Formium Development

Tag: change

  • How does an ant kill a buffalo? Leadership lessons on the future of work

    How does an ant kill a buffalo? Leadership lessons on the future of work


    Forward-thinking leaders and managers are looking for ways to prepare themselves and their organisations for the future of work. One of the biggest challenges I see for them is how to address a change that is generated by a chain reaction of interacting factors.

    In case you’re wondering about the ant and the buffalo, here’s what’s happening:

    1. An invasion of big-headed ants drives out acacia ants from their residence in whistling-thorn trees.
    2. While they had been resident there, the acacia ants’ sharp jaws had deterred elephants from damaging the trees.
    3. Having lost the acacia ants’ protection, the trees are destroyed by the elephants.
    4. So the lions can no longer use them as a hiding place from which they can attack fast-moving zebras.
    5. Instead, the lions switch to hunting more of the slower-moving buffalo.

    So, what does this have to do with future changes in the ecosystem of work?

    We can look ahead and anticipate some big changes coming, such as increasing digitisation, the growth of AI or an increasingly diverse and global workforce.

    But it’s harder to spot the big changes that occur because trends coincide, or when disparate factors reinforce each other.

    Think about the Covid pandemic – while scientists had predicted a pandemic was due for many years, did anyone expect an end result of it might be struggling dry cleaners or city centre sandwich bars? These impacts were the result of chain reactions caused by the coincidence of the pandemic with:

    • Technological change. Innovations such as video conferencing and highspeed broadband meant there was an increased ability for office workers to work from home.
    • Social change. Over time, and partly due to the internet, people’s interconnections and relationships had become less dependent on attending the workplace.
    • Infrastructure change. For many people commuting had become ever more time-consuming and expensive.

    This fuelled an enduring desire to work at home, even once the pandemic was over. Since then we’ve seen lower footfall in town centres and people no longer needing to wear office clothing that requires regular dry cleaning.

    And these chain reactions aren’t just about levels of business – the increase in working from home and adoption of hybrid working also means that managers need to learn new approaches to communication, performance management and team dynamics.

    So, like the ant and the buffalo, one change within the work ecosystem can have far-reaching and unforeseen consequences. As Professor Todd Palmer states in the article about the ants: “it’s the interactions which are the glue that holds the entire system together.”

    For leaders looking ahead to the future of work, there is one key lesson.

    It’s impossible for leaders to imagine every feedback loop and plan for every possible chain reaction that might take place in the future world of work – but it is possible to build up capacity and capability.

    You could:

    • generate a learning culture so your team members are change-ready
    • develop your interpersonal skills so you can manage and support your people through the pressures and opportunities of change
    • build an empowered team who are forward-looking and able to take initiative.

    All leaders and managers can take a range of steps now so that if unexpected change occurs, you’re in a better place to adapt.

    Just like the lion.

    Image credit: Keyur Nandaniya on Unsplash

  • Change under pressure – 10 lessons from the NHS response to Covid-19

    Change under pressure – 10 lessons from the NHS response to Covid-19

    We’ve all heard inspiring tales of resourcefulness and innovation in the face of Covid-19, from people, communities, companies and institutions across the globe. I found this recent report, Providers Deliver, from the UK’s National Health Service to be a fascinating selection of how local hospitals and health teams, working with their staff and partnerships, have managed to successfully change under pressure.

    Here are the 10 key lessons that I’ve identified in the report:

    Have a clear goal – the Countess of Chester hospital introduced a revolutionary whole-hospital rota to maximise use of their resources. Darren Kilroy, executive medical director, stated this was designed to ensure “everyone would be focused around one common goal” of helping meet the needs of Covid-19 patients.

    When faced with so many competing issues, having a single clear goal makes it easier for people across roles, teams and departments to accept the need for change, and fully embrace a new way of working. Darren considered the single aim had a major impact: “people learned new skills, and as it got going the junior staff enjoyed being part of it because they were dealing with something very real and making a difference. It became a really enjoyable roster to be involved in as everyone was really engaged.”

