In reference to a book he was reviewing, Bill Bradley, the former Senator and basketball star, wrote the following in today’s NY Times:

 I once asked the estimable Oscar Robertson what he thought of Michael Jordan, then in his third year in the NBA.  Oscar said, “He’s not great yet.”

Why not, I asked.

“Because he hasn’t learned how to make the worst player on his team good,” Oscar replied.

Want a standard to assess yourself as a leader?  To gauge the cultural health of your organization?  Ask yourself (and others): Does working in our organization help everybody—at every level, in every role—grow?  Does it make them better?

If yes, terrific.  What are you doing that makes it so?  How will you enhance and enrich your efforts, while protecting against possible threats?

If no, why not?  What do you need to be doing differently to raise your organization to a championship level?  What needs to be different within your culture?

Oscar Robertson’s criterion for greatness reminds me of Robert Greenleaf’s seminal piece, “The Servant as Leader,” in which he set forth his now famous “test” for servant leadership:

The best test, and most difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons?  Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?  And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society: Will they benefit, or, at least, will they not be further deprived?

TD Industries is a successful Texas-based HVAC commercial contractor; its late founder and subsequent generations of leaders were and are devoted to the practice and teaching of servant leadership principles.  On a corporate video made some years ago, a tough looking employee was asked what difference it had made in his life to work for a company that took servant leadership seriously.  “It has made me a better daddy,” he said.

What does working in your organization do for your people?  Are they really growing? 

Are we great yet?

So why do we regulate our behavior more on small boats?  Why don’t we act like we’re on a cruise ship and do pretty much whatever we want when we want?

One primary reason: feedback. We receive immediate and visceral feedback of the impact of our actions—on others, us, and the boat itself.

Stand up in a rowboat, say, and you feel in your legs the impact of your actions…  You see the concern on others’ faces…  You hear what they say! 

You know instantly that you’re doing something that could pitch all of you into the water.  So you adjust your behavior quickly.  And before you move next time, you think about what you’re about to do.  You act more consciously.  You behave better.

So, if you’re a manager and you want better, more conscious behavior in your organizational unit, if you want to create more of a small boat culture, what do you need to provide your people?  Feedback.  They need to know how their behavior affects others up and down the line—and comes back to impact them. 

So you need to make that feedback as real, as instantaneous and visceral as possible.  And connect that feedback to larger organizational purposes and goals as well as unit-specific objectives. 

Your ultimate goal?  To have your people know the system in which they operate so well that they can imagine the impact of their actions before they act and adjust accordingly.  You want them as alert, as conscious as they would be on a small boat in big water.  That’s the managerial challenge.

How might you meet it?  I’m going to offer some specific ideas next time—one or two kind of fun.  But there’s no reason why you can’t start thinking now.  How can you help your people realize in their heads, hearts, and guts, the impact of their actions?  How can you help them see and feel the contours of your boat, the others who are in it (hint: there are more than they think), and the wobble that starts when things aren’t done as they need to be?  How can you help them become more conscious in a “kind of fun” way?

My ideas will have to do with how you can help “them.”  I promise.  But how about you start acting now like you’re on a small boat? 

You already do?  Of course. 

How about paying extra attention for a while?  Humor me.  Try asking yourself for a week:  How do my actions impact others?  At work.  Outside of work.  At home.  With family, friends, etc.  Got it?

See if you can really track it.  Maybe keep a log.  You might even ask for feedback: “So when I do this, how does that impact you?”

See what occurs to you—or what others suggest—about how you can be a better shipmate.  What might you do differently that would be better for others on the boat and for the boat itself?” 

Try this for a week (or more) and you’ll be better prepared to meet the managerial challenge.

Next Post… “Ethics on a Small Boat V: Ideas for Managers”

If you and your organization are not committed to something worth committing to, you will not sustain a small boat ethos/culture on your ship—no fierce attention to the external and internal environment, no mutual accountability, no collaboration squared.  At least not beyond today’s storm.  It will be every man and woman for themselves.  When the seas calm down and the winds turn favorable (and they will), how will you compete against those crafts with a more committed crew?  The difference will translate into distance.  You and your boat will be left behind unless…

…You discover, create, unearth, or re-claim some larger purpose for your enterprise that addresses the “Why” question: Why do we exist?  What are we committed to doing that no one else can do as well as we can?  What unique contribution can we make?  What need(s) are we passionate about meeting?

Some examples of organizations who’ve taken on the “why” question in a sustained way:

A commercial carpet manufacturer (Interface; LaGrange, GA) striving to become the world’s first ecologically sustainable industrial company…  A quick service restaurant chain (Chick-fil-A; Atlanta, GA) committed to glorifying God in everything it does and having a positive impact on all with whom it comes in contact…  A small hospital (Griffin Hospital; Derby, CT) working to change the face of healthcare from a provider-dominant model to a patient-centered system and to create a healthier community—not to be “the healthcare provider of choice in the metro area”…  Note the difference. 

