The Green Bench II

By Matt Rawlins

Take a seat and learn the secrets at work in the minds of leaders -- and how they communicate!

Join in as a friendship continues between a retired teacher and a young executive who is overwhelmed by the dilemmas he faces everyday. Their dialogue explores questions like: Is there always a right way to do things? How do you deal with dilemmas? Why is there always tension? People think differently, how can we get along? How can I talk about difficult or even painful issues? How can I get the best information from those who have it but are afraid to give it to me?

If you have asked questions such as these, listen in. The old teacher gives practical wisdom and insight rarely found in businesses today. After a while on The Green Bench, you too will learn how to think like a leader, understand yourself and others better, and learn how to talk about issues that are the life of your business and relationships.

Go ahead, have a seat.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Matt Rawlins
• Release date: Dec 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215855539

Book preview

Matt Rawlins  Ph.D.

OTHER LEADERSHIP BOOKS

BY MATT RAWLINS

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The Green Bench II

Ongoing dialogue about Leadership and Communication

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The Lottery

A question can change a life

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There’s an Elephant in the Room

Discover the single most powerful tool for growth

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Finding the Pain in your @ss-umption

A Leadership Tale

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The Race

Uncertain Times Series:

Effective Leadership in Uncertain Times

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Courageous Relationships in Uncertain Times

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Humility in Uncertain Times

Cover design by Hye-Kyung Kim

The Green Bench II by Matt Rawlins.

Copyright © 1999 Matt Rawlins. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Acknowledgments

Many of the ideas about the communication model are adapted from the work of Dr. Chris Argyris. Although I have never had the privilege of working with him, I consider him a friend and mentor, as his ideas have been my companion and source of encouragement for many years.

The 3-dimensional model is my adaptation of the work of Kenwyn Smith and David Berg. Their research helped me to understand things I have been wrestling with for years.    Included with those stated above is the work of Donald Schon, Bill Isaacs, Richard Pascale, Robert Quinn, and Peter Senge. This book would not have been possible without all their wisdom. Thank you.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my brother Mark. He passed away from cancer at the age of 37. He is loved and greatly missed. Included with this are his wife Lynne and wonderful kids, Aimee, Micah, Matt, and Mark. A special thanks also go to Tim, who picked up where my brother left off and Kathryn, the family's newest member.

Chapter I

One supervisor raised his voice louder than the other managers and declared, You’re wrong. Marketing isn’t supposed to create the market.

Another responded, Who else is going to do it? Maybe Bozo the clown might! I know, you probably think Finance is going to do it.

One manager jumped in, If you think Sales is going to try and push that mess, you might have better luck with Bozo.   

Another supervisor pointed to one of them sitting silently, Research is silent, just sitting there with nothing to say. They came up with it, let them sell it, then they might get a sense for what it feels like to be a Bozo!

The young manager, who was supposed to be leading what had disintegrated into chaos, got up and declared, The meeting is over, and walked out. As if on cue, all the others got up and left as well.

The young manager headed for a phone to call his friend, a retired schoolteacher. He felt like a child, and he could sure use some help. 

• • •

(Insight from Behind the Scenes)

Sales are under pressure because the last time they tried to push a product, it bombed, and they were blamed. They became the scapegoats. They were not going to let that happen again. Their identity was on the line. If there was any question about a product, they would shoot it down before it started.   

Research is quiet because they told Marketing months ago that they could not build what Marketing said would be popular. The good ideas they had to contribute weren’t listened to. They were told to conform and build some junk; this was the best they could do in the time given. It was a no-win situation; if the manager brought that up, he would only be told he was whining.   

One of the production managers is under pressure from his family. The project will only produce more work and he can’t keep up. He must kill it.

Marketing had the original idea, and it was a great idea. But it had changed so much in ways they never wanted that they were afraid they would be stuck with it now. They could not allow this to happen.

None of these issues were spoken of. No one dared talk about them. Yet they were the issues that pushed each manager to respond so strongly. Because the issues weren’t dealt with, they will keep coming up in different ways and at different times.

People will continue to try and deal with the symptoms while the issues remain hidden behind shallow arguments and ineffective communication. The weight of this process will slow the organization down and if allowed, kill it. Difficult issues are rarely if ever, dealt with.

Each of our lives, like a container, holds painful and joyous experiences, gifts, abilities, culture, and identity. These give us a bias and influences us to see the world differently. Yet there is a strange sense, an unspoken knowing, that if somehow, we could work together, we could do much more than we ever could on our own. What is the key? What is it that builds a family, team, group or organization and changes the world we live in? 

Although there are different elements, a key one is communication. This ability to communicate with others, to understand them and be understood by them is what the following story is about.

• • •

By the time the young manager walked around the park, Q sat waiting at the green bench. Somehow, he was always available when he needed him most.   

Well, you look like you need to sit and relax, Q stated as he watched the young manager approach.

I have had it up to here, the young manager said as he lifted his arm over his head.

That deep, huh? Q smiled, Why don’t you tell me about it?

The young manager sat down and took a deep breath.

He began, I guess the challenge is, the higher up in leadership I go the less I know what to do. I had a group of managers in a meeting who were yelling at each other because they each knew what they wanted to do and they insisted they were right.

Q nodded his head.

We are stuck. We know how to talk but don’t know how to communicate. Somehow, I must get the team working together again on this project that is supposed to be finished in three months.

I guess they don’t prepare you for this in school, huh?

Are you kidding? We were given all the right answers to questions no one was asking. You wouldn’t believe the decision-making formula they gave us at school. It was this sheet of boxes with questions that you could track along and depending on your answers you went to different boxes. If I pulled that on any of those managers they would laugh me out of my office.

Q chuckled and said, I know what you mean. When I first started teaching kids they gave us all these formulas for how to deal with them when they were acting up. I tried it on the first day and was embarrassed when I saw how silly it was in the classroom. I decided right then that I had better figure this out quickly before I went much further.

So, what did you do?

I did what you are going to do. I set out to learn.

Where do we begin?

Well, we have to know where you want to go. You have to have a clear outcome. What do you want to learn?

The young manager thought of his leadership team. What did he want from them? What did he want from himself?

He finally narrowed it down and said, I would like to know how to communicate with my managers about complex issues so that we are able to share and learn from each other and reach a common understanding on where we are and what we want to do.   

Good, Q said, "That gives us a