“We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the seemingly impossible to become a reality.” – Vaclav Have

Robert H. Goddard, the driving force behind America’s early space programs, is today called “the father of space flight.”  But when he first imagined that a rocket could be propelled through outer space, the New York Times ridiculed his dream, saying he lacked even “the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools!” With no atmosphere in outer space, and therefore nothing for an engine to thrust against, the NY Times explained a rocket could not move an inch.  That was in 1920.

Goddard stuck to his dream, insisting, “It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.”

In 1969, when the Apollo 11 mission reached the moon, the NY Times reconsidered its earlier scoffing and mocked itself in an editorial that included these words: “Further investigation and experimentation have confirmed the findings of Issac Newton in the 17th century, and it is now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum as well as in an atmosphere.  The New York Times regrets the error.”

** Psychologist Abraham Maslow said when we free ourselves from the constraints of ordinary goals and uninformed scoffers, we will find ourselves “roaring off the face of the earth.” That is what happens when we, by faith, step in the direction of our beliefs and goals, rather than allowing ourselves to be distracted by naysayers who are content to live a mediocre life. 

** Stay focused, and move in the direction of your dreams.  Do not let anyone belittle your dreams out of you – for one day they may owe you an apology for scoffing at your idea as well!

“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” – Arthur C. Clarke

William Ury explains in “The Power of a Positive No” that perhaps the single biggest mistake we make when we say No is to start from No. We derive our No from what we are against — from what we do not want. A Positive No calls on us to do the exact opposite - to base our No on what we are for - on what we really want to accomplish in life. That the true power of “no” is rooted in a deeper “Yes” — a Yes that align with our core values, interests and dreams.

I read of someone who suffered from a serious addiction to alcohol that nearly cost him and others their lives in a car accident. He tried many times to give up the habit but always failed. Then at the age of sixty, just when all hope seemed lost, he found in himself the will to say No and stop drinking. The secret? “When my first grandchild was born,” he says, “I wanted more than anything to live long enough to see him grow up. It was his birth that motivated me to get treatment and stop drinking. Since then, for over fifteen years now, I have not touched a drop.” His Yes to being present for his grandchildren — to be able to play with them and see them grow — motivated his powerful No to alcohol.

His story serves to illustrate an everyday paradoxical truth: The power of your No comes directly from the power of your Yes.

From reactive to proactive… The biggest obstacle to saying No successfully is our tendency to act, and make decisions, without clear purpose - thus our Nos tend to be reactive. Start today by defining your YES. Intensely clarify your underlying goals, values and dreams - which will serve as a guides, and enable you to confidently say “No.”

1. EXECUTION – “It’s not your strategic choices that drive success, but how well you implement them over time.”

2. THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION – “A learning organization is one that is deliberately designed to encourage their people to keep thinking, innovating, collaborating, talking candidly, improving their capabilities, and making personal commitments - thereby increasing the organization’s long-term competitive advantage.”

3. CORPORATE VALUES – “Companies that care about ethics, trust, citizenship, and even meaning and spirituality in the workplace (and articulate their values carefully) far out perform companies that are focused simply on the bottom-line.”

4. CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT – “The cultivation of long-term relationships with customers, and their needs, leads to highly focused companies that seek to make consumers part of their family.”

5. DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY – “Embracing technological innovation can radically undermine competitors that remain vulnerable because of their own efforts to simply make current technologies more efficient… So in this there is a warning: Preempt your own comfort zone by adopting a new, “disruptive technology” yourself - before others beat you to it.”

6. LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT – “You can train all your employees to be better choosers, strategists, managers, and in the end, better leaders. Do just that.”

7. ALIGNED DNA – “Innovative leaders design their organization’s structures, incentives, reporting relationships, and flow of information to create high performance by aligning them with one another and to the strategic vision and goals.”

8. COMPLEXITY THEORY – “Markets and businesses are complex systems that can not be controlled mechanistically - but need to be carefully guided as they emerge (through complexity) toward new and more effective systems and processes.”

9. LEAN THINKING – “Help employees use a heightened awareness of wisdom and conscientiousness to cut waste, eliminate cost, boost quality, and customize mass production.”

Researchers studied exceptionally high performing teams – teams that consistently accomplish the “impossible” in challenging circumstances – and found 6 key factors that separated those teams from the rest.

