Unintended Consequences

In the social sciences, unintended consequences are outcomes that are not the ones foreseen and intended by a purposeful action.

That’s the Wikipedia definition. Let’s look at how unintended consequences play out in the workplace.

I was working with a team of leaders in an organization where some reconfiguration had occurred. In typical workplace fashion, decisions had been made unilaterally by upper management, and information about the changes had not been communicated effectively downstream. We spent the better part of a meeting deliberating about what had happened and I’ll admit, most of the talk was negative.

To bring the conversation around to something more productive, I asked my colleagues to start focusing on what they thought might be the unintended consequences of the decisions that had been made. Shifting our focus, I hoped, would help us generate solutions to the issues we were facing.

There are many examples of unintended consequences in history: eliminating a “pest” animal only to find that it served an important purpose in the ecosystem; positioning one curb cut at the corner of a sidewalk as a cost saver, making positioning for a safe crossing challenging for a person who is blind. We often talk about unintended consequences in relation to government regulations and environmental impact. But what do they have to do with leadership?

There are three potential effects of a decision or action that might be unintended:

·      Unexpected benefits

·      Unexpected drawbacks

·      Perverse results

In special education, I saw unexpected benefits to practices that I had initially deemed problematic. For example, a student who was perfectly capable of finding her way between classes held onto the cart that held her gear as a student pulled it along. At first I admonished her for being dependent on her classmate, until she told me that the opportunity to chat during the exercise was helping her make friends.

Of course there are many examples of unexpected drawbacks. A blindness organization chose black coffee cups as give-aways for their marketing campaign, not considering that pouring black coffee into a black cup was difficult for those with low vision. Another organization created an internal marketing campaign around a “promise” that backfired because they didn’t understand the organization’s skeptical culture.

Perverse results are those that have the opposite effect of the intended action. In the ‘80s when deinstitutionalization was in full swing, a well-meaning colleague suggested that children with multiple disabilities who were moving into public school classrooms should be given beanbag chairs and radios as an effective educational model.  Thankfully, her suggestion was overridden by those who actually understood best practice for these students.

So what do unintended consequences have to do with leadership? A lot.

I have been surprised by how little leaders seem to consider unintended consequences. As I moved into increasingly complex leadership positions, I learned to ask those in the trenches what consequences might occur if a certain change took place. I also learned to list potential consequences when making a decision—both positive and negative, in a balance sheet analysis.

For example, an announcement trumpeting a leader’s promotion is best not made on the heels of one about minimal salary increases for those working frontline. Or this one:  After a company-wide “Trust” survey showed unrest and distrust in the company’s leadership, a communication went out that the executive team had heard the concerns and would be communicating soon about their plans to improve… and then failed to follow up. Intentions were good in both scenarios, but each further eroded the relationship between leadership and staff. 

Think about the results of your actions. Think about the impression you are making. And make the effort to identify and then address anything that will negatively impact others. While you can’t mitigate all unintended consequences, getting ahead of them with respect and communication will make you a better leader and help those around you appreciate their jobs AND you.

What are you worth?

Money. Not the first thing we think about in schools, state agencies, or nonprofits, is it? But for leaders, money drives many things. Leaders manage budgets, make staffing decisions based on available resources, write grants, appear before state and national legislatures asking for funding, all in the name of having what they need to get the job done.

There are so many branches on the money tree that it is hard to choose a leadership stone among them. But here goes. I am setting out here to support the theory that you must pay well to get the best people on your team, and that the concept applies to ALL members of the team.

One of my greatest frustrations in an organization where top-tier leaders were paid well was the fact that those doing front-line work were drastically underpaid. We limped through the recession, a time when I was forced to trim $1.5 million from my department’s budget. Staff salaries remained nearly flat during those years. When the recession eased, I assumed we would play substantial catch-up with teachers and instructional assistants… but it did not happen. Instead, we continued with minimal yearly pay increases and no provision for mimicking our public school counterparts that implemented steady salary increases and step raises. The most important teacher-leaders and staff in our school seemed to be valued the least, if pay was any indicator.

Now don’t get me wrong—I am not one of those who complain when the CEO of a large nonprofit agency is paid well. Nonprofits are incredibly complex, and some of the best CEOs I have known are working 60-70 hours a week managing multiple departments. Fundraising, developing legislative relationships, and keeping the ship pointed in the right direction require great expertise and incredible effort, which should be appropriately compensated. Every position is important, however, and compensation is part of the formula that indicates a person’s value in an organization.  

