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Hanley-ICL HEALTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Program
HLD II
Understanding the Problem and Potential Solutions
- Ron Heifitz
Situation Problem Solution & Primary Kind of Implications
Definition Implementation Locus of Work for
Responsibility Leadership
Type I Clear Clear
Expert Technical Content
expertise
Type II Clear Requires Expert and Technical
learning constituents and Content
adaptive and process
expertise
Type III Requires Requires Constituents Adaptive
learning learning > experts Primarily
process
expertise
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Hanley-ICL HEALTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Program
HLD II
Building the Civic Community: Social Capital
FROM ROBERT PUTNAM, BOWLING ALONE:
“ …refers to features of social organization, such as networks, norms and social trust, that facilitate
coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit.”
Two Types:
Bonding Social Capital: Networks and connections between homogeneous groups
Building Social Capital: Social networks across differences between social heterogeneous
groups
The stronger the civic community, the higher quality the governance.
Elements of Strong Civic Community:
High level of civic engagement
Political equality and equity
Norms of trust, tolerance, and reciprocity
Social structures for cooperation and collaboration
Leading to a steadier commitment to the broader good and better public services and
systems.
Social Capital influences:
Quality of public life
Performance of social institutions
Governance
CARLOS GARCIA TIMON:
Structural dimensions of social capital:
Structural: the ease or difficulty of making ties to others within a system
Relational: the character of the connections between individuals – level of trust,
communication, cooperation, ability to deal with differences, etc.
Cognitive: shared meaning and understanding that groups or individuals share with other
groups or individuals
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Hanley-ICL HEALTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Program
HLD II
Critical Aspects of a Collaborative Process
David Chrislip
When collaboration works, these four aspects are well managed. They are not
easy, but they do lead to good results.
1. Choosing a focus for collaboration
Are there concerns that should be addressed?
Is collaboration appropriate for the concerns?
Should we work together? How?
Do we have shared agreement on the underlying issue?
Do we have a definition of the problem or a vision, and have we let go of our preconceived
positions to widen our thinking?
Have we identified strategies to address the issue?
Do we have a plan and process for implementing and managing the strategies?
2. Inclusion
Who participates? Looking for:
1. Usual and unusual voices
2. Perspectives and experiences
3. Reflection of the broader community, including opinions and views
4. Oomph: collective credibility
3. Constructive process
How to engage stakeholders?
4. Strong, credible facilitative leadership in the stakeholder group
Who guides the process toward meaningful results?
Identify at the onset and allow for others to emerge during the process.
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Hanley-ICL HEALTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Program
HLD II
Understanding the Context for Collaboration
Before convening a stakeholder group to collaborate on addressing a complex issue, use these areas
of discussion to understand readiness and context.
1. The issue-related dynamics in the community
Four questions help define the challenges that must be addressed:
· What makes leadership difficult on this issue?
· What is the level of conflict among stakeholders?
· What is the perceived need to address the issue in the community or region?
· What is the capacity to address the issue in the community or region?
Use a graduated scale - such as low, medium, high - to identify relative levels, rather than seeking
precise information. Stick to the questions and avoid jumping ahead to prescribe what should be
done.
2. Background information about the possible scope and focus of a collaborative process
· Are there currently or have there been other initiatives in the community or region to
address this issue?
- What are/were the results?
- Who were the primary players involved in these initiatives?
· What interest groups are most concerned about the issue?
· How many stakeholders might be engaged in a collaborative process?
· Are there other stakeholders/leaders who would support a collaborative initiative to address
this issue or support new efforts to enhance existing initiatives?
· Where is the appropriate locus of work (neighborhood, community, region, state, national)?
3. The level of stakeholder agreement.
Three questions help assess the initial level of stakeholder agreement:
· Have stakeholders agreed there are concerns that should be addressed?
· Have stakeholders agreed to work together to address the concerns?
· Have stakeholders agreed on how to work together to address the concerns?
The initial planning for a collaborative process begins with the first negative answer.
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Hanley-ICL HEALTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Program
HLD II
There is an Issue… Will a Collaborative Approach Help?
Ask:
· What are the issue-related dynamics?
· Is this an adaptive situation? Is collaboration appropriate?
· Where is there shared agreement on the underlying issue(s)?
· Are the stakeholders open to new information, visions, and options?
· Are there stakeholders thinking about strategies, plans and process?
· Is there an appropriate level of readiness to address the situation?
The work begins with the first “no” answer.
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Hanley-ICL HEALTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Program
HLD II
Planning for Stakeholder Inclusion
The size of the stakeholder group is determined by:
Size of the community
Size of the issue
Collective credibility – Is there enough oomph?
Questions to ask:
Who has the credibility?
How would we engage these individuals? What’s in it for each of them?
Can we engage people who can access the unusual voices?
Engaging the Unusual or Resistant Voices
Identify the risks and consequences for the project if they aren’t involved.
