Announcing The Indigo Podcast: An Exploration of Human Flourishing at Work and Beyond

When Chris Everett and I formed Indigo Anchor in 2018, we knew we would be a different kind of management consulting firm.  We would not be interested in fancy suits, not interested in churning out reports that were unhinged from real change. Nor would we be interested in peddling the latest organizational pop psychology.  

What we wanted to do was bring evidence-based approaches and strategies from academia, the military, and successful enterprise organizations to clients that were truly ready for the change required for improvement.

Fast forward to 2019, we’ve stayed true to these values and have had tremendous success where our competitors have previously failed.  And we’ve received validation that we are indeed “different.” We are “bold” … “challenging” … “funny” … “intense.” We’ve had clients laugh, cry, cheer, yell, and yet ultimately succeed when they thought success was elusive. We’ve gotten results for every client on every engagement leaving them with increased revenue, increased profits, happier employees, and happier boards of directors.  When approached, we only take on the work if we know we can leave the organization better than we found it.  

We’ve turned work away when organizations have floundered in describing the results they’re seeking, when they’ve wanted a solution that won’t fix their problem, or when their ask has been unrealistic. 

While we’re obsessed with quantifiable results, we also have a soft side that revels in the complexities of humanity with all of its intangibles and idiosyncrasies.  We are lovers of people and community. We have a higher purpose beyond the bottom line, and that is to see people flourish at work and beyond. 

In many of our engagements, clients have taken us aside to tell us how the communication and leadership skills we’ve taught has helped them in their marriages, with their children, and with their extended families. 

So, we started thinking to ourselves that we and our clients should have a place to learn from each other and invite others to do the same. We did not want this to be a sales pitch or marketing ploy for our company; however, we wanted the community to be distinct.  

How were we going to do this?  Forum-style like Reddit? Conversations or groups on LinkedIn? Start a Facebook page? As we discussed our options, preferences, and talents as well as who our audience would be and their preferences, we landed on the format of a podcast.  

Why a podcast? 

We liked the idea of podcasting for several reasons: it’s interactive and it’s digestible when you live a busy life on the go. We saw it as a way to extend beyond ourselves and engage in conversations that are essential to building community. We also anticipated that our audience likely includes those who already listen to podcasts and would enjoy that format.  

We are proud to announce The Indigo Podcast, which is set to launch Nov. 4, 2019.  It’s an informative, real, quirky, and somewhat irreverent resource for executives, managers, leaders, and anyone else interested in flourishing … in the world of work and beyond.  

During the last several months, we have been putting our heads together to come up with the best content that would be the most useful to our audience. We’ve recorded several episodes already. 

In every episode, we’re seeking to do some combination of the following:

• promote the flourishing of people and organizations

• bridge the gap between social science and management practice

• provide an antidote or counterpoint to the ever-increasing overly simplistic reductionist approaches to work and life

• feed the curiosity of people who want to make the world a better place through work

• inspire listeners to become lifelong learners and bold difference-makers

Initially, the podcast will feature me along with my fellow co-founder and principal at Indigo Anchor, Chris Everett.  We will also feature interviews with respected experts and other people of interest. The first several episodes will be on the subjects of thriving in the face of bad management, flourishing in a turbulent operating environment, agility and why it matters, and exploring why managers derail and how to avoid it.  

Our style is rather different from many of the business, management, or leadership podcasts that currently exist. Most notably, we recognize that the world is messy and that solutions often require a nuanced view of reality. Most of life does not lend itself to lists of easy steps to follow or “silver bullets” that fix everything. Our conversations, therefore, are fairly in-depth. And while we often provide perspectives and evidence-based ideas that our listeners will find immediately useful, our overall goal is to help our listeners think, learn, and maybe even laugh a little.  

We’re hoping that listeners and subscribers will find our podcast to be a refreshing resource for proven tools in the areas of management, leadership, human resources, organizational behavior, dealing with change, organizational culture, hiring, process improvement, organizational agility, and related topics. 

The Indigo Podcast launches Nov. 4, 2019 on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Spotify, GooglePlay, Stitcher, TuneIn, and Castbox.  

