Disarming

When Chris Swanson, a sheriff in Flint Michigan, approached protesters in the wake of George Floyd’s death he said, “The only reason we’re here is to make sure you have a voice. We want to be with you all, for real.” He didn’t wear a helmet or carry a baton. He joined the walking crowd to cheers and gratitude. He led.

image from cnn.com

Most scenes of protesters facing off with police played out very differently. Video footage of protesters and cops were tense with anger and fear, sometimes resulting in tragic consequences.

image from vox.com

These scenes contrasted the different ways people react in emotionally charged situations. The outcomes speak for themselves.

For far less consequential reasons and in far less dramatic ways, we react to emotionally charged situations all the time—at home, in our cars, at work. Our reactions determine whether we get good or bad outcomes. 

We could learn a lot from Chris Swanson.

The focus of my job is getting people to be great at work. Being great at work relies on three things: authentic and effective leadership, kick-ass teams and traction for getting stuff done. Any one of these without the other two probably won’t cut it, at least in the long run.

Authentic leadership, kick-ass teams and getting traction on our goals all happen when we tap into our inner Chris Swanson—when we create the conditions around us for productive dialog and problem solving so that we make progress on the most important things.

Creating these conditions is not easy. Our brains are hard-wired to protect us from any perceived threat—big or small: an angry protester yelling in our face, an armed officer walking toward us, an off-hand comment in a meeting. Our feelings of fear, anger, anxiety, embarrassment get triggered when we feel threatened, making it hard to work productively and collaboratively. This hardwiring creates a lot of mischief in the workplace: unilateral decision-making, lack of trust, low commitment, blaming, hostility and bad decision-making.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Creating the conditions to get the most from our leaders and teams is not impossible. In fact, it takes three simple things.

Thing 1: Develop authentic leaders who know how to create the conditions around them for collaboration, engagement and results.

Thing 2: Turn your teams around by providing tools for productive engagement, problem-solving and accountability.

Thing 3: Put straightforward frameworks in place to ensure that meetings, goals and projects stay on track.

Chris Swanson intuitively understood how to create conditions around him to engage his team and the community to get a good result.

We all have this capacity—we just need to do the things.

Let’s go.