Have trusted leaders help attract others.
Reframe the question. Use examples; illustrate.
Offer a credible facilitator and effective process.
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Hanley-ICL HEALTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Program
HLD II
The Facilitative Leader’s Focus While
Working in an Adaptive Environment
Adapted from Heifetz and Linsky
Get on the balcony
Identify the challenge
Regulate distress
Maintain disciplined attention to the work
Rely on distributed intelligence
Encourage leadership by all members
Encourage robust communication
Show urgency to learn from each other.
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Hanley-ICL HEALTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Program
HLD II
Tips for Tempered Radicals
Debra Meyerson
Seek small wins. Bringing about deep-seated cultural change in a large organization is a massive
proposition -- and an enormous, long-term challenge. Better to break the problem up into smaller,
more manageable pieces than to pretend that you can tackle it all at once. Leaders can experiment
with these smaller efforts to unearth resources, allies, and potential sources of resistance. Smaller
efforts also foster less fear and mistrust among peers and superiors. A string of small wins is usually
more palatable to the organization than is an attempt at wholesale change.
Act locally and authentically. Change doesn't always come from an explicit effort to make change
-- and it rarely comes about at the urging of outside consultants or as a result of bloodless strategic
plans. Tempered radicals often act solely from an urge to remain true to their own ideals; their local
actions can unintentionally spark broader results.
Take this modest example: An African-American employee refused a superior's request that she
unbraid her hair for a client meeting. Her immediate boss congratulated her for her courage, and
then congratulated the entire organization for expanding its image of professionalism. That small
gesture, made out of personal belief, sent a large and powerful signal.
Speak the language. Often, people in organizations accept change more easily when it is expressed
in terms that they can relate to both personally and professionally. A diversity effort, for example,
may resonate louder for corporate managers if they grasp the business implications of the initiative.
Before pitching a "fair trade" strategy that would require her company to pay higher prices to its
suppliers, the Body Shop's Jacqui MacDonald made sure that she understood the cost implications
for purchasing managers.
Build affiliations. Radicalism can be isolating. Effective leaders develop networks of people outside
(and sometimes inside) their organizations who can provide information, resources, emotional
support, and empathy. Michael V. Littlejohn at IBM maintains three such networks: his family, a
circle of close friends in similar roles, and a group of fellow radicals in the company. "You can't
survive unless you have that support system," he says.
8
Hanley-ICL HEALTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Program
HLD II
Positive Deviance from the Status Quo
_____________________________________________________________
Six Steps
1. Make the group the guru. Champions and change leaders are important, but they can
generate unconstructive dependence from their teams.
2. Reframe the problem. Problems can be stated from a variety of angles. Rather than
starting with an in-the-box definition, help the group shift the problem to fertile new
grounds and open their minds to new possibilities.
3. Make it safe to learn. The positive deviants, the authority figures and others in the group
all may feel that journeying into terra incognita is a dangerous thing to do. An environment
that supports creative new ideas must be nurtured.
4. Keep the group’s immune system strong. Take time to hear, acknowledge, and attend to
resistance, avoidance and outlying or contrary views. Create a process that values the
contrary opinion as a critical element of ripening the need to address an issue and
strengthening the group.
5. Make the problem concrete. During the process of understanding the problem, continue
to summarize what is known so far. Once it has been fully explored, state the problem in
the most concrete terms possible. Otherwise, signal distortion between senders and receivers
can quickly cause unintended consequences.
6. Leverage social proof. The adage “seeing is believing” has special potency when dealing
with change. Find and communicate examples of solutions that have worked in similar
situations.
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Hanley-ICL HEALTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Program
HLD II
Competencies for Recognizing and Working with
the Dynamics of Privilege
I am curious and open to learning
· Open to disclosing my own experience
· Interested in my own and others’ cultures
· Demonstrate empathy and compassion across difference
· Willing to question the status quo
I consciously examine my behavior
· Recognize and test my assumptions
· Acknowledge the filters that distort my view
· Know the values that guide my behavior
I take a flexible stance when interacting with others
· Practiced in adapting my style while remaining genuine and true to myself
I am willing to mentor, orient and coach others in my identity group
· Willing to offer constructive feedback and observations
I am willing to mentor, orient and coach others who are pioneers
· Willing to offer help and then wait to be asked
· Invested in learning about myself, and having mentoring be a reciprocal relationship
10
Hanley-ICL HEALTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Program
HLD II
During the Organization's Shift to Actively Managing Diversity,
What are Managers Doing?
They are making the mental connection.
"They are investing considerable time and energy in understanding how identity-group memberships take on
social meanings in the organization and how those meanings manifest themselves in the way the work is
defined, assigned, and accomplished. When there is no proactive search to understand, then learning from
diversity, if it happens at all, can occur only reactively - that is, in response to diversity-related crises."
They are legitimating open discussion.
