Leadership: Facilitating Intervention Posted on 03/01/2009 By: Steve Radley, Director, NetWork Kansas
In the November 2008 newsletter, I began a four part series to describe the training I received during a weeklong experience with the Kansas Leadership Center. This intensive training program focuses on four primary elements necessary for competent civic leadership. These four competencies are: 1. Diagnosing the situation; 2. Facilitating Intervention; 3. Managing Self; and 4. Energizing Others. These competencies must all be present for individuals and organizations to engage in effective civic leadership. This article focuses on the second competency: Facilitating Intervention.
Review: Diagnosing the Situation
Part one, "Diagnosing the Situation," is a key competency for the exercise of leadership and lays the foundation for solutions that facilitate fundamental change. But too often, we rush to get out of the phase of diagnosing the situation. If we move out of this phase too quickly, we will probably jump to a "solution" that will create short-term relief without long-term fundamental change that truly makes a difference.
This is clearly a difficult conclusion for most of us to accept. We want quick technical solutions so we can move to action. And even more importantly, we've been providing those technical solutions our whole lives! However, unless we spend enough time in the diagnosis phase, our solutions will be short lived and costly. That's why entrepreneurs need business plans. That's why communities must think beyond the immediate needs. That's why directors of non-profits should sometimes say "no" to new initiatives. That's why legislators should think beyond their own agendas. It's a tougher road...but it has the opportunity to provide for a better future.
So let's now assume that we've camped in the first phase and we think we've properly diagnosed the situation. It is now time for phase two. We must now facilitate intervention.
Facilitating Intervention
Now, if you're like me, some of you reading this article may have difficulty with parts of this competency. In particular, people in places of positional leadership may struggle with facilitating intervention. You have the title, you are considered an authority figure, and most importantly, it's what people expect from you. They expect you to assess the situation and make decisions. You are often described as a "leader."
Here's point number one: Just because you are in a position that enables you to make decisions does not mean that you are exercising leadership. And in fact, in many cases, you are not. You're providing answers that have the following characteristics:
* They provide a short term solution that relieves the pressure of the current situation;
* They require no personal change by any participants; and
* Status quo is maintained.
In most cases, these are interventions that do not require real change. They are devoid of the components of an effective intervention.
Components of an Effective Intervention
When you see what it takes to truly intervene in a meaningful way, you'll understand why more people don't do it. First of all, it starts with a process; not a decision. We all want to think we're exercising leadership because we're making decisions when, in fact, our decision-making is preventing us from exercising effective leadership. The following list describes each component of an effective intervenetion:
1. Capture attention: Frame the issue in a way that is open-ended enough to connect various interests and calculate the best method to get the desired audience's attention.
2. Engage unusual voices: Don't just talk to the people that are in your camp. Engage and include people who may not agree with you and seek their input. It is also important to engage the silent majority that is often times more difficult to reach.
3. Work across factions: Look for where there are opportunities to cooperate in a collaborative manner. Inclusion is a key element that sets the tone for collaboration.
4. Raise and lower the heat: Exercising leadership means you must monitor the discussion in a way that raises and lowers the level of intensity in order to move to potential areas of agreement. Understand the role and necessity of conflict in making progress on significant issues.
5. Give the work back: Effective leaders give the work to the group. Resist the temptation to take it back! One of the riskiest elements of effective intervention is the fact that once you begin an intervention, you lose control of the outcome.
6. Make conscious choices about intervention: It's not just about the topic being discussed. It means paying as much attention to the process, the participants, and the method of intervention.
7. Create conditions for collaboration: Collaboration involves reaching beyond the "normal people" or "usual suspects" who are involved in addressing a particular issue or significant community issue. It means including the unusual voices and a more expansive group who also have a stake in the outcome but haven't been included in the past because they don't represent a particular opinion.
Doesn't that sound like a lot of hard work?! Well, the fact is that meaningful solutions to difficult problems require it. It takes time, there are bumps in the road, and the answers cannot be reduced to fifteen second sound bites or 20-minute presentations to your local chamber. Any individual or organization that wants to help communities must design what they do in a way that means they are "in it for the long haul."
Communities face daunting challenges in so many different areas, especially at this point in our history. One particular project will not be the answer. We must all focus on activities that use "ing" at the end of the sentence because they imply a journey, not a destination.
Conclusion
As you can see, the Kansas Leadership Center isn't training people in the art of getting by. Exercising effective leadership is not for the faint of heart. It requires significant personal investment to dig deep into problems in an attempt to properly diagnose a situation. And then it gets really tricky! We must be intentional both in the design and the delivery of any intervention if we hope to create long-lasting change. This adds a degree of difficulty that can sap the energy out of any individual or organization. That's why you should look forward to next month's article - Managing Self. I know I do! |