When a person disciplines himself to align the conscious (ant) and subconscious (elephant) mind, success must happen. Willard Christopher Smith Jr. (Will Smith) is that type of person.  The actor and number one box office phenomena, has accomplished in Hollywood, something that has never been done before – eight consecutive movies have grossed over $100 million in revenue.  Smith learned early, to tap into his subconscious mind, aligning his ant and elephant.  Smith shares, “I don’t know what my calling is, but I want to be here for a bigger reason. I strive to be like the greatest people who have ever lived.”  Smith didn’t start with a silver spoon in his mouth, being born in a lower middle class West Philadelphia family, but he did start with something infinitely more powerful, a huge dream.  Smith’s dream to do something great filled him with hope, leading to an unquenchable hunger to learn.  Early in life, Smith learned the value of reading to borrow ideas from the greatest men and women who ever lived, stating, “The idea that there are millions and billions of people who have lived before us, and they had problems and they solved them and they wrote it in a book somewhere – there is no new problem that we can have that we have to figure out by ourselves. There’s no relationship issue, there is no issue with your parents or your brother or your government, there is no issue we can have that somebody didn’t already write a thousand years ago in a book. So, for me, that concept of reading is bittersweet because you know it’s in a book somewhere but you’ve got to find the right one that is going to give you the proper information.”

According to Smith, the turning point in his life happened at 16 years of age, after his first girlfriend cheated on him, “In my mind, she cheated because I wasn’t good enough. I remember making the decision that I will never not be good enough again.”  Instead of hosting his own pity party, Smith intuitively understood that massive success would be the best revenge, incubating, in his mind, a plan for world wide fame, fortune and excellence. How many other 16 year old kids respond to setbacks in this manner? Smith explains, “I think of the universe as this big, master computer,” he says. “The keyboard is inside each of us. I have a keyboard inside of me. I just have to figure out what to type, learn the code, to make the things happen that I want.”  Eschewing the engineering career available to him through attending MIT, Smith instead, partnered with DJ Jazzy Jeff, releasing their first album, while still in high school.  The pair’s PG-rated rap earned them the first ever Grammy award, for a hip-hop act.  Some may call this luck, but Smith, in an interview with Travis Smiley said, “Just decide, and the universe will get out of your way.  Your in a universe that says 2 + 2 = 4. 2 + 2 is going to be what I want it to be.”  Where others see limits, Smith trains his conscious and subconscious to imagine the limitless.  Remember, vision is tomorrow’s reality expressed as an idea today. Smith, displaying his vision for tomorrow, shared with Smiley, “I want to be an idea. I want to represent possibilities. I want to represent the idea that you really can make what you want.”

Later in his career, when Smith was on the set of the Ali movie, he had another breakthrough in the power of dreams and belief.  “When I was doing Ali, I realized that he kept saying, ‘I’m the greatest, I’m pretty,’ to make himself believe it,” Smith explains. “He doesn’t believe it, but he was dealing with racism. He was reacting to pain and rejection. He said it so much that he started to believe it. That’s what I’ve tried to do for myself.”  Aligning the conscious words, with the sub-conscious images, brings added power to all subsequent actions.  Will Smith’s success, is not by accident, but by design, a design available to all who hunger after a dream.  Smith understands the metaphysical nature of words, teaching himself to take command of his inner voice, “I said reading and running and the running aspect is how can you connect with your weakness. When you get on the treadmill you deprive yourself of oxygen. What kind of person you are will come out very, very quickly. You’re either the type of person who will say you’re going to run three miles or you stop the treadmill at 2.94 and you hit it and you call 2.94 3 miles, or you get off after a mile, or you’re the type of person that runs hard through the finish line and when you get to 3.0 you realize, ‘God, I could really do 5,’ and you go ahead and do two more. And that little person talks to you and says, ‘Man, do you feel our knee? We should stop. I feel we should stop ourselves right now. This is not healthy anymore.’ When you learn to get command over that person on that treadmill, you learn to get command over that person in your life.”  Smith took command of his inner voice, aligning his thoughts, talk and walk towards his goals and dreams, a true alignment of the ant and the elephant.

But Smith’s story isn’t a fairy tale of dream, victory and happily ever after story.  Rather, it’s more of an American Dream story, a kid with a huge dream, massive struggles, and sweet victories. A story similar to so many American Horatio Alger successes.  After winning his Grammy, Smith, still a teenager with no financial experiences, spent his income freely, leading to an Internal Revenue Services Audit, resulting in a Tax Lien of $2.8 million against his dwindling estate!  One can only imagine the pain and embarrassment felt by the young Smith, with the IRS seizing his assets and garnishing his future wages.  Few would have bounced back from this setback, but Smith’s vision refused to die, regardless of the challenges.  Facing the mockery of friends and nearing bankruptcy, Smith parlayed his popularity, as a Grammy winning rap act, into an NBC sitcom called, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The series became an overnight hit, surging his career forward, erasing his financial setbacks through his vision, character and work ethic. This show set the foundation for Smith’s meteoric rise in the entertainment industry.  But Smith troubles were far from over, he also endured a difficult divorce, leading to a $900,000 lump sum settlement to his former wife and a $24,000 per month for alimony and child support.  The depth of the setback overcome is directly related to the depth of the character displayed.  People either get bitter or better during challenges.  Smith views setbacks like a broken down car on a road, “every once in a while it’s your turn to be broken down. And you wait for the tow truck to come. That’s how I viewed that difficult time in my life.”  Smith understood, that it isn’t what happens to him, but how he handled it that matters.  His unyielding belief in his mission is what helped him bounce back, “If it was something that I really committed myself to, I don’t think there’s anything that could stop me becoming President of the United States.”  This life changing belief comes from Smith’s conscious and subconscious working together, he expresses, “I want to represent the idea that you really can make what you want. I can create whatever I want to create, if I can put my head on it right,study, and learn the patterns.”

