Quality
is the enemy of innovation, innovation is the enemy of quality, and
people get in the way of both. A great organization needs to focus on
all three, all the time and a great manager must see from all three
perspectives.
3-Filters Technology
offers a way for
dealing with these conflicting needs.
|
People
Feelings |
Effective
leaders are in touch with people’s feelings. A organization
needs talented people committed to team success. Externally,
you must consider the feelings of customers, investors, and the
community at large. If any significant group of people are
against you, you quickly drop from good to not good. |
|
Security
Quality |
Survival of
the organization is dependent on quality products and services.
Quality is driven by processes and procedures that assure
consistency in every product. The goal is predictability and
control, so every product meets specifications and every
customer gets the required level of service. |
|
Future
Innovation |
To adapt to
a changing world you need flexibility and an eye for what is
over the horizon. If nothing ever changed, you could stop with
people and quality. The economy is constantly changing. Laws
change. Technology change is accelerating. High quality but
obsolete products are of no value. |
To
succeed long term as an executive you must manage these three major
areas well. Doing two out of three just does not cut it. That would be
sort of like a television picture that has one of the colors missing.
It is good enough for a while, but it gets old quickly.
 Color
television builds a full color image from just three colors. If you
look through a magnifying glass at a white area on your screen, you will
see small dots of
red,
green
and
blue
lights. Older television projectors actually had three lenses and you
could see the red, green and blue lights. You could hold your hand over
one or two of the lenses to get the off color images like the ones you
see here. The yellow image in the graphic lacks blue light. You need
all 3 colors to get full color. By the way, if your first grade teacher
told you the primary 3 colors are something other than red, green and
blue, your teacher obviously needed to be watching more TV.
People have a full spectrum of needs, and like the color TV, you can
group these needs into several categories that when mixed together
create a rich array of possibilities. A manager leads by meeting these
needs among many groups such as developers, business owners, and
customers. Within each group are individual people, each with their own
filters. You have to make sense to every person in every group if you
want to keep your job and lead the organization.
We
tend to develop our personalities around our needs and talents as
individuals, and we tend to deemphasize other areas. We then follow the
golden rule and do unto others as we would have them do unto us. That
is perfectly fine if you are in a technical job where you get paid for
doing specific things well. Corporate executives do not have that
luxury; they have to do the full job and lead everyone, accommodating
all needs and personalities. The golden rule is not good enough. Often
people who get promoted into leadership positions got there because they
did something extraordinarily well, sometimes at the expense of
underemphasizing other important things. This can create problems as
they grow into their new roles. Managing through 3-Filters helps you to
consciously see all 3 perspectives and avoid the pitfalls of being blind
to some aspects of the job.
Management Training Programs:
Text
books and training programs are written by people who have their own
sets of filters. This means two things. First, the information is
likely to be colored one way or another rather than full spectrum so you
will see an incomplete and misleading picture. Second, you will like
the programs that cover the things you like, and you will probably
dislike the ones that are incompatible with your filters. The only
worthwhile programs are ones that pay proper respect to all three
perspectives all the time. Your filters should be validated as
essential to success, and your skills should be expanded to cover areas
where you could use some help.
Maslow - Hierarchy of Needs
 Nearly
every management textbook mentions Abraham Maslow and the hierarchy of
needs. Here is what
Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia,
has to say about the hierarchy of needs (by the way, people with a
strong Security/Quality Filter would not quote Wikipedia because it is
subject to the whims of the people who contribute to it, whereas people
with a strong Future Filter love Wikipedia because there are always new
ideas popping up).
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a theory in psychology that Abraham
Maslow proposed in his 1943 paper
A Theory of Human Motivation,
which he subsequently extended to include his observations of man's
innate curiosity. His theory contended that as humans meet 'basic
needs', they seek to satisfy successively 'higher needs' that occupy a
set hierarchy.
While
Maslow's theory was regarded as an improvement over previous theories of
personality and motivation, it had its detractors. For example, in their
extensive review of research that is dependent on Maslow's theory, Wabha
and Bridwell (1976)
found little evidence for the ranking of needs that Maslow described, or
even for the existence of a definite hierarchy at all.
