Nov. 2022 Dare to Lead? Discussion

At Dare Team Switzerland, we’re increasingly asked for smaller and smaller slices of learning and leadership content. It sounds like:

• “Can you just do the part on psychological safety?”
• “Can we just get the piece on difficult conversations?”
• “We need our people to speak up; can you come teach us how to have courage?”

We understand why leaders and organizations ask for these small slices:

• It appears to limit risk and is easier to purchase in a single transaction.
• It’s easier to understand a single topic than diagnose and address complex learning, leadership, and organizational culture needs.

What’s most important, though, is that this piecemeal approach will not achieve your desired learning and leadership outcomes. Psychological safety, for example, is not the goal, it’s an ingredient, as are courage and trust.

Each of these topics is important. They’re essential ingredients. The trick is knowing how to use and combine them.

It’s a lot like cooking. Psychological safety is an essential ingredient in the culture and conversations for your team to achieve their shared goals and organizational outcomes.

When we focus only on the ingredients we miss the most crucial step, the really good stuff, the awesome main course. It’s like leaving all the ingredients sitting on the kitchen counter instead of combining them just right to make a rich, satisfying main dish.In Dare to Lead? that hearty fare is conversations and collaboration referred to as Rumbling.

What is a Rumble?

It’s discussion, discourse, collaboration… the conversations we have when we get things done. They’re not always easy. The bigger and more innovative your goals, the trickier these conversations can get.

Brené Brown says:

“A rumble is a discussion, conversation, or meeting defined by a commitment to lean into vulnerability, to stay curious and generous, to stick with the messy middle of problem identification and solving, to take a break and circle back when necessary, to be fearless in owning our parts, and, as psychologist Harriet Lerner teaches, to listen with the same passion with which we want to be heard. More than anything else, when someone says, “Let’s rumble,” it cues me to show up with an open heart and mind so we can serve the work and each other, not our egos.”

What goes into a great Rumble? What are the ingredients?

• Psychological Safety: so we can say what there is to say
• Trust: so we can work well together
• Curiosity: so we can explore, learn, be creative, innovate
• Commitment: so we can focus and succeed

Courage, honesty, and knowledge are in there, too, like spices, celery, or salt.

Rumbling is when you stir it all up… and just like in cooking there are different ways to do that. Cooking, you might use a whisk to make batter light and fluffy, or fold in eggs gently just a few times. You might be dealing with a recipe that says beat for 5 minutes until all ingredients are well combined and the batter’s silky smooth. Totally different techniques are required.

Just as there are cooking techniques, there are facilitation techniques for rumbling. Not knowing how to conduct these conversations can cost you and your team in the same way that incorrect technique makes batter lumpy or soufflé fall:

? How much heat and pressure are needed for optimal results?

? What are you aiming for?

? How will you know when it’s done?

It’s the same questions and factors to manage in a productive Rumble. If you get it wrong, the eggs separate, just as team relationships can fracture. Then you have to fix it or start all over.

Learning these techniques and combining these ingredients well takes time. If you’re ready to rumble or know leaders and organizations who’ll benefit from Rumbling techniques, here are a few tools and resources from Dare to Lead that can get you started: Story Rumble guide & Rumble language.

You can also join our free monthly lunchtime discussion on the first Friday of November. November 2022’s topic is Rumbling. These calls are one hour, unrecorded discussions open to the public to explore a topic from Dr. Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead?. On Friday 4 November join us at 12 noon CET the Certified Dare to Lead Facilitators from Dare Team Switzerland will host an open, free call on recipes for Rumbling. Bring your examples, ideas and questions.