Sticking Close to the Bucking Horse

Sticking Close to the Bucking Horse

sticking close to the bucking horse

Often when working with organizations in the process of change, I encounter what I like to call “a bucking horse.”  This is a person or group that seems to resist change loudly and forcefully and generally makes life difficult for those who are tasked to lead it.  For me it was a union that was convinced that the plan and process I suggested would result in their jobs being outsourced.

Resistance to change is a reality that challenges every leader and consultant at some point in their tenure. There are typical ways to deal with this, ranging from strong-arming the other party to rolling over and giving up, which are all about power and control. There is another way, though – more effective but hard to do – which is “staying close to the bucking horse.”   It takes patience and courage, and the willingness to make oneself vulnerable.  I personally experienced challenges to my reputation, many sleepless nights, and intense bursts of anger, self-doubt and hopelessness — unlike the cool, collected facilitator that I always wanted to portray.

The Situation

I was hired by a large urban school district to conduct strategic planning with their school health program.   The district had over 45,000 students in nearly 90 schools, and it could not keep up with the growing health care needs of its student population.  Many children had no health insurance and no connection to primary health care.

As in many other districts with budget problems, the school health department had been severely cut.  By the time I started consulting with them, only 25 members of the school health staff were registered school nurses.  School buildings were actually staffed by health assistants, who worked part time with limited training.  They were to operate under the supervision of nurses; however, the nurses were spread so thin that they were often unable to provide it.  The result was that health assistants took on situations and tasks that were often outside of their training, and the school district as a whole was potentially exposed for a multi-million-dollar malpractice suit.  To make matters worse, the union representing the health assistants was now demanding that their members be paid the same as nurses, since obviously they were doing the work of them.

My Process Causes Concern

This situation was actually symptomatic of a much larger system breakdown that was out of the school district’s control – access to affordable health care.  As a result, I proposed inviting the larger community – including local health care providers, parent groups, government agencies, and foundations, among others – to join the school district in solving this problem.

Everyone loved the approach except for the paraprofessional union, which was convinced that this was simply a ploy for the district to outsource their jobs.  No amount of discussion could dissuade the union of this opinion.  In addition, their president (I will call her Mona) was a force to be reckoned with.    Mona had learned the ropes of union organizing the hard way, from the ground up, and was a formidable opponent.   She continually stoked the fire with rumors and insinuations.

Because I believed so strongly in the need to “stay close to the bucking horse,” I made sure that Mona as union president was a member of the planning team and included in every meeting that took place, along with the business agent for the union and several other key union members.  This was different from the normal “arms-length” approach that department leaders had used in the past.   However, I respected that Mona was simply trying to protect her members and was probably distrustful of management.  I believed that if she and union members were integral to the planning team, they would realize that no one had a preconceived notion of what was going to come out of this planning effort, and would begin to trust us and collaborate for a solution.

The result?  Mona tried to have me fired by the school board.

I quickly learned that she had earned her reputation as being a disruptive force for good reason.  She worked hard to throw me off balance as a facilitator with a litany of complaints and accusations about my loyalties, the fairness of ground rules, and how I facilitated the meetings.  This was truly the biggest “bucking horse” I’d ever encountered.

Practical Tips to Make This Work

  • Expect the horse to buck! Resistance to change is normal, and is more about fear of loss than fear of change.   Understanding — and helping others to understand — the difference between real and imagined losses is critically important.  In addition, helping people to tangibly experience what the future might look like can help them support a change.  
  • It is OK to be objective and not simply neutral. As a facilitator, I am trained to be neutral.  However, being neutral in this situation would have allowed misinformation to continue unchecked.  I needed to be objective, and to state the facts for all to consider on a regular basis.
  • Engage the larger system. Had we only focused on the conflicts between the union and management nothing would have changed.  It was only with the involvement and feedback from the larger system that we could craft a solution and help these two parties find common ground.   
  • Remain open and balanced yourself, and refrain from angry attacks based on your own frustration – that will only strengthen the resistance. It helps to get support from peers, mentors, or other trusted professionals so that you can maintain your own focus and objectivity.
  • At some point, the horse will get tired and stop bucking. If you have consistently shown that you can be trusted, you can step in and guide it to greener pastures.