(It is interesting that each factor related to how mutual understanding, trust, and respect were established in the team.  They found that effective communication, trust, and understanding created an environment where exceptionally high results could later be attained.)

These 6 elements were:

1) This is the work I am best at…  Research found that highly effective team members had a clear understanding regarding their personal strengths – the kind of work they do best.  In addition, each member had a mutual understanding of team member’s strengths.

2) These are my values… A person will not put their heart into something they do not personally value.  Commitment to exceptional work rises significantly, not when an individual is clear about the organization’s values, but when they are clear about their own values – and if those values then align with those of the organization.  Highly effective team members are able to communicate (and demonstrate) to others: “These are the values that matter most to me.”  And again… there is mutual understanding and respect on the team.

3) This is what energized me…  This may have nothing to do with work, and this is fine: “Here are some of my most compelling life interests and passions… These are the activities or pursuits I have a blast doing and make me feel the happiest.” Team members know each other at this deeper level.

4) This is what I need in order to learn and work at my best…  Team members need to understand how each member personally learns and works at their highest level.  For example: In their work environment, do they like music, or quiet?  What temperature do they work in the best?  What type of environment is the most productive?

5) These are the results I can be expected to deliver… Each team member needs to be clear, and communicate to the rest of the team: “You can count on me to deliver the following specific results, and by when.”  Members on highly effective teams know the answer to this question for each person.

6) This is what I need to feel genuinely respected and recognized… “To give my best at work, here’s what I need to feel genuinely respected and recognized as part of this team.”  Again, research has shown that there is mutual understanding (and respect) on highly performing teams.

Challenge: How accurately can you describe each of these 6 items about yourself?  How much do you know regarding the others who serve on your teams?  The clearer you are on these issues, the more effective your (and the team’s) performance will be.

“I want to live while I’m alive…” - Jon Bon Jovi

The book “Toward The Final Crossroads”, is a biography of Howard and Edna Hong, who together translated volumes of book written by Soren Kierkegaard into English. They also founded the Kierkegaard library at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Just prior to World War II, Howard and Edna spent their honeymoon in Denmark, beginning their translations work while riding a tandem bike through Europe… Post WWII, they worked aiding war prisoners and refugees in Scandinavia, Austria and Germany.

On returning home to the United States, they were teachers at St. Olaf College and raised a family of eight children - both naturally born and adopted. One of the contributors to their biography described Edna as having great physical, mental and spiritual energy. At Edna’s death she wrote, “I feel weepy to think that she is no longer in the world, she was a vision of active goodness.”

Our own story is compiled in how we understand - and then make choices - at various crossroads in our life. In fact, every choice we make contributes to shaping and defining our life story.

Such is the power of choice. It can bring us closer to, or further from, our dreams. A good part of our waking day is spent in making choices. It begins as soon as the alarm goes off. Do we get out of bed or push the snooze button? Do we prepare for work or call in sick? At the job, do we work with excellence or goof off? Then all during the day we continue making choices as we decide what to do next. Do I tackle the most important task, or let myself drift into doing the mundane? Do I focus on moving forward, or settle for the least resistant path? Each decision leads us down the path of success - or causes us to remain sitting on a pile of mediocrity.

What kind of life are you choosing to live?

“Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.” - Soren Kierkegaard

* Adapted from an email sent to me from my mom.

The first Roman Emperor, Augustus, built over 1000 magnificent structures – including bridges, building, monuments, and aqueducts.  Today, we still marvel at the remnants of Augustus’s grand designs.  But what came next – after all this greatness in the Empire was achieved? ...  Slow ruin.

** The same can happen to “great” individuals, groups, and organizations.  For example, each year Forbes Magazine names a “Company of the Year,” based on past performance and projected staying power.  Yet since 1995, more than one half of these companies have suffered major decline, many very soon after being named.  Of the Fortune 500 Companies listed in 1955, 70 percent are now out of business.  Of the companies on the list in 1977, 40 percent no longer exist.  Of those in 2000, 30 percent are already gone. 

The evidence shows that few of today’s “great” companies will sustain their current level of excellence.  The reason is that staying great requires an organization to constantly change and adapt. But instead, many “great” companies loose their posture of ingenuity and instead assume a new posture of protecting their newfound “greatness.”

