Courage!

Hey true believers!

The latest action-packed issue of Defense AT&L is posted online - click on over to read my contribution, The Courage Imperative.

I have to admit, I'm a little nervous to see what sort of reaction this one generates. It's a bit, um, pointed... (yeah, unlike all my others, right?)

It Really Is Important

We've been talking a lot about social media here = it's important! If you are leading or directing people in any way, you should definitely understand why the use of social media is important to your team.

In my book, these "social" engines facilitate transparency; a critical attribute for organizations who want to accomplish anything. One of the best descriptions I've come across to explain why this is comes from the Standish group:

...transparency can be painful, but transparency reduces barriers to communication, builds trust, and accelerates consensus building and decision making.

It's important. Yeah Buddy!

Procedures Foster Fear

As I mentioned yesterday, Alex Laufer's presentation on project leadership really got me thinking. And there's one comment he made, almost as an aside, that really stuck in my head:

"Procedures foster fear."

That is, formalized procedures create an environment in which under-led and over-managed employees frequently face the fear of noncompliance. As the rule set grows and gets more complex, a person's ability to know and understand the rules decreases. And yet, the rules must be followed... thus the persistent fear of being criticized for non-compliance. [not that every set of formalized procedures leads to under-led / over-managed people... but it doesn't help].

That's why we need more punks in our organizations. Punks don't care about fitting in and following stupid rules. Punks don't mind criticism by The Man. Punks have a certain type of fearlessness. It's something the organization needs, sure, but punks don't do it for the organization. They do it for themselves and their peers... (and yes, this benefits the organization).

And cool things happen when the punks get in charge. For starters, there are fewer stupid rules, less complexity and less confusion. And that helps drive out fear, as Deming recommends.