Today, during practice 171 with a team I believe can become so much better than they are, I spoke truth and it wasn’t lovely. Nope, it was ugly. I wanted this team to hear they’re slowly dying. They are not dying anytime soon but they are contracting. Healthy, vibrant systems expand. Systems headed toward extinction contract. The root reason why you don’t see the Polynessian people on their island today is because they failed to see the symptoms of slow death until it was too late to reverse the tide. This same root is the reason the fortune 1000, today, is on average less than 40 years old. The reason there is no longer a system called CompuServe, MCI, UUnet, or Worldcom is no different. All of ’em ignored the early warning signals and, like Titanic, slipped from sight suddenly even though the demise was anything but.
So, my friend, when you extrapolate this learning to you and your system remember some history. Do NOT shoot the messenger. Instead get comfortable with calculus. Healthy, vibrant systems expand. And, when these healthy, vibrant systems experience a hiccup – no biggee. They learn and move on. Hiccups, however, don’t last for years. Healthy, vibrant systems calculate the trend before it’s too late to reverse. They get busy turning well before the iceberg is upon them.
Leaders, this is your job. You’ve got to read the tea leaves and anticipate the next move before the competition does. Leaders gotta know when to comfort and when to push. Today, we tend to coddle a bit too much. Tough and tender, remember. Tough and tender. Your systems longevity just may depend on your ability to sound the alarm before an iceberg impact is imminent. Your problem is you’re too worrried about what others think and too worried about being too extreme. Funny, I wonder where we would be if Paul Revere rode his horse kinda casually and told people to take care there’s some red coats a coming….
BUILT TO LEAD 
I shadowed this practice today.
What made Toto unpopular is he wanted this team of high performers to adopt and set a “wartime edge”. Anytime ONE part of a team striving for ONE-NESS is losing, it’s time for the WHOLE team to go to war. When you are at war you sacrifice to win or lose as ONE. You forego many pleasantries. You push to not just rebuild momentum toward victory but to secure the line and then hold the line. Out of love for each other, you demand of your teams to do the same.
As John Adams said, facts are stubborn things. Collins said great leaders do the same – they face the brutal facts and do not hide them from their team. Stockdale is known for living out the paradox of not losing hope AND not thinking Spring is right around the corner. Napoleon said leaders are dealers in hope. AND leaders like George Washington could not tell a lie.
At the end of practice 171 a high performer asked Toto what got his fur up. Toto replied it was b/c of the lack of edge he observed in the all-team practice 170 that rolled into this one. I asked the team of high performers how many had attended practice 170? Most raised their hands. Then I asked, “in an all-team practice, WHO do you think has the MOST influence in setting the edge – the BUILT TO LEAD facilitator? the head of the system? or the high performers?”
The high performing team correctly answered, “WE do.” I asked WHY. “Because everyone follows our lead in and out of practice — they take their cue from US on how WE respond to the head of the system or the facilitator.”
Exactly.
The high performers became better high performers yesterday. The head of the system became a better head of his system yesterday.
And I became a better builder. Thank you Toto for challenging us with the truth in love, and the brutal facts WITH hope. The biggest war we fight is with ourselves against complacency. The best war we fight is for each other.
These are two wars worth fighting.
John RueBUILT TO LEAD
http://www.builttolead.com
614.402.3267
On Wed, Apr 29, 2015 at 8:34 PM, BUILT TO LEAD
That is the best comment I’ve ever read. Thanks, Gurue, for tying it all together…