• Written By: Michael F. Shaughnessy Senior Columnist EducationNews.org
• 31-7-09

An Interview with Cyndi Laurin: About New Leaders OR About the New “Normal” and Finding the Bright Lights that Drive Innovation into Your Business.

Michael F. Shaughnessy - July 31, 2009
Senior Columnist EducationNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University
Portales, New Mexico

1) Cyndi, you have recently co-authored a book about leadership. Why did you choose this topic?

It is a book that includes leadership, but it’s really about how to tap into bright ideas from employees to take your organization to the next level. My co-author, Craig Morningstar, and I chose this topic because we realized that although we came from different backgrounds (I come from the academic realm, and Craig comes from the corporate world), we had similar experiences in being highly-creative individuals that didn’t really fit into our organizations’ cultural norms.

Along our own journeys, we have crossed paths with hundreds of other people like us, who see their world through a lens of potential, opportunity, and possibility but struggle to get their ideas implemented – or even heard, sometimes. In our own conversations, we would refer to these types of people as “highly-creative, entrapreneurial thinkers who don’t really fit in”. But as you can imagine, it was a long-winded description in need of refinement. One day, I said to Craig, “Aren’t they sort of like Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer? They look just like everybody else with just a little difference…they can’t turn off their bright ideas (or glowing nose, as in the case with the beloved reindeer).

2) What exactly is “The Rudolph Factor”?

Rudolphs are true agents of innovation – people who shine the light exactly where a company needs to go. We have found that 10 percent of every organization is made up of Rudolphs – although many are not visible for a variety of reasons. The culture of the organization may not be safe to share ideas or ask why we do the things we do. The Rudolph Factor refers to that critical 10 percent.

In the book, we have identified Sixteen Ways to Recognize a Rudolph. We also have the list posted on our website at www.therudolphfactor.com. In brief, Rudolphs connect the dots that others don’t see, and they tend to generate sustainable solutions more quickly and efficiently than their counterparts, and because their thinking tends to be counter-intuitive, Rudolphs are typically considered outcasts or loose cannons until their talents are needed (often at the 11th hour of a crisis, at which point they are often hailed as heroes).

3) Cyndi, why is it that there are so few leaders around? Do the schools not train for leadership skills?

I believe there are a lot of employees with good leadership skills; however, many companies actually hinder their employees’ ability to lead from where they are by having a challenging, sometimes toxic culture; an archaic reward structure based on rules, rather than values; and/or a corporate constitution that more closely resembles a dictatorship or bureaucracy than a democracy.

In my research, I have found that the language people use to define leadership either opens or hinders opportunities to lead. To remedy this problem, I have redefined leadership as “a commitment to the success of the people around you”.

This isn’t anything earth-shattering and follows many of the tenets of natural leadership, servant leadership, and some elements of situational leadership. However, the effect of employees taking this definition to heart has a profound impact on everything else within the organization.
With regard to schools’ training for leadership, most tend to focus more on the skills (the actions or behaviors) of leaders, rather than the underlying driving principles and thinking that make up an exceptional leader. It isn’t generally what the leader has done but how the leader values, respects, and thinks about people that drives his or her actions as a leader.

4) What are the pros and cons of being a “Rudolph”?

This is an excellent question because when people first learn about being a Rudolph, the natural inclination is to want to be one. Truth be told, it is not all glory in being a Rudolph. In fact, often times it feels like a curse because you just cannot turn off your thinking, yet it feels like it is not valued by your direct manager or employer.

The pros of being a Rudolph are that you connect the dots more quickly and naturally than people are you, meaning, you see how things fit together more readily (you’re a systems thinker). You also see the world through a lens of opportunity and potential, which opens many doors to problem solving and innovative thinking. Your nonconventional nature forces you to find very strategic ways to get your ideas implemented. What I find as the best part of being a Rudolph is that you really do not have a personal agenda. Your actions and decisions are intended for the betterment of the organization and the larger society, in general. These people want to change the world and have just enough smarts and guts to make it happen! And, the greatest reward a Rudolph can experience is seeing their ideas making a difference in the world, however big or small…leaving a hoof print!

