This is the fourth of ten columns published by Walter C. Wright, Jr., summarizing the message of
Max De Pree’s
Leadership Jazz

"Culture:  Community, Choice and Creativity"

Column 4 on Max De Pree's Leadership Jazz
November

Culture:  Community, Choice and Creativity

Not too long ago I was privileged to lead a two-day workshop for the executive team of the Health Ministry of Western Australia.  The group of fifteen included the presidents of the public hospitals, chief medical officer of the state, as well as the head of nursing and support services.  We spent considerable time on team building and organizational culture.  About halfway through the second day the team was gelling with a high degree of excitement about working together to reform the health care system.  At that point the president of the largest hospital spoke up:  “This is all good and it feels wonderful.  It is exciting to think what we could accomplish, but we know that the heavy hand of bureaucracy always limits what we can actually do.”  It was a learning moment for all of us as a tentacle of the old culture reached out to stifle the emerging creativity.  Once again I saw the power of culture at work.  But I also saw the power of story as one leader reflected on the negative history of the community.  So I asked them who the “heavy hand of bureaucracy” was if the entire health ministry leadership was sitting in the room right now.  After a short awkward silence they acknowledged that they were the heavy hand of bureaucracy and they could choose the culture they wanted to create.  We then engaged in a powerful exercise.  Each person around the table told one story, also from the past, that illustrated the positive elements of the culture they wanted to reinforce.  It was an uplifting and bonding time.  They left at the end of the two days choosing to work together to reform the culture of health care in Western Australia.  The culture of our organizations emerges from the relationships of community, the commitment of choice and the risk of creativity.

Culture connects people and organizations. 

In the fifth chapter of Leadership Jazz, Max De Pree lifts up the role of the watercarrier in early Native American tribes.  The watercarrier, like the tribal storyteller, communicates the ties that connect people and organizations.  Every organization accrues a culture -- a tradition -- a way of living and working together – that defines the experience of the people included.  The culture operates unconsciously beneath the surface of our organizations controlling the behavior of everyone who works there.  Leaders create and reinforce this culture in every word and action.  By virtue of their position, leaders are watercarriers; they are tribal story tellers.  They model and teach a vision of what is important – the history, beliefs and goals of the community.  People watch leaders and draw conclusions about what is important.  Over time what is important to the leader shapes the relationships of leadership strongly enough to take root in the culture and traditions of the community.  For better or worse that culture contains the connection between people and organization.

However, Max is quick to point out that leaders alone do not form culture.  Long-term employees bring their perspective to bear and through their stories of the past they create expectations for the future – whether it be the stifling “heavy hand of bureaucracy,” the compassion of caring coworkers or the freeing success of creative risks taken.  The stories we tell limit the future we embrace.  What do you remember?  What stories do you tell?  Who listens?

This month Americans celebrate Thanksgiving.  The foundation of this holiday, now frequently lost in the rush to launch the commercial side of Christmas, is the pause to reflect on the journey we have traveled, the harvest bounty we have enjoyed and the people who have befriended us.  It is a time to remember that for which we are grateful.  The act of saying “thank you” is an acknowledgement of our dependence – on God, on the earth that sustains us and the people around us.  It is also an expression of hope – an anticipation of a future for which we will also give thanks.

Choice offers freedom and accountability. 

We choose what we remember – at least what we remember publicly. Choice is at the heart of leadership whether we are the leader or the follower.  Choice is about freedom and accountability.  Without choice we become victims. We choose a future.  We choose who we will be.  We choose how to deal with people.  Choosing is about accepting responsibility for our action; it is about being accountable for our life and work and relationships.  Choice is an act of leadership.

But leadership is dependent upon choice.  Leaders seek to influence the vision, values, attitudes and actions of others.  But there is no leadership unless someone chooses to follow.  Leadership is dependent upon the choice of the follower.  In a profound sense, leadership rests in the hands of the follower who chooses what he or she will do.  It is the recognition of that choice that gives the follower freedom.  And of course that freedom includes responsibility and accountable for the choice.

As Max underlines so poignantly, leaders make choices daily about quality, service, what to measure, grace, beauty, harmony, trust and potential.  Choice is the antidote to complacency.  “Not to see our choices may be worse than making poor decisions.  Be alive to the alternatives.  What will it be for you?”  What choice do you make?

Leaders defend creativity and protect creative people. 

As the former leader of one of America’s most innovative furniture design manufacturers, it is not surprising to see Max De Pree’s high esteem for creativity.  He looks to noted designers George Nelson and Charles Eames as mentors in his leadership journey.  Creativity and leadership embrace in the mind of Max De Pree.  Leaders create space for creative people to lead, willingly following gifted followers.  They risk surprise and new learning valuing openness, imagination and contrary opinions.  Trust runs deep.  Effective leaders are not afraid of creative people.  They choose to step back and give space – to give people and organizations the chance to meet needs, resisting the temptation to allow incremental change to replace true creativity.

The importance of creativity to the future of the organization calls leaders to protect creative people, to give them access to leadership, to enable them to work with equally qualified people.  The decision to embrace creativity is the risk of hope in choosing the future.  Creativity however does not require limitless space in which to find fertile soil.  One of Max’s most provocative recognitions is that creativity requires constraints.  Creative people renew themselves within the limits and boundaries with which they must work.  How creative are you?  How comfortable are you with the creative mind that operates outside the lines and moves unpredictably toward your future?

Leaders create culture and reinforce what is important with every word and action.  The culture of our organizations finds expression in the relationships of community, the commitments we choose and the creativity we embrace.

Questions for reflection:

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