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To learn more about The Indigo Podcast, visit: https://www.indigotogether.com/indigopodcast  

Indigo Anchor is a management consulting firm serving clients across a wide range of industries, sectors, sizes, and locations.  Visit: https://www.indigoanchor.com/

Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a military uniform, or in a corporate boardroom advising top management teams. He is an award-winning assistant professor of management at Cleveland State University, a co-founder and principal of the consulting firm Indigo Anchor LLC, and a commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve. He regularly consults leaders and organizations across a wide range of sectors and industries. He earned his undergraduate degree from Villanova University and his master’s in industrial and organizational psychology and Ph.D. in organizational science from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Connect with Ben on LinkedIn. For more, visit: www.benbaran.com 

For additional information, contact Ben Baran at ben@indigoanchor.com

Harvey Weinstein, King David, You, and Me

King David Handing the Letter to Uriah, by Pieter Lastman

People who have power without oversight are likely to abuse it. Such has been the case throughout history. Not all people in power are abusive or unethical, yet power itself increases the probability for wrongdoing. 

Recent examples include Harvey Weinstein, whose reportedly habitual repugnant, criminal behavior against women is—appropriately—shocking.  

And every day, it seems that more reports of similar behavior surface.

One explanation for such behavior is that these people are somehow “bad” themselves. Namely, something is, and was perhaps always, immoral about them. This could be the case, and regardless of how we explain or understand what they did, our criminal justice system and we as a society should absolutely hold all such people who do such things fully accountable for their actions. 

At the same time, I suggest that seeing such behavior—be it sexual assault or other forms of criminal or unethical actions by people who hold power—only as the result of being a “bad” person is overly simplistic. It’s also self-serving and convenient, as it suggests that only “bad” people do bad things, therefore “I” as a “good” person can only do good things. 

In other words, in addition to considering “bad apples,” we must consider “bad barrels.” We must recognize that situational conditions can bring out the good and bad in all of us. Research by psychologists Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo, among others, provides compelling evidence of the inconvenient reality that we are all capable of good—and, perhaps more importantly—that we are all capable of evil. 

And regarding people lead or who aspire to lead organizations, there’s a critical lesson to take away. 

It’s one best illustrated by none other than the psalmist, King David, and discussed in a 1993 article in the Journal of Business Ethics titled, “The Bathsheba syndrome: The ethical failure of successful leaders.”

The article draws upon the story of King David and Bathsheba. If you’re not familiar, here’s a summary, according to the Bible (see 2 Samuel, Chapter 11): 

It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking upon the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” So David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her … And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am with child.” 

The plain language of these verses can unintentionally gloss over a few facts that are important to highlight: 

• David is a king, holding vast power and authority

• He sees a woman bathing and fetches her to his bed

• It’s hard to find evidence of a consensual relationship here

• Even if it were consensual, he knows she’s married, so it’s clearly wrong in this context

And then he learns that she’s pregnant, which naturally increases the probability of David’s actions becoming public. So, the king’s response? Let’s murder her husband. As written: 

In the letter he wrote [to Joab, one of his military commanders], “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab; and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite was slain also. 

The “Bathsheba syndrome,” as described by the article’s authors, involves the nature of power and leadership. It’s about how successful leaders, due to the very nature of their success, will almost inevitably find themselves in positions that can, if they’re not careful, lead to unethical behavior. 

This is because successful leaders increasingly have:

• Privileged access to information, people, and objects

• A tendency to lose strategic focus and get complacent

• Control over resources with little or no oversight

• The ability to manipulate the outcomes of their actions

Such products of success, the authors argue, leads to an increased probability of wrongdoing. It’s not about whether you’re a good or bad person; it’s not about whether or not you know the rules. It’s about the very outcomes of success. 

And that should serve as a warning to everyone who aspires to achieve success, at least success when defined as a position of authority within an organization. 

It’s a reminder that human nature can lead us to abuse our authority, to abuse our power over others to get what we want. 

It’s a reminder that it’s not just about Harvey Weinstein or King David; it’s about you. It’s about me. Because the minute we start thinking, “I’m a good person, so I would never do that” is the minute that we begin to step down the dangerous path of hubris. 

It’s an uncomfortable idea, but it’s valuable for us to remember. In particular, the article suggests that’s important for all leaders to keep in mind that, among other points:

1. It could happen to you—King David had principles; he was smart. And yet we see what he did. When confronted with ethical dilemmas, it’s best to assume that you will always get caught if you choose the wrong path.

2. Stay humble and grounded by living a balanced life. Find meaning in activities outside of your own organization to help you avoid believing in your own “greatness.”

3. Understand that your privileged access to information or people isn’t for your own benefit; it’s not something you deserve. Your job is always to help your organization flourish.

4. Surround yourself with people who will challenge your opinions and decisions, people whose job expressly includes keeping you focused and out of trouble.

