Transcription
[Music]
Okay, I want to thank first everyone who put this together. This has been a very well-organized event, so another round of applause, please, for the organizers. And thanks to all of you for being here today and investing in your future.
As you may be aware, this world has opportunities to do better, and you are part of that. As you study here at this famous institution and develop yourself, you're preparing to go out there and make a difference in this world, to change things. Change is what I have done professionally for the last thirty years or so, and I decided to focus on this because I wanted to, in my own way, find an opportunity to make this world a little bit better. And in order to take us from where we are today to where we need to be, that meant becoming a student of change.
And there's no better place to talk about change than right here at Case Western Reserve University, because in the 1800s, you graduated the first African-American student in the United States. You also graduated six of the eight first female physicians in the United States, right here at this institution. And if you're watching this online and you're not part of this institution, you need look no further than your local community, and you will find important positive change that has occurred in your area as well.
So, that's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about, as you go out there into the world, how can you be a part of positive change? What is it that you can do to make a difference?
And I'd like to go back 17 years. I'm a consultant with one of the big strategy consulting firms, and we're working on a project for a Fortune 500 organization. And we have about 30 or 40 consultants packed into a very small room with no windows. This is what you have to look forward to. And we went through looking at the data and the facts, and we created charts, and we analyzed, and we wanted this to be done in secret. There was a problem, though, because this room had a glass window where people would come by, and they'd look in the window, and they'd want to see what we were doing. So we came up with a solution that involved paper and some duct tape, and took care of that. So this was symbolic of our process there. We said, in private, coming up with our solution.
When the day came to present to the executives, our senior leadership met with the executive senior leadership, and they said, "Here's what we've come up with. We have these amazing facts and charts and PowerPoint slides, and this is the answer. This is the fact-based answer for your organization." Now, some of these recommendations that we had were diametrically opposed to how these executives had viewed the world for the last 10, 20, or 30 years. So, how do you suppose this worked for us? Here you have a group of executives who have a mindset, and we come in and say, "No, that's all wrong. Here's a different way of thinking about the world." Do you think they said, "Oh, well, based on your facts and your slides, I'm going to change my thinking just right here. Anything else you need for me?" No, that's not what happened at all. Instead, they, they pushed back on us, they challenged us.
So, I'll share with you the framework that I've learned along the way that has changed how I think about everything. And as you, as a rising star, get ready to take on your piece of change in the world, this framework will guide you on how you can make the world a better place.
It all starts with awareness. If you are to be a leader of change, you need to be aware of yourself, of other people, of the situation, and the environment. Now, if you're involved in a change initiative, you are naturally going to have some sorts of documents and plans with your facts and your information, and that's important because if we are to make this world better, we need to know that the change we're trying to make is actually going to be a positive change. That's where the facts come in. But when it comes to actually changing people, it's going to be a very different conversation.
So, for your awareness, focus not only on those facts, but save part of your attention to focus on the people and their nonverbal behavior. How are they moving their face, and their hands, and their arms? And if it's online, and you can only hear them, or if you're listening to them on the phone, what's their word choice? What's their tone of voice? What's their speed of voice? All of these are going to be important clues for you.
Now, as you become more aware, there's going to be a lot of information that will be coming in, and you'll need a tool to sort through all of that information. And that tool is what we call whole-body decisions. Whole-body decisions is using your brain and your heart and your gut together to make the best decisions.
The US military has done research on this, and they've found that if you use your brain, specifically your frontal cortex, exclusively to make decisions, you're likely to get it right about 70% of the time. Now, if you're a soldier in the field, 70% when there's bullets flying doesn't feel like a very good number. They've found that in order to increase your probability of success, you also need to listen to your heart. Now, your heart is the strongest electromagnetic force in your body. Your heart communicates with your brain electromagnetically, in fact. Now, with sensitive scientific equipment, we can pick up the signals from your heart six to eight feet away. So, look who's sitting within six to eight feet of you right now, and ask yourself if you're communicating electromagnetically with each other.
Your gut has cells, has thinking cells that are no different than the cells in your frontal cortex. There actually have been medical doctors and others who have studied the biochemistry of your gut, and it turns out that there's important information coming from your gut.
So, here's what a whole-body decision might look like. Let's say you come to the fork in the road, and you can go to the left or you can go to the right. So, you clear your mind, take a deep breath, and you visualize yourself going to the left. Perhaps you feel anxiety, have thoughts and questions in your mind, your heart rate picks up, your gut tightens. Now, clear your mind again, and visualize going down the path to the left or to the right. Now, let's say your, your mind clears up, your heart rate slows down, you don't feel the tightness in your gut anymore. For whatever reasons, this is your body telling you that the path to the right is a better path for you.
So, you're leading change, you've become very aware, you've made whole-body decisions. But now, if you're to lead, you need followers. And in order to create followers, you need to be clear in your communication. And by clear communication, I mean the idea that's in my mind is the same as the idea that's in your mind when I communicate it to you, and vice versa.
All right, now I'm going to ask you a question here, and I need a volunteer. What's, what's your name, ma'am? Michelle. All right, Michelle has agreed to bring everyone over to her house for a party later tonight after the TEDx is done. So, round of applause for Michelle! Yes. Let's say Michelle lives about 20 minutes away from here, and I need to communicate to you directions to her house. Now, forget for a moment that you just want the address to type in your phone and that'll tell you how to get there. Let's assume that's not an option. I can give you directions in one of three ways. I can give you printed directions: "Turn left here, go a mile, turn right there." I can give you a map: "You are here, Michelle is there, here's the path to get there." Or I can talk you through it.
