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Leadership is a relationship between leaders and their followers and relationships require trust. And the more audacious your goals, the more trust you need to go at the speed of disruption required. If trust is lacking in your organization, then use openness to erect “trust scaffolding” needed to develop and deepen trust.
To be competitive, it’s no longer enough to be innovative – you must have a strategy for disruptive growth, a plan to identify and seize an opportunity no one else has the audacity or confidence to reach for. Disruptors don’t just blow things up – they also create and build things that result in huge, positive change. Welcome to The New Rules of Disruption with Charlene Li. For the past two decades, Charlene Li has been helping people see the future and thrive with disruption. She couples the ability to look beyond the horizon with pragmatic advice on what actions work today. She helps executives and boards recognize that companies must be disruptive to compete, not just innovate.
New Rules of Disruption Ep4_FC
Thu, 11/11 10:55 PM • 20:35
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, openness, trust, disruption, happening, build, leaders, organization, leadership, accountability, create, company, acknowledge, Nokia, open, power, problem, bad news, transformation, ch ar
00:00
Hi there, it's Charlene. I'd like to thank Adobe for supporting this podcast. Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences, find out more, and adobe.com.
00:18
Leaders have never been challenged in their career as much as they are today, with technology empowering the voices of customers, many leaders are realizing that we're now in a perpetual state of always-on transformation. It's time for disruption, a transformation of leadership, and a transformation of ourselves. But what roles do we play by when you want to create this change? This podcast is about how we as leaders, must transform ourselves to make it all work. My name is Charlene Li. And these are the new rules of disruption.
01:05
We oftentimes talk about how important it is have empathy to be vulnerable to be authentic to be human as a leader. After I wrote my first book, groundswell, a CEO came up to me and said, I get it I need to do all these things. But I have just one question, how open do I need to be? And that's a darn good question. Because the reality is we can't be 100% open. And that's not what people expect us to be. I would answer that question with this one main thought. You need to be as open as you need to be to develop the type of relationship that builds trust. You want that relationship, to have enough, give and take so that people can operate and know that they're good with each other. If you're not good with each other, if there isn't trust, then you're going to have to open up even more, and you as a leader are in the position and have the power to be able to take that first step of openness. The power of openness is that it lets the sunshine and it's a natural disinfectant, to get rid of all the gunk that's in your organization, all the politics the backchannels, the backstabbing, all the things that are left unsaid, really just polluting the air. Openness allows you to have these conversations where you couldn't before. And it allows you to deal with the conflicts that would otherwise be just left undealt with, and it allows you then to move forward. And if you're going to create transformational change, you need to make sure that your organization is clear of all of these issues. That's the only way to be able to move at the speed of trust that you need to transform your organization. The reason why openness is so powerful is that there is accountability built into the system. When things go right, that's awesome. Everybody is always willing to step forward. So yeah, I did a great job, everybody slapping each other on the back. But when things go wrong, what happens typically, we slunk into the corner, we dug our heads, and hope that nobody notices that everything just went to pot. So in an open environment, in open culture, just the opposite happens. When things go wrong, there's no place to hide. And therefore people automatically must take accountability of what happened. And they own it. And they accept it. And instead of being ashamed of it, they bring it forward and go with things did not happen the way we anticipated. Despite our best efforts, things are not going well, we now need everybody's help to try to make this right. And because there was no accountability because there was that openness, everybody purchase. And because you know, the next time it might be you. And you would want people to come to your aid as well. So this is what openness does, it is a multiplier of the type of relationships you want to have. It is an automatic way to ensure that there is accountability, that there is ownership of what is happening. And it is one of the most powerful tools of the new leadership that I think is needed to drive transformational change. Let me give you this example when Nokia was making its turnaround, and they were moving from being a handset manufacturer for consumers to becoming an internet communications and technology company, the chairman of the company Risto Siilaasmaa, had to guard a huge culture change in order to pivot the company. He realized that people were not open about what was going on. One of the biggest mistakes that Nokia made was not acknowledging early on the rise of Apple's iOS and Android as a challenge to the Nokia Symbian operating systems, Nokia leadership just didn't want to hear any bad news. They rewarded only good news reaching the boardroom. So when Risto took over, he insisted that people be more open about what was really going on. He knew that given the huge disruption that company was going through, the leadership would have to communicate at an unprecedented level. Here's Risto, explaining how Nokia led this disruptive change.
05:27
The key to give people stable and optimistic is to get them involved to be as transparent as possible, spend too much time in communicating what's happening rather than too late or a few meetings too many, rather than a couple of meetings review.