Maslow
is interesting, but what does a manager do with it anyway? It is fair
to say Maslow identified some of our needs and grouped them together in
a useful model. The problem is that not all people are alike. Not all
have the same intensity of needs that must be satisfied in the sequence
of Maslow’s hierarchy. It is more common to see patterns where one or
two of the groups of needs are motivators, while other needs are way
down on the list. Of course, the first level physical needs take
precedence over other needs, but after that the intensity of need
varies from person to person and from situation to situation.
Nelson - Viewing Needs Through Filters
 Larry
Nelson developed a model of needs based behavior by looking at Maslow's
hierarchy through filters. He found you could group needs into three
major categories: people, security, and future. The three categories
are very much in play by every person every day, but in differing
degrees of intensity. Like three lights combining to create a full
spectrum picture on your TV, the three categories combine to paint a
rich and complex picture of needs and behavior. Physical needs are
shown as a separate set of needs that surround the 3-Filters needs.
Physical needs, of course, are more urgent than non-physical needs and
not meeting them is like having filters on a broken camera. The filters
really would not matter in that situation.
Nelson states that needs drive actions, but needs are not the sole
source of actions. We need to eat, but we want a certain type of food.
Actions are the result of complex interaction between our personal
needs, values, talents, skills and experiences. No two of us are alike
so it entirely useless to get too structured in a model to predict
behavior. It is a much better use of our time and effort to gain a
broad understanding of general principals that we can apply to specific
situations. Just as we can see a complex set of rich colors on a high
definition television that has only 3 colors, we can see complex sets of
behavior through 3-Filters.
The
filter analogy is useful because it helps you see other people’s needs
through their filters. Hold up a green filter in front of your eyes,
and you will see everything that reflects green light, and everything
else will be dark. You will be blind to red and blue. At any one time,
only one filter is in play and we are blind to important things. If you
switch filters, you see the blind spots. If you spin them quickly
enough, you will actually see the full spectrum of colors.
3-Filter Bias
In the
digital world colors are precise but we live in an analog world where
everything is relative. If you lean toward one color, you are seen as
that color, even though you have all three colors present all the time.
Consider the following hot/cold water experiment. You put one hand in
warm water and the other hand in cold water. Take them out and put both
hands in room temperature water. What will you feel? To the cold hand
the room temperature water will feel warm and to the warm hand it will
feel cold. Warm and cold are relative to our skin temperature, and when
we say water is warm, we are really saying the water is warmer than our
skin's current temperature. So it is with 3-Filters. Everything I
perceive is relative to my current perspective.
If you
have taken digital photographs and worked with color balance on the
computer, you have worked with the red, green, and blue layers of the
image, adjusting the relative amount of each to get the correct color.
Back when photographers used color film, they had to choose either
daylight or indoor film because electric light bulbs are much more
yellow than sunlight. If you used indoor film outside the pictures
would be too blue. The camera records what is there whereas we see
things relative to the color of the lighting. In our brain we do the
color correction when we move from sunlight to electric light and we are
not even aware of the light shift. The images shown here demonstrate
this color shift. The top picture was shot with outdoor film in
daylight. The bottom picture is too blue because indoor film was used in
daylight. This could have been corrected with a yellow filter on the
camera to compensate for the blue color bias.
 |
 |
| Outdoor film in
daylight |
Indoor film in
daylight |
Consider
our relative positions. You and I may be somewhere
in the middle on the security/future continuum, but you lean toward
security and I may lean toward future, so I see you as security
oriented. A third person may be even more oriented toward security, and
would see you as future oriented. We would call this a 3-Filter Bias.
Everyone has a comfortable position on the chart and it is perceived by
others according to their relative positions. Thus we start to label
people according to the bias we see.
Every
executive has a natural 3-Filter Bias, too, but to be successful working
with other people, he or she must consciously think and speak the
language of all 3-Filters all the time. By switching from filter to
filter, the perception will be full color as seen in the center of the
chart. Note that you don't have to give up your 3-Filter Bias. You
are still you and there is no need to change. All you have to do is
switch filters to see the other perspectives and use your brain to act
intelligently. Let's take a look at some contrasting examples of a
3-Filters Bias.
