M3 DISCUSSION

phase of Appreciative Inquiry, they engage stakeholders in structured con- versations that reconnect them with their positive core—success factors and best practices that best explain how and why they’ve been at their best.

This search for continuity—a collec- tive articulation of strengths that must be preserved—does four key things to ensure a successful change effort:

1. It creates psychological safety. Ex- pressing, in dialogue with others, those things that have most contributed to our success gives us a sense of belong- ing and being respected. This makes the work setting less threatening before we engage in imagining the future.

2. It creates positive affect, which stimulates a basic orientation toward compassion and concern for the other. Under conditions of positive emotional arousal, people are more future-orient- ed, open to change, and interested in learning and development.

3. It uncovers a cooperative core of practices and behaviors that can be used for future collaborations. Best practices are usually the result of collaborative effort, and remind stakeholders of pos- sibilities inherent in cooperation and col- laboration. When two participants speak

to the same collaborative out- comes in a sharing and listen- ing exchange, they confirm the efficacy of their abilities, and begin to imagine greater achievements because they see other stakeholders as more capable as well.

4. It creates a holding envi- ronment that encourages experimentation and further

exploration. Most resistance to change is misread as disagreement with the pre- ferred solution or as ignorance. It comes from fear of the unknown or a feeling of disruption. Reconnecting with strengths that provide continuity gives people renewed confidence and stability from which they can embrace uncertainty.

When people search together for continuity, awareness of the whole sys- tem is enhanced. Concern for me gives way to a genuine interest in we.

So, begin a change process by asking: What is not going to change? Search for what gives continuity and life to the organization when it is at its very best in order to create positive dialogue, and collaborative connections to better imag- ine future possibilities and co-create changes to enact the preferred future. LE

Ronald Fry is Chair and Professor of Organizational Behavior at Weatherhead Executive Education. Visit www.Case.edu.

ACTION: Lead change by managing continuity.

Managing Continuity

IS YOUR TEAM ONE BIGhappy family? Or maybe you take pride in

being a lean, mean, fightin’ machine. These familiar metaphors are used in casual conversation every day to describe business teams. But metaphors are more than mere figures of speech. When understood properly, they are powerful tools for leading teams.

A metaphor is the substitution of one word or idea for another. Business com- petition, for example, is a battleground or an arena. The substitution describes vividly and concisely the essential qual- ities of a thing. When we call a compa- ny a good neighbor or piece of the rock, we do not need to describe at length the company’s reliability, its history, or the customer service training of its employ- ees. By substituting good neighbor for the name of the company, we rely on com- mon ideas about how good neighbors behave. At a deeper level, however, the metaphor you use to describe your team is the mental model that shapes the way you think about the team and your leadership approach.

Obviously, the leader who pictures his team as a family will adopt a differ- ent style than the leader who thinks she is in charge of, say, an ant colony. What’s important is whether leaders are aware of the metaphors that drive their behav- iors. Each of us has a mental picture of how an effective team functions, but too often, leaders do not appreciate the sub- conscious effects of these pictures on their behavior and on their teams.

I offer four principles for working with metaphors that will help you take charge of your mental models, and teams:

1. Choose the right metaphor. First, ask yourself: Does your mental model resonate with your team? Consider the example of Alex when he took over leadership of a specialized pharma- ceutical R&D team. The team was well-respected in the company and had a reputation for high-quality work. From the outside, this team had always seemed to Alex to be tight-knit and congenial; the members enjoyed work- ing together, and he sensed they had a great deal of loyalty to the team. Alex looked forward to leading the team and

L e a d p o s i t i v e c h a n g e .

SCORES OF ORGANIZAT-ions have achieved changes once consid-

ered impossible. How? They pay atten- tion to the role of stability in the change effort (managing continuity). They re- connect their stakeholders with their shared strengths to establish continu- ity, and engage in reasoned choices about which success factors from their history are most important to carry forward in the context of the change topic they are addressing.

Continuity is connectedness, over time, among organizational efforts. It links the past with the present, and the present with future hopes and ideals. Whether represented by best prac- tices, proprietary technology, unique distributor relationships, core values, group norms, specific metrics, or other features, continuity represents what really makes us tick. It cre- ates a sense of pride or mean- ing in our work, and ensures our business model—and on- going success.

At the individual level, conti- nuity creates pride, confidence to act, ethical guidance, free- dom to explore, and positive emotional affect. At the organi- zational level, it strengthens commit- ment, creates psychological safety, enhances decision-making, decentral- izes control, provides mission stability, and encourages a system-wide per- spective. It results from appreciating what has given life to the enterprise when it has been most alive, success- ful, flourishing, or effective.

Successful, positive change requires stability. No individual or system can deal with total disruption or uncertainty. To take risks, try new ways of doing things, or engage in wild innovation, we must hold on to something reliable. Our work with CEOs reveals that they share a common agenda. Each attends to nov- elty (innovation), transition (planned change), and continuity (stability). The first two items are no surprise—lead- ers must address change and innovation in order to grow. The fact that they also attend to continuity (stability) is more surprising. In the Discovery

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Leading Teams Choose the right metaphor.