    Have clear parameters – in the press we sadly saw many stories where a company tried to help out but were impacted by the rigorous demands of medical or regulatory requirements. Understanding the constraints is vital to achieving effective change. It is notable that the provision of PPE in Northumbria and the repurposing of the sleep apnoea machine in Leeds were undertaken with close attention to these quality standards.

    Find and work with partners – the only silver lining in the tragedy of the early months of coronavirus was seeing how individuals, communities and companies rallied round, trying to do their bit to help.

    Faced with a shortage of quality PPE, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust developed an eye-catching solution – working with a PPE manufacturing consultant to establish its own network of textile manufacturers. Eventually the partnership has set up a bespoke factory, generating jobs and providing PPE for regional customers.

    London Ambulance Service NHS Trust took an radical approach to partnership working: firstly 170 mechanics from the Automobile Association supported them to keep all their ambulances on the road, reconditioned 50 newly-sourced second-hand vehicles and refitted some non-emergency transport vehicles.

    But it wasn’t just about the vehicles, a creative approach was needed for staffing. Chief executive Garrett Emerson explained: “I then had a conversation with the commissioner of fire services about using firefighters to work alongside our clinicians and increase the numbers of ambulances we could deploy in London. We just agreed to get on with it and make it happen.”

    This is another newly-forged partnership that will have long-term benefits: as Garrett Emerson comments, they hope “to keep a small number of firefighters on a rotational basis continually within the service, keeping their skills up with the ability to stretch to larger numbers in the event of pressures.”

    Value your people – “to influence and drive change, [your staff] have to be well cared for” – Patrick Scott, Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust.
    It’s like that old saying, ‘treat your employees like they can make a difference and they will’. The report highlights that it’s not just about basic welfare in a hazardous and stressful situation, it is also about really listening, communicating proactively and giving employees responsibility and authority to make changes.

    Give people space to innovate – many of the examples show what people can do when tasked with solving a specific problem, within clear operational parameters, and outside of usual protocols/constraints for e.g. funding, staffing or governance. The advice from Julian Hartley, chief executive at Leeds Teaching Hospitals is telling: “You don’t micromanage or try to second guess everything. If you have the necessary cultural ecosystem, the set of relationships feeding off one another, and technology and innovation in one branch of medicine, it can cross-fertilise very quickly into another.”

    Break the silo – so often when I’m working with large institutions, I’m asked about breaking down boundaries, so it is fascinating that most of these examples show how a crisis can spark people working across traditional divides.

    In Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust staff developed a new multi-agency mental health service to reduce pressure on A&E. Saskya Falope, manager of this new mental health urgent care hub stated “It has allowed us to think differently about how we use our resources and has allowed partnerships to really come together, using everybody’s expertise rather than working in silos.” And this working across boundaries has positive results – “Working with colleagues in social care, housing and acute trusts, gets patients the right care that they need rather than the fallback always being A&E in an acute hospital.”

    Reflecting on the Countess of Chester hospital’s new whole-hospital rota, Darren Kilroy stated: “there’s been a much more cohesive sense of shared understanding across traditionally quite disparate groups of staff, and there’s a much clearer understanding of how a hospital has to work together to get the job done”.

    Use your existing resources better – focusing on what you have rather than what you haven’t is a great way of thinking differently about a problem. This was exemplified by the staff at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust who took their stock of an obsolete sleep apnoea machine and worked with the mechanical engineering department of University of Leeds to repurpose it to make up for a shortfall in ventilators.

    This is not just a local success story though – by continuing their research, the University has designed a device that is sufficiently cheap and quick to manufacture that it could help lower-income countries across the world.

    Ask your end-users – for a change to be really effective, engaging the people who use the service can reap rewards. When setting up the mental health support hub in Leicestershire, the manager Saskya Falope said they “started collecting patient feedback and ideas from very early on…we asked patients what do you like or not like about A&E? How can we do it differently?” Asking such open questions can generate unexpected insights, such as changing the bright lighting usually found in A&E to something more soothing.

    Bring your people with you – The University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust innovated by installing temperature scanners at access points, aiming to reassure the public that the hospital was still safe for patients with non-covid health issues. To ensure it would be successful it was piloted in an administrative area, and thought was given how to get the staff on board – as Tracy Bullock, chief executive commented: “Making sure you’ve got the right engagement with the staff and making sure you’ve got their buy in and they understand the standard operating procedure that runs alongside it is essential… it’s getting your comms right.”

