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SynerVision Leadership.org I 37
to be wrong because, if you are wrong, you
only lost a little bit, but you CAN make a
big win in the end by responding to what the
environment around you wants!
False Assumptions
“We Give Answers, Not Questions.”
This is a major gap for leaders in just about any
organizational type. We don’t focus enough
on the reality that “If you want a better
answer, ask a better question.” Normally
when we have to solve a problem, we jump
right in assuming we know the question and
all we are doing is brainstorming solutions.
Many design firms that are making a huge
impact now start at Phase Zero. The client
comes with the issue, and they take a step
back (much like how a client initially gives
a presenting concern to a counselor) and
dig into research, examining ethnography,
demographics, and other data to determine
if this is even the right problem. Then, you
develop a better question.
There is a love of certainty in organizations.
We don’t want to be the person questioning
what is now realize the importance
of asking the question and delving into
our assumptions, rather than assuming we
know the question and answer. The “Devil’s
advocate,” when it was first pioneered
within the Catholic Church, was a rotating
honorable position to ask tough questions –
not just being the overly negative person in
the audience. Roger Martin, at the University
of Toronto, teaches to stop and ask, “What
would have to be true in order for this plan
to work?” Anytime your board is meeting, it
is imperative to have someone asking that
question. Then look at what is actually true.
We need to check our assumptions before
we build our plans around them. Take an
incremental step away from the “planning
only strategy.”
False Motives
“We Tell People What to Think.”
In innovation, design, and creativity, as
in leadership, the first step is embracing
empathy. We do market research around
our demographics, and do generalizations
pinpointing our average service user or donor,
but we need to understand the motivations,
behaviors, and what lies behind their
presenting issues. We need to walk a mile in
their need to sit down and talk, and
gain empathy for what stakeholders, donors,
members, customers, etc., are feeling. Then,
you’ll have a better question; if you do that
as a leader, you become a better leader. That
is the first step. We tend to assume that if
people are coming to us, we understand what
they want. But THEY may not always know
what they want. There are brilliant products
out there, making a difference, that people
didn’t even know they wanted. Henry Ford
once said, “If I asked the customer what he
wanted, he would have said a faster horse.”
Ford’s faster horse was very different than
what they would have asked for!
It takes empathy to understand what is
behind why customers are coming to you.
Nonprofits are great at having empathy for
the people that they are serving, but that may
not extend to why people volunteer, or give,
or function in leadership.Then, we tailor our
communications to those populations based
on our understandings. The American Red
Cross worked with IDEO to understand,
not how to get blood out there faster, but
how to have empathy for blood donors
and make it more likely to get donors. You
would think that with simple marketing,
more people would know and they would
grow. But they found that people make a
personal connection to someone they knew
who had received blood. Letting people share
stories of why they donate, with the people
that come into the room next, increased the
donations greater than any sort of marketing
or PR campaign.That starts with empathy!
David Burkus, author of The Myths of Creativity and
LDRLB: Leadership, Innovation & Strategy, and
writes for The Creativity Post and 99U. His passion
is leadership, innovation, strategy, and the transfer of
good ideas.
• To state who the people with positive
energy are in the department.
• To complete an exercise called Start,
Continue, Stop.
This may not work for every leader, but you
have to find ways to get the lay of the land the
quickest, without any preconceived notions. I
try to remind myself, have a very strong sense
of urgency, but don’t rush.
When all else fails, act like you have it under
control even when you don’t. There will be
times that the old saying is true, and you feel
like you are drinking from a fire hose, and
that may be the case, but act like you’ve got
it under control – you are in that position for
a reason.
It is also important to identify the big things
and tackle those first. Major on the majors,
and don’t get down into the minutiae or
something really controversial that you don’t
have to address early on. You need to be very
delicate with tradition and pick your spots for
change.
Tradition in Organizations
If you are going to make a change, you always
want to over-communicate the “why” behind
it. Too often, we as leaders think that sharing
once is enough, but you need to keep coming
back to “why” change is needed. There is a
great book by Simon Sinek, Start With Why,
that points out it isn’t enough for us to say
that a change is happening because “we said
so.” You really need to circle back and make
sure that you are communicating the why
behind it. If the reasoning is sound, then
most likely people will accept it.
If you are going to pick your spots for change,
go after low hanging fruit first.That way, you
as a leader can show a track record of success.
That gives others the ability to acknowledge
the success of the changes you make.
Traditions are there for a reason, and if it is
not broken, you don’t necessarily have to fix it.
But at the same time, you have to modernize
and move the organization forward. Pick
your spots, over communicate it, and then
be successful with the ones that you tackle
first.This gives you the benefit of the doubt as
you move along in your tenure. It is certainly
more art than science!
Whit Babcock, a former baseball player at James
Madison University, became Virginia Tech’s director
of athletics in January 2014 following two years as
the director of athletics at the University of Cincinnati.
Babcock’s 20-year career path included stops at
Missouri, West Virginia, Auburn and JMU.
Babcock, continued from page 35