20 Positive Business Minutes 
(as heard on NewsRadio 93.8 Singapore) 

take time to reflect on these ...one for each working day of the month ...

BEING A THIRD DIMENSION LEADER

Who are the new leaders? Who are the people that are excelling in management positions today? Yesterday’s leaders may have been experts in their fields, but they did not necessarily have the personal skills to cope with a leadership position. The successful leaders of the future will be those who do not just have the knowledge and expertise, but who can tap the creative knowledge of the group and create a positive environment of enquiry. In fact tomorrow’s leaders will be team leaders. They will recognise the value of combined expertise and will have highly developed interpersonal skills. Gone is the lone wolf, the individual high achiever. It’s now time for a new form of shared leadership that involves and motivates the team.

 Over the past 3 years alone more than 10,000 new business books have been published worldwide. From the top 25 selling books on personal growth I counted 770 steps to success! If you look at the complete Amazon list, you will find 9 921 books purely on the subject of leadership and Google came up with 6 million 520 thousand titles. The crazy thing is that even though we’re buying so many books, we’re not reading them. The statistics show that managers fail to finish 4 out of every 5 books bought. This all shows that we want help, we’re looking for answers to management problems, but we don’t really have the patience to really pursue personal growth in leadership. It’s not the information we lack but the ability to implement and act on it. We don’t need more gurus to teach us more theories, but facilitators to help us make sense of them and find what works for our situation. This is the key to Third Dimension Leadership, leadership of the future.

The Greek philosopher, Zeno, came up with a riddle designed to stump the most logical minds.

“There can be no motion,” he said, “because anything that moves must reach the halfway point of its journey before it reaches the end. So, to cover one metre of the race course, you must first cover half a

metre, before that one quarter of a metre, before that one eighth, and so on forever. How is it possible to reach an infinite number of positions in a finite time?”

For years the Greek philosophers did not know how to handle Zeno’s thinking. They had a mindset that could not distinguish between the academic and the real worlds. As minds like Zeno continued to push people to the crumbling edge of reality, people were forced to draw a line between mathematical and physical reality. In Zeno’s world of academia infinite division of any quantity was possible, BUT in reality it is not.

Unless you can learn to make the distinction between the academic reality and your current reality, you to will be caught in Zeno’s paradox of motion. You will be limited in your mindset.

If there is one thing that separates third dimension thinkers from others, it is their ability to develop a vision and follow through on it. The ability to think where others cannot, the ability to act outside the regular boundaries.

To be a Third Dimension Leader, you need to be able to reach that higher level.

Today’s leaders must have effective communication skills. It doesn’t matter how good your leadership ideas and strategies are. If you can’t share them in a way that motivates and inspires the team, you will not be able to implement them.

A key to the effective communication of ideas is using good metaphors. Good metaphors can create unique mental pictures that connect the unfamiliar with the familiar. They drive our insight deeper. Poor metaphors, on the other hand, are limiting, unproductive, and sometimes even destructive.

Think about some common business metaphors. If you describe business as a war, you will be looking for behaviours such as aggression and defence. If you think about at it as fishing, on the other hand, the emphasis will be on skill and patience.

Words direct our attention, our perceptions, and our behaviours. As a Third Dimension leader, you will need to choose your words carefully.

The new models of leadership do not set up leaders as experts. The new leader is not the one who knows it all, but the individual who can learn the best – the person who can combine information and ideas effectively and act on them. These leaders are able to adapt to change in a rapidly changing world.

Early childhood is characterized by trial and error, by active learning about the world and the child’s place in it. Then there’s 13 years of formal school learning, often followed by more formal learning at a tertiary level. But then what happens? The learning often stops. We all heave a sigh of relief when we can finish that long learning phase and move on to “real” life.

But the most important time for learning is actually on the job. We can only progress when we continue learning. There is no such place as “the top”. You can never stop progressing and growing.

Third Dimension Leaders are constantly gathering new information and ideas about their world, and adjusting the way they see the world accordingly. Leadership should be an ongoing learning process.

Leadership is about getting the job done. Or so we assume. But effective leadership is not simply getting the job done. Good leaders get the job done well, and with maximum support and involvement from their team.

