Here’s my email to Leadership Reno County alumni on 3/18/13:
In a recent Leadership Reno County class, we asked them to “build a trustworthy process” and it got me thinking that this is something that might help more than just the class. After all, under the competency of Energizing Others comes “create a trustworthy process.” One question the KLC Quick Guide uses to get at this is: “What can we do to make the process more trustworthy for all involved?” This dovetails very nicely with Diagnosing the Situation and its urging us to “understand the process challenges.” Asking the question, “We’ve talked about the content of the problem but what processes need to be created to address it?” So, there’s a lot to think about with this.
First off, each situation and challenge we face has its own set of process challenges. In our effort to quickly fix most of the problems we face with easy solutions, we can easily rush passed thinking about these things (this is part of the reason process is a diagnostic issue). So, sometimes, more than merely fixing something, we need to think about what processes need to be put in place to address our challenge. This might lead us to more effective diagnosis.
Also, trust is sometimes and elusive thing. We’ve heard that trust has to be earned. So, when we build a process that more effectively builds trust, it will have the effect of energizing others. We must be careful to remember, though, that creating a trustworthy process will require learning, involve stakeholders, and involve us taking smart risks and so, creating a trustworthy process is an adaptive challenge itself. Sure, authority can flex and help with the implementation. But, the most effective (and thus most trustworthy) ones will be built from the ground up. This will take energy and planning, but in the end might just help us make progress on those issues we care about so deeply.
So, think about creating processes, and trustworthy ones at that, and see if it doesn’t affect our community for the good. Have a great week…