge was to take full responsibility for the mistakes that had led up to the crisis. 

Admitting publicly to those leadership failures helped clear the air and let the company regroup and start moving forward, he says. “It’s like when you have a secret and get it out: The burden is off your shoulders,” he adds.  You can read that full article here.