Leadership and Futuring

As a follow up to our previous post on Visionary Leadership, here is a short little book by John R. Hoyle: Leadership and Futuring: Making Visions Happen

Hoyle helps us understand ways we can bring our vision into being. One of the principles of futuring is the notion that vision is one possible scenario for the future and there is no reason your vision should not be the eventual reality. Hoyle wants to help you make your vision the next reality.

He sets about his task in four ways. He discusses leaders who have influenced him. He discusses leaders he wishes he would have known. He discusses strategic planning for your vision. And he provides some practical exercises you can do to improve your vision and it's implementation.

The three leaders he knew were his 7th grade teacher, his major professor in the Ph.D. program and Dr. Paul B. Salmon, Executive Director of the American Association of School Administrators.

The three leaders he would like to have met were Jesus Christ, Joan of Arc and Winston Churchill.

Leadership and Futuring: Making Visions Happen was written by John R. Hoyle. Hoyle is a member of the World Future Society. He promotes this organization in his book. The Society teaches and promotes futuring. Futuring is "the act of seeing and feeling alternative futures that are either in the near (5-10 year), middle (11-20 year), or far (21-50) year future." (p. 20) The terms futuring and visioning can be used interchangeably.

As a futurist, he suggests some assumptions which can be used to guide our thinking as we develop a vision for the future of the organization:

Assumption #1 is we must begin now. Now is the time when we can work to change the course of action.

Assumption #2 is we must remain flexible. Unforeseen events transpire, false assumptions are made, alternative futures are available.

Assumption #3 is before agreeing on a preferred future course of action, talk to the people who must make it happen. Convince your stakeholders the future you suggest is the correct one to pursue.

Visionary Leadership

Visionary Leadership by Burt Nanus intends to help us in "creating a compelling sense of direction for your organization," according to the sub-title. The nine chapters of this book are divided into three parts:
Part One: What Vision is and Why it Matters
Part Two: Developing the Vision
Part Three: Implementing the Vision

Many leadership gurus believe that casting a vision for an organization is the most important thing a leader can do. Nanus apparently agrees by titling his first chapter, "Vision: The Key to Leadership."

Chapter three, "Taking Stock: The Vision Audit," is particularly helpful. Nanus suggests four questions that need to be answered to determine where the organization currently stands regarding vision. Those questions are:

1. Does the organization have a clearly stated vision? If so, what is it?

2. If the organization continues on its current path, where will it be heading over the next decade? How good would such a direction be?

3. Do the key people in the organization know where the organization is headed and agree on the direction?

4. Do the structures, processes, personnel, incentives, and information systems support the current direction of the organization?

Nanus provides examples and additional questions to consider when auditing the organizational vision.

The remainder of Visionary Leadership focuses on developing and improving the organization's vision and implementing any changes needed.

I particularly like the emphasis of chapter eight, "Running the Race with No End: The Re-Visioning Process." The world changes, the organization changes, the players change. And in the midst of it all, the organization vision must be re-examined and revised as needed to express the intentions of the organization.

My favorite quote is at the beginning of chapter seven:

"When it comes to the future,
there are three kinds of people:
those who let it happen,
those who make it happen,
and those who wonder what happened."
--John M. Richardson, Jr.

The 7 Laws of the Learner

Tom Friedman, author of the best selling book The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century says the most important skill you can have as you tackle the challenges of the 21st century is the ability to "learn how to learn." Sometimes referred to as "being a lifelong learner."

Dr. Bruce Wilkinson gives principles we can apply to help us be lifelong learners in his book, The Seven Laws of the Learner: How to Teach Almost Anything to Practically Anyone. While this book is intended to help educators become better teachers, the principles , or laws, he presents can be slightly modified and applied to our own learning.

For instance, Law One: The Law of the Learner's first maxim is "Teachers are responsible to cause students to learn." If I apply that to myself it means I am responsible for my own learning. I can't expect someone else to learn for me and then just give me the cliff notes. I have to want to learn about something.

Or Law Four: The Law of Retention's second maxim is "Retention of facts is effective only after they are understood." If I apply this to myself it means I am responsible to understand the relevance of what I am learning to my life. This one seems to be much easier now that I no longer sit in a classroom "learning" what someone else thinks is important. Now I am learning what I think is important. I should believe the subject is relevant before I begin to study it.

