July 24, 2013 --Follow the Leader

I can remember playing Follow the Leader as a young child in the schoolyard.  First, the group of children would choose a leader or "head of the line" from the group. Next, all of us would form a line behind the chosen leader. The leader then moved around and all the children had to mimic the leader's actions. Any player who failed to follow or do what the leader did was out of the game. The last person standing other than the leader was the new leader. A simple children’s game, a great deal of fun, unless you were one of the kids who found himself or herself out of the game continually because you simply couldn't follow and mimic the actions of  someone more skilled than you.

I don’t think I will ever think of Follow the Leader as a simple children’s game again after reading the article Orchestrate the Conflict, excerpted from Leadership on the Line by Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky.

Heifetz and Linsky offer the idea that “differences in perspective are the engine of human progress.” They go on to explain that when a person encounters a difference that challenges his own background of experience, a transformation or learning takes place. Heifetz and Linsky then explain the ways to create change in people. One clear-cut example of a well-known transformation was the change that was driven by a number of differences in perspective within the company known as KPMG. This company, an audit, tax and advisory company deals with helping other companies to improve. They accomplish this improvement by developing a rich understanding of a client company and its operations. Based on the experience that KPMG has learned over its existence, KPMG makes recommendations for the client company to follow in order to improve. The story of KPMG’s own transformation by allowing connection, collaboration, and creativity among employees to develop in their own company provided some insight into a new version of the Follow the Leader “game.”

“Controlling the Heat” is one of the methods that Heifetz and Linsky explain for creating a change in the mindset of people. One controls the heat by raising and/or lowering the temperature or amount of stress present in a situation. Heifetz and Linsky present a chart dealing with the methods of raising and lowering stress levels as one orchestrates the conflict. Raising the temperature causes tensions to rise; lowering the temperature allows the people involved to feel a calmness that they can understand and work to continue.

I’d like to try to orchestrate the conflict in a class to see if it would enhance the learning of my students. With young men, I think a teacher would find it an easy task to control the heat that students feel when facing a challenging assignment or assessment. Teaching the students not to overreact to a challenge might be beneficial addition to their arsenal of tools that they use in their learning. Teaching them the negatives of placing oneself in a pressure situation by not being as prepared as they should be might help the students to view assignments and assessments as something with which they can succeed.

If I had understood the concept in the schoolyard game of Follow the Leader, perhaps I would have been able to take the leader’s role from my friend Frank who understood that when I was close to taking the leader’s position, I couldn't follow the leader and do those twenty-five push-ups as he could. My best at the time was twenty.