5. Use boards of directors or other oversight mechanisms to keep your power in check; if you’re on a board, you should be particularly vigilant in your monitoring activities.

So in the midst of the many recent high-profile cases of sexual harassment and assault, it is perhaps timely to remind ourselves of the corrupting nature of power without oversight. When people depend upon us for resources, for approval, for jobs, for anything, the temptation to exploit such relationships exists.  

Such is the double-edged sword of success. It behooves all of us, therefore, to stay vigilant regarding our own behavior and the behavior of all others in power around us. 

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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. He regularly consults leaders and organizations across a wide range of sectors and industries. Visit: www.benbaran.com.

Long Live the Organizational Heretic!

The pressure to conform is tremendous. It starts before we can walk.  

Be nice. 

Share. 

See what your brother is doing? He’s doing a good job. Be like him.

As Yusuf Islam, better known by his former stage name of Cat Stevens, once sang, “From the moment I could talk, I was ordered to listen.”

And that’s just at home. We then, very quickly, enter the world of organizations, in which the mantra of conformity resounds even louder. As early as preschool, the powers that be tell us:

Stand in line. 

Don’t poke your friends. 

Wait your turn. 

This is how we sit, stand, eat, play, learn. 

This is how we get along. This is what’s acceptable; this is what’s not. 

The message is so pervasive that it’s subtle. It’s blindly accepted. We’re taught how to conform, and we’re rewarded for doing so. Deviate from the rules at your own risk. 

Without such conformity and social pressure, to be sure, life would be chaos. I have four young children, and you can bet I want them to listen and not throw golf balls at each other’s heads. 

Yet we shouldn’t be surprised at all when such a bias for conformity infuses our organizations through the mindsets of our employees. 

It’s not surprising at all that most of us, most of the time, do what we can to fit in and get along. 

Therefore, it shouldn’t surprise us at all that people seldom lead—because leadership itself is about being a positive social deviant. 

When the crowd plods ahead in mediocrity, leaders set high standards, create new visions of the future, and inspire new directions.

When the group convinces itself about the certainty of a particular course of action, leaders stand alone and reveal potential pitfalls. They point out the absurdity of taken-for-granted assumptions about the way things have been done in the past, about the way we sometimes think the world works. 

And so, I say, long live the organizational heretic! 

Here’s to those who make us uncomfortable, just when we think we have it figured out.

Here’s to those who question the value in pursuing failing objectives, especially in the face of significant sunk costs. 

Here’s to those who, in the words of Gary Hamel, “challenge management dogma.” 

All of us, particularly if we hold a position of authority, would be well served by considering how we treat the organizational heretics—those people who challenge the status quo—when they speak or act as positive social deviants.

And we would be well served by having the courage to sometimes being organizational heretics ourselves--as would those whom we lead in the process. 

Find this thought provoking? Leave a comment, like and share!

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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. Visit: www.benbaran.com.
 

Are You Liked, Respected or Really Useful?

There’s a conversation that typically happens at some point in leadership training for military officers about whether it’s better to be liked or respected as a leader. That is, do you want your people to enjoy your presence and to feel some sort of emotional attachment to you? Or do you want them to hold you in high regard for your abilities and behavior? 

It’s a good conversation because it highlights a natural tension that exists when you’re in charge of people. On one hand, being liked is a source of power in and of itself. People don’t like working for jerks. On the other hand, being in a supervisory position often requires one to make hard decisions that may not sit well with some people, and if your goal is to make your people like you, it could affect your judgment and behavior negatively. 

There’s no right answer, although sometimes I’ve noticed (at least in my own life in how I understood things and acted as a young leader) that in the military the “liked” versus “respected” distinction is treated too frequently as a strict dichotomy. It’s either one or the other. 

In reality, though, I see this as an “and” proposition. It’s possible—even, dare I say, ideal—to be both. 

But the bigger problem is that pursuing either being liked or respected as goals is a fool’s errand. It’s kind of like pursuing happiness. These are outcomes—ends, not means—and they emerge from a variety of factors related to your behavior and how you develop relationships. 

That’s where I think there’s another goal that’s clearer and more worthy of pursuit: Being really useful. 

And the academic part of me requires that I give credit where credit is due for that idea. It may seem ridiculous, but this is an idea that’s a central premise in Thomas & Friends. 

