Crosby B.C., Bryson J.M. - Leadership for the Common Good (2005)(en)

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During a Crisis, Postpone the Full Vision

But Detail Actions and Their Anticipated Consequences

Usually visionary leaders elaborate desired outcomes along with the actions needed to achieve them. A crisis, however, may require leaders to emphasize action without clear delineation of a desired future state. If old behaviors are not working and disaster is imminent, followers may wish leaders to prescribe new behavior, and they may even be willing to try that behavior without a full-blown vision of the outcome. Even then, a leader must soon link the recommended course of action to a “higher purpose” (Boal and Bryson, 1987). Establishing causal links between the new behavior and desired outcomes is also critical.

Adeptly Design and Use Forums

The visionary practices listed so far take place in a forum, the setting where leaders and constituents debate various interpretations of public problems, assess potential solutions, and develop specific proposals for enacting favored solutions. The design and use of these settings have a major effect on which problem definitions and solutions are considered and on which proposals are developed. As noted in Resource D, the key considerations that leaders should consider in designing a forum are communicative capability, interpretive schemes, norms of relevance and pragmatic communication, media and modes of argument, and access rules. Leaders who are undertaking a major change effort must also think of numerous forums in relation to each other, orchestrating them as much as possible so they build on each other and generate momentum for change. This orchestration of forums is described more fully in Part Two of this book; here we focus on key design elements of a forum.

Communicative Capability

Visionary leaders should consider, first of all, which stakeholders have the ability to make their voices heard in discussion of a particular public problem. We see this ability as the function of power and interest; those whose voices are most prominent are those who have considerable decision-making power as well as a sense of having an important stake in the problem. Those whose voices are

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least prominent are the ones with low decision-making power and a relatively minor stake in the problem.

A tool that can be useful in assessing this aspect of communicative capability is the “power versus interest grid” (Exercise 4.2). This exercise also sets the stage for several other stakeholder analysis methods that we recommend for visionary and political leaders. An individual or group can use the grid to place stakeholders in

Exercise 4.2. Using a Power-Versus-Interest Grid.

This exercise allows a planning group to map stakeholders in a public problem according to the stakeholder’s amount of decision-making power and interest in the problem. A power-versus-interest grid typically helps determine which stakeholders’ interests and power bases must be taken into account in order to address the problem or issue at hand. It also helps highlight coalitions to be encouraged or discouraged, what behavior should be fostered, and whose buy-in should be sought or who should be “co-opted.” Finally, it provides some information on how to convince stakeholders to change their views. Interestingly, the knowledge gained from such a grid can be used to help advance the interests of the relatively powerless (Bryson, Cunningham, and Lokkesmoe, 2002).

Directions for working with a group:

1.Tape four flipchart sheets to a wall to form a single surface two sheets high and two sheets wide.

2.Draw the two axes on the surface using a marking pen. The vertical axis is labeled interest, from low to high; the horizontal axis is labeled power, from low to high.

3.Participants brainstorm the names of stakeholders by writing names as they come to mind on a 1.5'' × 2'' (2.5 cm × 5 cm) selfadhesive label, one stakeholder per label. Guided by the deliberations and judgments of the planning group members, a facilitator should place each label in the appropriate spot on the quadrants. Labels should be collected in round-robin fashion, one label per group member, until all labels (other than duplicates) are placed on the grid or eliminated for some reason.

4.Labels should be moved around until all group members are satisfied with the relative location of each stakeholder on the grid.

5.The group should discuss the implications of the resulting stakeholder placements. If needed, develop strategies for increasing the power of stakeholders in the subjects category to make their views heard. If needed, develop strategies for increasing the interest of stakeholders in the context-setters category.

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one of four categories (Eden and Ackermann, 1998, pp. 121–125, 344–346; see also Bryson, 2004):

1.Players—stakeholders with high power and high interest

2.Context setters—stakeholders with high power and low interest

3.Subjects—stakeholders with low power and high interest

4.The crowd—stakeholders with low power and low interest

Visionary leaders are likely to have to figure out ways to enhance the power of people in the subjects category and how to enhance the interest of context-setter stakeholders in order to build a powerful coalition to achieve broadly beneficial change.