    Staff at the Countess of Chester hospital knew a change to a radically new way of working rota could be problematic, so prepared the ground carefully, as Darren Kilroy explains: “quite a few weeks of engagement, sharing with the juniors what the roster would look like, undertaking the comms that would inform how this would work, and making sure it was attractive to those members of staff who were going to work on this roster who weren’t used to dealing with patients of this kind”.

    Don’t be afraid to change – a highly-regulated sector such as healthcare can discourage the risk-taking that is inherent in change, but the teams in this report were able to harness the compelling purpose and unprecedented situation. Tracy Bullock at University Hospitals North Midlands sums this up: “We were definitely a bit nervous at first, because we knew no one else in the NHS had done this before. But there was something about just biting the bullet. It’s intuitive, if it goes right and you think it’s going to help, you have to just go with it. That was the key bit of learning for me.”

    Reflection

    What I really value in this report is the range of changes: from smaller-scale and temporary solutions to those with long-term and even global benefits. The report reinforces that the ability to change under pressure is underpinned by the organisational culture and individual skills, abilities, relationships and experience.

    I know for many people and businesses this is a desperate time without any upside, and my heart goes out to you – I don’t want to minimise your situation. But I am fascinated by how some organisations have been able to change under pressure, so my question is: how have you changed the way you work, and how is it having benefits for you, your customers and community?

     

    Picture credit: Edgar Soto on Unsplash

  • Appreciative Inquiry: Strength-based organisational influence

    Appreciative Inquiry: Strength-based organisational influence

    We’ve all been there. You are tasked with delivering a significant change to processes, products or ways of working. Before you even start you are told by colleagues or staff that this will never happen, it’s impossible to do and all you feel is push-back.

    Leading change can feel like pushing a boulder up a hill with the risk that it will roll right back down at any moment.

    I’m sure this sounds familiar, as it is derived from two commonplace issues – that people often fear change and resist it, and that most organisations introduce changes by focussing on existing problems and shortcomings, such as John Kotter’s famous ‘melting iceberg’.

    But what comes of this approach? A negative atmosphere as everyone tries to dodge responsibility, and you impose a top-down change that will hopefully fix the problem. And how many times do you fix one problem only to find that you’ve now created another? Or find that people resist adopting your solution at all?

    If you think about how we apply the idea of strengths for a person – that you can deliver better change and growth by harnessing strengths rather than focussing on weaknesses – then you can imagine there is a similar approach for teams and organisations.

    Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is that approach – it focuses on finding out what already works, and how to leverage those successes and strengths. It is a collaborative approach, because unless you have everyone involved, you can’t effectively incorporate the multiplicity of perspectives. By co-creating a vision as well as the approach together, you’ll reduce resistance to change and have a more effective and lasting solution.

    The theory and research underpinning Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is extensive, as is the track record of AI being used effectively in a whole host of settings across industries, countries and sectors.

    The Appreciative Inquiry process starts with a positively stated topic choice or inquiry question, such as: “How can we deliver maximum value for our customers within our existing resources?” or “Creating innovation through collaboration with other departments or organisations” or “Becoming a high performing and fun team.” Its power comes from the combination of focusing on what works and approaching changes with an open, enquiring mind.

    The AI process then uses a simple 4D model to address the topic – Discover – Dream – Design – Deliver

    This may not seem that different from a range of other such models, until you look at what happens in each phase.

    Traditionally managers would use root cause analysis to try and understand problems. In Appreciative Inquiry, this phase is about looking positively at what is already working, helping us identify the key ingredients of success for this team or organisation. It embraces the positive traditions and stories that they have about themselves.

    Looking at existing success helps engagement and creativity and generates confidence for the next stage. You may find those existing examples of collaboration or of innovation that can act as the template for wider improvements.

    Rather than the narrow focus on solving problems with the minimum effort in the minimum time, this visioning phase is about using the positivity so everyone feels safe in challenging the status quo, in thinking about the big picture, and creating a vision that reaches into the future.