Yes, I’m referring to the children’s show about a group of trains, and the protagonist is a blue engine named Thomas. The engines encounter various challenges in their daily work, and Thomas sometimes gets himself into tough situations that have to get resolved through teamwork and other types of problem-solving and conflict management. 

But if you watch just a few episodes, you’ll realize that there’s a goal underlying everything in the show. It’s subtly (and sometimes overtly) suggested as an engine’s raison d'être. It’s their reason for existence, and it’s an achievement to be celebrated. 

That characteristic is being a Really Useful Engine. There’s even a song about it. 

In the lyrics, you’ll notice that being really useful—helping other people with their work while at the same time performing your own job at a high level of competence—wins the approval of both one’s supervisor and coworkers. 

So instead of focusing on necessarily trying to be liked or respected, I think it’s a good idea to focus instead on being really useful for the people around us, for our teams, for our organizations. Being really useful has numerous implications for behavior. If you’re trying to be really useful, you’re necessarily going to do things like:

• Build relationships and listen to people,
• Learn what people or your organization need,
• Work to solve other people’s problems—useful endeavors, not just enjoyable tasks,
• Seek feedback from others and  
• Continually build and expand your own competence.

If you do those sorts of things, either as a leader of other people or as an individual contributor, I’m fairly sure that both liking and respect will follow. 

Hey, it works for Thomas. And he is, after all, “The Really Useful Engine that we adore!” 
 
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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. Visit: www.benbaran.com. 

Be Vigilant for Your Moment

Despite its sometimes harsh weather and a professional football team that continually disappoints its fans, Cleveland, Ohio, is home to one of the world’s best orchestras. 

And that’s not just my amateurish opinion. Gramophone magazine, for example, compiled a list of the 20 best orchestras in the world, based upon ratings from top music critics—whom, I would readily assume, know more about classical music than I. 

The Cleveland Orchestra, on this list, is number seven.  

It’s rated higher than the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and a number of other great orchestras in the United States and around the world. 

So the Cleveland Orchestra is, quite naturally, a point of pride for northeast Ohio. 

And during the holiday season, the Cleveland Orchestra turns its attention to performing a variety of holiday tunes in its annual Christmas Concert series. 

As I have in the past, I found this year’s performance to be splendid. But during the performance, I noticed something that got me thinking. 

It was the harp. And more specifically, the harpist. 

During an orchestral performance, as you know or can imagine, each musician and his or her instrument fills a specific role. Most prominent, typically, is that of the violins and other stringed instruments. Those musicians, it seems to me, are actually producing sounds from their instruments for much more total time than some of the less frequently heard-from sections. 

Which brings us back to the harp. From my seat in the front-left section of Severance Hall, I had a direct view of the side of the stage where the harp and organ were situated. I was able to watch the harpist closely.

In contrast to the violinists and violists and cellists, the harpist’s role is infrequent. It can be rather distinct and prominent in the music, but the harp’s role isn’t to provide the bulk of the musical structure that the orchestra as a whole creates. 

So the harpist, as I noticed, must be extraordinarily vigilant. She was just as engaged in the music when she was not playing as when she was playing—she was reading every page of the music, positioning the harp and her hands in anticipation of her parts as they would arrive. 

And when they did arrive—her moment to perform—she did so with perfect timing and results.

For me at least, there’s a lesson in the role of the harpist. Sometimes, it’s easy to think that our lives and careers are supposed to be like the violins—a continual production of excellence that everyone notices and appreciates. But that’s potentially misleading and inaccurate.

Because in reality, there’s probably a big part of our lives and careers and our lives that is more like that of the harpist. We have our roles—combined with our specific talents, skills, sets of knowledge—and every so often, we’re needed to perform. It’s our turn to pluck the strings, so to speak, and deliver what only we can in that moment. 

The most important point, however, isn’t that our roles are probably more punctuated than we assume. 

The most important point is that we must be ready. 

We can’t disengage. We must know what’s going on around us; we need to be on the same sheet of music as those with whom we’re performing—our teams at work, our families, our friends. We need to know what our strengths are and how we can contribute. 

There are times for performing, and there are times for watching. 

And timing is everything.   

So, be vigilant for your moment. We’re all counting on you. I, for one, can’t wait to hear your notes. 

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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. Visit: www.benbaran.com. 

Never Give Up, Never Stop Learning

Photo By: Lance Cpl. Jesus Sepulveda Torre. The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.

Although I teach courses on various topics related to leadership, I’m quick to admit it: Learning a lot about leadership won’t necessarily make you a great leader. 

