© 2003 robert e. quinn. all rights reserved. leading the positive organization robert e. quinn

© 2003 Robert E. Quinn. All Rights Reserved.

Leading the Positive Organization

Robert E. Quinn


Overview: Three Activities

Session OneDiscussion of Positive OrganizingAn Exercise in Positive Organizing

Session TwoA Discussion: Leading the Positive Organization


Organizing

What is your unit like when it is most positive?

What is your unit like when it is most negative?

NormalNegative Positive


A Study of Organizing

Exploratory study of PO and NOSerendipitous500 respondents3 Qualitative Questions1500 paragraphsObjective: Grounded Theory


Snapshot of the Findings

CharacteristicsAntecedents


Two Forms of Organizing

Cohesion: People begin to agree on and focus on the same goals, rather than how they can outdo their peers.

ClimateConflict: Instead of pulling together and working together to get the job done, all we get is attitude and grief.

Focus on the common good: Everyone goes selflessly beyond what is expected.

FocusFocus on Self: Everyone focused on themselves.

Collective Engagement: Everyone is pulling together; the goals are shared by all.

CommitmentIndividual Withdrawal: Everyone working at cross purposes and not wanting to be here. “Its not my job.”

Clarity: The people are clear about the goals and objectives.

PurposeConfusion: There is a lack of a common message and purpose, a vision. Strategic priorities are not clear.

PositiveNegative



Increased Trust: Individuals are increasingly given autonomy and encouraged to be participatory

TrustDecreased Trust: Teamwork, communication and trust break down

Upward spiral: When the energy level is really high among people, that energy is really contagious.

ContagionDownward Spiral: In the negative state everyone tends to pass down the feeling of negativity and this expands to the staff. The customers feel this negativity.

Positive: We celebrate and share successes; It is a fun place to work, there is a lot of happy people.

EmotionNegative: Tense, disillusioned, depressed, there is a sense malaise within the organization.

Optimistic: The business is alive with work and hope for the future. There is a focus on opportunities.

OutlookPessimistic: 10+ months of belt-tightening, layoffs, cutbacks, reorganizations, and good-byes have taken their toll. We all feel like 'losers‘…

PositiveNegative



Transparency: Honest information is openly shared.

CommunicationSecrecy: Key decisions are made behind closed doors and never shared; We fail to get needed information.

Authentic: Employees are able to challenge upward.

DialogConstrained: The wrong decision is made at the top. Everyone affected knew it. No one rocked the boat

Focused on the Positive: Everyone is busy – no time to dwell on the negative.

ConversationsFocused on the negative: Instead of pulling together and working together to get the job done, all we get is attitude and grief.

Upbeat: Everyone gets along better. People enjoy coming to work.

RelationshipsStrained: Employee snap at each other.

PositiveNegative



Co-creation: We are into learning without blame; We mentally play off each other and create positive ideas.

CollaborationFault-finding: It is a negative, faulting finding and blaming kind of place; We have armchair quarterbacks who point fingers and give after the fact solutions.

PositiveNegativeContinuity: We are better able to plan and get things done; It grows quiet and employee are able to do their jobs.

WorkflowDisruption: We have many false starts with much wasted time and money

Integration: Everyone can bask in the glory of being a team. We are all moving together.

MembershipIsolation: People get competitive with each other over resources, credit for an idea or project, and prioritization of projects.

Alignment: All the disciplines interact to produce a product. Everyone from sales to service is aligned.

Inter-group

Relations

Polarization: The company is polarized around armed camps and cliques; The functions do not work together.


Antecedents

Honestly, no matter the state of the company, we always try and keep the overall picture positive. For instance, a major project last year was mismanaged by the Project Manager and field crews. Subsequently we lost money on the project. We took the hit, learned from the mistakes in the field and moved on. Focusing on the negative things that happen can result in constant negatives appearing, we don't let that happen.

Response to

Challenge

Stress, burnout, "looking over the shoulder" - in my organization, we have had periods of this when faced with challenging new business goals. We are running around like chickens without our heads whereby we focus on the stressors/negatives impacting our productivity instead of leveraging our core competencies (creativity, passion, planning, marketing, communications, etc.)

Late last year we rearticulated our vision, reestablished support for it from the board of directors to the support staff, realigned teams and expenses for success, then executed to achieve success.

AlignmentStrategically lost in the desert: The President would like to expand the business but he and the CEO are both too busy satisfying the demands created by the principal customer to think clearly about much else.


Antecedents

When we are straight out busy, teamwork really kicks in—it is not uncommon for us to have a thousand piece mailing have to go out for a customer at a moments notice. Then we all, even managers, find a spot on the floor and start stuffing.