    We ask questions like “How does our version of excellence on a budget look, and crucially why does it matter?”

    When you’re grounded in what’s worked, and because you’re involving everyone, you can build a compelling dream that generates commitment to action.

    The Appreciative Inquiry approach is to focus on bridging the gap to your dream, while making sure there is alignment with values, strategy, structures and processes.

    Co-creation means working with all involved, which ensures that you don’t ‘rob Peter to pay Paul,’ and generates crucial buy-in and joint-ownership of change.

    This stage is when you work together to translate the vision into action plans and share roles and responsibilities in making it happen.

    You’ll need to maintain the momentum – keep talking together, challenging each other, reaffirming commitment to change.

    Agree how you will hold each participant accountable for delivering their commitments, but don’t fall back into negativity and top-down power.

    Reflect back on what you’ve learned about the traditions and stories people tell about themselves, and use them to overcome any obstacles. Continue to celebrate successes.

    Appreciative Inquiry is effective

    As an external facilitator who has used an Appreciative Inquiry approach with many teams, I can tell you that it works. So many top-down change programmes fail because of the fear, resistance or lack of ownership. With AI, that initial focus on ‘what works already’ gives people security, helps them understand that their particular perspective is valued. This enables them to be creative, to see the big picture and to consider what they individually need to do for the team to reach their compelling vision.

    While Appreciative Inquiry works exceptionally well on large-scale change or organisational development programmes, it is not just about externally-driven change or solving specific challenges. Some of my best experiences have been using AI approaches in team away-days to help them reflect, define their own vision and agree how they will act differently in the future, all based on what they were already great at.

    Many of my clients use an external facilitator because it helps create a level playing field for all participants, and because we can more easily ask the big questions and identify the ‘we’ve always done it like that’ assumptions. But any manager can learn how to use an AI approach – there’s a wealth of accessible resources to help you – books, websites, videos, webinars.

    Eszter Molnar Mills is a strength-based leadership and organisation development specialist.

    She helps organisations and individuals reach enhanced performance by reflecting on what works, and by developing skills and strategies for improvement.

    Through Formium Development, Eszter supports organisations, teams and individuals through consultancy, executive and team coaching, and facilitation.

    If you’d like help or advice on implementing the Appreciative Inquiry approach, then please get in touch.

     

     

    If you’d like more articles like this, try our newsletter:

  • Review: The Strengths-Focused Guide to Leadership

    Review: The Strengths-Focused Guide to Leadership

    If you want a practical manual to understanding how to harness strengths, for you and your team, this book is a great place to start, as it:

    • introduces the key concepts of strengths
      • provides the research base for more inquisitive readers
      • illustrates with narratives
    • prompts you with a range of exercises and action points
    • explains how to weave strengths into your practice as a leader.

     

    What really sets this book apart is the emphasis on practicality. Numerous exercises help you engage with the ideas. There are questions, forms and questionnaires for you to use. The book looks at embedding strengths in all your work, including coaching, team meetings, recruitment and appraisals. So even if you know the value of using strengths, this is still a worthwhile read.

    A further great feature is the use of dialogues, showing the ideas in action (e.g. a coaching session transcript) or as two alternative ‘scripts’ – one using strengths, the other weakness. These stories keep you grounded in reality.

     

    The whys, whats and hows of using strengths

    The authors define strengths as something that:

    They show the advantage of working with strengths: that you are doing more of what you are best at. They set out the alignment between using strengths and increased sense of authenticity and purpose, increasing satisfaction and engagement. This naturally leads into a more productive cycle, with faster and better results.

    For any readers averse to leaving a weakness-focussed approach, the authors provide both the evidence for focussing on strengths, and also how to address weaknesses with a positive mindset.

     

    The MORE model

     

    My strengths: To identify your own strengths, the authors offer five different methods: strength spotting, weakness spotting, a 5 steps strengths map, 360 degree feedback and online strengths assessments. They provide the exercises, questions and examples to help you through whichever of these methods you prefer to use.

