I’m invited to work in organisations on quite similar topics – trust and accountability in the leadership team, collaboration, values, governance, etc.
And more often than not, the conversation will lead to the fact that the topic being discussed is not the real “topic”. For example, if we are talking about trust, the issue is not about communication techniques or so on. The issue is where and why trust was lost in the first place. Perhaps in people’s past experiences and relationships, often long before that particular team.
When it comes to instilling values or leadership principles, many people know the techniques to formulate and implement them. But it is not a question of how to instil and articulate them at a strategy day. The question is why they don’t stick.
And quite often the answers lead to insecurity, insecurity and old patterns. Sometimes because of something seemingly invisible in the organisation or in the stories of the people themselves. Until they are brought to the visible, the usual logic of leadership training and consultation will not work. It is always possible to do a new workshop, a strategy day, invite the next refresher trainer, formulate the values from a slightly different angle and get a tick ‘done’.
In this case, money circulates in the training and consultancy business, but change often does not happen. As a substitute, we will start measuring the effectiveness and practicality of training, producing “10 steps on how to…” guides. etc. Not out of malice, but because going back to basics is inconvenient. It is much more comfortable to escape the discomfort for a meeting or a new training.
And that’s where I’ve been in between lately. Either to stay where I provide solutions that the market is providing anyway and that I know won’t stay alive in the organization for more than maybe one business season, but would bring me in money in training dollars or….
…come up with uncomfortable questions and observations. Questions that do not seek blame, but deep root causes. Questions that do not always and immediately and visibly fit under the label of ‘practical’. Exercises that seem strange at first glance, but which shake things up at the root level.
Perhaps it’s a disadvantage of mine that I look beyond my leadership experience to a therapist’s eye, where the need for honest and courageous self-discovery at a deep level overrides corporate games. The therapist’s eye often sees where it is unaccustomed to look – into the living past we don’t want to see at all.
As I’m followed by a lot of HR people and of course managers, what’s your opinion? Do you provide what is asked or go with what is not asked but jumps out at you from the sidelines, but which I perceive a potential client is uncomfortable listening to?