The cons of being a Rudolph is that more often than not, you work for someone who doesn’t understand your thinking, or worse, your intention to make the organization better. You can come across as a loose cannon, a trouble-maker or general problem employee by asking “Why?” when it is not the most popular but is the most valuable question to be asking. Often times, a Rudolph’s direct manager is quite threatened by the unconventional approach Rudolphs take to get things done and do not realize how good a Rudolph can make their manager look. Managers want good ideas but not the risk that comes with innovation. The biggest drawback to being a Rudolph is, try as you may, you can’t be anything other than a Rudolph. You can put mud on your nose and try to hide your innovative thinking, but you just can’t turn it off.

5) Leadership, in my mind combines people skills and verbal skills and creative skills. What have I missed?

I think the most important part of being a leader is demonstrating your commitment to other peoples’ success. As David Bowman, a phenomenal leader who also happens to be the VP and General Manager of Tanker Programs for The Boeing Company best put it while we were working on “The Rudolph Factor” book, “My job is to connect people to their future, whatever and wherever that might be.” Nothing speaks more favorably to leadership than putting others above your own personal agenda. The reward comes back tenfold, if not more.

6) What have you found out about great leaders?

Great leaders, whether it be in history, business, or in the classroom put 100% of their attention and focus on other people. They are aware of and deeply value the unique contribution that people bring to the table. When you speak with a great leader, they are unabashedly humble and speak very highly about their people and how the organization could not be what it is without the contribution of great people.

It’s like pulling teeth from a tiger to get a great leader to talk about him/ herself. I have found asking a leader to talk about him/herself to be a great litmus test for identifying greatness.

7) Cyndi, everyone wants to hire the best and brightest, but all too often, it seems that they do not succeed. Why is it so hard to hire the best and the brightest?

I don’t think it is hard to hire the best and the brightest, particularly in these tough economic times. There is no shortage of great people out there who are capable of doing exceptional work. I think the problem arises when you’ve hired a great person but don’t have the internal capacity to let that person really blossom into their work. Granted, there will always be clock-punchers who check-in/check-out and use work as a means to another end – and they are a necessary part of the organizational equation. But I believe in people, and I believe they want to do good things when given the opportunity and access (I’ll limit that response to the work environment because I admit to being troubled about where our world is today and the things people are doing that make the evening news).

8) Now, why Boeing? What have they done that is so attractive in terms of business and industry?

I really like this question because Boeing is a huge company (somewhere around 160,000 employees, I believe), and one thing that we do not espouse in the book is that the entire Boeing enterprise is like Boeing’s C-17 Program that we focused on in “The Rudolph Factor”. As with most large organizations of their size, there will always be really great parts and other parts in need of great improvement. I believe the Boeing enterprise has a lot to learn from what has and continues to transpire at the C-17 manufacturing facility in Long Beach, California.

For quick reference, the C-17 is an exceptional cargo aircraft that holds ~170k pounds of payload, yet can land in the same size of a footprint as a little, 4-seater Sesna aircraft. It only requires three personnel to operate (pilot, navigator, and loadmaster) can also land on unpaved runways and perform three-point turns to turnaround, which makes it a front-runner in humanitarian efforts. It’s pretty amazing. I recently read an article about the first all-woman C-17 team and was quite impressed.

Back to the question, what the Boeing C-17 Program did that was so attractive to me is that they were able to revolutionize a culture that was in complete disarray, with animosity between employees, managers, the unions, the customers, and suppliers (over 10,000 employees at the time) – to being awarded our Nation’s most prestigious quality honor, The Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award in 1998. I first learned of their story in 2003 and wanted to share ever since. Their transformation included a variety of training and quality initiatives, like most companies can do, but what set it apart was the thinking and discoveries made along the way (most of which were by accident and trial-and-error).