All this makes “great” a dangerous place to be – for whenever we become great at something, we instinctively stop doing the new and ingenious things that grew that greatness, and unconsciously switch our attention to holding on to our lead, or fame.  We keep trying to repeat (and protect) what we believe got us to the top.  For example, just before being decisively defeated by Wellington’s innovative war tactics, Napoleon said, “My way is proven superior!”

Star performing individuals, teams, and organizations appreciate getting across the line of greatness, but they are quick to move on and ask, “What’s deeper?  What’s better?  What’s next?”  And to do this requires courage and sustained curiosity – and keeping one’s fears and protective instincts at bay.

** Challenge: What new choices can propel you toward the outer edges of what’s possible?

** Challenge #2: Go out of your way to talk with spirited and demanding people who are NOT satisfied –people who disrupt the status quo instead of settle for it.  Partner with clients who push your limits.  Associate with men and women who provide the stimulus to reach what is still possible.  Make choices to turn a novel, and seemingly impossible goal, into reality.
 

Instead, leaders need to understand that we live in a “self-organizing” world - where change is constantly happening - and thus needs to be understood as a power, a presence, a part of the way the world naturally works. Change is a natural, spontaneous, movement toward new forms of order, new patterns of creativity.

Since we live in a world, and work in organizations, that are constantly self-organizing. - leaders need to keep the following seven perspectives in mind:

1) We live in a world in which life wants to happen. Despite the influenced of Darwinian’s evolutionary theory, which said life was an accident, we live in a world where life wants to happen - where natural improvements want to occur.

2) Organizations are living systems, because the people within them are living beings. The image that the world, or an organization, is some kind of “machine” is an outdated model. The world is not a machine - nor do people act like machines. People have intelligence, freewill, passion and dreams. People are capable of significant change, whereas “machines” have no capacity for real change - apart from being reprogramed by some external entity.

3) We live in a universe that is alive, creative, and experimenting. We live in a world which is constantly exploring what’s possible, finding new combinations - playing and tinkering to find what is still possible. Likewise, people are intelligent, creative, adaptive - and seek ways to create new and better possibilities.

4) Life uses messes to create new, well-ordered solutions. Life is incredibly messy. But what at first glance what may appear messy and inefficient may actually be life experimenting - discovering what is possible. This is a recurring phenomenon in the re-creation of eco-systems. Life uses messes, and (if allowed to play out) the direction is always toward healthier systems and organization.

5) Life is intent on finding what works, not what’s right. It is not ego-attached to what it believes is the only solution, the only right answer. How many relationships split up because of arguments about who is right? Yet when you look around, you see life tinkering, experimenting, playing, as if to say, “If it works, fine; and if it doesn’t work, let’s see if we can find a way that does work.”

6) Life creates more possibilities as it engages with opportunities. The phrase a “narrow window of opportunity” is not true. Systems don’t work that way. If a particular opportunity is not fulfilled, there are always many others being created to engage with. Thought the timing of new opportunities may be unpredictable, they will naturally occur in healthy systems.

7) Life organizes around identity. Life organizes spontaneously and creatively, but it always organizes around a cause or purpose. When we see self-organization, we are watching systems organize into a more meaningful substance.

If you start to think about this for a while, change is happening all the time. People change all the time. Organizations change all the time. That’s who we are. Thus in a self-organizing world, a leader should not only embrace that there is a natural tendency toward change, but seek to facilitate the natural flow of change in ways that uncover new connections, relationships and methods.

** Leaders need to realize that efforts to foster change - not to “manage change” - is the key to facilitating innovation and healthy growth.

Adapted from an article by Margret Wheatley.

Why is their success limited? They let their “brain” override the often times greater wisdom that is coming from somewhere else.  And that somewhere else is their “gut.”  Simply stated: Most of the time, your gut knows way more than your brain does.  Aristotle wrote, “The brain is not solely in the head.  The Brain is in the heart and more.”  Many highly successful businessmen, pastors, and leaders do not have the sharpest intellect, but have learned how to leverage their ingenuity, creativity, and gut.

** Retired CEO’s were surveyed and asked what was their biggest regret as a leader?  Near the top of the list what the response, “When I did not trust my gut in a leadership situation.”

