In this episode, Ray & Amy welcome David Reid. Dave is an expert in finance, real estate investment, and strategic planning.

In their conversation, Dave shares his thoughts on how to better understand and contextualize opportunities and risk – something he is passionate about and works with his clients on every day.

During a recent podcast interview, someone asked me, “What advice would you give to leaders during this pandemic?” I said, “Leaders should always be focusing on what they are leaving behind.” 

Numerous blogs, newsletters, emails, and other social media outlets are sharing advice on how to live and work in these uncertain times. The advice is plentiful, but I would give the same advice in calm and predictable times: lead with compassion and empathy. Tell the truth and tell it often. Be visible and transparent.

In my book Leading with Wisdom: Sage Advice from 100 Experts, one of my main conclusions was “it is hard to be a good leader if you are not a good person.” COVID-19 gives all of us more time to declutter—our drawers, closets, offices. In fact, Marie Kondo, the tidying expert, has a new and timely book, Joy at Work, about the value of cleaning your workspace. She also advocates applying her concept personally. “Attitudes need cleaning, too. Be kind, resolve personal conflicts, say thank you. Tidy your meetings: Don’t pontificate, cut off co-workers or assign blame…Clear your head. Be brave.” In other words, be a good person.

Decluttering the mind requires devoting time to reflection and introspection. And now we have some time to do this inner work. Pay attention to what you are leaving behind—to the breadcrumb trail behind you.

Breadcrumb Legacy ™ (BCL) is a concept I created to help leaders realize we are building our legacy daily by the “crumbs” we leave. Crumbs can be decisions we make, actions we take, interactions we have, and they accumulate into a trail of meaning or legacy. 

We often think our legacy happens at the end of life–when we leave. But I often ask: When we leave what? When we die? When we retire? 

With Breadcrumb Legacy™, we are leaving our “breadcrumbs” when we leave every conversation, interaction, and meeting. I am leaving some of my breadcrumbs with you in this article. The key is to be aware of the impact we are having on a daily basis and to remember we leave a legacy whether we know it or not and it can be positive or negative.  

There are several myths related to legacy such as it is for the rich and famous. Legacy is for people who are able to achieve significant acts, or it happens at the end of life. Basically, we think of legacy as a compilation of big “wins.”

What would be a BIG “win” for you? Getting married? Graduating? Getting a BIG promotion or a BIG raise? Buying a BIG or BIGGER house? How often do these BIG wins happen? Most of these events don’t happen often. If we live for the BIG wins, we often live with disappointment, disengagement, and lack of motivation.  

In reality, our legacy is made up of small actions, decisions, and behaviors that take place on a daily basis. I refer to this as Breadcrumb Legacy™ because these small actions add up and accumulate to form our legacy that lasts and lives beyond ourselves. This concept is the inverse of the myths we often believe. 

Breadcrumb Legacy™ is built on the small wins concept by Karl Weick. In his classic article, “Small Wins,” University of Michigan psychologist Karl Weick argued that “large social problems are best broken down into smaller ones with concrete, achievable goals.” Social problems (natural disasters, unemployment, homelessness, healthcare) can be so overwhelming that solutions seem unattainable. 

COVID-19 is a global social issue beyond what the world has ever experienced. It is easy to let fear dominate our actions and emotions causing more problems than solutions. People can feel paralyzed and often avoid addressing issues or come up with broad solutions that don’t solve the problem. “Breaking such problems down into a series of more modest steps, all on the path to the ultimate goal, reduces fear, clarifies direction, and increases the probability of early successful outcomes – boosting support for further action.”  

On a personal level, Weick uses the example of Alcoholic Anonymous. While staying sober for the rest of one’s life seems daunting, taking it a day at a time and staying sober day by day, is a goal can be accomplished. The small wins concept is powerful because each win accumulates, adds momentum, gives hope, and propels optimism.

When we are aware of the breadcrumbs we are leaving, we are engaged in legacy thinking which is actually forward thinking. When we think about how our actions, decisions, and behaviors will impact others, we are more intentional about what we say, the decisions we make, and how we behave. Most of us want to know our lives made a difference. We want to leave a trail of meaning no matter what we do or where we are in life. 

But how do we know what we are leaving behind during this COVID-19 stressful time? We need to ask for honest feedback from people who care about us. Then we need to be open to listen and hear so we can minimize our blind spots—the broccoli in our teeth that others can see, but we can’t. This is a time when emotions run high and it is easy to get irritable and irrational. We may need to apologize for some of the “crumbs” we are leaving, and each apology is a crumb too. 

When we are aware of the legacy we want to leave, instead of drifting along our life journey unaware of what we are leaving behind, we are empowered to live a life worth remembering. 

Ray recently wrote an article: Five Questions for Times of Disruption.  These are the questions that Ray is asking himself and his clients to consider as we all navigate these uncertain times.