Now What?

My client wanted her off the planning team, and my “loser self” was kicking in – really angry and wanting to teach Mona a lesson.  It would be so easy to do!  But I knew if that happened, we would be playing directly into her hand:  she wanted to prove that this was not an open and collaborative effort, that there was an underlying agenda, and that her union was not respected or accepted as full partners in the process. There were two things I decided to do:

  • I convinced the members of the leadership team to double their effort in communicating with all staff to provide regular in-person updates, so that everyone (including Mona’s union members) would have the opportunity to hear directly from leaders and judge for themselves about the facts, the realities, leader motivations, and the emerging plans.
  • I decided to get some help for Mona had figured out how to get to me.  I knew that I could compromise the entire project if I dealt with her poorly.  I realized that I could use some help to avoid getting personally enmeshed with this client.

With the help of a coach I hired for myself during this process, I began to see that I was confused in my interpretation of my role as a facilitator.  Usually, I saw my role as remaining neutral while working with often differing parties to forge solutions, which usually worked when all parties were faithfully engaged in the process.  However, in the face of active resistance and manipulation, staying purely neutral was not only unhelpful in this situation, but was also against my personal and professional values to let dysfunction go unchecked.  I realized I had to take an objective stance – that is, stating facts and realities, and pointing out patterns as they emerge, even if this information was not well received.

My coach helped me to detach my ego from the work that I was doing with this client, and to recognize when and how I needed to speak up.  This preserved my mental health over the next several months as the planning team started to shape the new organizational design.

The Crisis Comes

The defining moment came as I worked with the planning team to do a one-day “test drive” of the new organizational model with all staff and representative stakeholders – over 125 people.  The goal was to provide everyone with a sense of what a redesigned organization might look like, especially one that had a new and strengthened relationship with the community.   We wanted to get feedback on what processes needed to change.

I was told the night before that Mona was planning to stage a “walk out” to protest the changes.   I was completely disheartened.  There was nothing more I could do.  I braced myself for the confrontation. All morning I waited for something to happen as we walked through the various design elements and tested them out.   After lunch I noticed a buzzing in the hallway, as Mona and several other union leaders gathered.   Here it comes, I thought.

What happened – or better put, what did not happen – was amazing.  People were so engaged in the process that when Mona tried to stage the “walk out,” no one joined.   Even more surprising, Mona and the rest of her union leaders eventually came back into the room and began to engage in the process.

Two days later, the planning team gathered once again to adjust the new organizational model based on the results of the “test drive.”   We were stunned when Mona announced that although some people were “resistant” to change, she herself was fully supportive of the new direction.  Whether she fully embraced the change or simply recognized that her leadership was in jeopardy, it was not clear.   However, her whole demeanor had changed, and she was helpful and collaborative for the remainder of the workshop.  The “bucking horse” had stopped.

The Results

The next few years provided remarkable progress as the organization, the school district, and the community banded together to support children’s health.   Local clinics offered free immunizations to children at the start of school.  The school welcome center and the medical community worked together to get children connected to regular health care.  The school district received a sizable grant from the Centers for Disease Control to implement a new approach to dealing with chronic illnesses.   Within five years, the health of these school children was better than it ever was before, and no jobs had been lost.

When I think back on my time on this project and with Mona, I realize that in another life, I too could have made one hell of a union president.  She and I are both smart, driven, and passionate – she about her cause, me about my work – and I can be as bull-headed as she about what is important to me.  By the time we finished working together we had a grudging respect for one another.

The Moral of the Story

“Sticking close to the bucking horse” means recognizing that today’s opponent might be tomorrow’s ally.  It takes patience and courage, and the willingness to make yourself vulnerable in the process of change as well.

Cathy Perme is the co-owner of Perme & Peterson Associates, LLC.

Fizz by Cathy Perme

Buy Fizz! on Amazon

Buy FIZZ on Amazon Audio
Catherine Perme

Fizz! How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant author Cathy Perme also wrote Confucius in My Cubicle: Practical Wisdom for the Leader in All of Us, released by Wisdom Editions.