As a leader, you must not allow your intellect, and ability to analyze, suppress your “intuition” in a decision-making process.  Your “gut” is the part of you which many times is smarter than your brain, reacts faster than your brain, and reads opportunities with discerning clarity.  So when you find yourself saying (or thinking,) “Something inside is telling me…”  Then stop right there and pay attention to what it is saying! 

** So how can a leader develop their “gut?”

Whenever an important question or challenge arises, pause before you say anything, or act out in any way, and ask:
1) What do my instincts say?  What is my gut saying to me?
2) Why might it be saying that?
3) What does my deeper experience say?
4) What are some potential, yet hidden, breakthroughs?
5) What’s deeper? What’s more?

Many leaders are hesitant to look past their intellect to tune into what their gut (or heart) is telling them.  Yet highly effective leaders have come to peace with how their “gut” will many times lead them – and they use that inner wisdom for their advantage.

Steve Jobs – CEO of Apple – said, “Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the result of other people’s thinking.  Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.  And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.  They somehow already know what you truly want to become and do.  Everything else is secondary.”

** What is your gut telling you right now?

Leadership agility…

Like agile organizations, “Leadership Agility” is the ability to take wise and effective action amid complex, rapidly changing conditions.

In their book, “Leadership Agility,” Bill Joiner and Stephen Josephs writes that research “reveals a significant set of findings about the relationship between personal development and leadership effectiveness: As adults grow toward realizing their potential, they develop a constellation of mental and emotional capacities that are the very capacities needed for agile leadership.”

Personal development leads to more purposeful and visionary thinking - and more resilience in responding to change and uncertainty. It enables diverse perspectives and a greater capacity for resolving differences with other people. Leaders on self development plans are also more self-aware, more attuned to their experience, more interested in feedback from others, and better at working through inner conflicts.

The question is, “How can we begin to move through these stages of development?” Simply put, leaders get there by practice—by putting new capacities and understanding to work - and learning to apply them in various leadership contexts. The following diagram details the various dimensions that a maturing, agile, leader needs to be competent to maneuver within.

The outer circle on this graphic represents the tasks carried out using four leadership agility competencies. The middle circle represents the four pairs of capacities that support these competencies. The four mutually reinforcing competencies are:

1) Context-setting agility improves your ability to scan your environment, frame the initiatives you need to take, and clarify the outcomes you need to achieve. It entails stepping back and determining the best initiatives to take - given the changes taking place in your larger environment.

2) Stakeholder agility increases your ability to engage with key stakeholders in ways that build support for your various initiatives. It requires you to step back from your own views and objectives to consider the needs and perspectives of those who have a stake in your initiatives.

3) Creative agility enables you to transform the problems you encounter into the results you need. It involves stepping back from your habitual assumptions and developing optimal solutions to the complex issues you face.

4) Self-leadership agility is the ability to use your initiatives as opportunities to develop into the kind of leader you want to be. It entails stepping back; becoming more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors; and experimenting with new and more effective approaches.

Thinking Backwards is a creative technique for exploring a new idea. As an innovative exercise, start with an assumption that something you did not expect - has actually occurred. Then, put yourself into the future, looking back to explain how this could have happened. Think what must have happened six months or a year earlier to set the stage for the realization of this outcome (good or bad) - What must have happened six months, or a year before, to prepare the way - and then work your processing on toward the present.

Thinking backwards changes the focus from whether something might happen to how it can happen. Putting yourself into the future creates a different perspective that keeps you from getting too anchored in the present. When thinking this way, one can often construct a plausible scenario for an event they had previously thought unlikely. Thinking backwards is particularly helpful for situations that may have a low probability of occurring - but would have very serious consequences if they did occur. (ie, BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico!)

(The ”Crystal Ball” approach works in much the same way as thinking backwards. Imagine that a “perfect” intelligence source (such as God, or a crystal ball) has told you a certain assumption you hold is wrong. You must then develop a scenario to explain how this could be true. If you can develop a plausible scenario, this suggests your assumption needs to be open to further question and review.)

