Fully Integrated Leadership

It's VCoL Tuesday where we give you practical advice in how to be a more effective leader in a VUCA world. In this episode David and Marion continue to explore the world of decision-making. In last week's episode we talked about values which are guideposts for how we make choices. This week we explore how needs, both met and unmet, interact with values to compel us to make certain decisions.

Welcome to our first VUCA Cycle of Learning (VCol) podcast episode!  While we are a podcast that is committed to having long-form conversation on interesting topics, we also recognize that the VUCA world requires us to speed up at times and provide some actions you can take to better navigate the complexity.

The VCol concept comes from Dr. Kurt Fischer and has been improved upon by Dr. Theo Dawson and her colleagues at Lectica (https://lecticalive.org/#gsc.tab=0).  At Lectica, they call them "Virtuous Cycles of Learning", but for us we call them VUCA Cycles of Learning.  Regardless of the name, the concept and process is the same.  The VCol process is about creating real learning that leads to transformation.  Normal learning is about memorizing facts.  VCols are about putting what we learn into action and reflecting constantly on our experiences.  The VCol process follows a circular path:

1. Set a Learning Goal
2. Seek information in support of the learning goal
3. Apply what you learn in real-life situations
4. Reflect on your experience
5. Set the next learning goal based on your experience

Every week, Marion and David will offer a short podcast episode with a VCol that we have used with our clients to help them thrive in a VUCA world.  For this week, we suggest a VCol about decision-making.  First, Marion takes us through a visualization where we recall a recent decision or choice we made.  What was happening for you as you made the decision? What emotions? What thoughts? What values were you expressing in the choice you made? 

We then ask you to bring more awareness to decision situations you find yourself in over the next week.  What values are important and consistent as you make decisions?  Really push yourself to be actively aware as you make choices, both large and small.  

We believe that decision-making is one of the most critical skills a VUCA leader can deploy.  But we also find that most leaders, leadership teams and organizations struggle to make decisions or to communicate how decisions are being made.  This leads to low morale, confusion, frustration, and poor decisions that do not take enough perspectives into account.  

We encourage you to really try out this VCol to 1) become more familiar with the practice of doing VCols in general, and 2) to shine more light on how you make decisions and what values are being expressed when you do so.  

For some, the concept of values can be confusing.  Here is a list of some common values to help you with the VCol:

Family

Happiness

Longevity

Efficiency

Creativity

Risk-Taking

Rest

Effectiveness

Communication

Imagination

Punctuality

Courage

Achievement

Intelligence

Education

Respect

Competition

Approachability

Professionalism

Commitment

Self-Confidence

Originality

Frugality

Independence

Structure

Growth

Stillness

Inclusiveness

Decision-Making

Compliance

Objectivity

Accuracy

Education

Inner Peace

Bravery

Altruism

Congruence

Fitness

Patience

Calmness

Tradition

Collaboration

Composure

Talent

Trust

Self-Awareness

Wealth

Tradition

Service

Wisdom

Adventure

Persistance

Responsibility

Fairness

Playfulness

Unity

Perseverance

Sincerity

Assertion

Tolerance

Consistency

Justice

Novelty

Authenticity

Humor

Conservation

Generosity

Challenge

Freedom

Community

Determination

Recognition

Confidence

Consideration

Orderliness

Security

Diversity

Modesty

Honesty

Integrity

Resilience

Passion

Acceptance

Moderation

Simplicity

Confidence

Environmental Sustainability

Continuous Culture

Faith

Optimism

Patriotism

Innovation

Balance

Candor

Fidelity

Ambition

Accountability

Preparedness

Belonging

Community

Excellence

Quality

Reliability

Sensitivity

Practicality

Expertise

Focus

Independence

In this episode, Marion interviews David about how he has applied his experience as a triathlete and USA Triathlon certified coach to his coaching practice with leaders.  David talks about leadership as an emergent property, meaning you cannot measure it directly but you can measure the conditions that will most likely lead to the emergence of effective leadership.  

When coaching athletes, it is first important to establish some baseline metrics in order to tailor the training to help the athlete build new skills that will turbocharge their race performance.  The same is true in leadership...once we acknowledge the VUCA in our leadership context, and we accept the limitations of our current way of thinking, we can then get to work on establishing the leadership skills and ways of being that need to be developed.

For the past five years, David has been measuring VUCA leadership through a 2 dimensional diagnostic process:

• Competency: this is a measure of the leader's VUCA skills such as perspective coordination, collaborative capacity, contextual thinking, and decision-making (we go into some detail about each of these skills during the episode)
• Reality check: comparing how the leader views him/herself as a VUCA leader compared with how their peers/colleagues/direct reports view them.

The combination of these diagnostics paints a clear picture of where the leader is already strong and where there are areas to develop.

With Marion joining Fully Integrated Leadership, a third assessment has been added, creating a 3D view of the leader.  Adding to the competency and reality check, we now look at the capacity a leader has for thinking and acting in the face of complexity and uncertainty.  We look at where the leader tends to place their attention and how this helps and hinder their teams and organizations in the face of VUCA.

This is an episode packed with great content, so have a pen and paper ready!