The Seven Laws of the Learner: How to Teach Almost Anything to Practically Anyone contains seven laws of the learner. Mindsets, models, maxims, methods and maximizers are suggested for each law. Each law includes 7 maxims to help understand the mindsets and models and 7 maximizers to help understand the methods.

Wilkinson is the creator of the popular "Walk Thru the Bible" series. Using the principles in this book, he has created a program where you can learn the major events of the Old Testament in a one day session. Or if you like, you can learn the major events of the New Testament in a one day session. I attend both sessions over 25 years ago and was able to see these principles in action.

I've even had the opportunity to apply some of these principles when leading workshops or teaching classes. I've had success using them to teach others and I've had success applying them to my own learning process.

Wilkenson's 7 laws are:

Law One: The Law of the Learner
Law Two: The Law of Expectation
Law Three: The Law of Application
Law Four: The Law of Retention
Law Five: The Law of Need
Law Six: The Law of Equipping
Law Seven: The Law of Revival

Should you find yourself in the position where you need to teach others, or

Should you find yourself in the position where you need to keep learning (which is all of us)

I highly recommend you read this book!

Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills

Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills by Andrew J. DuBrin is another academic text you might find helpful in your pursuit of leadership. His textbook has 15 chapters which corresponds nicely to a college semester course.

The first nine chapters provide a description of leadership, discuss insight development and give prescriptions for leadership success. The last five chapters deal with specific leadership skills. DuBrin suggests the following skills as necessary for leadership:

1. motivating and coaching,
2. creative problem solving,
3. communication (including non-verbal and cross-cultural),
4. conflict resolution,
5. attitudes required for international and culturally diverse settings,
6. enhancing quality, and
7. capitalizing on technology.

As a textbook, Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills
also includes a chapter summary, key terms, a section called "Guidelines for Action and Skill Development," discussion questions and activities, a case study problem and a leadership exercise.

One highlight for me was the inclusion of Self-Assessment exercises in each chapter. These exercises help you assess yourself as a leader. They include:

1. Readiness for the Leadership Role
2. The Assertiveness Scale
3. What Type of Leader Are You?
4. The Least Preferred Coworker (LPC) Scale for Measuring Leadership Style
5. Rating a Manager's Power
6. Survey of Influence Tactics
7. Characteristics of an Effective Coach
8. The Creative Personality Test Intellectual Abilities
9. A Test of Communication Effectiveness
10. The Leadership Criterion of The Baldrige Award
11. Attitudes Toward Technology

Not content with just helping you figure out how effective you are as a leader right now, this book also provides a number of skill building exercises to help you improve for the future. These include:

1. Becoming a Charismatic and Transformational Leader
2. Management by Anecdote
3. Feedback Skills
4. Becoming an Empowering Manager
5. Identifying Influence Tactics
6. Shelters for the Homeless
7. The Teamwork Checklist
8. Estimating Valances for Applying Expectancy Theory
9. Thinking Outside the Box
10. Brainstorming
11. Word Hints to Creativity
12. Identifying Emotion Provoking Words and Phrases
13. Charting Your Cultural Value Profile
14. How Much Do I Value Diversity?
15. Do You Have the Right Corporate Culture for TQM?
16. The Interpersonal Skills Checklist

Lots of good stuff in this book. It will keep you thinking for hours. Very revealing about the kind of leader you are! With lots of help for becoming the leader you want to be.

LEADERSHIP: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience

Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience provides an academic perspective on leadership. Designed as a textbook for academic courses, Leadership, includes pedagogical tools such as chapter summaries, discussion questions, suggested readings, and key terms and concepts.

Designed as a textbook for a college course, the premise of this book is "Being able to analyze your experiences from multiple perspectives may be the greatest single contribution a formal course in leadership can give you." (p. 18)

The book's 17 chapters are divided into five parts. The first six chapters focus on the process of leadership. The next three chapters focus on the leader. The next three chapters focus on the followers. The next two chapters focus on the situation. And the last three chapters talk about how to put it all together.

Chapters 9, 12, and 14 focus on leadership skills and are particularly interesting.

The basic skills in Chapter 9 include: communication, listening, assertiveness, and feedback.

