Six Keys to Leading Positive Change

Rosabeth Moss Kanter Author

07/11/2016 Added

599 Plays

Description

Success factors that are key to positive change

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:14.836]A few years ago I ran into a colleague I hadn't seen for
[00:00:18.497]a long time who said, what are you working on now?
[00:00:22.682]And I said, I was in that kind of mood,
[00:00:25.162]I said oh, making the world a better place.
[00:00:28.451]And he said, could you pin that down just a little bit?
[00:00:32.036]Well I realized that what I actually do is I try
[00:00:35.610]to provide other people tools for making the world a
[00:00:38.899]better place by giving them leadership skills.
[00:00:43.776]So what's your goal?
[00:00:45.479]Do you simply want to get things
[00:00:47.153]done and maybe improve them a little?
[00:00:50.684]Do you want to start something, maybe a social venture?
[00:00:53.815]You can be any age to do that.
[00:00:55.890]I was amazed when Katie of Katie's Krops
[00:00:59.508]got an award from President Bill Clinton
[00:01:02.557]for a venture she started to feed
[00:01:05.647]the homeless when she was nine years old.
[00:01:08.936]So anybody can start something.
[00:01:10.645]Do you want to start something?
[00:01:12.348]Do you want to grow something?
[00:01:13.564]Do you want to start a business?
[00:01:15.108]Do you want to lead a big business?
[00:01:17.221]Or do you just want to make the world a better place?
[00:01:20.671]The leadership lessons for being effective at doing that
[00:01:24.780]are things that I have learned from working with
[00:01:27.584]tens of thousands of leaders in dozens
[00:01:31.522]and dozens of countries, all over the world.
[00:01:34.446]And I'd like to boil them down to six positive
[00:01:39.042]things that help us keep things moving up.
[00:01:45.435]Or in a positive direction of progress.
[00:01:49.300]The first is the universal lesson of life which is, show up.
[00:01:55.111]If you don't show up nothing really happens.
[00:01:58.234]I remember a Peter Sellers movie of
[00:02:01.698]a number of years ago called Being There.
[00:02:05.069]And it was a very instructive story because
[00:02:07.513]Peter Sellers played a fairly
[00:02:10.360]ignorant man, Chance the gardener.
[00:02:14.347]And he was just hanging around the place where he did
[00:02:17.926]gardening when a very important
[00:02:19.388]meeting was about to take place.
[00:02:21.826]And as people arrived for the meeting,
[00:02:24.673]they didn't know that he was only helping at the house.
[00:02:28.534]So they said, who are you?
[00:02:29.795]And he said, Chance the gardener.
[00:02:31.581]And immediately people misunderstood
[00:02:33.852]and called him Chauncey Gardener.
[00:02:36.208]They invited him into the meeting
[00:02:37.875]and he ended up solving their problems.
[00:02:41.046]Well, it was a comedy but I thought how real that is.
[00:02:45.279]The very fact of showing up, of making oneself available,
[00:02:48.821]of deciding that your presence makes a difference
[00:02:52.805]is the first key to leadership.
[00:02:54.923]And I think about President Barack Obama
[00:02:57.362]of the United States.
[00:02:58.985]He's been re-elected but he started
[00:03:01.422]out basically by showing up.
[00:03:04.269]He was a fairly obscure state senator
[00:03:07.642]from the state of Illinois when asked to give
[00:03:10.607]the keynote speech at the democratic national convention.
[00:03:14.105]He showed up, he gave the speech, and the rest is history.
[00:03:18.488]Being there makes a difference.
[00:03:21.047]But that's only the starting point,
[00:03:22.830]that you're in the situation.
[00:03:24.661]The second lesson that I've learned
[00:03:26.781]is that it's important to speak up.
[00:03:29.786]To use the power of voice.
[00:03:33.001]No one knows what we're thinking if we don't express it.
[00:03:35.647]I say this to my students at Harvard Business School all
[00:03:38.979]the time because people get graded on class participation.
[00:03:43.007]And you know there are some people who think they're
[00:03:45.931]entitled to have all the air time.
[00:03:49.104]And so they often just talk and continue to talk until
[00:03:53.172]finally they hit upon something they really have to say.
[00:03:57.404]But there are others in the class,
[00:03:59.963]there are others in the class,
[00:04:01.021]and sometimes it's the women that I have to encourage
[00:04:03.782]that they can own that airspace too.
[00:04:06.634]And sometimes I'll say why aren't you speaking?
[00:04:08.950]And they say well, I want to make sure
[00:04:11.190]that I really have something to say.