Both of these setbacks, a multi-million dollar tax lien, and a multi-million dollar divorce, could have knocked Smith down for the count, but instead, they only fueled his hunger to do and become more.  This is the power of the dream, turning rejection into further fuel for growth.  Only with true belief, formed when the conscious minds words align with subconscious minds images, will the multitude of setbacks, in the pursuit of any worthwhile dream, be overcome.  In fact, it’s the size of the dream that determines the size of the comeback.  What if Will Smith had surrendered to bankruptcy?  What if he would have surrendered to negativity, blaming the world for his problems?  This is exactly what the majority of people do when faced with setbacks, setbacks minuscule in proportion, to the ones faced and overcome by Smith.  One must never give up on a worthwhile goal or dream, never ever surrendering.  Smith set the goal early to become, “the biggest movie star in the world.”   In order to achieve this super sized dream, he had to overcome super sized obstacles.  Anyone desiring success at the highest levels must expect the same level of obstacles.  Remember, one becomes a champion long before the rest of society acknowledges it.  Smith explains that, “money and success don’t change people; they merely amplify what is already there.”  In other words, power doesn’t corrupt, but only reveals character.

With the success of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, one would have thought it an easy step into movies, but nothing is further from the facts. Despite his growing fame, Smith couldn’t buy a meeting with any of the studios or directors, having to work for over five years before successfully sitting down with a studio director.  In fact, Smith’s business partner James Lassiter, frustrated by the apparent lack of interest, explained the studios skepticism in this way, “Nobody cared. You’re a rapper. You got lucky, and you got this television show, but that’s all you can do.”  When Smith was asked, if he had ever thought of a Plan B during this time, since Plan A seemed closed to him, he responded, nearly horrified by the thought, “I don’t want to get too metaphysical, but by even contemplating a Plan B, you almost create the necessity for a Plan B.”  Smith is expressing the near mysterious power that a unified ant and elephant have in propelling people to their dreams.  He refused to contemplate a Plan B, knowing that by merely contemplating it, he was subconsciously surrendering his plan A, creating a civil war between the conscious and subconscious mind, a civil war that always leads to failure.

It’s been nearly twenty years since Smith made his sitcom splash as the humorous, fast-talking Fresh Prince.  Today, his films gross over $130 million per movie on average, making Smith one of the elite of the elite in his profession.  His most financially successful films have been Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Independence Day, Men in Black, Men in Black II, I, Robot, The Pursuit of Happyness, I Am Legend, Hancock, Wild Wild West, Enemy of the State, Shark Tale, Hitch and Seven Pounds. He also earned critical praise for his performances in Six Degrees of Separation, Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness, receiving Best Actor Oscar nominations for the latter two. Smith discusses the connection between the proper thinking necessary for success, combined with the hard work necessary to complete the success:

“Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist, which is my favorite book, talks about the whole of the universe, and it’s contained in one grain of sand. For years I’ve been saying that, and now it’s really starting to expose itself to me. My own grain of sand has been my story. The next 10 years will be my peak of innovation in filmmaking and just as a human being.  I was reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, and he talks about the concept of 10,000 hours. That you don’t really settle into any level of mastery until 10,000 hours, and I feel like I’ve just completed my 10,000 hours of story structure and filmmaking.”

It’s scary to imagine, what Smith can accomplish next, having already, at forty-two years of age, broken many of the all-time records.  But one thing the world should understand about Willard Christopher Smith Jr., is to never bet against him.  He has aligned his ant and elephant, charging ahead with a dream, forging onward with is superhuman work ethic, and believing in his dreams while others are doubting theirs. We can all learn from Smith, setting our sails based upon our dreams and goals, not merely the direction of the wind.  Just like Jesus describes in Matthew, verse 17:20, “Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”  Isn’t it time to remove the mountains holding us back from our destiny? One final thought from Smith, “I consider myself and Alchemist. An Alchemist who took lead and made it gold.” Imagine if all of us, refusing to live with the lead in our lives, chose instead, to play the part of the alchemist, converting our leaden lives into golden ones.  What a difference we could make if we only believed by having faith. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

The work necessary to win at the highest levels isn’t for sissies, but it can be developed by anyone. There is no shortcut past the 10,000 hours for mastery in any field, but there is a shortcut through the monotony, by making the work a game.  When work becomes a game, the tasks of the job become plays in the game. One will never work again, when the tasks are enjoyed as plays in a game.  The secret to mastery in any field, hinges upon learning to enjoy the deliberate practice, turning the grueling effort into play.  Think about a man, having to choose, on a hot autumn afternoon, between a game of tennis or raking the lawn.  One, can be played for hours, sweating profusely, enjoying the thrill of the game.  The other, is looked upon with dread, procrastinating as long as possible, completed only through sheer strength of will.  Why the difference?  Both require effort, both require discipline, both are exhausting, but one is fun, while the other is miserable.  This is the difference between play and work.  When you view work as a game, then you no longer do tasks, but plays in a game, with the specific intent to win the game.   All top performers have learned this principle, performers in business, sports, music, etc, have all mastered work as play.  Whether the name is Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Thomas Watson, Jerry Rice, Michael Jordan, and Hank Aaron, Garth Brooks, Josh Bell, or Steven Tyler, all of them, learned to make their profession a game, enjoying the deliberate practice to win in the game.  

