1. business and industrial

 Fall 10 Implementation Workbook: Secrets to Managing Up: How to Gently Lead Your Board and Your CEO Use organizational and group process skills to get them to do what you need them
to do.
With Dr. Thomas Griggs
© Gail Perry and Thomas Griggs 2010
1 2 4 Hillcres
t R d R a l e i g h N C Table of Contents The Five Levels of Leadership 4 The Contracting Process 7 Interpersonal and Small Group Contracting Techniques How to Delegate for Results 9 Levels of Accountability 10 Finishing Transactions 11 Guidelines for Group Dialogue 12 Have Mercy 14 Making Meetings Work 15 Strategies for Creating and Growing Momentum 17 Organizational Decision-­Making Process 19 Appendices 20 8 2 Secrets to Managing Up
WORKBOOK
Welcome!
Many nonprofit staff and CEO’s are challenged when it comes to managing “group
process” with their staff or board.
The issues of leadership and managing groups require an awareness and
perspective that is not covered in typical fundraising and nonprofit management
trainings.
This discussion and workbook put into your hands many different skill-tools.
It is akin to a survey course that covers the breadth of the field in an overview.
Be aware that the material presented here was developed over a 35 year period
from many different sources.
While the skill tools are presented in simple form, with the intention to make
them teachable and learnable, their application and your mastery of them will
continue for years to come.
Enjoy your training adventure.
Dr. Thomas Griggs and Gail Perry
3 The Five Levels of Leadership
The Five Levels describe the domains of awareness, communication and action
essential for effective leadership in a complex system and provide a framework for
understanding how to lead in various settings.
All leadership skills can be organized according to these levels. Note that
activity in a complex system occurs at all five levels simultaneously.
Personal Level
⊕
Individual thoughts, feelings, beliefs, attitudes and values that are not known
to others until they are expressed at another level.
It is important to distinguish this level from the Interpersonal, because it is
accepted in US culture that we may train people in codes of behavior and speech
within an institution, we can create problems if we attempt to tell another what
to feel, believe or value without their permission.
This domain includes the leader’s spiritual frame of reference.
Interpersonal Level
↔
Transactions between two people: speech and behavior, conscious and
unconscious.
This is the personal Level made manifest, that which we say and do with each
other that is observable and has an impact on those around us.
Communications skills usually refer to this level.
4 Group Level
❉
Three or more people in any manner of group in which each member is known
or at least visible to the others.
The focus is on the dynamics of meetings, workgroups, management and
leadership, and ad hoc and voluntary groups, for example.
Institutional Level
Formal policies and procedures, known organizational practices, and actions
by high-ranking leaders of the institution which carry the effect of policy.
Laws, legislation, budgets, funding, staffing, and programs are some of the
vehicles of this level.
Cultural Level ♫
Shared values, customs, myths, rituals, and language specific to our identity
groups, including, for example, those as men, women, US citizens, the Swiss,
or engineers.
When we speak or write for the public or devise a marketing plan we are working
at the cultural level of leadership. Here we are concerned with what is right, true,
beautiful, and professional, but the norms are assumed, not written into a formal
code.
This is the realm of one-to-many communications: the media, Madison Avenue,
Hollywood, company-wide newsletters, etc. Myth, symbol and ritual reflect and
maintain the cultural norms of the group; interventions are therefore often at a
symbolic level.
5 It’s What You Do Ahead of Time That Counts the Most
Identifying the Skill Tools You Need
for the Results You Want
The following sample worksheet is for your use during and after our conversation
today.
First, select, subtract and add the results that reflect the highest priority to you
and your organization.
Second, scan the five levels to judge which will be strategically at play. Then, fill
in the third column with the concepts and skills that will accomplish your
preferred results.
Desired Result
Levels Scan
Skill Tools Required
Direction Clear
Strategy Planned
Board Meetings Efficient
Board Aligned on Goals
Actions Delegated
Performance Accountable
Programs Designed
Communication Understood
Conflict Resolved
Decisions Made
Morale High
Donors Engaged
Funds Developed
Public Impacted
You will discover that objectives that previously appeared to be hopelessly
complicated or vague, but are nevertheless still critically important to accomplish,
can all be understood and effectively realized by a systematic Five Level analysis
and application of the corresponding skill tools and strategies.
6 The Contracting Process
Contracting is the art and practice of establishing and verifying genuine
agreements to talk, learn, problem-solve, work and manage time.