05:50
We still had a saying that bad news was good news. Good news was no news. And no news was bad news. Because when you aren't hearing the bad news, then you have to wonder, what is the quality of the information I'm getting from my direct reports? Are they just feeding me the information that they think I want to hear? Or, are they being honest in bringing up all the issues that they may have? In my conversation with Risto Siilaasmaa, he emphasized that the process of bringing up and dealing with bad news is what builds trust among the leadership. Here's Risto, again.
06:26
We don't need to feel that we have to hide the negative outcomes, possible negatives, huge risks and threats, and failures and mistakes. Can we trust each other more?
06:38
Is there trust in the relationship, and they believe they can tell you anything in that you would hear it with your whole heart and be able to see and help them with that problem, to overcome it. And to succeed and move forward. Take stock because if you don't have a good balance a bad news coming forward to you, you're going to want to take the time to say how can I change the situation? How can I make it so that our relationship is strong enough that we can handle the bad news as well as the good news? Many companies make disruption their goal. They believe if they develop just the right innovation, we will disrupt their markets forever and drive the kind of growth worthy of a magazine cover story. My latest book, The Disruption Mindset is where I explained that that's not how disruption works. Disruption doesn't create growth. Instead, growth creates disruption. Growth is hard, and disruptive both is exponentially harder. It requires companies to make tough decisions in the face of daunting uncertainties. Should we bet our company's future on next-generation customers? Or today's reliable ones? Should we abandon our current business model for an entirely new one, making bold changes, demands bold leadership, and often massive cultural transformation. Drawing on interviews with some of the most audacious people driving disruptive transformation today, I wrote this book to inspire leaders at all levels to answer the call to lead disruptive transformation in the organization's communities and society. You can get your copy right now, by visiting, CharleneLi.com, that's ch, ar, le, ne, li.com. To transform your leadership today.
08:43
One of the most interesting places where I see openness and trust happening today is in this area of allyship. Now, this is coming up oftentimes in the discussions around DEI- diversity, equity inclusion, where people who are in positions of power are standing by people who aren't in places of power, I define allyship as the exercise of power on behalf of people who don't have it. And when you do have this, when you do have a strong sense of allyship, that people will come to your aid that creates such a strong sense of trust, in that people are really there to help you be the best that you can be. I once worked with a leader who shared a story. And she was early on in her career working on a project as a consultant. And she was in a break and one of the client team members came and said something to her that was derogatory, misogynistic, and racist. And she didn't know how to take it. And she just went well, it was sort of a passing comment. I may not be taking this as seriously, I'm just a junior person on the team. I really can't respond. And so she went back to her own office and mentioned it to one of her colleagues, who got very upset and said this is not acceptable, went and told the senior partner who pulled aside the client and said, I never want any member of my team ever spoken to that way, I really want that person on your team on the client team to come and apologize to my team member. Now imagine how she felt, to know that in this moment when she was degraded, to have somebody come to her side, and not only comfort her and give her solace, but to also advocate for her and demand a level of respect that was due to not only her but to anybody and everybody. When we think about that level of openness and trust, we would hope that we would, in those situations stand up to be able to speak truth to that power and be able to have that level of openness and support for our people. And yet, we know that's probably not true, we could look at all this work around diversity, equity, and inclusion as the right thing to do that, we should just want to do it because it's the fair and equitable thing to do. And I also would say that the reasons to do this are just good business common sense. Because when everyone feels safe, when everyone feels that the rest of the organization, mind leaders are there for me to support me to have that openness and accountability, that then there was nothing we can do together, that we can take on new risks, we can go off into the uncertain future and look for that, and be operating at a really high speed. And that's what trust allows you to do to create a flywheel where the more trust you build, the more openness you have, the faster you'll be able to do things make a lot of mistakes, and they be okay because you know, no one's gonna stab you in the back because something went wrong. Instead, they'll pick it up and say, Okay, I'll take it from here. And that's what you want from your team. That's what you want as a transformational leader. To create that environment, I encourage you to think about how you can intentionally and systematically build trust. And the way to do this is to build what I call trust, scaffolding. When you're putting up a building, oftentimes, you had to put scaffolding to support that framework. And that's what you have to do with trust, too, as well. It doesn't just come out of nowhere. So there are three ways to build this trust scaffolding. The first one is the power of being known to acknowledge that trust is an issue, and to ask people to be patient, but to also say our goal here is to know each other, to deeply know each other on a personal level. Because when you do that, it's very, very difficult to turn your eye away from somebody who you know, and the objective is to be known, to be seen by the people