People are the energy source in an organization.  

Difference between human resource management and human resource development

What is human resource development and what does it look like?

• It starts with the assumption that humans are developmental, in the process of developing.
• Maturation is a life-long process. 

“Detroit Model” of human development:

• building a car/school = a passive experience, don’t cause problems and get through the course. 
• functioning/live life = while managed (most often, by someone else)
• junkyard/leisure world = stay out of the way

Detriot Model does not look at development or maturation as a life long process.

What is the assumption that you have of human development and growth?  Do you have a Detroit model or a development model?

The Genysys Group of Organizational health: 

(Sample question) How would you describe the treatment of people, given the organizational values and mission?

The opportunity to take initiative can be an indicator of the health of an organization when it comes to human resources.

Most organizations sit on untapped energy because leadership doesn’t understand or know how to develop it. 

                                                     CHALLENGE/SUPPORT

The appropriate balance of challenge and support helps people move

• Too much challenge/not enough support = burn out
• Too much support/not enough challenge = rust out

Too much Challenge:

• What support do you need?
• Who might offer that support?
• Who might know where that support is?

Too comfortable:

• What kind of challenge do I need?
• When we treat circumstances as opportunities for development, it helps us.
• What do I need to take on that will push the envelope?

Questions for coaching clients:

• How can I best support you?
• How can I best challenge you?

Books/Resources mentioned in this episode:

Five Voices 

Passages

The Genysys Group Organizational Health Assessment

Treat a book as a person. 

• What is most significant about a given book? 
• Find what resonates with you in a book and skim the rest. 

What have you learned from different books that have made an impact in your life? 

Do you keep track of the books that you have read?

What patterns do you see in your reading? 

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Themes that Ray resonated with this book.

• The power of an individual standing up against the status quo. 
• The dignity of the individual.
• The morality of self-interest.

Also mentioned:

The Road Less Traveled Scott M. Peck

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer

Quaker belief of letting your life speak…before you tell your life what you want to be, listen to your life and see what it wants to be.

The Promise of Paradox by Parker Palmer (At the heart of everything is its own opposite.)

The Sacred Journey by Fredrick Buechner

Telling Secrets 

All truth is understood through our own stories

As we understand ourselves, we can understand life. 

Deep Change by Robert Quinn

One of two directions, deep change or slow death.

Change takes place to the extent that the leader is willing to change. 

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert 

Serious and playful about the discipline of creativity

Fear rides in the backseat

Fear is a great source of energy, fear is part of the fuel. 

Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership by Joseph Jaworski

A sense of connection and alignment. 

The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek

Two kinds of games in life, finite games, and infinite games.

Finite games have an end. 

Infinite games have no endpoint, rather it’s how you play the game. 

How do you win a game that has no end? 

Serious Play is an infinite game.  

Learn more about Serious Play from Ray here.  

Transitions by William Bridges

Endings, neural zones, and new beginnings. 

Neutral zones and full of questions and not filled with answers. 

Structure = How things are organized, how the organization is set up. 

A common, human default is to identify the things that are not working and then reorganize.  Every time a reorganization happens, things begin to lose their value.

The automatic response to reorganize is not always the best when it comes to organizational health and development, other questions should be asked. 

• Given what our mission is, what is the best structure to carry out our mission?
• How should we organize ourselves, given what we stand for and how it relates to our values? 

3 Common Organizational Structures:

Hierarchical– direct reports and lines of responsibilities. 

Positive: the most stable form of organizational structure

Downside: most resistant to change

Decentralized Structure: authority moves to where the work is really being done (not at the top)

Positive: most adaptable to change. 

Downside: requires trust.

The Matrix:  Mix of both, Responsibility with dual reporting relationships. Centralized resources, individualized authority.

Positive: when it works, the best of both

Negative: when it doesn’t work, it’s very confusing.

How can a consultant use the frame of structure when working with a client?

Ask the questions:

• What are the reporting relationships?
• Who is responsible for what?
• How should the organization be structured?

Agreements about expectations are very important in matrix organizations.

• What support is needed?
• What are the outcomes expected?

Often organizations structure around personality and preferences rather than the mission, values of the organization. 

Key questions for consultants when looking at the structure:

• What is the organizational mission?
• What are organizational values?
• Does the organizational structure serve the mission?
• Is the structure concurrent with the values? 

Resistance= any kind of inaction.  Not wanting to do something. Not wanting to change, the opposite of movement.  The movement that does happen is a movement against. 

• Recognize the feelings (and actions of resistance) 
• Acknowledge that resistance is part of the process
• Know that resistance is normal
• Remember that resistance can be beneficial

Resistance can indicate something is really important. 

