The Middle Way Management Assessment Instrument (MWM-AI) Study

Research, Research, Research
Any rigorous research project takes time, energy, and good, old-fashioned elbow grease. Fortunately, I was able to convince several amazing people to help me complete the Middle Way Management Assessment Instrument™ (MWM-AI™) study. Special thanks go to Dr. Debra Elliott, James Rivera, and the inimitable Dr. Theodore Kariotis. These brave souls provided resources, comments, and encouragement throughout the process.

The Process
The process of completing a mixed-methods study is a lengthy one. In my case, it was composed of several steps:

1. Delphi study to define and refine survey/questionnaire items,
2. Limited field test of survey/questionnaire instrument - testing for validity, reliability, and internal consistency of items,
3. Full-scale administration of validated survey/questionnaire instrument,
4. Statistical analyses and write-up of full scale survey.

The Delphi Study
A Delphi study is simply a qualitative, panel-of-experts effort intended to create a reliable outcome based solely upon the expertise offered by the panel. In this case, the panel of experts was comprised of leaders and managers in several industry segments. This group included managers with years of experience at various educational levels, including undergraduate and graduate degrees.

A typical Delphi study allows the panel of experts to initially suggest several items for inclusion in a survey instrument. Since Middle Way Management™ is my own, new construct, I offered 100 items to the group along with an explanation of the guiding philosophy of Middle Way Management. Most of the panel participants had already been exposed to the approach via this blog or through personal communication. Regardless, the group completed two passes at the list of items. They eventually settled upon 25 items that I could take out to a limited field test.

Jim Rivera was instrumental in this phase of the study by pointing out that an executive manager's (e.g., C-level, President) point of view might be decidedly different than a front-line manager's. Based upon his input, I created a final instrument that captures the respondent's organizational level and branches to appropriate items. Thanks, Jim.

The Limited Field Test
Once the survey instrument had been defined and refined, I could embark upon the quantitative portion of the study. As a member of LinkedIn, I actively recruited several of my links to participate in the limited field study of the MWM-AI. I also recruited friends and colleagues, many of whom graciously participated.

In the end, 27 people completed the MWM-AI, a small sample, yet sufficient to test reliability using Cronbach's Alpha (this measurement essentially confirms that groups - in this case, all - of survey items measure "the same thing"). I was delighted to discover an alpha coefficient score of .964 over the 25 items of the instrument. Conventional social scientific wisdom dictates an acceptable level of > .80, though some researchers suggest > .70 is also acceptable. Either way, I was good to go - time to take it to a larger group.

The Real Deal
This is where Debra Elliott stepped up to the plate. Debra successfully negotiated with her organization to administer the final MWM-AI across all levels of her organization. Thanks, Debra. The results were interesting (I'm summarizing them in an article and won't bore you with the details here) and I was able to run Cronbach's Alpha on a larger sample of 137. The result: .966 across all 25 items. Again, good to go!

Future Directions
Now that I've validated the MWM-AI, it is truly ready to be delivered to the world. In fact, you can visit the survey here:

The Middle Way Management Assessment Instrument (MWM-AI)

Go ahead and punch away at it. I would be very interested in any comments or suggestions you may have to improve the instrument.

Now go, manage with compassion!

Onward! Darin

Resources that helped determine proper sample sizes for Cronbach's Alpha:

Duhachek, A., Coughlan, A. T., & Iacobucci, D. (2005, Spring). Results on the standard error of the coefficient alpha index of reliability. Marketing Science, 24(2), 294-301. doi:10.1287/mksc31040.0097

Duhachek, A., & Iacobucci, D. (2004). Alpha's standard error (ASE): An accurate and precise confidence interval estimate. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(5), 792-808. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.89.5.792

Copyright © 2009/2010, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.

Middle Way Management and Human Neuroplasticity

In my last post, I detailed my return to this blog after a long and fruitful absence. In this post, I will explain how a new neuroscientific methodology can help you take Middle Way Management™ to the next level. You will see that Middle Way Management is not just a theoretical approach to leading and managing people, it offers a proven methodology for practice where the rubber meets the road - in your daily organizational life.

Middle Way Management and Neuroplasticity
While conducting the MWM-AI study and fleshing out the first book on Middle Way Management, I came across several interesting ideas that I realized would significantly enhance the practice strategies of Middle Way Managers™ everywhere. These ideas are centered on the latest neuroplasticity research designed to help people purposefully change the neural pathways in their brains with the intent of permanently changing personal habits and their subsequent behaviors.

