Brent Filson's Action Leadership Report is a monthly e-zine helping leaders achieve more results, faster results, continually. 
 
In this issue: THE STATUS QUO PEP TALK.
 
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"Authority is a poor excuse for leadership.  Poor leaders order people to do a job.  Action leaders have those people choose to be the cause leaders of that job -- for more results faster, continually."  –Brent Filson
 
Vol. 3  Number 8 – August, 2005
Publisher: The Filson Leadership Group, Inc.
brent@actionleadership.com
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www.actionleadership.com
(c) Copyright 2005 The Filson Leadership Group, Inc.
 
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Reprinted from "Brent Filson's Action Leadership Report," a free e-zine helping leaders get more results faster (continually).  Subscribe at www.actionleadership.com and receive Brent Filson's free report: 49 Tips On Using Action To Get Results.  
 
IN THIS ISSUE:
 
SECTION 1: The Status Quo Pep Talk.
SECTION 2: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.    
SECTION 3: Points of Light.
SECTION 4: Message from Brent Filson: Time-tested Guidance For Taking On The Status Quo. 
SECTION 5: News. 
 
================================
SECTION 1: The Status Quo Pep Talk
================================    
Organizations live and die by results.  Yet most organizations get a fraction of the results they are capable of.  There are many reasons for this: poor strategy, poor leadership, insufficient resources, etc.  But one main reason is overlooked by most leaders.  Many organizations stumble because they are permeated with a robust status quo.   
 
The trouble with the status quo isn't that it gets poor results.  After all, if you know you're getting poor results, you can do something about it.  You can start taking steps to turn them into good results. 
 
The trouble with the status quo is that it gets mediocre results but represents them as good results.  And poor results are less harmful to an organization than mediocre results misrepresented as good results. 
 
The status quo is simply the existing state of an organization.  You might ask, "What's wrong with the existing state of an organization?"  My response is, "A great deal."  In fact, the status quo is always ... not sometimes ... always wrong.
 
Leadership is not a measure of results.  Results are a measure of leadership.  A leader should be getting not average results but more results faster, and "more, faster" continually.
 
The status quo is the enemy of the "more results faster continually" because the status quo is in business to be the status quo first and get results second.  Its number one priority is always self-preservation. 
 
Of course, without the impulse toward self-preservation, organizations would quickly fall apart.  But when the impulse hijacks the need of the organization's leaders to adapt to changing circumstances, the status quo is a threat.
 
For instance: For years until the mid 20th century, IBM flourished by having their machines perform calculations using punch cards.  But then the digital revolution came along.  However, during the late 1940s and early 1950s a strong status quo of employees were wedded to punch cards and were convinced digital would lead to disaster.
 
As IBM CEO Thomas J. Watson Jr. said in his book, "Father, Son & Co.", "There wasn't a single, solitary soul in the company who grasped even a hundredth of the potential the computer had." 
 
It took his strong leadership to fight off the status quo and move IBM into the digital age.  If the status quo had prevailed, IBM would have been out of business in a few years.  Still, the status quo put up such a fight that switching the organization from punch cards to digital processes nearly destroyed the company.
 
The IBM example is not the exception but the rule: The success or failure of any organization hinges to a great extent on how its leaders deal with the status quo.
 
No question about it, if you try to get into the realm of achieving more results faster continually, the status quo will attack you.  The question isn't, "If " but "How?" and "When?"
 
One way it attacks is through status quo pep talks to gain ardent support.  When you are ready for them, you are better able to deal with them and get ahead of the curve in thwarting the status quo. 
Here are some phrases that may be used in status quo pep talks to rally people against anyone threatening its existence.
 
"Pretend to go along and they'll go away."
"Just do your job and nothing more." 
"Agree with anything they say but do what you want to do."
"Let it die a natural death."
"We tried that before and it didn't work."
"I'm too busy."
"That's not my job."
"Wait ‘em out."
"You're the leader. You take care of it."
"That's not the way we do things."
"You'll ruin this organization."
"You don't understand me."
"You don't understand what I'm doing."
"You don't understand our organization."
"It's more complicated than you think."
"I'm doing the best I can."
"Give me a break."
"You're not being realistic."
 "You'll squeeze me dry."
 "Don't you have better things to do?"
 "I've got too much on my plate." 
"Don't bust a blood vessel."
"I'll help -- if you do me a favor."
 "It's not in my job description."
 "It all pays the same."
 "Why don't you quit while you're ahead?"
"Let study it some more." 
"Don't go off half-cocked." 
"Too much, too far, too fast." 
"We need more facts."
 
