Language and the Pursuit of Leadership Excellence

Key Concepts

Observer-Action-Results Model 

• Observer: 

  • Our physical body (e.g., biology, posture, breathing)

  • Our language (internal and external conversations)

  • Our mood/emotional states 

• Action: Physical Actions, Conversations (Speech Acts)

• Results: Culture, Productivity, Profitability, Public Identity, Teamwork, Relationships, Emotional Well-being, Healthy Trust

“First Order Learning has to do with changing our Actions (which for leaders include changing our speaking, entering into new or different conversations) for the purpose of producing new results.” (p. 17)

We need Second Order Learning, since our observer affects the whole system—“What we don’t often notice is that the way we observe, interpret, listen—the way we see things—comes before we take any Action. That is, the way we frame a given situation tends to create a particular ‘starting point’ set of possibilities. ...Others, who frame the situation differently, see other sets of possibilities, which lead to other Actions.” (p. 19)

Everything in organizations can be stated in terms of conversations

“Every organization, no matter how simple or complex, can be viewed as a network of conversations, relationships and commitments.” (p. 33)

Five Key Clusters of Leadership Conversations

Conversations for Relationship—“For the purpose of deepening relationships and laying the groundwork for future conversation in which confrontation and healthy, respectful disagreement may be needed.” (p. 177)

Conversations for Orientation/Context-Setting—“For the purpose of building and sustaining shared understanding of organizational and/or team purpose, values, vision, goals, standards, and roles.”(p. 177)

Conversations for Innovation/Speculation—“For the purpose of generating ideas and possibilities in order to address concerns, solve problems or take advantage of opportunities.” (p. 178)

Conversations for Coordinating Action/Implementation—“For the purpose of accomplishing Results with and through others. …setting direction, enrolling others, making requests and offers and managing promises and commitments.”(p. 178)

Conversations for Progress/Completion—“For the purpose of declaring satisfaction or dissatisfaction, checking in at regular intervals within projects or assignments to analyze and evaluate Results….” These include giving and receiving feedback, listening, recognition, and celebration. (p. 178)

Ladder of Inference (p. 92)

1. “Observable data and experiences occur; some ‘event’ occurs

2. “I select ‘data’ from what I observe; some details and Actions; (I miss other details and Actions)

3. “I add meaning (cultural and personal)

4. “I make assumptions based on the meanings I added

5. “I draw conclusions

6. “I adopt beliefs about the world

7. ‘I take Actions based on my beliefs.” 

Enemies of Learning (p. 117)

• Unwillingness to admit ‘I don’t know’

• When you don’t know what you don’t know, but you act as if you do

• Being unaware that we live in blindness (arrogance)

• “I should already know”

• “I have to be clear about everything, all the time”

• Forgetting the domain of emotions and its impact on learning

• Distrust

• Confusing knowing with having opinions or information

• Addiction to novelty

• Addiction to answers

• Not granting permission to be taught

• Making everything overly significant

• Making everything trivial

• Living in permanent assessments or judgments

• Living in the belief “I cannot learn, given who I am”

• Forgetting the body as a domain of learning

Friends of Learning (p. 117)

• Willingness to declare ‘I don’t know’

• Listening

• Openness

• Respect and admiration

• Willingness to question your questions

• A mood of perplexity and inquiry

The power of distinctions (p. 147)

• “Distinctions in any domain allow us to see what others do not see – and what we ourselves did not see before we had the distinctions.”

• “Upon seeing what others do not see in that domain, we can then do what others cannot do in that domain.”

• “Distinctions in any given domain = capacity for effective Action in that domain.

• “No distinctions = no capacity for effective Action.

• “New distinctions = new capacity for Action.

• “New Action is required for new Results (Observer-Action-Results).”

The Grand Illusion

”That everyone sees things like you do!” (p. 156)

Types of speech (p. 191)

• Assertions

• Assessments

• Declarations

• Requests

• Offers

• Promises

Distinguishing between assertion and assessment is important for leadership

“As a leader, your ability to keep assertions and assessments separate, distinct from each other is absolutely critical—as is your ability to build a team in which all members are able to do this, too.” (p. 194)

Elements of Effective Requests (p. 270)

1. Committed Speaker— “You can’t call yourself a committed speaker unless you take the Action required to elicit a committed listener.” (p. 271)

2. Committed Listener— “A committed listener is one who is present and aware, and it’s not actively engaged in something else.” (p. 271)

3. Future Action and Conditions of Satisfaction

4. Timeframe

5. Context

6. Mood

“It is not required that you or your people keep 100% of your promises in order to establish and sustain a culture of accountability. This is not the standard, this is not required. This is actually impossible, is it not? Life occasionally does throw us a curve. But it is required that you and they manage 100% of your commitments, no exceptions.” (p. 286)

Quotables

“We have identified a close cousin of open-mindedness, a pre-requisite that we feel is directly connected to our ability to learn, regardless of subject matter. This pre-requisite is a powerful language step. It’s when the learner thinks, or says out loud: ‘I don’t know”. (p. 48)

“We often make people wrong who don’t have the same distinctions we do.” (p. 100)

“Many of us have come to this observation: maybe, for today and tomorrow, the ‘mother of all competencies’ for individuals and for organizations, is learning how to learn.” (p. 108)

“The world doesn’t have any problems, in and of itself. People – individual Observers – have problems. What’s a problem to one Observer passes totally unnoticed to another. What’s a grave threat to one Observer is a great opportunity or wonderful new possibility to another.” (p. 158)

“That is, we can purposefully invent new conversations, knowing that over time they will have the effect of influencing or designing a new mood. We can purposely do something different with our body (walk differently, sit differently, breathe differently, stand differently, dance, meditate, exercise) knowing that, overtime, this will produce different interpretations, different conversations, different available moodspaces. We can listen to music or do something else to purposefully change our moods, knowing that this will impact our listening, our interpretations, our language, our posture.” (pp. 173-4)

“Assertions and grounded assessments can be a foundation for building and rebuilding trust, as new conversations are now possible which clear standards are established and clear performance parameters are agreed-upon and measured against. We can also reduce the number of the recurring conversations in which people disagree about what the same set of underlying data means – because all are not operating with the same standards, as well as new awareness of the difference between their assertions in assessments.” (p. 219) 

“Leaders are responsible for building and sustaining shared understanding of— and share commitment to—the declarations that are the organizational ‘come from’ and the organizational ‘go to.’” (p. 230)

“What makes a declaration valid or invalid has to do with the authority granted by the community to the one making the declaration.” (p. 253)