Radical action conversations

 One of the great improvement opportunities for any leadership culture is to identify their radical action conversations “black holes” and do something about them

Crisis often engenders “radical” responses and clarity. The challenge is to institutionalise these and make these our culture. Many leadership teams do manage elements of radical action conversations in a crisis…the trick is to meet a crisis early, perhaps even usher it in on our own terms, to provoke it when elements of it are more in our control, rather than only being reactive

This is a critical but largely ignored aspect of leadership and perhaps even national success. Many of us have been in key strategic meetings where the same issues come up over and over again, vague priorities are established, insincerity abounds and nobody leaves with any real accountability for action. 

Not only meetings, but sometimes this is symptomatic of an entire pattern of interaction in a culture.

What is happening here in essence is arguably the crux of what keeps us from translating potential into results.

Such conversations that lack authenticity and don’t catalyse real action we call either dormant conversations---where people avoid uncomfortable topics and suppress confrontation---or fake conversations---rife with platitudes, speechifying and cliquish behaviour. They are unsatisfying, unproductive, passion-leeching and a waste of one of the greatest resources within corporate or even national organisations: leadership and team time.  

The difference that makes the difference

In fact if you take the variety of ways work gets done in a company, be it by creating and acting on strategic choices, implementing project management, simplifying and focusing supply chain, activating more robust R&D, improving marketing and sales…all of these depend vitally on the quality of human interactions, and therefore they depend on the quality of relationships and the conversations and interactions by which those relationships are forged.

Companies readily invest in technological capability and new processes for example to cut costs and improve performance. Unsurprisingly, they often fall far short of expectations. Take past CRM initiatives which we know have grossly under delivered. But why did anyone think a database would shift customer behaviours or lead employees to apply technology in ways that would be appealing and relevant to customers? 

A couple of decades ago, re-engineering was touted as a panacea to eliminate waste. But again, rationalising processes is considerably simpler than “rationalising” behaviour.

Of course, emerging technologies and frameworks are critical as bedrock, and as a practical path for progress. But like oxygen to a fire they are necessary but not sufficient. 

And even on the national stage, we find that left to themselves, elected officials pontificating to appointed officials who order around career officials, all spend the bulk of their management time issuing “directives”. What gets short shrift is ensuring these directives are translated into results producing action.

The untracked costs

In fact, one of the greatest costs companies and even countries incur can be attributed to the detritus of ineffective conversations. Among the wreckage is the sheer weight and wastage of untracked commitments. 

From large global conferences to daily meetings, to chance encounters, the sheer number of untracked commitments is a devastating opportunity cost. Highly prized resources spend highly prized time to often take little action on things they earnestly say must be done.

The quality of human interactions determines so much. And these “human interactions” primarily take place through conversations. 

Those conversations that mobilise the best potential of our organisational assets and know-how, and which simultaneously help create the calibre of relationships that can anchor a culture of such achievement, are what we call, radical action conversations.

Defining terms

So let’s define terms. By radical here we mean conversations that go the root, core, essence, heart of whatever has to be evaluated, initiated, changed influenced, or executed. 

By action here we mean conversations that drive accountability and tracking and that convert intentions into decisive follow through. 

And by conversations here we mean the entire latticework of dialogue and interaction around a particular topic or area throughout different parts of an organisation.

Radical Action Conversations in fact amplify possibility, enable us to both tap capabilities and mobilise them. They are, in short, “the difference that makes the difference.” They are a multiplier that takes potential and translates it into performance.

The conversations to avoid – those that tear the bridge down

Let’s remember the interest in radical action conversations is as hard-bitten as it gets. Otherwise, our assets and know how will lie fallow or at least be seriously underutilised.

So, appreciating this danger, we should look at two other types of conversations, that are sadly far more prevalent and which have led to the decline of more than one once fabled organisation.

The first are what we’ve called dormant conversations. These are conversations that don’t quite take off. In other words, we just don’t discuss what we need to. We discuss everything else. We discuss tertiary topics, and skate around the “undiscussables.” This is when the proverbial “800-pound Gorillas” in the room tend to proliferate and go into a breeding frenzy that would do any rabbit proud.

A past client of ours had an issue where variable pay was linked to end of year sales performance in large part. The Sales Director flooded the marketplace with product, and muscled distributors into accepting these products. On paper, the year ended triumphantly, and fat bonuses were handed out, and speeches from these “exemplars” were broadcast far and wide through the company, groaning with all the jargon-du-jour.

Unfortunately, as King Canute taught us by example, you can’t keep the tide at bay…it will roll in when it is time. The glut of product led to a sharp decline of sales in the next two quarters. Estranged distributors demanded better credit terms or said they would exercise their option to return unsold product. 

In two separate team meetings, everything else was discussed: cost competitiveness, lean manufacturing, results-based servant leadership, re-imagining supply chain – but never the tawdry tactics of the Sales Director and the damage to crucial distributor relationships and the undermining of what had been so painstakingly built up over time. 

In fact, as we kept trying to raise this issue, we as consultant partners were side-lined and “benched” for some time, in favour of those who pandered to these leaders affirming the issue was about “can-do leadership positivity” or some other such bit of pop-psychological treacle. 