Similarly, just because someone has 20 years of experience doing something doesn’t necessarily make him or her an expert. It’s quite possible—and common—for people to have the same experience, 20 years in a row. 

What oftentimes elevates truly great leaders above the rest is their tenacity, their commitment to never give up—and to never stop learning. It’s their ability to persevere through adversity with an open mind, applying the lessons they acquire along the way. 

One such leader whom I’ve always enjoyed listening to and reading about is United States Marine Corps General James Mattis (ret.). Among recent military leaders, Mattis is a legend, particularly if you talk with other U.S. Marines. 

Stories about his selfless, direct style of leadership abound. 

Additionally, his use of the “knife hand”—basically pointing for emphasis with all of one’s fingers outstretched and the hand oriented such that the little finger is closest to the ground, like the sharp edge of a knife—is equally legendary.  

So I couldn’t help but pause for a moment recently when the Marines released a video of Mattis talking about leadership. In the video, he answers a number of questions related to leadership. At the end, he even addresses the lethality of his knife hand. 

He’s quick to point out that it was the spirit of the people he led, his Marines, that kept him motivated throughout his career. 

And in no uncertain terms, he says that the key to improving continually as a leader is that “You have to assume that you must keep improving.” For Mattis, this is simply a given. Leaders must “maintain this body, mind and spirit improvement at all times.”

But above all, I’m impressed with his humble-yet-confident demeanor. People tend to follow those who know where they’re headed, but at the same time they’re inspired by those who are humble enough to share recognition with the team for getting stuff done. 

Or, as Mattis says, “You’re not going to win any fights as a leader. Your troops are going to win those fights.”

Take a few minutes to listen to these and other bits of timeless leadership wisdom in the video below. 

Although none of us will go through the same situations as Mattis and it’s unlikely that any of us will achieve his level of regard among any group of leaders, not to mention leaders in the U.S. Marine Corps, there’s plenty that we can learn from his style. 

And if we do, I think we’ll be just a little better equipped than we were before to adapt to change and to perform well in adversity.

That’s not to say that it’s easy. Quite to the contrary, leadership is hard. It’s often vastly different from the somewhat romantic vision that we sometimes have of it. But just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean that leadership can’t be effective. 

Because, as Mattis says, “Difficulty is an excuse that the Marine Corps will never accept.” 

What excuses do you accept? What do you tolerate, in yourself, in those around you, in your organization?

And what, during the next week or so, can we all do to re-identify what’s important, to re-commit to never giving up and never stopping our process of learning?

Find this thought provoking? Leave a comment, like and share!

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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. Visit: www.benbaran.com. 

What Leaders Can Learn From Mr. Olympia

Imagine that you’re about to interview for the job of your dreams. Or that you’re about to give a high-stakes presentation. Or take an important test. Or simply focus on getting a few things done in the next hour. 

What are you thinking? What are you telling yourself in your mind? 

If you’re anything like 8-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman, you’re telling yourself, “Ain’t nothin’ to it but to do it.” 

Coleman is widely considered one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time, which is impressive enough, but what I find compelling is how he talked. In particular, how he talked to himself. 

You can find plenty of evidence of this on YouTube, and in addition to being interesting, it’s often entertaining. He’s funny. He’d be kicked out of Planet Fitness in about 0.3 seconds. 

And Coleman’s “self-talk,” as it’s called in the psychology literature, is easy to spot because he often does it aloud. 

When approaching a massive weight that he was about to lift, he’d say things like:

• “Yeah, buddy!”
• “Nothin’ but a peanut.”
• “Light weight!”
• “Ain’t nothin’ to it but to do it.”

And then he’d go lift something about as heavy as my car. 

But what’s really compelling is how our internal monologue—our self-talk, or our “mindchatter” as my friend Bill Gentry of the Center for Creative Leadership calls it—influences our performance as leaders and managers. 

A few years ago, I was part of a research team that specifically looked at how executives talked to themselves. In our study, we analyzed a few hundred letters that senior executives wrote to themselves at the conclusion of a leadership development program. We then took our ratings of their self-talk in those letters and analyzed how it compared with how their own bosses and followers rated their leadership. Lo and behold, the best leaders had self-talk patterns that were positive, reflective and constructive in nature. 

The ineffective leaders, on the other hand, tended to have pessimistic, negative self-talk. They also tended to report being more stressed than their positive self-talking, effective counterparts. 

Much of the scientific research on the outcomes of self-talk comes from the world of sport psychology. And the findings in that realm tend to support what we found in the business world—positive self-talk is productive and useful. 

