FORWARD21: #16
FORWARD21 is a weekly newsletter with top, hand-picked forward thinking human and workplace advice, and resources for 21st-century executives, leaders, and change agents.
How to Stop Following the Herd and Breakout of the Mundane
Back in 2012, I wrote an article for the Cutter Business Technology Journal. It was my first opportunity to share in a professional journal what I was learning from my interviews at 5 Minutes to Process Improvement Success.
In the article, The Agile CMMI Conversation Is a Dead End, I lamented over the fact that so much attention was being focused on a conversation that I felt really didn’t matter that much in the big picture.
I had heard the arguments many times before. People were arguing about whether my way or your way was better. Here is how I described the outcomes from those arguments:
Over the past 30 years, I’ve worked to help organizations introduce change and transformation. In that time, one thing has become painfully clear: most organizations fail at transformation — miserably and repeatedly. A few organizations reach some level of success and make meaningful progress, but for how long?
Sadly, I don’t think much has changed since that time. I believe the article is still as timely today as it was eight years ago. My experience since that time is that many people agree with me, but I find few who are willing to take on this topic openly and do things differently.
So it was exciting for me when I discovered Lance Secretan and his book The Bellwether Effect. Lance is a former Fortune 100 company CEO, and the author of an incredible 22 books about leadership, inspiration, corporate culture, and entrepreneurship.
Lance began the interview in response to my opening question on how do we create the forward thinking workplace by saying that “we need to stop focusing on the processes and mechanics of the business quite as firmly as we have and put less emphasis on quantifying everything.” I think that’s a fair assessment of where the focus has been for most organizations.
So where then do we need to refocus our efforts?
Lance Secretan is an inspiring leader. Spend any time with him or his work, and you’ll soon learn a lot about inspiring leadership.
Now, What is the Bellwether Effect?
The Bellwether is a 13th-century word, which describes a ram that has a bell tied around its neck. When the flock gets lost, the Shepard can find the flock because the ram leads the flock, and he can hear the bell. Some companies essentially are the same. We follow what these companies do because of who they are, and we think if we follow them we will be successful too.
I often equate this idea of the Bellwether Effect to going to the edge of a 50-foot cliff and jumping when all you’ve witnessed are others ahead of you jumping away. As a result, you don’t see what they did before they jumped, what the landing area looks like, or what happened when they landed.
Which leads me to ask this question: Do we want this?
When we follow the herd, we stay with the mundane and sometimes even the immoral or criminal.
What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear from you. Let’s start a conversation.
Here are a few of my favorite takeaways from the interview:
Key Takeaways
- Stop focusing on processes and mechanics as firmly as we have.
- What we really need to do is get leaders’ full attention.
- You can’t perform at a high level if you’re always frightened.
- When we follow the herd, we stay with the mundane.
- There are companies that are essentially bellwethers that everyone else follows.
- Why are we doing things without thinking about it?
- We are drawn to people who are truthful, compassionate, caring, and loving—those are the people who inspire us.
There’s a lot more in the full interview, so I hope you will pick up a copy of The Future of the Workplace and discover more powerful insights from Lance Secretan. There’s also part two to the interview where we focus exclusively on The Bellwether Effect. This part was too long to publish in the book, so it is still available online. Please see the link below.
What people are saying about Forward Thinking Workplaces –
This conversation invites and allows whole beings to show up; like whole food, whole beings are more nutritious to the system they exist within.
Anonymous
FORWARD21: top articles that got my attention
Inspiring Us All to Dream a Better World⎜Lance Secretan and Bill Fox
This article highlights the key ideas from my conversation with Lance Secretan on his book The Bellwether Effect.
The question at the heart of the book is, why do we mindlessly implement things without thinking about it?
Knowledge is not very durable anymore⎜Jeff Gardner on Twitter
Jeff Gardner, former head of partnerships at Intercom, reflecting on his experience working with the fast growing tech startup.
“Devote yourself to learning, humbly. You’ll never be bored and you’ll never be replaceable if you can be humble enough to dive into unknown territory, flounder, and then flourish. The world is changing so fast that procedural/specialized knowledge is not very durable anymore.”
What does better mean?⎜Seth Godin
This short post from Seth Godin really got my attention because he talks about something I really care about… better matches! But it’s also valuable for anyone who is engaged in making workplaces better.
FORWARD21: books
The Bellwether Effect⎜Lance Secretan
Over the course of my career, I’ve noticed a repeating pattern. Companies would enthusiastically embrace the latest business fad that was front page news in the business press everywhere, but the promised changes and benefits never seemed to show up or last for them. Then they would lather, rinse, and repeat again with the next new fad.
Lance brilliantly lays out the root causes and what we need to do to turn this situation around in The Bellwether Effect. I was so moved and inspired by this book that I reached out to Lance to see if I could interview him for my series with global leaders at Forward-Thinking Workplaces. He graciously agreed and he shared some wonderful insights with me. I’m sharing highlights from that interview below:
– Most companies copy what other companies (Bellwether’s) are doing without really thinking about it.
– Companies get themselves into trouble because it often doesn’t work for the companies they are copying or may not fit their particular circumstances or needs.
– The question at the heart of the book is why do we mindlessly implement things without thinking about it?
– The characteristics people most admire in great leaders are things like visionary, builds great teams, motivates, strategic thinker, and so on.
– The characteristics people most admire in a great relationship are things like intimacy, vulnerability, passion, truth, trust, love, caring, and humility.
– The whole idea of the warrior at work, the great leader who is a General Patton type of cut out, this is simply obsolete. It doesn’t fit with what people want.
– We are one whole human being, and we need to be those things we admire in relationships — everywhere.
– We have become very good at motivating, which is a fear-based system.
– Inspiration is exactly the opposite of motivation. It is not about me, it’s about you.
– All leadership is a relationship. It either works or it doesn’t.
– We all need to slow down a little.
– We’ve got this misunderstanding about what leadership entails. Many people think it means creating a strategic plan and then telling other people how to get there.
– Leadership is actually about coaching the best out of everybody that’s on your team.
– One of the things that is slowing us down is something we have been given by the Bellwether companies, which is a mission, vision and values.
– Great organizations have a dream.
– It isn’t just about changing the name from mission to dream. It’s trying to answer the question how will this make the world a better place?
Lance says, “It’s amazing how uninspiring we are today.” Read this book and you’ll be inspired to make the world a better place.
In Closing
Thanks for reading. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, please consider forwarding it to someone who’d benefit from it or consider buying a copy of my latest book The Future of the Workplace.
If you’d like to explore any topics in this newsletter, please feel free to email bill@billfox.co to start a conversation.
To your great work life & success!