Since half of my career has been spent in leadership positions, I have been privy to a great deal of financial information from various organizations. And because I practice servant-leadership, I have tried to advocate for my own compensation in a way that keeps it in line with others providing similar services but also takes into consideration that any organization faces finite resources. The more I take as an administrator, the less there is for others on the front line.

The most disturbing phenomenon I noted both in schools and nonprofits is the pervasive attitude that educators and their counterpoints should be grateful for the pay they receive. A board member of a nonprofit stated that teachers in private settings should accept lower pay because they had a better working environment than their public school counterparts. A leader in that same organization stated that we needed to offer better pay in our development and communications departments so that we could attract the “best” people. See the irony? Me, too.

In addition, I have observed systems where top-tier employees were held to a lower accountability standard than others in the organization. Confidentiality keeps me from going into details, but I was surprised when percentage raises were regularly granted to top employees with no performance measures attached to those raises. And since percentage raises pay off, literally, more for top earners, shouldn’t they be based on performance?  

I know—I’m mostly complaining here. Where’s the leadership stone, you ask? The stone I cling to is more of an “ought to” than an ism. Leaders ought to focus on pursuing excellent compensation for ALL employees whose work they value. And for me, that’s everyone who is working toward the organization’s mission and meeting mutually agreed upon accountability standards.

The concept of “socio-economic value” was invented to account for the social value of educators (and other front-line workers) who may not be compensated in accordance with their true value to society, but we should not ignore the economic side. We have lost many great staff because of low pay in this field. Let’s not do that any more.

Managing Disappointment

I was working on a survey for TVIs and others working with students with visual impairment when I got that call: “The project has been cancelled.” The venture that I had birthed and that was so needed in our field was terminated. The conversation went a lot like these do: It was sugar-coated with explanations and language that skirted the truth. The justification was surrounded with work-place politics and misinformation. And none of it mattered. The project, a dream I held close to my heart, was over.

 I’m sure you can relate to this scenario… and if it hasn’t happened to you, it will. So the question is, what’s your best course of action when something completely out of your control happens that leaves you disappointed or worse, devastated? Not long after this particular instance, I started looking for the leadership stone that would potentially develop from this experience.

 I began looking back at my years as a teacher and administrator and found many instances where a supervisor or person in power has squelched a project, a dream, or an ambition. I’m a barrel-ahead kind of gal who, when she gets an idea, puts her heart and soul into it. In my first teaching position at a rural high school, I managed to take a school newspaper that was printed on the Xerox machine and, through a partnership with the local newspaper, published a periodical that was professionally printed. When I approached administration for monetary support of the project (early issues of the paper were printed pro-bono), I got a nice letter from the board congratulating me on my innovation… and a verbal reminder that there was no money to continue the project.

 Other examples: A proposal that would have implemented career-technology modules for students with visual impairment was turned down by the superintendent without remark. An incredible partnership with an organization that would have vastly increased employment opportunities for school of the blind alumni was canceled in-progress because my supervisor did not understand the details of financial support we had put in place. In both instances, I felt there was not sufficient understanding from the person in charge to make an educated decision about moving forward—and the decision-maker made no effort to gain that understanding.

 Those are great stories--but what is the leadership stone, you ask?

 Communication. The success or failure of implementing a dream often depends on effective communication. As I look back on the times when my ambitions were stalled or squelched entirely, I realize that both the timing and content of my communication were lacking.

Today, I am more careful about the way I communicate my professional dreams to those who have the power to “make or break” their success. I introduce ideas slowly, and I look for champions with similar ideals as I get my thoughts and plans together.

Once a plan is in place, we must communicate the specifics, including financial and human resource needs, timeline, goals and outcomes, to persons in positions of power. Consider how to best present your information to your particular audience: is the person a visual learner? Then provide charts and graphs. Is the person focused on financial issues? Then have your numbers ready. Think about how much detail is enough to communicate your project or dream. Remind the decision-maker of how the project benefits him or her, and the organization.

But the communication doesn’t stop once the project has been authorized. The project that inspired this blog? It died primarily because I did not consistently communicate with the stakeholders along the way. The decision to cancel that project was made based on limited and misinformation. When I look back, I realize I could have done a better job of sharing our progress and asking for their input.

What does one do with a dream or project that has been squelched or canceled? An important first step is to reflect. What went well? What could have gone better? Debriefing not only with your team but also with the person in power who has ended your project can help you gain valuable information you can apply now, and to future projects.  These discussions will help you manage your disappointment, and you will learn from them.

And finally, consider whether you should move your project forward in a different way. It may be that it will find a home in a place and a way you had not imagined. In fact, there are two leadership stones here: how to manage your disappointment when a project is cancelled, and how to better manage a project to ensure its longevity and success.

