Welcome to SLA News:

I hope to bring you some tips and provocative questions in the coming issues. In each edition, I will bring you two to three topics and hope that you will comment on or answer questions that may be posed in them. I want this newsletter to have opportunity to both inform and allow you to have a say in some important issues relating to building resiliency in leaders, organizations and communities. From time to time I will update you on my very interesting health journey. It is reflective of our time and of resiliency because it involves a prescription drug, a horrific leg break and a growing network of people across the country who have suffered the same injury and are banding together in solidarity. That just about covers the waterfront of issues on the front burner in our world today. Social media, Listserv’s and connections to what otherwise have been strangers has changed our lives.

Notes from the Flyover Zone

I wish I had invented Obama’s book title, The Audacity of Hope I have not read the book and thus am only familiar with its content from what I have heard from others.  I confess that my interest comes from just having adopted that great word:  ”Audacity” in my speaking and writing.   Audacity says a lot.  It is a word that describes the events and the relentless pursuit of democracy in Egypt by those who did not give up on their dream despite the odds against success.  But, the word audacity also has a dark side that some say borders on “arrogance” or engaging in fantasy to believe that anyone can dream big and make that dream come true.

If you are born and bred in Kentucky, you are all too familiar with that “attitude,” particularly from outsiders.  Or, we can be our own worst enemy.  As my mother, hailing from eastern Kentucky and harboring a lifelong inferiority complex rooted in poverty and being opportunity deprived would put it — “don’t get above your raising.” I even overheard my father provide my son David with a life lesson of despair — “don’t worry about things not working out …  they never do.”  Let’s be clear:  Audacity isn’t about “smarts”; it is about believing in something bigger and more important than day-to-day living and getting by.

So, I’ve decided to become more audacious and defy my roots!  I use the word audacity in an oped piece submitted to the Lexington Herald Leader for publication.  It is a response that provides some texture about the NewCities Institute, a 501 c 3 nonprofit, established by the Kentucky League of Cities, and now apparently either put on hiatus or ended, to engage citizens in building better communities.   There is some amount of audacity to believe Kentucky cities can do better by engaging citizens.  It is audacious to believe that Kentuckians can be on the cutting edge of engaging in transformational thinking about the future.  But, I’ll let you judge for yourself.

Ground Up:

At the risk of sounding a bit xenophobic, I’ll continue on the theme of “outsiders” and audacity. Herald Leader columnist Tom Eblen’s article of February 14 profilesSaul Kaplan, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. He was invited to Lexington to talk about creating an entrepreneurial economy.

Being a student of new trends in economic development, I am aware that there is quite a bit of activity in this arena by Ron Hustedde at the University of Kentucky as well as Ernesto Sirolli – not to mention the Kentucky Science and Technology Council and Kris Kimel and others.   What it boils down to is that we have to grow our economies from the ground up and not from the top down. This fellow is actually pretty smart about that and what communities must do to be better in the future and compete for talent and jobs of the future.

But, has he said anything new or anything we have not already heard?  His favorite words are “connect, inspire, and transform.”  I cannot help but say “duh.”  In talking to a good friend and well known local futurist guru, he and I agreed that using words those like with audiences is the surest route to glaze over eyes and blackberry/I-phone “checking.”  Now, with younger groups, there is excitement but little in the way of “traditional” power on their part that translates into established policy.  Hmmm.  Does Egypt hold yet another clue to the power of youth if they so choose?

So what are we to do who have the “audacity” to believe that people can learn to think differently and begin to internalize certain important concepts.  When will we have the audacity to truly understand and internalize that which we need to learn in order to lead in transformational ways.

I believe that to be the great leaders of tomorrow, we have to get our heads out of the sand and that in and of itself is transformational.  It is to realize that old style, hierarchical organizational structures are yielding to interlocking networks of ideas; that the information age is becoming the connected age; and that in an era of “new localism” people are eager and desirous of change.  Call them inspired; call them audacious.  All they need is the connective tissue.  Perhaps it will come out of a lecture or two from the outsiders brought in to inspire us to action … but only if the tipping point is already near.

We have what it takes to audaciously take on the task of transformation … if only we will.  Unfortunately, the background noise of our transformative age is threatening our sense of innovation.   It is in the combination of recessionary times that has brought on loss of security, a loss of faith in American governmental and business institutions, scary times when one’s reputation can be killed in a heartbeat, and a certain murkiness about governance structuring for all institutions — public and private, that we find ourselves retreating and not willing to look up and outward.  Are we willing to balance risk with increased vigilance and realize that the two are not mutually exclusive.  Are we ready to be audacious?

80/20:

How do you lead in an 80/20 world?  How do you develop the audacity to lead with humility knowing that as leaders we don’t ever stop learning — while at the same time exhibiting the self confidence that keeps us on the cutting edge of innovation?  What do I mean by 80/20?  In a nutshell, let’s say that twenty years ago, five percent of what happened to you in your professional life was outside your ability to “exert control” and today that number is probably up to twenty percent.  That leaves 80 percent that you can do something about as a leader.

Indeed, most people (mostly men) went to work right out of college and stayed in the same job for 30 or more years – receiving that obligatory gold watch on the way out the door.  Today, due to a number of factors, including a media that is more about you and me with a megaphone than traditional newspapers, and the ability to broadcast anything anywhere, we find ourselves cowering instead of standing tall.  Confusion reigns as we give up on separating truth from fiction.

What of the 80 percent that is controllable?  Again, the seven guideposts for leadership under the rules of the “new normal” and success are (1) Communicate and articulate your story; (2) Operate under the banner of openness and transparency to stakeholders; (3) Marry a strong sense of innovation with proper governance rules; (4) Pay attention to people; recognize their right to be involved; (5) Adapt your planning to future goals and realize that trends matter; (6) Strategically review your alliances and partnerships both within and outside your organization or community and determine that which promotes the best you can offer your constituency.  Finally, (7) Serenity comes in knowing you did the best you could at the highest of ethical standards even if you find yourself in the 20 percent.

In a series that takes each guidepost and develops it further, think about #3 – Marrying a strong sense of innovation with proper governance rules.  It is important that leaders retain an innovative spirit that is not stifled but enhanced by adopting appropriate governance standards.  Too often, I have heard leaders express concerns on one end that executives have too much authority and the board is too inactive to the other end of the continuum that the board seeks to micromanage in order to avoid any mistakes.  You can begin with clarifying the roles of every part of the governance structure.  Over-reaching executives are as bad as micromanaging boards.  Both undermine the organization’s health.

The challenge is that we are in the midst of a “governance revolution.”  The questions become how to structure governance in a way that meets the increased need to be transparent.  To whom do you owe a duty.  The expectations of the public that were demanded of BP Oil were identical to those demanded of government regardless of their status.

The fact is that we cannot ever completely eliminate risk.  We can only anticipate and plan for its occurrence.  And, there is plenty that can be done if we approach the management of risk as doable and important.  It must be done with “process” in mind.  You don’t learn to lead with one lecture or one luncheon speech.  You become a leader by constantly reviewing yourself and understanding that moving forward — especially in such challenging time — is both exhilarating and satisfying.  If only you have the audacity to believe.