Since powerful social groups strongly influence what is widely held to be “rational,” an understanding of power distributions and relations helps account for the legitimacy of rationales for the world as it is (Suchman, 1995; Flyvbjerg, 1998). Altering power distributions and relationships undermines the legitimacy of those rationales. Yet visionary leaders must be thoughtful as to how they go about such efforts, since in a game of power the powerful usually win. It’s important to keep conflict at a moderate level so that alternative power relationships have a chance to develop, rather than being stifled at the outset by powerful groups who, if conflict is intense, will move strongly to protect their position.

Communicative capability also includes the skill of delivering a captivating, inspirational message through various media to diverse stakeholder groups. If they do not have all the needed skills themselves (and they usually don’t), visionary leaders must recruit others who can craft the reports, write the speeches, plan and produce the videos, and rev up the crowd of demonstrators.

Frames and Interpretive Schemes

Leaders pay attention to which broad frames and interpretive schemes are likely to be applied to the problem that concerns them, and to which interpretive schemes they want to emphasize in promoting a beneficial solution. They emphasize frames that help convince key stakeholders to join a coalition to promote good ideas worth implementing and that reduce the potency of any opposing coalition. In selecting frames, visionary leaders should attend to what they play down as well as to what they play up (Schön and Rein, 1994; Simons, 2001). For example, forums convened to advance the African American Men Project visibly demonstrated

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the strength and accomplishments of African American men, reinforcing the message that what is good for young African American men is good for the county. The forums presented African American men as contributors, not as a problem. The presence of county commissioners and other powerful people at these forums communicated the importance of the project.

The sustainable development frame adopted by WBCSD, meanwhile, has been a powerful impetus for coalition building among environmentalists, businesspeople, and economists because it merges two other frames—concern for the environment and economic progress—each of which has more narrow support. At the same time, some environmentalists have criticized the sustainable development frame for obscuring the need to reduce wasteful consumption in well- to-do societies (McKibben, 1996). Partly to blunt criticism that supporters of sustainable development are simply trying to protect the right of the affluent to maintain a high level of consumption, WBCSD emphasizes its commitment to conservation, alleviation of poverty, and economic development, which were promoted at the Johannesburg summit as the “three pillars” of sustainable development. One of the council’s main programs is called “sustainable livelihoods”; it is developing case studies and pilot projects demonstrating how businesses can help people move out of poverty.

The Vital Aging Network promotes a productive-citizen frame by demonstrating the economic and social contributions that older adults make through paid work; volunteer service; and caring for grandchildren or others who are sick, disabled, or isolated. Jan Hively talks about tapping the resources of older adults to help overstretched communities care for those “on both ends of the lifeline” (personal communication, July 2003).

It’s important to be aware that some frames are likely to activate ideologies, which are extremely potent interpretive schemes. For example, a “green” ideology is likely to be evoked in ecologically minded people when the environmental protection frame is applied to an issue. They are then likely to use tenets of this ideology to assess the issue and recommendations for action. The challenge for visionary leaders is to help people draw on the best aspects of their ideologies to build bridges to diverse others (Gerzon, 1996).

Exercise 4.3 helps you analyze the main interpretive schemes connected to a problem that concerns you. Additional guidance about choosing which frames to highlight is in Chapter Seven.

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Exercise 4.3. Analyzing

Interpretive Schemes, or Problem Frames.

This exercise can be completed by an individual or a group. If a group is involved, you may want to use the snowcard technique in Exercise 3.1 to organize the results.

1.Brainstorm ways of framing the problem that concerns you. Be sure to include frames that are commonly applied to public problems in general (for example, “not in my backyard”) or to problems like this one (for example, if your problem involves what you consider risky behavior—such as handgun use, smoking, unprotected sex— others might defend the behavior by invoking the “freedom of choice” frame).