Let's take a look at some contrasting examples of a
3-Filters Bias. a look at some contrasting examples of a
3-Filters Bias.
 68 |
 24 |
 28 |
|
Future Filter |
People Filter |
Security Filter |
 Fred has a strong leaning to the future side of our
chart. In his career, Fred has been known as a change agent.
When things were tough and companies need a new direction Fred got
promoted. Fred has also had some
downturns in his career. When companies were not looking for
change, they didn't want him around, even though he had a solid track
record of success. Using the 3-Filters profile,
Fred has learned to look through the other filters and this has served
him well. He
can at least speak their languages and make sense to them. His time
to shine always shows up sooner or later because there will always be
activities that absolutely require a strong future filter. |
|
15 |
49 |
57 |
|
Future Filter |
People Filter |
Security Filter |
 Elizabeth has a
strong leaning on the Security and People side of the chart. She is a critical
care nurse in a trauma unit that receives serious injuries.
She must do things the right way or people die. While she
takes care of physical injuries, she must also deal with the
patient as a person, along with family and friends who are
dealing with a very difficult and emotional situation.
Elizabeth is tired when she gets home from work, but feels a
real sense of satisfaction from what she does.
|
|
|
38 |
38 |
44 |
|
Future Filter |
People Filter |
Security Filter |
 Rob
is evenly split in his use of the 3-Filters. He has an interesting career in that he is a musician
and a web programmer. He can be somewhere in the world performing
on stage with his trombone at night and working on the World Wide Web
during the day. His adaptability serves him well. |
If these people were on the
same team it would be useful to map the team high and low points.
If the person with the highest Future Filter did Future Filter
activities, the team will be more productive than if the person with the
lowest did it. The same is true for each Filter.
Unfortunately, we often focus on people's weaknesses rather than
strengths, causing low performance and predictable conflict. The
astute manger emphasizes strengths with work assignments and performance
reviews. Of course we need to learn to switch Filters, but we
don't need to stay there. We are most effective doing what we do
well, letting others do what they do well. |
Nelson
goes on to make the point that our 3-Filter Bias changes depending on
the situation. He found that people commonly use different sets of
filters in their personal space, group space, and in their day-to-day
work. For example when spending your own money, your people filter may
be dominant in that you want to spend your money on fun things that you
share with friends and family. At work you might find your future
filter dominates in that you want to invest money on things that have
potential future value. From this Nelson comes up with nine roles:
9 Roless
|
Future Filter |
Pioneer |
Innovator |
Leader |
| Likes: |
Get there first |
Belabored discussions |
Inspire others |
|
Doesn't Like: |
Paper work |
Invent things and ideas |
|
There
are times to consider security, times to consider feelings, and there
are times to step out and move forward. An effective manager spends a
lot of time on processes, procedures, quality, and in general, avoiding
failure. An effective manger also has to keep a close eye on the
future. If we don't innovate, we fall behind. New opportunities are
coming our way every day. In addition, an effective manager is also
very good on the people side. In the early 1900s, scientific management
was all about optimizing processes. Scientific management hit a wall
with the famous Hawthorn experiment where environmental factors like the
lighting in the factory were selectively modified to produce measurable
productivity improvement. The trouble was, any change, up or down,
improved productivity, suggesting that people responded in complex and
unpredictable ways. Out of this came the birth of people oriented
management. It makes a difference if you create a sense of belonging
among the workers. They want to get paid and they want to produce a
product, but they also have social needs. Human relations oriented
management, however, does not replace the need for scientific
management. You just need to step back once in a while and see through
a different filter.