Contracting may be addressed at any of the Five Levels:
• Personal: Making internal commitments to myself; staying in integrity
• Interpersonal: Clarifying commitments between two people; accountability
• Group: Aligning group commitments, for example, regarding purpose and use
of time
• Institutional: Employment contracts; committee mandates
• Cultural: Commitment to a group identity, and the customs than describe
and bind us
7 Interpersonal and Small Group Contracting Techniques
1. Clarify the level at which you wish to secure an agreement
2. Initiate with, “I would like…” or “we need…”
3. Ask explicitly with, “Are you willing to…?”
4. Test the agreement with, “Are there any concerns…?”
5. Re-negotiate as necessary
6. Acknowledge completion and release from the contract
8 How to Delegate for Results
Here are a few tips on how to delegate work in a manner that significantly
increases your likelihood of success:
1. Contract to be in a delegating conversation. Determine the other is willing to
be on the receiving end of the delegation.
1. Acknowledge if the work being delegated is supplanting a previous priority. Be
open to a renegotiation of priorities.
1. Be clear about the time frame in which the results are expected.
1. Ask for an estimate of probability of successful completion on time
1. Check for sabotage or threats to success. Ask for notification in advance if the
estimate seems off, or if one of the threats arises.
1. Determine the resources necessary for success. “What does support look like
for you in this project?”
9 Levels of Accountability
Personal:
Personal commitment to myself; e.g., to be consistent with my values
Interpersonal:
“I give you my word.” A commitment between two people because of the
relationship.
Group:
A commitment I make to the team, witnessed by the group; I account to the group
on my initiative, without waiting to be called out by anyone.
Institutional:
This is a requirement of the position, a job performance element I will be formally
reviewed on. Employment or merit increase depends on my results.
10 Finishing Transactions
Effectively completing conversational transactions is an interpersonal leadership
skill that is simple to master yet can achieve profound results.
This skill is demonstrated in a specific exchange with another individual, yet is
often witnessed by others in the group and can become the norm in group
dialogue.
In this case we are mostly interested in ratifying that a message was received and
that the speaker was heard.
In some free-flowing conversations such precise closure is not necessary. In other
formats, such as male/female and cross-cultural transactions, it is often critical to
ensure that a given transaction was successfully completed.
Some guidelines to practice transactional closure include:
1. I pause after another speaks to honor their contribution, and when I speak I
refer to and include their thinking in my contribution.
2. I might repeat what I heard you offering and confirm it is what you meant.
3. I might ask if you believe you heard or understood what I was sending.
4. When answering a question, I check back with the questioner, “Did you get
what you wanted?”
5.I acknowledge when I am unable to respond or that I have to break off
communication, rather than simply leave a transaction unfinished.
6. I monitor group conversation to ensure that I am supporting others in
finishing transactions.
11 Guidelines for Group Dialogue
At the Cultural Level, we have found it useful in our work with organizations and
teams to distinguish two group conditions:
one, in which there are no operating agreements about how people will
interact,
and two, in which people contract for and commit to specific ways of relating
to each other.
The second condition permits far more latitude for learning, and leverages the
group leader’s options in managing challenges within the team.
Whenever possible with on-going teams we recommend establishing some version
of the following guidelines:
Try On:
Risk trying on new ideas, other points of view, new behaviors; keep only what you
choose. “Speak only that which you do not know.” The anti-boredom guideline.
Protects individual freedom of thought while encouraging personal level change.
Creates a learning environment.
Self Focus:
•
•
•
•
Speak for and about yourself
Avoid generalizations such as “we,” “they”
Experiment with personal disclosure
Account for yourself
Some groups, such as academics, are rigorously trained to avoid self-focus and may
find it difficult.
Agree to Disagree:
• Make it okay to recognize when a difference is emerging
• No blame/no shame of self or other
• Strive to call forth and hold differences gracefully
12 Conflict is necessary and acceptable. It teaches us.
Confidentiality:
•
•
•
•
The no-gossip rule
Keep others’ personal sharing in the room
Ask permission to do otherwise
Test and discuss this boundary guideline
Especially consider the well-intentioned ways we all build the “grapevine.”
Watch Process:
•
•
•
•
•
Be ready to observe and discuss how meetings feel
What works
What doesn’t
Notice the shifting currents of group sentiment
Ask why and how the facilitators do what they do
For example, encourage “Both/And” thinking as an alternative to either/or
formulations and focus on Impact more than Intent.
13 Have Mercy
An additional agreement that a group may choose to install is what we call “Have
Mercy!”
There comes a time in the life of many groups when one or members establish a
pattern of talking at disproportionate length compared to other participants.
Most people find it difficult to know how to confront such behavior and simply
endure the offender’s long, often repetitive speeches, while accumulating
frustration or resentment, and exchanging sympathetic glances with other
participants who are similarly suffering.
It is difficult to confront such behavior
if there is no previous agreement to do so.
