I was at our all staff day in Birmingham this week and was truly inspired by the work of our international colleagues. We heard about how we run our programmes in different international settings, which while were definitely 'Common Purpose', were very much based in their local contexts.
In India we finished our Bangalore senior leaders programme, and one of the speakers was telling us how it was distinctly (and rightly) Indian in style, design, delivery and focus. This has sat with me and left me pensive for the past few days. It really had to be based in the local and national cultural context, it had to be Indian in all ways possible.
So why so much pondering about this? It led me to reflect on Core Day 2 on the theme of courage and leading across boundaries, in that when leading across boundaries, be they geographical or cultural, you need to place yourself in their context, and understand and navigate cultural difference.
While studying social anthropology at university we were challenged from the outset to leave our cultural preconceptions and worldview at the door, which isn't something that historically the discipline was particulary good at (or even considered it could be argued). We reflected, discussed and did our best to not view other people, spaces and cultures through our cultual lens, but to what extent did we ever really do that? Is it enough to be aware that you are doing this, and to bear it in mind?
As leaders how often do we reflect on our abilities to understand contexts and leave our cultural baggage behind? If we don't, can we ever be truly effective leaders across geographical and cultural boundaries?
A
Friday, 26 June 2009
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
This morning, as every morning I woke to the sounds of my 1 year old god-daughter clanging about in the living room next to my bedroom. I rose, wandered to the bathroom, and re-appeared in the living room doorway to rapturous smiles from said god-daughter. (One of the best bits of my day.) During the usual routine of getting ready for work I was interrupted by a rather excited housemate who came knocking on my door with news, “quick, come and see what M can do. She can point to the mouse in the book. It’s her new thing. It’s brilliant!”. Dutifully I wandered into the living room and observed M point to the mouse in her book as her Dad repeatedly asked her “Where’s the mouse?” as he turned the page.
Later in a quiet moment, M and I were alone together. On impulse I sat down with her on the floor. We had another go at the “point at the mouse” game, and again M scanned the pages and pointed to the little mouse hiding behind things in the pictures. How did she learn this? I don’t especially remember hours of mouse pointing in the house. Why a mouse? How does she understand “mouse” when she can’t even say it yet?
Not content with the mouse feat, on impulse I started the game of “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” intending on teaching M to recognise the different parts of her body. After about 5 mins, we both got bored and moved on to joyfully building and knocking down bricks.
On the bus in to work this morning I returned to the mouse recognition game and it got me thinking… How did M learn “mouse”? How did M learn pointing at “mouse” was the required response to “where’s the mouse”?
As young learners we learn by repetition. Learning by repetition is hard work. It requires determined intent. It requires consistent commitment. It requires absolute dedication. When was the last time as an adult I had that amount of intent, commitment & dedication to something I wanted to learn?
Perhaps last year when I lost lots of weight, but it’s creeping back on so my consistent commitment and absolute dedication are questionable. Perhaps when I learnt to scuba dive last summer, but it’s not something that I do everyday so again I’d question my dedication.
What about in my leadership? When was the last time that I learnt a new skill or behaviour and really put in the work to make it part of my everyday vocabulary and repertoire. Hmm…? Now that is a tough question…
All this reminded me of a really interesting article I read on the net “Passion and deliberate practice results in great leadership” by George Ambler on Wednesday, November 1, 2006. http://www.thepracticeofleadership.net/2006/11/01/passion-and-deliberate-practice-results-in-great-leadership/ The article reflects on the work of a psychologist at Florida State University, Anders Ericsson, on what makes a superior performer a super performer:
“But it isn’t magic, and it isn’t born. It happens because some critical things line up so that a person of good intelligence can put in the sustained, focused effort it takes to achieve extraordinary mastery…… These people don’t necessarily have an especially high IQ, but they almost always have very supportive environments, and they almost always have important mentors. And the one thing they always have is this incredible investment of effort.”
Passion is just one of the magic ingredients but you can’t make it happen without the hard graft. According to most self-help / self-improvement programmes it takes 21 days of consistent repetition to form a new habit and the minimum effort to form the new habit is 15 mins a day. (There are lots of resources on the net about this. The best summary I have found is via Google Questions http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/786165.html )
So the ultimate question for me is, if M can master “mouse”, then what leadership skill or behaviour could I master with just 15 mins investment per day?
R x
Later in a quiet moment, M and I were alone together. On impulse I sat down with her on the floor. We had another go at the “point at the mouse” game, and again M scanned the pages and pointed to the little mouse hiding behind things in the pictures. How did she learn this? I don’t especially remember hours of mouse pointing in the house. Why a mouse? How does she understand “mouse” when she can’t even say it yet?
