5 bold statements for the next management team meeting
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them“ (A. Einstein). So let’s start with thinking! With these 5 statements on leadership, management and decision-making, an exciting dialogue is likely to take place in your next management team: So, turn off the thinking autopilot and turn on your curiosity!
#1 ”The leader of the future is a facilitator!” (John Naisbitt)
When Naisbitt talks about the “facilitator as the leader of the future,” he refers to facilitation as a transformation and development competency for leaders. In this sense, they are organizational developers & change makers who facilitate and enable the shaping of the future. Facilitative leaders know how to harness collective intelligence and co-creation processes within their own organization without getting lost in endless participation loops.
#2 “You can’t order change like you order a pizza!”
When I order a pizza as a manager, it’s usually on the table in 20 minutes. I don’t have to get involved in the preparation. When I order transformation as a manager, it’s different. You can’t order, control or delegate it. You go through such processes together in the entire relevant system. Otherwise, the transformation won’t happen. It is rejected by the immune system of the organization. Facilitative leaders initiate and facilitate organizational changes with their full attention and energy, instead of ordering them.
#3 “No one can avoid the freedom of others.” (R. Sprenger)
Every person leads themselves in full autonomy. In the corporate context, this applies not only to leaders but to all employees. As a manager, I am at best in control of my own behavior – not the behavior of others. What I cannot control, however, is the motivation and commitment of others and the results that we achieve together. Recognizing this has far-reaching consequences. It means saying goodbye to one or the other control illusion. A facilitative leader faces up to this responsibility and designs processes with the courage to truly address the question of how to achieve goals.
#4 “Leaders are context architects!”
In order for us to be able to use our “higher mental abilities”, such as analytical skills, empathy or the ability to distinguish the important from the unimportant, our brain must register a sense of security. Absorbing uncertainty is one of the essential functions of leadership. Whenever real change, innovation or development is at stake, our brains need to be calm. Facilitative leaders are aware of these interrelations and use them to create a safe environment for development.
#5 “Every (leadership) communication is an emergent phenomenon.”
Emergence describes the sudden, sometimes surprising appearance of something new that cannot be explained simply by analyzing the individual interacting parts. In this way, an insight suddenly emerges in the leadership dialog. It cannot be predicted, planned or controlled by either side. Therefore, the “sender-receiver model” is insufficient to understand how communication works. As a leader, I refrain from statements like “I told them so!” or “It’s all in the manual!” Instead, facilitative leaders invite us to understand communication as a dialog process rather than as a product that others have to receive.
These 5 bold statements are an excerpt from 25 years of collecting and practicing helpful facilitation and facilitative leadership behavior. The authors are organizational consultants, executives, coaches, specialists in organization, decision-making and dialogue.
As a leader, deal with facilitation! Now.
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