In the last episode, we encouraged leaders to first acknowledge the VUCA in their organization.  One tool we find particularly useful in this acknowledgement step is the Cynefin (pronounced Ku-nev-in) framework.  Cynefin is a Welsh word that means habitats or realms.  This framework helps leaders distinguish between the predictable and the unpredictable and then further breaks it down into four realms: simple, complicated, complex, chaotic.  When leaders understand the nature of the challenge they face, the framework helps to clarify the proper response to the challenge.

To learn more about Cynefin from its creator, Dave Snowden, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7oz366X0-8

We also mentioned the work of Alan Seale and his Four Levels of Engagement.  To learn more about this go to: https://transformationalpresence.org/transformational-presence-coaching-samplers/

Finally, we encourage you to engage in a "Virtuous Cycle of Learning" (VCol) to deepen your learning and experience working with the Cynefin Framework.  The VCol has 4 steps:

1. Set a learning goal
2. Seek information to support the learning
3. Apply what you learn in a real-life scenario
4. Reflect on your experience

Here are some suggested VCols for the Cynefin Framework:

1. Notice and become present to how often and in what ways your own mind needs to KNOW. „Oh, I know what this problem is about. I’ve had very similar problems in the past and learnt a lot from that, when I solved them successfully. I know what to do. Let me tell you.“

1.  In your role as a leader: what challenges you are currently facing are actually complicated? Which are complex? How do you know? What are the indicators? What do your peers think? Go and interview 2-3 people and find out what they know and how they think about this distinction.

1. Scenario: You and your team are facing a complex challenge. You sense that it would be helpful and necessary to first ACKNOWLEDGE first that none of you actually KNOW what domain the challenge belongs to. But your peers are busy collecting data, seeking the solution by analyzing it, driven by the need to know and be certain. Question: how can you show up and intervene in an effective way? What needs to shift inside of you first? What would be a helpful and powerful question you could ask to invite your peers to step back and understand the nature of the challenge first? 

1. How can you actually realize that you are in the realm of disorder? How can you become comfortable with that state of 'not knowing'? When appropriate: how can you make it a habit to acknowledge that you do not know YET what type of system you are in, so that it is inviting and compelling to those around you?

1. Observe yourself and others: when do you jump to assess a problem that perfectly fits your personal history or preferences? How and when do you assess it to fit the very solution that you have already decided? How can you pro-actively prevent yourself and others form discussing any knowledge or taking action before doing the situational assessment?

In this episode, Marion Riehemann joins her first episode as the official co-host of the podcast!  Marion and I cover multiple topics, including Action-Inquiry as an important practice for life and leadership, doing a "check-in" to create a real human connection that will make meetings and interactions more productive, and the importance of really listening to one another.  The majority of the episode conveys what we believe are some of the prevailing issues that are affecting leaders, teams and organizations from our perspective.  

First, we re-establish the three beliefs of our coaching business:

1. The world that leaders face is VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous)
2. Our conventional minds are not well-suited for VUCA
3. Our minds can be re-trained to thrive in VUCA

We then lay out the three tenets or principles that power our coaching work:

1. We can measure leadership effectiveness in a VUCA world
2. We can develop and sustain VUCA skills by overwriting the conventional "hardware" of the human mind
3. We can accelerate the process of learning and leader development 

For today's episode, we go deep into the first two beliefs.  First, it is important to acknowledge how VUCA shows up in our lives and leadership.  We spend some time really bringing VUCA to life and share some astounding facts about the information overload and the impact it has on us.  We encourage you to pause the recording and consider the following questions:

1. Where do I see VUCA most in my life? My team? My organization?  (Be specific here and really examine how this shows up)
2. How is it helpful for me to learn this concept and how can I bring it to my team and organization?

Once we acknowledge VUCA, it is then important to accept the limitations of our conventional minds when dealing with uncertainty and complexity.  We share our observations about how we see leaders and organizations dealing with VUCA from our experience as coaches, and we then share the unintended consequences of bringing conventional thinking to complex challenges.  We again encourage you to pause here and reflect on the following questions:

1. Which of the conventional thinking habits to I tend to revert to when facing VUCA?
2. What impacts do I see on my team and organization from my conventional thinking?

