Ownership with an “Iron” Will



At the end of last week I had the supreme pleasure of conducting an Ownership Spirit seminar with 400 new employees of a brand new hospital here in the Phoenix valley, Banner Ironwood.  Banner Ironwood is opening its doors in just a few days and has the enviable and unique opportunity to create a healing, nurturing, Ownership culture right from day one.   In any business, you can get a strong, powerful climate by default or by design, and the leadership team at Banner Ironwood is passionate about choosing that culture by design.  Two of Banner’s chief points of focus are on excellent patient care and employee engagement and retention.  These are both achieved when each employee, each leader, each caregiver, and each volunteer thinks like an Owner.  The leaders and staff at Banner Ironwood are choosing Ownership on purpose.

This choice was part of Banner Ironwood’s vision and mission from the ground up.  Planted around the hospital are ironwood trees, the “nurse plant” of the Sonoran desert.  They stand as living reminders of the hospital’s mission and values.  Additionally, the ironwood blossoms are prominently featured in the artwork around the building.  I was impressed with their hospital promise, part of which reads:

We stand with strength, compassion and knowledge, welcoming all who seek healing beneath our branches.

We are each but a single leaf on the tree, yet by joining together we provide a safe, healing canopy for our patients, their families, and each other.

We are each part of the shelter, the refuge, the nurturing, the strength, and the integrity that symbolizes Banner Ironwood Medical Center.

I spoke to this large gathering of employees and volunteers about the opportunity they have to create a culture of healing through their very thought processes.  Even as only one leaf on the Banner Ironwood “tree,” they each have a very real and substantive opportunity to nurture or poison, to help or to harm, to bless or to blight, simply by choosing Owner or Victim every time they walk through the hospital doors.

There is more than one way to contaminate a hospital.  As real as the transfer of germs can be without proper protocols in place, the transfer of emotions can be just as harmful.  As important as handwashing, state-of-the-art equipment,  best-practice initiatives, and excellent patient care are, service, compassion, love and listening can have just as powerful effects on the healing process.  True caring by these 400 individuals will be just as critical to patients as they marshal the disease-fighting elements of their bodies, as the treatment regimes and medicines the caregivers will administer.  In other words, the HOW is just as important as the WHAT.

I offer two examples of the irreplaceable role of a genuine caregiver:

LaTrice Haney is an oncology nurse who understands the real power of caregiving.  She was Lance Armstrong’s nurse and Armstrong called her “an angel” in his book, It’s Not About the Bike.  He said that her answers to his questions were always calm and succinct.  She never sugar-coated his illness or the battles he was up against.  But she always talked positively about the doctors, the staff, the treatment protocols, and the possible outcomes.  LaTrice Haney was only one person in the team of people helping Armstrong fight his battle against testicular cancer, and yet she made the biggest difference because of HOW she cared.  She helped Lance fight his disease with knowledge and courage because she thought and talked and acted like an owner.

Another example happened just a few miles from me, at another of Banner’s hospitals here in the valley, where there is another Owner-Healer by the name of Dr. Edward Perlstein.  One of his patients, James Lee, was a gifted sculptor.  James suffered a stroke that caused significant damage to the right side of his body, causing James to despair that he could no longer use his art or practice his love of sculpting.  In the weeks following his stroke, he languished.  Dr. Perlstein could see that James was not making any serious progress toward healing.  He had lost his will to live.  One day Dr. Perlstein asked James when he was going to sculpt again.  For a moment James thought the doctor was mocking him.  James shrugged him off.  In recounting the moment later, Dr. Perlstein said, “I told him his art was in his mind and not in his right hand.”

This was the turning point for James and made all the difference in his healing.  He began to think differently and he began to try his art again, left-handed.  A few years later James was commissioned to create a sculpture for the Banner Heart Hospital campus.  It stands today as a tribute to him, to Dr. Perlstein, and to the power of true healers everywhere.

In every business, in every human endeavor, taking a stand against victim-thinking has a miraculous effect on outcomes.  As we each take full responsibility for our corporate cultures by taking full responsibility for our own thoughts, we make a difference in the quality of those outcomes–for ourselves, for our businesses, for those we serve.  As we leave negative thought patterns behind, contamination is reduced or eliminated and infectious doubt, fear and criticism are curtailed.  And as we focus on the difference we can make by truly connecting with and caring about other people–the HOW and not just the WHAT–amazing things can happen.

I’m interested in your thoughts.

Eliminating the Gap



I spent the end of last week near the beautiful Oregon coast.  It is an amazing part of the country.  Being there again reminded me of an experience I had just a couple of weeks ago.  I was there teaching a Destination Thinking for Leaders seminar to the strong and engaged leaders of TriQuint Semiconductor.  It was very rewarding experience.