The social responsibilities of leadership are often ignored, but the results can be disastrous. Ultimately the leadership style will dictate the outcomes. Open, inclusive approaches to leadership will help the whole team to feel empowered to get the job done. Leadership styles that focus on getting the task done without involving and empowering people can create dependence and incompetence - or alternatively resentment and resistance. Either way, you may get the job done, but end up losing the support of the team – which in the long run will make it harder to get the job done.

Third Dimension Leaders get the job done and keep their team motivated and involved. Ultimately, it’s the only way to get ahead.

  Leadership today is not about directing the group, it is about guiding the group. It is the leaders’ responsibility to draw out the talents and skills of the team to enable them to achieve to their maximum potential. Growth should come from within.

Just like a conductor keeps the individual musicians in alignment, the leader helps the team to have the same focus, develop the same goals. The musicians themselves are the artists. They create the music. But each individual talent is combined to make the wonderful harmonies of the orchestra.

Here are some tips for being a successful guide:

1.       Set parameters that are planned but not rigid, both safe and challenging

2.       Provide motivation and encouragement, inject energy into the group

3.       Monitor issues and concerns as they arise

4.       Adapt to deal with changes effectively

5.       Remain alert for when needed, but indistinguishable at other times

Recently in Indonesia, a country of 200 million people, a few hundred angry demonstrators and a few cameras led to $1.2 billion worth of damage. Ironically, those responsible for the disruption were actually only a very small number – but their protests were magnified by the majority presence of paid “rent-a-crowd” demonstrators.

In the USA the 19 hijackers caused $6 billion worth of financial damage – and that’s on top of the irreparable emotional damage due to lives lost and national and international security threatened.

If only all that energy could have been constructive rather than destructive!

In any organisation there is always the possibility that a minority that don’t even represent the group can cause massive and costly damage. In effect, these people can hijack a group – take the group in a direction that is far away from the needed outcomes.

The question is: How do we deal with these people?

·         Ignore them so they can continue to wreak havoc?

·         React to them and directly confront them, which means you may risk strengthening their position?

·         Give them undeserved and politically dangerous airtime?

Third Dimension Leaders must learn to deal with resisters before a situation gets out of control. By considering the needs of the individuals involved, creating a positive open atmosphere for negotiations, and involving these people in positive ways – you can turn resistance into positive action.

The new world reality has forced us all to stop and think seriously about future directions. Organizations, as well as individuals, are bracing themselves to face challenging times ahead.

In an attempt to deal with an increasingly competitive market and ward off impending financial strain, companies will be asking even more of their employees. The drive to increase quality at the same time as reducing costs will become much stronger.

Companies must now perform and compete on a world stage where local issues and internal politics are no longer an excuse for poor performance. Ultimately this means finding ways to reduce costs and increasing quality. A recent survey has found that 25% of people’s time at work is wasted, 4 out of 9 people are not able to cooperate with each other, and over 50% of employees find their work overwhelming. With the current situation most employees will face more pressure to perform, and if they are not given the skills to cope, then these statistics may only get worse.

This is the time to recognise the importance of managing people to a point where they can perform to their absolute best – without the undue stress. But managing people wisely is different to just pushing them. Pushing people too far leads to burnout and ultimately low productivity.  Good management increases both personal satisfaction and corporate success. Third Dimension Leaders will need to learn how to do that effectively.

The new leadership models are not static but dynamic. The new leader is flexible, adapting readily to rapidly changing needs and demands. But many leaders become limited by their language, and they lose the ability to deal with important issues and solve them creatively.

The secret is learning to embrace ambiguity. Learning to accept and deal with both sides of a situation. Many leaders find it difficult to embrace ambiguity. They think they should leading with “strong, decisive, clear and immediate decisions,”  - but fail to recognize that before good decisions can be made all options need to be considered carefully. This requires creative lateral thinking, outside of current language norms. Peter Senge believes that management teams tend to confront complex, dynamic realities with a language designed for simple problems is. It is time, he says, to think and act more creatively as leaders.

Creative thinking can only happen when people learn to think outside given parameters, when there is a linguistic environment that allows creative ideas to flow. Third Dimension Leaders will create that environment, and will encourage dualistic thinking.

Why do we try to deal with complex problems by looking for simple solutions?

Dr Thompson, author of the book on the emotional life of boys - “Raising Cain” - was concerned to discover that by the age of 12 most boys can only still think and act in terms of two basic concepts: “strong” and “weak”. He says that the biggest insult you can give to a 12-year-old boy is that he is weak, a sissy, or even a “girl”. While girls are able to see a wide range of emotions and solutions to problems, boys tend to polarize everything into 2 categories.