Now that you have an idea of what the status quo is and how dangerous it can be; don't let its pep talks dissuade you from your mission as a leader of achieving more results faster continually. 

SECTION TWO: The Good.  The Bad.  The Ugly.
=======================
The Good:
Mid-20th century, U.S. mathematician, Edward Krasner, took his summer vacations in Brussels, where he had become especially attached to a particular chair in a certain outdoor café.  All day he would sit in that chair.  When asked what he was doing, he replied that he was arranging expeditions to climb the highest point in Belgium.  "How high is that?" he was asked.  "Twelve feet above sea level," he replied.
 
–The status quo often makes a big deal of out little things, like mounting an expedition to climb "Krasner's peak."
 
The Bad:
A gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage married a second time, immediately after his first wife died.  Dr. Johnson said of him: "His conduct is the triumph of hope over experience."
 
–Trumping experience with hope is a skill the status quo is continually honing, enabling it to trigger the demise of countless leaders and their organizations.    
 
The Ugly:
When Michelangelo completed his greatest sculpture, David, the patron who commissioned the work, Gonfaloniere Soderine of Florence, said the nose was too big.  Michelangelo mounted the 12 foot high scaffold and giving a few noisy but harmless blows with his hammer on the stone, let a fistful of marble dust, which he has surreptitiously gathered from one of the scaffold's planks, fall to the floor.  When Michelangelo came down, the patron exclaimed that the statue was now perfect. 
 
–the status quo is less concerned with results than with having people accede to its sway. 
========================
SECTION THREE: Points of Light.
=========================
The following are status quo pep talks:
 
"The abolishment of pain in surgery is a chimera.  It is absurd to go on seeking it.  "Knife" and "pain" are two words in surgery that must forever be associated in the consciousness of the patient. " --Dr. Alfred Velpeau, French surgeon, professor at Paris Faculty of Medicine, 1939.
 
"Brain work will cause the "new woman" to become bald, while increasing masculinity and contempt for beauty will induce the growth of hair on her face.  In the future, therefore, women will be bald and will wear long mustaches and patriarchal beards."  --Hans Friedenthal, professor at Berlin University, July 1914.
 
"It is once for all clear that the earth is in the middle of the world and all weights move toward it."  –Ptolemy
 
"The highest probability is that the Americans never can be united into one compact empire, under any species of government whatever.  Their fate seems to be – a disunited people till the end of time."  –Josiah Tucker, British economist and Dean of Gloucester, 1783.
 
"Too far-fetched to be considered." –Editors of Scientific America, letter to Professor Robert Goddard, dismissing his idea for a rocket-accelerated airplane bomb, 1940
 
"It is quite impossible that the noble organs of human speech could be replaced by ignoble, senseless metal."  –Jean Bouillaud, member of the French Academy of Sciences before viewing a demonstration of Thomas Edison's phonograph, 1787
 
"I am not satisfied that under any rate of postage that could be adopted, its revenues could be made equal to its expenditures." –U.S. Postmaster General, rejecting an offer by Samuel Morse to sell the rights to his telegraph to the U.S. government for $100,000, 1845.
 
"The radio craze will die out in time." –Thomas Edison, 1922
 
"With the possible exception of having more pleasing lines to the eye while in flight, the monoplane possesses no material advantage over the biplane.:  –Glenn H. Curtiss, Founder of Curtis Aircraft, The New York Times, December 31, 1911. 
 
"To affirm that the aeroplane is going to ‘revolutionize' naval warfare of the future is to be guilty of the wildest exaggeration." – Scientific, American, 1910.
 
================================
SECTION FOUR: Message From Brent Filson:
=================================
PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link.  Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com
 
Word count: 1000
 
Summary: One of the great obstacles confronting leaders who want to institute change in an organization in order achieve better results is the status quo.  The author shows unique ways to deal with the status quo focusing on using the tested methods of non-violent action.
 
