Get Me Jamie Notter

Building a Culture of Truth: Walking the Walk

"The Truth" has been a focus of mine for well over a year. It started with an article and a presentation for CalSAE in the spring of 2009. At that time I focused on how we need to embrace a more complex understanding of the truth, rather than the over-simplified version we're used to, where truth is just about not lying, or objective facts, or personal integrity. It's more than that. 

Then earlier this year I did another article, this time for ASAE's Associations Now, that took the next step and talked about how to build a culture of truth. This can be a real challenge, because culture is such a tough thing to get your hands around, but I argued that everyone in your organization can start to build a culture of truth by focusing on three things: walk, talk, and systems. In Los Angeles at the Annual Meeting, I did a session on building a culture of truth (slides embedded below, or click here to open them in a new window), and I went into some more detail about exactly how you can start to do this. Here's what I talked about regarding the first area: walking the walk.

Walking the walk around truth means working to bring out MORE of the whole truth, rather than the half-truths we've been settling for in organizations. There are three good places to practice this. First is with volunteers. Our volunteers often say stupid things. Our Boards want to go in directions that we know are impossible. Our committee members overstep their boundaries and start screwing up our work. Our members complain at meetings and demand we change things (in ways that may be impossible). 

In too many instances, we are afraid to fully respond to our volunteers. We don't want to make them mad or upset them (it is THEIR organization, after all, right?), so we avoid telling them much. This always backfires. One way to make it better is to bring more precision in what you tell them. Don't just tell the Board that their idea won't work--acknowledge the intention of the Board member's idea and express the very real concerns you have about the logistics of making it happen. The more precise you are with the reasons or details, the easier it will be to deliver more of the whole truth.

The second example is delivering truth to your boss. What if your boss is micromanaging you? Then you need to give him or her some feedback. My tip here is focusing your feedback on behavior and impact. This is a staple in my conflict resolution training programs and I use it with nearly all of my consulting clients, but being able to focus on the specific behavior your boss is doing (coming into my office three times a day to get updates on the project) and the impact that's having (hard to get my job done) rather than a judgmental statement (you're micromanaging me) allows more of the truth to come out.

The third example is with your peers. You'd think it would be easier to speak the truth with peers--these are the people you go to happy hour with; they're you're friends. But that means you are worried about damaging the relationship, so it's harder to confront them if they are not pulling their weight or overstepping their roles. My tip for this area was actually less about what you say and more about your reactions. Developing your emotional intelligence is the key here. Be aware of when someone is trying to tell YOU the truth and it triggers your emotions, because those quick, angry reactions will end up inhibiting truth in the system later on. Think about it: if someone attacks you when you try to give them some feedback or challenge them on something, eventually you'll stop trying to speak the truth to them. 

Every single person in your organization, no matter where they are on the organizational chart, can start practicing these skills. And while culture is a complex thing, it is always rooted in behavior. The simplest definition of culture is "the way we do things around here." So if we all start changing what we do (around truth), then we start changing the culture. 

More later on the second part of the presentation, talking the talk.

Slides:

Building a Culture of Truth

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How the iPad Changed My Life

 Okay, the title is overly dramatic, but I am impressed with how the way I so comfortably use this machine has actually changed my habits a bit. 

I bought the iPad mostly for reading. I didn't buy a keyboard for it, nor am I planning to use it for presentations. I have a laptop for that. I didn't even buy the 3g version, because I'm just using it at home or sometimes when I travel, because wifi is fairly prevalent at hotels. Initially I thought I would end up reading more books. I do have Clay Shirky's Cognitive Surplus on there, and I'm reading it (which is more than I can say for any other major book in the last several months).

But where it has really changed things for me is reading social media. I did a lot of that before, but honestly my blog READING (though not my writing) had declined substantially in the past year or so. This is partly a function of being really busy, but now I realize it was a function of the tools as well. I just never really liked Google Reader. I love having RSS feeds. I would DIE if my blogs came in via email. But the few times I remembered to go to Reader, I'd get depressed at the "384 unread" mark and leave. Or I'd start to read a few, which typically meant "Acronym" (good choice of name guys--because it starts with A!) and then I'd move on. 

The iPad is changing this for me. First, I underestimated how satisfying the touch screen would be. I use Feeddler for my RSS feeds. It is remarkably similar to Google reader, but because I can scroll thorugh things with my fingers and touch what I want to read, I find it more satisfying. I end up reading more. It's also easy to share. In this and other social media apps there is always a button where you can tweet something out. It feels easier when I do it on the screen, rather than using a mouse.

