Trust and Leadership

I had the pleasure and honor this morning to participate in the #LikeABoss event organized by Pollen. The morning meeting was held here at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) so rather convenient for me! What follows is a woefully incomplete report on the event, but at least a chance to keep the concepts in our awareness.

I was assigned a dual role at the meeting: as both table host and "pop-up speaker". Great chance to meet with new, smart people doing excellent work here in the Twin Cities.

There was a panel that addressed the overall concept of Trust. The general theme was trust in the workplace, and also how trust and leadership are intertwined in every organization.

The lead panelists for the morning included Adrian Ho @adrianho, Nicole Middendorf @NicoleMiddendor, Lucy Swift from TPT, and Wokie Weah @WokieWeah

After a moving and empowering performance by spoken word artist Sha Cage @shacage , attendees dove into a series of pop-up speakers and table discussions.

I was given the honor of being the first pop-up, probably because of MIA hosting the event. I was asked to provide an anecdote, and then to pose a question about trust. It went like this:

 I was hired here at the MIA nearly four years ago to drive positive change for the museum through dynamic leadership in digital technology - both in terms of operations (internal) and delighting our audiences (external).

Trust is a choice - when I choose to trust you, that trust typically must be earned, and that process takes time. However, I didn't have time. I needed a transparent, open, trusting culture and I needed it fast - or making big changes was going to hit huge hurdles.

I made a choice, perhaps a risky one. As I met with all of my staff - remember, I was a complete stranger to most of them - I said "I trust you. I trust you to do your work, to do it well, and to be committed and passionate about making this museum successful". I followed that up by empowering them to form self-directed teams, to set their own work methods, and to solve the many puzzles before them - while openly discussing priorities along the way.

My question: Can we influence how trustworthy another person can be, by investing our own trust in them even before they've "earned" it?

This led to an interesting response from Lucy Swift, who contrasted trust with trustworthy, the latter requiring a set of skills, the former being more of an interpersonal relationship. Interesting.

There were breakout conversations, and then more pop-up speakers. Digging into the twitter feed for that morning would give you a nice road map through the topics discussed and considered.

I did not take detailed or copious notes during the event (sorry!), instead trying to focus on my role as a table host and engender conversation. Still, I managed to scribble down a few things, leaving this rather impressionistic and utterly incomplete list:

• Many books were brought up by panelists, we need a reading list (see below for a partial accounting)
• TED talks on these topics can be very helpful
• Reorganizations ... top-down approach erodes trust
• Closed office doors = bad
• "Upper management" communication always matters, even in small and relatively flat organizations
• From the Nerdery: frequent short meetings called "Clarity Check ins" help keep people on board and aligned
• At the MIA, in the Media & Technology Division, departmental meetings are organized and run by the staff, not by senior management
• Competition within a company can be greater across organizational silos
• Measurement tools can be useful: Meyers-Briggs, Strengthsfinder, Enneagram, and Competing Values Framework all were mentioned
• Departments tend to cluster on these measures, partly because managers tend to (unconsciously) hire clones of themselves

There was quite a twitter flood during the event, following #LikeABoss (which is also - unfortunately - a hashtag used by arrogant people bragging about how great they are - is that ironic or what?).

So, what did I miss? Plenty, I'm sure. Please chime in or post a link to your own summary in the comments below.

Epilogue: Books & blogs
There were several influential books on leadership brought up during the event. Here are the ones I recall and/or mentioned myself:

The Leader's Guide to Radical Management, by Stephen Denning
Traction, by Gabriel Weinberg
Mindset, by Carol Dweck
The Speed of Trust, by Steven Covey
Blog: Fast Company  
Blog: Harvard Business Review 
NY Times: Corner Office

I'd love to see Pollen put together a reading list from the panelists, I think many attendees would appreciate it.

All in all, a really great event and fun/energizing way to begin the day. I hope to stay connected to Pollen and contribute in any small way that I can. I also hope to cross paths with the folks who sat at my table as I continue to build my network here in the Twin Cities.