"They are encouraging people to make explicit use of background cultural experience and the pools of
knowledge gained outside the organization to inform and enhance their work. Individuals often do use their
cultural competencies at work, but in a closeted, almost embarrassed way. The unfortunate result is that the
opportunity for collective and organizational learning and improvement is lost."
They actively work against forms of dominance and subordination that inhibit full
contribution.
"Leaders and managers… take responsibility for removing the barriers that block employees from using the
full range of their competencies, cultural or otherwise. … In addition, the leaders are aware that organizations
can create their own unique patterns of dominance and subordination based on the presumed superiority and
entitlement of some groups over others."
They are making sure that organizational trust stays intact.
"They make sure their organizations remain 'safe' places for employees to be themselves. The managers
recognize that tensions naturally arise as an organization begins to make room for diversity, starts to
experiment with process and product ideas, and learns to reappraise its mission in light of suggestions from
newly empowered constituents in the company. But as people put more of themselves out and open up
about new feelings and ideas, the dynamics… can produce temporary vulnerabilities. Managers who have
helped their organizations make the change successfully have consistently demonstrated their commitment to
the process and to all employees by setting a tone of honest discourse, by acknowledging tensions, and by
resolving them sensitively and swiftly."
Adapted from Thomas and Ely, "Making Differences Matter: A New Paradigm for Managing Diversity," Harvard
Business Review, September/October, 1996.
11
Hanley-ICL HEALTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Program
HLD II
Points to Ponder when faced with Change – Meg Wheatley
1. How much patience and curiosity do I have with difference?
2. How well am I handling disconfirming information?
3. How much time do I spend thinking and reflecting?
4. What’s the quality of my listening?
5. Am I able to have critical conversations?
6. What’s my trust level with others these days?
7. How is my stress level?
8. What are the conditions that support my self-reflection and learning?
9. How will I create the right conditions for others?
12
Hanley-ICL HEALTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Program
HLD II
Visioning as a Team Process
adapted from Built to Last
James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras
Core Ideology Envisioned Future
Core Values Core Purpose BHAGs* Vivid Description
3 - 5 principles that Reason for existence. Very challenging goals What we’ll look like
are core, regardless of What are we doing in with a probability of then
what changes our work together? success 2-3 years out
Discovered Created
(Unchanging, but elicit change) (Require significant change and progress)
The glue that holds you together The image toward which you are changing.
through change.
Steady, trusted, clear Emotional, challenging, motivating
PRESERVE THE CORE. STIMULATE PROGRESS.
* Big, hairy, audacious goals
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Hanley-ICL HEALTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Program
HLD II
PRESERVING THE CORE
1. Name the values you hold as central to who you are, and that do not
change, no matter what you’re doing. (Go back to the Neighborhood
Activity in September to see what values emerged there.)
2. Have you discovered your calling? Do you have passion for something
that you’d like to maintain throughout your life? What is your core
purpose?
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Hanley-ICL HEALTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Program
HLD II
ENVISIONED FUTURE
1. What is the most vivid picture you can paint of your ideal future? What
is happening in this image? What are you doing? How are others
responding to you?
How do you feel as you look back on your life and how far you’ve come?
What has changed in your life? Who supported you along the way?
What words do you use that excite you and speak to your core?
2. Name 1-2 of the biggest, most audacious goals you could set for yourself
today that would move you closer to this image of yourself and your
legacy.
15
Hanley-ICL HEALTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Program
HLD II
Guidelines for Showcasing Practicum Projects
April Session
I. Overview/Introduction
a. Who is on the team
b. How and why you chose your issue/challenge
c. Strategic moments in getting started (stories from the small group front)
II. Process Design
a. What pathway to action was selected and why that pathway
b. Which stakeholders were considered and your rationale
c. Process map – phases, outcomes, etc.
III. Problem/Challenge Definition
a. Clear problem statement
b. Scope of the problem selected
c. Analysis of root causes
IV. Vision of Success
a. Visual depiction of successful outcome
b. Inspirational description of what you set out to accomplish
c. How you measure success (metrics: quantitative/qualitative)
V. Approach to the Solution
a. Criteria used to select your solution
b. Solution rationale – Why was it optimal?
c. Other solutions considered
VI. Actions to Address the Problem/Challenge
a. Description of actions taken
b. Action you would recommend to other stakeholders (who may continue your
work)
VII. Impact Statement
a. Direct impact of group’s work (against metrics)
b. Indirect impact
c. Potential for future impact over time
VIII. Learning/Insights
a. Summary of learning from the practicum experience
i. Consider process and content, results and relationships
b. Plus/Delta
Note: I encourage you to use your creativity to its fullest. Good visuals are important, as is an engaging,
inclusive verbal presentation. Take into account “ethos, pathos and logos” as you develop the content.
You will have 20 minutes for the presentation, with an additional 10 minutes for questions from your small
group.
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