If a Have Mercy agreement was not negotiated at the time your group committed
to its Guidelines one option is to simply propose it on the spot. That might sound
like:
I am aware that some people have not contributed, that there are some
voices we have not heard and that some of us have a tendency to take up
more space than others.
I would like to propose that we adopt the option to speak up and say,
“Have Mercy!” if one of us is inadvertently speaking at significantly greater
length than others. Can we agree to that?
This agreement comes from working with circles of men in The ManKind Project
International.
In that setting we simply say, “Have Mercy, Brother” and everyone understands it
as a supportive way of asking a man to make the space for others to contribute.
14 Making Meetings Work
Guidelines for Effective Process
What follows are reminders of some of the many strategies and tactics that can
create meetings people want to return to.
If the entire team is aware of this list of possibilities together they can make
most of them live.
Remember that many process guidelines can seem to be merely platitudes until
they have been experienced in action.
Be aware that some of these options may not make the same sense to group
members who were not present for the training.
Before the Meeting:
. Develop both a content agenda and a process agenda
. Do any boring details that can be handled easily in writing outside the meeting.
. Publish the agenda ahead of each meeting, if possible, so absent members can
give their point of view to another. The absent member is responsible for their
involvement in issues raised at meetings they missed, not those who did attend
. Post the meeting process Guidelines and any desired process tools (e.g.,
Emotional Competence)
. Rotate responsibility for each group member to shepherd process issues during
the meeting, so that each develops skills in working with the tools.
Starting the Meeting:
. The leader (Chair, President, Manager) sets the container by clarifying time
boundaries, by starting on time, by accounting for people who will be absent, late
or leaving early; also by acknowledging and accounting for any physical or mental
distractions.
. Be clear about who is recording each session. Record victories, proposals,
motions, decisions, and accountabilities. Do not record discussions, reports,
rosters, etc.
15 . Confirm each meeting that a quorum has been met and that actions of this
meeting are binding, if in a formal meeting.
. Ratify the agenda even if it has been published previously: things change.
To welcome new incoming members and blend them into the team it is sometimes
useful to have returning members say what they see as gifts and talents in the new
members. Have new members say what gifts/talents they have to offer. Have the
two groups compare their lists as they present them to each other.
. For new group members, let them ask and guide their learning whenever
possible, for example by asking for what they need to become oriented before
asking returning members to render what they think the new members need.
During the Meeting:
. Set agreements with people early in the engagement about:
who has the floor,
who owns the question,
and then coach them to take 100% responsibility for the quality and focus of their
question.
16 Strategies for Creating and Growing Momentum
. Build and preserve group momentum by allowing time for people to report
their victories, and using devices such as: "I'm beginning to suspect that...," "What
I like about the proposal is...," "One thing that is working well is..."
. At every opportunity increase group members' capacity to give and receive
appreciations. Many inefficiencies can be traced directly back to group members'
feeling unrecognized or mistrustful.
. Watch each meeting for what discussions and actions truly require full group
(e.g., Board) participation, and which can be referred out. Refer smaller, detail
issues to a smaller group (e.g., committee) and larger, more complicated issues to
a larger process (e.g., Long Range Planning).
. Watch for efficiency opportunities (e.g., the Novice Game) and balance
efficiency procedures with free discussion time. Many groups find it useful to try
on the 1SQ-1SA format for at least 15" early in each meeting.
. Watch for closure and ratify it on:
a) individual transactions
b) a given process or agenda item
. When working with a given individual, if unable to obtain closure after 3 tries or
5 minutes, consider acknowledging that this will remain unfinished, make a plan
to address it later, or call for a consult from the wider group. Close with one
individual before opening with another.
. Track the meeting process for low energy, repetition, fuzzy purpose or
wandering from stated purpose. When in doubt about which process to use for a
particular agenda task, ask for a consult first from the process watcher, and
second, from the whole group. I often get great suggestions when I don't know
what to do next.
. Raise the discussion of confidentiality whenever possible. The only way to
learn and create confidentiality is to make mistakes, account for breaches, and
fully discuss how it should work.
17 . Use a "Parking Lot" chart pad to capture important ideas that are not in the
service of the current agenda, so people can stay focused and effective with the
agenda at hand.
. Ask what the purpose of each conversation is: Report? Creation? Decision?
Other? Fun?
. Use the Organizational Decision-Making Process
. When people have complaints, ask them for a concern or a feeling if
appropriate. When people have concerns, ask them to generate an option or an
alternative for the group to consider.
. If folks are not responding to opportunities to comment on an issue, an option is
to test the silence with a quick round of "What does your silence mean?" to break
up unnecessary and unfortunate assumptions about the silence. Must only be used
in a guaranteed safe environment.