[00:04:13.875]And I point out to them that the men didn't feel that way.
[00:04:17.369]Just do it, just talk.
[00:04:20.588]However, the power of voice is not simply words.
[00:04:24.205]The power of voice is shaping the agenda.
[00:04:27.663]Framing issues for other people.
[00:04:29.860]Helping them think about it in a different way.
[00:04:33.482]This is why thought leaders can be leaders.
[00:04:36.366]Because they influence the thinking of other people.
[00:04:39.045]Have you gone to meetings where you've noticed that
[00:04:41.884]whoever is running the meeting, the person who ends up as
[00:04:45.583]the most influential is the one who names the problem
[00:04:49.276]and gives people an idea for action?
[00:04:53.508]And that gets things moving, that gets things started.
[00:04:57.292]I think about a Brazilian I know whom I think the world of.
[00:05:02.777]He's a journalist.
[00:05:04.316]And yet, as a journalist he has managed, through his
[00:05:09.278]columns but also through suggesting to other people
[00:05:14.477]actions that they could take, he has managed to
[00:05:17.648]transform an entire neighborhood in Brazil
[00:05:21.102]into what he calls the learning neighborhood.
[00:05:24.879]Where kids now not only learn in school,
[00:05:28.582]the entire neighborhood is mobilized to help them learn.
[00:05:32.648]And that learning neighborhood has helped make this section
[00:05:36.674]of Sao Paulo considered an upscale section.
[00:05:40.166]I just saw it in an airline magazine so it must be true.
[00:05:44.475]But my journalist friend did this entirely through
[00:05:48.865]encouraging many separate people.
[00:05:51.383]He didn't have power, he was just a writer.
[00:05:54.515]He is just a writer.
[00:05:55.976]What he did was encourage many different
[00:05:58.293]people through the power of his voice.
[00:06:00.936]Why don't you do this, why don't you do that?
[00:06:02.849]We have a problem, let's fix education.
[00:06:05.453]The power of voice is big.
[00:06:07.324]And I'm thinking about another journalist I know,
[00:06:10.128]using the power of voice in very powerful way,
[00:06:13.262]it's Ellen Goodman, whom many people know
[00:06:16.228]in the United States in particular
[00:06:18.262]as a former syndicated columnist who went through some
[00:06:22.822]things with her own family and decided
[00:06:26.234]that it's time to have end of life conversations.
[00:06:31.068]And as an individual using her power of voice
[00:06:35.909]she has created something called The Conversation Project.
[00:06:39.730]Which now has as a media partner, ABC.
[00:06:43.918]And they are spreading the idea that once you just talk
[00:06:47.616]about preferences for end of life so that people can have
[00:06:51.477]a humane ending of the kind they want.
[00:06:54.731]But it's entirely the power of voice.
[00:06:57.456]So speaking up is the second attribute of leadership.
[00:07:00.383]The third is to look up.
[00:07:03.345]Look up at some higher principle,
[00:07:07.367]bigger issue, bigger vision values.
[00:07:11.761]Without vision and values leadership is hollow.
[00:07:15.754]No matter what it is that you want to achieve,
[00:07:18.477]it's always important to remember the principles.
[00:07:21.572]And when I say higher principles and looking up I'm not
[00:07:24.170]thinking about spiritual matters.
[00:07:26.645]But for some people they would take it that way.
[00:07:29.287]I'm simply thinking about how important it is for any
[00:07:33.479]leader to know what they stand for and
[00:07:36.648]to be able to elevate people's eyes from
[00:07:40.834]everyday problems which bog us down
[00:07:44.779]in the weeds, difficult to deal with.
[00:07:47.708]And we're in troubled times now in the world.
[00:07:51.248]And we need is leaders who help us get above that.
[00:07:55.837]To gather us, gain a sense of hope,
[00:07:58.644]but also to remember what's truly fundamental in our
[00:08:03.358]values, and the best leaders do that.
[00:08:05.231]In fact, one of my most recent
[00:08:06.488]books is about great companies.
[00:08:08.560]I realize I say that advisedly that many
[00:08:11.239]people wonder if there are any great companies.
[00:08:13.843]But there are some truly great companies.
[00:08:16.445]IBM, for example.
[00:08:17.787]Proctor and Gamble, a bank in Brazil,
[00:08:19.814]a bank in Korea, amazing that there can be good banks.
[00:08:23.713]Companies that I've seen all over
[00:08:25.505]the world that stand for vision and values.
[00:08:27.781]And when their leaders lead, they are constantly
[00:08:31.284]reminding people of a nobler purpose.
[00:08:35.956]It isn't just making money, we're trying
