 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Leadership Development at Toronto Rehab:
Aligning Thinking With Behavior
Written by: Brett Richards, M.A.
President, Connective Intelligence Inc. &
Patricia Howard, Dir. of Training and OD
Published in AQP Journal, (Association of Quality and Participation), Spring, 2004
Introduction
Many senior leadership teams find it challenging to get their managers to adopt behaviors that are deemed necessary to achieve new and evolving corporate strategies. Gaining commitment and buy-in for these new leadership behaviours, or competencies, can be a less daunting task if they are effectively aligned with the organization's broader strategic initiatives. Toronto Rehab collaborated with Connective Intelligence Inc., to meaningfully position their leadership development initiative within the context of their overall corporate strategy.
Mapping the Process To Success
The following describes the winning process and the tools that Toronto Rehab used to successfully integrate leadership development with performance management and, ultimately, how they were able to use both to augment their overall organizational strategy. This case study also describes how "thinking" was used to build alignment and create a common language to achieve success.
A Snapshot of the Process from Start to Finish
- Accountability Framework - Establishing the New Culture of Accountabilities
- Core Leadership Behaviors Developed to Support the Accountabilities
- Analysis of Underlying Thinking Processes
- Personalizing Leadership Competencies
- Leadership Retreats Bring Behaviours into View (Four 2-Day Off-site Retreats)
The Effective Intelligence® Framework for Achievement of Retreat Goals
Dialogue with the CEO: Key Cultural and Leadership Challenges - 'Day 3' - Full Management Team Retreat: All Together Now
Final Summary of Leader Competencies
Defining Actions to Achieve the Vision and meet the future with success - Application/Integration/Impact of Training - what people said, how it helped them and tracking organizational integration.
1. Accountability Framework: Establishing the New Culture of Accountabilities
The combined energy and expertise of three hospitals amalgamated in 1998 resulted in the creation of Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (Toronto Rehab ). This new rehab teaching hospital immediately established a Vision, Mission and Core Values to provide clear direction and operating parameters for the road ahead. Building on that foundation, five factors were identified to serve as indicators of success in achieving the vision. This created an Accountability Framework against which individual performance, organizational progress and adherence to the Core Values could be measured. These same success factors form the basis upon which the hospital measures its performance through a corporate balanced scorecard.
2. Core Leadership Behaviours Developed to Support the Accountabilities
As all Toronto Rehab leaders would evaluate their performance in the context of their accountability to the five success factors, the next step was to develop Role Maps which spell out the key responsibilities that define each leadership role and align with each of the five success factors. Finally, we distinguished 21 core leadership competencies Figure 1 or behaviours that would ensure leadership success. The end result? - a fit between role function requirements and the competencies required to carry them out.
Figure 1: Toronto Rehab Leadership Competencies
Customer Focus
Personal Effectiveness
Personal Leadership Continuous Innovation
Change Leadership
Partnership Development
Resource Management
1 For further information about Toronto Rehab visit their web site at www.torontorehab.com
2 The Accountability Framework® developed by Kemerer Group International, is an integrated method of displaying the Success Factors that an organization needs to concentrate on in order to achieve the corporate vision. Canadian Head Office: Kemerer Group International, 7 King Street East, Suite 2009 Toronto, Ontario M5C 1A2
3. Analysis of Underlying Thinking Processes
Quality Thinking - Quality Results
Research and observational experience shows us that thinking influences behavior. Our thinking process - how we think - affects our decisions, our actions and consequently the results we get. Quality performance in all walks of life is governed by quality thinking.
When working through difficult tasks, people rarely consider how their own thinking processes impact the results they want to achieve. Over 20 years ago, Jerry Rhodes' collaborative work with Philips, the Holland-based multi-national, sought to uncover the deep roots of thinking to make tangible and explicit the invisible process that effects everything we do - our thinking process. The Harvard Business School Press recently published, On Breakthrough Thinking , which dedicates an entire chapter to analyzing the merits of our thinking process: "we all have habits of thought that influence how we make decisions and interact with others". The whole notion of 'thinking about thinking' is starting to take hold in the business community primarily due to the recognition that in a knowledge economy it is brains that will give organizations their competitive edge.