Time-tested Guidance For Taking On The Status Quo
by Brent Filson
 
Leaders are continually being thwarted by a powerful, relentless adversary -- an adversary they often are hardly aware of.
 
The adversary is their organization's status quo. The status quo is simply the existing state of an organization.  You might ask, "What's wrong with the existing state of an organization?"  My response is, "A great deal."  In fact, the status quo of any organization is almost always wrong.
 
The trouble with the status quo isn't that it gets poor results.  After all, if you know you're getting poor results, you can do something about it.  You can start taking steps to turn them into good results. 
 
The trouble with the status quo is that it gets mediocre results but represents them as good results.  And poor results are less harmful to an organization than mediocre results misrepresented as good results. 
 
Leadership is not a measure of results.  Results are a measure of leadership.  A leader should be getting not average results but more results faster, and "more, faster" continually.
 
The status quo is the enemy of "more results faster continually" simply because the status quo is in business to be the status quo first and get results second.  Its number one priority is always self-preservation, and it will attack anyone who threatens its existence -- even those who are trying to show the way to great results. For the way to great results, to more results faster continually, involves leaders challenging, of necessity, the very existence of the status quo. 
 
Of course, without the impulse toward self-preservation, organizations would quickly fall apart.  But when the impulse hijacks the need of the organization's leaders to adapt to changing circumstances, the status quo is the problem not the solution.   
 
There are many ways to overcome the status quo; and some of the most effective come from a source one might not link to organization dynamics, non-violent action.
 
Throughout history, non-violent action has played a key role in the struggle for social (status quo) change.  But most leaders don't know that the strategies and tactics associated with such action can help overthrow the status quo of their own organizations.
 
Violence is rough or injurious force or treatment, and that describes the treatment you'll get from the status quo if you cross it. Of course, I'm not talking about outright physical violence; but having people get fired, transferred or neutralized, getting new programs squashed, thwarting productive change can indeed be a kind of violence done by the status quo.
 
The many successful uses of non-violent action provide an arsenal of best practices on how to defeat any entrenched status quo. 
 
Why is non-violence effective?  Mahatma Ghandi called non-violent efforts to improve society "experiments in truth."  Non-violent action embraces a truth of human psychology: the need for people to interact with one another in free, open, non-coercive, honest ways. 
 
There are many guidelines for non-violent action that can help you deal with the status quo, but let's focus on four that Martin Luther King used.  They'll help you deal with any status quo you come up against.
 
(1) King said non-violence is passive physically but active spiritually. When we talk about spiritual matters in organizational leadership, we focus not necessarily on religious dynamics but on the human spirit which a key aspect of such dynamics.   
 
There is a rule in history that when people needed to meet great challenges, one thing first had to take place, a leader had to gather people together and speak from the heart. That heartfelt speech created heartfelt action.  And cementing that speech and action was in many cases vigorous human spirit. 
 
When the status quo turns on you, the great abundance of non-violent responses, tested throughout centuries, teaches a two part response.  First, you connect with your spirit.  You make such connections by manifesting the values of that spirit, trust, courage, patience, understanding, helpfulness.  Second, you connect with the spirit of your opponent -- in this case, people representing the status quo.  You do this by developing a flow from you -- and ultimately between you -- of kindly, helpful feelings.  When they see that we are trying to better understand their concerns and want to help them solve the problems of those concerns, we are making a kind of spiritual connection that can encourage them to become open to our concerns as well.
 
(2) King said non-violent action does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent but to win their friendship and understanding.  Though the status quo does violence, it is, on the whole, not composed of violent people. Your boss, your colleagues, the people on your team can all make up the status quo.  In fact, the status quo is powerful because it is composed of the people you interact with daily.  You will ultimately need these people as your understanding friends to help you implement the changes you want.
 
(3) King said non-violent action attacks the forces of the status quo rather than the people caught in those forces.  In order to be guided by non-violent philosophies and strategies in your dealings with the status quo, you should differentiate between the people who attack you and their actions.  Respect the people as human beings while you disagree with and confront their actions.  In this way, we can communicate our trust in them, opening the way for them to trust us.
 
We want the status quo to trust us.  After all, if one has the power, one can force the status quo to make some changes -- though when forced to change, it usually goes underground and carries out guerrilla warfare.  But trying to force change is not as effective in the long run as convincing the status quo to choose to change.  It is in mutual trust and respect that the status quo will choose to change on our behalf.    
 