Marion Riehemann (former: Guérin) is the founder and CEO of Second Freedom, an advisory firm that helps leaders increase their capacity to transform themselves and their teams. They become better innovators, strategists and decision-makers by dealing productively with the unknown. She has worked with over 300 companies, in over 30 industries, with clients such as adidas, Airbus and Xerox. Marion developed her expertise in navigating the unknown early in life. When she was ten years old, she went to visit her aunt for the weekend and upon returning home, her depressed mother refused to open the door, saying “You don’t live here anymore.” Marion never lived with her mother again. This unexpected and disturbing situation demanded that Marion make her way through the world, largely on her own. She learned that the unknown was nothing to fear. It was just something that needed to be dealt with. Marion took on many adventures. In her early twenties she traveled extensively through the United States and Central America. She lived in New York City, Germany and France. She worked as a bartender, a dogwalker and a language teacher at the World Trade Center. Marion then became an actor. She won an audition and studied with the famed coach Uta Hagen at hb-studio, which produced actors like Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. As an actor she learned how to hold many different perspectives at once and she also sharpened her ability to face rejection. One of the highlights of her acting career was playing Ariel in Shakespeare’s Tempest, where she got to sing and fly through the air on wires. After years of working on stage and in television in the United States and Germany, Marion decided on a new career move: speech therapist. She founded her own speech-therapy practice in Germany and specialized in helping children. Marion studied, not only their speech and language abilities, but how their minds developed, too. This first-hand experience would serve her later. In 2007 Marion became a coach and advisor in the world of executive leadership. The reason: she wanted to work with professionals who were successful and who took full responsibility for their actions and outcomes. Marion began to help them build on that confidence and accountability, so the leaders could deal effectively with the unknown. She discovered that we haven’t taken Jean Piaget’s findings about developmental stages far enough. Adults go through developmental stages too. This is what helps leaders master the last five percent of their high performance and reach excellence in facing the unknown She is a Master Certified Coach -- with over 5,000 hours of coaching under her belt -- for the International Coach Federation. She is also an internationally certified trainer on Nonviolent Communication with the Center for Nonviolent Communication. Marion is a professional member of the National Speakers Association, and has given keynotes and workshops throughout the world, in places including Cyprus, Dubai, France, Poland, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. She also tries contributing to society at large. Marion trained with Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, helps to promote understanding between Republicans and Democrats using the Better Angels’ process, and facilitate discussions about Black History and racism for Justified Anger. Marion lives with her husband Paul in Madison, Wisconsin. Her son, Nico, is in university studying philosophy, neuroscience and cognition.

In this episode, I am joined by Tracy McCubbin to talk about the art and science of decluttering.  We talk about how this VUCA world contributes to our cluttered lives and then she provides some practical strategies for decluttering.  

https://dclutterfly.com/

Tracy has always referred to herself as “obsessive compulsive delightful,” but who knew she could turn that trait into a booming business? While working for a major television director in Los Angeles, Tracy discovered she had the ability to see through any mess and clearly envision a clutter-free space. Coupled with keen time-management and organizational skills, Tracy soon found more and more people were asking her for help. Before she knew it, dClutterfly was born.

Twelve years and thousands of decluttered homes later, Tracy knew it was time to take what she had learned working with her clients and write a book to help others dealing with clutter. She is author of the newly published book Making Space, Clutter-Free: The Last Book on Decluttering You'll Ever Need and is a regularly featured expert in the media, including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, goop, Home & Family, Real Simple, mindbodygreen, NBC, KTLA Morning Show, KCAL9, and more.

In addition to her impressive organizing tool belt, Tracy grew up with family members who hoarded and knows firsthand that the effects of living amongst an accumulation of possessions goes far beyond the home’s walls. This personal experience gives her an advantage over most professional organizers as she has a unique understanding of the mindset of the organizationally and spatially-challenged.

When she is not dCluttering, Tracy is the proud Co-Executive Director of OneKid OneWorld, a non-profit building strong educational foundations for children in impoverished communities throughout Kenya and Central America. OKOW is providing kids with the basic (yet essential) fundamentals like desks and books, as well as paying teachers’ salaries, building classrooms and even installing solar power technology so students can study at night. OKOW's most recent project #OneGirlOnePad will provide access to reusable feminine hygiene kits to over 4,000 girls in Kenya, allowing them to attend school all year round. OneKid OneWorld is Tracy's “full time, non-paying passion.”

Most of our episodes have been with guests who coach or work with leaders, but in this episode you will hear directly from a CEO who is working in a VUCA world.  Jim Walker is the CEO of PrimeSouth Bank in Brunswick, Georgia.  Jim and I have been working together in a coaching relationship for the past two years and he has been a model client.  

Jim shares his experience with living and leading in an uncertain world, what he is learning and how he is working with his Executive Leadership Team to build trust and healthier relationships.

In this episode, I go solo to talk about the current state of politics in the United States.  We access pure awareness and then work to understand how we can love those we do not necessarily like.  This is a critical move for the awakened to make in an otherwise sleeping world that is myopically focused on the problems, the separations, the violence, and the suffering the world.  This will be the first in a string of messages that I will put out in the coming week as we watch the transfer of power happen in our country.  

Nick Jankel has lectured at Yale & Oxford, advised the UK’s Prime Minister and regularly is cited by major media, like The Economist and The Guardian. He believes, leaders need a transformational leadership philosophy, science, and toolset because conventional leadership/management thinking was developed to maintain the status quo, not to transform it. 

In this episode, Nic shares his own story of breakdown and burnout and how it fueled his current mission to help transform the way leaders and organizations think and act in an increasingly complex world.  He brings a great wit, creativity and deep knowledge about neuroscience and psychology, and shares some really practical tips to help all of us cope with burnout and being more effective transformational leaders.

Nic is the author of Now Lead the Change https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B085TRK243/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0

You can also watch his TED talk, Born for Breakthrough here: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#search/nic+jankel/FMfcgxwJZJVHgJcKLdKpjCqdnvwFmKTp?projector=1