StructureUnder severe pressure less communication occurs, and the tendency is to not follow procedure to expedite a task. The environment becomes more ad-hoc and more chaotic. As an example, when one project got behind schedule, the team took some short cuts on a weekend without communicating those changes to the rest of the team. It turned out the changes caused other problems that were more severe than the original.

The entire team is pulling together a major proposal in less than 18 hours. We have been able to turn around and deliver orders for 18,000 labeled bottles in a 6.5 hour work day.

PaceWhen business is slow, communication slows down among the team. Regular meetings become e-mails. We lose the synergy that comes from face-to-face activities.


Positive OrganizingAn Exercise

Step 1: You have three minutes to generate a list of guidelines for the actual enactment of an episode of positive organizing.

Step 2: Follow directions of the instructor.


Exercise Debrief

What were the key moments in the history of your episode?

What were the keys of success?What could you do, that you are not doing, to move your own unit in a more positive direction?


Entering the Fundamental State of Leadership

Robert E. Quinn

© 2004 Robert E. Quinn. All Rights Reserved.15

Extraordinary Organizing: The Transformational Path

1996Deep Change or

Slow Death

2000Advanced Change

Theory

2002Connection and

Change

2003The Science

of Excellence

2004Fundamental State

of Leadership

The Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship:

Cutting the Paths to Excellence

Competing Values Framework

Extraordinary Organizing

Competing Values Framework

Fundamental State of Leadership


Excellence: Positive Deviance

Point: Excellence is by definition deviance Objective: An applied theory for moving people to

positive deviance


The Normal StateReactive and Hypocritical

11

22

33

44

55

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11

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33

55

Comfort Centered: I tend to engage in problem-solving activities, thus living in a reactive state

Internally Closed:Internally Closed: I tend to stay in my I tend to stay in my comfort zone, denying external signals comfort zone, denying external signals for change. for change.

Externally Directed: I tend to make assumptions of exchange and define

myself by how I think I am seen.

Self Focused:Self Focused: I tend to be ego driven, I tend to be ego driven, putting my interests ahead of the putting my interests ahead of the

collective interestscollective interests


Comfort Centered

We Live in the Reactive State:

The question, “How do I get what I want?” is a question about process, not results. As an initial question, it is quite limiting. If you ask the question, “How do I get what I want?” before you ask, “What result do I want to create?” You are limited to results that are directly related to what you already know how to can conceive of doing. (Fritz, 1998)


Externally Directed

With it went everything that defined who I was to the world. I could no longer say that I "was" my job, because I had none. I couldn't rely on my wealth to create a sense of worth and identity, for I had no money and loads of debt. I could not look to social standing, for a failed entrepreneur has no social standing. And the failure of my love relationship, a month earlier, ensured that I could not find myself through the love of another. I had nothing, therefore I was nothing. I had died. (Youngblood, 1997:208).


Externally DirectedUntil that point, I had lived my life through the eyes of other people.

I had defined myself through object-reference - my sense of identity and my feelings of self-worth were tied directly to the outer circumstances of my life - all of these external references were stripped away. When I looked in the mirror, I did not know who I was. For me, the ego-death and subsequent "rebirth" was a wonderfully and powerfully transformative event. I experienced a sort of "awakening" in which I realized in a flash of insight that "I" was not my ego or the external trappings of my life. "I" was still all that had ever been, my true self. Nothing that was real and certain had changed, just superficial aspects of my environment (Youngblood, 1997:208).


Self Focused

"Self-consciousness [hinders] the experience of the present. It is the one instrument that unplugs all the rest. So long as I lose myself in a tree, say, I can scent its leafy breath or estimate its board feet of lumber... but as soon as I become aware of myself at any one of those activities -- looking over my shoulder as it were -- the tree vanishes, as if it had never grown. And time, which had flowed down into the tree bearing new revelations like floating leaves at every moment, ceases. It is ironic that the one thing that all religions recognize as separating us from our creator -- our very self-consciousness -- is also the one thing that divides us from our fellow creatures... cutting us off at both ends." (Annie Dillard)


Internally Closed

We strive to organize our lives around four basic values. We strive to (1) remain in control, (2) win, (3), suppress negative feelings, and (4) pursue rational objectives. In light of these values, any suggestion of failure is going to feel like a threat. We avoid negative feelings by separating ourselves from anything that might cast us in an unfavorable light. Ironically, we shut down at the exact moment that we most need to be open to learning (Argyris, 1991).


