Change

Tonight I attended another great talk by Marie de Guzman & Damon Newman from The Mangrove Neuroscience Consultancy.  A packed out CMI audience in central London was representative of the high interest there is in the market for understanding change at the individual level.

Marie in her talk raised three observations about change which I think are critical for business leaders and those involved in managing change:

Change Failure

The Economist Intelligence Unit reported earlier this year that “on average only 56% of change initiatives are successful”.  This report was based on responses from 288 senior executives, over 75% of which came from organisations with revenue of greater that US$1bn.  These are big players and they are saying that nearly half of their change initiatives fail. You can read the report in detail here.

Historically, I’ve heard figures of 70% being the working number for failed change programs.

What it tells us is that for all the process and investment organisations make, they are not very good at executing change and realising the intended success.

Change Blindness

Before you go any further, take 5-6 minutes or so to watch this video from the BBC “Brain Story” programme.

Isn’t it amazing that 75% of people in the experiment with the switched guy(s) didn’t notice anything!  Marie describes this blindness as extremely relevant in the Change context.  When you’ve got your head down managing change, you are not looking around.  Awareness of your environment is low.  However, awareness is key to managing and leading successful change.

Successful Change Leaders

I’ve mentioned this before and I’ll be writing about Change Leaders in detail soon.  In the research Mangrove have been doing, there is a marked difference in the attitudes and behaviours of successful Change Leaders for example :

• They pick up more signals from their environment.
• They are more aware and actively seek to stay aware of what is happening around them.
• They have the energy for change.
• They learn through failure – in fact they expect it as part of the learning process.  @DougShaw1 wrote a brilliant piece on this recently here.

My view

For a long time I’ve seen Change initiatives run as you would a technical programme or project.  Yet, for all the project discipline and milestone tracking there is a real tendency to ignore the people for the sake of the process.  My view is that this is why many programmes fail.  It’s also why Change initiatives need both Change Managers as well as Change Leaders.

Most importantly, they need Change Managers and Change Leaders with the right behaviours and competencies to make change happen.  That's change at the people level not just the process level.

Where do you see change succeed or fail?  Would love to hear your experiences & observations.

A Thorny Issue

 

I’ve become a big fan of blogs.  Anyone who visits here will know how often I blog, how I do it and what I talk about.  I also enjoy reading other peoples blogs and when possible I like share my comments on what the author has made me think about.

Yet I’m struck by how I find blogging simultaneously therapeutic & frustrating as well as rewarding & disappointing.  There.  I’ve fessed up!  Let me explain the background a little...

Summer was quiet on the blogging front.  It felt that plenty of others were similarly distracted with other things or just waiting until everyone was back at work.  Yet I found myself often thinking about what was happening around me and could I blog about it.  What would I say?  How would I frame it? The unanswered questions I was struggling with.  The things I didn’t fully understand yet.

What I kept coming back to was my attraction to and support of blogging versus the emotional rollercoaster it was subjecting me to.  What was going on?  Did I have the wrong attitude?  Was the issue mine alone?  It’s a thorny issue but one that I want to explore here.

Why Blog?

I’ve deliberately not trawled the web looking for research or opinion on why people blog.  It’s not that I’m not interested - it's just not a question that I want answered by supposed "gurus".  The question behind the question is actually why do I blog?  What are my expectations?  What am I hoping to achieve?

So far, I think there are only 3 reasons to go to the effort of blogging :

Commercial

You want to market yourself or your thought leadership and support your business efforts or standing as an expert.  You may be a consultant or a charity.  The end result you want to achieve is a mixture between engagement and promotion.

Altruistic

You have a lot to say and a lot to give.  Your thinking and writing is useful to others, valued even.  The end result is the giving of knowledge or opinion, not what you get back from it in terms of business or maybe even response.

Exploration

You want to share what you are thinking & experiencing with a view to learning more.  The process of writing the blog itself might be the exploration & the learning.  Sometimes the learning might come from the feedback you receive.  You might be an employee in an organisation, unemployed or even running a business – it doesn’t matter.

I’ve come to the view that people never blog just because they like writing.  If it was the joy of writing alone they would do it in a manner that was less conspicuous...  wouldn’t they?

