Walking the talk
The sure-fire way to make your company values meaningless is to demonstrate that you are unwilling – or unable – to practice them yourself. We’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve heard this line “leaders don’t walk the talk” when it comes to the company values. For a leader to fail to embody the values visible and productively is to fall at the very first hurdle when it comes to culture change. If you don’t do it then not... [Read More...]
You are engaged!
Sometimes we can fool ourselves into thinking that we’re listening to what our people have to say when in fact, we’re still in ‘broadcast’ mode. People know when they’re being listened to and when they aren’t. One strong sign is when something they contributed makes a difference. Of course, you can’t action everything everyone says – but don’t ask people to engage if you’re not prepared to listen and change what you plan to do... [Read More...]
Us and Them
A problem with ‘Us and Them’ thinking is that it creates conflict between groups of people. We are always right; they are always wrong. And if something needs to change, it’s invariably them who need to change, not us. When everyone thinks that way, you’re trapped in a web of stuckness. And yet ‘us and them’ is also at the very core our economy. After all, isn’t business all about how our business performs against the competition? ... [Read More...]
Leadership, change and the “Comfort Zone”
These four images explore different examples of the ‘comfort zone’ – a place that often keeps us from leading change. The first shows our tendency to put on armour and let our egos slug it out when we feel threatened, and how this gets in the way of service. The second shows the way we can collude to de-risk the language of change. The third shows how hard it can be to see things differently when our thinking keeps us “getting... [Read More...]
Working with contradictions
I noticed this paradox watching TV news recently, it is such a big issue I often feel powerless at the impossibility of resolving it. How do you feel about it? It feels difficult sometimes to work out what is the right thing to do. Holding the tension between conflicting interests and courses of action, having the courage to take a risk and do what feels right in the service of others are leadership skills I admire. If we don’t take risks... [Read More...]
Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord’s four box model
Unless you’re a military historian, you probably haven’t heard of General Kurt Von Hammerstein-Equord. He rose to become commander-in-chief of the German army between the wars, and is remembered for being a staunch opponent of the Nazi regime. That is, unless you’ve read widely in organisational behaviour, in which case you probably only know him for the following, slightly un-PC remark: I divide my officers into four classes;... [Read More...]
The defensive cycle
This picture represents a collection of comments that we heard in one organisation that was pushing through budget cuts. Employees felt their jobs were under threat, so were unwilling to speak up about the pressure they were coming under. Unable to prioritise or say no, they become less productive, inviting further pressure, and so the cycle continued. When everyone’s feeling under threat our natural defensive inclination is to hide our... [Read More...]
Marvin Weisbord – Quality and Equality lecture
These two pictures were inspired by an excellent Quality and Equality lecture I attended a few weeks ago. Marvin Weisbord, an elder statesman in the Organisational Development field, gave a fascinating talk about its history over more than a century. Building on the contributions of Taylor, Bion and Lewin, he took us through the stages of self-managed teams, systems thinking, group dynamics and lean working, up to his current focus on participative... [Read More...]
Voicing – what’s not spoken about in your organisation?
This picture was originally one of a series we have produced to visualise the key themes from Bill Isaacs’ Dialogue model, one of several dialogue models we’ve played with over the years. This picture speaks to the theme of “Voicing”. Here’s Isaacs’ description: To speak to your voice is perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of genuine dialogue. Speaking your voice has to do with revealing what is true... [Read More...]
Honest conversation in organisations: a Delta7 visual dialogue
How does honest conversation sit with business? The Delta 7 team sat down to discuss… A regular feature of life in the Delta 7 office is the monthly Visual Dialogue where we get together to discuss something that interests us. We do this because it’s fun – but also because it’s an opportunity to experience and practice the process we create for our clients. Our pictures are tools to engage people in organisations in conversations... [Read More...]
Speak your mind
We’ve heard plenty of tales of how hard people find it to say what they’re honestly thinking in organisations. In Delta7, we fondly call this picture ‘The Blofeld Chair’ – a reference to the archetypal lever-operated chair used by arch-villains in Bond films to dispose of henchmen who have incurred their displeasure. We’ve heard stories of people who practically roast anyone who dares to disagree but more often... [Read More...]
PR Week Engaging Internal Comms 2010
New ‘Story of Engagement’ picture unveiled at the PR Week Internal Comms conference Last week saw us taking a new Big Picture to the PR Week Engaging Internal Communications conference at the Grange City Hotel in Tower Hill. The new picture is a cityscape depicting what happens when organisations don’t pay attention to the 4 key drivers of employee engagement. According to the MacLeod report on engagement, these are: • Strategic... [Read More...]
What are the characteristics of an engaged employee?
Seeing yourself as a part of your organisation is a key characteristic of an engaged employee “What are the characteristics of an engaged employee?” is a question they’re asking over at David Zinger’s ‘The Employee Engagement Network’ There are many different ways to characterise an engaged employee but one stands out for me – seeing yourself as part of the organisation rather than apart from it. In my experience,... [Read More...]
A lack of engagement
I recently heard an HR director talk about her struggle to get the board to understand that the HR strategy – and engagement in particular – are the keys to driving performance, and that the ‘people agenda’ should fit coherently with the business strategy. Her view was that HR is not taken seriously enough, being seen instead as “pink and fluffy”; the ‘soft stuff’. That’s something we hear a lot in our work. Clients often... [Read More...]
CRF Employee Engagement Conference 2010
I went to a great conference last week on employee engagement organised by the Corporate Research Forum. There were several good speakers, covering a range of interesting themes and plenty of time to explore them with participants around the table. This was something I greatly enjoyed as it was good to be at a conference on engagement and actually feel engaged! One particular table exercise was to discuss “what HR can do to create employee engagement?” A... [Read More...]
We must capture their hearts and minds!
This is a picture of an exchange we heard a few years ago in a client session. It’s so rich we just had to make a picture out of it. It is can be easy for leaders to lose touch with the cares and concerns of the people that work for them. By not connecting with what matters to their people, they lose the sense of reality about what’s going on in the wider organisation. In this picture, the leadership team, excited and motivated by their charts... [Read More...]
The crisis in public spending
This picture reflects concerns we heard while working with a number of central government departments last year. Most of these organisations have experienced a steady increase in funding under Labour, but under the shadow of a dramatic economic downturn are having to adapt to a stark new reality. The imminent future is one where social issues continue to rise, fed by increased debt and unemployment, while the pipeline of funding is abruptly turned... [Read More...]
A little thought from each of us…
Who is Transport for London speaking for – and to? This is one of a series of posters around the Underground that have caught my eye over recent months. It’s part of a Transport For London campaign called ‘Together For London’ aimed at reducing anti-social behaviours across London’s transport system. The message is ‘A little thought from each of us. A big difference for London’. Rather strangely, a search... [Read More...]
Congruence and leading change
How leadership incogruence obstructs change After many years working with organisations in change, two things have become clear to me: first, that many leaders see change as something they have to get other people to do and second, that many employees think their leaders don’t ‘walk the talk’ or practice the behavioural changes they preach. A typical change programme in today’s organisations may come packaged as ‘values-based... [Read More...]
What is engagement?
Engagement is Connection … The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills has just published a new report by David MacLeod and Nita Clarke on employee engagement. We wholeheartedly recommend this report – it makes some great points and is filled with useful case studies. It’s very hard to get to the end and still avoid the conclusion that having an engaged workforce really does improve bottom line results. But what actually is engagement? ... [Read More...]