FSL: Three Key Terms

State: 1. a psychological condition; a way of being

Fundamental: 1. foundation, basis or starting point 2. relating to the radical, root or source 3. on which others are based, original, unique, exclusive, exceptional.

Leadership: to show the way to, direct the course of, conduct, guide.


The FSLLevel 1

11

22

33

44

55

44

11

22

33

55

Comfort Centered: I tend to engage in problem-solving activities, thus living in a reactive state

Internally Closed:Internally Closed: I tend to stay in my I tend to stay in my comfort zone, denying external signals comfort zone, denying external signals for change. for change.

Externally Directed: I tend to make assumptions of exchange and define

myself by how I think I am seen

Self Focused:Self Focused: I tend to be ego driven, I tend to be ego driven, putting my interests ahead of the putting my interests ahead of the

collective interestscollective interests

Purpose Centered: I am clarifying what result I want to create, I am committed and engaged, full of energy and holding an unwavering standard as I pursue a meaningful task.

Internally Directed: I am continually examining my hypocrisy and closing

the gaps between my values and behavior. I am reaching higher levels

of personal security and confidence.

Other Focused:Other Focused: I am transcending my I am transcending my ego, putting the common good and ego, putting the common good and welfare of others first, increasing in welfare of others first, increasing in

authenticity and transparency, nurturing authenticity and transparency, nurturing trust and enriching the levels of trust and enriching the levels of

connectivity in my networks.connectivity in my networks.

Externally Open:Externally Open: I am moving I am moving outside my comfort zone, outside my comfort zone, experimenting, seeking real feedback, experimenting, seeking real feedback, adapting, reaching exponentially adapting, reaching exponentially higher levels of discovery, awareness, higher levels of discovery, awareness, competence and vision. competence and vision.


A Revolutionary Perspective

Action from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with any thing that was. It not only divides states and churches, it divides families; aye, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine (Thoreau).

and does not consist wholly with any thing that was


Level 1 Psychological ConditionPositive Emotions

Positive emotions broaden awareness, expand thinking and result in increased vision and understanding This interaction of positive emotion and positive thought is a reinforcing, upward spiral (See Fredrickson, 2003).


Level 2 RelationshipsAuthenticity, Congruence and Impact


Level 3 OrganizationEmergent Organizing

““Who is leading them?”Who is leading them?”


Selected Observations

In the normal state we look for exits (In the normal state we look for exits (JeremyJeremy)) In the FSL we become empowered (In the FSL we become empowered (GailGail)) We become empowering (We become empowering (RomanRoman)) We live with increased openness (We live with increased openness (JenniferJennifer)) We become more complex (We become more complex (RobertRobert)) We lack the language to describe what we have done We lack the language to describe what we have done

((MikeMike)) We give rise to self-organization (We give rise to self-organization (KevinKevin)) The FSL transcends boundaries (The FSL transcends boundaries (Mark & RogerMark & Roger)) We recognize the episodic nature of the FSL (We recognize the episodic nature of the FSL (JeremyJeremy)) We teach the FSL with alternative strategies (We teach the FSL with alternative strategies (LarryLarry))


FSL: Position and Possibility

Position Most of the time most authority figures are not

in the FSL.

Possibility Anyone can be in the FSL at any time. It is a

choice.


___ I am focused on creating a new result___ I am transcending common fears___ I am outside my zone of comfort___ I am trying experimental behaviors___ I am less reactive, more proactive___ My consciousness is expanding___ I am learning exponentially___ I am more hopeful and energized___ I see potential where I saw constraint___ I am continually examining who I am___ I recognize my constant hypocrisy___ I am closing integrity gaps___ I am focused on the common good___ I am sacrificing for the common good___ I am seeing people more positively___ Some people trust me more___ I am more open___ I truly seek accurate feedback

___ People give me accurate feedback___ I am a positive deviant___ I am disrupting the status quo___ People have to make sense of me___ I am a source of conflict___ Some people are offended ___ Some people are attracted___ I see such conflicts as potential___ I surface and transform the conflicts___ People are trying new things___ Relationships are changing___ People are self organizing___ A social movement is unfolding___ A new organization is emerging___ There is spontaneous contribution___ There is less need for control___ People have hope and energy___ We have a productive community

The Fundamental State of Leadership: A Self-assessmentConsider your job. Here are some items that are indicators of being in the fundamental state of leadership. To assess yourself, place a check next to each phrase that describes your current situation. By returning to the unchecked items you may find some keys for getting into the fundamental state of leadership, the state of increased attraction and love.

© 2003 robert e. quinn. all rights reserved. leading the positive organization robert e. quinn

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