Modeling Leadership for #LeanUXNYC

Modeling Leadership

@SemanticWill

1.  Problem statement

2.  Domain awareness

3.  Context of leadership & management

4.  Power, Authority, Influence

5.  Organizations as systems

6.  Modeling conversation

7.  Enframed by language

8.  The Paine Principle

9.  Questions of leadership

@SemanticWill | Will Evans


Let’s start with a little Frederick Taylor and management science


His ideas about management were informed by the Prussian Military


His ideas of control were also shaped by the penal system of discipline & punish


Taylor’s ideas about human nature were informed by Freud…


Who did an epic amount of coke.


But also the more sober ideas of Kurt Lewin – the founder of social psych....

Who was influenced by Max Weber


Three forms of authority distinguished by Max Weber


the ability of one agent within a social relationship to carry out her own will despite

resistance


the probability that a command within a specific context will be obeyed

@SemanticWill | Will Evans @SemanticWill | Will Evans

legitimate domination


Authority is more enduring than non-legitimate forms of domination

•  Authority is related to the belief in legitimacy

•  It may persist even if those obeying have a greater material interest in disobeying

•  Authority is engendered by power


Authority is engendered by power

It may persist even if those obeying have a greater material interest in disobeying

Authority is related to the belief in legitimacy


Foucault and Power



Power is not a substance. It is not something you possess

Power is a relation between people

A set of actions on the actions of others

Every relation is a power relation

Authority is predicated on power


Every relation is a power relation

A set of actions on the actions of others

Power is a relation between people

Power is not a substance. It is not something you possess


structuring the field of action of others.


Power and Knowledge


Every body of knowledge creates a field of power

Power/Knowledge is a flow.

Knowledge is encoded in language

Every field of power creates a body of knowledge

Power and Knowledge are intertwingled


Governance (rules)

Ethics (cultural norms)

Power is created through 3 axes of subjectivity


Language (knowledge)

Governance (rules)

Ethics (cultural norms)


Language enframes process; Process becomes the Panopticon


SO WHAT OF INFLUENCE?


Influence is the ability to affect other’s beliefs and behavior without power.

Influence requires a defined context.

That context we’ll call a social system. (which are complex adaptive systems)




SOCIAL SYSTEMS ARE SYSTEMS OF CONVERSATION


IF ORGANIZATIONS ARE SYSTEMS OF CONVERSATION

We need a model of conversation to understand power dynamics, decision making, and influence










Yeah, but…


Kanban creates a shared context..

Using cards as “social objects”

Which allow teams to have conversations


ORGANIZATIONS ARE CONVERSATION SYSTEMS

An organization creates itself through conversation with practices encoded in language

A system is defined by boundaries between itself and its environment

Social Systems are created by selecting what is meaningful to reproduce itself (Autopoiesis)


An organization increases its efficiency by creating and refining a shared language.

This common language helps the organization arrive at decisions more efficiently.

An organization increases its efficiency by creating and refining a shared language.

This common language helps the organization arrive at decisions more efficiently.


Yet while language fosters efficiency, it also limits the organizations ability to evolve. Yet while language fosters efficiency, it also limits the organizations ability to evolve.


The language and grammar of efficiency is very different from the language of innovation

– yet both are necessary


Constrained by a one vocabulary, the organization becomes unable to adapt to exogenous shocks to the system.


Unable to adapt, the organization eventually declines and dies.


By continually changing its language, and it's conversations, an organization may continually

regenerate itself.



The Paine Principle

Named after Thomas Paine - an outsider to the American colonies, who brought a new language of radical freedom, and gave a voice to

the revolution.

(He was, in essence, translating Voltaire into the context and vernacular of colonial America)

An outsider introducing new language may incite radical change


Like any organization, TLC is a set of conversations among people. Like many organizations faced with the market conditions it sees

itself, it needed to change to meet new challenges.


TLC couldn’t use its existing language & conversations to change the way it handled adversity.

So it sought new languages… and a new grammar for

structuring conversations.


To support an organization's future viability, effective decision makers actively introduce change into the system.

They may do so by generating new language that teams in the organization come to understand or embrace.


Before IBM can reap the benefits of teams using design thinking to increase collaborative ideation, they first have to

introduce the grammar & language of design thinking


For organizations to regenerate themselves, they must first recognize the limitations of their current language. Then they must seek new language domains, and translate them into

conversations the organization may understand and embrace.


QUESTIONS OF LEADERSHIP


Leaderships role is…

About the reduction of uncertainty?

About reinforcing shared values?

Creating a framework for conversations?

Introduction of new languages?

Strategic reduction (or introduction) of friction?


It’s the role of leaders within an organization to incubate and then introduce new languages


A thought…

You cannot use the language of the past to articulate a vision for the future.

Current language can only write a narrative of futures past.


The task of discovering the requisite variety of tools and disciplines is iterative.

The source of new languages is questions – questions that spark new conversations


As a leader, ask yourself…

What questions should you be asking?



What questions should you be asking? What questions are you not supposed to ask?







Ask questions that don't come easy.


•  What questions should you be asking? •  What questions are you not supposed to

ask? •  > Ask those. •  Ask questions that don’t come easy. •  Ask the questions that are tough,

awkward, taboo.



Ask questions that don't come easy.

Ask question that are tough, awkward, taboo.

Thanks!

Will Evans | @SemanticWill

tlclabs.co

Design

Modeling Leadership for #LeanUXNYC