After interviewing all different sectors of employees including front-line workers, union workers, managers, executives, and customers, I learned that their “silver bullet” was becoming people centric, rather than product- or process-focused. They recognized that if their people were being treated impeccable well and engaged with the tools and resources to do the right thing, the product and the processes would naturally correct themselves (along with much training and initiatives). It was the way in which things were introduced that I found remarkable, among other things. Senior leadership would have an idea and send it directly to the people doing the work. Then, workers and senior leaders would almost “put the squeeze” on all the layers of middle management to get everyone on the same page and share the value in proposed changes.

“The Rudolph Factor” captures this thinking and offers a systemic approach as well as a new psychology of change model we refer to as AVTAR so that other organizations can emulate similar results…not from copying actions, but from addressing it at the thinking level.

9) A few years back you wrote a book called “Catch!” about a group of World Famous Fishmongers in Seattle. What did all those guys have in common with the folks at Boeing?

They both came out of the beautiful State of Washington. Kidding aside, the most common feature between the fishmongers at Pike Place Fish and the folks at Boeing is that they have created an environment where everyone can contribute to their fullest – from workers, to managers, senior leadership, and of course, Rudolphs! Both cultures foster (and reward) creativity, innovative thinking, and great ideas – as well as the inherent risk that comes hand-in-hand with innovation. Both have extraordinary products, both groups are super-charged about making a difference in the world, and both have visions that go far beyond the boundaries of their respective organizations.

10) Some of your “Rudolph” leaders are obviously motivated by money. What else motivates them?

Actually, that’s the interesting part, Rudolphs are not motivated by money. Imagine that? Seriously though, Rudolphs are completely motivated by being able to express their ideas – however unconventional the ideas might be – and being able to implement their ideas. Now, this doesn’t mean that every idea a Rudolph comes up should be implemented…I’m simply saying that a voice and access to implement viable ideas is what keeps a Rudolph’s nose glowing. And I can tell you that it doesn’t take long for a Rudolph to put mud on their nose and very purposefully stop sharing ideas if they have been out-casted, railroaded, side-lined, or any number of things that many poor Rudolphs have experienced. They really just want to do good for their company – and often times for the larger society. Rudolphs’ greatest reward is seeing their idea in action.

What have I neglected to ask?

The only thing I can think of is where people can get a copy of the book and where to find more information! “The Rudolph Factor” is available at Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com, and bookstores everywhere. It was intentionally designed to be a book that an entire organization reads, so large volume purchases can be made at the two aforementioned as well as 1800CEOREAD and BooksaMillion.com.

More information can be found at www.therudolphfactor.com, www.guidetogreatness.com, and people can email me directly at Cyndi@guidetogreatness.com. Thank you for the opportunity to share!

An Interview with Cyndi Laurin: New Ideas, New Innovations, and Nurturing Noses.

1) Cyndi, you have extensively studied what makes certain companies and corporations GREAT. How did you first get involved in this?

I’ve always been interested in learning about organizations that manage to thrive in any economic condition. The pure complexity involved in organizational dynamics is just fascinating to me. I first got involved in this when I started teaching at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in 1994. My classes revolved around process and performance excellence, and more specifically, quality assurance, facilities management, and corporate training. At first glance, it might appear that these areas are only relatively related, but as I became more immersed in the curriculum; I found the overlap to be uncanny. In an effort to give my students the very latest and greatest information for them to be successful upon graduation, I studied the tenets of organizational greatness and found many obvious – and some not-so-obvious – patterns.

2) I tremendously enjoyed your book “ Catch”. Could you briefly tell us about the great ideas that you saw embodied in that group?

When I first stumbled upon the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market, I was interested in how they were able to accomplish so much with so few people, most of which didn’t have a lot of business background. All I knew about them was that they had an extraordinary product and level of customer service, they treated each others and customers impeccably well, and they had a vision that went far beyond their organization (when those three elements are combined, it becomes my litmus test for “Great” organizations). What the public sees at the Market is “FUN!” So, I was challenged to discover and share how my definition of a great organization could exist in a company that is known for having a fun and happy workplace.

