The Energy I Bring

I had a few frustrating experiences over the last few days, and I got cranky and moody.  Kind of a downer for the family.  I'm back to feeling upbeat now, but I had to remind myself of something I read in the book My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, by Jill Bolte Taylor.  Taylor says that "you need to be responsible for the energy you bring into the room."  My responsibilities don't stop with the things I'm supposed to DO.  I'm also responsible for how I contribute to the mood of the house, or the office.

I'm not saying I should stifle negative emotions.  Everyone knows that denying emotion does more harm than good.  But I still need to be mindful of whether my energy is bringing people up or down, and work to keep my impact positive most of the time.

Black and White Goals

When you want change for an organization or for your self, it can help to set "B&W" goals.  These are goals that leave no room for interpretation, no room for "this will be good enough".  Instead of goals such as, "I'll exercise more", the goal should be "I'll walk at least 10,000 steps per day as measured by my iPhone or my electronic pedometer which (DARN IT!) synchs to a website so that my results are automatically documented."  This yet another of the many lessons I've gained from the fantastic book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by Chip and Dan Heath.

In the case of organizational change, such as the large project I've been alluding to in my last few blog postings, I need to carefully set "B&W" goals because some people have been pushing the project to skip some of the steps that all the experts know are VITAL to succeed.  We can't get to the endpoint and skip these steps any easier than a farmer can reap a harvest without first planting seeds.  So I need to portray these intermediate steps as black and white goals.  I need to say that, "This is the process to get to the endpoint, the ONLY process that gets to the endpoint.  No steps can be skipped or the process is guaranteed to fail and here is why."  If I'm clear and consistent that there is no other way, and can teach those who are pushing hardest why this is the way things are, and if I make the steps absolutely black and white, I might be better able to eliminate any "wiggle room" about how we will approach the work.

Focus on the Winners

Another thing I learned from the book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by Chip and Dan Heath, is that, when you want to make big changes in a large organization and do this when you are NOT the boss, then it helps to focus on whoever is winning.  Who is getting the best results?  What are they doing differently?  I might not be an expert and I might not have any authority to dictate anything.  But if I can identify the people who are getting the best results, and I can figure out how they are doing this, I gain knowledge that can transform the rest of the organization.

The authors tell a powerful story to illustrate their point.  In 1990, Jerry Sternin was working for Save the Children and was sent to Vietnam to improve childhood nutrition in poor rural villages.  The Vietnamese government told him they were not thrilled to have him there and gave him six months to "make a difference", but offered no support.  He had almost no money or staff.  It was a classic case of trying to make a huge impact on a large number of people with no authority, staffing, or resources.

So what did Sternin do?  He focused on the winners.  Which families in these poor villages managed to have healthy, well-nourished children?  He collected data on children's weight and size and other indications of nutritional health to identify those families that were somehow keeping their kids healthy despite having the same burdens of poverty and sanitation that the other villagers faced.  What were they doing differently?

Eventually, working with the mothers in these families, he discovered subtle differences in the foods they gave their children.  These were foods available to all the families living in these conditions and doing this type of farming.  But the families of the healthier children had them eat things like sweet potato greens and shrimp and crabs from rice paddies.  These foods were available to all the families at this level of income, but only the families with healthy children were eating them.

Sternin was not a nutritional expert, he had no government support, he had little money or staff, but his discovery of what was DIFFERENT about the successful families caused nutrition to measurably improve in 65% of the families at the first Vietnamese village he worked with.  Eventually, the program delivered measurable gains in nutritional health for 2.2 million Vietnamese people in 265 villages.  Not because Sternin was an expert or could tell people what to do.  Only because he recognized, championed, and reapplied the best practices that other people were already doing.

In the case of my recent projects, the stakes are nothing compared to what Sternin was dealing with.  I'm just dealing with some ordinary business needs at a company.  But I found my "winners" in a part of the business that I know little about, an area where I have no authority or track record.  But I'm finding that the more I focus on understanding what these "winners" are doing and telling others why their methods seem to be working, the more I'm able to influence large numbers of people to be open to change.

Time to Strategize

In my last blog post, I talked about a breakthrough in kicking off a new project.  Thanks to that pivotal two day kickoff meeting, people started to value what the project might do for them.  They started to understand the point of view of people in other functions and work locations.  Relationships and trust were strengthened.  Everyone, at least to some degree, seemed to be coming together on a vision and on many specific goals.

But we can't just feel warm and fuzzy because we have new feelings of collaboration and alignment and because we sort of know where we want to go.  Yes, that feels good.  But who will do what and when?  How will we review action plans, review results, and adjust the plans?  How will we measure success?  How will we report results to our sponsors?  How will we ask for help when we run into barriers?  This week, the chess game begins.