Six months later, with headquarters wanting answers, we were brought back in, the Sales Director was finally confronted and sacked, followed sadly by the country President who had allowed herself to be flattered and “handled” by the Sales Director. Millions of dollars and a tarnished reputation later, this company in that market, began to claw itself back to viability and only a year or so later, back to real profitability.

Anyone who thinks therefore that leadership interactions are “soft” is just defaulting to a pernicious norm. They are “hard”, as hard as anything gets. But that’s also where the real rewards are…as without a penny of additional capital investment you can maximise your returns from existing, already invested in assets, talent and capability.

The other type of conversations that sadly predominate, are called Fake Conversations. These do address the issue at hand, but people don’t share their real feelings, concerns, anxieties, priorities or issues. They speak in generalities and platitudes about the issue at hand. These are more dangerous than dormant conversations, because it seems we have discussed the issue. 

But we haven’t really. We have had superficial, holding pattern policy statements rather than radical action conversations.

These demoralise organisations as people then distrust pronouncements and no matter the number of initiatives that are then launched, they believe the fundamentals won’t change. 

A major company in the Home Care industry we know claimed they would create a true performance culture – whereby people’s progress in the company, their rewards and recognition would be hard-wired to performance. 

Alas, they then took someone who had produced losing results in a major market and made them regional vice-president of a critical growth region. That region needed dynamism. This person had not only underperformed in their last assignment, but they were close to retirement and were unlikely to take any big swings. 

No one had the will to take him out this close to retirement, or it seems either the imagination or humanity to find a role where he could still add value without undermining the trust of the organisation-at-large.

After that, any conversation about “managing talent” becomes inevitably fake, as far more talented people were skipped over, seemingly because they were younger, didn’t have the same backers at the centre, and frankly didn’t come from the 2-3 nationalities that seemed to disproportionately get senior leadership positions in that company irrespective of results. 

Companies have to, as I have written elsewhere, seek to liberate rather than kill passion. An additional byproduct of the type of conversations we have is the impact on passion and engagement. When fake conversations lead to incongruent decisions as in this case, it becomes a prime way to lose the trust of several hundred thousand people in one fell swoop and ensure no one takes you seriously in this area.

This happens with national initiatives that become not so amusing “jokes.” People’s faith gets burned out, which is not because there are serious problems, but because we keep dealing with the same problems over and over, with different gloss.

It’s not “all or nothing” clearly. Companies can excel in radical action conversations in some areas, say Marketing and R&D, and abound in fake conversations in other areas, say talent and recognition, or vice-versa. 

One of the great improvement opportunities for any leadership culture is to identify their radical action conversations “black holes” and do something about them. 

One way to find them is to look for performance or competitiveness or effectiveness plateaus. In other words, where should we be doing better, and aren’t? Where are cutting edge strategies being blunted by mediocre execution? Where do we have talent, and yet the bar remains astonishingly low in terms of delivery? Where are costs out of kilter? Where are the greatest meltdowns between key divisions? Where is decision making most lagging? Lurking behind these will inevitably be dormant and fake conversations, relationships and interactions. 

On the other hand, almost every corporate breakthrough can be traced to one or more radical action conversations. After all, how else could it possibly take place? You cannot transform what you cannot face and discuss. Abraham Lincoln’s “Team of Rivals” that made up his Cabinet were so compelling during the existential crisis of the American Civil War for the same reason. 

Conducting a radical action conversation

There are 10 steps to powerful, candid, imaginative, paradigm-extending radical action conversations. 

1.Establish the key outcome. Be transparent in stating what needs to accomplished and why it matters. Is the purpose of the conversation to diagnose problems, to develop new tactics or strategies, to resolve conflicts? Make the stakes and the desired outcome of the conversation as clear as possible.

2. Ground the conversation in reality. The most effective conversations are grounded in carefully researched facts, a full understanding of current trends, and the relentless interrogation of reality. Always ask: what is really going on here? What does the data show? Expressing one’s opinion is fair and acceptable. But radical action conversations are deeply connected to facts rather than opinions.

3. Challenge and verify assumptions. Radical conversations entail identifying and testing basic assumptions. Some assumptions are of course helpful; but others are simply misguided or wrong and need to be discarded. Always ask: What do the facts reveal? How do we know this? What other frame of reference might we use to seek the truth? 

4.Listen to all perspectives. Although radical action conversations are rigorously fact-based, they also consider and respect different viewpoints and intuitions. It is critical to hear all relevant perspectives, listening carefully to all the relevant stories and outlooks and, to the extent feasible and appropriate, integrating and building upon them. Always honour and respect concerns rather than treating them as “enemies”. Always seek to empower “possibility” as long as it is rooted in the best of what we know to be the case.

5.Challenge denial and defensiveness while building people up where possible. As important as it is to support and respect differing viewpoints and priorities, radical action conversations cannot occur, and progress cannot be made, when people within the organisation are denying reality, defending themselves or their teams, or trying to advance personal agendas at the expense of collective ones. In such conversations we have to constructively challenge and seek to “escort” each other past these hang-ups.

