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How to Stretch When You Feel Pulled

Dave Jensen asks...

How Well Do You Stretch When You're Pulled?

A team leader recently lamented that the senior executives in her organization had implemented a new policy to improve the quality of information submitted. This leader applauded the effort to improve quality, but moaned that the rigid new policy was also decreasing productivity, morale, and increasing turnover among her peak performers.

“Why can’t they get it right?” She moaned.

I replied, “Because they are not stretching when they are pulled. Instead of managing the tension between clear and flexible policies, your senior executives decided to create policies that are crystal clear at the expense of flexibility. And it’s costing them, and many organizations, millions.”

How much is it costing you? What are the top paradoxes? What can you do to manage them more effectively?

What Paradoxes Pull You?

The opening story illustrates one common paradox (i.e., policies that provide clear direction and policies that allow flexible execution). Listed below are the top ten paradoxes identified by participants in our leadership class over the last several years:

Improve employee satisfaction and increase accountability for results

Increase sales and improve customer service

Follow corporate strategy (centralize) and meet local needs (decentralize)

Improve customer loyalty and decrease expenses

Grow the business and develop our people

Implement long-term growth strategies and focus on quarterly numbers

Rapidly innovate and incrementally improve products

Have a fulfilling home life and excel at work

Increase the speed of change and maintain stable environment

Satisfy individual needs and build effective teams

Do any of these paradoxes seem familiar? (Adding the words ‘at the same time’ after the word ‘and’ may help.) How many of these have you wrestled with? Most leaders (regardless of their level) tell me that they have tried to address these paradoxes, but with traditional problem-solving strategies that cause them to select one issue as the answer. They also confirm what research tells us – that when you deal with a paradox, one-sided solutions have negative consequences. For example, the negative consequences of creating clear procedures at the expense of retaining some flexibility (as described in our opening story) include silent resistance, lower productivity, turnover…

How to Get Others to See the Upside of Both Sides

If you struggle with some of these paradoxical issues, I invite you to stop seeing problem solving as the only possibility. I encourage them to stretch by managing the tension of these unsolvable problems, which is exactly how a healthcare executive avoided a strike…

A human resource executive was having problems getting the nurses union (who wanted to improve patient safety) to work well with hospital administrators (who needed to lowering expenses). He invited representatives from both parties to a 20-minute meeting. He then applied the following steps to help the nurses and administrators understand the benefits of addressing both patient safety and expense issues, and the risks of over-emphasizing either issue at the expense of the other. Here’s how he did it:

1. Drew two boxes, opposite each other, 2 feet apart on a whiteboard

2. Wrote improve patient safety in the left box (i.e., left issue) and decrease hospital expenses in the right box (i.e., right issue)

3. Asked them to brainstorm the benefits of the left and right issue

4. Asked them to brainstorm the negative consequences of over-focusing on the left and the right issue

5. Finally, he asked if the hospital should improve patient safety or decrease hospital expenses. After seeing the big picture, they responded that they need to do both

6. This healthcare executive then invited them to stretch together to manage the tension between two issues as he drew a two-headed, red arrow between the boxes

The healthcare executive told me that these simple and powerful steps averted a strike and probably saved his healthcare chain millions of dollars.

These are the essential steps of what Dr. Barry Johnson calls a “Polarity Map” (in his book, Polarity Management — Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems). A paradox map is a tool that encourages those with differing opinions of a paradox to see the “big picture,” and then capitalizes on the tension between opposing views to achieve superior results for both sides.

How to Stretch Over Time

Once advocates for both sides agree that both issues (i.e., issues) are important, the issues need to be managed over time. The success in managing the tension of a paradox is dependent on maintaining a degree of equilibrium between the two issues. The five principles outlined below show you how to accomplish this. These ideas are based on Dr. Johnson’s insight, an analysis of 400 managers studied by Professor Nick Beach (published in Organizational Studies, Contrary Prescriptions: Recognizing Good Practice Tensions in Management. January 1, 2003), and the lessons I’ve learned from helping organizations apply these principles to save millions of dollars.

1. Build trust between the advocates of both issues

2. Recognize that advocates will have a natural affinity for one issue and therefore, feel like moving toward that issue and away from the opposing one

3. Maintain a power balance between the issues as you make decisions

4. Check with the strong advocates (i.e., crusaders) on both sides on a regular basis to ensure that the balance of power is not shifting too much

5. Put systems in place that maintain the tension for as long as decisions are being made to manage these issues

How the U.S. Stretches

One of the reasons the United States is a “successful organization” is that the country’s founding fathers created a system that managed the tension between states’ rights and federalism. The great experiment called the U.S. government was also designed to maintain a balance of power between an individual’s inalienable rights and the government’s control. The founding fathers did not want the tree to get lost in the forest. They understood that there is an “I” in team, and that the Individual should not disappear in the shadow of the team’s work. They believed that stretching to manage the tension would lead to success.

What do you believe? Do you think your team (at work and home) will be more successful as you supplement your problem-solving skills with this new tool called paradox management? How might you use these ideas to help your organization increase buy-in to new initiatives, handle change, save money?

Keep eXpanding,

Dave

P.S. Dave Jensen and his team transform proven leadership tools into your success stories. Dave is an executive coach and an engaging speaker at conferences, meetings, and retreats. He can be reached in Los Angeles, CA at (310) 397-6686. Click here to learn about the paradoxical, 360-leadership assessment (XLM): http://xlmassessment.com/

P.S.S. You are welcome to republish these leadership articles, forward them to your contacts, or use my blog in your corporate newsletter or websites. Simply include my contact info at the bottom.

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