It’s winter in Wisconsin.  Ten degrees outside.  Snowbanks line the roads and ice on sidewalks make walking hazardous.  Frank Daily, fourteen years old, has just boarded city bus number ten along with many of his schoolmates, on his way home from school.  The bus driver is John “Kojak” Williams.  The bus heads west on Blue Mound Road.

While his schoolmates chatter in other parts of the bus, Frank sits alone near the front, lost in thought.  He’s having a hard time fitting in at his new school.  He looks down at his new NIKE sneakers and remembers the disappointment he felt when he failed to make the school’s basketball team a few days prior.  He feels lonely and invisible.

The bus stops and a woman slowly climbs the steps, wearing old clothes, no shoes, and only tattered socks.  She settles into a seat behind the bus driver, a few rows in front of Frank.  Many of Frank’s classmates are laughing; the bus driver yells at them to quiet down.

The driver asks, “Where are your shoes, lady?”
“I can’t afford shoes right now,” she answers.  “I got on the bus to get my feet warm.  If you don’t mind, I’ll just ride around for a bit.”
“I’ve got kids,” she says.  “They have shoes, but there’s not enough for me, but that’s okay.  The Lord will take care of me.”

Frank looks down at his new NIKES and thinks about this woman. Under the seat, he unties his shoes and slips them off.  When the bus reaches his stop, he picks up his shoes, walks up to the woman, and hands them to her.  As he steps out the door to head home, he hears what the derisive hoots from some of his callous schoolmates.

Frank Daily’s story might never been told except that Kojak, the bus driver, thought it was remarkable enough to contact the local newspaper and tell it to a reporter.  “In twenty years driving a city bus I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said, adding, “those shoes fit that woman just fine.”

** Character is not what you think or what you intend; it is what you do.  Without action, our character is quite useless.

** How does your character need to be proactively displayed… today?

“We are not meant, in the grand scheme of life, to be happy and comfortable. Rather we are meant to forge our characters on the anvil of adversity…

Most of us experience monumental periods of adversity — to burn away our self-deception. These devastating setbacks propel us in our quest to become fully and creatively human.

Sometimes we get stuck, so stuck, in fact, that only great pain will impel us to move. It’s then that the power of adversity is revealed. But to see it requires a new way of looking at the world, a radical shifting of perspective.

The walls of your adversity might seem too high to scale. Never mind. Don’t look up and don’t look down. Look straight ahead, find that first foothold, and climb. Soon that wall will become merely a stepping stone to the next phase of your life — and (surprise!) your next adversity. At that time recall the concept of sweat equity and realize that when you leverage your learning from adversity past and present there is no failure and no wasted time.”

— Al Weatherhead and Fred Feldman, The Power of Adversity

“Classic economic theory, based as it is on an inadequate theory of human motivation, could be revolutionized by accepting the reality of higher human needs, including the impulse to self actualization and the love for the highest values.” - Abraham Maslow quotes

This video by Dan Pink provides an insightful overview as to what truly motivates people. This is a critical consideration, for unless a leader can inspire and motivate individuals to embrace and passionately pursue the vision of the organization – their leadership fails. Take time to watch the following video clip:

In assessing why premier organizations start to experience decline or failure – the following themes stand out:

• Products or services are priced higher relative to the competition, yet do not offer a significant level of added value.

• Innovative and aggressive competition is not acknowledged, nor respected.

• There is a low sense of urgency. The organization has become reactive, verses proactive in its posture.

• The quality of service is declining or faltering – and excuses are being made as to why this is happening – allowing the trend to continue.

• There is a high level of staff (or member) turnover and/or disengaged staff – and organizational leaders are ignoring the underlying reasons for this trend.

• (Related to the point above…) The organization keeps, and even protects, marginally competent staff, managers, and leaders. The organization takes the easier road of keeping a marginally competent person, verses making needed changes regarding the level of competency.

• There is a history of poor recoveries with customers when inadequate service has been provided.

• The leaders in the organization are are primarily focused on internal factors – on internal processes, operations, staff, measurements, and policies.

• The organization is slower and slower to innovate.  Innovation only occurs when it is forced upon them.

Finally, the death of an organization is imminent when its leaders lack an understanding (or remain in denial) regarding why these factors are occurring.  Instead, they make excuses and transfer the blame for the decline to something outside their control. 

Which issues mentioned above is your organization prone toward?  What are you doing about it?