[00:08:37.665]to achieve something for the world.
[00:08:39.619]That's what we get from looking up.
[00:08:42.424]And I've learned this in my own work
[00:08:44.127]in a project I manage at Harvard.
[00:08:47.177]We can get bogged down in the details, believe me.
[00:08:49.941]Academic politics aren't fun.
[00:08:52.294]They're always that we have to work on.
[00:08:55.061]It can really drag you down.
[00:08:57.746]And a wise person who was one of the first people
[00:09:01.242]to work on this project with me said,
[00:09:03.560]you know we should remember to start every meeting
[00:09:07.749]by reminding ourselves of our mission.
[00:09:10.799]Reminding ourselves of what we stand for.
[00:09:13.604]And you know that lifts the spirits like nothing else.
[00:09:17.787]There's a purpose, there's a reason that we're doing this.
[00:09:22.095]And that's gonna stand us in good
[00:09:23.597]stead when I get a few skills down.
[00:09:26.449]But the fourth skill, and why vision and values matter
[00:09:30.721]in part, the fourth skill is team up.
[00:09:34.466]Team up.
[00:09:36.335]Everything goes better with partners.
[00:09:40.040]Nearly anything worth doing is very difficult to do alone.
[00:09:44.834]And the best enterprises, the best projects,
[00:09:48.450]the best ventures, are one where there's
[00:09:51.335]a sense of partnership from the beginning.
[00:09:54.833]I did a study with a colleague about technology startups.
[00:09:59.313]Some of them very famous.
[00:10:01.142]And in recent years, which ones
[00:10:03.417]came to dominate the industry.
[00:10:06.589]Like Google in search, not Alta Vista.
[00:10:09.955]Like Facebook rather than MySpace.
[00:10:12.638]And one of the things we discovered, besides having a good
[00:10:16.664]value proposition, was that they had more
[00:10:19.996]and better partners faster.
[00:10:23.246]Partners matter.
[00:10:24.745]For the best social enterprises that I see around the world,
[00:10:28.526]including one I'm very proud of, I happen to be on the
[00:10:31.494]national board of this forever, it's an international,
[00:10:35.159]national service organization called City Year.
[00:10:39.309]And City Year was founded by four partners.
[00:10:43.126]Two of the co-founders continue to build it and grow it.
[00:10:46.988]And there was a sense of teaming from the beginning.
[00:10:50.485]Finding partners who believe is essential.
[00:10:54.143]And when you find partners, then you
[00:10:56.986]can do incredible things in the world.
[00:10:59.712]Here's something that many people may not know about
[00:11:02.677]Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
[00:11:06.129]Hillary Clinton is very interested in solving problems
[00:11:10.028]of the world from her position at the State Department.
[00:11:13.851]Which has development, social progress on its agenda.
[00:11:19.017]And not only international diplomacy but she sees
[00:11:23.247]development as a part of diplomacy.
[00:11:25.559]And she also wants to solve problems
[00:11:27.385]that disproportionately affect women.
[00:11:30.229]And there's been a problem in the world,
[00:11:32.384]known for a long time, it's the problem
[00:11:35.552]of women cooking on open fires.
[00:11:40.343]In fact, more women die from cooking on open fires
[00:11:45.347]than from major diseases in the developing world.
[00:11:49.162]That was something I didn't know until I learned
[00:11:51.726]about the clean cook stove project.
[00:11:54.207]So Secretary Clinton and her office of global partnerships
[00:11:58.196]picked this up and created a massive teaming up
[00:12:02.583]of governments and businesses and NGOs all over the world.
[00:12:07.297]And finally the Alliance for Clean Cook Stoves
[00:12:11.034]is beginning to make progress in building an industry
[00:12:14.576]in which households, women, can have
[00:12:17.702]affordable access to clean cook stoves.
[00:12:20.342]Which means by the way, no air pollution.
[00:12:23.878]It means they can cook in their home
[00:12:26.034]without worrying about it burning up.
[00:12:28.431]Otherwise they have the cook stoves
[00:12:30.101]at a distance from the home.
[00:12:31.604]A massive example of teaming up.
[00:12:34.206]And that's how we're gonna solve the problems of the world
[00:12:37.298]in the future, by the way, make the world a better place,
[00:12:40.262]is because we take lots of separate efforts and we bring
[00:12:44.044]them together, aligned in one big team.
[00:12:48.476]So now I've had four skills and I want to get to the fifth.
[00:12:52.461]Which is never give up.
[00:12:55.792]Because something that I coined a while ago,