But the real game changer (for me, related to blog reading) is Pulse. It allows me to pull in 25 (though I wish it were more) of my RSS feeds into one sleek presentation that gives me a "row" for each of my feeds, broken into tiles, each with one post. If there is a photo, it shows up on the tile. I can "flick" both vertically to scroll among my feeds, and "horizontally" across the posts in any one feed. It clearly shows which I've read, and the ones on the left edge are the newest. Even better, instead of just starring an item, I get to "pulse" it by touching a heart. This automatically posts a link to that particular blog post to a brand new blog that it automagically created for me using Posterous. I use it to mark posts that I can go back and write about later, but now there is also a blog feed that anyone could subscribe to that shows some of my favorite blog posts written by others.

The other social media app that is most impressive is Flipboard. I use this for Facebook and Twitter. It basically converts all the "updates" and tweets that I recieve into a format that looks like a magazine. When someone posts a link to a blog post on Twitter, instead of just seeing a shortened link, FlipBoard actually pulls in some of that post (including images) onto my screen. This makes it MUCH easier to decide what to actually read among the thousands of links that come my way. It's also just a flat out more enjoyable way to read through news from my friends and colleagues. 

Sorry for "geeking out" a bit on a blog known more for leadership insight than social technology savvy, but there is something important about how this device has changed my habits. I was already a devoted social media-phile. But now I read blogs more than I did pre-iPad, which means I'm learning more and that means a lot to me.

Reflections on #ASAE10: Passion Matters

The opening round of ASAE recap blog posts have been a bit of a downer. This does not surprise me given the conversations I was having with friends of colleagues towards the end. For one reason or another, the meeting just wasn't as good as the last several years. Acronym has a central link to all the posts in the first couple days back, including the post I did for my monthly column on SocialFish--and that one had a critical tone as well. 

So far, though, I wouldn't characterize the complaining as bitter. It's been heartfelt. The people who are complaining about a meeting that didn't meet their expectations are expressing these thoughts because they love ASAE. That's huge! I wrote about this over a year ago when the Power of A campaign was launched (to the disappointment of many bloggers):

Frustration is a very powerful force. When it gets expressed, it usually means those individuals have crossed a tipping point where they have moved to take action, rather than just stewing about it. What an opportunity! People relevant to your organization or system are taking action. Sure, we'd rather them take action by singing our praises and showering us with more money. Whatever. They are taking action, they are showing some passion. What are you going to do with that?

The keyword there is passion. That concept was central to me this year at the Annual Meeting. As I mentioned in the SocialFishing post, I talked to the YAE Committee about passion--specifically how they would be able to translate the diverse passions of their committee members into coordinated action. Lisa Junker also did a blog post on acronym after interviewing me and the YAE Committee Chair, Aaron Wolowiec. It's not enough any more to have a committee action plan. You need to tap into people's passion of you want it to work. 

I look at Maddie's post, which is by her own admission a bit of a rant, and I look at the SEVENTY TWO comments (yes! 72!), and I see a great dialogue and tons of passion. I see lots of people expanding on each other's ideas, and I see a lot of constructive disagreement as well--disagreement that never denies the passion of the opposing view. The conversation is never about ASAE being "good" or "bad" or right or wrong. It's a community of people who love their association and care enough to talk openly and honestly about what works and what doesn't, and what's important to them and what's not (knowing there will never be 100% agreement about that). ASAE doesn't necessarily leap into the conversation, but they show up, and I know they are listening. 

I may not have liked everything about ASAE10. Some of it wasn't particularly within ASAE's control (the lack of energy in downtown LA), and some of it was (the way they organized the general sessions), but who expects their community to be pleasing to them all the time? Who expects any important relationship to be all roses all the time?! 

I mentioned in my last post about fear that courage is not the absence of fear, but how you react when fear is present. There is a corollary for love and community. The test of a relationship is not how you act when things are working well. When you really need love is when there are problems, and despite your anger or your frustration or your confusion or your disagreement, you still manage to keep your passion focused in service of the relationship or in service to the community. 

I see that happening now, so despite my frustrations with ASAE10, and even my sincere concerns about how well they will be able to change course (being a large organization), I still love ASAE and I loved ASAE10 because it let my passion flow. It allowed me to deliver some new material to groups of people in my community who wanted to talk about it (YAE session and Truth Session). It allowed me to pursue important yet unofficial passions like the ever growing YAP community, and it allowed me to deepen my relationships with fellow community members, including people I've known for years, like fellow WHADITW authors Jeff De Cagna, David Gammel, and Mickie Rops (we missed you Amy!), and much newer (but no less important) connections, like Robert Barnes and Jeff Hurt.

Passion matters. Yes, it opens up opportunities for let-downs and heartache. But that's the price of admission to a world where more gets done, and potential is realized, and synergy is actually accomplished, not just referenced in a keynote speech. Don't let the hard parts of passion scare you away. Stay with it and marvel at where it takes us.