So what might self-talk “look like?” For that, let’s turn to a study that constructed a measure of self-talk for athletes. They categorized self-talk into eight groups as listed below.

• Psych Up: Let’s go, Give 100%, Do your best
• Anxiety Control: Relax, Calm down, No stress
• Confidence: I feel strong, I can make it, I believe in me
• Instruction: Concentrate, Focus on your technique, Focus on what you need to do right now
• Worry: I’m wrong again, I cannot concentrate, I am not as good as the others
• Disengagement: I want to stop, I want to get out of here, I am fed up
• Somatic Fatigue: I am tired, Today I “suck,” My body is not in good condition
• Irrelevant Thoughts: I am thirsty, What will I do later tonight, I want to take a shower

If you truly reflect upon your own thoughts, I bet you’d be able to find examples from most if not all of these categories. We all “talk” to ourselves. The question is whether we’re positive and constructive or negative and destructive in our patterns of self-talk. 

Regardless of whether we’re trying to do our best running a meeting or preparing for a tough conversation at work, it behooves us to be mindful of our self-talk. Literally forcing ourselves to use positive patterns of self-talk helps change our attitude and our mood, allowing us to do our best. 

Because no matter what situations we face in this crazy life, we always have control over how we react and our resulting attitude. And a big part of changing our attitude is controlling what we allow to go on in our minds.

So the next time you face a tough management moment, I encourage you to first stop and think, “Ain’t nothing to it but to do it.”

Find this thought provoking? Leave a comment, like and share!

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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. More at www.benbaran.com, www.agilityconsulting.com and www.strategicagilityinstitute.com. 

When Drowning Prevention Meets Business Strategy

My children love the water. They swim, they splash, they laugh. 

My children, like most children, are fast. They dart, they scurry, they hide. 

Therefore, when my children encounter water, it can be an exhausting experience for my wife and me. We must be vigilant. 

The pool we frequent has lifeguards. But their vigilance will never match mine. 

Unless, of course, we’re talking about lifeguards at Great Wolf Lodge. Their vigilance surpasses mine 99 percent of the time (at least when it comes to paying attention to all of the children in an area, not just my own).

And one reason, I suspect, has to do with business strategy. 

For the unfamiliar, Great Wolf Lodge is a large, growing chain of indoor, family-friendly water parks. They’re open year-round, and children of all ages can swim, go down slides and splash around with a host of water-related valves and buckets. My children love it. 

But Great Wolf Lodge realizes that regardless of how fun they make the water park or how attentive they are to the overall customer experience, there’s a chink in their armor.

They have an Achilles heel.

There’s a specific type of failure that could severely damage their reputation and their business. 

It’s drowning, leading to the death of a child. 

The entire business model of Great Wolf Lodge depends on the safety of the children and a fun experience for everyone. If the safety of the experience—either real or perceived—came into question within the minds of potential customers, their business would suffer dramatically. (And the safety of children is intrinsically good, of course.)

And so, back to the lifeguards. During the times I’ve visited Great Wolf Lodge, I couldn’t help but notice that they:

• Avoid eye contact with people outside of the water
• Continually scan their gaze back and forth on their area, focusing on the water itself, not on individual children
• Seem to rotate on shifts more frequently than lifeguards at most pools
• Get tested unexpectedly by training personnel who nonchalantly toss a dummy child into the water and time how fast the lifeguard reacts

In this way, Great Wolf Lodge lifeguards and their managers are preoccupied with failure. They have specifically identified what they must avoid as an organization. And they have constructed hiring, training, cultural norms and incentives to guide behavior accordingly. 

Photo from: https://www.greatwolf.com/culture

To be fair, Great Wolf Lodge doesn’t have a zero-incident safety record. I highly doubt any park of its magnitude does. But it’s also fair to say that the probability of any specific child having a serious incident at Great Wolf Lodge is very, very low.  That’s the way it should be. Safety is boring. It’s a non-event. 

For businesses not in the amusement park industry, however, I think there are some lessons to be learned from Great Wolf Lodge, its lifeguards and its preoccupation with drowning. 