2.Look at the list of stakeholders you generated in Exercise 4.2. Place a check beside the key stakeholders, those who are most affected or most central to resolving the problem.

3.Now consider the frames you identified in step one. Place a check beside the frame that you think is most closely tied to current solutions to the problem. Identify the stakeholder groups that are likely to support this frame.

4.Place a star beside the frame that incorporates or resonates with the type of solution you seek.

5.Star two or three additional frames that you think have substantial support among key stakeholders in the problem.

6.Now consider how stakeholders are likely to react to your proposals for change, given the different frames. Beginning with the frame that incorporates the changes you seek, array internal and external stakeholders on this diagram.

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Exercise 4.3. Analyzing

Interpretive Schemes, or Problem Frames, Cont’d.

7.Now consider the other frames that you identified. How can you draw on those frames to develop a new, more comprehensive frame that builds on your own preferred frame but could encourage more key stakeholders to move into the strong-supporter quadrant and allow those who are strong opponents to at least move into the weak-opponent quadrant?

Norms of Relevance and Pragmatic Communication

Visionary leaders must ensure that their messages meet the norms of relevance that prevail in key forums. Schmidheiny and his colleagues know that forums involving businesspeople often consider something to be relevant only if it affects their financial bottom line; thus they devote time to convincing these people that sustainable development is relevant for them. Cunningham and his colleagues recognized that they had to convince the powerful non–African American participants in key forums that measures to help African American men help themselves were important for achieving the non–African Americans’ goals.

Visionary leaders need to recognize norms of pragmatic com- munication—that is, the expectation that a message will be comprehensible, sincere, appropriate to the context, and accurate (Forester, 1989, p. 36). Thus authors of the WBCSD reports acknowledge bad behavior by some businesses and lack of concern on the part of many. They note in the 2002 annual report that many nongovernmental organizations were suspicious of the business community’s show of strength (described in the report as a thousand-person presence) at the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development. The annual report indicates, however, that the WBCSD dispelled some of the skepticism by teaming up with Greenpeace to call on governments to implement the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, and organizing a young managers’ team that participated in closed and open sessions with nongovernmental representatives. Meanwhile, WBCSD leaders maintain credibility with the business community by having high-profile corporate CEOs in leadership positions and by using language from the business lexicon, such as efficiency, market opportunities, and “business plan for sustainable

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development” (Holliday, Schmidheiny, and Watts, 2002, p. 12). WBSCD partnered with the International Chamber of Commerce to “project a single voice of business” at the Johannesburg summit, and the partners invited U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to keynote their Business Day at the summit (World Business Council for Sustainable Development, 2003, p. 2).

Media and Modes of Argument

Visionary leaders are skilled in using multiple media to convey their arguments—speeches, reports, press releases, advertisements, public service announcements, editorials, books, videos, and Websites. They also time their arguments to connect these media with such highly visible forums as the Johannesburg Summit or the Vital Aging Summit. Although having many ways of communicating a message generally makes sense, it’s possible to overdo. At the Johannesburg Summit, nongovernmental suspicion of business representatives may have been stimulated in part by the barrage of WBCSD-sponsored reports and events at the summit.

Visionary leaders should be skilled in using dialogical and persuasive modes of argumentation (the process of formulating reasons and drawing conclusions). Organizing dialogue among stakeholders with differing perspectives on a public problem is especially useful in developing beneficial, comprehensive problem frames and solutions. Several approaches to dialogue have been described. Wilfred Drath endorses using “relational dialogue” when stakeholders have divergent worldviews. Relational dialogue, he explains, is based on acceptance of the worth and validity of those worldviews and the realization that shared work is nonetheless needed. For the dialogue to work, participants must have some willingness to “hold their own truths lightly . . . and appreciate the capacity of other worldviews to make up truths as well” (Drath, 2001, p. 144). Listening to other views, participants can start to “see through their worldviews, understand them as useful, sensemaking, and truth giving, but incomplete, not the whole of reality” (p. 149). As noted in Chapter Three, Fletcher and Käufer (2003) suggest ways to foster generative dialogue, in which the members of a group stop seeing themselves as separate individuals and instead as selves in relationship who learn from each other. This type of dialogue is like a “‘spiral of growth’, in which mutuality, learning,

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and the creative activity of cocreating solutions, and shared understandings are shared by the collective” (p. 40).