What I found in the year that I spent working at the Market with the fishmongers is that much of their success is attributed to personal responsibility (each person has perceived ownership of Pike Place Fish Market). There is also a high level of commitment to the success of each other AND to their customers. Who would guess that a bunch of fishmongers care about the success and happiness of their customers? In addition to the “softer side” of business – i.e. they are incredibly people-centric – they also have a distinct appreciation for their product and operational processes. It’s way more involved than just a bunch of guys throwing fish all day and hooting and hollering. Once you understand the underlying tenets driving that behavior, as described in “Catch!”, the fun just happens. It’s quite a story!

3) Now, your latest book is about innovators who kind of guide the way, just like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. How did this come about?

The only hitch I found with “Catch!” is that people perceived that their success was only possible because it was a small organization. So, it became my challenge to find another organization that was quite large in size that mimicked the underlying tenets of success at Pike Place Fish. When presenting “Catch!” at a quality conference in 2003, I met the Program Manager for Boeing’s C-17 Program (the C-17 is a high-performance cargo aircraft used for both military and humanitarian efforts). As he shared the story of their cultural revolution, the light bulb went on in my head that this was going to be my next story. With 10,000 employees participating in their transformation, I felt that capturing the tenets of their success would be incredibly helpful to larger organizations. Fundamentally, I believe that the size of the organization, while a contributor in adding to the complexity of managing the dynamics, is not a determining factor of an organization’s success.

A few years later, I met my co-author Craig Morningstar, who comes from a corporate background. Even though we came from different industries, we shared experiences of being highly passionate and creative thinkers who don’t quite fit into our organizations’ cultures. We began studying people like us, who are often referred to as loose cannons, intrapreneurs, zealots, or heroes (if we save the day). As we interviewed more people at Boeing C-17, we realized that they had an entire “herd” of people like us whom they refer to as “practitioners”. They were sort of like everyone else with a little difference…and before C-17's cultural transformation; their Rudolphs were often out-casted or derailed in their efforts to make the organization better. During one of my brainstorming sessions with Craig I said, “Are these people, like us, sort of like Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer? I mean, they don’t really fit in but have unique talents that the other reindeer don’t have. We laughed about it at the time, but the name stuck! Rudolphs connect the dots that others don’t see, they are not driven by self-promotion but by seeing their ideas in action, and they love leaving a “hoof print” and making their organizations better.

4) There seem to be certain characteristics of these leaders who kind of guide the way. What are some of them?

I mentioned a couple above, but we have identified Sixteen Ways to Recognize a Rudolph (which can be found on our website at www.therudolphfactor.com), but a few of them are as follows:

1. First and foremost, Rudolphs are naturally creative and innovative thinkers. Some Rudolphs may appear a bit eccentric to the people around them.

2. Rudolphs generally share unconventional ways to solve problems and have an easier time than most at identifying the root cause of a problem. They will express frustration at putting band-aids on symptoms of problems. They like to get their hands (or hooves) dirty when it comes to problem solving.

3. Rudolphs involuntarily spend an average of four to six hours per day (outside their normal workday) thinking about new ways of doing things, or simply making things better for their organizations.

4. Rudolphs are passionate about their work and light up when talking about their role or a particular project they are working on. You can tell they are excited when the pace of their speech increases, they use quite a bit more gesturing, and their eyes are bright (almost twinkling).

5. They often ask “Why?” even when it is not the most popular question to be asking, which can make people around them feel uncomfortable.

6. They tend to challenge the status quo because they believe questioning it is of value and benefit to the organization. Challenging the status quo is also how they discover what they need in order to solve a problem. It may appear as if they are trying to rock the boat just for the sake of rocking the boat, but that generally is not the case with Rudolphs.