. Recognize at some point each meeting that race, class, gender and age do make
an important difference in the way we meet and work.
Closing the Meeting:
. Last on the agenda should be Next Steps, and Assignments, and then close with
Appreciations, Regrets, and Learnings.
After the Meeting:
. Take time to distribute minutes to reward peoples work, bring absentee
members up to speed, and reinforce any assignments that were made.
18 Organizational Decision-Making Process
a) What decision is needed?
An “Owner” defines and poses the question for decision.
a) Who needs to be present?
This is best done usually by consensus; erring on the side of inclusion.
a) Which method is best to use?
The method is agreed to in advance, choosing from options such as:
No Decision or Action is necessary at this time
Executive Decision
Participation Discussion leading to Executive Decision, or Vote
Consensus
a) If necessary, work the consensus process
Most groups need facilitated practice on this step:
The owner presents the question for decision
Everyone is polled; everyone voices a position, either:
Agree
Have Concerns / Will Support
Have Concerns / Can't Support
Work concerns in #3 above to acceptance (Test for Sabotage)
Ratify the decision, and acknowledge each other's contributions.
a) Who needs to know the decision?
At the end of each session decide on a communication plan; determine also
how you will connect with and include members who missed the meeting.
19 Acknowledgements
Appendices
The content of this workbook has been developed by Dr. Griggs over the past 35
years at the request of his many clients – both for profit and nonprofit alike. The
clients have provided the proving ground for the concepts and skills presented here.
About Dr. Griggs
As President and CEO of New Science Consulting Group, Inc, Dr. Griggs provides
consultation to management on leadership behavior and the creation of effective,
healthy organizations. He specializes in applying insights from the study of nonlinear
dynamical systems, popularly known as New Science, to complex organizations
experiencing dynamic change. New Science refers to the updating of our scientific
world view from the 18th century Newtonian assumptions on which most
organizational behavior is founded.
He has over 35 years’ experience in organizational and human resource
development and clinical consulting, including the creation of three successful
businesses. For eight years he was Director of Employee Assistance and Managed
Mental Health Programs for Human Affairs International, Inc., a subsidiary of Aetna
Life & Casualty and the nation's largest EAP provider.
Dr. Griggs has been a consultant with Aetna on their Organizational Health
Initiative, and with VISIONS, Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., for training and consulting in
multicultural process in organizations across the U.S. He maintains a particular
interest in the creation of environments in which value and style differences are
understood and appreciated.
He is a graduate of Duke University and holds a doctorate in Clinical Psychology
from Pacific Graduate School of Psychology in Palo Alto, where he received the
Outstanding Dissertation Award and was the recipient of an Ark Foundation Peace
Research Grant. He has been adjunct faculty at Duke University and the University
of Richmond. When he is not in the mountains of North Carolina, he enjoys the
never-ending hands-on renovation of his home in one of downtown Raleigh’s
historic districts.
20 About New Science Consulting Group, Inc.
New Science is a management consulting firm, best known for our unique on-site
training programs in Executive Leadership Development, Strategic Partnering and
Cross-Cultural Teaming. We work with clients locally and internationally, with our
principal offices adjacent to the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.
We have been in business since 1975, with the firm assuming its present identity in
1992 to focus on our primary services. New Science has successfully designed and
administered major projects for clients such as IBM, GlaxoSmithKline, SAS and
Nortel Networks, and currently specializes in programs for emerging and mid-sized
companies in Bio-Technology and the Health Sciences.
Guiding Principles
• We are guided by a belief in the interconnectedness and interdependency of
all beings, such that every member of an organization and every member of
our surrounding community is of inherent and significant value.
• We regard every individual as possessing the wisdom and the power to best
determine their unique destiny.
• Accordingly we seek to understand the wisdom in every person’s
contributions, and trust that the soul of the organization will be revealed if
the individual hearts of all participants in the community are well-received.
• Therefore, we feel responsible to promote diversity in both our human and
environmental communities, and we believe that our efforts and learnings
at work should simultaneously benefit us in our personal and home lives.
We also believe recent breakthroughs in nonlinear dynamical systems research
show us a simpler way to lead and manage complex organizations.
Our consulting and training services are guided by a vision of finding ever more
elegant ways to work.
In practice this means creating simpler, more powerful interventions in complex
organizations to increase both corporate performance and personal satisfaction.
We believe in reducing paperwork, shortening meeting times, gaining several
effects for each initiative, and improving the quality of life while in the process
of meeting business objectives.” Always, we use our clients’ highest priority
21 business challenges as the curricula for our trainings and work sessions.
For Additional Information
To learn more about our programs and services please visit our website at:
www.DrThomasGriggs.com
Or contact Dr. Griggs at:
[email protected] or
919 844 1990
22