How Long is that Bridge?

On our nomadic journey around this world, my wife Becky & I have crossed the lines of ethnic and organizational cultures numerous times in our lives. We have noticed an interesting phenomenon:

• When the cultural bridge spans a great deal of space, our expectations for adjusting are calibrated accordingly. If the new place is significantly different from where we came from, we expect most things to be different and therefore allot more emotional space and energy to our adjustment because it’s so obvious that things are different. Transition is still a challenge, but we are aware that there is a lot of ground to cover.

• When the cultural bridge is perceived to be shorter; when appearances lead us to believe that the gaps won’t be too difficult to cross, we don’t allot as much transitional time & space, believing we can hit the ground running in relatively good time! HOWEVER, this is often to our detriment as we then believe we won’t have as difficult a time adjusting, communicating or understanding. When cultural clashes do arise, we are surprised because we set ourselves up for a minimal amount of adjustment. Our expectations leap-frog reality.

When we moved to Indonesia in 1988, I went expecting everything to be different. I was a Canadian boy whose only ‘overseas’ experience was a 1 hour ferry to Vancouver Island! My wife on the other hand was born & raised in Malaysia until she was 12, then spent another 4 years in Hong Kong. She felt going to Indonesia would be easier for her because of that. Problem was, it wasn’t. Her expectations exceeded reality. The tools she previously used and expectations of life she had once experienced as a child/teen living in Asia now did not match. Her adjustment therefore was double mine – not only adjusting TO a new culture, but adjusting expectations AWAY from what she had experienced.

I have moved across cultures within the same organization. While I found that some of the processes & policies were familiar, often the stories and perspectives differed significantly. Walking in with the same assumptions because you are from the same organizational family usually won’t serve you well. Organizations essentially are people. They are not their assets or products. People in work units, departments or divisions form a type of family cohesiveness through shared stories, history and function. Knowing that ‘culture’ is essential to your success when crossing that shorter bridge.

The greater the gap, the more we expect it will take time to cross that bridge. However when you cross a seemingly shorter bridge, walk slowly. Near-cultures, be they ethnic or organizational, still have patterns and habits lying under the surface that only emerge if you have a curious spirit and deliberately take time to observe, assess and adjust. (Just ask Canadians working in America or Kiwis in Australia)

Read and "Wander"

I don't know what your area of leadership competence and interest is. Likely you immerse yourself in that world through reading and training in that stream. However let me challenge you to break out and learn about life & leadership by reading in areas you would not normally go. The Nomadic Leader wanders into new areas of the landscape and sometimes finds resources and sustenance that surprises (and nourishes) them. Don't stay stuck in the same path. Wander.

2 book recommendations - one outside the leadership stream, and one inside:



1. "The Discoverers", authored by Daniel Boorstin.

Subtitled 'A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself', it is a history of human discovery. Discovery in all its many forms are presented - exploration, scientific, medical, mathematical and the more theoretical ones such as time, evolution, plate tectonics and relativity. He praises the inventive, human mind and its eternal quest to discover the universe and our place in it. Boorstin writes, "My hero is Man, the Discoverer. The world we now view from the literate West...had to be opened by countless Columbuses. In the deep recesses of the past, they remain anonymous." It's a book filled with what occurs when man allows himself to be nomadic, to wander and discover.

My favourite leadership lesson from this book: "The greatest barrier to discovery is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge"



2. "Shackletons Way; Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer".