Not content with the mouse feat, on impulse I started the game of “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” intending on teaching M to recognise the different parts of her body. After about 5 mins, we both got bored and moved on to joyfully building and knocking down bricks.
On the bus in to work this morning I returned to the mouse recognition game and it got me thinking… How did M learn “mouse”? How did M learn pointing at “mouse” was the required response to “where’s the mouse”?
As young learners we learn by repetition. Learning by repetition is hard work. It requires determined intent. It requires consistent commitment. It requires absolute dedication. When was the last time as an adult I had that amount of intent, commitment & dedication to something I wanted to learn?
Perhaps last year when I lost lots of weight, but it’s creeping back on so my consistent commitment and absolute dedication are questionable. Perhaps when I learnt to scuba dive last summer, but it’s not something that I do everyday so again I’d question my dedication.
What about in my leadership? When was the last time that I learnt a new skill or behaviour and really put in the work to make it part of my everyday vocabulary and repertoire. Hmm…? Now that is a tough question…
All this reminded me of a really interesting article I read on the net “Passion and deliberate practice results in great leadership” by George Ambler on Wednesday, November 1, 2006. http://www.thepracticeofleadership.net/2006/11/01/passion-and-deliberate-practice-results-in-great-leadership/ The article reflects on the work of a psychologist at Florida State University, Anders Ericsson, on what makes a superior performer a super performer:
“But it isn’t magic, and it isn’t born. It happens because some critical things line up so that a person of good intelligence can put in the sustained, focused effort it takes to achieve extraordinary mastery…… These people don’t necessarily have an especially high IQ, but they almost always have very supportive environments, and they almost always have important mentors. And the one thing they always have is this incredible investment of effort.”
Passion is just one of the magic ingredients but you can’t make it happen without the hard graft. According to most self-help / self-improvement programmes it takes 21 days of consistent repetition to form a new habit and the minimum effort to form the new habit is 15 mins a day. (There are lots of resources on the net about this. The best summary I have found is via Google Questions http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/786165.html )
So the ultimate question for me is, if M can master “mouse”, then what leadership skill or behaviour could I master with just 15 mins investment per day?
R x
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Creative Dissonance
I was reading a really interesting blog post by Rob in response to the practice that was sent out on the need to be courageous, where he discussed his journey with courage and conflict. He went from avoiding conflict at all costs, often to his own detriment, to seeing how conflict opens doors to explore difference and have open and safe discussions with others.
This really resonated with me and reminded me of a very interesting discussion I heard a few months ago which was about the importance of creative dissonance. The person in question was discussing how a behemoth of an institution had to re-invent itself and do new things to try and resonate with people, as everyone had so many preconceptions of it. To do this required creating a time of creative dissonance which is confrontational and a risk, but ultimately constructive as they reassessed matters and asked themselves some very difficult questions. But to do this took the courage to step up, create dissonance and deal with the potential ramifications.
I know I shy away from dissonance at times, and know I am not on my own on that, but am I missing the opportunity to have creative and constructive dissonance and conflict, I think I probably am. So I think I will be taking a leaf out of Rob and the other person in questions book and saying yes to creative dissonance.
Andy
This really resonated with me and reminded me of a very interesting discussion I heard a few months ago which was about the importance of creative dissonance. The person in question was discussing how a behemoth of an institution had to re-invent itself and do new things to try and resonate with people, as everyone had so many preconceptions of it. To do this required creating a time of creative dissonance which is confrontational and a risk, but ultimately constructive as they reassessed matters and asked themselves some very difficult questions. But to do this took the courage to step up, create dissonance and deal with the potential ramifications.
I know I shy away from dissonance at times, and know I am not on my own on that, but am I missing the opportunity to have creative and constructive dissonance and conflict, I think I probably am. So I think I will be taking a leaf out of Rob and the other person in questions book and saying yes to creative dissonance.
Andy
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
2009 is coming!
2009 is coming and this got me thinking about the past year, reflecting on what I have learnt, sometimes too late and to my detriment and thus need to master next year. Thinking about this I found the below quote which poses an interesting proposition.
Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. - Hal Borland
Assuming that Hal is right I must take all of my learning from the last year into 2009, even that which I would like to leave behind, those situations I would have handled differently, those decisions I would have made differently. If I must take them with me how do I take them with me positively rather than as something I have sworn never to do again and have identified as a poor quality in the picture of a perfect leader I have in my head.