A few months before this Destination Thinking seminar, that included TriQuint’s senior staff and their direct reports (53 people in all), I worked with TriQuint’s CEO, Ralph Quinsey, to create a “destination vision.” The process began by articulating a description of what TriQuint would look like in Q4 2013.

A lot of us are familiar with vision statements and the reasons we use them.  However, in my work with companies all over the country, I point out that there is a big difference between a vision statement and a Vision. A vision statement by itself has marginal value.  Sometimes, inadvertently, it can even lead to less unity because of what I call “cargo phrases.”  A cargo phrase is a phrase that encapsulates a “boat-load” of meaning for the author but may convey a different definition to the reader.  A good example might be phrases like, “high customer satisfaction” or “improve the quality of our product.”  If team members differ in their respective definitions of the cargo phrases, everyone thinks they are on the same page, but they are not.  The net result is unintended disunity.

The crux of Destination Thinking is to stand in the future and look back.  From that place in the future we can then ask several key questions about how we got there, and what specific things had to happen in order for us to reach this new destination.  It is a powerful way to accelerate progress because it helps leaders see exactly what needs to occur in order to create the desired future state.

Once the initial description was defined, I posed a series of questions to Ralph, to open up the cargo phrases so that his intent was clear and specific.  As we worked together, the cargo phrases were clarified and a lofty, achievable destination—one that could actually be visualized—started to emerge.

About half-way into this process, Ralph sent the newly emerging vision to his direct reports to get their feedback and insights.  Their suggests were woven and blended into the description.  By the time the final draft was ready, the entire Senior Staff had its fingerprints on it, and there was a solid unity and buy-in.

The end result:  TriQuint’s 2013 Destination Vision — a detailed, narrative description of exactly where TriQuint will be in three years.

But, what about the gap between the then and now?

At Quma Learning, we have developed a highly successful model for closing those elusive gaps.  The Destination Thinking Model works on personal gaps, team gaps, and company gaps.  During the seminar, I led TriQuint’s leaders in an exercise so they could experience the power of the model.  After selecting a specific problem they had been wrestling with in some aspect of their lives, personal to professional, each leader applied the model to their problem. They were amazed and impressed by the insights they received!  And they were ready and eager to use it to close the gap between TriQuint’s 2013 Destination Vision and TriQuint’s immediate reality.

By the end of that day, they knew what their company would look like in three years coupled with a very good idea of what had to happen on a company level, on a team level, and on an individual level in order to bring that vision into working reality.

And I have no doubt that they will do it.

My confidence in this team stems from previous experience.  Back in 2005, I was invited to present a seminar on destination thinking at an earlier vintage of TriQuint’s current Leadership Forum.  The focus then was on the creation of a rather lofty five-year vision for 2010 — a significant stretch from the then current state.  At last month’s meeting, TriQuint was celebrating the full realization of that very goal!  Laughingly, I told them I didn’t want to take all of the credit, and then in genuine acknowledgment of them, I offered my sincerest congratulations.

At the end of the day, TriQuint held an awards banquet and celebrated the accomplishments of their team, and they also presented me with an award: “Best Story-Teller Award.”

It was a humorous and kind gesture to symbolize the synergy we had felt that day. But in every way, I am also very honored to be TriQuint’s “best storyteller.”  Especially because their current success and future accomplishments are not fiction.  They are the true story of a group of people dedicated to their vision, to each other, and to turning their Destination Thinking into a reality.

I am interested in your thoughts.

Front and Center



Are you talking to me?

As I continue to discover nuances of unproductive thinking in my own mental patterns, as well as outright infractions, I have begun to notice how easily I rationalize and deflect opportunities by comparing myself to others.

I recently had an experience in a church meeting that gave me a forthright wake-up call.  It has had a profound effect on me, and I hope it will be thought-provoking and helpful for you as well.  It is a lesson in humility — a sign of true Ownership and a key to continuous personal improvement.

For whatever reason, whether in the classroom, or in the seminar, or in the congregation, people like to sit in the back.  There are more places to hide in the back.  There’s less accountability in the back.  There’s less uncomfortable eye-to-eye contact in the back.  The congregation in this meeting was no different…the seats in the back were filled and, with many seats up front still open, some people were even leaning against the back wall.

As the meeting commenced, the person conducting made a general request.  It seemed obvious that his main intent was specifically to the people in the back but his phrasing was more general.  “Could we have you please move forward to the front and fill in the center section?”  I was sitting on the speaker’s left about three rows back from the front.  My immediate response was, “This request does not apply to me; it’s for those in the back.”  Done, finished.  Request in; request deflected.

In the group that day there was a young man, Curtis Kinneard.  Curtis has been described by some people as having “special needs.”  He does not see well and has a few other physical challenges, but he is very bright of mind and can carry on an intelligent conversation with any college professor.  I have learned many things from him, none more important that what he taught me that day.

At the moment of the announcement Curtis was sitting on the second row on the right side.  When he heard the invitation, he immediately got up, and moved to the very center seat in the very front row.