I also think that if your blog is for Commercial or Altruistic reasons then there is certainly a degree of ego at play (when is this not the case!).  You want to know that what you are writing about is valued.  Whereas if your blog is for Exploration then perhaps ego is less relevant.

Why do I Blog?

Where I’m coming to with this is an uneasy sense that perhaps my blog is unwittingly a mixture of all three and that this is the cause of the emotional rollercoaster.  I’m still not sure.

What I do know is that I need to resolve or possibly come to terms with the fact that I find blogging simultaneously therapeutic & frustrating as well as rewarding & disappointing.

What are your thoughts?  Is there a better way of looking at this?  How does blogging make you feel?  Why do you blog?  What are your expectations?  What are you hoping to achieve?

About the Photo

The tree seems to be a Kapok Tree.  The photo was taken from a hammock on holiday as I was pondering this subject.  It seemed curious that the thorns were clearly to keep away those who would do harm but allow access to those who wouldn’t cause damage.  Humans had already chipped away the defences lower down leaving the tree scarred but supposedly more approachable.  I think there's a parallel here with blogging.  Personally, I’d rather be an ant working in a system climbing to the top than be seen as a threat to be repelled or causing irreparable damage.

Ubiquitous

Five years ago I had a Blackberry – I hated it.  Not the technology itself but the ever present email & calendar.  With a change in jobs I quite happily left it behind and stuck with a simple mobile phone.  That didn’t work out so well in the end (long story) and everyone else already had a smartphone so I succumbed to the technology.  Now I can’t imagine trying to manage without one.

No problem?  Well I’m not so sure....

This summer we took 2 weeks in the sun to do nothing but sit by the pool, go to the beach and have fun as a family.  An utterly brilliant time was had by all.  I had to work whilst away so I brought the smartphone and netbook.  Neither were omnipresent and the fact that I had to work was remarkably OK with the family.

Sitting by the pool I could see most adults were either reading their Kindle, browsing their iPad or tapping their smartphone.  When not in the pool, most of the teenage kids were almost constantly on their own phones doing similar.  The technology was ubiquitous and for most of the day these families were happily uncommunicative with those immediately around them. 

Yet there were still families like us who were quite happy reading a good old paperbacks, playing with the kids, swimming and hanging out together.  When it got too hot or we were too tired we’d all find shade and read, play cards or Pictureka.  Sometimes the kids would go explore and hang out with friends they’d made or play table tennis.  Even when they got out their DSi’s they’d do it in the company of other kids, constantly sharing, talking and engaging.

Here’s the problem .... am I missing something?

I feel that the ubiquity of technology can be liberating and empowering.  I believe that it can also cause us to miss the engagement, connections and sheer joy of those immediately around us.

So is my "kindle-resistance" useful or a hang up from the past?

Is it OK to be uncommunicative around the pool when you can communicate with friends on the other side of the world?  After all you're still engaging.

Am I missing something?  I would love to hear your views & experiences.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

I recently wrote about Linked Lurkers and how we need to engage with and contribute to communities to avoid being seen as a lurker.  Discussions with @dougshaw1 and others revealed that many of us have mixed experiences of LinkedIn especially LinkedIn Groups.  I have quite strong feelings on the subject so thought I’d share them with you!

LinkedIn is often compared to a business conference or even a professional networking event.  Overall I don’t disagree, but in Discussion Groups I’ve experienced a real division in quality which you’d be unlikely to experience in the real world.

For me these are best described as The Good, The Bad & The Ugly:

The Good

In essence communities of practice that provide support, share information and offer perspectives and learning.  Often smaller in size, the experience is one of quality not quantity.  In these groups not only do you find value in much of the discussion content, you find members of the group becoming part of your professional network, friends even.

The Bad

The Group purpose might seem appealing but in fact it's very hard to find what attracted you in the first place.  Either through scale or poor management you spend a lot of time looking for something useful.  Where the membership is in the thousands, the combination of self promotion and irrelevance becomes an almost toxic mix.  There may be some nuggets in there but if this was a conference you would have walked out by now.

The Ugly

Discussion is absent & self promotion rules.  Any discussions are used as a platform for members to promote their position.  Self promotion and even shouting matches are par for the course.  If you are looking for a supplier of services then there are plenty here but would you really go to a demented hawkers market to procure expertise for your organisation?