[00:12:59.970]I call it Kanter's Law, I hope you do too.
[00:13:03.385]Kanter's Law is that everything can look
[00:13:07.530]like a failure in the middle.
[00:13:10.866]There's almost nothing we start that
[00:13:13.630]doesn't hit an obstacle or road block.
[00:13:17.534]It takes longer than we imagined
[00:13:20.092]because we've never done it before.
[00:13:22.246]It may take longer just to convene the first meeting.
[00:13:24.848]I sometimes have my MBA students do an action plan
[00:13:28.462]and they say week one, change the strategy.
[00:13:32.278]Week two, implement.
[00:13:34.755]Well, you know that's not realistic.
[00:13:37.156]I mean middles are very, very difficult.
[00:13:39.806]You hit a bump in the road you didn't know was there
[00:13:42.162]because you've never gone down the path before.
[00:13:44.722]The critics surface, they start attacking.
[00:13:47.360]It doesn't work the way it was envisioned.
[00:13:49.923]True of all kinds of technology.
[00:13:52.321]You have to go back to the drawing board.
[00:13:54.722]And so never give up.
[00:13:57.325]Because if you give up, by definition, it's a failure.
[00:14:02.941]You've stopped prematurely.
[00:14:06.024]If you keep going, persist and persevere,
[00:14:08.911]find a way around the obstacles, flexibly re-design,
[00:14:13.261]often you can produce a success.
[00:14:15.617]Sometimes it's not the success you first imagined.
[00:14:18.865]A lot of technology turns out to be applied in ways
[00:14:23.173]that we had never thought of in the beginning.
[00:14:25.816]But that ability to hang in there and not give up
[00:14:29.877]is a hallmark of leaders.
[00:14:32.194]I mean I think about a friend and colleague in my
[00:14:35.880]own area, Dr. Donald Burwick, who was recently the
[00:14:40.271]chief administrator for Medicare, the biggest
[00:14:43.681]health program in the United States.
[00:14:45.919]Well for 20 or more years, he has
[00:14:49.414]been pursuing the idea of quality in healthcare.
[00:14:53.359]He's been pursuing the idea of innovation to raise quality
[00:14:57.666]and reduce costs, and do you know that it sometimes takes
[00:15:01.161]17 years to get an innovation in healthcare from
[00:15:07.260]the mind of those who dream it up into use?
[00:15:11.608]That's an amazingly long time.
[00:15:13.561]But he never gave up.
[00:15:15.470]And my iconic example of a leader that we should
[00:15:19.091]all aspire to emulate is Nelson Mandela.
[00:15:23.646]The first democratically elected President of South Africa.
[00:15:27.629]He was in prison for 27 years and didn't give up.
[00:15:34.857]Finally, emerged from prison to be elected president.
[00:15:39.249]First democratically elected president.
[00:15:42.138]You know, sometimes my students say 27 years in prison,
[00:15:46.652]and he emerged without revenge,
[00:15:49.336]without a feeling of revenge.
[00:15:51.611]He emerged ready to get on with it.
[00:15:53.890]Just interrupt it in the middle.
[00:15:56.125]Get on with it and build a country.
[00:15:57.627]They say I could never do that.
[00:15:59.094]I could never feel that much forgiveness.
[00:16:03.932]Well I think we hope that you're not in prison for 27 years.
[00:16:08.282]We hope that your middles are shorter and sweeter.
[00:16:12.507]But find your inner Mandela.
[00:16:15.312]Find the strength to persist.
[00:16:17.873]Even against the naysayers, the critics, and the obstacles.
[00:16:21.492]Because that's what makes a difference
[00:16:24.050]between success and failure.
[00:16:25.634]And then when you get to the point where it looks like
[00:16:28.522]what you're doing is working, it's taking hold,
[00:16:31.811]you have the first pilot, you have a little more support,
[00:16:35.840]you do the sixth thing.
[00:16:37.346]Which is lift others up.
[00:16:41.169]Share success.
[00:16:43.528]The credit, the recognition, the idea of
[00:16:47.183]giving back once you have a success.
[00:16:50.960]Because that's what creates an environment in which
[00:16:54.209]you can do it again, you can do it the next time.
[00:16:56.814]You build support rather than lose support.
[00:17:01.205]You must feel positively about the achievement but make
[00:17:05.760]sure other people feel elevated by what you do as well.
[00:17:11.253]So that quickly, our six secrets of success,
[00:17:15.197]if you want things to continue to be up then show up.
[00:17:20.840]Speak up.
[00:17:23.235]Look up.
[00:17:25.514]Team up.
[00:17:27.592]Never give up.
[00:17:29.988]And lift others up.
[00:17:32.183]Thank you.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

Six Keys to Leading Positive Change

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments