By David Savage

Kootenay Leadership: Collaboration Building Your Skills and Successes workshop on Nov. 26 from 8 a.m. to noon at St. Eugene Resort (pictured above).

When I met with internationally respected leaders of the Harvard Program on Negotiation starting in 2007, I was thrilled to speak with them and listen to their sage wisdom. Their profound work includes: Bill Ury, Getting to Yes, Getting Past No, and The Power of a Positive No, Sheila Heen and Doug Stone, Difficult Conversations, Thanks for the Feedback and Erica Ariel Fox Winning from Within.

They are not only respected leaders but also people like you and me. Along with their strengths and weaknesses, fears and aspirations, they are also aware that everybody has strengths they wish they had and draw from those attributes. The important ingredient that was missing from their invaluable work of instruction was real world scenarios in the world of negotiation.

By 2008, I saw the need to engage with people who have been in the middle of negotiations, conflicts and consultations and write about their experiences. The real world informs the educators. My Harvard friends were excited to see how this model of collaboration could change the world of leadership in today’s practices and their own leadership.

I incorporate their wisdom into my organizational development and business coaching work. As a proud resident of the BC Kootenay Rockies, several years ago, I invited leaders to guide, challenge, mentor and encourage our current and next generation of leaders. The vehicle is the Kootenay Leadership Institute.

People, young and old, in the BC Kootenays have knowledge, resources and skills that can help others here and in places like Harvard. We hope to bring leaders in our region together in more collaborative, innovative and rewarding ways.

“Today all of the leaders that I coach manage knowledge workers. A knowledge worker is someone who knows more about what they are doing than their boss does. When we lead people who know more about what they are doing than we do, we can’t just tell them what to do and how to do it. We have to ask, listen and learn. The leader of the future will be a building of partnerships across, up and down in the company – as well as a building of partnerships with suppliers, customers and business partners outside of the company.” Marshall Goldsmith author of business bestseller; What Got You Here Won’t Get You There as written for David’s upcoming book 10 Steps to Essential Collaboration.

Together with the Kootenay’s own Laura Hummelle (MA, Conflict Analysis and Management, BA, Psychology and Sociology and Certified Prosci Change Management Practitioner is Owner & Principal Consultant of Ahead of the Curve Consultant), on the morning of November 26, we are hosting: Kootenay Leadership: Collaboration Building Your Skills and Successes.

This half-day workshop is designed to bring together and engage Kootenay Leaders who seek to or who are currently sponsoring change in their community, business and or organization and who are struggling with and are looking to move beyond a command and control or competitive approach to leadership, interested in discovering a style of distributed leadership that leverages the talents, abilities and creativity of those in their organization or business to unleash a healthier, more vibrant, innovative and productive way of operating and ready to step up to the next level of leadership and build collaborative business relationships.

Sit back for a moment and imagine the pit area of a Formula 1 Race. Experience the extreme power and energy, glistening paint, TV lights, roar of mega horsepower engines, screeching of tires and the heat of the pavement in the pit. A Formula 1 Race team works extremely quickly to service the engine and change tires on the high performance race car during a championship race. “The winning edge can boil down to nanoseconds. Data can be as important as the driver. Powered by Microsoft Dynamics, Azure and Office 265, Lotus F1 Team analyzes and shares data from over two hundred sensors that measure everything from engine fatigue to torque and vibration. Working in sync with the right information, the team from the factory to the garage to the track can make the calls that make the difference between winning and losing. This cloud gives teams an edge.” From a 2014 Microsoft Cloud advertisement.

Turn this back 20 years; “No, no, no, I am the leader, the driver, the famous one and what I say the team does. We don’t have time for all that communication and collaboration. This race team will simply work as fast as possible and let me, the driver, provide all the information from the cockpit.”

Which team has the best chance of winning the big race? Exactly! The one that seeks out the very best real time information, knows how to receive it, understands how decisions are made and acts with precision. The other team too often has breakdowns they don’t see coming.

In your organization, are you in the driver’s seat alone or are you developing your access to insights “from over 200 sensors…”?

The expected outcomes of our November 26 workshop are a more powerful business network that will collaborate with you, a step by step approach to learn and to apply yourself, greater confidence to contact others leaders and invite them to help you and an opportunity to work collaboratively and build your skills in future focused by invitation sessions.

People in the BC Kootenays have many resources and skills. We are bringing them together in more innovative and rewarding ways.

Register here…

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