I’ve been actively using LinkedIn since 2004 when it had a little over 1million members.  Now 7 years later it has 120m members.  To my mind the above 3 types of Discussion Group have always existed.  Maybe each serves it’s purpose.  For me I’m only interested in The Good where community matters and good things come from good behaviours.  When I feel a Group becomes irrelevant, too large or full of spam & self-promotion I leave.

What do you think?  What are your experiences?

Watch out there’s a Lurker about!

It was nearly 2 years ago that I was sat with some colleagues and the notion of the “LinkedIn Lurker” was raised. I’m not sure if the term was ever in common parlance but the notion of social media lurking has stuck in my mind ever since.

Then this morning the wonderful and very engaging @AlisonChisnell tweeted confessing to a bit of LinkedIn lurking. Later on @James_Mayes, @lesanto and myself got into a chat about career & business coaches lurking on Twitter or roaming networks without engaging with people.

I’m not aware of a conventional definition but for me you are lurking if you choose to observe discussions rather than participate, engage & contribute. Nothing wrong with that perhaps - we all choose to participate in a manner that suits us.

However, if LinkedIn is akin to a business conference, and Twitter is like a cocktail party, why would you bother to go to either and say nothing? To engage with no-one, only to watch. To take what you can but contribute nothing at all. You wouldn’t deliberately... in fact, if you did lurk at a conference or party people might actively avoid you!

My experience is that when you engage you build relationships and mutual respect. When you contribute you get so much more back. When you do both you grow and develop. When you do neither you are irrelevant.

What are your thoughts on social media lurking? When is it ever a valid position to hold? Would love to hear your thoughts!

My Year in HR so far

The lovely @MJCarty over at XpertHR is running a fascinating series on different peoples experiences, learnings and observations of the year so far in HR.  You can read the whole series here including my own post below..

Well here's the thing - I don't actually work in HR. Having spent many years in organisational leadership roles, I now run my own change consultancy practice. I'm a bit of a gamekeeper turned poacher, which I think is much more fun than the other way around!

So "my year in HR so far" comes from the perspective of talking to and working with leaders who want to develop their business through their people. Perhaps that is in fact the ideal definition of HR...

It's been a busy and rewarding year so far. As I've spoken to and worked with organisations, I've noticed that there is increasing interest in how people and organisations can change and develop. I think this trend is especially important for those involved in HR.

In the modern world, the ability to respond quickly to the environment, adapt and change is essential to any business. As a consequence there is increasing demand for those people who can make change happen in a commercial context. Not just in a people context. Not just in a learning context. Not just in a change management context. I'm talking about change and development as an intrinsic part of commercial delivery. I'm talking about Change Leaders.

Commercially astute, Change Leaders have the courage, motivation and initiative to create a better future for the organisation. They are committed to enabling the performance of the organisation at many levels. With high standards and equally high ethics, they recognise that major change requires new behaviours and skills. They know that people are the key to any successful change.

As I've thought about this, I've found myself contemplating three statements that I think are increasingly relevant to the HR agenda:

1. Organisations are perfectly designed for the results that they get.
2. Ethics are the fundament of good business and good leadership.
3. Labelling and codification does not create best practice. It creates orthodoxy.

I believe Change Leaders work with the above firmly in mind, embracing the human aspects of work, to release potential and deliver business performance.

The opportunity for organisations and especially HR is in finding, developing and recognising Change Leaders - they are very likely the key to your organisation's future.

Versatile

Today is Basils birthday. He’s our 4 year old German Shorthaired Pointer and effectively our third child! This is a little tribute to him and an opportunity to share some insights he's given me on learning & leading.

What’s a GSP?

For those of you who don’t know what a GSP (German Shorthaired Pointer) is, here’s a brief explanation…

Originating funnily enough from Germany, the GSP emerged from deliberate cross breeding over 100 years ago. German estates found themselves shooting with kennels of dogs for different purposes and wanted a single breed that could do everything, principally Hunt Point & Retrieve (HPR). In particular they wanted a faithful companion that would be as happy at home with the family as out in the field shooting.

The GSP was brought back to the UK both in WWI and WWII by returning servicemen and is now the most popular HPR breed in the UK.

Versatile?