I have to admit, his guilelessness brought tears to my eyes.  I was so moved by his willingness to do as he was asked, to get as absolutely “front and center” as he could, I had to swallow hard to maintain my composure.

As I reflected on his response I pondered why I had not accepted and complied with the same request as openly and earnestly as he had.  Why had I almost reflexively chosen to justify myself by saying that I was already in compliance because I was closer to being “front and center” than a lot of other people in the congregation?  Why do I opt for:

I’m already nearly at the front.

Look around, I’m already closer to the center than most of these folks.

I just sat down here and I’m comfortable where I’m at.

He’s not talking to me…he’s asking those other guys in the back.

What’s the big deal?  I’m here, aren’t I?  Does it really matter where I sit??

How often do we justify ourselves, telling ourselves we’re “close enough.”  We fail to see what difference a little more effort will make.  We tell ourselves that we’re already doing our part to be a team player, and that it’s somebody else’s turn to move, or sacrifice, or do the hard work.

I have come back to that singular moment at church over and over again during the last couple of months.  It has become a metaphor for me, a metaphor that has had applications in my personal life, my spiritual life, and in my work life.  In every area, I find that there is always an opportunity to move just a little more “front and center,” to take true Ownership of where I am and evaluate my responsiveness to those around me.  I have asked myself if I’m really playing all-out, if I’m really doing all that I can, or if I’m just doing more than someone else and calling it ”good enough.”

In every organization, we are asked by our team leaders, by our corporate executives, by our boards, to stretch a little more, to innovate, to streamline, to go out of our comfort zones for the good of the whole, to, metaphorically, move up front and center.

In a quiet and significant way, my young friend, Curtis Kinneard, showed me again the very great difference being an Owner makes…not only in my relationships and my organizations, but in the kind of person I am at the very core.

I want to Own the kind of heart Curtis Kinneard does.

I’m interested in your thoughts.

Owner/Victim Thinking at the Tip of the Iceberg



Later this month, I will be teaching the Ownership Spirit seminar at Dixie Applied Technical College in St. George, Utah.  When I saw this upcoming speaking engagement on my calendar, it reminded me of a letter I recently received from a leader there.  I found it humorous and profound, and hope that it will help you navigate your own teams through your own “deep waters.”

The email came from Kelle Stephens, Vice President of Instruction.  She writes:

Yesterday we had faculty “bookclub.”  We reviewed the first section of Ownership Spirit.  One of the faculty, Dave Seely, told a great story.  He remembers being a kid and watching Titanic with his parents….not the Celine Dion music extravaganza one…the old black and white.  His mom had been a choir director his entire life…so when the part came on where the ship was sinking and the choir director assembled the sorry victims and led them in hymns, he remembered her dabbing her eyes and remarking about how perfect it was….to go down singing the hymns.  Then he recalled his father saying: “Bullshit!  They oughta be finding something to float on!”  Perfect illustration of the difference between Victims and Owners! 

My staff is loving the book.  They are pulling spouses, adult kids, and friends into the reading.  I think it is going to make a long term difference in my ability to move this group forward. 

It has been a long time since I have seen the 1953 version of this movie.  But, I found a copy of those final, ending scenes that Dave Seely referenced and rewatched it.

As I did so, I was struck by a few thoughts.  First, that we can find great examples of Owner and Victim thinking all around us.  This is the difference that defines the human experience.  The story of Owner vs. Victim is, in fact, the context from which all other stories are told.  It is universal.  And even in circumstances that seem bleak and unalterable, we still have the power of that most fundamental choice, even if it is only in attitude.

Second, like Dave’s mom, I’ll have to admit I was quite touched by the doomed, singing passengers.  There is something quite appealing about their martyrdom, and they clearly get our sympathy--the stoic captain, the “brave” father, the sober boy.  I was tempted to see them as admirable, facing their imminent doom with such stiff upper lips.  This should be a red flag to each of us.  Do we engage in Victim thinking, just so that we can get the sympathies and concerns of others?  Rather than looking for solutions, do we simply resign ourselves to our “inevitable” fate?  Would we rather be pitied than be found working to solve the problem?  Are we just “making the best of a bad situation” or are we actually making a bad situation better?

The final thing which struck me about Dave’s comment was the phrase, “he remembers being a kid.”  This experience in Dave’s living room happened a long time ago, decades even.  And yet, it was such a powerful, pivotal moment, that he remembers it to this day.  The teaching moment that his father created has stayed and impacted Dave for years.  It was a good reminder to me again, of how powerful our words are to those around us.  When we are in a position of leadership, we better be thinking like an Owner because those who are following us, working with us, learning from us, and being raised by us, really are watching and listening.  

I’m interested in your thoughts.

By the way, the upcoming seminar at DXATC on Wednesday, October 27th is open to the public.  Please call 800-622-6463 or email us here if you are interested in attending.