Thinking Drives Behaviour
No doubt, thinking drives behavior to a large degree; therefore, any desired set of behaviors, such as leadership competencies, can be examined through the lens of thinking. From Toronto Rehab's perspective, an organization's leadership competencies are intended to be an expression of particular manager/leader behaviors that are necessary to achieve the vision, mission and core accountabilities. In times of organizational change and transformation, it's absolutely critical that managers and leaders know exactly what is expected of them. Specifically, what behaviors they will need to emphasize, where they will need to change or develop, how their performance will be measured, and how the organization will hold them accountable to the new practices and modes of behavior. Creating a strong link between thinking, behaviour and personal preferences and abilities adds a powerful dimension to leadership development.
3 Harvard Business Review On Breakthrough Thinking, Harvard Business School Press, 1999 pages 57-85
4. Personalizing Leadership Competencies
The process of examining an organization's leadership competencies through the lens of thinking is helpful for a number of reasons:
1. It provides another way to understand the competency and provides a common language for discussion between managers and leaders
2. It creates an opportunity for leaders to compare their personal thinking preferences with the thinking that is actually required to fulfill the core leadership competency. In most cases, leaders and managers are struck by how closely their personal thinking preferences match the leadership competencies in which they feel most effective. For example, one Toronto Rehab leader realized that the leadership competencies where she felt most effective and preferred doing - might not necessarily be the same types of behaviors that her people needed her to emphasize.
3. It augments performance management -providing leaders and managers with practical strategies and tools to adapt their thinking and behavior to improve areas of weakness or avoidance and ultimately to increase their effectiveness at fulfilling the organization's vision, mission and core accountabilities.
- What types of thinking motivate me the most? What kinds of tasks do I prefer?
- How do I need to adapt my thinking to match the behavioral competency?
- What tools and strategies can I use to adapt my thinking and behavior to fulfill the competency?
- fulfill the competency?
Performance Management
Aligning behavioral competencies with personal thinking preferences provides tangible information and builds a platform in which leaders and managers can celebrate personal competence and develop strategies to improve their performance. It provides an opportunity for leaders to "personalize" the organization's competencies by integrating them within their own frame of reference. The new, common language provides a non-judgmental vehicle for leaders to engage in more productive, performance-related discussions because it allows them to depersonalize the behavior and focus instead on the thinking process that is being utilized, not the thinker.
5. Leadership Retreats Bring Behaviours into View
Now that the role maps and core competencies were developed it was time to bring the entire leadership team together to explore leadership at Toronto Rehab. Sixty three managers and directors attended a two day, off site retreat.
The overall goals of the retreat were to encourage leaders to explore their individual leadership style against the backdrop of Toronto Rehab's newly developed leadership competencies, to create a common language, and to build a cohesive vision for the future.
Prior to attending the leadership retreats, each manager completed the Rhodes' Thinking-IntentionsTM Profile (TIP) On-line, and then received their Personal Profile when they attended the workshop. During the course of the workshop, leaders were able to compare their personal thinking preferences with the new leadership competencies through small group and one-on-one application exercises. The process opened up many avenues for valuable discussions concerning Toronto Rehab's transforming culture and their new leadership philosophy. It also provided a rich, non-judgmental learning environment in which leaders could reaffirm their strengths and develop practical strategies to improve their own leadership effectiveness.
The Effective Intelligence® Framework for Achievement of Retreat Goals
One key objective of the retreat was to offer leaders an opportunity to discover their thinking style preferences and explore the relationship between thinking and their performance or behaviour. We chose Jerry Rhodes' Model of Effective Intelligence®, trademarked Effective Intelligence® in North America, as the framework for our retreats, as our primary goal was to build the team and create opportunities for sharing and getting to know each other. Thinking styles was a new and unique approach that was very appropriate to a group of seasoned managers in a growing organization.
Six possible "frames of mind" found within the Effective Intelligence® Frame:
The Logical Mindframe: Hard Blue
The type of thinking that is driven by relevance, proof, comparisons, disciplined and logical reasoning.
The Personal/Evaluative Mindframe: Soft Blue
The type of thinking that is driven by action, personal values, commitments, enthusiasm and personal views.
The Analytical Mindframe: Hard Red
The type of thinking that is driven by realism, quantitative information, data, precision, organization and a sense of context.