These lessons include:

• Focusing on the positive might be warm and fuzzy, but it’s critical to identify what your organization must avoid
• Avoiding failure—and really risk management in general to some degree—involves creatively thinking about what could go wrong
• Once you’ve identified these potential internal weaknesses or external threats, you should consider what you can do about them
• Leaders can use these risky areas of their operations as a focusing mechanism for employee behavior through hiring practices, training and incentives
• Managing for non-events requires ongoing vigilance, which must be shared and replenished

The key is to figure out what “a drowning child” looks like in your organization, and then to identify how it can be detected as quickly as possible. Having a reliable organization doesn’t mean that you’ll never encounter a “drowning child,” but it does mean that your people will recognize what it looks like and take mitigating actions—before it becomes a catastrophe. 

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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. Visit: www.benbaran.com.

The Rise of HR … Agility

It’s easy to fall into patterns and comfortable routines. 

Some of those are great. Take, for example, dental hygiene. Or strength training. 

But if our routines too often keep us around the same people, we run the risk of stagnating. It’s even worse if we’re isolated—or insulated, depending on how you look at it—from other ideas. 

That’s one reason why I enjoy professional conferences. Even if you’re around people in a similar area of expertise or interest, you’ll learn a great deal from their different perspectives and experiences. 

Last week, I spent a few days at the annual conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) in Anaheim, Calif. And in between all of the catching up with wonderful friends and making new ones, I managed to gain some new perspectives on what I do professionally. 

For context, it’s important to note that SIOP conferences tend to be about half professors and half industry professionals. And although I’m firmly planted in the world of academia in addition to my consulting work, I tend to gravitate toward conference sessions that are geared more toward those in industry than those of us in academia. 

Why?

Quite simply, it gives me some insight into what’s on the minds of people on the front lines of leadership development, talent management, human resources (HR) and other related areas. 

I attended a number of interesting sessions, but the one that stuck out to me most was a panel discussion that featured Dave Ulrich, William Schiemann and Libby Sartain.

They’re the editors of the recent book The Rise of HR: Wisdom from 73 Thought Leaders. 

Given that I teach HR classes and often consult in HR or areas of relevance to HR, I thought I’d benefit from what they had to say. I was right.

 

Here are some of the highlights from that session, from my perspective:

"The war for talent is won through the organizations we create." - Dave Ulrich #HR #SIOP16 #IOPsych pic.twitter.com/02NBnGXYnH

— Ben Baran (@BenBaran) April 15, 2016

• The Rise of HR is a book with 73 essays on the future of HR. It’s free. Anyone can download it. Simply visit www.theriseofhr.com. Did I mention that it’s free? 
   
• Much of what I see as the future of HR seems to be validated by others. For example, HR leaders must continually be aware of their strategic context.
   
• As Ulrich mentioned during the session, doing HR well requires “managing paradoxes” well. Think about the tension between stability and change, or between globalization and localization, for example. 
   
• At the heart of the idea of managing paradoxes is agility. Leaders at all levels need to be able to sense and respond to the forces of change around them, and in HR, leaders have the opportunity to build organizations with agile capabilities too. In Ulrich’s words, “The war for talent is won through the organizations we create.”  

Here’s more from Ulrich talking about The Rise of HR. 

Given my interest in the intersection of leadership, organizational change and HR, it’s my point of view that HR leaders must (a) demonstrate agility themselves and (b) actively work toward creating agile organizations. Practically speaking, this means that HR professionals need to:

• Stop acting like gate keepers. Be service providers instead. (Read more.) 
• Stay in touch with what top leaders see as the most disruptive trends. (Read more.) 
• Understand and master organizational change. (Read more here and here.) 
• Lead boldly. (Read more.) 

And getting back to my original point, HR professionals at all levels need to reach out beyond their current horizons, letting fresh ideas inoculate them from the stagnation of isolation. 

With that approach, we’ll all be well equipped to thrive in this increasingly turbulent—and exciting—world of work. 

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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. Visit: www.benbaran.com. 

Leadership to Change the World

Recently, I did something that changed the world. It might have been an encouraging word, a provocative question, a smile.

But honestly, I have no idea what it was.

Recently, you did something that changed the world. It might have been an offer to help, an attentive ear, a cup of coffee.

But you, like me, probably don’t know exactly what you did either.

You see, everything we do can either breathe life or death, hope or despair into the people around us. And when we change the people around us by acting differently, we indeed change the world.

Across my spectrum of professional roles, I work with myriad college students, business executives and military personnel. Most of that deals with the function of human resources or the academic field of organizational behavior.

Regardless, the common element across it all is leadership.

Unfortunately, though, leadership has been over-glorified as something momentous. It’s not. It’s often more about perspiration—empathy-driven hard work—than inspiration. Most of the time, it has to do with “lollipop moments.”

