By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
A Kansas Leadership Center representative made a stop in Hays Wednesday on a 25-city tour to talk to local leaders about cultural change.
Thomas Stanley of the KLC talked about the four ingredients to change a culture of leadership.
Those ingredient are:
• Complete focus on a small set of ideas
• Communicate in a way or develop teaching strategies that make ideas stick with people
• Work on a small scale
• Assemble a small group of people who can help keep the change alive
Stanley expounded on these ingredients and led a discussion of a group of people who filled the basement of Breathe Coffee House.
“You can think about these ingredients in any type of culture, whether that is a culture of entrepreneurship or a culture of service. Whatever that culture is for you, we think these four ingredients are essential. We hope you can learn a little bit from our mistakes and our lessons as we try to engage and partner with communities, organizations, churches and businesses around Kansas,” Stanley said.
A small set of ideas that everyone in an organization can learn and relate to is sometimes called a common language.
“Those ideas can be different depending on the context and the issue,” he said.
Many of the attendees at the meeting said their organizations had mission statements displayed on their walls. However, Stanley said that is not enough.
“If you went to the employees and asked them what are your values and what does that look like in your organization, you would probably get a different answer or you would get a very vague answer,” Stanley said. “What you really need if you have that common language and that core set of ideas, you need ways to communicate and teach those ideas in ways that they stick. This is essential. They have to be embedded into behaviors, into the minds and into the hearts of people of actual agencies.”
Stanley asked the group to describe times when other people showed leadership and communicated ideas that stuck with them.
Rhonda Meyerhoff of Eagle Communications said her mother’s dedication to teaching catechism helped those ideas stick with her.
“She believed in it, and she loved doing it and she loved children,” Meyerhoff said of her mother.
Another participant said as he went through school he learned much more from the teachers who cared regardless of how much they knew.
“That always stuck with me,” he said. “If you are willing to put in the time and show you care about people, you can motivate, move and engage. … They took time they didn’t need to take to talk to you about something or patience when I was failing. When you are aware they are making a sacrifice for you that they didn’t have to do, you know they cared.”
Hays City Commissioner Shaun Musil talked of coaches who taught him to be respectful, a good sportsman and to go beyond what he thought he could achieve.
Stanley said the KLC is often accused of pushing people, but he said that can be good.
“(The KLC) holds you to a higher standard or pushes you further than you think you can do. It sounds like what a good coach would do,” he said. “I think (it is) that type of behavior — being with the people, making sure and walking alongside them to help them learn something and consistency over time, about pushing them further than they think they can go. I think those are the types of behaviors you would need to learn ideas. I think those types of things exist in organizations.”
Once you have the first two steps, you have to scale up.
“You have to have enough people learning these ideas in ways that stick that reach a tipping point or a shift in how things get done,” Stanley said.
The KLC has trained about 9,000 people during its 11 years, but Kansas has a population of 2.9 million people. He said the KLC has a ways to go.
“You have to have enough people around the new core set of ideas that the new way becomes the way—becomes the default,” Stanley said.
Generally, the KLC trains one person from an organization and then they go back and try to spread ideas. The analogy he used to describe this was taking a goldfish out of a dirty fish tank, cleaning the fish and then putting it back in the dirty fish tank.
“You have to engage enough people in the system or the church or the business so that the fish tank can get clean,” he said.
Finally, your organization needs a small group or backbone to keep the container of learning together, Stanley said.
He asked what might a changed organization look like.
Olga Detrixhe of Leadership Hays said ultimately in a changed organization you would see people willing to ask questions and people having honest conversations and people being comfortable raising the heat when it needs to be.
Doug Williams, Grow Hays interim director, said he has had the opportunity to work with multiple companies that were going through change. He said alleviating fear is a big component to leading change.
“Leadership needs to allow them to be afraid and allow them to bridge that gap to where you are as a leader,” he said. “It is trust, and I would tell you too, it is love. Leadership is love whether it is caring or whether it is just love. When you inspire people, it is not about the numbers. It is not about the results. It is truly about people and organizations and what your legacy is going to be. If you really establish that, you are going to get a lot of people to follow you.”
Sarah Wasinger of USD 489 said the community could do more if more voices were heard and not drowned out by naysayers. She said the community also needs to develop a common language and better communication so groups are not duplicating efforts.
Stanley said he works with many non-profits who put a lot of effort into creating programs and campaigns to achieve goals that are already being met by other groups.
Stanley said KLC offers a variety of ways to learn more about leadership.
You can register for Leadership Hays, which offers a series of leadership training classes from January through May.
KLC has a grant program that allows organizations to take advantage of up to $25,000 in leadership training. Click here for more information.
Finally, the KLC works directly with businesses to develop leadership strategies.
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