Leaders should be aware of the profound discomfort likely to result from attempting to see through one’s worldview and thus becoming “a morally ambiguous self,” according to Maxine Boler (1999, p. 182). A philosopher and teacher, Boler suggests that this discomfort may at least be diminished by recognition that it can be better than the pain of separation and alienation from fellow human beings. Participants in relational and generative dialogue may also be heartened by the mutual growth and learning they experience (Fletcher and Kaüfer, 2003).

Persuasion is used both as a supplement to dialogue and alone if dialogue is not feasible. Communication experts offer general guidance for structuring a persuasive argument, but they emphasize that the message must always be tailored to a specific audience. An argument must appeal both to people who assess the message using “cognitive shorthands” and to those who use “central pro- cessing”—that is, who ask probing questions about the message and consider additional information and arguments before making a judgment (Simons, 2001, p. 35). Visionary leaders should also prompt central processing as much as possible, since people who develop a policy stance as a result of such critical reflection are more resistant to counterargument (Simons, 2001).

Cognitive shorthand entails frames, association with a likable person or activity, the attractiveness of the person communicating the message, perceived rewards, grievances, and nostalgia (Simons, 2001; Gardner, 1995). For example, U.S. anti-AIDS campaigners scored a significant coup in the mid-1980s when they recruited Elizabeth Taylor to be a visible fundraising supporter. For many of those using cognitive shorthand to process messages about AIDS, her fame summoned up a positive association that would make the message recipients more sympathetic toward people with AIDS and more supportive of efforts to prevent and treat the disease. A similar effect could be counted on when Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela agreed to cochair the International AIDS Trust. The Vital Aging Network invited Robert Bergland, a former congressman and U.S. commissioner of agriculture, to be cochair of the 2002 Summit. The seventy- eight-year-old Bergland, who also was a regent of the University of Minnesota, was a highly visible exemplar of vital aging.

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Appealing to people who use central processing requires use of more formal logic relying on reasoning and evidence. The speaker has to show that a proposed policy change is needed, that it is workable and practical, that it avoids harm (or certainly that the benefits outweigh any harm), and that it is the best available solution (Simons, 2001). If there are well-founded concerns about the proposed change, the speaker should acknowledge and refute them, or concede what can’t be refuted and explain why the change is a good idea anyway (Simons, 2001). (See also the elements of policy arguments listed in Resource D.) Even in using reason and evidence, visionary leaders should not lose sight of the story line (Throgmorton, 1991). As Karl Weick notes, “What is necessary in sense making is a good story” (1995, p. 61). Alice Walker adds, “Stories are how the spirit is exercised” (1999, p. 194). Ideally, the story helps listeners integrate the disparate bits of information they have already acquired about the issue at hand (Snyder and Edwards, 1997). Thus the final report of the African American Men Project is filled with evidence about difficulties faced by young African American men, about the achievements of African American men, and about initiatives that are already producing improvement. At the same time, the story line weaving through the report is of a community that is at a crossroads, choosing whether to continue down a destructive and divisive path of decline or down a more hopeful, inclusive path.

Visionary leaders also must shape arguments specifically tailored for the arenas in which policy makers will decide whether to adopt and implement the solutions developed in forums. They must ensure that their groups’ good ideas are incorporated into proposals and plans that are shown to be technically and administratively workable, politically acceptable, and legally and ethically defensible.

Access Rules

Leaders ensure that forums are designed so that the right people have access to them. A forum must be held at a time and place that encourages participation by these people. Special services such as child care may be important. The forum should be accessible to people with disabilities. If the conveners are from the majority culture, they probably should ensure that minority members feel wel-