Surviving Economic Busts

Surviving Economic Busts

What I’ve Learned about Surviving Economic Busts

These are such scary times, both personally and professionally,  that the easiest thing to do would be to crawl into a shell and stay there until everything sorts itself out. 

Unfortunately, life goes on and so must we, as we maneuver through this pandemic and try to come out whole on the other side of it.

Luckily, I’ve learned a few things over my 30 years of being in business, about how to weather economic realities that are beyond my control.  I’ve successfully survived the impact of the first Gulf war in 1991 (just a year after starting my business;) the Tech bust in 1998; 9/11 in 2001; and the Great Recession in 2009-12.  Here is what I am putting into my own playbook now to get through this unprecedented time;  I offer these “lessons learned” to you as well.

  • Focuson the Future
    • Prepare for a very different future
    • Consider the consequences of decisions for both short and long term to balance the needs of both
    • Continually scan to see what patterns are emerging in business/industry; think about what opportunities these patterns might present for you
  • Invest“plow the ground for the Future”
    • Now is the time to invest in marketing, building new skills, developing capacity, and expanding networks to be ready for a different future.
    • Get better at what seems to be looming in the future (technology?)
    • Don’t have a lot of money? You can still invest by volunteering time and effort in ways that provide new learning opportunities, community visibility, and expanded networks.
  • Team upand care for the people around you
    • Care for the people (customers, employees, community, vendors, etc.) that make your business a success. Now is the time to be generous with others.
    • Reach out to clients to maintain the relationship; find out what is becoming important to them
    • Now more than ever, it is also important to build partnerships and teamwork across businesses and industries to identify and shape new opportunities for the future.
  • Stay Positiveand take care of yourself
    • Take care of your own mental health
    • Don’t be shy to apply for benefits and loans of which you may be eligible – it is not a personal failure!
    • Everyone wants to work with a winner – your attitude is your strength.

Invariably, there will be those who prosper in the year ahead.  Remember the Chinese saying, “The times produce their heroes.”   Best to you, and good luck to us all!

Cathy Perme is the co-owner of Perme & Peterson Associates, LLC.

Fizz by Cathy Perme

Buy Fizz! on Amazon

Buy FIZZ on Amazon Audio
Catherine Perme

Fizz! How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant author Cathy Perme also wrote Confucius in My Cubicle: Practical Wisdom for the Leader in All of Us, released by Wisdom Editions.

What I Learned Recording the FIZZ! Audiobook

What I Learned Recording the FIZZ! Audiobook

audio narration of What's Your Fizz?

When my publisher, Wisdom Editions, asked me to consider recording the audiobook for my recently published book, FIZZ! How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant, I thought, sure!  How hard could it be? I know how to read!

As it turns out, it was much harder than I thought – and I learned a lot along the way.   Here are my big insights:

  • Diction is key! I learned how sloppily I pronounced words and how often I slurred endings. (Examples: “…in” instead of “…ing” and “ta” instead of “to.”) When talking face to face it is not as big a deal because we anticipate and read between the lines when conversing. However in an audiobook, proper pronunciation is important to get the message out correctly.
  • Slow down! Again, this is different than talking to each other face to face, in which we have an advantage in interpreting meaning. Listening to a recording in which the speaker is talking too fast is like getting a firehose of information that is hard to digest quickly.
  • Don’t breathe during recording. Okay, this one was hard to figure out, because I do need to breathe to talk! However, it turns out that listening to someone’s breathing on an audiobook is distracting. (Again, in real life we tune this out.) So, I had to learn how to breathe deeply before recording a section, and then pause recording to catch my breath again. Otherwise the producer needs to edit out the breathing and might inadvertently edit out other things as well.
  • The microphone is very sensitive. At one point in my recording process, I was visualizing talking to another person and forgot that I also talk with my hands. Suffice to say the mic picked up the noise of little movements I was making with my hands as I went. Boo!
  • It takes longer than you think! To record just one chapter of 5-7 pages would often take me at least 1-2 hours.  And with 36 chapters in five sections, it was a lot of recording effort. Also, I could not sit and vocalize for 8 hours a day and still keep my voice so this had to be spread out over time.  (I had planned three weeks in July, and really did not finish until Labor Day.)

