Blog

Wicked Problems: How Values Both Create Tension and Offer a Way Forward

July 18th, 2023

I have written previously about the importance of values: both personal and organisational. Clarifying and prioritising values forms a key part of mch’s advanced leadership programmes such as its Source of Leadership. Their inclusion stems from the finding that clarity of values helps with decision making. The relevance to leadership becomes apparent if you subscribe to the following definition;

‘Leadership is about deciding what to do and then articulating the decision well to those who matter.’

Another key advocate of values is Brené Brown. In her book, Dare to Lead, she sets the challenge of not only identifying your values, but prioritising them, so that one value trumps all others. In my view, the importance of this exercise stems from the reality that life is messy. It’s uncertain, complex and often ambiguous. Consequently, situations can arise where upholding one value comes at the cost of not upholding another.

I’ve found prioritising my values a very difficult exercise: I started doing so in early 2021 and have yet to reach a consistent answer. In early 2023, I was reminded of the exercise and why it’s important. In early March, I was practicing my usual routine of yoga, exercises and a walk every morning, together with running three to four times a week and cycling once a week. By the end of March, I could barely walk 200m. My balance, strength and suppleness had disappeared. My fine motor skills were compromised, such that I could barely write or type. I had constant pins and needles in my hands and feet, which made sleep difficult. Furthermore, I didn’t know why any of this was happening.

To cut a long story short, towards the end of April, I was sitting across the table from a couple of neurologists at my local hospital. To try and diagnose the problem and thus (hopefully) develop a treatment plan, three tests were scheduled. The test with the longest wait could be done (quicker) privately, or through the publicly funded National Health Service (NHS). Done privately, the test would still be done in a public hospital and performed by a doctor who also worked for the NHS. Fortuitously, I had sufficient savings to afford a private test.

Cue a tension between two of my core values: health and equality. Going private was the obvious decision if I was to prioritise health. Being seen in weeks, rather than months would enable a quicker diagnosis, ending the uncertainty and allowing treatment to start sooner. However, if the specialist did not test me privately, it’s very unlikely that they would spend that time twiddling their thumbs. Instead, they would have more capacity for their NHS work. Thus, in my view, prioritising equality would mean choosing to wait along with most other patients. Given the limited number of specialists, it was hard not to conclude that accessing provision privately comes at the cost of increased waiting times for NHS patients. In the end, I waited and was seen on the NHS. I was comfortable living my value of equality, at the expense of health, by waiting a couple of months, rather than a couple of weeks. However, would I have been comfortable if the wait had been four months, or six months, or a year?

In my view, the scenario I faced is an example of a ‘wicked’ problem: one with no clear solution, regardless of the level of knowledge and expertise that can be brought to bear. With wicked problems there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer and its often difficult to even classify options as better or worse than one another. In the event of ‘better’ options emerging, their status as ‘better’ can be very fleeting, as there are numerous competing variables and the significance of each is often continually changing. Wicked problems are invariably fluid. When the educationalist, Laurence J. Peter, was quoted as saying that;

‘Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.’

I believe he was referring to wicked problems.

Some may say that wicked problems illustrate the limits to which values can help with decision making. On reflection though, once I’d received all the facts and expertise I could, I think values, together with my intuition, offered the only way to make decisions I was comfortable with. Furthermore, I believe another core value was underpinning my decision making and, in some ways, arbitrating the tension between my values of health and equality. That value is integrity. To me integrity is being honest and truthful to oneself. I like the researcher, Brené Brown’s definition of integrity;

‘Integrity is choosing courage over comfort …. it’s practicing your values, not just professing them.’

With my scenario, integrity provided clarity in relation to how I would discern ‘success’, when the ‘story’ which was my illness came to an end one way or another. Regardless of the diagnosis and subsequent impact on my life, success would be recalling the decisions I made and then being comfortable looking at myself in the mirror, because I’d been honest with myself about what was most important and I’d acted accordingly when each decision needed taking. Crucially, I believe integrity and its ‘signpost for success’, would have enabled me to be more at ease with changing my mind, if key variables, like waiting times, had changed significantly.

I hope you do not have to go through a similar experience to get clear on your values. Do you know your values though? Can you prioritise them? The following links can help identify your values:

https://www.mindtools.com/a5eygum/what-are-your-values

The above link asks you to consider times when you were happiest, proudest and most fulfilled. It also features a list of common values that you may find helpful to select from.

https://www.lifevaluesinventory.org/

This link allows you to take a free questionnaire designed to identify your values.

Having identified your values, I would encourage you to embark on Brené Brown’s challenge to identify your number one value. Considering scenarios that test one value against another is often an effective (albeit challenging) way to do so. In my case, perhaps integrity is a higher value to me than either health or equality. Or perhaps the relative importance of values is situational. I wonder what Brené Brown’s view would be on that?!

All the best with your journey.

The Legend that Created Mentoring

September 30th, 2022

With National Mentoring Day approaching, this blog provides the background on where the term, Mentor, originates.

To the best of my knowledge, the word, ‘Mentor’, was first coined by the ancient author, Homer, in his book, The Odyssey, written around the eighth century B.C.. A central character in The Odyssey is, Odysseus, the king of the Greek island of Ithica. He goes off to fight in the Trojan War (the one with the wooden horse), leaving his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus. Before leaving, he places Telemachus under the guardianship of a man called Mentor.

