FEIAA interviewed Russell Linden, a long-time FEI instructor, about his new book, Loss and Discovery: What the Torah Can Teach Us about Leading Change. 

Q: Tell us a little about your 34-year teaching career at FEI, and how it led you to authoring several books on government, leadership, and change.  

A: Teaching at FEI was a pure delight! Why? Because I was working with smart, committed professionals who truly believe in public service—people who were eager to learn and willing to challenge themselves (and challenge those of us on the faculty).

My FEI experience directly led to these books. I frequently wrote case studies for the classes as well as articles in various government journals. Those cases and articles usually were on certain themes—collaboration, change, process improvement, and so on. So, every seven or eight years I’d reflect on those themes, do a good deal of research, and start to pull a book together. 

Q: It has been more than 11 years since your last book. What led you to write this particular one?   

A: I wasn’t thinking about another book until 2018, when it occurred to me that we’re not just living during a time of rapid change; it’s also a time of disruptive change. Think about it: the @MeToo movement; our incredibly divisive politics; the racial justice movement after the murder of George Floyd; climate change leading to such extreme weather that we ran out of names for the hurricanes last year; and, of course, this ongoing pandemic.

Leaders in all sectors have been struggling with the challenges posed by disruption. What good are strategic plans when the environment changes so often? What skills do we look for in new hires, given these constant changes? How do we build a team and onboard new people when so many of us are working from home? I felt the need to respond to these changes and challenges. 

Q: What led you to the Torah as a source for teaching about leadership and change?

A: During my 34 years teaching executives at FEI and consulting with government managers and leaders, the most frequent question I heard was, how can we manage change? Over time it occurred to me that Abraham, Moses, God, and other Torah figures were continually trying to get people to change. Moses struggles to get the Israelites to change their ways to follow God’s teachings—and they continually push back! Abraham and especially Moses try to talk God out of unleashing massive punishments, and they demonstrate the fine art of managing up. Moses’s father-in-law sees Moses micromanaging the judicial process and teaches him the importance of delegating and creating an organizational structure. And, after 40 incredibly difficult years leading the Israelites, Moses never gets to see the Promised Land. That’s a story all Federal employees can relate to. 

Another factor that led me to the Torah is the presence of so much disruption today. It turns out the Hebrew Bible is also filled with disruptive change: floods and droughts; God telling Moses to leave his quiet life and lead his people out of slavery; rebellions against Moses’s leadership. The key biblical characters certainly make their share of mistakes, but in many instances, they also demonstrate very effective leadership.

Q: What aspects of this book do you think will appeal to a more secular audience?

A: Actually, most of the book’s examples come from modern-day organizations and leaders. President John F. Kennedy learns from the Bay of Pigs fiasco, then handles the Cuban Missile Crisis extremely well. As an attorney, Ruth Bader Ginsburg frames her argument in a case about sexual discrimination before the Supreme Court in a way that doesn’t threaten the (all-male) members and wins a unanimous verdict. After the Cold War ends, General Colin Powell makes major changes in our military posture and adapts to the new realities. 

One of the book’s most interesting examples dealing with disruption comes from the Federal Government: the 2009 “Cash for Clunkers” program, an attempt to stimulate the economy during the Great Recession by giving people financial incentives to trade in their gas-guzzling vehicles for more fuel-efficient models. Leaders at the Department of Transportation faced a seemingly impossible challenge: form an ad hoc team, stand up an entirely new program, create a computerized system to register more than 23,000 auto dealers, create a website and hotline, develop rules and procedures—and do it all in 30 days! 

They did it, and over the next two months more than 670,00 dirty vehicles were taken off the roads, replaced by vehicles that got on average, 9 more miles per gallon than the gas-guzzlers. 

Q: Without giving away the book, is there a particular favorite story or example of leading change from the Torah that you can share?

A: My favorite Torah story about change concerns five sisters whose father—a man named Zelophehad—had died. He had no sons. But, according to existing law, women couldn’t inherit a father’s land. These brave sisters refused to accept that. All five of them stepped forward and spoke truth to power. They told their leaders their father was loyal, he didn’t join a rebellion that had occurred against Moses, his name shouldn’t be lost because he had no sons, and that they—the sisters—deserved to inherit his land.

Moses apparently felt that this situation was above his pay grade, so he asked God to decide (it turns out “delegating up” is hardly new). And what does God say? “The daughters’ plea is just . . . transfer their father’s share to them” (Exodus 27, Chap. 27, verses 1–6). Now think about this! The Bible, not exactly a feminist text, provides the first recorded instance I’m aware of in which women insist on their rights and succeed. 

Q: Are there any lessons from the book about leading through hardship that could be helpful to today’s leaders trying to manage the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic?

A: That’s the question we all are wrestling with. Here’s some insights I gained from researching current practices as well as ancient biblical wisdom:

• Communicate far more frequently with staff and colleagues. Things are continually changing, so share what you know, update it when you need to, and make it easy for others to respond. Doing so will build relationships.
• Look for ways to play to your staff members’ strengths. That’s always wise, but during the pandemic, when so much feels out of our control, it’s especially helpful to give people some tasks at which they excel.
• Let go of perfectionism. That doesn’t feel good to some of us, but things are changing so quickly that the perfect is, indeed, the enemy of the good.
• Model humility. When you don’t know the answer or make a mistake, the only proper response is to own it, learn, and adapt.
• Finally, if I could give Federal managers and leaders just one suggestion, it would be this: Protect the core of what your unit or organization is about, and be willing to make changes in everything else. 

The “core” could be a value, a key process, or a proven formula. For example, part of the core at the GAO is neutral competence. The core at some financial agencies includes being trustworthy. At Social Security the core involves great customer service. Innovation and collaboration are at the core of the 3-M company.

This pandemic is forcing us to be super-flexible and to continually adapt. When we do that, while never compromising on the core of our work, we’ll not only survive, but experience creative surprises that make us and our organizations better than we imagined possible. 

For more information on Russ’s new book, visit www.loss-discovery.com.