Killer Gaps: Part 2

In Part One, I showed you how to think about one of the most important challenges organizations face, stakes gaps.?Every leadership challenge has stakes. ?Stakes are what’s in danger of being threatened if the challenge isn’t met.?As a leader, you should always be asking when confronting challenges: “What’s at stake here??What will happen if we fail?”

When your understanding of the stakes and their understanding of the stakes are different, you have a “stakes gap”, and when that difference is so large it threatens your ability to successfully meet the challenge, you have a “killer stakes gap.”

In this article, I’ll show you how to close them.

1. Select which side of the gap (or gap-bridge) that you want to focus on, i.e., the side that will get results. (Do not necessarily focus on your side of the gap.?Their side might be more important for getting results, or bridging the gap may be more important.) ?For example, they want to walk, you need for them to run.?In this case, RUN is going to get you the best results.?Focus on the RUN side.

2. Recast your selection as a PROBLEM.?For example, your audience does not want to run.?

3. Define that problem by breaking it down into its defining characteristics, those concrete factors that make up the problem.?For example, you may think that they don't want to run because they are lazy.?From your perspective, their laziness is the problem's defining characteristic.?But from their perspective, they might not want to run not because they are lazy but because:?a. They don't have the proper running shoes.?b. They don't feel they are in shape.?c. They fear they will fail.?Same problem, different defining characteristics.?

4. Agree. You and they must agree on the defining characteristics of the problem.?If you tell them that they are lazy when, from their standpoint, their major concerns are shoes, physical conditioning, and failure, you cannot motivate them.?Unless and until you and such an agreement is reached, you cannot close the motivational gap.

5. Examine. Once you have agreed on the defining characteristics of the problem, examine each characteristic in terms of its relevancy or irrelevancy in getting results.?For example, you change your mind and agree with them that it is not their laziness that prevents them from running but their lack of shoes, lack of conditioning, and their fear of failure.?Are those characteristics relevant or irrelevant in terms of their getting results??If irrelevant, the audience must understand why.?If relevant, go to Step 6. ?????

6.?Create a process (action steps) to solve the problem.?Process translates concepts into action.?Solve major problems with process, since process can be used to solve similar problems.?Don't create your process downstream-to-upstream but instead upstream-to-downstream.?For instance, develop a process that will get them committed to running.?Tell them that you will give them information on how to run well and the equipment to run well and that you will train them and put them through conditioning exercises, practice sessions, and competitions.?Important: Differentiate between concept and process.?Don't just create the concept.?Instead, create the specific action processes that realize the concept.?Also:?Differentiate between procedure and process.?Procedures are rules usually imposed upon people from the outside.?Processes are organic actions that grow from inside out.?There are four requirements of processes in Action Leadership: 1. Processes must get results.?2. They must be measured.?3. They must have value.?4. They must be tied to the heartfelt convictions of the people who use them.?

7. Close the gap by having them become committed to your process.?Until they demonstrate such commitment (i.e., commitment to your solution to their problem), they are not and cannot be motivated.

8. Monitor the closure as you put them through the process to keep the gap closed. Be constantly engaged in gap-analysis, gap-closing.???

Eight steps, you may say, are too much to bother with. But understanding stakes, what they are and how they can boost/poison the results-production of entire organizations, is necessity for all leaders.

Copyright ? The Filson Leadership Group, Inc.

Brent Filson is the founder of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc., which for 37-years has helped thousands of leaders of all ranks and functions in top companies worldwide achieve sustained increases in hard, measured results. He has published 23 books and many scores of articles on leadership. His mission is to have leaders replace their traditional presentations with his specially developed, motivating process call the Leadership Talk. www.brentfilson.com and theleadershiptalk.com

Besides having lectured about the Leadership Talk at MIT Sloan School of Management, Columbia University, Wake Forest, Villanova, Williams, Middlebury, I also brought the Leadership Talk to leaders in these organizations: Abbott, Ameritech, Anheuser-Busch, Armstrong World Industries, AT&T, BancOne, BASF, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, Betz Laboratories, Bose, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Campbell Sales, Canadian Government, CNA, DuPont, Eaton Corporation, Exelon, First Energy, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, GTE, Hershey Foods, Houghton Mifflin, IBM, Meals-on-Wheels, Merck, Miller Brewing Company, NASA, PaineWebber, Polaroid, Price Waterhouse, Roadway Express, Sears Roebuck, Spalding International, Southern Company, The United Nations, among others.