Mentor’s skills are soon required, as in Odysseus’ absence, several young noblemen try to marry Penelope, which would deny Telemachus of his birth right. Unfortunately, Mentor wasn’t up to the job! Instead of assisting Telemachus to rise to these challenges, he was initially gripped with insecurity and indecision. Fortunately, the Greek Goddess, Athena, intervened. She took the form of Mentor and supported Telemachus to rise to the challenge and keep order in Ithica until his father returned … and then they all lived happily ever after.

Consequently, it isn’t so much Mentor who should be hailed, but the Greek Goddess of wisdom, Athena (disguised as Mentor).

Why Mentoring Endures

September 30th, 2022

I’ll always remember my first day as Chief Executive of Rumbalara, an Aboriginal sporting and community development organisation. I’d been told the finances were a little “delicate”, so the first meetings scheduled were with the organisation’s accountant and Treasurer. The accountant told me that we were six-eight weeks away from insolvency and the Treasurer explained that he was “not very good with numbers” and “just signed things”. Oh dear. I suddenly felt very alone: there was no other senior manager in the organisation.

Fortunately, the wisdom of the Indigenous culture came to the rescue: for thousands of years huge importance has been placed on a system of Elders, where experienced community members guide the less experienced. Consequently, Rumbalara’s Chairman intuitively saw the need for mentoring. My two subsequent mentors would help make my working life so much easier, effective and enjoyable. This made life outside of work far more pleasant too.

From then on, I’ve been ‘sold’ on the value of mentoring and since founding mch in 2005; I’ve been drawn to mentoring work in various guises. However, my passion for mentoring would count for little if it wasn’t in continual demand. So, what creates the demand?

I believe the answer lies in the characteristics of a healthy mentoring relationship. A great mentor is independent, experienced and skilled and their sole focus is to help their mentee. In addition to their expertise and motivation, they give enough time to the relationship to enable genuine progress. Who wouldn’t benefit from having such a person in their life?

While mentoring’s focus is very much on the mentee, almost all mentors I’ve spoken with gain just as much from the relationship. In addition to the ‘warm glow’ that comes with being of service to someone else, mentoring offers an ideal environment for self-reflection and for enhancing the emotional intelligence and communication skills required for great management and leadership.

If you haven’t already, I hope you find yourself a mentor or mentee (or perhaps both).

What I read and watched in ‘Book Week’

July 26th, 2022

I have just enjoyed a great ‘book week’: reading books and watching films that have direct and tangential relevance to my work.

‘Die with Zero’ was a particuarly thought provoking read and chimed with my animation series which aims to encourage those with more than enough to give some of it away to those who don’t: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP_SuC_2Cuk&list=PLcNtPqI6xz2AXrJw0Vgk5nuAE-GSVfo3R

Leadership Insights from My Sabbatical

May 11th, 2022

As part of my sabbatical I conducted some work shadowing and had the privilege of shadowing or conducting in depth interviews with:

• A dairy farmer
• A clinical psychologist
• The owner of a construction company
• A charity CEO
• A fundraising team of a national charity
• A CEO of a social enterprise
• A priest

I knew these people personally or professionally and consciously chose to shadow a diverse range of people and professions. The only qualification was that I considered each individual to be consistently successful in their roles (using an ad hoc mix of subjective and objective measures).

The motivation for the shadowing was a genuine interest in fundamental questions, such as:

• Why do people do what they do?
• What does it take to be consistently successful in a role?
• Are there any common characteristics in top performers, regardless of their role?

Here are just three of the insights I gained from the experience.

1. The Importance of Purpose

A trait shared by all I shadowed was that their purpose was bigger than themselves. For example, when I asked the dairy farmer why he did what he did, he responded;

“I’m part of a story …. to make organic farming mainstream.”

He went on to say;

“My role is to ensure that if a cow ever leaves my herd, they do so in the best possible health.”

Given the costs of organic dairy farming are often double non-organic farming, but you can rarely charge double the price at the point of sale, there is an explicit need for innovation and consistently high performance. Also, if you do your very best to ensure cows stay fit and healthy, they’re more likely to produce good yields of milk. Both these factors are likely to improve the financial bottom line. However, for the farmer I shadowed, the financial benefits genuinely seemed to be an ancillary benefit to his primary goals of promoting organic farming and taking care of his cattle.

2. Values as a Driver

In many cases I was struck by the clarity of values and the lengths some of the individuals would go to live by them. To illustrate, the clinical psychologist I interviewed had worked with victims/survivors of rape. She was appalled by how often they were poorly treated by the court system. What she was observing ran completely counter to her value of justice.

Her response? Whilst still holding down a full time job as a clinical psychologist, she spent several years completing a law degree on evenings and weekends. This enabled her to engage with the legal profession, to bring about much needed change, in ways that wouldn’t have been possible if she weren’t a lawyer herself. Values drove outcomes.

3. Balancing Enough with Constantly Striving

One of the CEOs I shadowed had led their organisation through a period of expansion. As a result, the organisation’s Board felt it appropriate to award them and their senior leadership team and salary increase, in recognition of their increased remit and responsibilities. While the CEO did not oppose the increase for their team, they did not accept their own salary increase. Instead, they requested that their increase was reinvested into the organisation. This request was actioned very discreetly.

For me, this was someone who had taken the time to reflect on what was enough for them financially and then lived within those parameters. While at a micro level, I believe it sets a very important example for society as a whole, if we are to have a sustainable future. I also think that this individual understood that while their salary prevents them from feeling unappreciated, it does not provide reliable ‘fuel’ for continually striving to improve.

More than anything, the successful people I shadowed were humble. They were very aware that they would never be the finished article as a leader/practitioner, but they were deeply, intrinsically motivated to continue on the journey of improvement.