    Roarty and Toogood suggest 8 ways to develop your strengths:

     

    They also provide 6 ways to manage your weaknesses. To align your goals and strengths, they suggest usual SMART objectives should rather be SMARTIE – adding Important and Energising.

    Others’ strengths: The book suggests approaches to introduce strengths as a concept and to support your team in identifying their strengths.

    Regular conversations: To embed strengths into daily practice, the authors provide checklists and questions which embody the three principles that will help you develop a strengths mindset:

    • start with an outcome focus
    • focus on what’s working
    • manage weakness from strength

    They advise how to use this mindset in one-to-one conversations, development planning, team meetings and coaching: interventions where a strengths-focus has great rewards.

    Employee processes: Roarty and Toogood provide specific advice for a strength-based approach for performance appraisals, development discussions and recruitment. Particularly interesting is their approach for adapting to institutional reality: that while you may be required to use certain forms, competencies or expected approaches, you can still use a strengths mindset and techniques to provide a better outcome.

    Leadership and teams

    The book ends by providing the advice, evidence and resources to use strengths in two key challenges: creating a high-performing team, and in leading change. While specific examples are given, the advice reflects the key messages delivered previously, as detailed above.

     

    You can buy The Strengths-focused guide to leadership, by Mike Roarty and Kathy Toogood, on Amazon UK or Amazon USA

     

     

    Eszter Molnar Mills is a strength-based leadership and organisation development specialist.

    She helps organisations and individuals reach enhanced performance by reflecting on what works, and by developing skills and strategies for improvement.

    If you’d like help or advice on using strengths – such as implementing the MORE model, helping you find or use your strengths, or adopt a coaching approach, then please get in touch.

     

    If you’d like more articles like this, please try our newsletter:

  • Book Review: The Positive Organization by Robert E Quinn

    Book Review: The Positive Organization by Robert E Quinn

    So many business books leave you wondering “…but how does that work in reality?” That’s not a problem with The Positive Organization – this short book (less than 160 pages from cover to cover) is packed with ideas, examples, case studies and practical exercises, written in an engaging and straightforward style.

    Throughout, Quinn challenges us to consider a different way of thinking, and to think about how we can effectively participate in building a positive organisation. A key strength of the book is that it has actionable lessons for all, regardless of job role or responsibility, from board room to shop floor. Each chapter concludes with a tool to use with teams in self-assessment and development, as well as questions to encourage the reader to reflect and set aspirations, to deepen learning.

    The central premise of the book is that building a positive organisation requires accountability and authenticity, that for it to be successful it has to be emergent and self-generating. This approach is built on listening, consultation and empowerment at all levels.

    What marks this book apart from many others is both the effectiveness of Quinn’s model, as well as the Positive Organization Generator – over 100 real-life examples of how organisations have successfully increased their positivity.

    Mental Maps and bilingualism

    Quinn suggests that the culture of an organisation can be summarised in a mental map – an indication of what a company believes and assumes, covering domains such as Motivation, Status and Change. Most organisations, and most leaders, operate using what Quinn calls a Conventional Mental Map, a top-down, traditional hierarchy. He contrasts this with the more complex Positive Mental Map, focused more on networks and relationships, and a focus on the common good and authentic communication.

    However, this is not a binary state – Quinn suggests a successful leader needs to be ‘bilingual’ able to speak the language of both maps depending on the need of the people they are working with, to find the right tools for the right occasion.

    A question of balance

    Quinn provides us with a further analysis of organisational culture – the Framework of Organizational Tensions. Quinn groups organisational characteristics into two opposing lists, for example Individual Accountability and Cohesive Teamwork. If taken to extremes either of these positive characteristics could be negative – conflict on the one hand or group-think on the other. To illustrate the need to maintain balance between these positive forces, Quinn separates each pair on opposing sides of a disc, with an outer ring of negative forces that may arise if the positive force is over-developed.

    This idea of tension and balance is crucial to Quinn – organisations are not static, they are dynamic, and to effect positive change we have to consider the whole system, that positives can turn into negatives.

    A call to action

    Having developed these models, Quinn turns to a number of key issues in developing a positive organisation, in chapters that focus on how to drive organisations forward by developing and promoting authenticity, creating a sense of purpose, fostering bottom-up change and collaborative development. He uses a range of interesting and relevant examples, referring back to the models at every stage.