7. Rudolphs see their world through a lens of possibility, opportunity, and potential. This is the driving motivation behind their involuntary, creative, and innovative thinking. Often times, the opportunities presented are nontraditional or unconventional in nature.

5) Tell us about their ideas.

This is an interesting question because I haven’t thought specifically about their ideas – generally I’m thinking about their thought processes – but their ideas are generally counter-intuitive, meaning they tend to go against the grain of normal conventional organizational life. Their ideas seem to come out of the blue because when a Rudolph shares an idea, no one has an appreciation for how long he or she had been working on it in their head. And because they connect the dots that others tend to not see (they see the forest, rather than the tree), sometimes their ideas seems illogical and irrational to people around them. It can be quite frustrating trying to share ideas when you’re a Rudolph.

Rudolphs’ ideas can be a bit frightening to their peers and especially to their direct manager because the counter-intuitiveness brings a level of risk along with it. A lot of organizations tout wanting innovative and inventive ideas, but they tend to not want the inherent risk that goes along with it. So, a Rudolphs’ ideas are often not listened to or dismissed because they generally challenge status quo…which is exactly what most companies need right now to get through these tough economic times.

I believe the most interesting aspect of Rudolphs’ ideas is that they tend to go to the root cause of a problem. They see the organization as an organism where a change in one area effects many others areas, so their ideas tend to take a relational form when implemented.

6) Tell us about their thought processes.

It’s a blessing and a curse to be a Rudolph because you literally cannot turn off your thinking. Around every corner, you are constantly seeing opportunities for improvement and solutions to problems, but often times, the culture of the organization has your hands (hooves) tied! Most Rudolphs who work a “normal” eight-hour day spend an additional 4-6 hours thinking about work. Being a Rudolph myself, it can be very frustrated to see time, resources, and energy spent putting band-aids on symptoms of recurring problems.

A Rudolphs’ thought process is pretty straight forward. It first involves seeing the opportunity. Then, it shifts to possible solutions. Once a solution is determined, the focus then shifts to forging strategic relationships and leveraging anything and everything you can to get the idea implemented. As simple as that sounds, there is an inordinate amount of time spent thinking about whether an idea is truly viable, and what the ramifications of the idea will be on everything else in the organization.

The two favorite questions for a Rudolph is 1) “Why are we doing it this way?” and 2) “At what cost are we doing this?” – referring to intangible costs of optimization efforts in an organic environment such as a company.

7) Tell us about their creativity

Where do I start? I could go on and on about examples of different Rudolphs’ creativity, but really, the most important thing to know is that it IS the single most motivating part of their life. Everybody has a little Rudolph-ness in them, and it can generally be seen when you are doing the things you are most passionate about. It just so happens that some peoples’ noses really light up in their work environment. My most creative space is when I am writing and presenting ideas. I loved being a university instructor because there were no bounds on how creative I could be in the classroom. That was cool, and being able to be creative just fueled bigger and more unconventional thinking.

This is the crux of “The Rudolph Factor”. Senior leaders at Boeing C-17 became aware of and found significant value in becoming a people-centric business culture. They wrangled their Rudolphs and put them to work with non-Rudolphs to transform their fairly toxic business culture of 10,000 people to receiving our Nation’s most prestigious quality award, the Malcolm Baldrige Award….in a five-year time frame. That’s what creativity at the workplace can do, along with generating over $90 million over the past decade and continuing to impact the bottom line in very significant ways!

8) Now, tell us how interested readers can get a full copy of the book.

It is available at bookstores everywhere and online at BarnesandNoble.com and Amazon.com. As the book was intentionally designed for everyone in an organization to read (to have a common language and to get everyone literally on the same page), large volume purchases are also available from 1800CEOREAD and BooksAMillion.com.

9) Do you have a web site where we can learn more about these creative, innovative leaders?

Yes, please visit www.therudolphfactor.com for more information and www.guidetogreatness.com for more information about our other services, “Catch!”, and to get on our distribution list.