The Impressionistic Mindframe: Soft Red
The type if thinking that is driven by impressions, sensitivity, qualitative information, concern for communication and a holistic perspective.
The Ingenious Mindframe: Hard Green
The type of thinking that is driven by ideas, options and outside-the-box approaches.
The Imaginative Mindframe: Soft Green
The type of thinking that is driven by hunches, metaphors, "what if" scenarios, vision and imagination.
Color-Coding Toronto Rehab's Leadership Competencies
Connective Intelligence analyzed each of the 21 competency sets to determine what type of thinking was driving their use. A Effective Intelligence® Frame was located beside each competency set to indicate the relative emphasis of thinking required to successfully achieve the specified behaviors. For example:
Corporate Accountability: Customer Focus
Leadership Competency: Satisfy Customer Needs
Avoid assumptions about what they do or do not need; actively seek to understand the needs of all customers-both internal and external to the organization. Seek out and produce win/win solutions.
Interpretation:
To successfully fulfill this specific leadership competency, individuals will need to avoid making assumptions about what customers do or do not need. They will need to emphasize (Red) descriptive thinking, specifying and really listening to what the customer is actually saying without making premature judgments (Blue) about what they think the customer needs or should need based upon personal opinions and assumptions. Individuals will also need a certain amount of (Green) creative thinking, demonstrating flexibility and a willingness to identify multiple options while exploring possible win/win solutions.
The degree to which individuals will be able to tap into this type of thinking (and avoid others), will largely depend upon their personal thinking style preferences. Individuals who have a natural desire and preference for these types of thinking will, in most cases, find it easier to successfully fulfill this particular leadership competency.
Dialogue With The CEO - Key Cultural and Leadership Challenges
Through the course of the workshop participants explored the dynamics of Toronto Rehab's organizational culture and identified the key challenges facing them as they move forward to achieve the organization's vision. Each group presented their perspective on the organizational culture and their list of key challenges to the CEO in an open forum discussion to build understanding and clarity.
6. Day 3 - Full Management Team: All Together Now
A final one-day retreat two months later brought the entire leadership team together in one place to synthesize the data from the earlier series of retreats. The goal was to provide an opportunity for discussion of the challenges and identify potential actions that may address the challenges, as well as reinforce the Effective Intelligence® knowledge through application exercises.
7. Application And Integration Of Training - What People Said, How It Helped Them And Tracking How They Are Using The Skills
Initial evaluation of the retreats indicated managers and directors were using what they learned to improve communications with their staff and colleagues.
"Helped me feel more connected and committed to the organization."
"Helpful insight into my individual leadership styles and when a preferred style can be a hindrance"
"One of the most powerful exercises I have ever participated in."
"Great insight."
"Painful, but it had to be."
"Starting to think of ourselves as one team."
Managers have suggested that follow-up sessions should be repeated frequently to help them further apply the knowledge gained at the retreats.
Things we could do to build upon this session are:
"If we could do this on a yearly basis it would be well worth the effort."
"Would like to see this continue at the program level, with program teams going through similar versions to build a sense of community at the program level."
"Have experiential exercises at management meetings to keep things going."
"Spring and fall education sessions for all management."
Developing In-House Expertise
Since the retreats, Toronto Rehab's Training & Organizational Development consultants attended a 3 Day intensive Effective Intelligence® Licensing program developed to provide in-house practitioners with the skills to continue integrating Effective Intelligence® throughout their organizations. Toronto Rehab's Training and O.D. consultants have been successfully using the Effective Intelligence® model for team-building and one-on-one performance coaching with hospital staff. The next step, is to act on a suggestion from the leadership team and roll out the Effective Intelligence® framework to all Toronto Rehab staff. Developing a common language across the organization can contribute to enhanced communication between all staff in this large, multi-site organization.
For further information about Toronto Rehab visit it's Web site at www.torontorehab.com.
About Brett Richards:
Brett is the President of Connective Intelligence. He is a performance coach and a certified North American Effective Intelligence® Master Trainer. He is dedicated to helping people, teams and organizations realize their full potential, by helping them to transform their brainpower and intelligence into more effective action.
 |
 |
 |
 |