Influential & Authentic Communication

Saskatchewan Medical AssociationJune 18, 2015

Influential and Authentic

• Change and Transformation• Framing• Authenticity• Storytelling• Your turn• Flame throwing• Pitching

How do we create change at scale?

Source: Marshall Ganz and Helen Bevan

Shared understanding leads toAction

Narrativewhy?

Strategywhat?

#SCHR #Quality2015 @HelenBevan @BoelGare @jackielynton

If we want people to take action, we have to connect with their emotions through values

action

values

emotion

Source: Marshall Ganz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5Tw0PGcyN0

Blind man framing video

“I have a dream”

“The evidence tells us ….”

@tweetvandijk

“the most common cause of failure in leadership is produced by treating adaptive challenges as if they were technical problems.”

Ron Heifetz

Example(will show 2 clips and debrief after each)

I show two clips:

1) Where a person is not inspirational2) Where a person is inspirational

Questions: First Presentation

• Did she inspire you?• Did you feel like you wanted to join?• Did she tap into emotion?• What are some ideas you have that she could

improve upon?

Question: Second Presentation

• Did she inspire you?• Did you feel like you wanted to join?• Did she tap into emotion?• What are some ideas you have that she could

improve upon?

#SCHR #Quality2015 @HelenBevan @BoelGare @jackielynton

Avoiding “de facto” purpose• What leaders pay attention to matters to staff, and consequently

staff pay attention to that too• Shared purpose can easily be displaced by a “de facto” purpose:

hitting a target reducing costs reducing length of stay eliminating waste completing activities within a timescale complying with an inspection regime

• If purpose isn’t explicit and shared, then it is very easy for something else to become a de facto purpose in the minds of the workforce

Source: Delivering Public Services That Work: The Vanguard Method in the Public Sector

#SCHR #Quality2015 @HelenBevan @BoelGare @jackielynton

The power of shared purpose:

‘I think it’s been successful because it’s a unifying program, it’s one of the few things that we’ve done that hasn’t been just a doctor thing, or just a nurse thing,

it’s involved the doctors and the nurses together.’

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3704826/

#SCHR #Quality2015 @HelenBevan @BoelGare @jackielynton

Leaders who focus on meaning also

get compliance, without focusing on it

@JeremyScrivens

Framing

“People change what they do less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings.”(John P Kotter (2002), The Heart of Change)

#SCHR #Quality2015 @HelenBevan @BoelGare @jackielynton

Framing … is the process by which leaders construct, articulate and put across their message in a powerful and compelling way in order to win people to their cause and call them to action.

Snow D A and Benford R D (1992)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNhYbJbqg-Y

Framing Dilemma

• What is the SMA current storyline/narrative?• Is there a situation that you would like to

change?• How can you flip it into a more actionable and

engaging frame?

Source: www.reframe.thnk.org

I FEEL TORN IN MULTIPLE

DIRECTIONS

Source: www.reframe.thnk.org

SPAN A WIDE NET AND GOOD THINGS

WILL COME

Source: www.reframe.thnk.org

I FEEL TORN IN MULTIPLE

DIRECTIONS

SPAN A WIDE NET AND

GOOD THINGS WILL COME

Framing Dilemma

• What is the SMA current storyline/narrative?

• What are you struggling with?• How can you flip it into a more

actionable and engaging frame?

Authentic Communication

Leader

Authenticity

Fake, Corrupt, doubtful, false, implausible, improbable, incredible, invalid, unlikely, unreliable, untrustworthy, counterfeit

https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability?

language=en#t-7478

CourageCompassionConnection

Vulnerability

@brenebrown

Discussion

• When do you feel you can’t be authentic?• Under what circumstances can you be most

authentic?• How can you move to being more authentic in

your leadership roles?

The single most effective tool a leader has to persuade and influence other

people is story.

Howard GardnerHarvard School of Education

Good Stories ...

• Tap into emotion• Are universal• Are relevant• Are never completely told

Think first of what I want my audience to do, what action I want them to take

Then I consider what I need them to think and/orfeel to compel them to take that action

Then I determine what message I can give them toget them to think or feel that way

And finally, I find or develop an appropriate storyto help foster any and all of the above

Your Questions

Practice – Team Up

Know your garden. It is time to speak your truth. Create your community. Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for your leader.

Hopi Elders Prophecy, 2000

References

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKakxNRxe6g• Brene Brown: The Power of Vulnerability• http://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_structur

e_of_great_talks• https://hbr.org/2005/01/whats-your-story• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA (Simon

Sinek)• https://

blog.bufferapp.com/science-of-storytelling-why-telling-a-story-is-the-most-powerful-way-to-activate-our-brains

• http://www.sparkol.com/blog/8-classic-storytelling-techniques-for-engaging-presentations/