Constellation

leading-through-fire

15 min read

Leading Through Fire Course Notes

Acknowledgements

Introduction to Jamie Wheal

Some of my peak flow states involved writing software. Have experienced elusive peak group flow states.

Week 1: Learning to Learn: Meta Models

Learning to Learn: Meta Models

  • 00:00:00 Introduction
  • 00:00:44 Program Overview: Topics
  • 00:05:02 Reality Tested Tools for Better Leading
  • 00:06:57 Course Expectations
  • 00:12:08 We Believe
  • 00:19:52 How Can Flow Benefit My Organization?
  • 00:22:18 Difference Between Individual and Collective Interventions
  • 00:26:17 Transtheoretical Model of Change
  • 00:30:02 Habit of Habits: Behaviorism to Constructivism to Developmentalism
  • 00:38:36 OS to UI: Overview of Human Developmental Models
  • 00:44:13 The Trust Equation
  • 00:51:51 Conclusion

Course Expectations

Program Overview: Topics

  1. How do I show up? Learning to Learn - Meta Models (+Mindsets and the Trust 360); our own wake
  2. How do I make sense? Surviving & Thriving in VUCA Conditatio; landscape
  3. What do I want? Transactional Analysis 2.0 (Challenge and Support)
  4. What don’t I want? Accentuate the Negative (Positive No & Actionable Feedback); and “false yeses”
  5. How do we get there? Wicked Solutions to Wicked Problems (Managing Polarities)
  6. Why should I bother? Integration & Adaptive Leadership (Heroic Sacrifice)
  7. What’s holding me back? (BONUS) Immunity to Change

Reality Tested Tools for Better Leading

  • Consistently helpful tools that get us unstuck as leaders and teams.
  • Interoperable with most conservative orgs. Broadest acceptance. In transformational culture change.
  • Reality tested tools for better leading

Expectations

  • 100% Attendance (practice-based; no contact-high, no learning by osmosis)
  • No distractions or multitasking (single focus, self and group)
  • Course app is homebase
  • Respond within 24 hours to any group member or instructor
  • There are no dumb questions!
  • Complete Confidentiality. No one. No place, never - self-selected cohort of peers ⇒ lay your burdens down; PlayFullOut Maxime
  • 100% Responsible for Your Experience (If it’s not a “Hell yes!” speak up, slow down, check in, push back - until it is)
  • Do. The. Work. - no one can do your push-ups for you. DoneWithYouNotDoneForYou Dragon
  • Permission to Be Uncomfortable. Persmission to Be Messy.

We Believe

  • Do the hard thing (and the rest gets much easier)
    • Yes: Flow Genome Project, effortless and easeful state of grace called “Flow”
    • But: Much more Stoic.
  • N=1 has to work for you
  • No bad data. Fail is data. Not PHacking
  • Bell curves everywhere
  • Adapt, don’t adopt.
  • Pratice makes permanent. Perfect pratice makes perfect (this is our definition of perfect). i.e. Perfection is the horizon, forever sailing towards it. aka northstar
  • 80/20 Woke to Broke. Do the 20% of things that get you 80% of the perspective and inspiration, then get back to it. ParetoPrinciple TheONEThing
  • Find the others FindTheOthers Turn behind, reach a hand.
  • Time’s a-wastin’! Reason for being (Raison d’être) StartNow

How Can Flow Benefit My Organization (Intro)?

In all our studies of extreme performance improvement, the people and organizations who covered the most distance in the shortest time were always the ones who were tapping into passion and finding flow.

The major complaint you hear from people today is they’re overwhelmed by the amount of information coming at them. Flow allows you to absorb that information, synthesize it, and integrate it. This drives the creative process. So while everyone else is driven to distraction, people in flow are adapting — they’re using the state to take performance to the next level.

– John Hagel, co-founder of Deloitte’s Center for the Edge

  • synthesize, integrate, innovate JamieRhyme
  • First thing people always ask: “how to get more flow in my organization?”
  • Fail point is people in the group
    • How do they interact?
    • How do they communicate?
    • How do they coordinate?
    • How do they collaborate? JamieRhyme
  • not on how to get into flow but what on knocks us out of it
    • Why? if you’ve hired well ⇒ if you’ve trained well ⇒ you’ve got good people that want nothing more than to be in flow
    • Think: intrinic motivation
      • autonomy
      • mastery
      • purpose
      • sense of purpose, individual and group
      • collaboration
      • learning new things, growth, development
      • paycheck is number ~8 on list of rewards
    • just like good sled dogs right they want to be put in the harness and they want to pull that sled
  • Think of this entire training as almost like a photographic negative we’re going to focus on all the fail points that knock us out of group flow so that you can solve for them and let a well-selected, well-trained team spend more of their time in it