An additional benefit of this process is that managers working with organizational members will effect habitual and behavioral changes of their own! I sincerely believe many of the behaviors evident within work teams often reflect those of the leader/manager. This includes both positive and dysfunctional habits and behaviors. By working with team members to change their neural maps, Middle Way Managers will become more efficient and effective managers with little direct effort of their own.

Cognitive Neuroscience
The science behind all of this is grounded squarely in the discoveries of cognitive neuroscientists over the last 20 to 30 years. It uses stories as a means of communication and takes place over a 30-day period. The specific science that works to re-map the neural pathways happens when the organizational member's brain waves shift into "alpha mode" and the brain's subconscious storage processes take over (i.e., during the third step below). This way, team members are changing their habits incrementally and permanently in no more than five minutes per day!

The steps of the methodology are

1. Team member agrees to work with the manager to change a habit/behavior,
   
2. Manager identifies the habit/behavior domain to be changed,
3. Team member collects complementary stories within the habit/behavior domain and shares them with the manager (resistance will be encountered during this stage and must be overcome in a positive, encouraging manner),
4. Manager checks in weekly with the team member and provides positive encouragement,
5. Manager and team member observe changed behavior(s) during the process,
6. Manager and team member wrap-up the process and make an assessment of status.

Team members' habits and behaviors are typically changed by step 6 above. Conventional wisdom exists that suggests at least 21 days before the change(s) becomes permanent and can be observed in the workplace. Unfortunately, this 21-day period is not based on demonstrated science, yet the anecdotal evidence is sufficient to at least mention the duration. Naturally, the longer a team member practices the story collection/sharing process, the stronger the newly mapped neural nets become.

Next Steps
To help managers become proficient in the identification of the behavioral domains that become the loci of change for the team member, I will be offering a free tool designed to help them make the correct diagnosis. This Web-based tool will be available via the Middle Way Management website and I will post a major announcement on this blog when it becomes available for unlimited, free usage. Until then, I will work to complete the book, including detailed information on this new methodology.

Until then, manage with compassion!

Onward! Darin

Copyright © 2009/2010, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.

Back in the Game!

I'm Baaaaack!
After a long absence during which I was conducting the Middle Way Management Assessment Instrument™ (MWM-AI) study and writing the first Middle Way Management™ book (it's almost ready for prime time), I'm back! Fortunately, I've learned a lot along the way and have much to share with you in the months ahead.

New Developments
Two new developments will prove crucial to the continued development of Middle Way Management as a valuable leadership and management approach: 1) The MWM-AI and 2) A new neuroscientific approach to changing habits and behaviors in the workplace. While the MWM-AI offers a metric for initial and ongoing organizational assessments, the neuroscientific approach I am proposing is based upon the latest in neuroplasticity studies; it's grounded in Science and is a methodology proven time and again in the workplace.

Because these two topics offer enough information for several articles, I will reserve detailed comment about them for subsequent posts. Suffice it to say the MWM-AI study produced a reliable survey/questionnaire instrument of 25 items that is valid, internally consistent, and ready for action! I will be offering this instrument free of charge to anyone interested in developing a Middle Way Management practice based upon solid research and statistical analysis.

I could write an entire book on the new neuroscientific approach alone - and probably will. The approach utilizes stories, easily overcomes the inevitable resistance, and acts to physically create and re-map neural pathways in the brain. This way, Middle Way Managers™ can work with team members for mutual benefit. Yes, you understood me correctly - the act of working with a team member will also change the habits and behaviors of the manager for a success double-whammy. This is based upon prior and developing research, all of which I will document in a subsequent post or two (maybe three).

Future Topics
Finally, as a means of whetting your appetite, I'll list a few upcoming blog topics:

• Middle Way Management, Honesty and Candor
• Middle Way Management and Vision
• Middle Way Management and Tipping Points
• Middle Way Management and Daily Nutrition
  
• Middle Way Management and Competence
• Middle Way Management and Laughter
• Middle Way Management and Three Worldviews (pre-modern, modern, and post-modern)
• Middle Way Management and Language
• Middle Way Management, Conflict and Compromise
• Middle Way Management and Engaged Listening
• Middle Way Management and the Three Ds (debate, discussion, and dialogue)

I hope this makes you want to read more. I know I'm interested to see what I come up with.

Until then...manage with compassion!