    In these sections he is challenging and insightful on the role of the individual, on our willingness to work for the common good, our ability to leave our ego and control behind when trying to develop an organisation that thrives. He is also realistic about human nature, and how difficult meaningful change and personal authenticity may be, but makes clear the benefits of developing leadership capabilities and organisational positivity.

    Over to you

    Quinn concludes by sharing with the reader his Positive Organization Generator. Designed to confront sceptics and resistance, he provides 100 examples of where an organisation has made positive change (from a range of industries, and with links to further articles on each of them). This is an amazing resource that gives readers a real opportunity to understand “how it works in reality”. Rather than just adopting these ideas, his instruction to readers is to re-invent them – to be inspired by the examples, extract the principle and re-imagine it for your own context, moulding and adapting to fit.

    Robert E. Quinn’s website www.bob-quinn.com provides you with the resources from the book, including the Positive Organization Generator.

    Or you can buy the book from Amazon UK or Amazon USA.

    For more ideas you can also follow his daily blog: www.thepositiveorganization.wordpress.com

     

    [feature_box_creator style=”1″ width=”” top_margin=”” bottom_margin=”” top_padding=”” right_padding=”” bottom_padding=”” left_padding=”” alignment=”center” bg_color=”#006a8c” bg_color_end=”#006a8c” border_color=”” border_weight=”” border_radius=”” border_style=”” font_font=”Lato” font_color=”#fafafa” font_spacing=”10″ font_shadow=”none”]

    Formium Development helps individuals and organisations to harness their strengths and improve their performance and culture. We know change can be hard, so we can bring our expertise to help you with organisational development – such as implementing the ideas in The Positive Organization.

    Click here if you’d like more information on how we can help you and your team analyse, assess, challenge, innovate, communicate and develop.

    [/feature_box_creator]

     

     

  • Positive Change Management webinar replay

    Positive Change Management webinar replay

    In today’s fast changing environment agility and the ability to make change effectively is a key organisational requirement. According to research many change management initiatives fail, risking employee’s resistance and change fatigue.

    View this webinar recording to explore:

    • The key change management mistakes to avoid
    • Successful approaches to effectively leading change
    • How to minimise resistance, engage and motivate your people
    • Positive change management methodologies

    The accompanying guide to better understanding your stakeholders – and the presentation slides – can be found here.

  • 5 of the best…resources to keep resolutions

    5 of the best…resources to keep resolutions

    How are your New Year’s resolutions coming along? January is the month of getting fit, being more productive, having a new frame of mind. We collected five resources that can help you keep the resolutions you choose to make, and for sustainably improving habits.

    Better than before – Gretchen Rubin on habits
    “Habits make change possible by freeing us from decision making and from using self-control.” – says Rubin. She provides resources to help you understand your preferences and choose habit strategies that will work for you. Also look out for her podcast.

    MindTools
    New year, new me. How can you renew yourself most easily? With learning a new skill for personal or career development. Since 1996, Mind Tools has offered practical online training to individuals keen to excel in the workplace. Join them!

    FlexScore
    Did you promise to yourself to be better at managing your money? FlexScore is a website that shows you how are you doing financially and how you are doing compared to your peers. The best part is that you get a free, update financial analysis that helps you understand how purchases affect your financial future.

    2-1080x1080
    100DayChallenge
    A radically different approach helping you keep your New Year’s resolutions. The organisers claim that you can get more done in the first 100 days of 2016 than most people do in 10 years. This is an online programme with a daily video lesson and a specific call to action.

    HeadSpace
    Did you have a stressful 2015? Did you promise that you will give more attention to mindfulness and meditate? HeadSpace is a personal trainer for your mind. You can choose different sessions to suit your mood and lifestyle. You can take a break anywhere and anytime since HeadSpace is available for iOS and Android as well.

    +1 Strengths Challenge 2016
    The list would not be complete without our featured interviewee, Michelle McQuaid’s program. Join if your resolution was being more happy and energized at work. We took part last year and we can tell you that it has had an impact.