Take a moment to learn about that from Drew Dudley in the video below.

If we’re to change the world—or put a “dent in the universe” as Steve Jobs once said—we must start by examining our interactions with those around us.

Are we using those opportunities to life each other up, to make each other’s universe a little more hospitable?

We spend most of our waking hours at work. So if we really want to make a difference in the world, we should start by focusing on how we ourselves can be positive forces of disruption in our organizations.

And if enough people started thinking that way in an organization—about each other, about their customers, about the work itself—they’d be unstoppable. They’d be able to sense and respond quickly to change, displaying a level of agility that most organizations would find impossible. They'd be engaged, driven by purpose. 

Your leadership doesn’t have to be big. It could start with something small—like a lollipop.

What are some little ways in which we can change our world at work? Leave a comment below!

Find this thought provoking? Like and share!

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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. Visit: www.benbaran.com. 

Feed Them Radishes! And 3 More Ways to Stifle Change

We are creatures of habit. We continually seek—or create—routines. The structures of our days and our weeks give us predictability, and that makes us comfortable. 

None of this is inherently bad. In fact, routines and habits let us free our minds to work on other, more complex problems. If we had to think actively about everything in our day, deliberately evaluating every decision from the time we roll out of bed until we return to the pillow, we’d be overwhelmed. 

What does this have to do with agility, human resources, leadership and change? 

Everything. 

When we ask people to change, we’re asking them to focus their energy and make different choices.

We’re asking them to be deliberate about specific aspects of their day—features that used to be routine—and do them differently. 

And when we do that too often or throw too many changes at people at one time, it’s exhausting and overwhelming for them. That’s one big reason why change is hard. 

And what does that have to do with radishes?

Dan Heath, coauthor of Switch,  discusses that below. 

To summarize, Heath discusses in that clip an experiment in which one group is allowed to eat radishes while being tempted by cookies. The other group just gets cookies and is allowed to eat them. People from both groups are then asked to complete a puzzle of sorts—but there is no solution to the puzzle. 

The main finding is that the radish eaters were much more likely to quit working on the puzzle faster than the cookie eaters, with a possible conclusion being that the self-control they had to exert depleted their ability to keep persisting at the impossible task. 

The study is titled, “Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource?” Four researchers at Case Western Reserve University published it in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1998, and more than 2,800 other studies have cited it since then. 

Reading this study more closely provides some insight regarding at least four ways to stifle change.

If you really want to stifle change, then:

1. Feed people radishes. No one likes radishes. (OK, maybe, if they’re cut in very thin slices.)
2. Ensure the old way of doing things is easier than the new way. This will tempt people with the status quo, making change seem overly difficult. 
3. Change too many things at once. This will also make people tired of exerting effort in new directions, making them less likely to persist in creating new habits. 
4. Make the change ambiguous and full of choices. This will also deplete people’s resources by forcing them to exert brain power and make decisions.

Regarding agility, it’s important to remember that being agile is about sensing and responding quickly to one’s environment. It’s not about changing for change’s sake; it’s not about bending in every direction whenever the wind blows.

That’d be exhausting, pointless and reckless. 

Leaders in human resources often find themselves assisting with change management across the organization. In addition to keeping “radishes” in mind, they should be proactive in educating senior leaders about agility before change becomes necessary. That way, they can help the organization change in systematic ways—not exhausting people with excessive ambiguity and numerous new routines being thrown at employees at once. 

In addition to radishes, what else stifles change in your organization? Leave a comment below!

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About Ben Baran
Ben Baran, Ph.D., is probably one of the few people in the world who is equally comfortable in a university classroom, a corporate boardroom and in full body armor carrying a U.S. government-issued M4 assault rifle. Visit: www.benbaran.com. 

Employee Motivation: Expectancy Theory

Expectancy theory is one of the most well-known theories of work motivation. It takes a rational approach toward human behavior, assuming that people make conscious decisions among alternatives. In this clip, I explain the basics of expectancy theory and some of the potential implications it has for managers. 

Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy

Derek Sivers is an interesting guy--entrepreneur, speaker, musician, performer, writer, programmer, and more. I first heard him speak at a music business conference in 2004, when he was running CDBaby, the wildly successful online music store that catered to independent musicians. Sivers made a video a few years ago called "Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy." I think it's great. As a management professor, I've used it in class numerous times as a great way to spark discussion about leadership, followership, risk taking, creativity, and other related topics.

Check it out below and see what you think.