This explains the paradox of how a few will work so hard, while others think that they are crazy.  It’s isn’t work to them, but enjoyment, winning another game.  Similar to all the weekend warriors, who give 100% effort into their weekend sports for not pay, but then return to their jobs or business at 50% effort.  The weekend warriors can give 100%, even though not payed anything, because they love the game.  The highly successful in life, have tapped into this reservoir of energy by creating a game out of their professions.  Imagine the productivity explosion, if everyone worked their professions as hard as their weekend sports and hobbies.

Ozzie Smith, the Hall of Fame baseball player, is an excellent example of turning the work into a game.  When he was a young, growing up in poverty, he loved the game of baseball.  Not having the best equipment, but wanting to develop his skills in fielding, Ozzie used his imagination, creating a game where he bounced a tennis ball off of his cement porch.  Ozzie challenged himself daily, moving closer and closer to the porch, testing his ability to field the tennis ball cleanly.   The goal was to field the ball rebounding off the porch, developing the hand eye coordination that made him a perennial Gold Glove performer.  By making it a game, Ozzie played for hours on end, hurling the ball at the porch, fielding again and again.  No coach would have asked the same level of discipline out of a Little League team, but since it was a game, it hardly felt like discipline at all.  Just a love of the game developed the hours of practice, developing mastery in fielding a baseball. Smith’s endless hours of deliberate practice, made him the best short stop fielder in baseball, handling line shots with ease, amazing the fans with his highly developed hand eye coordination.  Ozzie credited his game for developing the skills applied to his profession. Few, if any, will subject themselves to the endless hours of deliberate practice needed to win, unless they can mentally make it a game.  Ozzie made the practice a game, creating the skills while enjoying the time, a lesson that all winners must learn before they win.

If 10,000 hours is needed to master any field, and, if mastery is needed to perform at the highest levels, then, creating a game out of the deliberate practice is a key strategy for success. One must work hard, accepting no excuses, focusing on the long-term dreams, enduring the pain in the personal growth process, but the rewards are well worth the effort.  Rewards, that go way beyond the financial, and into the satisfaction obtained when one knows that he truly did his personal best in a worthy cause, allowing one to look in the mirror and see a winner staring back at him. The game is the shortcut through the countless hours, in the quest for excellence.  Identifying the field for mastery, determining the skills needed, developing the game to play, and, playing the game over and over, is the most enjoyable way to create mastery and thus excellence.  What are you waiting for?  Let the games begin. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

“Teachable Moments” are one of the quickest ways to create a learning organization, helping the entire team to learn from the many mistakes on the journey to excellence.  The attitude of learning organizations is, if we are going to make mistakes anyway, let’s go ahead and learn from them.  Learning organizations improve daily without playing the blame game or passing the buck. Only someone with significant results in the organization ought to apply the “Teachable Moment” process.  This is not a process for the blind to lead the blind, but one where leaders help others improve.  In other words, until one has performed, displaying by personal results that one is further down the leadership road, should the “teachable moments” process be employed.  A good rule of conduct, for students on their way to learning leadership, is to speak all the good that you can, never criticizing, condemning, or complaining to anyone.  The leader must have the respect of his team before the “teachable moments” process will produce the desired results.  With these caveats, let me share the eights steps for turning mistakes into “teachable moments”.  

1. Lead in personal change – model change before speaking to others about change.
2. Sit down with the person & express why you value them on the team.
3. Share the common vision of the change process to reach team goals.
4. Explain the changes needed for both of you to reach the team goals.
5. Point out areas where you have and are still changing and growing.
6. Point out areas where they have changed and grown in the past.
7. Unite around the common vision of how team will look after changes.
8. Lead by serving, asking, “How can I help you in this change process?”

The first step, is to lead in personal change first.  Never ask someone to change in an area that you are unwilling to change yourself.  This behavior breeds resentment within the community, as people believe, that you place yourself above the principles professed, expecting more out of them, than you are willing to do yourself.  As Ghandi said, “Be the change that you want to see in the world.”  Leaders must model the change process, so that everyone knows that the leaders, not only aren’t above the principles, but hold themselves to a higher standard on the principles espoused. As the Bible teaches, “To whom much is given, much is required.”  Leadership is more than just a title, it’s the working example for the rest of the team.  It’s what the principles look like, when applied in someone’s life.  Does your team see changes in your leadership on a regular basis?  Every month, certainly every year, the community ought to see the change process being lived out in your life, modeling the proper behaviors for the rest of the team.

The second step in the “teachable moment” process is when mistakes happen, sit down with them.  At first, this may sound scary, to both the leader and the team member, since few people, are comfortable addressing issues. The key here, is that sitting down, isn’t a criticism meeting, but a learning meeting.  Because all of us make mistakes, sitting down shouldn’t be a beat up session, but an opportunity to express value to the person, explaining the opportunity available to both of you to learn.  By sitting down, it gives the leader an opportunity to express the value that he places on the team members work, sharing that the goal is to help them advance even further.  When starting the meeting by sharing how much you accept, approve and appreciate his work, the ‘teachable moment’ will be accepted as positive feedback needed to improve performance further, not just criticism because of the mistake.  Let the team member know that you have made similar mistakes in the past, and still make plenty of mistakes, in the present, leading to “teachable moments”.  This sets people at ease, allowing them to truly listen to improve, instead of listening to defend.

The third step is to express the common vision shared and accomplished through changing the behaviors, techniques and principles applied.  The team, that the leader leads, can only win through a team effort.  There must be a common vision that aligns the team’s behaviors towards stated objectives.  By reviewing the common vision, it ensures that both parties are focusing on the same outcome, improving the team, not just negative criticizing of a teammate.  Be sure to point out to the teammate, how important his role is in the accomplishment of the team’s goals.  The more people feel that their role counts, and the more people feel the leaders are counting on them, the more that they will do to get the job done.  Most people will rise to the level of expectation placed upon them.  People want to do a good job, impressing their superiors with their attitude and results.  Only after completing these three critical steps, should anyone start course correcting a person’s behavior.