Basil is versatile and bred for that purpose, that is to hunt, point & retrieve as well as fit in with family life. He’s very intelligent (17^th most intelligent breed apparently) and can multi-task. Ok not quite in the way my wife thinks but fundamentally he can do an awful lot.

Why write about a versatile dog?

Apart from the fact it’s Basils 4^th birthday and he is very much part of our family life, Basil has taught me loads and continues to do so…

Fulfilling your Purpose

Basil is bred for a purpose, namely to Hunt, Point & Retrieve. When he fulfils this purpose, using the abilities he was bred for, he comes alive and is fully content. When he isn’t used for his purpose, regardless of the number of walks he gets, he becomes bored and unruly.

Makes sense really but think about this in the work context. If we’re doing what we truly desire to do we come alive. If we don’t we probably become bored and unruly.

What Am I?

Basil is our pet right? Yes, but we must see him as an animal first, a dog second and a pet last. Often the problems owners have with their dogs is down to them the wrong order of pet first, dog second, animal last.  The result? Indulged & confused dogs lacking the rules they need and unhappy and sometimes angry owners.

There’s something here about the workplace too. The people we work with are humans first but often organisations see the human last and the function first. Guess what the result often is? People who are indulged or confused, and unhappy and sometimes angry management.

You are my leader

There’s nothing stronger and more obvious than a dog looking to its owner for leadership. You can see them asking for it in their eyes. The role is demanded of you - undeniably. The only alternative is utter abandonment.

In the workplace, such expectation may not be obvious in the eyes of your team, but I think that if you look carefully enough you can see it. Nonetheless the role is demanded of you - undeniably. The only alternative is utter abandonment.

Actions speak louder than words

Training a gundog you become used to using a whistle for commands. This helps the dog hear you at a distance. Perhaps more importantly it takes all emotion out of what could have been a spoken command.

Dogs are attuned to your emotions and the hormones you produce. If you are stressed, even if you try to control your voice, the dog knows. He may even stay away from you. If you are calm and quiet, guess what? The dog pays even more attention to you.

Beyond voice, a dog will even read your body language – at the subtlest of levels. Basil looks for this direction. If I pay attention to a piece of ground, at a distance, he will notice this and go to cover that piece of ground. No voice or whistle required. He’s doing what he is best at and I’m supporting him with direction.

As humans we rely very heavily on the processing of spoken language, yet we can’t escape from the fact that we have intuitive ability to read peoples body language. In a leadership sense I think the parallels are clear :

·         Your role is to support the team with direction.

·         They are the specialists – let them do what they are best at.

·         Your spoken word always conveys more about you than just those words.

·         If you are calm and quiet, people will listen to you more attentively.

·         In close proximity, at some level people detect stress hormones such as cortisol.

Happy Birthday Basil!

So on Basils Birthday, I want to thank him for the lessons he teaches me and I hope some of the above prompts thought about what we can learn from the people we lead in the workplace. Happy Birthday friend!

If you’d like to find out more about HPR breeds and the GSP then I can recommend the following:

http://www.gsp.org.uk/

http://www.norfolk-suffolk-hpr-ftclub.co.uk/about/breeds/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Shorthaired_Pointer

Worlds Apart

Having put it off for some time, last weekend we finally succumbed to the attraction that is Disneyland Paris.

I have to confess that I can’t really be doing with large crowds and lengthy queues... life’s too short and they always seem to bring out the worst in humanity. However, it was the right time for the kids and a break in France was attractive.

Of course, we had a fantastic & exhausting time but this is not a review of Disneyland Paris. What I’d like to share are some reflections from the journey about the different “worlds” we inhabit...

Walts World

Walt & Mickey are clearly the kings immemorial of Disney. In the park, Walt stands proudly on a pedestal welcoming visitors telling us this is his kingdom, his creation. Alongside him and throughout the park appears Mickey. In fact, I’d even go as far as to say that Mickey wears the crown in Walts World.

Yet they play very little active parts in the rides and amusements. They are more like a standard or a symbol of what you can expect to experience. A standard and ethic that is visible everywhere saying loud and proud “This is who we are and this is what you can expect from us!”. You may not get a sense of the Disney organisation but you do get what you came for.

In Walts World they are the Masters of Delivery, providing pleasure on tap at a price.

