“I'm not a rock star. I'm a soft person. I'm not a rock.” Captain Beefheart, 1971 (I love the line, Safe as Milk... Kind of interesting where that takes you)
A question for you. If life is a journey and I’m driving up from Jacksonville in a 1974 Dodge Monaco Sedan purchased last spring from the Mount Prospect Illinois police auction, then who’s in the passenger seat? Have they got what it takes for the ride? Will they last? Will they know when to comment on the music? Will they have the courage to suggest I’m going in the wrong direction or ask me to turn the beat down?
Who do I need on that long trip up to Chicago? Who do I want fiddling with the radio in the blue Midwestern twilight? I will probably have pre-loaded Daft Punk, Neil Young or Black Keys by the way. Melodic. Whose conversation should rise and fall with that undulating gravel road between humid fields of panting detasseled corn, where the black soil sweats, while the fireflies hit the windshield – ping, ping, ping - like tracer bullets?
“They can catch a straight line, but they can’t catch a circle. I don’t work in straight lines.” Captain Beefheart, 1972 (Unconditionally Guaranteed was Pink)
To answer the question in terms of the people I tend to meet these days. Clients. And after 600+ engagements, here’s how I tend to categorize them. The fab 5...
Thinkers
I believe we all have the ability to think – even at work. I love to be the beneficiary of great thinkers don’t you? Sends a bit of shiver. Great ideas brought to life. Many people though just cannot be bothered and for many reasons. Lack of incentive. Forgotten how to. We get so lost in our silos, meetings happen because meetings do and plans get hatched that we forget. We actually forget the context in which we are working too which means we get too close. If we can just structure a space for thought, we’ve solved half of the problem right there. So we’re parked outside the house honking for the clients who want to think.
Creators
Technologists and poets – the yin and yang of creation – exist in every enterprise. I’ve been a creative person (I think) for a long time. I’ve been fortunate to work with many far better than me and I’ve stolen so much from them. Being with someone who has the ability to change the game with a design or a witty and appropriate line or a thought still staggers me. What most teams lack though is the shared language to get the numbers and any creative vision to agree. With the approach to working that I have developed, the language and the sharing emerges naturally from a process guided by questioning and visual stimuli. This encourages creativity and ensures that the rigor also exists. Pile in, creators!
Leaders
Now there’s a definition. But to have great leadership you need to engender followership. Not everyone wants to lead others, but we can all lead ourselves. “I can be ‘the hero of my own life”, as Dickens said. But to take charge of my life at work, I have to take an honest look at my reality, set some clear goals and win support from colleagues. We should also have nothing but respect for managers who try to be leaders, not functionaries. In today’s sped up, 24/7 environment where the competition is a click away, they have to struggle to articulate a future vision, drive consensus on the roadmap and empower their teams to act and succeed. The neutral, interactive, inclusive way in which I now like to work helps build trust and accountability at every level. So leaders are definitely on the road with us – even if they insisting on selecting the CD we play.
Change Agents
I haven’t worked with a client yet whose real problem was change. The challenge may be where to go or how to get there, but all organizations need to change - are changing whether they want to or not. My approach was deliberate in this regard as it works on the basis that customers are the only game in town so we must enable customers to redefine performance, culture and conditions, it’s the most powerful tool for managing change I’ve seen so far. We’ll brake and throw the door open any time for clients who embrace transformation. Park up.
Champions
Ambassadors. Evangelists. Crusaders. The Fox. For problem-solving to start with us, someone in the organization has to identify the problem, put together a cross-department team to tackle the issues and bet on our approach. That requires bravery and courage and security in the knowledge that its the right thing to do. For problem-solving to succeed over time, someone has to evangelize our approach within the organization. The champions are key. We need the champions to ride shotgun with us all the way.
Take the clarion anthem ‘Cortez the Killer’ by Neil Young and what the heck. Shoot. This is the way the successful enterprise will rock with the leader and anyway Neil could ride the passenger seat all the way.
“He came dancing across the water With his galleons and guns Looking for the new world In that palace in the sun.
On the shore lay Montezuma With his coca leaves and pearls In his halls he often wondered With the secrets of the worlds.
And his subjects gathered ’round him Like the leaves around a tree In their clothes of many colors For the angry gods to see.
And the women all were beautiful And the men stood straight and strong They offered life in sacrifice So that others could go on.
Hate was just a legend And war was never known The people worked together And they lifted many stones.
They carried them to the flatlands And they died along the way But they built up with their bare hands What we still can’t do today.
And I know she’s living there And she loves me to this day I still can’t remember when Or how I lost my way.
He came dancing across the water Cortez, Cortez What a killer”.
Teachers.
I have found that another way to consider these big 5 is another quality attached to each so this is the subdivision. Teaching is a wonderful and yet so unbelievably messed up idea. We either hate or love our teachers. For me with age I now love them all but am wary until I trust and believe them.
"There are only forty people in the world and five of them are hamburgers." Captain Beefheart, 1970
Some other thoughts on the road, the destination and the ride:
“The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready”. David Henry Thoreau, essayist
“Change is possibility, and the times with most change always hold the most potential. So we live in an accelerating possibility curve. Perhaps we can't control it, but we can learn to ride it like a surfer on a wave or a bird on a thermal, to use its power to take us where we want to go? To live in uncertainty and yet act with confidence”. Dewitt Jones, photojournalist
“Leadership is a personal journey for each person”. Donna Riley, VP IBM
“Block out the noise and really pave your own road”. Brian MacAllister, Roadtrip Productions
“Create a powerful vision and a context for thousands of small actions, and subconsciously you will ratchet towards your destination, one small action at a time”. Wolfgang Grulke, Founder and Chairman of FutureWorld
From the Minds Eye...
First published on John's Contextual Frameworking blog, 26 May 2006. The text was recovered from the blog’s archived feed. See the copy in the Wayback Machine. Kept as John wrote it.
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