The fourth step is to address the behavior or thinking that needs changing.  At this point, the leader has affirmed the team member, helping his ego, handle the adjustment without feeling worthless, stupid, or unnecessary.  By creating a culture where mistakes aren’t fatal, but only part of the learning process, real change can occur quickly.  If someone is interrupting the speaker during meetings, so that no one can finish a point, then you may have to sit down with them.  After letting him know that you did in the past, and still do the same thing occasionally, being something that you have to work on constantly, this helps the team member feel that his load is no heavier than yours. If you changed, then he can too.  This is a much better result, than an argument where he defends his actions, stating that you are always criticizing him.  Or the other outcome, that the issue is never addressed, allowing the behavior to continue, leading to no “teachable moments” and little learning occurring in the organization.

The fifth step, is to ask questions, ensuring that they understand what is expected of them in the future and how they plan on improving.  During this discussion, it’s important to point out as many example of issues that you needed to improve in the past.  Not current issues, but issues solved over the years.  So many great examples follow the dream, struggle, victory process.  I share any examples where the full process is complete, but I don’t share where I have not achieved a victory yet.  The goal is to give the team member hope that after the struggle comes a huge victory.  The more people stay focused on their victories, vicariously learning from your victories, the more effort they will apply to overcome their poor behaviors, replacing with behaviors that produce results.

The sixth step, one that gives confidence and expectancy to the team member in the “teachable moments” is to point out other areas where they have already changed.  By taking the time to, not only notice, but point out to them, areas where you have seen growth, the team member feels appreciated and respected because you are displaying the value you have for them.  Let them know that the reason you are sitting down with them is because of your confidence in their hunger and willingness to change, that you are only sitting down with them because of the confidence that you have. The other strength in this step is that they feel, if they improved in other areas, that they can improve in this area.  Results can create momentum for further results.  The team member must feel that they can make the change, and, that you are counting on them to step up in this area for the betterment of themselves and the entire team.

The seventh step in the “teachable moments” process is to unite around the common vision for the team.  When teams have a bigger vision than any of the participants can accomplish on their own, it unites the team, driving change and growth.  Leaders must speak to the vision when sitting down with people.  This helps everyone understand and feel the direction the organization is heading.  The goal of the leader is to help the team member feel part of the vision, understanding the key role that they play in making the vision a reality.  The more the team member feels part of the team, accepting responsibility for his assignment, the more leverage that he will apply to himself to change.  It’s much easier to let yourself down than it is to let an entire team down.  This is why, in sports, that some of the best times are in team relays, runners and swimmers, not wanting to let their teammates down.

The eighth, and final step is for the leader to ask what part he can play in helping the change process.  Nothing displays the value that a leader has in a teammate, like taking the time for a “teachable moment” session, wrapping up with how can one help.  Criticism of others is easy, and a leader will not partake in idle criticism, but improvement is tough, requiring courage and accepting responsibility.  When a leader sets the bar high, identifies areas of improvement, and takes the time for “teachable moments”, the atmosphere created for the team is one of love, encouragement, expectation and results.  Leaders understand that it is their responsibility to form a team of people willing to grow and change.  Mistakes are a given, but learning and growth are optional.  The eighth step is vital because it let’s the team member know that you are with them, wanting to help them where you can.

Leaders who will follow these eight steps for “teachable moments” will start the process of creating learning organizations, where everyone understands that they must grow and change for the team to accomplish its objectives.  Any leader that avoids “teachable moments” is a leader that is avoiding growth, but any leader who runs around criticizing, without implementing the eight steps, is a leader on his way out of leadership.  Leadership is an art and science, I can explain the eight steps, but I cannot give a person the heart to love his team.  This process is more than just a rote following of the eight steps, but more a loving way to help people identify areas to grow, committing to them time and energy to help them change, creating better results for all involved.  Leaders drive change, and the team changes the most when the team members grow.  Grow yourself first, setting the example of the change process, giving you the credibility to sit down with others, teaching the change process, through the “teachable moments”.  God Bless, Orrin Woodward

What does it mean to leave a legacy?  One of the definitions is defined as something handed down from an ancestor, predecessor or from the past.  Leaving a legacy then, means to pay forward into the next generation, the life principles that made a difference in one’s life.  If you learned financial principles that made a difference, then share them with as many other people as possible.  If you learned family principles that helped in raising your family, then share them, leaving a legacy, imparting truth into others lives.  In life, there are many areas to improve, a great start would be the 8F’s – Faith, Family, Friends, Finances, Fitness, Fun, Following and Freedom, are all areas where truth can be imparted to others, leaving a legacy for them.  A legacy is a lifetime gift, offered with no strings attached, in the hope of making a difference in others, even when your earthly life is over. Let’s review the potential legacies, determining what type is the best legacy to give to the next generation.

The first to review is monetary gifts.  Isn’t that a good legacy?  Money is certainly a legacy, but the problem with money, is that the giver will never know how the money was used. Without financial intelligence, money is fleeting, and, even if it last, money can be used to further choices harmful to to the person receiving it. The story of the prodigal spender, blowing his gifted fortune on selfish endeavors, ruining himself by the gift that he could not handle, isn’t surprising news. But there is another, potentially even more destructive use of monetary legacies.  The large trust funds, from the billionaire founders of large companies – Rockefeller’s, Carnegie’s, Ford’s, etc, who started trust funds with specific ideas for their use, but, over time, administrators and bureaucrats, gained control of the money.  Instead of supporting the founders mission, they converted the money to support their pet social programs, many times, in direct opposition to the founders beliefs.  In other words, the founders money, has been turned against themselves, supporting principles and beliefs, that conflict with the principles that helped the founder succeed in the first place.  How ironic is that? Money, then, in my opinion, is a very poor legacy, since the giver never knows who will be spending it in longterm, or upon what it will be spent.