Perhaps I need to spend some time thinking about what made me make those choices in the first place. Were those actions a result of my personal traits? If I made those choices because it was my gut reaction, something that frequently gets me into trouble, should I try to lose that quality completely or find a new way to use it? Can I take that gut reaction, a feature that is so intrinsic to my personality, consider it and re-evaluate before acting on it to achieve more positive results?
I would challenge all of you to think about a situation in the last year when you were not at your best and think about how you can take that into the new year in a way that is productive and still gives you that sense of self.
Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. - Hal Borland
Assuming that Hal is right I must take all of my learning from the last year into 2009, even that which I would like to leave behind, those situations I would have handled differently, those decisions I would have made differently. If I must take them with me how do I take them with me positively rather than as something I have sworn never to do again and have identified as a poor quality in the picture of a perfect leader I have in my head.
Perhaps I need to spend some time thinking about what made me make those choices in the first place. Were those actions a result of my personal traits? If I made those choices because it was my gut reaction, something that frequently gets me into trouble, should I try to lose that quality completely or find a new way to use it? Can I take that gut reaction, a feature that is so intrinsic to my personality, consider it and re-evaluate before acting on it to achieve more positive results?
I would challenge all of you to think about a situation in the last year when you were not at your best and think about how you can take that into the new year in a way that is productive and still gives you that sense of self.
Thursday, 27 November 2008
Intuition and Planning: How to lead change
We had an interesting conversation recently when discussing how to lead change through either intuition or planning, or both. The consensus seemed to be that when using intuition you are often basing that on evidence from your experiences, so that it is more calculated intuition rather than blind gut instinct.
An interesting point was raised however that if your frame of reference, for instance your job, changes then you don’t have any experience to guide your intuition. So what are you to do?
If when leading beyond authority you are crossing silos, sectors or worlds, how can you trust your instinct? What might hold true in your world might not in another, and so you need the planning and rational rigour to inform your decisions in order to be effective.
Or, as was pointed out you need to make sure that you surround yourself with people who are strong in areas where you are weak, be that they are more methodical planners, or instinctive leaders, or that they know the world you are operating in better than you.
This is a pertinent point, which has come up in a lot of discussions of late, and when I look around the workplace I see that it holds true here as well. Have you surrounded yourself with the right people? Is your network turbulent and diverse enough to allow you to transcend worlds effectively?
A
An interesting point was raised however that if your frame of reference, for instance your job, changes then you don’t have any experience to guide your intuition. So what are you to do?
If when leading beyond authority you are crossing silos, sectors or worlds, how can you trust your instinct? What might hold true in your world might not in another, and so you need the planning and rational rigour to inform your decisions in order to be effective.
Or, as was pointed out you need to make sure that you surround yourself with people who are strong in areas where you are weak, be that they are more methodical planners, or instinctive leaders, or that they know the world you are operating in better than you.
This is a pertinent point, which has come up in a lot of discussions of late, and when I look around the workplace I see that it holds true here as well. Have you surrounded yourself with the right people? Is your network turbulent and diverse enough to allow you to transcend worlds effectively?
A
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
The fine art of being patient
Patience was the subject of our most recent practice along with the below quote from Edward G. Bulwar.
"Patience is not passive; on the contrary, it is active; it is concentrated strength"
This got me thinking about the speed at which I do things and I have to admit that my approach is very much to sprint until you can’t anymore which, I am now beginning to realise may mean that I am missing out on something. This is particularly pertinent considering that I have spent the quiet summer months reminding myself that I must be patient because in fact not everyone is beavering away at their desks trying to meet my deadlines but are in fact, probably sunning themselves in Spain.
Whilst travelling across London to various meetings recently, spending time in cafes, schools, businesses, boardrooms and even Dorothy Perkins, I have been forced to trust that despite the fact that other people have other demands on their time, if I am patient, at some point, on the whole, they will make the time. It is then that I need to be ready to sprint and not to be in a heap on the floor out of breath and out of ideas. I have to allow time for the opportunities to appear and to materialise as much as to hunt them down and force a conclusion.
But, how do I ignore the overwhelming desire to get those ticks on my list and to instead allow things to develop, perhaps not on my timescale, in a way that could produce something that is beyond what I could have expected to get?
I think it is at this point that you have to trust yourself as a leader, trust the work that you have done and take part in the fine art which is being patient.
Patience was the subject of our most recent practice along with the below quote from Edward G. Bulwar.
