5 Questions with Steven Fahrenholtz

Steve founded the iSquad, an internal innovation department that worked with General Mills' business units to co-create new products. He believes every organization has, in-house, the capacity to revolutionize its business. 

Steve will be speaking at MNAMA's event, Signpost Language: The Five Conversations Every Innovation Leader Needs to Know, January 27.

We asked him five questions about Signpost Language and the innovation process:

1. Your upcoming presentation will cover Signpost Language. Can you briefly describe the concept of Signpost Language? Can you include an example?
   Signpost language is based on the concept that embedding a simple trigger phrase with consistent expected behavior can create an environment of trust, transparency and collaboration.  

   Signpost language gets its name from thinking about road signs. All road signs have two things in common: a universal expected behavior and a commonly understood rationale.  

   When you see a stop sign, you stop because you do not want to get hit. When you see a speed limit sign in a school zone, you slow down because you know that children are inattentive. 

   In Signpost Language, you use a simple phrase that acts like the road sign signaling the conversation you would like to have. Then, you have the conversation using a structured protocol based on a commonly understood rationale. 

   The best way to explain the concept of Signpost Language is to talk about the language that has been developed for constructive conflict conversation. In a constructive conflict conversation, we want to provide feedback to others while maintaining our relationship. 

   Sometimes honesty means telling you things that you might not what to hear. You begin a Signpost Language constructive conflict conversation by saying that you want to “step into the tension”. The phrase of “stepping into the tension” signals that we might be in conflict, that you want the other person to listen first and that you want the collective “us” to be better. A three word phrase packed with a lot of meaning. 

   The power of having a trigger phase is that it eliminates any possible confusion about why we are talking. In addition, having a structured conversation protocol enables people to focus on the content rather than the logistics of the conversation.
    

2. In the workplace, why is it important to set conversation expectations?
   
   Typically, when we approach topics like active listening, constructive conflict or trust, we focus on our behaviors and how we act. Signpost Language is the concept that we should focus on what we say and we will intuitively act differently and more importantly, people will naturally react to us differently. 

   Many times we spend an enormous amount of time trying to figure out the purpose of a conversation. Every group has a few, vital conversations that are directly related to achieving results. When we identify and standardize these critical conversations, we are creating an environment that allows people to improve because we are allowing people to learn through repetition. 

   Group dynamics are complex, multi-layered creatures. However, when you take control of your language, behavior will change.
    

3. The event description for your presentation mentions that Signpost Language is a four-step process. Can you briefly outline the four steps?
   
   Implementing Signpost Language is a leadership responsibility. The leader needs to determine the behaviors that will have the most impact on performance and decide to lead by example. 
   Therefore, the four steps are:
   
   Therefore, the four steps are:
   - Identifying change that is needed,
   - Developing a short trigger phrase that signals how you want people to act,
   - Teaching others the meaning of the trigger phrase, and
   - Acting in accordance with the way you said you were going to act
    
4. At your upcoming presentation, you will discuss five innovation conversations. Why is it important to develop a Signpost Language for the innovation process, and what is the role of Signpost Language in the innovation conversation?
   
   Signpost Language can improve the performance of any group or function. However, it was originally developed for groups focusing on making the new and untested a reality because innovation requires people to step into the tension of not knowing on a daily basis and yet, remain highly effective.
   
   After many years of reflection, I have identified five conversations that I believe are critical for innovation team performance. These conversations are:
   - Constructive conflict - providing feedback while maintaining relationships
   - Possibilities building - diverging on possibilities without critique
   - Active listening - listening for understanding 
   - Design critique - using constructive criticism to go from good to great
   - Implicit trust - communicating confidential information without reservation
    
5. How did you first learn about Signpost Language? In your own experience, how has the use of Signpost Language impacted your professional interactions?
   
   Signpost Language as a way to take teams from good to great was developed by me while I was leading the iSquad, an internal innovation group within General Mills, for the last ten years. 

   Being able to collaborate, trust and support each other was foundational to the team’s world class performance, and Signpost Language was foundational to creating and reinforcing these important values. 

   As evidence that Signpost Language works, the team dynamics of the iSquad were benchmarked. When compared to 5,000 other teams, the iSquad scored in the top 1% for team effectiveness.