Single Filter Blindness
Take
note of color names in these photos. When you view the world through a
green filter, the word green is invisible because green and white are
equal. When you view the world through one filter, you are not aware of
it because everything becomes that color, or it becomes a mysterious
shadow of the missing color. If you have the people filter on, you see
everything people related, while security and future become strange dark
matter making no sense. The only way to make sense of the whole picture
is to spin the filters and build the whole image in your mind.
 |
 |
 |
| 3-Filter |
Green
Filter |
Yellow
Filter |
Sometimes we spin the filter part way and see through two Filters. This
better than one, but there are still blind spots. Notice how the word
yellow becomes invisible in the yellow photo, but you can read red and
green while blue is still a dark shadow. The danger of stopping with
two Filters is you can mistakenly think you are seeing the whole picture
because it looks better than the one Filter picture. The only way to
see everything is to spin all three filters.
There
is great risk to an organization if it emphasizes one Filter to
exclusion of another, even if things are looking good through that
Filter. In the year 2000, 3M, a company known for innovation, adopted a
new strategy emphasizing quality and efficiency. They hired new CEO,
James McNearney, from General Electric, to lead the charge for Six
Sigma, a quality management program that emphasizes process
improvement. Initially, profits jumped 22% a year. They made $1.4
billion in profits on $23 billion in sales. Less than 5 years later,
McNearney needed to leave because 3M had lost its innovative edge and
business was faltering. The new CEO, George Buckley turned back the
clock on Six Sigma to give 3M a chance at bringing back innovation.
According to a Business Week article (June 11, 2007), 3M paid a long
term price dropping innovation as a core focus. The Business Week
article had a headline,
"Six
Sigma: So Yesterday?"
Our
take on this is the Security—Quality Filter had wonderful impact at
first, but when used to the exclusion of the Future Filter, the company
lost is place in the world. Consider a similar article in another
business publication, CIO Insight:
The Conflict Between Six Sigma and Innovation
Where conflict
occurs, it's often about the definition of unnecessary sources of
variability. Many Six Sigma black belts (certified experts in the
application of Six Sigma principles) tend to apply the principles as
doctrine without regard to context or situational need. People should
think outside the box and try different approaches to routine tasks, but
the black belts see this as perverting their carefully optimized process
by introducing unnecessary sources of variability.
It's tempting to
isolate the innovation efforts from the core of the business—and hence
from the Six Sigma doctrine—but this is almost always a mistake. It's
tempting to force a showdown at the executive level—a sort of sponsor
shoot-out—but that's often a mistake as well, because Six Sigma is a
good idea and this shouldn't be an either/or outcome. Ultimately, if
nothing else works, you may have to change the people who guard the
roadblocks, to the benefit of the business's quality improvement and
innovation efforts.
John Parkinson,
CIO Insight
,July 23, 2007
If you
are starting to see the picture that long term success requires all 3
Filters, try using the filters that are outside your 3-Filter bias. To
influence people through a presentation, written document, or Web page,
keep in mind that people are filtering out nearly everything you say if
it is not compatible with their filters. The only way to get through is
to be 3-Filter compliant. This is not easy because our personal
vocabularies are consistent with our own filters and it is unnatural to
use words that aren't important to us. Force yourself to use at least
one word from each of the 3 lists. You can come up with your own
formula after you get the hang of it, but to get started try this set of
lists.
| Peoplee |
Security |
Future |
Popular
Impress
Admire
Community
Special
Debates
Join in
Accepted
We/Us |
Proven
Avoid
Eliminate
Thorough
Save
Listen
Resist
Solid
Reduce |
New
Win
Achieve
Quick
Speculate
Invent
Results
Growth
Powerful |
Use Testimony
Use Pictures |
State Facts
Give Guarantees |
State Opinions
Give Options |
-Filters
and 4-Quadrant is focus on needs vs. behavior. We all have the
same 3 needs all the time. How we meet our needs may be different
and can be seen in the 4-Quadrant models that focus on observable
behavior.
The
following diagram illustrates how 3-Filters can overlay 4-Quadrants.
-
The Directing/Driving/Strategize person probably has a strong Future
Filter bias, along with a good deal of people and a lesser amount of
security.
-
The Influencing/Personalize/Expressive person probably has a strong
People Filter bias, with a certain amount of Future and a lesser
amount of Security.
-
The Supportive/Organize/Amiable person probably has a strong
Security Filter bias, along with a certain amount of People and a
lesser amount of Future.