"Patience is not passive; on the contrary, it is active; it is concentrated strength"
This got me thinking about the speed at which I do things and I have to admit that my approach is very much to sprint until you can’t anymore which, I am now beginning to realise may mean that I am missing out on something. This is particularly pertinent considering that I have spent the quiet summer months reminding myself that I must be patient because in fact not everyone is beavering away at their desks trying to meet my deadlines but are in fact, probably sunning themselves in Spain.
Whilst travelling across London to various meetings recently, spending time in cafes, schools, businesses, boardrooms and even Dorothy Perkins, I have been forced to trust that despite the fact that other people have other demands on their time, if I am patient, at some point, on the whole, they will make the time. It is then that I need to be ready to sprint and not to be in a heap on the floor out of breath and out of ideas. I have to allow time for the opportunities to appear and to materialise as much as to hunt them down and force a conclusion.
But, how do I ignore the overwhelming desire to get those ticks on my list and to instead allow things to develop, perhaps not on my timescale, in a way that could produce something that is beyond what I could have expected to get?
I think it is at this point that you have to trust yourself as a leader, trust the work that you have done and take part in the fine art which is being patient.
Friday, 1 August 2008
The people you meet, the places you go, who you become
“I am who I am because of everyone.
I am my mate who never speaks and the one who won't shut up. I am my older sister and unfortunately my younger brother. I am all the girls I've kissed, and all the ones I will. It’s the people we meet and the experiences we share that make us who we are.”
Orange current global advertising campaign
http://www.i-am-everyone.co.uk/
I saw this advert recently while out and about in London meeting leaders to invite to join the next emerging leaders programme in November 2008. I was in the middle of the daily grind thinking about a million and one other things: targets to hit, objectives to meet, 1:2:1 meeting to hold, team meeting to organize. However, as I sat on tube it got me thinking. Not about all the boys I have ever kissed (although that was a lovely walk down memory lane), but all the people I have ever met and the experiences I have had to date that have in some way helped form me as a person, a professional and a leader.
In the last two weeks I have met two leaders who have reinforced Orange’s idea that we are sum of the experiences and the people we have encountered in our lives. I’d like to share their stories with you…
The first shared with me her story of how she set up her own business and now runs an organization with 140 staff in 2 countries. What was really interesting about the conversation with her was the story she told about the three places she had worked before deciding to strike out on her own. She painted a very vivid picture of 3 completely different organizational and leadership cultures and what she learnt from operating in all three. The first was a place of true inspiration and inclusion, the directors knew all their staff and talked to them daily – not just about work but about everything else as well. The second organization was extremely hierarchical, the senior management didn’t even talk to their people at the water cooler / in the kitchen – the attitude was “why would I, (s)he is only the (fill in the blank here for whichever job role). The final organization was a poor imposter of the first. The directors outwardly professed to run an inclusive culture, but didn’t walk the talk internally. What she took away from these 3 experiences was a really clear idea of how she was going to lead the people in her own organization – adopt the good and reject the bad from her role models.
The second leader talked more generally about the dark times in his career: when things were really tough, things went badly, he made mistakes and failed. His point was that you have to experience the dark in order to fully appreciate the light.
What it made me reflect on a number of interactions in my life. There are three people who I would like to acknowledge:
The dark times, when I have really struggled, have made me a much stronger person, a better professional and well-rounded leader. The stress, disappointment and despair at the time, and perhaps the fug of the immediate aftermath, have often masked the overall learning and overall benefits. A holistic health practitioner once told me “you are stronger than you realize”. I think of him every now and then, and his words of encouragement, especially when I am going through a dark patch. Thank you, T.
Someone special, but sadly all too briefly in my life, told me a story of when he was in the regular British Forces and through a circuitous route found himself signed up for the weekend training course for the Parachute Regiment. On the assault course section of the programme, he was really struggling. Other trainees were dropping out left right and center and he knew he was lagging behind and wasn’t going to make the qualifying time. And yet, he decided to stay, to finish the race, knowing that he was going to be the last one to cross the line. When I’m going through it, I think of him and whisper to myself – “finish the race, no matter what”. Thank you, J.
A couple of years ago I went on a Laughter workshop, the programme was run by a wonderful woman who really refreshed and reinvigorated my lust for life and laughter. Her own story was one of overcoming mental health problems, including a period of hospitalization, out of which experience eventually emerged a successful business, teaching people the art and benefits of laughter. Thank you, K, for relighting the dying embers, and for being a delightful human example of trusting your inner voice and self, and that the right path will emerge over time.