Difference Between Individual and Collective Interventions

Training Map

  1. Individual optimization - Expanding sphere of concern, biohacking, flow-state access
    • me sleeping well, clean diet, mindfulness, breathwork, time-management
  2. Collective coordination - Improve sense-making and coordination (THIS IS FOCUS OF PROGRAM)
    • fail ppints of where we fumble, drop-ball as team; axles we wrap ourselves around
  3. Collective optimization - Operating from commitment to shared culture
    • #1 x #2 - number 1 times a bunch of people
    • But major risks in our culture if coming from the top-down (rubs up against individualism)
  4. High-performing culture - Embodying scalable coherence

Transtheoretical Model of Change

  • Change is not on / off like a light switch
flowchart LR
    Precontemplation <--> Contemplation <--> Preparation <--> Action <--> Maintenance <--> Precontemplation
  1. Precontemplation: No recognition of need for or interest in change, stasis/unaware
  2. Contemplation: Thinking about change
  3. Preparation: Planning for change
  4. Action: Adopting new habits
  5. Maintenance: Ongoing practice of new, healthier behavior
  • Ask: Where are you really?
  • Consider: What does relapse look like? You’re at 4, but don’t go through 5.
  • Notice: Change doesn’t actually occur until step 4.
  • Remember: Not zero or one
  • Remember: Across team, people are at different steps. How do you lead?

Habit of Habits

flowchart LR
    Behaviorism --> Constructivism --> Developmentism

  • Behaviorism - orignates from BF Skinner, can game the system

    • Atomic Habits by James Clear
    • The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande (Audible)

  • Constructivist Point of View - we co-create and construct our meanings and realities

    • Carrots and Sticks: Unlock the Power of Incentives to Get Things Done by Ian Ayres
    • Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Dan Heath, Chip Heath
      • How we deal with the rider (rational self), the elephant (emotional self), and the path
      • think: driver, machine, road/race-line Motoring
    • Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts - Becoming the Person You Want to Be by Marshall Goldsmith

  • Developmentist Frame - Embracing the indefinite path

    • Mastery by George Leonard
    • An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey

  • Behaviorism: easy, effective intervention to impact unconscious and habitual behavior

  • But we’re complex and confounding creatures

Overview of Core Course Models

OS to UI: Overview of Human Developmental Models

  • Maslow’s Silver Hammer - Law of the Instrument - If all you’ve got is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
  • Massively overbiased psychological talking about our stuff, self, issues.
  • Reality: If we learn different and additional ways to manage complexity, challenge, and conflict (outside of just talking about it), we can have much improved results with less time and effort
AuthorFrameworkConventionalPost-Conventional
DweckMindsetsFixedGrowth
KeganAdult DevelopmentSocially-definedSelf-authoring
KarpmanDrama TriangleVictimCreator
UryNegotiationNegative NoPositive No
JohnsonPolaritiesBinary SolutionDialectic Management
HeifetzLeadershipTechnicalAdaptive

  • https://www.google.com/search?q=Dialectic

  • Software upgrades that help take people from

  • conventional

    • 21st century normal
    • tribal
    • political
    • animal seeking pleasure and avoiding pain

  • and we can move them to something that we just as a placeholder called post-conventional that’s richer

    • much richer
    • more grounded
    • more innovative
    • more collaborative space

  • Jamie covers credentials of authors

    • Notice: Clear path from conventional to post-conventional
    • Say/Affirm: I have a growth mindset, i’m self-authoring, and writing my own story.
    • Say: I’m a creator that takes radical responsibility for my life
    • Say: I understand how to set and affirm positive healthy boundaries
    • Say: I can steer and manage paradox and conflict
    • Say: I can learn to basically lay tracks in front of that train i can learn to shift and adapt in front of change
    • An amazingly powerful upgrade to who we are and to how we lead and that is the journey that we’re on in this program and what we’re super super psyched to share with you guys because the foundation of FGP Professional Mgmt Training and Leadership Work in Mountains and Boardrooms
    • But also: These are the tools we live our lives by
    • Minutes to learn, lifetime to master
    • Family, Professional, Personal relationships based on these

