“Leaders must reclaim the very thing our culture has so casually given away: Time to think together and learn from our experiences. Without question this is the most critical act of leadership.”

                                                                                 Margaret Wheatley[1]

Margaret Wheatley wrote that in 2017. Well, now more than ever eh!?  … we need leaders who will lead – not retreat, who will bring people together, create the conditions for people to have the conversations that matter, to innovate, and respond to the significant challenges of coronavirus.

People want to be seen and heard, they want to know you care about them. And they want to do good work! If you want buy-in, give people the opportunity to come together and to contribute to the decision-making on issues that effect them.

People also want –

A clear focus
Does everyone at your organisation have a shared understanding of the priorities? And the key elements of strategy?  A level of urgency is also required here. You can’t wait for perfect information before setting strategy.  Priorities will shift and mistakes will be made – regular reviews will be critical.

Authenticity
People also want to see authenticity from their leader – someone who is fully present, connected to their staff and faithful to who they really are. Modelling authenticity and openness encourage it in others, gets buy-in, enabling the better exchange of information and therefore better decision-making.

Transparency and regular updates
How available is information to people in your organisation? Do people have the critical information they need to respond to new challenges and priorities? Providing clear and accurate communication about what you know fosters trust and reduces uncertainty.  People need regular and candid updates of what is unfolding – and the impact of these events on the business.

[1] Wheatley, M. (2017) Who Do You Choose To Be? An Invitation To The Nobility of Leadership.
Available online at https://margaretwheatley.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Margaret-Wheatley-2017-Leader_to_Leader.pdf

I’ve been reading about the future of work lately. We’ve all heard how automation will see more ‘routine’ jobs replaced by machines as well as the rise of more specialised technology roles (like AI and Machine Learning, Big Data Specialists, App Developers and Scientists).

However, it is often overlooked that many of the jobs created in the next 10 years will rely on ‘soft skills’ such as creativity, critical thinking, handling change, leadership and the interpersonal skills of empathy and collaboration. In Australia, Deloitte suggests most of the jobs created between now and 2030 will be ‘knowledge worker’ jobs, including professional jobs in business services, health, education and engineering. And two-thirds of these jobs will be soft-skill intensive.^[1] Those jobs that aren’t automated will emphasise ‘the head and the heart’ – humans are apparently still better at being humans. Phew.

How do we create the conditions for collaboration and creativity?

With this premium on soft skills such as creativity and collaboration how do we, as leaders, create the conditions for creativity and innovation to flourish? Well, reducing the predictable anxieties within the team would be a good start. When a group comes together a lot of the anxiety comes from group members’ concerns that their basic needs to both belong and to be valued may be under threat (remember Maslow?). If we all can acknowledge and deal with this anxiety it will greatly enhance the group’s ability to have productive conversations, to ‘discuss the things that matter’, to create and innovate.

The importance of recognising feelings – and the struggle in front of you if you don’t – is neatly summarised in Bob Dick’s FIDO Model^[2] which sees dealing with feelings as a necessary pre-condition for effective discussions and decision making…

Structure, role clarity and participatory processes that acknowledge our emotions and enable everyone to be heard go a long way towards creating the conditions for people to relax, collaborate and generate creative ideas.

P.S. I have a new Group Facilitation Skills Workshop coming up that you may like to check out. It will be available in Brisbane, Darwin, Sydney and Melbourne. More information here – https://www.matthewford.com.au/training/

[1] Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, The path to posterity: Why the future of work is human. 2019. Available online at https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/building-lucky-country/articles/path-prosperity-future-work.html ↑

[2] Bob Dick, Helping Groups To Be Effective. Interchange, 1991. ↑

Working with key stakeholders like staff and end-users to co-design new systems and services produces the most innovative response.

But what is the expectation from those participating in this co-design process? … and what is your commitment to them?

Are you merely consulting with them to get their input? Or are they equal partners, sharing power with you, signing off on the key decisions?

Tools such as the iap2 spectrum can be helpful here. Whilst designed specifically for community participation it is easily extrapolated to organisational settings. (For an older, more political model, you could also look at Sherry Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen’s Participation)

These tools help you to be clear on just how much power sharing is going on in the project. It’s obviously important to be up front about the level of power you are sharing with stakeholders and to deliver on your power-sharing commitment.