So, the question is, which of those three do you prefer? Printed directions? The map? Or I talk you through it? So, by a show of hands, who wants printed directions? Okay, that's perhaps a third of the room. Who would like a map? So, are visual people, excellent. And who wants me to talk you through it? Always, always the smallest group, but there are always people who feel that way. Which one of those three groups is right? Which one is right? It's not a rhetorical. Yes. This gentleman says number three. Because I'm assuming you are number three, right? Are you saying number one? You're saying number three? Is it possible that all of you are right?
So, what does this mean? If I'm leading change, now I need to send things in writing, I need to communicate it graphically, I need to talk to you individually or as a group. That sounds like a lot of time, but of course, that's what we need to do if you are to successfully lead people through change. We all process information differently, and you need to do all of those things.
If there's one thing I've learned, if there's one thing that I can leave with you today about leading change, it's a change is not a straight line. Things don't go according to plan. We need to be able to adapt.
Four years ago, when I started my term on the city council in Shaker Heights, I had committed to bring a teen center to the community. And the first thing I did is I pulled together a group of stakeholders to help me develop this, this teen center. And it became clear that some of these people were very skilled at telling me all the reasons why it wasn't going to work. Now, if you're going to lead change, you need to surround yourself with a group of people who can believe it's going to happen. Now, they need to be optimistic, and they need to be realistic, but we need to believe it's going to happen. So, I needed to change that group. And it also turned out the first location we looked at didn't work, or the second, or the third, or the fourth. We needed to adapt on our location. I also learned, at least in our community, if you want to get anything done, you see, I'm the legislative branch, I needed support from the executive branch. So, I needed to recruit one of our directors who ended up midway through the project taking leadership over this and being the face of it.
So, if you were to lead change, you need to constantly adapt. And as you can see here, we have a chameleon. I kind of a chameleon who adapts to the environment around you. But you also see at the center of the chameleon, a circle. That's the core. You must stay true to your core vision of what you're trying to do, and your ethics, and your morals. That is non-negotiable. And this is the art of change is knowing when to adapt and when not to. And if you're ever unclear, unclear and when to do those two, the way you can resolve that is quite simply by making a whole-body decision.
The fifth discipline is diplomacy. As a leader of change, you should not be evaluated on whether or not there is conflict. Conflict is going to come along for the ride because you are doing something different than what's been there before. Was there conflict when Martin Luther King was involved with civil rights? Of course, there was. Does that mean he was doing something wrong? It means he was pushing the envelope. It means he was pushing us forward. So, you should be evaluated not on whether or not you create some conflict. Now, you don't want too much of it, but it's going to happen. You should be evaluated as a leader of change on what you do when the inevitable conflict happens. Do you freeze? Do you run the other direction? Do you throw your hands up and say, "This is really hard"? Or do you figure it out?
And I'll give you one hint here. People tend to process change across one of three ways of thinking: rational, emotional, political. So, your rational person is going to be interested in the facts, in the data, and so on. Your emotional person is going to have an emotional reaction to what you're doing. It's not about the facts, it's about how they feel about your change. And political has to do with what they think this change means to their proximity to people they care about, to their influence, to their prestige, and so on. Rational, emotional, and political.
The final discipline is persistence. Now, this is a final discipline for a reason. We all know people who are persistently wrong. So, persistence in and of itself is not a virtue. But if you've been aware, if you've made whole-body decisions, if you've clearly communicated those decisions, adapted when you need to, and been diplomatic in how you've managed it, now it's time to be persistent and to stick to what you're trying to do.
Now, I'll share with you one piece of research that was done on this, which I find somewhat amusing. This was research done on married couples, and they found out, these are newly married couples, and the researchers found out what made them angry with each other. And then they brought them into the lab and watched them and videotaped them arguing with each other. Now, who signs up for this research? Key. Imagine getting this phone call. "Yeah, yeah, hey, how do you... there's some guy on the phone. What's a videotape us arguing? What do you think?" "Yeah, we're free Sunday. Let's go for it. Why not?" So, these people come in, and here you have partner A say to partner B, "You know what? Based on these facts, you're wrong. In fact, you're an idiot. And if I tell you all of this information, A, B, and C, and D, this is why you're wrong." Now, is partner B likely to say, "Ah, well, you know, I'm kind of emotionally upset because you called me an idiot, but your facts are correct, so I think I'm going to change my mind"? Is that what's likely to happen? Or is partner B going to say, "No, yeah, I'm gonna come back at you"? And of course, this is what the research shows. When we challenge people's opinions, even if we have the facts on our side, they are much more likely to dig in their heels than they are to change.
So, when I talk about persistence, this means knowing when to push, knowing when to sprint, and knowing when to back off. Each change effort is going to have its own rhythm to it, and you'll need to know how to play that. Otherwise, you actually might be making things worse if you're pushing too hard.
In closing, as you look to the way you can make this world a better place, as your star is rising, if you can take these six disciplines that we've talked about today and improve upon them within yourself, and take this as your own personal mission, not only will you help this institution achieve what it's capable of, but you will, you will help your future employer reach new heights. Your community, your state, your country, the world will be better. And we need this from you because there are things that we need to do better as a world, and we're counting on you to help us with that.
I thank you for being here today. I thank you for your time. Good luck to you all. Thank you.