Trust Equation and Feedback Process

Trust is measurable

AttributeTestField
CredibilityI know what I’m talking aboutWords
ReliabilityI do what I sayActions
EmpathyI know how you feelEmotions
Self OrientationI’m in it for me, we, theeMotivations
  • Most 360 processes suck.
  • Do you follow-up on open loops.
  • Simply being of service makes up for a lot in a Team (Think Simon Senek: A team is not a group of people that work together. A team is a group of people that trust each other).
    • Think: Being of Service as anitdote to Self Orientation
    • Think: “Make it easier for the next guy” - John Freisinger
  • Book: The Trusted Advisor by David H. Maister, Charles H. Green, Robert M. Galford - High-integrity sales (Audible)
  • Get feedback from stakeholders, teams. The scores are giving very specific areas to focus on action.
  • Powerful: Look at the 3 slides in the video that show perception of leader change based on follow-up / asking on their core issues (Gallup)
    • if you want to be a stone cold machiavellian about this / there’s a pure behavioral econ hack
    • but of course: you’ve have chosen to be learners so my assumption is you’re going to bring a little bit more heart and intensity WithHeart Kokoro Kokoro
  • Think how the change creates movement in the Transtheoretical Model of Change.

Week 2: Transactional Analysis 2.0

!?LTF Week 2: Transactional Analysis 2.0

  • 00:00:00 Introduction
  • 00:00:23 How Can Flow Benefit My Organization?
  • 00:01:57 Single, Double, & Triple Loop Learning
  • 00:03:30 The Four Elements of Interoception
  • 00:05:14 Ladder of Inference 2.0
  • 00:10:36 Finite & Infinite Games People Play
  • 00:11:10 Double Entry Bookkeeping
  • 00:12:08 From Freudian Psychoanalysis to Transactional Analysis to Developmental Organization
  • 00:15:26 Karpman Drama Triangle
  • 00:24:22 The Empowerment Dynamic
  • 00:27:18 Coaching for Self-Authoring
  • 00:28:49 Coaching for Self-Authoring: Key Points
  • 00:34:25 What Do I Want? Making the Shift
  • 00:36:12 Challenge/Support
  • 00:36:37 Honing the Zone: The Flow Channel
  • 00:38:08 Multi-Perspectival Communication

How Can Flow Benefit My Organization?

In all our studies of extreme performance improvement, the people and organizations who covered the most distance in the shortest time were always the ones who were tapping into passion and finding flow.

The major complaint you hear from people today is they’re overwhelmed by the amount of information coming at them. Flow allows you to absorb that information, synthesize it, and integrate it. This drives the creative process. So while everyone else is driven to distraction, people in flow are adapting — they’re using the state to take performance to the next level.

– John Hagel, co-founder of Deloitte’s Center for the Edge

  • First thing people always ask: “how to get more flow in my organization?”
  • Teams that can get into flow are orders of magnitude more productive and innovative than those who can’t.
  • I’m not being hyperbolic when I say “orders of magnitude”, I mean this in the scientific / mathematical sense. 10X or greater.
  • How do you do it?
    • Pill
    • Gadget
    • Secret Ritual
    • Hack, tip, or trick?
  • Turn it inside out… If you’ve hired halfway decently, if you’ve got the right people in the right seats… The fact is well-motivated passionate people want to do well they want to work together.
  • Look at flow as natural state. It’s more about avoiding what drops you OUT OF FLOW than getting in it.

It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe. – Mohammed Ali (attributed to)

Week 3: Accentuate the Negative

!?Week 3: Accentuate the Negative

  • 00:00:00 Introduction
  • 00:02:35 Words to Live By (Warren Buffet)
  • 00:04:10 Beware the Triple A Trap
  • 00:04:29 Avoidance Delays the Inevitable
  • 00:05:11 Accommodation Weakens Resolve
  • 00:06:48 Attack is the Refuge of the Desperate
  • 00:07:39 Drama Triangle to Triple A
  • 00:08:54 Four Conscious Commitments
  • 00:11:52 Harvard Negotiation Project
  • 00:12:47 Offer a “Positive No” to Interrupt the Drama Triangle
  • 00:13:45 Curt’s Lessons From Combat
  • 00:18:14 “Positive No”s That Changed the World
  • 00:23:44 Situation, Behavior, Impact, Request (SBI+)
  • 00:24:37 Get Clear on Deeper Yes to Offer Positive No (SBIR)

LTF Week 4: Wicked Solutions to Wicked Problems

!?Wicked Solutions to Wicked Problems

  • 00:00:00 Introduction - From Contrast to Context
  • 00:01:54 The Law of the Excluded Middle
  • 00:02:24 Gap Analysis Leaves Us Stuck
  • 00:03:14 Paradoxical Koans
  • 00:04:58 Wicked Solutions to Wicked Problems
  • 00:06:34 Recommended Reading
  • 00:08:03 Change vs. Stability
  • 00:08:38 The Subjective Elements of Wicked Problems
  • 00:10:18 Where does resistance come from?
  • 00:10:55 Anticipate the Learning Curve
  • 00:12:43 Strategic Judo: Getting Unstuck
  • 00:14:25 Polarity Map Template
  • 00:16:38 Polarity Map: Family Dynamics - Challenge vs. Support
  • 00:23:12 Float More, Steer Less (Love More, Fear Less)
  • 00:28:12 Conclusion