MANAGEMENT CONTINUITY LEADERSHIP METAPHOR

by Poppy Lauretta McLeodby Ronald Fry

evoke these same values and emotions? • Assess how well the metaphor fits your

team’s purpose. Thinking through the implications of the metaphor will help you to see the ways in which the meta- phor supports the team and the ways in which its natural limits hold the team back. For example, if you think the fami- ly metaphor fits, does that also imply that out of loyalty you wait too long before addressing poor performance? Also, consider whether the metaphor is com- patible with larger organization culture. This evaluation may lead you to consid- er whether it is time to change your metaphor. • Identify leadership skills implied by the

metaphor. Leading a “tossed salad” team might demand inspirational leadership and negotiation skills, whereas empa- thy and strong skills in developing oth- ers might be in higher demand in a family atmosphere. Taking stock of your skill set is vital when you are thinking of changing the metaphor because of the implied changes in your leadership style. • Go to your team. Sharing a mental

model increases a team’s effectiveness. Find or create opportunities for team

members to communicate their metaphors. If your team is in the habit of regu- lar self-evaluation or retreats, these present an ideal setting to address the questions presented above as a team. Short of these kinds of opportunities, lis- ten with a critical ear to your team’s talk. Do mem- bers express themselves in

metaphorical language? For example, do you hear them talking about things “running smoothly” or “humming along”? Do they make reference to their “sister department” or the “parent com- pany”? All such phrases may not neces- sarily be evidence of a pervasive meta- phor, but if you listen with a detached view, you may be surprised by the ten- dency of an overarching metaphor to surface through everyday language.

Leadership Models and Metaphors Every leader has in mind a model, or

metaphor, that represents his or her team. Some are more clearly developed than others. Some leaders may even have more than one. Bringing your metaphors into sharper focus will boost the power of your leadership. LE

Poppy Lauretta McLeod is Assoc. Professor of Communication at Cornell Univ. and Faculty at Weatherhead Executive Education. Visit www.Case.edu.

ACTION: Choose the right metaphor for your team.

behind her choices. Her manager’s sup- port eroded too, however, after he sat in on one of her team meetings. Her open, exciting, and free-wheeling atmosphere appeared to him to be chaotic, out-of- control, and unprofessional. He left the meeting with doubts about her leader- ship ability and whether her team would produce anything of much value to the company.

Fortunately, a long conversation with her manager helped Julia to see the pro- blem with the mental model she held for her team. Her tossed salad didn’t fit well in a meat-and-potatoes culture. This is not to say that the company did not value and seek innovation and creativi- ty, but the approach could not go com- pletely outside of organization practices and norms. Julia might have been on firmer ground had she started by trying simply to substitute rice for potatoes.

3. Know the limits of the metaphor. All metaphors have limits. Metaphors help you to identify and focus on the key qualities and values of your team, but should not be taken too literally. A well-organized and -trained team can be like a machine: efficient, productive, and reliable. But people are not machines. When things start to go wrong on a team, they can’t easily be traced to a faulty part, or fixed by replacing it. Most people don’t want to work on a team in which people are seen as disposable.

Be aware that the metaphor-in-use in your leadership style may also place limits on what your team can accomplish. A team that operates as a family may fos- ter mutual commitment, trust, and a sense of security, but may also breed insularity and closed-mindedness to new ideas. As another example, in a highly competitive industry, evoking an image of “combat-readiness” may have an inspiring effect on a team, but mod- eling the strict hierarchy of a military unit may inhibit individuals on the “front lines” from taking initiative and decision-making authority.

4. Work the metaphor in four ways. • Identify the key values that operate in

your team. Are they: Achievement? Risk-taking? Excellence? Openness? Dependability? Competition? • Describe the everyday emotional climate

in the team. Is it: Inspired? Fun? Upbeat? Hopeful? Tense? Fearful? Depressing? Do these values and emotions fit the picture of your team in your mind? If not, or you can’t identify the picture, what comparison(s) can you make that

was anxious to be accepted as a mem- ber of this happy family.

He soon found, however, that the team members resisted his attempts to show a personal interest in them. Worse, they also seemed resistant to opening up to him about work issues. He even had a vague feeling they were relieved and worked better when he wasn’t around. Meanwhile, concerns began to crop up in the water cooler talk that the new boss was an intrusive micro-manager.

Alex misread the team’s metaphor- in-use. He failed to recognize that the true source of team members’ enjoyment of each other was deep respect for each other’s professional contributions. Team members were highly trained, and their skills and knowledge areas meshed in a comple- mentary way. They were used to work- ing independently. They, in fact, saw themselves as a machine that was well- designed for the work at hand. They expected their manager to obtain re- sources, to ensure that new members were trained well to fit into the system, and to communicate the team’s goals clearly, then leave them to get on with it.

Had Alex observed and listened more carefully he would have noticed that the strong relationships within this team were a byproduct of the team members’ pride in their achievements, not a result of direct intervention.

2. Make sure that the metaphor fits your culture. Julia learned this lesson the hard way when she was charged with creating a new data management process for her financial services firm, and was given free rein to assemble the team. Julia saw this as a chance to infuse creativity and innovative work meth- ods into the company. She wanted to have a team element that was dynamic, exciting, open, and free-wheeling. She envisioned meetings where ideas would be freely tossed around and the best kept for further development. She smiled to herself as the image of a tossed salad came to mind. Her team would produce fresh ideas, and their recommendations would be not only viable, but also innovative and unique.

The trouble began when the mem- bership of the team was finalized. In her zeal for innovative and creative thinking, Julia populated her team pri- marily with people who had been with the company for a relatively short time and with people from outside of the core lines of business, overlooking com- pany veterans with deep knowledge of the business. People immediately expressed concerns to Julia’s boss about the team’s credibility, but he initially affirmed his support of the reasoning

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