Michael Sahota - Leading Beyond Change: A Practical Guide to Evolving Business Agility

LEADING BEYOND CHANGE

A Practical Guide to Evolving Business Agility

Michael K. Sahota
Audree Tara Sahota

Illustrations by Marc Hundleby

Leading Beyond Change

Copyright 2021 by Michael K. Sahota and Audree Tara Sahota

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

Ordering information for print editions

Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the Special Sales Department at the Berrett-Koehler address above.

Individual sales. Berrett-Koehler publications are available through most bookstores. They can also be ordered directly from Berrett-Koehler: Tel: (800) 929-2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626; www.bkconnection.com

Orders for college textbook/course adoption use. Please contact Berrett-Koehler: Tel: (800) 929-2929; Fax: (802) 864-7626.

Distributed to the U.S. trade and internationally by Penguin Random House Publisher Services.

Berrett-Koehler and the BK logo are registered trademarks of Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

First Edition

Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-5230-9346-5

PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-9347-2

IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-9348-9

Digital audio ISBN 978-1-5230-9349-6

2021-1

Book producer: Westchester Publishing Services

Cover designer: Adam Johnson

A number of the drawings were inspired by the bikablo publications, www.bikablo.com.

We dedicate this book to those committed to their own evolution, and through that, contribute to the evolution of humanity.

LEADING BEYOND CHANGE

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lets start with a question: Do you embody what it takes to lead the evolution of a high-performance organization? People are trapped within this underlying belief that Ive got this, and it keeps them stuck.

We have discovered an alarming secret: most of what people believe about leadership, effective workplaces, and how to create lasting change is either incomplete or outright incorrect. Even worse, even when people know intellectually what to do, they are not actually doing it in practice. And furthermore, they fail to recognize the discrepancy.

We started out looking to create high-performance teams and organizations. We wound up finding peace with ourselves. This is the unexpected impact from a shift in leadership. It is also the key to unlocking what we all desiresuccessful outcomes.

We have cracked the code on high performance, and its not what you think. Its who you are. This book can change your life.

We begin with a tale of two organizations. We share contrasting perspectives of the same situation to highlight very different understandings of leadership, change, and organizational performance.

The room was filled with a sense of dread and gloom. There was a feeling of tension in the air. The project was late, and everyone knew it. It was a big room, and there were over 40 leadership representatives from various project teams. The meeting was supposed to start at 10:00 a.m. but Mary, the vice president, had not arrived, so people were huddled in quiet conversation.

When Mary walked in hurriedly at five minutes past the hour and sat at the head of the massive boardroom table, the room fell silent. Mary spoke clearly and confidently: We are here to get this project back on track. We have a critical deliverable in two months and have board-level commitments. Failure is not an option. How do we get this back on track?

The group was in various levels of fear and resigned to several hours of misery. They had been to this kind of meeting before and knew how to play the game of covering up problems and finger-pointing so that someone else would take the blame. Everyone knew it was impossible to deliver everything on time and that pointing this out was a career-limiting move.

As Mary took command on the investigation of how to get the project on track, the game of charades played out.

Even though the meeting didnt officially start until 10:00 a.m., Mary, the vice president, was there 15 minutes early to welcome people and connect with them on a personal level. This was going to be a big meeting with the whole project team of over 200 people, so Mary enjoyed the opportunity to meet with the new delivery team members. Some of them were surprised that Mary actually seemed to be interested and care about them as people.

At 10:00 a.m. there was an excited buzz in the room with people catching up and talking. As was typical in this organization, there was some time to connect as human beings. Between conversations, Mary noticed what the room felt like: Was it time to start yet? At around 11 minutes past the hour, Mary noticed that the sense of expectation was rising, and conversations were falling off, so she kicked of the meeting.

Thank you so much for coming. I know there are some new people to our organization, so I want to make sure everyone understands how we do things around here.

The purpose of this meeting is to use our collective intelligence and wisdom to create the best possible plan for this project. While the forecasts we have given to the board are important, as are our customers needs and expectations, what is most important is that we look after each other. And that starts with making we statements. We are all in this together. There is no finger-pointing or blame in our organization.

The room was crackling with excitement and energyeveryone knew this was what was needed, and they were looking forward to the challenge. Mary handed the meeting of to Kay, an expert in large group facilitation, who would guide the group though the hours ahead. Mary spent most of the day listening and learningnot only about the project but also about what she needed to do to develop the people and the organization system so that this kind of emergency meeting would not be needed again.

We give you the business patterns needed to learn a new way of leading and approaching change to move from a