Numerous books have been written about the great Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. If you are not a history buff, but want a “Coles Notes” version, Shackleton’s Way is specifically written with leadership lessons in mind - extracted from the various stages of the famous, though ill-fated voyage of the Endurance (1914-1916). This is a book about the character of leadership in seemingly hopeless situations. Unpredictable conditions in the Antarctic resulted in Shackleton’s ship, with its crew of 27, ultimately crushed in the ice before they ever reached their goal. Imagine the leadership strength required and the responsibility forced on you when you are stranded on an ice flow, 1900 km from the nearest outpost of civilization! It’s a harrowing tale of a 2 year fight for their lives in the inhospitable and bleak conditions of the Antarctic. Ernest Shackleton’s leadership enabled the survival of all 27 men. Napoleon once said that ‘leaders are dealers in hope’, a quality supremely exemplified in Shackleton, but a quality sadly lacking in many across the leadership spectrum. People are hungry for hope – just recall the power of Obama’s election strategy. How you as a leader deliver on that hope is one of the great reasons to read this book.

The book is divided into 7 sections, each telling a portion of the story and simultaneously extracting leadership lessons based on the actions of Shackleton (and many of his men). You will encounter new perspectives on how leaders are formed, hiring practices, creating and nurturing teams, crisis management and overcoming obstacles.

Antarctica looms large in our psyche as a place of isolation, harsh conditions, and a test of endurance. Most of us would not place it on our bucket list of places to visit. But I encourage you to step into this story of leadership in a difficult environment.

You wait. Everyone has an Antarctic...even here in Kuwait!

Times of Transition

TIMES of TRANSITION

Nomadic leaders are in a context that inherently involves times of transition. People come in and out of our organizations, the surrounding culture or economic climate changes, our roles shift in order to accommodate to these realities, AND there comes a time when we leave the organization to take on another role. It’s this last transition I want to address since this is the season I am currently in.

It’s real and raw at this moment.

William Bridges is a well-respected author and consultant on transitions. In his book Managing Transition – Making the Most of Change; he clarifies a distinction between change and transition:

“It isn’t the changes that do you in; it’s the transitions. Change is situational – the new site, the new boss, new team, new policies. Transition is the psychological process people go through to come to terms with the new situation. Transition is internal. Unless transition happens, change won’t work. People must reorient themselves psychologically if the situational difference is going to work. The starting point for transition is not the outcome, but the ending point that you will have to make to leave the old situation behind. Letting go of the old reality and the old identity is key to transition.”

Transition is not just a nice way to say change. It is the inner process through which people come to terms with change, as they let go of the way things used to be and reorient themselves to the way things are now. Change often feels like a barrier-wall in front of us. We make a decision that disrupts our status quo, or an external influence erects a barrier to our well-laid intentions. Naturally, we look for a way to "get over it." The change is the decision; it is the stark reality of a new reality. What’s next, however, is the most critical piece – it’s your transition.

Bridges suggests we think of transition not as a wall to climb over, but as a gate in the wall that leads to a new path. Getting on that path requires coming to grips with what is going on inside your heart and mind.

To change your attention away from the change-as-barrier and toward the transition-path, you need to start where the transition itself starts: with letting go of the inner connections you had to the way things were. The question that always helps you to shift your focus from the change to the transition is:

"What is it time for me to let go of?"

I am letting go of a number of things and people. My family for one. I left 3 adult children and one of their spouses behind. No more spontaneous meetings at Starbucks, watching hockey games together at the local sports bar, Sunday family dinners. I have also left a tight-knit group of guys who helped me stay the course on a personal and professional level. I have lost regular routines in familiar places. My expectations for a ‘home’ have to be left behind. I left behind a business dream only 1 year into its birth in the belief that this new role would fulfill the essence of my vision for the business. Networks and partnerships have been left behind.

So what is it time for you to let go of? In some area of your life, whether you are leaving an organization or a personal dream, or the organization you lead is changing around you; you are probably in transition right now so this isn't a hypothetical question. Answering this question isn’t always easy but one thing it will do is open up a path that leads to personal and even spiritual growth.

For example, in what sense could it be time for you to let go of that particular way to use your abilities? In what way is your new context giving you an opportunity to express your talents in a different way or context? In what way are you outgrowing the identity that you've been living with for these past years? And if you aren’t appreciated any longer in your old situation, is that loss in any sense a timely one?