-
The Contemplative/Analyze/Analytical person probably has a strong
Security Filter bias, along with a certain amount of Future and a
lesser amount of People.
This gets complicated when you consider
that people often show behavior from more than one of the
4-Quadrants. For this reason you should keep the
linking of the various models fairly loose rather than seeing it as
a direct map. Nevertheless, the patterns are clear and
consistent across models. These persistent patterns lend
credibility to the idea that there is not a hierarchy of needs, but
rather a pattern of needs as represented by overlapping filters.
|
DISC |
Whole Brain |
Merrill Reid |
|
D
Directing |
Strategize |
Driver |
|
I
Influencing |
Personalize |
Expressive |
|
S
Supportive |
Organize |
Amiable |
|
C
Contemplative |
Analyze |
Analytical |
|
 |
|
DISC - American Management Association, Center for Applied
Research, Inc.
Personal Styles and Effective Performance by David Merrill and
Roger Reid
The Whole Brain Business Book
by Ned Herman |
Situational Leadership
No management text book would be complete without
referencing Situational Leadership theory and you may be wondering
how 3-Filters overlays that model. According to Wikipedia
the Free Encyclopedia, the model is as follows:
As a leadership model, the best known
example was developed by Paul Hersey, a professor who wrote a well
known book Situational Leader and Ken Blanchard, the
management guru who later became famous for his One Minute
Manager series. They created a model of situational leadership
in the late 1960s in their work Management of Organizational
Behavior (now in its 9th edition) that allows one to analyze the
needs of the situation, then adopt the most appropriate leadership
style. It has proved popular with managers over the years because it
is simple to understand, and it works in most environments for most
people. The right leadership
style will depend on the person being led - the follower. Blanchard
and Hersey extended their model to include the Development Level of
the follower. They stated that the leader's chosen style should be
based on the competence and commitment of her followers. They
categorized the possible development of followers into four levels,
which they named D1 to D4:
- D1: Low Competence, High
Commitment - They generally lack the specific skills required
for the job in hand. However, they are eager to learn and
willing to take direction.
- D2: Some Competence, Low
Commitment - They may have some relevant skills, but won't be
able to do the job without help. The task or the situation may
be new to them.
- D3: High Competence, Variable
Commitment - They are experienced and capable, but may lack the
confidence to go it alone, or the motivation to do it well or
quickly.
- D4: High Competence, High
Commitment - They are experienced at the job, and comfortable
with their own ability to do it well. They may even be more
skilled than the leader.
For a manager attempting to see the probable
needs of the other person in these situations, you might consider
the following application of 3-Filters to these situations:
|
Situation |
Supervision Focus Filter |
 |
D1
Low Competence
High Commitment |
Develop competency by focusing on doing things the
right way in the right order and meeting written
standards. |
D2
Some Competence
Low Commitment |
As you develop competence, integrate the individual
into the team and develop stronger relationships. |
D3
High Competence
Variable Commitment |
As
you continue to develop team relationships, start
focusing more on the future to develop independence. |
D4
High Competence
High Commitment |
Encourage the person to apply the competency in new
ways and allow maximum independence while
maintaining quality standards. |
Conclusion
3-Filters thinking goes beyond work and is a
great tool to use in your personal life, too. It can be fun to
see and appreciate the differences among people in our own families.
The People Filter brings out the fun in a family and nurtures
relationships. The Security Filter keeps a family grounded in
reality, avoiding situations that could be harmful. The Future Filter encourages us to explore new
territory and prepare for the future with positive anticipation.
Copyright © 2007 Steve Wille
Contains substantial amounts of information from 3-Fitlers Technology, Copyright
© 1996 Larry Nelson, used with
permission
3-Filters Technology (TM) was developed by
the Institute for Change Research International and is backed by
over a decade of research involving more than 10,000 people.
It's Powerful, Proven & People-Oriented.
Dimension graphics by icrint
Graphics by
Steve Wille Photography
Permission
is granted to
copy this paper in its entirety provided this copyright statement clearly appears, along with the web links
to
www.ToughTeams.com
and www.icrint.com/
|