Onward! Darin

Copyright © 2009/2010, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.

Middle Way Management and Vulnerability

In my last post, I discussed how you can find your refuge, both real and imagined, and take sanctuary in it whenever appropriate, or necessary. In this post, I consider the role vulnerability plays in your daily Middle Way Management™ walk.

Vulnerability in an Egoistic World
In our egoistic world, vulnerability is largely viewed as a weakness. Why is this? I believe it's because vulnerability is the outcome of practicing a management approach that is open, honest, candid, and, yes, compassionate. The typical American-style manager perceives him/herself as "tough but fair." Usually, they are just tough. They have no room for vulnerability because their self-identity is so wrapped up in their job title that they are operating from a position of fear at all times. Fear of looking bad before those they manage, fear of looking bad to their boss(es), fear of being perceived as weak, fear of the unknown.

Ego and fear are the enemies of vulnerability.

I recently completed the first and second phases of the Middle Way Management Assessment Instrument™ (MWM-AI™) study. The first phase was completed with the help of a panel of leadership and management experts. This group helped me define and refine a list of behavioral, leadership, and management characteristics that exemplify the Middle Way Manager™. The second phase was the development of a survey instrument for field testing. As I created the instrument items, I became keenly aware of the importance of vulnerability to the practice of Middle Way Management. A few items from the survey are

My direct manager...

...shows compassion for others at all levels of the organization.
...is sympathetic when needed.
...is not dogmatic in his/her beliefs (i.e., does not always need to be right).
...works to build and promote the team over self.
...is accountable for his/her actions to organizational stakeholders.

While these may appear to be the characteristics of any good manager, they are not always evident in the behaviors of American-style managers. These characteristics require a level of vulnerability that sidelines ego in the interest of others and the organization, and we know that the ego is always on the playing field in American-style management doing its best to look good--if it's not, it's on deck warming up.

It's Okay to be Vulnerable
The message I want to leave you with in this post is that it's okay to be vulnerable. Vulnerability does not denote weakness, it denotes honesty, candor, compassion, and empathy. When you are patient and kind, you are vulnerable. When you manage with vision and courage, you are vulnerable. When you put the interests of your team members before your own, you are vulnerable. And this is okay.

As your Middle Way Management practice matures, you will find that the outcomes you realize from your efforts overcome any perceptions of weakness. Walk your talk and embrace your vulnerability with mindfulness and purposeful intent and you will realize results that surprise even your harshest critics.

In my next post, I will discuss Middle Way Management and the role vision plays in your daily practice. It is a moral imperative of the Middle Way Manager to provide a clear, concise, achievable vision for the team. Providing vision builds trust and supplies a set of common goals that create the sort of "buy-in" money simply cannot buy.

Onward! Darin

Copyright © 2009, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.

Middle Way Management and Finding Your Refuge

In my last post, I discussed how viewing stress from the perspective of creative tension is a great way to enhance your Middle Way Management™ practice. By morphing stress into creative tension, you increase your ability to manage with compassion, empathy, patience, kindness, and sympathy, all necessary aspects of your Middle Way Management daily walk. In this post, I present ideas about how to find and then take refuge from a sometimes chaotic organizational environment.

Finding Your Refuge
Refuge in the context of Middle Way Management can be real or metaphorical. Either way, your refuge should be a place where you go to reconnect and sort things out. Of course, you can, and probably should, have more than one refuge space upon which you rely. Your refuge can be at your place of work or somewhere outside (e.g., walking path around the office building). Your refuge can be purely imaginary--a "happy place" you go to when things are spinning around you. As a Middle Way Manager™, you will seek real or metaphorical refuge depending on immediate circumstances.

For instance, it's probably not appropriate to excuse yourself to take a walk during an important meeting because you want to exit a negative situation and feel the sun on your face. It's also imperative that you remain "here, now." I've certainly let my mind wander to more pleasant scenes during a meeting or two over the years. Invariably, someone then asks me for my opinion on a matter to which I've paid virtually no attention. Because it's one of the primary responsibilities of the Middle Way Manager to be present at all times, you should guard against this and take refuge when and where appropriate.

Taking Refuge
In an earlier post, I recommended taking time out of your busy schedule to engage in reflective thought. Hopefully, you are able to accomplish this in your own office with some privacy or in a room set aside by the organization for rest and relaxation. This is a case of real refuge, one that you can count on (remember to schedule out the time as a meeting) to recharge and rejuvenate, especially if your day has been hectic. I know that I eagerly anticipate my self-sanctioned "timeouts" as a way to collect my thoughts and plan for future events.