What about fame?  Aren’t they worthy legacies?  Fame is the most fleeting of legacies.  Even while living, people can go from the penthouse to the outhouse, displaying the fickle nature of people, leaving fame a tenuous legacy.  But even worse, what good is fame, without principles?  How many examples do we need of famous actors, musicians, sports starts, or politicians, whose sons and daughters, standing on the brittle foundation of fame, crashed the family legacy into the ground. Fame isn’t an object worth pursuing personally, let alone, leaving to posterity.  Instead of seeking fame, seek excellence, and, if fame comes along with it, so be it.  What can sons and daughters do with their parents fame?  Not much, in the long run.  If, in the pursuit of fame, the children were neglected, the legacy of fame will fade, leaving another example, that excellence must be taught and caught.  Fame, may be included, along with the principles of excellence, but shouldn’t be the main focus of the legacy given to the next generation.  Neither fame, nor fortune, will leave a lasting legacy.

What about power? Certainly, the powerful can leave behind positions of power for posterity?  Power, unless backed by governmental force, cannot last either.  Just a cursory look at the powerful of the past, displays the fleeting nature of power.  Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, to name just a few, were powerful men, controlling large kingdoms, but their power died with them.  Power isn’t  a legacy worth leaving, since power, without leadership, can only be maintained by the use of force.  How many companies, when handed over to the next generation, succumbed to ruled based force, destroying the leadership based influence of the founder?  Power, without principles, is a dismal legacy, one that history records numerous times of the years.  But, what if, the legacy recipient has leadership ability?  Then the legacy, given to posterity, wasn’t power, but leadership principles, providing the proper foundation to grow the organization. By reviewing the potential legacies, on quickly ascertains, that any gift, without also learning the principles behind the gift, quickly boomerangs upon the receiver, hurting them, more than helping them.  The only legacy truly worth leaving to the next generation is the leadership principles to live a successful and honorable life.  Without a legacy of leadership, everything that is built, will fall apart.  But with it, everything that is built, becomes the foundation, for further growth.  This is a legacy worth leaving to the next generation of leaders.

When analyzing the legacies available to the next generation, one quickly moves past the power, fame, and fortune, into the realm of ideas, the only legacy that truly last.  Ideas have consequences, making or breaking people, depending upon the ideas adopted; therefore, the true legacy given by a leader to posterity, is the lives impacted by the principles taught through thought, word, and deed. Nothing else will stand the test of time, not his fortune, not his fame, nor his power.  This radically redefines the purpose of life.  When a leader learns, that objects sought in life are fleeting, called vanity of vanities by Solomon, then leaving objects for posterity is doubly fleeting.  It’s only the ideas that will survive the test of time.  Ideas, that help people live a life of character, honor, and integrity, leading to leadership that moves society ahead, in a direction honoring to God, family and country, are the true legacies given to posterity.

If leadership is so important to the betterment of society, then why do so few people strive to lead?  The simple answer is that leadership is tough.  It requires people to look honestly at themselves, opening them up to self-criticism, identifying the necessary changes to grow, rather than falling back on self deception and blame.  Remember the pool analogy, where people follow the current created in the pool?  Followers naturally move with the current, regardless of whether the current is moving in the proper direction for leadership growth.  But leaders are different, leaders are Rascals, as Chris Brady taught in his superb book, Rascals.  Leaders follow an inner compass, determining which direction the current should be moving, making a stand against the current and crowd, if necessary, and it typically is necessary.  Standing against the current is a brave act, moving against the current is a leadership act, running against the current, while encouraging others to do the same, reversing the declining current, is a leadership act at the highest of echelons.  Reversing the culture of decline is the pinnacle of leadership.  Learning and doing this, with a plan to pass on the principles to posterity, reversing the current of decline generationally, is what true legacies are all about.  God Bless, Orrin Woodward

For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. – Matthew 12:34

It’s amazing how much one can learn from a person just by listening.  People who believe that they have a positive attitude, give away their negativity when they speak. I like to begin mentoring sessions with, “Tell me the good, the bad, and the ugly.  The good we will celebrate, the bad we will make adjustments, and the ugly we will pray about.”  This is sure to get people talking, helping me to identify, not just what happened, but how they are thinking about what happened.  Which, in the end, is more important than the event; since the event happens only once, but how they think about the event repeats over and over in their minds and hearts.  Painful experiences happen to both achievers and non-achievers.  The difference is in the responses, achievers learning from the bad cards, choose to draw more; while non-achievers complaining about the cards of life being stacked against them, choose to quit the game.  But what’s actually stacked against them is their own thinking. Winners received the same stimulus, but chose to respond differently than the non-winners.

