Building a Culture of “Leadership Thinking”

Posted on Friday, November 28, 2014

I first learned about “System Leadership” from Becky Margiotta at the Billions Institute, and I realized that System Leadership isn’t only useful for solving our society’s most intractable problems – all businesses can thrive by catalyzing collective leadership so that employees see the big picture, face what’s real, participate in meaningful conversations, and collaboratively create their future.

In a culture of collective leadership, all employees get turned on to “leadership thinking.” They become more alive and excited when they are heard, see they are building something worthwhile, and become present to their opportunity to work and play together to make a difference.

All business leaders can become systems leaders by:

1. Increasing their own ability to and creating opportunities for all their employees to see the larger system and build a shared understanding of where they are and what they’re up to;

2. Fostering group reflection – questioning beliefs, being with each other emotionally as well as cognitively – and facilitating more generative conversations; and

3. Shifting everyone’s focus from reactive problem-solving to collaboratively creating the future – facing truths about the reality now and visioning a better future – then using the creative tension resulting from this gap to empower progress.

There are some other tricks along the way. System Leaders listen deeply – this allows them to see reality from many perspectives and has others feel heard, thereby building networks of trust and collaboration. They share transparently and set clear intentions that others can align around. System Leaders trust the direction they see is possible and are willing to step forward before being able to see an entire plan, thereby demonstrating an openness to learning that ripples out to others. Also by owning they don’t know all the answers, they also acknowledge that they are part of how and why everything is as it is now – they don’t blame others. System Leaders are inviting. They focus their people to explore and look for how to best leverage their actions. Groups that regularly practice this together get skillful at accessing their collective wisdom.

At ThriveWise, this is what we do with Retreats and Business Games. We essentially teach leaders to become System Leaders, and we build cultures of collective leadership. The processes bring teams and sometimes an entire company together to be with what’s real now and create where they want to go. Often we include trainings on skills such as deep listening, identifying and working from one’s natural talents or genius, and minimizing wasted energy on drama.

The core of our work together is creating a strategic plan in the form of a Game. In a larger company, the leadership team creates an organizational Game which is then shared with everyone so they can see how their part fits within the whole. A Game is not a complete plan, but a direction plus a way to start and make grounded progress. Games are designed to be flexible, to be tuned with feedback and learning during play on the field. A key ingredient of the process is regularly scheduled sessions for teams and manager-employee pairs to have meaningful dialogue. They also score as a way to be with what’s happening and what’s not.

Games create a context for and build a culture that is self-sustaining, based on alignment in a direction, attention on what matters most, focused measurable action, accountability to each other, appreciation all around, and authenticity by everyone along the way.

Organizations that play Business Games feel really good from the inside and the outside. Employees, customers and those in the larger community tangibly experience people’s alignment and authenticity. Their field is attractive. They also produce great results both in the business and for their people.

Contact us for a complimentary session to explore Business Games for your organization: become a System Leader and build your culture of collective leadership.

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