Other forms of real refuge can be spending quality time with sympathetic colleagues during work hours or after work. You can schedule lunches with friends or family and even skip lunch altogether in the interest of simply getting away from the workplace for a little while. I once read an article by a guy who espoused using a toilet stall as a form of refuge to take a quick nap. While I don't think lurking in the restroom is a great idea, I do believe his point that a place of refuge should include some solitary time to recharge your managerial batteries is a good one.

On the metaphorical, or imaginary, side, refuge can simply be a way to calm your mind, even briefly. In an earlier post, I suggested reflective thought and breathing exercises as ways to settle your busy mind. Bringing yourself into awareness through concentration on your breathing is a great way to keep yourself in the present and focus your energies. In fact, breathing in awareness may be the best approach because it helps you focus intently on the present, preventing the wandering of mind that is so easy to slip into when refocusing.

The Purpose of Refuge
The purpose of taking refuge is to help you calm yourself in the midst of the storm. As an active manager in an American-style organization, you will typically reside in the eye of that storm when you take refuge. Remember, though, that the storm is always moving. Eventually, it will wash over you once again and you will be right back in the thick of things. By calming yourself in the midst of the storm, you allow yourself to re-energize your daily Middle Way Management practice. Only when you are calm and composed will you be able to manage with compassion, empathy, sympathy, understanding, and kindness.

In my next post, I will consider how practicing Middle Way Management requires you to be vulnerable in the face of egoistic and aggressive forces that are part and parcel of American-style organizational management. Only by acknowledging and embracing our vulnerability can we practice the level of compassion necessary to relieve suffering at all levels of the organization.

Copyright © 2009, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.

Middle Way Management, Stress, and Creative Tension

In my last post, I discussed how values are really at the foundation of everything you do as a Middle Way Manager™. Values color your perceptions and create biases - both positive and negative - that you use in your daily Middle Way Management™ walk. Recognizing and appreciating the values of your team members will also help you understand them better. This way, you can practice compassion, empathy, kindness, and understanding in natural, authentic ways. In this post, I will consider how you can turn a stressful situation into one where creative tension ushers you point-to-point without damaging relationships or compromising your values.

Good Stress, Bad Stress
While we've all experienced stress of some form, especially as managers, psychologists tell us that not all stress is bad. Yet, terms like "stress management" have created a buzz around stress that tells us it's something to be eradicated for the good of all. But is this really the case? Stress is indicated in our bodies in several ways. We breathe differently, we move differently, we even think differently under duress, all of which have been necessary survival tactics during our long evolution into Homo sapiens postmodernensis. What I'm suggesting here is that fight-or-flight is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it can be quite good.

We've all been in a situation in which flight seemed like a logical response to the energies at hand. I certainly know I have. During these times, my mind goes on a short hiatus and I'm left looking for the nearest exit. Now, this can be as immediate as potential direct harm to your person or a feeling that you need to "get out of here." And "getting out of here" can involve a quick retreat from an organizational situation or even the organization itself. Regardless, the thing to take away from these experiences is what your mind did and where it went while you were under stress.

Systems Science to the Rescue
In his book, The Fifth Discipline, Senge (2006) presents the idea of creative tension. He suggests the reader visualize a rubber band looped over the backs of both hands while pulling them apart. On, say, the left hand is your current position while the right is the place you want to eventually reach. He recommends decreasing the amount of tension between the two in creative ways so you reach your goal over time with less, well, stress. Like Senge, I consider the tension between current place and goal position to be the domain of stress.

Viewing stress this way changes it from something negative to something that offers Middle Way Managers myriad opportunities to inject creative energy into organizational pursuits. Whenever you begin to feel the telltale signs of stress, you are offered a chance to raise your awareness to respond in more positive ways to the issue(s) at hand. This consciously mindful approach lies at the heart of Middle Way Management and you should be grateful for every stressor that allows you to walk your Middle Way Management talk.

One way to do this is to categorize your potential stressors and concentrate upon a single category until you've mastered it. For instance, if you manage a large group of people, a category of focus might be "people issues" for a week. Every time someone brings you something that requires your attention (remember, stress is created by "good" and "bad" scenarios), you can raise your awareness to recognize the inherent stressor and why you feel the way you do. Once you recognize this, it's a short trip to turn the stress into creative , goal-directed tension. Will this instantly solve any problems you must address? Probably not always, yet it will expand your perspective into a solution space, rather than a problem space.