Such questions give you a place to start, a path to follow. Every one of them suggests some learning, some discovery that may lie ahead. Each of them represents a gate in that change-wall that blocked your path. While the path you take may not be of your own choosing or desire, it is a path with meaning for you. Following it will bring you out somewhere. Since change is a wall and transitions the gate in that wall, it's there for you to go through it. Transition represents a path to the next phase of your life.

I am a person that follows the Jesus-way in my spiritual journey. William Bridges talks about the ‘psychological’ aspect of transition as the key to successfully moving from one change to the other. I happen to believe it’s more than psychological. It’s spiritual. There is a deeper level of the soul that is affected and must be addressed when life shifts around us. When your secure way of thinking and doing is upset by transition, what or who, anchors you? If it’s just the latest flavor-of-the-month self help guru’s “5 steps to Successful Transition”, you are placing your future on a foundation of shifting sand. What will the next book or seminar feed you? Establishing a grip on your purpose in life is the ultimate stabilizer in times of change. A purpose pulls you forward and helps you see beyond your current condition.

Besides, if it’s all about this life only, what’s the point?

Nomadic Leader - Inaugural Blog Sept 2009

Nomadic people : (Greek: νομάδες, nomádes, "those who let pasture herds") are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. (WIKI)

A nomad is a member of a people that moves from place to place. That pretty much characterizes my own life. I have pitched my tent in the Canadian cities of Calgary, Regina, Stony Plain & Toronto, the Indonesian cities of Bandung & Semarang, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and currently Kuwait City.

You still hear the word ‘Bedouin” around here in the Middle East- a term many of us associate with the nomadic life. Here it’s more than a term. They exist as a people and some even with influence in government. In the 1950s as well as the 1960s, large numbers of Bedouin throughout the Middle East started to leave the traditional, nomadic life to settle in the cities of the Middle East, especially as home ranges have shrunk and population levels have grown. Government policies and oil production in the Middle Eastern region, as well as a desire for improved standards of living, effectively led most Bedouin to become settled citizens of various nations, rather than stateless nomadic herders. A century ago nomadic Bedouin still made up some 10% of the total Arab population. Today they account for some 1% of the total. (source: Wikipedia)

Not many traditional nomads left in this world. Yet a nomadic spirit is a contemporary need.

This blog is entitled the “Nomadic Leader”. I have chosen the title carefully. It is firstly a personal reflection of who I am: my wanderlust and passion to experience the world, its people and opportunities (my friends interpret this as “restlessness”). However the title also addresses my passion of leadership and in particular, an aspect of leadership spirit necessary in contemporary institutions and businesses. Effective leadership requires a nomadic spirit.

For various reasons traditional nomads sought new territory; better grazing, more fertile land, peace, etc. The “contemporary nomadism” I endorse for leaders is a response to the ever-shifting opportunities and challenges presented by a world that is increasingly defined by the global highways that carry people, ideas, beliefs, traditions and commerce. Those who lead any type of organization must therefore be somewhat ‘nomadic’ in their thinking; able to view the landscape, respond to multiple cultures, see the potential threats and opportunities, be ready to move when the need arises. Fixed thinking and strategies, while they provide security for a while, will relegate a leader and his or her organization to the sidelines.

Just what this ‘nomadic leader’ might think and believe and do is the ongoing quest of this blog. I want to reflect with anyone out there on this emerging topic. I think a nomadic leader comes out of his/her proverbial ‘tent’ most mornings and ask questions like:

• Where is there new ‘land’ to explore and utilize?
• How can we find new pathways to engage employees & team-mates more effectively, helping them ‘find their voice’ in this world as Covey says. Where is there better pasture for them to feed on and become better people and better employees?
• In what ways can we better engage multiple cultures in our organization?
• What is coming our way as an organization and how nimble must we be in response?
• When is it time to get a new tent?

Looking forward to a nomad’s journey across the global information highway...

Harv Matchullis – currently in Kuwait