The LIFT Blog

By Robert E. Quinn

Recently I met with a group of people who are leading a company that one year ago was very prosperous.  In the last twelve months the company has been battered by four major external jolts.  I was invited to meet with them because there was a “high level of discouragement” and it was hoped that I might be able to alter what they were thinking, feeling and seeing.  It was hoped that I might help them better energize the organization.

What these people were facing is no small challenge.  Turning around a battered organization usually looks like an impossible task.  This is particularly true if the leaders are discouraged.   Under the above conditions it is quite natural and normal for leaders to be discouraged.

In the last entry in this blog, Ryan told an inspiring story of organizational transformation.  It was an account of how Matt Landahl and Lisa Molinaro turned around a failing elementary school.  Matt gave the following explanations of the successful transformation.

1. Hard work
2. Staying focused on the most important things
3. Writing
4. Short, two-week assessments of student learning followed by adjustments
5. A staff retreat designed to inform, set standards, answer questions, and empower

Ryan indicated that each of the above five explanations was worthy of a blog entry.  He decided to focus on number four and he wrote some very insightful things about the social practices of leadership, particularly the skill of reflecting on action, or learning from real time activities.

Clarity of Purpose and Intense Effort

Here I would like to focus on numbers one and two as social practices of leadership.  Why these two?   I can never remember talking to someone who successfully transformed an organization, who did not cite the importance of clear purpose and hard work.  Nearly every self-help book I have ever read speaks of the importance of clear purpose and intense effort.  Two questions occur to me.  Are these statements of common belief scientifically sound?  Does science give us any insight about the role these two factors play in the process of organizational transformation?

The Message of Science

A review of the research literature suggests that how we frame our goals and what kind of goals we set have much to do with the quality of life we live and also how we influence others [1].  Here are some things we learn from the literature.

• Goals can be positive or negative in that they focus on something we want to achieve or that they represent some consequence we are trying to avoid.  A person might, for example frame a goal as trying to “spend time with others.”  Someone else may frame a goal as trying to “avoid being lonely.”  The first is an approach goal and the second is an avoidance goal. The difference between pursuing positive incentives and trying to avoid negative consequences is important physically, psychologically and socially.  Focusing on negative goals is associated with lower perceptions of physical health, distress, anxiety, lower subjective well being, and less perceived progress.  As spouses increase in their focus on negative goals, marital satisfaction declines.  These data suggest it is important to define and focus on approach goals.
• Goals can be extrinsic or intrinsic.  Extrinsic goals include the pursuit of such things as wealth, recognition and physical attractiveness.  The pursuit of these goals is associated with lower subjective well being, including vitality and self actualization. Higher scores on extrinsic goals are also associated with anxiety, depression, narcissism, and symptoms of physical illness.   Across different cultures the pursuit of these extrinsic goals are associated with lower self-esteem, lower self-actualization, and lower life satisfaction.
• There are four general categories or themes in goal striving.  The first is extrinsic in nature and the other three are intrinsic.  Power is striving for self-sufficiency and includes the desire to influence, impress and control others.  It is associated with lower subjective well being and poorer health.  Intimacy is the desire for close and mutually gratifying relationships.  This desire is considered a hallmark of psychological maturity.  Spirituality concerns transcending self through increasingly ethical behaviors, the pursuit of higher purposes, and seeking a relationship with the divine.  It is associated with higher scores on subjective well being, positive affect, marital satisfaction and life satisfaction. Generativity is a commitment to contribute to the development of a better future.  It is an orientation to creating and leaving a positive legacy.  It is associated with positive affect and physical well being.

Practical Application

So what should we take away from this research?  We might:

• Continually take a purposive life orientation and continually ask what result do I want to create?  This simple question shifts us from avoidance goals to approach goals.  We move from being reactive victims of circumstance to being proactive people of purpose.  This puts us in a different state.  It alters our conscious attention and the kind of feelings and thoughts we have.  Our positivity ratio goes up and we are more likely to flourish in what we are doing.  We need to continually shape our purpose.
• Insure that our purpose has meaning in our lives.  Wealth, recognition, attractiveness, power, influence and control are all desirable assets.  Yet a narrow emphasis on these extrinsic assets is likely to lead to negative consequences.   A meaningful life is continually monitored and goals are revised around intrinsic purposes such as intimacy, self-transcendence, and generative contribution.  Three questions will further help us to shape our purpose and increase our motivation to work: Am I internally directed; Am I other focused, am I externally open.
• Recognize that much is at stake.  In doing the above we will tend to experience less distress and anxiety, greater health, more positive affect, more relational satisfaction, recognize more perceived progress, experience greater happiness and life satisfaction.  As these payoffs increase in our lives we are far more likely to elevate others because we will be in the lift state.

Out of Discouragement

My session with the company leaders took place on the eve of a two day meeting.  We spent several hours discussing how to be results centered, internally directed, other-focused and externally open.

When we explored being results centered, these hard working business people indicated that they already were and they spoke of the long range objective of returning the company to a profit.  I worked to move them to a different perspective.  What result did they want to create in the next hour?  What was their immediate approach goal and why was that result meaningful to them?  As we discussed such things, new insights began to flow.  The conversation eventually turned again to making money.  This time they spoke of making money because what their company was doing was making a major social contribution to the country.  Now there was different feeling in the room.

Two days later I received an email describing the rest of the meeting.  The author indicated that it was the most positive and hopeful meeting they had had since the first crisis.  Each time the emotional energy began to wane, they asked what result they wanted to create.  Energy would return and the conversation would become more generative.  In that condition the leaders of that company were far more likely to do what Matt and Lisa did at the elementary school.

[1] Emmons, R.A. (2003). Personal goals, life meaning, and virtue: Wellsprings of a positive life.  In C.L.M. Keyes (Ed.), Flourishing: The positive person and the good life (pp. 105-128).  Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 4:39 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.