If there is a proposed change initiative that does not have resistance, it might indicate that the process, etc. isn’t actually that important. 

Resistance can be a CLUE to what is really important in an organization. 

The change will great disequilibrium and humans are not wired to be in a disequilibrium state.

80% of resistance is personal

The operative question people are asking is:  How will this change affect me?   

3 Principles to Deal With Resistance:

• Empathy 

Identify who is most likely to be affected by the change. Try to understand how they are likely to be impacted. When people or group believes their needs have been taken into consideration they are more likely to engage in the change process.  Empathy is the bridge that comes before communication

• Communication

Listen to where people are, what their concerns are.  Must be able to communicate why and what the benefits will be.

• Participation

Involve the people who are going to be affected by the change, ask them questions, incorporate as many of their suggestions as you can and address those things that you can’t use.  Some good questions to use are: 

• • What questions do you have?
  • What question do you have about the process?

Make sure to incorporate some of the ideas in the change process. 

Go two rounds of this process. People feel like they gain ownership in the change process.

Dealing with resistance is best done one on one.

Don’t exclude the people who ask hard questions. 

• Thank them for their questions
• Ask them for ideas
• Help them to find a stake in the process so they have ownership

To the extent that one believes in the change, they can afford to be patient to draw people in and give the change initiative the time it takes for people to gain buy-in. 

Resources Mentioned:

Managing Change Effectively

Why is process important?

• organizations often don’t understand how many processes are actually happening in an organization. 
• many times processes have evolved and they don’t actually serve a purpose (costing money and energy)
• often times there is no one who takes ownership over processes.  (different people may need to “own” different processes) 

Organizations (like families) do things without questioning why. 

How to assess the element of process in an organization: 

• The client identifies all the processes that happen within the organization. 
  • Processes are anything that happens in an organization that has more than three steps.
• Assess how effective these processes are (EXAMPLE: very effective, somewhat effective, effective, not effective, waste of time)
• Identify what processes need to be reevaluated.
• Identify a person to take responsibility for every process that is assessed.
• Set up a way to evaluate on a regular basis to make sure each process still is effective and serves the organization. 

QUESTIONS TO ASSESS A PROCESS:

• What steps are essential?
• What steps are problematic?
• What steps are missing?
• Who is responsible?

PROCESS OWNERSHIP

• For every process, there should be an owner. (Often times the process doesn’t have anyone taking ownership.)

• The owner of the process should look at the big picture and see the steps and the relationships that are involved.

• Each process represents relationships.

Quality comes from thoughtful engagement with the process. 

KEY PROCESS QUESTION:

• Is the end-user getting what they really need?
• Is the process serving the organization or is the organization serving the process?
• How well does the process serve the mission and core values of the organization?

First, remember that every situation is unique.

The Consultant can’t make the closure of a deal (signed contract) happen.  If a signature is forced, it often creates remorse on the part of the client. 

One of the first questions that should be asked is: Who are the key decision-makers?

It’s often not just the person who initially began the conversation with the consultant. It’s important to understand: Who is influential to your main contact?

In the beginning, as you start to develop a proposal ask: Who will be involved in making the final decision?

Asking the question helps the potential client clarify for themselves who they need to engage with as they go through the process.

A consultant must also be aware in the development of a proposal about what the client wants and what the client needs. 

KEY QUESTIONS: What is needed?  What is wanted?

Clients are very clear about what they want.  Often they are not as clear as what they need.

The job of a consultant is to be clear what the potential client also might need.

For example: 

What will a strategic plan really address?  Learn to ask questions about the outcomes and desires about what the client believes they want. 

Learn more about The Genysys Groups Strategic Planning and Team Development Processes here.

Questions for a consultant to ask when working to close a consulting engagement.

• What does the client want?

• What does the client need?

• How can I develop a relationship with the client?

• Who are the other key decision-makers that will need to be involved before making a final decision for engagement?

• What do you mean by team development (or any other process that a client is asking the consultant for?) This question helps the consultant and the potential client understand what the expectations are and if there is alignment between what the consultant can provide and what the organization/client needs and wants. 

TIP: Talk about the cost in terms of “investment.”  Both the client and the consultant are stake-holders in the outcomes when talking about an investment. 

Another important thing for consultants to keep in mind when working to finalize a contract is how to minimize surprises?

The clients don’t want surprises and the consultant doesn’t want surprise either.  This is done by being intentional about building a relationship, asking a lot of questions and being very clear in communication. 

How to close the deal? (Summary)

• Embrace time, build a relationship.
• Be clear on who the ultimate decision-makers are.
• Clarify between what is needed and what is wanted. 
• Identify the roles, responsibilities, and outcomes for both the consultant and the client. 
• Build the contract as a working document that is reviewed often. 

                                       LEARN MORE ABOUT STRATEGIC FUTURING 2020.