Getting in the Coaching Habit to Drive Digital Transformation

When talking to leaders about their challenges with driving digital transformation in their organizations, they inevitably want me to “cut to the chase” and just tell them the top things that they have to do or change—they want to start with the answers.?This is, of course, very difficult without actually spending some meaningful time on?key questions?like what digital will mean to them specifically, what are the capabilities and readiness of the organization and its leadership, and what cultural barriers are the likely to run up against.?

| There is one action that always emerges regardless of organization size, industry, and (so far) evolution—operationalizing curiosity!?|

However, there is one action that always emerges regardless of organization size, industry, and (so far) evolution—operationalizing curiosity!?The transition from leadership that leads with control and direction to leadership that values curiosity and guidance is a fundamental shift in the digital era.?It is at the heart of all things agile, it is the lifeblood of employee engagement, and it breeds innovation behaviors throughout an organization.?However, being curious has clear implications that many leaders want to avoid.?If I am curious I am saying “I don’t know enough about this” and I am also letting go of control by bringing in other’s ideas and needs which now have to be managed.?Curiosity is not something that the linear model of “leaders strategize, and followers execute” really requires.?Which is why it is a key tool to break the leadership - followership patterns that are slowing us down in pre-digital organizations.

Over 20 years ago I was introduced to the work of Edgar Schein and his thinking and teaching has shaped how I have worked and interacted with people ever since.?I was fortunate enough to study under Ed while enrolled in the M.S.O.D. program at Pepperdine and have taken opportunities over the years to learn from him again whenever I could.?During a program Ed ran in Boston, again almost 20 years ago, I became acquainted with someone who shared my affinity for Ed’s genius and who became a great friend and co-conspirator over the years, Michael Bungay Stanier of?Box of Crayons.?Working with Michael is how I came to understand how curiosity can be put into action.?I now believe that the evolution of the?Box of Crayons approach?(which I have been using and teaching for over a decade) has resulted in a set of simple, yet powerful, tools for helping leaders make this change to a place of deep curiosity.

What I really like about this approach is that you don’t have to adopt a new set of beliefs or attitudes, you just have to try out the behaviors.?And the behaviors are a simple and short, easy-to-use, set of questions.?At its simplest it boils down to?5 fundamental questions?that can take you a very long way.?You can also move to a larger, but just as easy to use, set of questions that really helps you do what Ed Schein has taught is needed—help someone get clear on the real challenge they are facing, help them come up with possibilities to solve that challenge, and help them be accountable to take action.?

|?If people behave in a way that they don’t normally, based on their beliefs, and then what happens is not what they expected, that is when beliefs begin to be questioned. |

It is a virtuous cycle where by people learn to meet their own needs and solve their own problems.?It stops us from jumping into expert mode where we start to provide great answers to the wrong problems.?And it allows us to act in a way that truly curious people act.?That, for me, is the real magic.?Our day-to-day behaviors are based, consciously or subconsciously, on our beliefs, whether stated or tacit and unarticulated even to ourselves.?Getting people to change beliefs is incredibly difficult.?The work of both Robert A. Burton in his book?On Being Certain?and Michael Shermer in?The Believing Brain, cite the copious scientific and sociological study that demonstrate this.?However, getting someone to behave differently can be broken down in the very simple request of “try this…and see what happens”.?If people behave in a way that they don’t normally, based on their beliefs, and then what happens is not what they expected, that is when beliefs begin to be questioned.?In their work on?Immunity to Change, Bob Kegan and Lisa Lahey use this approach as the fundamental tool for making true change—coming up with measurable, recoverable tests of beliefs that are holding a person back.?It is so simple, yet so powerful.

Which brings us full circle back to change and transformation in a digital era.?We need leaders who have not the gift of curiosity, but the tools of curiosity, so that they can both begin to believe that curiosity is so much more powerful than control and so that they can unlock the hidden potential of their people to better define and then solve problems.?The core of innovation is the people closest to the customer uncovering the true struggle of the customer and then being open to any possibility to solve the problem that struggle creates.?It takes leaders who know how to act curious to allow this to happen.?

If you are now curious to know more about how to operationalize curiosity in your organization then feel free to reach out to me about my experiences or reach out directly to the Box of Crayons team.?In full disclosure, Michael is a good friend and I have delivered this training myself many times in organizations where I worked, so I have a personal connection to Box of Crayons.?And, I also am certified to deliver the programs externally and have done so (and may do again). That does, admittedly, make me a bit biased but it has been my substantial experience with the approaches that has made me a believer.