Do boys ever grow up?

Isn’t it possible to be both strong and sensitive? To use brains and brawn? To be hard and soft, driven and empathetic… yielding and controlled?

Yes, of course it is possible. And it is actually much more constructive in the long run.

Third Dimension leaders need to learn to utilize different ideas and emotions at the same time in order to extend themselves and their team.

It’s strange that as we enter the third millennium, we only now seem to be starting to understand just how ignorant we really are about the great mysteries of the universe. We have increasingly superior research and technology. We now know the sky is no longer a prohibitive boundary. What was unimaginable no more than a few years ago is becoming well within our reach.

Technological networks are already being recognised as a powerful force, but human team networks are a new concept. We need to find common pathways of understanding, recognise different talents, combine resources, and share roles to enable individuals to access much more than they ever have before. Speed and the depth of connection are the new keys to technological growth, and efficient and effective communication is the key to human growth. But a network is only as fast and effective as its weakest link....

We have just had a century of unimaginable progress with technology, now lets dream of a century of unimaginable progress in human achievement.

Third Dimension leaders can tap that potential and develop these networks effectively.

Did you know that over 1 million individual parts make up an airplane? Although there are so many individual parts, each part is not the plane in itself. It is not the individual parts of a plane, but the completed construction that makes it work that gives it a definition. The identity of the airplane exists only in the function and design of the whole.

It is the same principle with human networks. It is not the individual links that make up the network, but the complex channel between them. It is not the people within a company that make the company work and give it definition, but the way they interact that is important. This is the human network. The identity of a company exists only in the function and design of the whole.

It’s time organisations started to recognize the importance of this mindset and the enormity of what can be achieved if talented individuals worked together as a team.

Third Dimension leaders will learn to utilize the combined talent of the team – what we call the “collaboration concept” – to develop the organization.

When we survey organisations, we ask individuals, "What would it take for you to work to maximum potential?" Interestingly, the need for a large pay packet is usually way down the list, while practical support is almost always at the top of the list.

  Leaders need to strive to keep the ecological balance of their company. They must put back into people what they take out, or they risk employee dissatisfaction and high turnover.

  Offering large carrots at the end of the day can be ineffective. It can be like deluding ourselves that we can sustain the environment by replanting forests after they have been destroyed, believing they will grow back to their original state in a short time frame.

  63% of organizations studied in an Accenture research project focus on providing employees who excel with compensation rather than other forms of support, such as personal and career development opportunities. But most people simply want support from the company. They want to be able to trust and respect their leadership, to be guided by them. They want to feel a part of something. They want to be able to contribute in a way that recognises their uniqueness.

Relationships are central to personal and corporate success. But most people are ill-prepared for the challenges of developing positive group relationships.

It seems crazy that although you need lessons and a license to drive a vehicle, there is little preparation and awareness when it comes to driving a team and encouraging them to work together effectively.

Most groups are left to their own devices. If any pressure is placed on the group, they can end up spending more time trying to deal with potential problems than achieving. Groups can so easily become counterproductive if they are not handled appropriately.

Working with a team is an art. It is not easy to steer a team through obstacles. And it is not easy to do it in a way that is both efficient and considerate. There are so many different ways of responding and behaving, and each of us carries a lifetime of values and experiences that have shaped the ways we behave long before we get together.

Third Dimensions Leaders focus on team development to maximize organization potential.

Carl Jung has said, “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding about ourselves.”

Rather than marginalising people that hold different views, Third Dimension leaders can instead learn to diversify their teams. Research shows that although there is more chance of friction in mixed teams, they are actually far more effective than teams made up of like minded people. Leaders must learn to “surround themselves with people of diverse talents. That is not easy to do. It's human nature to place the highest value on our own talents and dismiss those that are not like our own.”

The basic fact of life is that we are all unique. We are all different, and those differences should be seen as an exciting source of creative diversity rather than providing possibilities for division.

Different does not equal right or wrong. It just means different. Once we have accepted that basic assumption, we have come a long way towards real understanding.

The former CEO of Shell Oil has discussed how – at an offsite meeting with the executive team – a key failing was revealed. “None of us had even the simplest skills for talking to each other in a meaningful way,” he said. “We could debate, but we could not listen or share what we were thinking effectively. A facilitator came along and helped us to begin surfacing problems and lay out our real feelings.”