The basic leadership skills in Chapter 12 include: building technical competence, building effective relationships with superiors, building effective relationships with peers, setting goals, and delegating.

Chapter 14 discuss skills such as: conducting meetings, encouraging creativity, managing conflict and negotiating, managing stress, and diagnosing performance problems.

As with any good book on leadership, this book has quotes from great leaders in each chapter.
Some of my favorites are:

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18." Einstein

"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other." John F. Kennedy

"Remember the difference between a boss and a leader: a boss says "Go!" --a leader says, "Let's go!" E.M. Kelly

"So near is a falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge." Cicero

Chapter 9 of Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience has a highlighted reprint from "Organizational Dynamics" entitled the Abilene Paradox. I have repeatedly referred to the Abilene Paradox when mentoring young leaders, and even some not-so-young leaders. If you would like to know more about the Abilene Paradox click here: Abilene Paradox.

The World is Flat

If you want a thought provoking read on what is happening in the world today pick up Tom Friedman's The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century.

Friedman highlights 10 world events that have taken place since 1989 to revolutionize how businesses operate in the 21st century. He starts with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the release of the Windows operating system in 1989.

He then discusses the dot com boom, bubble and bust which happened as a result of the Y2K software concerns beginning in about 1995. While the individual investor may have taken a beating in this market, businesses were given a world-wide information superhighway providing them access to markets around the globe. A concept Friedman refers to as "making the world flat." Or leveling the playing field of competitive advantage based on geographic location.

World Flatteners #4 - #9 include:

4. Uploading -- placing your own created work on the Internet where anyone can gain access to it and download it for themselves. Individuals are no longer just consumers of electronic products, they are now producers. Think blogging, YouTube, and Wikipedia.

5. Outsourcing -- sub-contracting all or part of your work functions to another company or individual. Then re-assimilating their work back into your organization.

6. Offshoring -- moving an entire operation, such as a whole factory, overseas or off shore.

7. Supply-Chaining -- horizontal collaboration between suppliers, retailers and customers to deliver products smoothly, quickly, just-in-time, and add value during the process.

8. Insourcing -- allowing collaborating companies to actually come inside your organization and perform functionality for you.

9. Informing -- making all the knowledge of the world available at your fingertips. No longer are you limited by the experts you can talk to. You can Google anything and learn from the best and brightest in the world.

In The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, Friedman suggests that these flatteners have allowed 3 billion new competitors to enter the global job market. Any job that is not bound by physical proximity is fair game for these new job seekers.

Physical proximity jobs include: mowing your yard, fixing your car, unplugging your toilet, serving your food, etc. But even some traditionally geographically based jobs can be done over the Internet such as: teaching you Spanish, preparing your taxes, taking your order at McDonalds (the food will still have to be prepared and served locally, but your drive up order can be taken from anywhere), and providing you medical advice.

In these economically challenging times, you owe it to yourself to read this book to gain a better understanding of what you are really up against!

The Dilbert Principle

Now for something on the lighter side. Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, has been making fun of organizational policies and politics for over 15 years. His cartoon strip regularly makes fun of the organizational fads we are familiar with. In this book, The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle's-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions Adams expounds on his "Dilbert Principle." The Dilbert Principle is a theory Adams suggests as a replacement for the famous Peter Principle.

The Peter Principle states, "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle)

The Dilbert Principle states, "that the most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage: management." Thereby skipping the need to ever have worked a job they were competent at.

Whether you agree with Adam's satirical view of the corporate world or not, you will find the objects of his ridicule are based on the reality he has seen and hears about in the corporate world.

Besides being entertaining, The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle's-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions provides some instructional value for leaders. It helps us see the world through the eyes of those we work with. If we take the time to examine the exaggerated spin Adams puts on corporate life, we realize the absurdity of the situations he describes in this book.

However, if we back up a few steps to the less exaggerated, less obvious real life situations these scenarios are based on, we might find that we engage in the same or very similar behavior in our own organizational life. Adams claims we regularly receives e-mail from people all over the world who swear he must have intimate knowledge of their organization because of his accurate descriptions of what's going on there.

Read it.

Enjoy it.

But reflect on how this book might be describing the very situations existing in your own organization.


And as you would hope, this book is full of cartoons to compliment and illustrate the principles being discussed.