Walloon World

Belgians are mad. Not my viewpoint but those of two lovely Belgian journalists we had dinner with en route at this fab hotel. Apparently, their Royal Family with the exception of the King are an embarrassment. There is no decision making government in place. The country is irreconcilably divided along French (Walloon) and Dutch (Flemish) lines in a perpetual stalemate.

Does all of this matter? Not really. The country ticks along fine. The journalists have something to write about. Tourists still come for the architecture, beer, chocolate & diamonds. The European Union makes them significant. Nothing is likely to change anytime soon.

In Walloon World they live happily, knowing that they are broken but unable to change.

Wantwit World

In the UK we like to think that we are considerate and fair. Yet regardless of nationality, when faced with the prospect of photographing their kids with Mr Incredible some parents turn into right Wantwits.

With no queue or ticket, they give themselves permission to thrust their kids to the front. It’s OK to trample others to pursue your own cause. A photo with a faceless actor, who is wearing a costume of a character from a cartoon, is more important than showing your child how to behave.

In Wantwit World only the selfish survive living off momentary & meaningless gratification.

Wonder World

OK, here’s the confession... There were rides that the kids wanted to do that both us parents were scared to do. On some occasions the height limits saved us, on others the 100 minute queue dissuaded everyone. However, you can’t always run away!

Together we tried different rides and attractions, learning what was fun and how little was in fact scary. We stretched ourselves and learnt together – you can read more of my thinking on this here. We trusted our sense of adventure and were not disappointed. We found wonder in our shared experiences.

In Wonder World unforgettable trust reigns. New experiences & difficult journeys are shared. Fears are overcome.

*Image by Wysinger at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

Boundaries

As a parent, you help your children understand the boundaries and social norms that you believe are appropriate.  Family & friends help reinforce these views.  Our children will inevitably be exposed to behaviours which we don’t favour but it is all part of the learning process.

To have a boundary you need to know what is on either side.

So what do you do when your 6 year old comes home from school with swear words that your 10 year old doesn’t even know yet?  We’re dealing with this right now.... 

Whose fault is it?  Not the children’s.  The teachers of course don’t ever permit swearing.  Each family has their own boundaries and acceptable behaviours.  TV & radio shows broadcast language I find inappropriate for children before the accepted watershed.  Blaming society is largely pointless.  At some stage they will inevitably learn a multitude of swear words and their application!

I can’t fully prevent them being exposed to bad language or behaviour.  In fact, perhaps they need to be aware of some bad language or behaviour so they can develop their own personal boundaries and ethics.  My role is to help them learn how to form and develop appropriate boundaries and ethics.

Who helps us form and develop appropriate boundaries and ethics in the workplace?

As adults, we largely assume that we have well developed personal boundaries and ethics.  We assume that these unspoken boundaries & ethics that we bring with us to work are fit for the job.

Unfortunately, experience shows that this is not the case... just look at those cases of insider trading, discrimination, harassment.  Yet most discussions with staff focus on performance of task rather than the most appropriate boundaries and ethics for their workplace.

What do you think?  Is there a place for more discussion at work regarding boundaries and ethics?  Would love to hear your thoughts, views and experiences.

The Foretelling

28 years ago today, The Black Adder sprung onto our UK TV screens in the first episode “The Foretelling”.  This perfectly set the tone for the loveable but awful anti-hero known as Edmund Blackadder through the different incarnations of the series.

This first story describes how the useless son of Richard of York, Edmund, late for the Battle of Bosworth, having slept in, kills his own King Richard III then proceeds to cover up the whole sorry episode whilst hiding the enemy Henry Tudor!  Of course in all of this he ably supported by the more hapless Lord Percy and also by his turnip obsessed servant Baldrick.

Anti-establishment; ironic but witty; the humour of Blackadder probably appealed most to those who we would now characterise as “Generation X”.  I find it particularly interesting that typically Generation X are seen as challenging, rule-breaking, and sceptical – not dissimilar to the Blackadder stories.

So on this anniversary of “The Foretelling” I have two questions for you :

1. What are your best moments or memories from Blackadder?
2. What are your views or even foretellings on generational differences and the comedy that is informing the teenagers and twenty-somethings of today?

For those of you who missed it or would like to reminisce then you can see this first episode and how Edmund took the name "The Black Adder here" on YouTube.  Although I think the humour is as described above others may find it offensive at times - you've been warned!