The problem was that the executive team was made up of engineers and scientists unwilling or unable to link their fields together for the sake of the overall business. What teams often fail to realise is that, “Each person’s views are in fact a unique perspective of a larger reality.”

 A good facilitator can ensure that constructive dialogue takes place. Senge says that an independent guide can hold the context of dialogue. Our habits continually pull us towards debate and away from dialogue. A good facilitator can help people maintain ownership of the process and outcomes and promote dialogue. In dialogue people become observers of their own thinking.

The goal of the facilitator is not to help one side win the argument, but rather to find the best argument. The common ground assumption the facilitator lays down is that both parties want a solution and are wise enough to see the consequences of not finding one 

Third Dimension Leaders know how to facilitate the group to maximize the potential.

Anyone in any situation can succeed. Anyone can become satisfied with where they are and what they have. You don’t need to have billions of dollars. You don’t need the perfect career or the ultimate status. But you do need to be prepared to examine yourself, to explore new possibilities, and to act on what you learn – to really extend yourself and grow. You need to be prepared to step outside of the box and find that greater sense of purpose.

There are times when it’s hard to be motivated to continue to progress. There are times when it’s easier to enjoy the security of your comfort zone. But until you are prepared to move right through to deeper dimensions, to deeper levels of understanding and experiencing, you will never really discover the full depth and breadth of what life has to offer. You cannot, ultimately, discover who you need to be.

I want to stop for a minute to let that sink in. There is a clear distinction there. We may not be able to become what we want to be, but we can become what we need to be.

Third Dimension Leaders cannot afford to create illusions. They need to be able to develop a clear vision based on both current potential and future possibilities. They need to be able to nurture their team to become what they need to be.

  Do you sometimes think that there must be more to life? Do you wonder how it could be possible to reach further and achieve more?

  Sometimes, it seems, we become limited by our inability or unwillingness to move onto the Third Dimension.

  There is actually more than one dimension to life, and yet many people fail to get past the first dimension. Many people are left wondering if there’s more. Remember the movie Truman, where Jim Carrey’s character was artificially restricted without him realizing it? Some people live their lives like movie characters – or even like cartoon characters. Their thoughts and actions become linear, continually covering the same territory.

Getting stuck in the first dimension can lead to a false sense of security – or – at the other extreme, naval gazing self-focus, self-obsessions or even self-pity.

Only when you have looked beyond the surface, and been prepared to dream of and hope for new possibilities, can you continue to grow in positive ways. Only when you have allowed yourself to grow can you achieve a depth of appreciation and contentment in life.

The first dimension is a great starting point – but everyone needs to go deeper. We all need to extend ourselves further in order to make the most of life. We need to move into the third dimension, which reveals all potential and possibilities open to us.

Third Dimension thinkers are creative, resourceful people that explore beyond the given boundaries. Third Dimension leaders can draw out that potential in others.

Moving to the second dimension, then, opens up new possibilities. By considering where we could be, or what we could achieve, we prepare ourselves for positive growth. Suddenly we are able to see those possibilities from new angles. We are then encouraged to examine the options, to consider new ways ahead.                            

The third dimension, finally, gives the complete picture. The third dimension is the practical application of what we have discovered, turning dreams into realities. Through the third dimension, we can see the shape and design of the whole. We gain the full perspective, see the breadth and depth of circumstances. It is only then that it’s possible to have a comprehensive and holistic view of life.

The third dimension enables us to take the practical steps needed for positive change. It soon becomes clear that true satisfaction and success can only come from active participation and specific application of what we have learnt.

  All Positive Business Minutes can be delivered as Keynote talks or seminars

Copyright © 2000-2 [Tirian]. All rights reserved

by 
Andrew Grant

Andrew Grant (BEd Dip Tch) is the Managing Director of Tirian and creative designer of Tirian programs. He has worked with some of the top executives in multinational companies throughout the world, in areas of leadership and team development. He has been in high demand as a keynote speaker & facilitator in over 14 countries, and has successfully worked with over 30 different nationalities.

Andrew has co authored several books and educational resources and has featured on Singapore radio, Australian & BBC TV, and international magazines, including the Asian Wall St Journal and Australian Financial Review. Drawing from his background as an Educator,

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