When something bad happens to a winner, he immediately focuses on minimizing its effects, learning anything he can from the situation.  No pity parties, no woe is me attitudes, just resolution and teachable moments.  The extent a person wins in life, is many times, related to how quickly he can go from problem identified to problem solved, learning through the pain of the process.  When people stay down for weeks, months, sometimes even years at a time, can they honestly expect a positive outcome?  There is only so much mental energy, when it’s spent dwelling on negative thoughts, allowing them to enter the heart, eventually pouring out of the mouth, why is anyone shocked that so little is accomplished in life?  The key is pulling the weeds (negative thoughts) upon entering the mind, not allowing them to move into the heart and out the mouth.  Weeds are much easier to pull when immediately seized when they enter the mind, but much tougher when allowed to root in the heart, eventually flowing out of the mouth.  Don’t provide fertile soil in the mind for weeds; don’t allow weeds to seed into the heart; and whatever you do, don’t allow negative seeds to spread out of your mouth, infecting other people. The former leader literally becoming a carrier of negativity.

Leaders are gardeners of their own minds, identifying and pulling weeds quickly.  True leaders are never down period, choosing to pull weeds promptly.  But if they ever were down, they certainly wouldn’t spread the disease to their communities, since they know that pulling weeds is an inside job.  If a weed is extra difficult, then leaders have the discipline to seek out their mentors for help, refusing to contaminate others with their weed seeds.  One of the first, and most important, assignments of any would-be leader is consistent and prompt pulling of his own weeds.  It’s not an option if he plans on inspiring others, since no one is inspired by a bitter attitude and sour faced person.  Pull your weeds, guard your mind, protect your heart, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  Leadership occurs when people having confidence in the leader, if a person’s attitude is unpredictable, he disqualifies himself for leadership, until he learns to pull his own weeds. Leaders are dealers in hope, change, and growth, beginning inside of them.  Perhaps it’s time that we launched a leadership revolution, let’s start the revolution by tending to our own gardens.  God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Systems make up a big part of living. Think of the different types of systems in life, and the careers available for those who study them.  Scientists study the systems available in nature, learning how the world works, developing similar systems to enhance life. Doctors study the systems in the human body, while veterinarians study animal’s body systems.  Engineers study product and process systems, even creating new systems when creating new products.  But, unless one is specifically in these fields, why take the time to learn about systems?  Mainly, because there is another type of system, one that all human beings are apart of from birth, it’s called the cultural system.  Every human being joins the culture of humanity when born, it’s not optional, and every culture – humanity, business organizations, faith organizations, charities, clubs, etc, have a cultural system that guides the behavior of its members.  The McKinsey organization teaches that culture is “how we do things around here”.  Culture matters, and the more one understands the culture of an organization, the better one can improve the culture, thus improving results.  Without an understanding of systems, it will be hard to study, let alone to change, the culture of organizations.  Just as scientist, doctors, veterinarians, and engineers study and create systems, leaders must study, change, and create cultures. In fact, majoring on culture is one of a leaders most important assignments.

Think of culture in an organization, as a riverbed, directing the flow of the river.  The riverbed set the boundaries of acceptable behaviors, controlling the flow of the water, helping new people move within the cultural river.  Riverbed cultures are fantastic systems to guide behaviors when the riverbed aligns with the behaviors needed within a culture, but imagine if the riverbed is guiding behavior in a direction opposed to the behaviors desired and professed by the organization.  This creates a riverbed cultural issue, where the culture is directing behavior that is opposed to the professed norms and values of the community, creating a misalignment between purpose and actions.  For example, suppose an organization desires to be the best company for service and support in the local market.  Advertisements trumpeting this message are shared throughout the marketplace, slogans are placed in the office, and sales meetings share the importance of follow up on existing customers, ensuring that customers are satisfied, focusing on long term business relationships.  This all sounds great, communicating clearly how important serving existing customers are in the company’s culture, but unless the reward system, for the salesforce, lines up with the culture, it will not change behaviors.  In other words, if rewards only pay for new sales, but not existing sales, then why would the salesmen take apply efforts to service an existing customer, when his pay is increased only when he makes a new sale to a new customer.  Can you see where the riverbed is guiding the behavior in one direction, even though the words and slogan are attempting to guide behaviors in another course?   No amount of slogans, meetings, or advertisements are going to change culture, until the leaders change the riverbed which lead to the actions.

Leaders must study the systematic riverbeds of their respective organizations, determining if the stated beliefs, values, and norms line up with the direction taken by the riverbed.  Leaders can get upset at a communities behavior, punish them, even fire them, but if the riverbed doesn’t align with desired behaviors, the fault isn’t with the people, but with the leadership team responsible for creating the culture and reward systems.  Let’s examine further the organizational cultures.  The reader might be thinking, but I don’t work at a big company, so this doesn’t apply to me.  But remember, cultural systems apply to every organization, everywhere.  Families, churches, clubs, workplaces, businesses, etc, all have cultures.  The sooner one becomes aware of the culture, learning the flow of the water through the riverbed, the quicker one can see if riverbed and behaviors are aligned or if changes are necessary.  Everyone in the community is responsible to help the leaders develop a proper riverbed, because everyone is affected when the riverbed is off course.  One of the best descriptions of the factors that make up the culture (riverbed) of an organization comes from Gerry Johnson, and is called Cultural Webs.  In his article, titled, “Rethinking Incrementalism”, in the 1988 Strategic Management Journal, Johnson defines the paradigm and six elements of the Cultural Web that create the culture of an organization.  One of the goals of a leader is to study the six factors independently and interdependently, learning how each factor can be improved individually, and how they can be improved where they interact with one another.  The leaders objective is to develop the culture by improving how each element ties into the overall message, forming a riverbed that aligns with the deepest beliefs, values, and norms of the organization.