Fear Sucks

Permit me to sound like a keynote speaker for a minute...

If there's ONE THING you remember from this blog post it's this: (dramatic pause...) the reason your organization sucks, is fear.

I write about a lot of things. I talk about truth, conflict, leadership, strategy, etc. And of course I think it's all important, and we need to be having these various conversations to make our organizations better. But every now and then I am hit with the fact that many of these topics are dancing around something more fundamental: fear.

This week, I read this blog post from Eric Lanke on Hourglass. He's been writing good stuff about innovation and in this one he points out that many associations "approach risk from a decidedly conservative perspective." In other words, they are afraid.

Seth Godin talks about our fear of momentum in his blog this week too. "We're afraid of being a part of something that is too big for us."

We're afraid we'll get fired. We're afraid they won't like us. We're afraid it won't work. We're afraid we'll get in trouble. We're afraid we'll lose status. We're afraid we'll lose control. We're afraid it will hurt more than it does now. 

Fear is always there. I think that is unavoidable, because fear is rooted in our "Lizard brain," as Godin points out in his post.

So fear may be inevitable, but courage is a skill. Courage doesn't dissolve fear. It is simply a different way of acting when fear is present. Courage means choosing a different response to fear. And most of what I think is going to save our organizations in the years to come is going to be rooted in a better response to fear. And step one will be raising our awareness and our acute understanding of how fear is operating in our organizational lives.

Strategy is Personal

I did some strategy work for an association client last week, and to start off the session, I asked the board members in their introductions to share what volunteering really meant to them. Why did it matter? Why was it personally important?

There are a couple of reasons for doing this. First, any time you get a Board of Directors together, I think it's a good idea for them to share something personal, hopefully that others don't already know. Each time you reveal yourself like that, you build trust in the group (assuming the rest of the group doesn't mock you!). We need more trust in Boards because it enables them to move more quickly. So I'm a big fan of sharing new things as part of the work.

The second reason, though, is that strategy is personal. Each one of these Board members had very personal and meaningful reasons for being on the Board. Well guess what? So do all your members when it comes to belonging to the association. All participation is personal. So when you are trying to figure out what is going to drive the success of your association, you'd better understand the personal meaning you have to your members. Don't just settle for "we provide education, networking, and public awareness." That's a start, but that won't differentiate you enough. Not any more.

It's a challenge, of course, when there are so many different flavors of meaning among your membership. But mass customization was identified as a trend in this community years ago, so how are you changing your data gathering and analysis to account for this? Who is taking the time in your organization to develop new language about the value you offer? How are you embracing decentralization in order to cultivate a diversity of experiences for members?

One way to start is to first get really clear on what your personal meaning is. it's not what everyone else wants, but clarifying it will help you listen more carefully to what your diverse membership wants.

Pushing the Edge of the Envelope at #ASAE10

My first ASAE annual meeting was Minneapolis in 2004. I registered so late I was out of the room block. I only knew a handful of people in the community, most of whom I met through GWSAE. I had a good time, but it was laid back, calm, with a fair amount of down time.

Flash forward six years and I'm looking at the five days I'll be in LA later this week and my mind is exploding based on how many things I'm going to do, people I'm going to see, and events I'm going to attend. Here's what Maddie, Jeff, Terry, Mark, and Bruce have in store as well.

And on top of that, I'm speaking. If you're currently setting your schedule for ASAE, don't forget the first session on Monday Morning (8:30 slot). 

To Tell The Truth: You would think telling the truth would be a basic expectation, right? However, the closer you look, the more you realize we have cultures at both the volunteer and staff levels that support obscuring, deflecting, or downright avoiding the truth, particularly when the going gets tough! Explore the subtleties of what telling truth really means in organizations and how it can impact performance. Identify specific strategies for changing destructive patterns in order to bring more effective truth into your association’s leadership and management conversations.

It will build on the article I did earlier this year and we will talk about very practical things you can do (no matter where you are on the org chart) to build a culture of truth.

What else will I be doing? I have no idea. I plan on going nonstop. I definitely will be part of the ASAE 10 Flashmob, as well as the Monday Night YAP Party that has become a regular part of the Annual Meeting experience (PS, if you've heard about it but thought you don't qualify as a "Young" Association Professional, then get over yourself and come anyway. Age is a state of mind.). I look forward to the unplanned conversations that typically generate the most learning for me. I look forward to having fun with friends who, despite living a few miles from me, I tend to see only at these events.

See you in LA!

Managing Generations Slides

Thanks to everyone at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida for coming out to my "Managing Generations in the Workplace" session. As a reminder, the ebook on generations can be downloaded for free, and the slides are presented below, via slideshare.

