Can culture be intentionally changed?

Here is a re-post from CEO.com sampling John and Gary's great new book. For more on leadership culture see these articles, slides and video. Leadership Metaphor Explorer™ is keyed to stages of leadership culture and is often used in organizational leadership development. Here is a summary of their book, Transforming Your Leadership Culture.

clipped from www.the-chiefexecutive.com Leaders, Logics and Transformation In an extract from their book Transforming Your Leadership Culture, authors Gary Rhodes and John McGuire examine how leaders can change an organisation's culture. There is a logic to any persisting culture. A culture’s collection of beliefs and norms fits together in a meaningful way. For example, one system of leadership logic, which we call Dependent - Conformer, centres on the idea that a leader gives an order for someone else to carry out. This type of culture excludes non-official leaders from participating in the leadership collective. It leaves them and their potential waiting indefinitely to emerge. More>>

Video Intro to Leadership Metaphor Explorer™

Monk Chat in Chiang Mai, Thailand

From Sarah C. Miller at YLead:

M chose two pictures, one to answer the question of how a monk should be a leader in the community and one to answer the question of how he wished to be a leader. Both intersected in the theme of “know thyself.” For M, the most important part of leadership is knowing onself first. Only when we know ourselves, can we then lead others. He also chose several other cards to represent the various aspects of leadership a monk exhibits. But the crux of the issue was self-knowledge. ... >>more at the YLead blog.

Coaching with the Leadership Metaphor Explorer™

Our CCL colleague Clemson Turregano did an impromptu coaching session with his CEO client, using LME and the iLead (CCL's customized version of the iPod Touch).

“I was showing the new iLead to JX, the CEO of Big Co., India Division, while we were waiting in the lobby of a hotel. We did an impromptu one on one coaching session. I handed him the iLead and showed him how to browse the digital Leadership Metaphor Explorer™. He said he liked the tool, and then I casually asked him, “Where are you now, as a company?” He chose the one labeled “Ruthless Gang Bosses”; he laughed and called it “Gang of Idiots. … that’s us.”

We talked about that awhile and then I asked him “Where do you want to go?” That was a great question and we really got into it. He picked “A Squadron of Jet Fighters” and talked about ways in which they could all be flying together in synch. JX said that now all the people that reported to him had a lot of autonomy and big egos, all with different agendas, and the team was all over the place. He wanted them aligned and focused on one objective. Later I talked to JX’s personal coach and she listened with all ears as I shared these images and ideas from our in the moment coaching session.”

Framing Questions for Facilitating Leadership Metaphor Explorer™

Here are steps and framing questions to use with the Leadership Metaphor Explorer™ Card Deck. This process can be adapted to any size group, for pairs of people, or for individual reflection.

First choose a framing topic or question.
"Pick a card that says something about ... "
For example:

• Leadership in my organization ... or community, or team.
• How do I myself practice leadership? Past, present, and future (3 cards)?
  
• What does leadership look like around here?
• What do I want leadership to look like?
• The kind of leadership we need for the challenges we face.
• This is us at our best.
• This is us at our worst.
• This is what we looked like during the crisis last week.
• These are our competitors.
• These are our clients or customers.
• This is the kind of talent we have in this organization.
• This is the kind of talent we need in this organization.
• This is me when I was younger.
• This is me now.
• This is me next year.

Next, talk about your choices using one or more framing questions.
Questions to talk about include:

• Why did you pick this card? Find out why others picked the cards they did.
  
• What are the strengths in this way of leadership? What are the weaknesses?
• What is the story? Tell the story behind the card.
  
• How do the cards connect or fit with one another? How do they help or hurt each other?
  
• What cards are more mature ways of leadership? Which are less mature? Why?
  
• Where do we have conflict? Explain the conflict using the metaphors.
  
• Which way would we like to be? What are we missing?
  
• What is the right combination of cards for our challenge? In what order?

Finally, reflect on what you have learned from the metaphors, and what steps you might take.

• What did we learn? What was surprising? What did we already know?
• What was this experience like emotionally?
  
• What is the wisdom expressed here?
• What new or changed beliefs about leadership does this suggest? Does this change how you define leadership?
  
• How does this suggest a different way of doing things?