The Paradigm defines what the organization is about, meaning what it does; what’s its mission; what it values. The Cultural Webs are the six factors or elements that combine to fulfill the paradigm.  Here are the six elements with a brief description:

1. Stories – The historical events and people that are talked about inside and outside of the company, creating part of the myths surrounding the company, telling a great deal about what the company’s beliefs, values, and norms are.
2. Rituals and Routines – The daily behaviors that signal actions within the riverbed and those outside of the riverbed.  This creates expectations upon each member of community to behave and act in certain acceptable ways valued by leaders.
3. Symbols – This includes company logos, the layout of offices, power positions at offices and meeting rooms, and formal or informal dress codes.
4. Organizational Structure – This involves the formally defined structures, like organizational charts, and the informally and unwritten power and influence, this is how most leaders get things done, even when structures are broken.
5. Control Systems – This is how the organization is controlled or influenced, including financial systems, quality systems, and rewards.  Rewards communicate what is valued in the company, and are extremely important to align with riverbed.
6. Power Structures – This is where the real power lies in a company, the law of E. F. Hutton – when they speak, people listen. Whether it is one or two key executives, a managing group of executives, or a department, the point is that these leaders have the greatest influence to change operations, strategies, and cultures.

Let’s simplify the idea of culture even further.  Before diving into how to improve each of the factors forming the culture, let’s develop a mental model to simplify how culture is viewed.  Do you remember the game that kids play in the pool, where everyone runs in the same direction, forming a current in the pool, so that the kids can lift their legs and float around the pool, carried by the current they created?  This is an excellent analogy for culture, since the current in the pool performs the same function as the culture does in an organization.  Culture, like the current, is created when people are aligned in beliefs, values, and norms, forming a current that carries people in the proper direction to success.  When people are aligned in a culture, they create a current that helps the new people adopt the cultural norms quickly, flowing with the current in the water.  But, when people aren’t aligned, there is little, if any, current created, forcing people to develop their own beliefs, values, and norms, leaving disunity if not chaos in the pool.  Since there isn’t current (culture) to align the community, the culture becomes a free for all, people showing up, not because they buy into the culture, but only because they buy into paying their bills.  Imagine each organization as a pool when studying the culture.  By studying the stated paradigm for its existence and the six elements that help form the cultural paradigm, one can determine whether the culture current is aligned with the paradigm and elements.  Are the elements creating the proper flow in the pool, or are they confusing, sending mixed messages, hindering the ability of the organization to achieve its stated paradigm?  A leader’s role is to align the elements with the operating paradigm, forming a cultural current that will lead people and the organization to success.

Convergent cultural currents, help explain why two successful cultures, from two successful companies, can combine to create an unsuccessful culture in a struggling company.  Two companies, both successful in their own right, when combined, typically struggle, because the cultural currents fight against one another, creating cognitive dissonance, paralyzing actions and results.  It shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with the mental model of the pool current. Combining separate cultures is one of the toughest leadership assignments, and shouldn’t be attempted, without a clear understanding of the cultures involved and the steps involved in aligning the cultures into one fast moving current.  There are many good cultures that do things differently, because there isn’t a clear cut right way to build a culture, but, just as in the pool example, everyone must be running in the same direction to create the cultural flow.  If half the people are running in one direction, the other half in another direction, the company is experiencing a cultural civil war, creating disunity, severely damaging the results produced by the organization.  It takes a leader, with tact, systems thinking, and patience to bring the diverse cultures together, uniting them in a common vision, forming common beliefs, values, and norms, which allows the company to thrive again. The leader creates the culture (riverbed), directing the behaviors, and the culture creates the long term results of the organization. Are you working on the culture in your organizations? God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Have you ever watched a team of mountain climbers scale a cliff?  I have watched with awe as the mountain climbers work together, as a team, to pull of this feat.  Imagine five climbers, all connected together by ropes and pulleys, ensuring the safety of all, scaling a cliff thousands of feet up.  The five climbers are a system, each action by one of the climbers affects the actions of the rest.  No climber could choose to scale the cliff if the others, were resting.  In fact, no four of the climbers could scale the cliff if just one chose to stop.  The ropes magnify the interdependence between the individuals, but with or without the ropes, people in communities are part of a system, being interdependent upon one another.  Each person in a community needs to understand systematic thinking as their actions will affect all others in the community.  Every leader must learn to think systematically in order to lead to his full potential.  Systems thinking is the process of understanding how individual parts influence one another within the entity as a whole. Both nature and organizations are filled with systems.  Nature is filled with ecosystems involving air, water, plants, animals and more in systems to sustain life, while organizational systems consist of people, structures, and processes that interact to produce results.  Whether the results are good or bad depends upon the system interactions orchestrated by the leader.

Remember the story of the elephant and the blind men?  This is an excellent example displaying systems thinking. Read it again, thinking through how portions of truth must be combined (like a system) to gain the entire truth.

Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, “Hey, there is an elephant in the village today.” They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, “Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway.” All of them went where the elephant was. Everyone of them touched the elephant.

“Hey, the elephant is a pillar,” said the first man who touched his leg.

“Oh, no! it is like a rope,” said the second man who touched the tail.

“Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree,” said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant. 

“It is like a big hand fan” said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant. 

“It is like a huge wall,” said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant. 

“It is like a solid pipe,” Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant. 

They began to argue about the elephant and everyone of them insisted that he was right. It looked like they were getting agitated, each blind man wondering how the others could be so stupid. Each believing they had the truth, since he felt it with his own hands. A wise man was passing by and he saw this. He stopped and asked them, “What is the matter?” They said, “We cannot agree to what the elephant is like.” Each one of them told what he thought the elephant was like. The wise man calmly explained to them, “All of you are right and all of you are wrong. The reason each of you is telling it differently is because each one of you touched a different part of the elephant. Each of you has a partial truth.  The elephant has all the features that each of you described, but isn’t fully what you described unless you combine all of your answers.”