(4) King said non-violent action seeks to eliminate bitterness and hatred that can arise in your struggles against a foe.  Make no mistake: the status quo is your foe.  However, when dealing with the status quo, don't indulge in hate campaigns, recriminations or unseemly verbal confrontations.  To retaliate with bitterness and hatred only strengthens the hold the status quo has on the organization.  Keep an open, friendly manner. By developing friendly relationships with those who oppose us, we create an environment conducive to change as well as personal and professional growth. 
 
This does not mean that we accept from others abuse or rude, aggressive language.  In fact, our friendly manner should allow us to have frank, open and honest relationships with those we struggle with.  In these relationships, we should truthfully and openly communicate our concerns and differences of opinions so we might resolve them easily and directly.
  
When we try to make changes in an organization delineated by a robust status quo, it will always turn against us and try like the devil to thwart our plans.  
 
But we can turn the attack to our advantage when we are guided by Martin Luther King's four attributes of non-violent action.  Under such guidance, we'll pave the way for much needed change and, in the bargain, achieve great results.
 
2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc.   All rights reserved.
 
The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS.  He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – and for more than 20 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results.  Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: "49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results," at http://www.actionleadership.com 
 
==================
SECTION FIVE: NEWS:
==================
Brent's latest leadership books, The Leadership Talk: The Greatest Leadership Tool and 101 Ways To Give Great Leadership Talks, are in bookstores.  You can also purchase copies by calling 800-403-5368. Mention this e-zine and you'll receive a free wallet card with the Leadership Talk processes. If you purchase the hardcover book, you'll receive a free copy of Brent's new book, 101 Ways To Give Great Leadership Talks. In addition, you'll be eligible to receive a set of Brent's previously published books at half price.
 
The Leadership Talk: The Greatest Leadership Tool was a finalist in the "career" category of nonfiction books.  The awards ceremony were held at the BookExpo America.   
 
Brent has put together two great systems that will boost your leadership and your leadership communication abilities. 
 
One is Brent Filson's The Leadership Talk System: www.theleadershiptalk.com
 
The other is Brent Filson's The CEO Public Speaking System: www.theceopublicspeakingsystem.com
 
Read Brent's interview conducted by Alistair Craven in ManagementFirst, an international business magazine out of London.  http://www.managementfirst.com/management_styles/index.htm
 
Brent's article, Are You Sabotaging Your Career?" http://www.actionleadership.com/articles/0018.html  has been translated into Chinese and is featured in the May issue of the Chinese magazine, "Global Sources: Career Sources China."  Http://csc.globalsources.com
 
During the past few months, Brent has been interviewed on more than 125 radio shows  – and many more are on the way.  If you are interested in having him on your show or at your meeting, go to the Action Leadership website and click on either the "meeting planner" button or the "media room" button.
 
Meeting planners: If you want a video of Brent's latest session, this time with a group of senior executives at a top global company, contact The Filson Leadership Group.  This is exclusively for bonafide meeting planners, hence the access code. 
 
Brent has a new web link on the home page, "Seven Minutes With Brent Filson".  Let Brent instruct you on a new concept that will immediately improve your leadership effectiveness.   
 
Listen to Brent being interviewed:  http://audiomotivation.com/go/brent-filson1204.htm
 
Brent has been interviewed on a number of radio shows.  He is shooting for at least 150 radio and tv interviews before the fall election.  If you are interested in having him on your show or at your meeting, go to the Action Leadership website and click on either the "meeting planner" button or the "press room" button.
 
Brent has a number of new articles up on the internet.  You can read the articles at:
http://www.actionleadership.com/articles
 
The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. is putting together a CD collection of interviews with leaders, called the "Leaders Speak" Series.  It will begin this month and can be found on the Action Leadership website.  Click on "Leaders Speak CD Series."   Brent says, "I want to interview leaders from a broad spectrum of human endeavor to be represented.  Don't be surprised to find landscape contractors, gang leaders, horse trainers, sports coaches, as well as business and political leaders.  Leadership is practiced by practically everyone, and we will bring it to you on the CDs in all the richness of human relationships."  For more information, call the F.L.G. headquarters, 413-458-4403 or email Brent at brent@actionleadership.com
 

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