I am happy to report that FIZZ! How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant, is now available on Amazon at http://smarturl.it/FIZZag and I am pleased with the result. It also comes with a PDF of illustrations that were described in the audio book, for visual reference.

This was such a great learning experience that I am planning to record my first book, Confucius in My Cubicle: Practical Wisdom for the Leader in All of Us sometime next year. Stay tuned!

Cathy Perme is the co-owner of Perme & Peterson Associates, LLC.

Fizz by Cathy Perme

Buy Fizz! on Amazon

Buy FIZZ on Amazon Audio
Catherine Perme

Fizz! How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant author Cathy Perme also wrote Confucius in My Cubicle: Practical Wisdom for the Leader in All of Us, released by Wisdom Editions.

Focusing … and Dealing with Competing Needs

Focusing … and Dealing with Competing Needs

advice for the overwhelmed

Welcome to the world of 24/7/365 – where the average leader and professional are constantly available via their smart phones, the piles of work are higher than ever before, and everyone is judged on how well they accomplish it on a timely basis.

As I write this, I am behind on deadlines for my audiobook, which I had agreed to finish recording by the end of the month (but had underestimated how long it would take!)  In the meantime, my calendar filled up with meetings and new things are coming up daily that need my time and attention.  I am feeling stressed and panicky wondering if I will be able to get everything done well and on time!

These feelings of stress and panic are normal.  They also make it hard to decide where to focus your attention, because everything seems to need your time and attention, right now!  So how do you handle it, if crawling into a box is not the answer?

Here are six practices that have worked for me:

  1. Breathe!
    Take time to calm yourself.  If you can give yourself at least 10 minutes to breath and calm down, you will think more clearly.   Sometimes I have felt so panicked that I must force myself to do this by putting a timer on for 10 minutes, which seems to give me permission to take a break to calm down.  (Weird, I know.)
  2. Evaluate the importance and urgency of your tasks.
    Stephen Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Effective Leaders talked about clearly evaluating a task by identifying how important it is, and then how urgent it is.   He then suggested a course of action, which I have used over and over to help me focus.  Using his model, I can sort out what is important and urgent (like client issues that must be addressed quickly) and set aside sacred time for the important but not urgent (like my audiobook).  In addition, I have learned to let go of things that are not important or urgent (by putting off “nice-to-do’s”) and/or looping in someone else to handle what is urgent but not important to me.
  3. Reschedule or cancel meetings.
    Meetings are an incredible drain on time – not only do you need to show up for them, but often you need to prepare for them and follow-up afterward.   Take a look at the meetings you have committed to and see if you can free up some time to deal with the more important work on which you need to focus.  Here are some ideas:
    • Is it a meeting that you can temporarily post-pone? — i.e. important but not urgent.
    • Is it a face-to-face meeting that you can make into a conference call or virtual meeting? I’ve found that I can often cover the same content in a virtual meeting and save myself 1-2 hours – in both transit time and social time, since we get down to business faster in a virtual meeting.
    • Is it a meeting that one of your staff could attend instead of you? This might be a great way to offer development opportunities for junior staff.
    • Is it a routine meeting that you can possibly skip this week, or get out of altogether?
  4. Determine the leadership style you need.
    Be careful about what leadership style you slip into when you are stressed and panicked.  Most leaders I have seen (and I often have this knee-jerk reaction myself) believe that they need to take control of the situation immediately!  Not so, especially if you have done the evaluative work above.

    If you move too quickly into a tell/control-oriented style much of the time, you will foster dependency and lack of accountability within the organization.   And if you constantly usurp your staff’s work with “this needs to get done today” demands, you will create an organization that reels from crisis to crisis and causes “burn out” and disengagement with staff.

    So, it behooves you to think carefully about what kind of leadership style you need to use to address an urgent and important situation without always taking control.  Who can assist with this issue?  Take the time to fully brief and discuss the situation with your associate or direct report, get some opinions, and clearly identify roles, responsibilities, and a plan to move forward.  Yes, this may take a little more time than just directing someone to do something.  And it may be one of the wisest investments of time and effort that you make.