Why Does This Matter?
While this topic might seem tangential to your Middle Way Management practice, handling stress, both "good" and "bad," typically requires a new perspective. Morphing stress into creative tension matters here because the promotion of positive energy in your daily Middle Way Management walk is a fundamental aspect of managing with compassion while practicing empathy, patience, sympathy, and kindness. Each of these helps you achieve your primary goal as an active, mindful Middle Way Manager: the relief of suffering at all levels of the organization.

In my next post, I will consider Middle Way Management and finding your refuge. This is necessary in a hectic, sometimes chaotic, work environment. By taking refuge, you rejuvenate and re-energize yourself, which is good for you, for your team members, and for the organization at large.

Reference

Senge, P. M. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Broadway Business.

Copyright © 2009, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.

Middle Way Management and Values

In my last post, I presented the "Magic Mirror"--the one in which we see ourselves reflected when we form opinions about others. While it applies to many interactions you have with organizational members during the course of practicing Middle Way Management™, it certainly does not generalize to all of them. More than anything, my purpose here is to raise topics that spur additional discussion, which the Magic Mirror post most definitely accomplished. In this post, I will discuss the role your values play in your daily Middle Way Management practice.

What Do You Value?
As a practicing Middle Way Manager™, you have already demonstrated that you value people and how they are treated in an organizational context. You value yourself or you wouldn't assume you have anything to offer the organization or the people and resources under your watch. You value the organization for which you spend your invaluable time and energy and, of course, you value all of the things in your personal life that make life worth living.

Yet, aren't values something more than simply those "things" you value in your life (imagined or real)? Like culture, values are reified objects - intellectual constructs we use throughout our day to measure and weigh every situation that arises. Values are deeply ingrained and can be quite difficult to articulate, until they are threatened. Values change over time, morphing into something that can pop up to surprise us when we least expect it. In the end, we cannot escape our values; they inform and color everything we see, hear, and do--they are at the foundation of everything.

Generating Values
A few months ago, I worked with a colleague to create the "ValuesGenerator". This Web-based application is a sorting exercise in which participants decide which values listed on virtual cards (e.g., family, honesty, integrity, etc.) to put in the "keeper" pile and which to discard. By the end of the exercise, participants are left with their top six choices--six values that rise above all others. For many, this provides a moment of surprise and clarity. For others, it just reinforces what they already know about themselves.

One feedback remark we received is that values definitions have different meanings for different people. For instance, "family" can mean one thing to a heterosexual male with no kids and entirely another to a lesbian with two children in her household. In an American-style organizational context, "candor" can be situational while in a religious organization it might be expected under any and all circumstances. Clearly, values are nuanced in ways that can make agreement upon their definitions problematic at best.

An Opportunity for Dialogue
While I understand that agreement upon values definitions can be problematic, I do not consider this a problem, especially for the Middle Way Manager. Whenever complete agreement is not reached on any topic, it is not a stopping point; rather, it's a beginning from which understanding can be created.

The ValuesGenerator is a way for organizational members to make explicit their values and then engage in respectful dialogue that works to bring organizational members closer together in unforeseen ways. As understanding is reached between people, they see that compassion and empathy, sympathy and understanding are more easily realized. They see that walking the Middle Way Management path is easier when the values that lead to motivations which result in behaviors are brought to the surface.

Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged
As a Middle Way Manager, you must seriously consider the role judgment plays in your daily walk. Like every other aspect of your Middle Way Management practice, values will lie at the heart of how you interact with others and what judgments you make about their behaviors. Judgment is a tricky thing, especially if you have not made the necessary effort to fully understand the values of your team members. Remember, one of your primary Middle Way Management objectives is the relief of suffering across all levels of the organization.

Personal values incongruence or conflict can create significant individual suffering, which you will see manifested as depressive, unproductive, or difficult team member behaviors. This is when your sensitivity about judgment and understanding the values of others will become an important part of your daily practice. How you negotiate such relationships under these circumstances will determine how effectively you walk your Middle Way Management talk.

In my next post, I will discuss Middle Way Management, stress, and creative tension. The Middle Way Manager works to move stress into a creative space where options are plentiful and solutions abound.

Until then...

Onward! Darin

Copyright © 2009, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.