None of these organizations are perfect.  But they exhibit more of a small boat culture than most, and they’ve been winning in the marketplace for customers and employees for years on the strength of it.

So a high stakes purpose leads to a small boat culture and marketplace success—as do 2-3 carefully chosen, articulated, and reinforced values.  Yes, values.  I’m not referring to the usual list of platitudes—integrity, quality, teamwork, service, etc.—that’s completely interchangeable with other companies’ lists.  In an age of authenticity that list leads your people to see you as hypocritical, detached from reality, or both.  It breeds cynicism.  Throw it overboard.  Then talk to some current and desired customers about what they most value and need from you before coming up with 2-3 core values (to which you commit fully) that resonant deeply with them, too. 

Example: A successful and growing rocket science engineering firm (ERC; Huntsville, AL) organizes itself around “proactive responsibility” and “long term authentic relationships” because they discovered that their clients (which, according to their CEO, include customers and employees) want that from them in particular; and those values are congruent with who they are and aspire to be.  

So when you’re serious about a big purpose and a small set of customer-centric values whose day-to-day enactment helps you win…with your systems and processes aligned accordingly…and a crew that mostly lives it and fewer and fewer onboard who don’t—then you’re meeting the captain’s challenge.  You’re creating a small boat culture.  You’re on the voyage of a lifetime.

Next Post…  Ethics on a Small Boat IV: The Manager’s Challenge

So what would it be like if you had a small boat ethos/culture in your organization? 

You would see people paying fierce attention to what’s going on outside your boat.  And you’d hear a continuous buzz around questions like:  What’s happening with our customers?  What do they need now?  What are our competitors doing?  Where are the new opportunities for us?  What threats loom? 

These conversations about the external environment would happen in formal and informal ways—structured and unstructured.  Everybody would want to know what’s going on “out there;” they would look for themselves and ask questions of others: What do you see?  Senior leaders would help satisfy and further stimulate that need to know.

You would see equally fierce attention paid to what’s happening in your boat.  People would view themselves as fellow crew members, not passengers.  They would operate with a heightened sense of how their actions affected others, and they would expect others to operate that way, too.  High standards of performance and behavior would be modeled and enforced by everybody, regardless of their formal authority. 

So people would be taking responsibility not only for themselves and their particular work, but for the ethos/culture of the boat and the boat itself.  They would be working to make themselves, others, and the organization better everyday.  Disagreements, conflicts, and mistakes would still surface, but they would occur within a broader concern for the guiding ideas and ideals of the boat and would serve the on-going learning curriculum for those onboard.  

And the organization would strive mightily to not let people onboard who didn’t fit the ethos of your particular craft—and would deal with them quickly when such did exist.  There would be an active commitment to a diverse crew across every possible domain except one: allegiance to a small number of core precepts that make your boat your boat—and make your boat win.  No diversity there. 

Dennis Conner, three-time winning skipper in the America’s Cup sailboat races, told potential crew members that he needed people who would “make a commitment to the commitment.”  And so do you on your boat.  Here’s your challenge (and opportunity), captain: Are you and your organization committed to something that’s  worth making a big commitment to?

Next Post… 

Ethics on a Small Boat III: The Captain’s Challenge

I remember reading a story in the early 90’s about a small U.S. Navy vessel in the first Gulf War.  The sailors on board were deployed from a large ship–a carrier or battleship of some kind–and were searching for fellow sailors feared to be lost at sea.  Upon spotting their mates in the water, the sailors on the small boat all rushed to one side, waving and cheering, and promptly capsized their craft.

Reflexive and appropriate action on a large ship turned dangerous on a small boat.  And in the emotion of the moment the sailors, who surely knew better, forgot where they were. 

On a small boat, everybody’s action affects everybody else.  Forget that and the boat goes over.

I suggest that a similar dynamic operates today in the larger economy and our organizations.  Not only is the old saying true–”we’re all in the same boat”–but technology has shrunk the boat.  We’re all just now realizing how interconnected and interdependent, and therefore vulnerable, we’ve become.  Individual behavior matters more than ever.  And culture, which shapes and reinforces behavior, matters more than ever, too. 

 So what’s the culture like in your organization?  Does everybody realize that you’re all in a small boat–and act accordingly?  Do you have a “small boat ethos/culture” in your organization?  What would it look like if you did?  What might you do if you don’t?

 Next Posts…

Ethics on a Small Boat II: What It Looks Like

Ethics on a Small Boat III:  The Captain’s Challenge