  5. Say “no” when you need to, and mean it.
    We all hate to disappoint others and go back on our commitments, but sometimes we may need to do so.   I recently told my audiobook producer that I wasn’t going to make my month-end deadline, and needed to negotiate a new one.   It is more realistic and honest than promising something that I cannot deliver.

    When it is clear that something is no longer workable, you need to find a way to extract yourself from it.  Talk to the other person and see if there is another way for the work to be accomplished without you.   Do take responsibility for your part, but do not take on guilt for doing this.  Almost everyone understands that life happens and most of the time we are not in control of it.

  6. Schedule like a doctor.
    Although this is my last piece of advice, it perhaps should have come first.   Even if you are a busy executive, you need to carve out unscheduled time in your calendar to deal with the unexpected.  Much like a doctor who schedules routine exams months out but leaves time to deal with urgent needs and emergencies, you need to block out some unscheduled time in your calendar each week.

    If you have an administrative assistant, give that person instructions about how much to fill your calendar each week.  If you calendar your own time, set up calendar blocks that no one else can fill without your permission.

    Then stick to it!  If for some reason you have some free time to yourself, you can work on your “important but not urgent” tasks.

In summary, to be personally effective, maintaining your focus is important.   To do so, you will need to monitor and adjust your own tendencies in the moment, and put structures in place that assist your effort.
I hope these ideas are helpful – let me know what works for you!

Cathy Perme is the co-owner of Perme & Peterson Associates, LLC.

Fizz by Cathy Perme

Buy Fizz! on Amazon

Buy FIZZ on Amazon Audio

Fizz! How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant author Cathy Perme also wrote Confucius in My Cubicle: Practical Wisdom for the Leader in All of Us, released by Wisdom Editions in 2017.

How IBM made me a good consultant

How IBM made me a good consultant

How IBM made me a good consultant

My first career at IBM taught me how to be a good consultant. That’s where I worked hand-in-hand with customers to plan and install large mainframe systems in cavernous rooms to support their business. Lead times were often 6 months to a year, and downtime was not an option. The turnover had to go smoothly because their businesses depended on it.

At the time, I did not know how important these “soft skills” were, but now I look back on that time as creating the foundation for my success as a consultant (which by the way, is NOT about technology!)

  • Project management – and I am not talking about charts and checklists, although those are important tools. I mean real project management, in which you have to get all the stakeholders agreed on a plan and troubleshoot along the way.  Project management is much more about people than paper.  
     
  • Team building – the secret sauce of project management. I learned how to build and run a good team with the customer and my colleagues to get the job done.  Communication, respect and good humor were absolutely key to working well under pressure.
     
  • Influence versus control – I was an outsider in someone else’s organization. Although I had expertise and skill, they were the decision-makers.  I would offer my opinions, share pros and cons, and discuss tactics, but ultimately the choice was theirs and I had to support it.  This was key to being considered a partner in their success.
     
  • Meeting facilitation – I realized pretty quickly that getting everyone in the same room to create a plan together was a lot more efficient than dealing with silos. So, I just started facilitating meetings. I learned how to involve everyone and still come out with a plan or decision at the end of a meeting.  I’ve built on this over the years to make it one of my core services. 
     
  • Relationship sales – IBM focused heavily on understanding client needs and building relationships with clients to help them solve their problems. That ethic was ingrained in me as a young systems engineer, and then I spent time teaching that for IBM in Dallas, Texas.  Knowing how to sell (and not being intimidated by the process) has been the “difference that makes a difference” for my own business.  It’s the reason I have been able to put food on the table for nearly 30 years.  

I need to thank IBM, my first employer, for teaching me these skills in the service of their work. I doubt I would be as successful today in my role as a consultant.

If you are interested in becoming a consultant or improving your consulting success, look for my upcoming book, Fizz! How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant, which will be published January 1, 2019 by Wisdom Editions. In the meantime, feel free to connect via LinkedIn!

Cathy Perme is the co-owner of Perme & Peterson Associates, LLC.

Fizz by Cathy Perme

Buy Fizz! on Amazon

Buy FIZZ on Amazon Audio
Catherine Perme

Fizz! How to Succeed as an Independent Consultant author Cathy Perme also wrote Confucius in My Cubicle: Practical Wisdom for the Leader in All of Us, released by Wisdom Editions.