What is different about your approach to leadership?
For most people, leadership is about "what you need to know" and "what you need to do." But Amazon.com sells more than 1,000 books that will tell you what you need to know and what you need to do. We work on who you need to be, which we call the "context." It's the being aspect of leadership that enables breakthroughs in what people do and what they learn. In my classes, I'm going for those "aha" moments, which are really the ignition and illumination of the genius of the participants themselves. That experience is much more meaningful and relevant than trying to learn someone else's shtick or methodology for leadership.
What do you mean by "context"?
Context can be an individual's mind-set or the organizational culture. It includes all of the assumptions and norms that are brought to the table. Context is perception, as opposed to facts or data. People don't go off and design their context -- they just inherit it. So take anything from racism to sexism to what you think you can and can't do: It's all pretty much inheritance. It's conversations, oral tradition, all that kind of stuff. When you slow down enough to examine those ideas, you might realize, Oh my gosh! I've been operating as though everyone else knew more than I did, just because back in grade school I was put in the bluebird reading group, instead of in the faster robin group. So it might be that kind of a deep individual insight that allows you to see that your whole context has been that you're a second-rate player.
Most change programs inside of companies don't work because they address content (the knowledge, structure, and data in a company) or process (the activities and behaviors), but they never address the context in which both of those elements reside. The source of people's action isn't what they know but how they perceive the world around them. And that's a very different thing to work on than knowledge or information.
How do you change the way that people perceive the world?
I'll give you an example from my life, something personal rather than professional. When my daughter Chelsea was eight, I coached her softball team. On one of the first days of practice, I have everyone try to do some batting. I take a really soft, spongy ball, and I toss it to the first girl. She's standing maybe 10 feet away, I'm throwing baby tosses, and she screams and hides her head. So I say, "Hey, no problem, Suzy. Go to the back of the line. That's fine. Betsy, you step up." Next girl in line. She does the same thing -- buries her head and screams. So I'm realizing that this is going to be a really long practice if we don't do something different.
I go out to my car where I have my handy whiteboard markers in my briefcase. I take the bag of practice balls and draw four smiley faces -- red, black, blue, and green -- on each ball. When you look at a ball, all you see is one smiley face. I go back out and call the girls back over: "Okay. We're going to play a different game this time," I say. "This time, your job is to name the color of the smiley face. That's all you have to do."
So little Suzy stands up, and I toss a ball by her. She watches it all the way and goes, "Red." Next girl, Betsy, gets up there. Betsy goes, "Green." They're all just chirping with excitement because they can identify the color of the smiley face, so I say, "Okay. Now I want you to do the same thing, only this time I want you to hold the bat on your shoulder when the ball goes by." Same level of success. Excitement builds. The third time through, I ask them to touch the smiley face with the bat.
We beat our opponents 27 to 1 in the first game. I can't tell you how many Little League baseball games I have been to where parents and coaches are yelling at the boys, "Stand up straight. Hold up that bat elbow. Dig in that back foot. Rotate those hips." They're giving all kinds of detailed instructions to get the kids to change their actions -- instead of doing what I did, which was to work hard on shifting the kids' perceptions. When you shift people's perceptions, their actions follow.
How would that approach play out in a business setting?
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