Florence Thompson – A story in a story

I recently bought a second hand copy of “The Arabian Nights” which is full of magical stories.  I remember reading it as a child and I wanted to both re-read and share its magic with my two sons.  The copy I bought is a 1923 hardback with fantastic illustrations scattered throughout.  In the front cover is the following sticker:

Florence Thompson in Class I was awarded this prize at Xmas time in what seems to be the end of her first term at Walsingham Grammar School, in North Norfolk.  The more I’ve thought about this, the more I’ve been interested in the story of Florence.

Florences Story

From doing a bit of research I know she was 9 years old at the time – she was born 10^th May 1914 just before the Great War.

What had she done to have received such a valuable prize at the end of her first term at Grammar School?  I assume she must have done very well and shown a lot of promise.  Perhaps this isn’t surprising given the survival and resilience required of those remarkable times.  Many men from her part of the world would have gone to war and not returned or even succumbed to the Spanish Flu outbreak.  This killed 5 times as many people as the war itself.

What happened after she left school?  After school it appears she married Frank Martin in 1938, after the depression just before the Second World War.  Her husband is quite possibly the Frank Martin from the Royal Norfolk Regiment who died in 1943 as a Prisoner of War in Kanchanaburi – the death camp for the infamous Burma Railway.

Without much further research it’s hard to tell the rest of her life other than the fact that she died in Norfolk in 1991.  I hope she had a full & happy life and I hope her husband wasn’t the Frank Martin mentioned above.

Remarkable times seem to create remarkable people and their effect, no matter how subtle, can last forever.

The book must have brought that 9 year old girl lots of joy in Xmas 1923.  I’m proud to be its custodian and to share its joy.

I want to live in Wales

Actually, what I’m really saying is that I want to live in Gower, in South Wales.  I wasn’t born there or even near the sea for that matter.  Where I live we do sometimes make the 45 min drive to the beach with the boys but it’s not the same.

You see we’ve just spent a fantastic week on the Gower Peninsula with the family – the first time we’d all been there together.  I know it’s easy to think we can see our everyday lives through the rosy coloured lens of our short holidays.  To imagine that we could magically transport ourselves and move to a different place, a different life even.  The trouble is we could do it – easily.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love where I live.  It’s not our dream home but it is a great home and the boys are settled.  Actually they are so settled that any thought of a change of home is quite disturbing to them.  They love new things & experiences but the fundaments of their lives are something they naturally don’t want to change.

But there’s something in the Gower landscape that we all connected with.  Perhaps it’s just the exploration & adventure of the holiday.  If we lived there maybe we’d not appreciate it in the same way.  Daily life would get in the way.

So what will we do.  Nothing.  We’re happy and content even though we miss each other now that we’re not on holiday.  We love where we live.  It could be better but we are fortunate and sometimes when you see something better you need to admire it from a far.

We’re back into our routines now.  We’re not walking & exploring so much but we’ll correct that at the weekend when the boys aren’t at school.  I’ll have stopped pining by then and Daddy won’t be in London.

Todays post was from Basil (Andsal Chico) the German Shorthaired Pointer.  Naturally teaching his master David to be a better leader, teacher, trainer and person.

A Question of Ethics

What do you think is ethical?  Big question but social norms probably influence all of us to the extent that generally our personal ethics are not that dissimilar.

So what are your professional ethics?  Have you written them down anywhere?  Do you share them with your clients, colleagues or even your manager?

For the Coaching & Mentoring work that I do, I believe that it’s critical to share with clients the code of ethics that I abide by.  This happens to be the European Mentoring & Coaching Councils Code of Ethics.  This includes :

• Assuring Competence
• Understanding the Context
• Understand & Manage Boundaries
• Act with Integrity respecting confidentiality
• Act with Professionalism

What I find compelling about this code is that not only do I believe in it but I’m also very glad to be held accountable to it.  It is congruent with how I practice and along with Supervision it helps guide me through the ethical dilemmas we sometimes face in coaching & mentoring.

What Code of Ethics or Professional Standards do you hold yourself accountable to?

How could Supervision (in the coaching & mentoring sense) support you with ethical dilemmas?

I'd love to hear from all professionals!