I suppose the at the route of it all is one word choice: the choice of experiences you let into your life, the choices of the people with whom you chose to interact, the choice of what you take with you from each interaction, the choice of how respond to every interaction, the choice of who you want to be.
Another extract for you from the Orange campaign…
“I am an encouraging family, four dragons who said no and The Prince’s Trust who said yes. I am manufacturers who laughed and 400 retailers who didn't. I am the kids who say 'I want one', and the parents who say 'okay'. I am happier families at airports. I am Rob Law inventor of Trunki, the ride-on suitcase for kids.
I am who I am because of everyone.”
http://www.i-am-everyone.co.uk/
I am my mate who never speaks and the one who won't shut up. I am my older sister and unfortunately my younger brother. I am all the girls I've kissed, and all the ones I will. It’s the people we meet and the experiences we share that make us who we are.”
Orange current global advertising campaign
http://www.i-am-everyone.co.uk/
I saw this advert recently while out and about in London meeting leaders to invite to join the next emerging leaders programme in November 2008. I was in the middle of the daily grind thinking about a million and one other things: targets to hit, objectives to meet, 1:2:1 meeting to hold, team meeting to organize. However, as I sat on tube it got me thinking. Not about all the boys I have ever kissed (although that was a lovely walk down memory lane), but all the people I have ever met and the experiences I have had to date that have in some way helped form me as a person, a professional and a leader.
In the last two weeks I have met two leaders who have reinforced Orange’s idea that we are sum of the experiences and the people we have encountered in our lives. I’d like to share their stories with you…
The first shared with me her story of how she set up her own business and now runs an organization with 140 staff in 2 countries. What was really interesting about the conversation with her was the story she told about the three places she had worked before deciding to strike out on her own. She painted a very vivid picture of 3 completely different organizational and leadership cultures and what she learnt from operating in all three. The first was a place of true inspiration and inclusion, the directors knew all their staff and talked to them daily – not just about work but about everything else as well. The second organization was extremely hierarchical, the senior management didn’t even talk to their people at the water cooler / in the kitchen – the attitude was “why would I, (s)he is only the (fill in the blank here for whichever job role). The final organization was a poor imposter of the first. The directors outwardly professed to run an inclusive culture, but didn’t walk the talk internally. What she took away from these 3 experiences was a really clear idea of how she was going to lead the people in her own organization – adopt the good and reject the bad from her role models.
The second leader talked more generally about the dark times in his career: when things were really tough, things went badly, he made mistakes and failed. His point was that you have to experience the dark in order to fully appreciate the light.
What it made me reflect on a number of interactions in my life. There are three people who I would like to acknowledge:
The dark times, when I have really struggled, have made me a much stronger person, a better professional and well-rounded leader. The stress, disappointment and despair at the time, and perhaps the fug of the immediate aftermath, have often masked the overall learning and overall benefits. A holistic health practitioner once told me “you are stronger than you realize”. I think of him every now and then, and his words of encouragement, especially when I am going through a dark patch. Thank you, T.
Someone special, but sadly all too briefly in my life, told me a story of when he was in the regular British Forces and through a circuitous route found himself signed up for the weekend training course for the Parachute Regiment. On the assault course section of the programme, he was really struggling. Other trainees were dropping out left right and center and he knew he was lagging behind and wasn’t going to make the qualifying time. And yet, he decided to stay, to finish the race, knowing that he was going to be the last one to cross the line. When I’m going through it, I think of him and whisper to myself – “finish the race, no matter what”. Thank you, J.
A couple of years ago I went on a Laughter workshop, the programme was run by a wonderful woman who really refreshed and reinvigorated my lust for life and laughter. Her own story was one of overcoming mental health problems, including a period of hospitalization, out of which experience eventually emerged a successful business, teaching people the art and benefits of laughter. Thank you, K, for relighting the dying embers, and for being a delightful human example of trusting your inner voice and self, and that the right path will emerge over time.
I suppose the at the route of it all is one word choice: the choice of experiences you let into your life, the choices of the people with whom you chose to interact, the choice of what you take with you from each interaction, the choice of how respond to every interaction, the choice of who you want to be.
Another extract for you from the Orange campaign…
“I am an encouraging family, four dragons who said no and The Prince’s Trust who said yes. I am manufacturers who laughed and 400 retailers who didn't. I am the kids who say 'I want one', and the parents who say 'okay'. I am happier families at airports. I am Rob Law inventor of Trunki, the ride-on suitcase for kids.
I am who I am because of everyone.”
http://www.i-am-everyone.co.uk/
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