Natural Leader

A few years ago, one of my students, a marketing director at a high-tech company, applied this concept in a really powerful way. She worked for a software developer, and it was company practice to send out documentation with all of the company's new software releases. She and her team were brainstorming ways to cut their budget. They looked at every way they could think of to reduce costs: Switch to a lower grade of paper, use soy-based ink, choose a smaller font, do more with graphics, cut down on words. She realized that the context for the conversation included the assumption that they had to have documentation. So they came up with the idea to send postcards to their customers. These cards had four options. The first one was, "Don't send documentation. We don't read it anyway." The second one was, "Don't send documentation. We'll use tech support." The third one was, "Don't send documentation. Save a tree." And the fourth one was, "Please send documentation." Only 5% of their customers wanted documentation, and the company saved $400,000 that quarter. Now, that's an example of hearing context and shifting people's perceptions of how to move forward -- and then linking it to the bottom line.

Cathedrals of Change, Conversations for Action

Having a breakthrough idea is a great start. How do you turn that idea into action?

Relationships are absolutely critical. And typically, a relationship is viewed from a personality context: Do I like you or do I not like you? Are you my type of person? Is your style a good fit? We don't go there in our program. I mean, it's always a bonus if you can get personalities to mesh, but it's not a prerequisite to being able to lead profound change. What is a prerequisite is having a relationship with a foundation that is strong enough to build what I call a "cathedral of change." And a lot of people are trying to build cathedrals on these puny little foundations that won't support the structure.

The basic point: Trust is absolutely fundamental to getting anything done. And in organizations, it's one of the biggest issues that people don't talk about but that impedes progress. For most of us, trust is like money in a bank account -- units in, units out. If you meet my expectations over time, then I'll put some coins in the bank. Clink, clink, clink, clink -- and now you've earned my trust. And if you don't, or if you upset me, then I'll take some coins out.

That's one whole dimension of trust, but it's not the only one. Another dimension of trust comes in when you give trust to people before they've earned it. Now, that's a heroic moment. To give trust before a person has earned it is a very risky deal. And most organizations would tell you not to do that because your reputation is on the line. Your credibility is on the line. You're gonna trust somebody who you don't even know? Well, we do it all the time. We just don't notice it.

Are there things that a leader needs to know?

You have to know how to have what I call "conversations for action." Everybody spends time in meetings where there's a lot of talk and not a lot of action. That's because we don't identify which kinds of conversations result in performance. For instance, in a football game, you have a conversation going on in the huddle. The quarterback says something like, "Okay, drop back, pass protection, sprint out right, pass on two." That's a set of instructions. He's asking that the front line form a V-shape protective shield around him so that the other team doesn't crush him. He's requesting that the two folks on the end go down the field, cut across it, and wait for him to throw them the ball, and he's promising that he's going to drop back, kind of veer off to the right, and throw a pass to one of those two people. That's a conversation for action.

There are other conversations going on at the same time. There are people in the press box who are saying, "Well, there's Steve Young again. The last time he was in this situation, blah, blah, blah, blah." Nothing that they say has any effect on the game at all. Then there are the people in the stands who are saying, "Gee, I really don't like these hot dogs. The ones at Price Club are so much better." Not a bit of influence on the game. Well, the same thing happens in organizations. People are having conversations for action. They are attempting to move the organization into the future, or to move the product into the marketplace. And then there are the other people who are sitting in the stands or sitting in the press box who are talking about what could or should or would have happened.