Each of the blind men has touched upon a truth of the elephant, but individually, none of them had the whole truth.  If they had spent their time arguing, insisting upon the truth of what they had felt with their own hands, the community would have broken down, forming individual perceptions and not gaining a system perspective of the truth.  Only when each individual learns that they are part of a system, touching upon truth at some point, but probably not touching upon the total systematic truth, will each teammate seek out alternative perspectives.  Many times, disagreements are not really disagreements at all, but just individuals seeing or feeling a different aspect of the system, revealing a portion of the truth, that only when combined yields the whole truth.  System thinking is essential for leaders to help everyone work as a team, gathering all of the facts to accurately model the system they are working on to improve. Without a systems perspective, the leader quickly takes sides with one of his personal favorites, forcing others to comply with his partial interpretation of the truth, killing his credibility, alienating many of his teammates, destroying the motivation to share alternative perspectives in the future.

I love the blind men analogy. If leaders will remember the lesson of the blind men, their ability to solve problems will greatly increase, no longer satisfied with portions of the truth, they will seek out all perspectives to gain a larger view of reality.  Let’s discuss another example of systems thinking.  I believe I heard a version of this story first from Stephen Covey.  Covey uses the example of a fishermen going to a river to enjoy a day of fishing, but just minutes after getting there, he sees a young boy flailing his arms in the middle of the river, screaming for help. The fishermen jumps in and save him.  The boy is healthy, so the fishermen starts fishing, but fifteen minutes later, a young girl is flailing her arms, yelling for help, in the middle of the river.  The fishermen saves her also.  At this point, he ponders what the odds are, that two people would need saving on the same day.  Fifteen minutes later, when a third child needs to be rescued, he is certain that there must be more to the picture (system), than he is touching upon.  At this point, he starts asking questions, no longer believing that the children who needed rescuing, are isolated events.  He believes there is more to this system than is meeting his eyes. The fishermen, deciding to solve the cause at its roots, not just continue to trim at the leaves, walks upstream, discovering a children’s camp.  The fishermen finds that the local bully, doing what bullies do, was throwing kids in the river every fifteen minutes, and would continue to do so, until everyone surrendered their money.  The fishermen, a true problem solver, took the bully by the ear, walked him into the camp office, solved the root cause of the problem (the bully), and enjoyed the remaining fishing time in peace.

I know the example is simplistic, but it does capture the main points in systematic thinking.  Many times in life, people run from emergency to emergency, never stopping to think if the emergencies are related systematically.  The simple system described above included the boys and girls, the bully, the river, and the fishermen downstream.  The fishermen would have had a busy day, if he hadn’t solved the problem at its root.  You can stay busy your entire life, but unless you are solving problems at the root, nothing of long-term consequence is being solved.  Busy is not the goal, but productivity is.  As Covey teaches, one can trim the leaves for life, but if you wish to eliminate a tree, one must attack the roots.  Toyota has a problem solving system that helps discover the root causes, called the Five Whys.  It teaches that most root causes are at least five questions removed from the issue that is being addressed at the moment.  The root cause is usually not the first why, but, if one will keep asking questions, the root cause will typically be revealed.

For example, if someone slips and falls on a slippery factory floor, breaking their arm in the process, the quick solution is to order a cleaning crew to work more hours, cleaning the floors daily to ensure a non-slippery surface.  A non-slippery floor is the right answer, but before hiring extra people, spending money and time on the problem, the Five Why’s would attempt to discover the root cause (like the bully in example above).  Leaders aren’t happy with just trimming the leaves, while the root cause remains unaddressed and will use the Five Why’s to help determine the root issues.  The Five Whys in this example would go something like this:

Q: Why did the man slip and fall?
A: Because the ground was slippery.
Q: Why was the ground slippery?
A: Because there was oil on the floor.
Q: Why was there oil on the floor?
A: Because one of the machines was leaking oil.
Q: Why was the machine leaking oil?
A: Because an oil pan bolt was loose.
Why was the oil pan bolt loose?
A: Because the machine vibrated the bolt loose.
Q: Why did the machine vibrate the bolt loose?
A:  Because the shaft bearing is worn out in the machine.
Q: Why is the shaft bearing worn out in the machine?
A: Because maintenance hasn’t changed it and it is past it’s useable life.
Q: Why haven’t they changed out the old bearing?
A: Because we cut all preventative maintenance in a cost cutting measure.

The Five Why’s has revealed the systematic issue in the factory system, not just the obvious answer of cleaning up the oil.  When the preventative maintenance program was eliminated, in an effort to save money, it brought upon other effects, not clearly understood at the time.  If another department has to hire more cleaning crews, or paying overtime to existing ones, then we have not really saved any money, but still have a maintenance issue.  This only compounds the factories problems further, having not understood the systematic effects of the choices made.  Trimming the leaves by cutting preventative maintenance, but causing a bigger root problem, by machines failing over time. Without the proper machine maintenance, further degradation is inevitable, leading to more trimming leaves behavior, while the root cause, the improper maintenance, ruins the productivity and safety of the entire factory.  Only when the leader thinks systematically, will the root cause be revealed.  Preventative maintenance will be reinstated; machines run with quality bearings; the bolts will stay tight; the oil remains in the pan; and people can walk the floor without endangering their safety.  The factory is a system, every action performed by one department will have effects on numerous others departments.  It’s only when the leader thinks of the entire system (elephant above), that the entire truth will be revealed, leading to decisions made upon the total systems, not just the partial truths that each department feels. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Here is the final audio from Art Jonak, Orjan Saele, and me discussing the mentoring process.  I hope you enjoyed this series. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvsss2KhK9U&w=640&h=385]