Pick up the phone.

This blog isn’t about email. Or texting. Or even using the phone. It’s about communication: the real kind, where we listen and talk and learn from each other.

I’ll admit it: I’ve been railing against email for a lot of years. When I was a school principal, I received anywhere from 150 to 250 emails a day. Many were cc’s—a way for teachers and staff to inform me without directly engaging me. Others included long strings of information, comments, and attempts at making decisions, reaching consensus, and moving forward. I remember sitting for hours each day, trying to catch up on goings on and reading impossible threads of writing, trying to connect and learn from them. It was difficult to distinguish the critical from the mildly important, and sometimes it all felt like so much white noise.

The email communication I found most disturbing was the kind where disagreements bubbled up and parties sparred to have the last word. Even when I would call one or the other writer on the phone and ask him or her to set up a meeting or discuss the issue in person or by phone, the email war would continue. Rather than work toward an authentic conversation where viewpoints are shared and decisions are made, my colleagues hid behind their computers and accomplished little.

Now, I am not immune to the tendency to put off meaningful communication. Something happened last week that gave me pause and prompted me to rethink my current communication tendencies. I was doing research for an article I was writing, and one of my to-dos was to call a retired colleague whose work on the project had preceded my own. For whatever reason, I kept putting off the call. With the article deadline fast approaching, I finally reached out by email to set up the call. Then I waited a few more days… but finally dialed.

He answered immediately, enthusiastically tackling the topic at hand. We talked for 30 minutes, sharing stories and catching up on life. He told me about the challenges he had faced when working on the project—motivating people to get on board. He shared the names of specific people and organizations that had been integral to the project’s success and talked about the importance of the information they had gathered. The call was more than successful: I got the information I needed, but more importantly I connected with him on a personal basis.

Toward the end of the phone call, I told him of our plans to recognize his contributions to the project at an annual gathering of professionals a month away. True to his nature, he stated that he was just one of many who had moved the project forward. He thanked me for thinking of him, and we agreed to a follow-up conversation when the presentation date got closer.

The next night, this leader in our field suffered a catastrophic medical event and, a week later, he was dead. During the week he was hospitalized, this phrase played over and over in my head: Pick up the phone.

We live in a time of transition. Those with years of experience are retiring. Those newer to the field are applying their fresh skills in ways that will improve services for all. It is critical to our future that we talk to one another, share our wisdom and unique experiences, make those connections, and capture that information in a place and time where it can be retrieved by others. Young or old, everyone has knowledge, perspectives, and experiences that, when shared, make us better as professionals and people. If you’ve been putting off contacting someone who will enrich your life, listen to the voice in your head. Pick up the phone. Make the call. Connect.

On Being Judged

I hadn’t expected to write additionally about judgment, until something happened at my work that got me thinking: As leaders, how do we manage the judgment of others, and what do we learn from it?

A little background: I am in the interesting situation where I am working for an organization I left nearly eleven years ago. My position is technical, not supervisory, and I am fortunate to be working with many of the same people whose expertise I benefited from before. As I perused my email after a long holiday weekend, I came upon a lengthy message from a colleague who played a role both during my former tenure and in my new position. This particular email was inflammatory; the colleague was questioning my ability to work effectively with her or her staff in my current position, based on a strained relationship we had had eleven years ago.

Later that same day, I crossed paths with another staff member with whom I had previously worked when I was school principal. She talked about how sad she had been when I left, and the positive influence I had had on her work and the school as a whole. She shared that during difficult times while I was principal, I was able to frame challenges in a way that helped her do her best work. In both situations, I had received feedback from a colleague about my performance. The contrast between the messages was great.

What was I to do with the feedback I received? One person accused me of being disrespectful of her; the other admired my leadership. Could both of these perspectives be true at the same time?

Here’s where I make a plug for leadership stones. We need to be able to consider the information we read, hear, or see and form it into something that works best for us. In instances where others judge us, we need to be willing to take a hard look at the feedback and decide what role it will play in our personal growth. I often ask myself these questions:

·      Is the feedback accurate? Is it true?

·      How does the information help me grow as a leader?

·      What is the learning I will take away from the feedback?

It’s important to remember that any perspective one gains from another’s feedback is one data point (or one stone, to keep with the leadership stone analogy). A leader must consider the array of feedback he or she receives within the context of his or her work. I needed to consider the feedback I received from these two colleagues in the context of my current role, and to reflect on the circumstances in which they occurred.

No leader is immune from judgment. Whether you are the one in charge or someone who provides a technical or support service to others, you will be judged by others. The goal is to listen, consider, and learn.