Managing Generations in the Workplace

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Creating Tomorrow's Organizations

That was the topic of my keynote presentation earlier this week for the Iowa State Education Association. The organizations we work in today are ones we inherited. They are yesterday's organizations, and too many of them are broken. It's time to create new ones and this requires all of us to start thinking about new mindsets, new directions, new principles, and a new set of leadership skills. Here's the prezi I used during the presentation:

Creating Tomorrow's Organizations Today on Prezi

Capacity for Solving Problems

 My speaking schedule brought me through Omaha, Nebraska yesterday, which afforded me the great luxury of some face time with Joe Gerstandt. We had no agenda, but spent the morning quite productively talking about all things leadership. One of the insights from that conversation has been rumbling around my brain, and it has to do with problem solving.

As a society, we've been growing for centuries and centuries. Every generation we're more impressive. We can do more, build more, accomplish more. Along with this growth in our capacity to do amazing things, however, we simultaneously build our capacity to create really nasty problems. The two go hand in hand. The more amazing things we can do, the more nasty problems we can create. Lighting our homes by candle light is great, but sometimes the houses burn down. Powering cities nuclear power plants is far more incredible, but note we've also got some bigger problems to deal with (nuclear waste, meltdowns, etc.). The amazingness and the problems seem to scale together.

This is all fine as long as our capacity to SOLVE these nasty problems also scales. For the most part, I think it has. The three things have been growing more or less together: amazing things, nasty problems, brilliant solutions. Not every problem gets solved as quickly as we'd like, but for the most part we're doing okay.

But what if our problem solving curve is not keeping up any more? What if we have organizations and institutions that can create nasty problems like the BP oil spill or our health care system, but these same groups lack the capacity to solve them, or at least to solve them quickly enough before they get out of hand?

And what if our systems of leadership and the way we ran our organizations were central to our capacity for solving problems? Hmmm. More to come.

Photo credit.

Why Diversity Issues Are Hard

Last week Elizabeth Engel put up a very short post about a new TED conference focused on women, expressing her displeasure with "ghettoizing" women by creating a separate conference. The post then became one of the most "comment-worthy" in the association space for a few days. Check out all the comments, because that's where the interesting dialogue is. 

There were two interesting themes for me in the conversation.

First, there were many women who expressed some sort of offense to either the idea of a separate woman-focused conference or, more specifically, the way the organizers defended their decision once it was criticized. After those posts, there were a few men who basically said, "Yeah but you shouldn't have been offended because the TEDWomen conference was intended to be supportive and empowering for women."

Here's a tip. When someone says they are offended, it RARELY, if ever, helps to tell them that they shouldn't be feeling what they are feeling. When someone is offended, the first thing you should talk about is them, not you. Find out more why they feel offended. If you had a part in it, then apologize for offending them, even if you completely didn't mean to offend them. Still apologize for the IMPACT you had. Once that person feels like they've been heard and their experience has been acknowledged, then they will probably be ready to hear some more about your good intentions. 

Second, there was a little back and forth about whether women were "second class citizens" in the US, and a man pushed back suggesting we ask Hilary Clinton and Carly Fiorina and other women who have made it to the top of their field if they felt the same way.

I don't know what Carly and Hilary think, but let's switch things up hypothetically. If I (a man) were a US senator, and men were 51% of the population, and I looked around at my 99 senate colleagues and saw only TWELVE other male faces, I might be thinking about my gender's status, despite my one individual success story. Same is true if I were a Fortune 500 CEO and at a CEO-only networking event, struggling to find the other men in the room in case I wanted to ask them about gender equity issues, but finding it hard given there would be 487 women milling about and only 13 men. These statistics (along with similarly horrific pay disparity numbers) have been visible for decades, but it seems very difficult for men to actually let them sink in. We instead tend to see small bits of positive data (a few success stories) and conclude that things are better.

But that's what makes diversity such a tough nut to crack. It's not only the fact that it is system-wide and very complex (thus a hard problem to solve no matter what), it also has built in protection mechanisms. Men are benefiting from privileges in a sexist system, but are at the same time socialized in ways that make it extremely difficult for them to be aware of those privileges. We just don't see it or feel it. We feel like we are being treated equally, because that's the way we think it should be. That's what we want. Unfortunately, that is precisely what makes it difficult for us to start dismantling the system of inequality.

The same is true, by the way, along other dimensions of inequality in our society. It's hard for white people to understand how much privilege we have. It's hard for heterosexuals to understand what the GLBT community is really going through. The systems that perpetuate the inequality survive precisely because they have managed to convince the people with the upper hand...that the privilege doesn't exist.