Week 5: Immunity to Change

!?Immunity to Change

  • 00:00:00 Introduction
  • 00:00:36 The Habit of Habits
  • 00:04:20 We Must Be Aware of Our Shadows Or Beware Our Shadows
  • 00:05:47 Recommended Reading
  • 00:06:40 Byron Katie’s “The Work”
  • 00:07:57 Leverage Unconscious Processing with the Zeigarnik Effect
  • 00:12:40 Immunity to Change Framework
  • 00:16:20 The Hero’s Journey
  • 00:21:32 Immunity to Change - Complaint (Example 1)
  • 00:22:20 Immunity to Change - Conscious Commitment (Example 1)
  • 00:22:55 Immunity to Change - Responsibility / Fearless Inventory (Example 1)
  • 00:25:32 Immunity to Change - Competing Commitment (Example 1)
  • 00:32:07 Immunity to Change - Big Assumption (Example 1)
  • 00:35:15 Immunity to Change - Complaint (Example 2)
  • 00:36:47 Immunity to Change - Conscious Commitment (Example 2)
  • 00:37:20 Immunity to Change - Responsibility / Fearless Inventory (Example 2)
  • 00:40:07 Immunity to Change - Competing Commitment (Example 2)
  • 00:41:07 Immunity to Change - Big Assumption (Example 2)
  • 00:45:32 Problems That Solve Us
  • 00:50:05 Homegrown Humans
  • 00:50:51 The Blissfuck Cruci-fiction
  • 00:51:58 Immunity to Change Review
  • 00:53:58 Conclusion

Week 6: Heroic Leadership

!?Week 6: Heroic Leadership

  • 00:00:00 Introduction

  • 00:00:06 Step One: Costing Not Less Than Everything

  • 00:01:22 American Shaolin

  • 00:04:02 Heroism - Did We Forget Our Mission?

  • 00:05:40 Step Two: Practice Resurrection

  • 00:07:18 Until You Know the Secret…

  • 00:08:05 Big Five: Mechanisms of Ecstasis

  • 00:10:07 Death Practices: A Partial List

  • 00:17:30 Step Three: Hold No Preferred Outcome

  • 00:22:27 Step Four: Embrace Betrayal

  • 00:25:32 Leadership On The Line: Marginalization, Diversion, Seduction, Attack

  • 00:31:23 A Coward Dies A Thousand Deaths…

  • 00:31:49 The Lotus and the Blade

  • 00:35:37 There’s A Crack In Everything

  • 00:36:22 Step Five: A Walk-On Part In The War 00:37:16 Am I Spartacus?

  • 00:39:57 We Are Prometheus

  • 00:41:07 What Happens When We Truly Take A Stand?

  • 00:42:58 A Solid Default Philosophy

  • DIY Socratic Inquiry: Mindsets

11:30 - 12:30

https://flow-genome-project.mn.co/posts/leading-through-fire-april-may-2022-diy-socratic-inquiry-mindsets

Article #1

The Talent Myth

Malcolm Gladwell writes a piece in the New Yorker on Carol Dweck’s mindset research.

Post the line/quote that you feel best represents the thesis of the article.

But what if Enron failed not in spite of its talent mind-set but because of it? What if smart people are overrated?

Post a line/quote that you felt most strongly about, positive or negative, and why?

“In Procter & Gamble’s Navy, Admiral Stark would have stayed. But a cross-divisional management committee would have set the Tenth Fleet in place before the war ever started.” This resonated the most… drove home point efficient organization would behave the opposite, but doesn’t need to. There’s an element of self-correction here.

12:30 - 12:45 break

Article #2

The Secret to Raising Smart Kids

Carol Dweck shares how growth mindsets can help you raise happier kids, a family (or employees).

“an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings.”

see: life-long learning, learned helplessness

“In particular, attributing poor performance to a lack of ability depresses motivation more than does the belief that lack of effort is to blame.”

Will-power. Ask: can this be attributed to effort? Could you have done more? What would have made it easier? What tools would help?

Extra Review - Article #3

Why Following Your Passion Is Terrible Advice

Thesis:

Passions aren’t “found”… They’re developed.

Resonate:

when you’re told that your interests are somehow ingrained, you give up on new interests as soon as the going gets tough. … knowledge is power.

4:30 PM

Resources

Graph View