around you. And that is the first foundation for having trust, is to take the time to actually see each other. We used to have a lot of these tools available to us just through the interstitial times that we'd spend with each other in office those times when you're at the watercooler going out to get lunch, or coming in going from our commutes. But now in a virtual world, and a hybrid and distributed workforce, we have to build those times into our day. So think about taking time from your meetings, taking 30 seconds, and checking in with each person to say what's going on in your lives. What is it that's outside of this room that's impacting you today, so we can be fully supportive of each other? We take those few minutes was few precious minutes, to get to know each other to acknowledge the fact that we need to build that time together. The second way to build trust is to address problems in a timely way. It's one thing to see that there is a problem. It's another thing to wait weeks or days, or even hours and minutes to address that problem. Proximity to the problem is key. Because if you just blow right by it, and you aren't taking that time to acknowledge and to reflect on what's happening in the moment, you lose that opportunity to build trust. This requires practice because it's all too easy to ignore some slight tension in the room. When you focus on a given outcome. pause and take a moment and do a quick check-in by asking, I'm sensing something's not quite right. Is there something I'm missing? Is there anything you'd like to clear or get clarification on? Even if there's nothing amiss? Simply checking in will reassure everyone that your radar is on looking for any potential problems or questions that may come up? The third way to erect trust scaffolding is to demand accountability. It's one thing to have openness. And it's one thing to trust that that visibility is going to hold people accountable. But as a leader, you also need to hold people to account for when things are going well, but also when things are not going well. And not to shy away from that. I worked with one person once who just got away with so much stuff. He would never turn things in on time, he would sweet talk and smile his way through mistakes and not showing up, he would show up to meetings, if at all, very, very late. And people just gave him a free pass. That erodes trust. And when you don't reinforce accountability in an environment like this, no matter how open it is, you're not reinforcing the fact that people live up to their responsibilities. So if you want people to take on responsibilities, they have to be accountable. So far, in this podcast series, we've talked about the need to see the future to be able to look for those future customers and not be blinded by your current ones. We've also talked about this incredible power shift that's happening with people being able to speak truth to power. And openness is the key to making both of those things happen. Because when you have the ability for any voice, to be able to speak up because of that power. And because that voice also sees that future in nice land in a place in an environment where openness is the norm. Because unless you have that people are going to stay quiet, they're going to stay within themselves, rather than feel that they are part of a larger hole. And being able to be committed to this future, this audacious change that you want to create. What openness does, it brings up all the doubts in the fears around the uncertainty around the future. Because we know that the road going forward is going to be difficult. We know that we're going to encounter these obstacles. And if you don't have openness, and accountability, and trust there, you will remain on the sidelines when those obstacles happen. But openness does increase the confidence in the organization to know that no matter what roadblocks you come across, you will be able to figure it out together. Because you will come together and say, hey, we just blew a tire. And we need to fix it rather than continue on this very flat tire, trying to hobble along to that future. Instead, we're going to take the time to fix what's wrong and to get back on the road at full speed. Have you ever wondered how open your organization is and needs to be? Well, here's a quick exercise that you can do. Take a look at how your organization deals with failure. Do you acknowledge it? Do you examine it, really look at it, and try to figure out? How can we learn from things that went wrong? Are people coming forward in your post mortems? If you even have them, and saying, Oh, this is the thing I could have done differently? This is what we need to do differently going forward. And does that whole entire exercise, build trust? Do you feel coming out of talking about these failures more connected with each other, or has a been a situation that was uncomfortable that people were looking for places to assign blame? Doing that quick little audit and diagnostic gives you an idea of where you need to work on in this area of openness. Because if you have a truly open organization, you talk fluidly about failure, even before it's happening. You're comfortable talking about all the things that could potentially go wrong and making all the plans to mitigate those risks. When you are able to deal with failures in a thoughtful and intentional strategic way, it's one of the best indicators that you're on your way to creating a very open and trust-based organization.
19:17
Rule number four, build openness and trust. Hey there, thanks for listening to the New Rules of Disruption. We created this podcast with a hope that you would be inspired to become a disrupter. Disruptors don't just blow things up. They also create and build things that result in huge positive change. This is a change that the world needs now more than ever, and we want to hear about what change you are creating in this world. You can send us your disruptive story by visiting CharleneLi. com slash podcast. That's ch, ar, le, ne, li.com/podcasts. If you are enjoying this podcast, I have one major ask. Please share it with a co-worker, manager or a friend. Let's build communities of disruption together.