6.Enrol stakeholders to commit to bold courageous action. It is critical to identify clear action steps with confidence and even audacity. Individuals or teams should agree to be accountable; a tracking system should be put into effect, and everyone should agree to stay in touch to ensure that execution of initial action steps is timely and successful. To disarm critics, some of these steps can be earmarked as “experiments” or “demos” so that, even if they fail to produce the desired outcome, they’re seen as valuable test cases that help clarify the organisation’s core assumptions and future needs.

7.Insist upon personal commitments. Radical action conversations entail not only an organisational but also an individual commitment to getting things done. Participants in these conversations need to state what task and responsibilities they’ll assume and then coach one another in a thoughtful mutual way to ensure proper follow through and “ownership.”

8.Clarify milestones and deadlines. To strengthen execution, it’s important to set clear milestones and deadlines reflecting exactly what tasks need to be completed (i.e., what constitutes success?) and when they need to be finished by. Clear expectations should also be set regarding how and when participants will check in with one another to monitor progress and, if necessary, to recalibrate and make any appropriate mid-course corrections. 

9.Make careful decisions about who should be included. Participants should be thoughtful and deliberate in determining who should be involved not just in the initial conversation but also, down the line, in subsequent interactions and accountabilities. As much as it may make sense to engage a relatively small group of individuals in the early phases, enrolling a wider network of stakeholders may later become helpful and, in many instances, absolutely essential.

10.Always analyse and regroup if necessary. Ideally, participants should follow through not only by carrying out the action steps they’ve committed to completing and/or tracking, but also by thoroughly and honestly reviewing how each interaction went. Always ask: How can we improve the relationships these conversations entail and the results that flow from them? Ideally, each interaction becomes a floodlight that, in turn, illuminates how the next conversation can be even more value producing and powerful.

Building the bridge

A client in the digital technology space realised that 80% of their revenues were coming from one client. It seems fairly obvious to suggest they needed to expand their client base or re-imagine their business proposition so it could attract a wider pool of clients.

However, as our current financial crisis here in this country amply demonstrates, so many things are “so obvious they’re not obvious.” They stockpile and proliferate, and eventually the dam bursts and we look at the wreckage of what should have been obvious – whether because of silly debt ratios, runaway financial legerdemain or too much of the economy based on unearned credit and consumption. 

This company waited too long, this one client defected, and they were faced with the short-term challenge of survival. They were snagged on dormant conversations in this glaring area that never took place and ambushed by the fake conversations that “talked around” the need to widen their customer base. 

With a sharp precipice before them, they gathered their investors, their management and engaged in an urgent “deep dive” into their business competencies, potential new profit pools, ways to expand business with their existing customers and more. While that story is still being written, a year later they are back to slowly but surely expanding globally, not closing down the business.

The radical action conversation they engaged in stated the outcome as re-imagining the value basis of their business AND scoring enough short term “runs” to survive. They ruthlessly looked at reality, they challenged assumptions and each other, and they listened to the market, to their teams and to customers. 

Various “demos” of what they could do that would entice new customers were floated fast and taken to market fast. These were expansions of product lines, new markets they could easily approach, new services they could offer around their product portfolio.

Under the leadership of a new dynamic leadership team that had recently been inducted, everyone committed, and accountability was tracked. They built each other up, celebrating every bit of progress that was reeled in. They expanded the circle of responsibility giving people throughout the business a stake in surviving and thriving. They threw down the gauntlet to everyone who had been a “passenger”. They also ensured that each such interaction built on the last one – follow through and tracking have been increasingly stellar. 

Crisis often engenders “radical” responses and clarity. The challenge is to institutionalise these and make these our culture. 

Many leadership teams do manage elements of radical action conversations in a crisis…the trick is to meet a crisis early, perhaps even usher it in on our own terms, to provoke it when elements of it are more in our control, rather than only being reactive.

So you can apply radical action conversations right away. No one has to authorise it. You begin by identifying dormant and fake conversations and developing zero tolerance for them. And we can pray for the national antennae to pick these up as well, and a national intolerance for indulging them anymore.

Facilitate the toughest, most necessary and most pending radical action conversations and follow them through to results. And as the relationships and conversations enlarge, so will the quality and audacity and calibre of the results you can deliver.

Two impressive benefits

We will get two benefits. First, as we grow here and get better at such engagement, we will be able to have increasingly “radical” candid, courageous, imaginative and transforming conversations with decreasing emotional wear and tear. When these become our reflexes, we can move forward with increasing confidence.

Second, by freeing ourselves from shadow boxing around what’s important, and being credible rather than evasive and oblique, being able to face facts with faith, collaboratively forging forward, we’ll liberate passion. And that freed up passion will stimulate the discretionary effort, the volunteered commitment and engagement, which is the Holy Grail of all success produced by our “human software.” Almost all success that survives in national and organisational terms, demands and depends on this. 

(The writer is the founder and CEO of EPL Global and founder of Sensei Lanka, a global consultant with over 30 years strategic leadership experience and now, since March 2020, a globally recognised COVID researcher and commentator.)