Leadership in Chaos – Leaders Digest

Leadership in Chaos: 5th edition. ambiguity, human touch, balance. "Asking what, gives you constraints. Asking why, gives you springboards." Rory Sutherland (author, columnist, vice chairman of Ogilvy UK). Patty Maher Change: ambiguity. At the turn of the 20th century, the impressionist art movement wanted us to see a world where nothing was certain, or fixed. They wanted us to squint. But we rejected their ambiguous view at the time, preferring order, predictability and certainty. Today however, we need to learn to love ambiguity. An over reliance on certainty is risky. Certainty drives dogma, and a fear of change. But without change, we don’t progress. Just as a snake must shed its skin, we too must be able to change our minds. To do so, we need to embrace a more ambiguous view of the world. A thought for leaders: Vivian Greene (daughter of Graham Greene) famously wrote, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain”. Leadership today needs more rain dancers. Agile leaders, that embrace ambiguity. Yes, maybe employees are tired of change. Good leaders though, know the storm isn’t passing soon, and inspire their people to dance in the rain with them. Patty Maher Culture: human touch. As pandemic talk fades, and the WFH debate grows, some employers are pushing people to get back into the office. Lots of reasons, not least of which is the cost of idle office space. But more worryingly, is news that productivity is falling at the fastest rate in four decades. Royal Bank of Canada CEO explained that "the absence of working together in many ways has led to productivity and innovation challenges”. Culture is also an issue, because culture is feeling a part of something, which starts with connection and human touch. A study of basketball players found that ‘that in group competition, physical touch would predict increases in both individual and group performance’. Touching each other helped create or reinforce a sense of connection, leading to better results. A thought for leaders: While Elon Musk takes the childish “get off your work-from-home bullsh*t” line, others like Shopify, are now mostly remote and in many cities the process of repurposing office space has begun. The future is foggy. Leaders however, must recognise their responsibility in keeping people physically connected. Because despite what we might believe, human touch matters more than we think. Patty Maher Communication: balance. Microsoft just published their latest 2023 Work Trend Index. They surveyed 31,000 people, in 31 countries and analyzed lots of Microsoft 365 data. One interesting discovery, is that we spend 57% of our work time communicating, and only 43% creating. According to Microsoft, we’re drowning in digital debt (email, meetings etc). 64% of people say they struggle to find enough time to do their job. Which impacts innovation, and performance. Companies like Shopify, have already taken extreme action with a company wide calendar purge, which eliminated 10,000 company events or the equivalent of more than 76,500 hours of meetings. A thought for leaders: Better communication, means better productivity. Is your organization communication efficient and effective? Do you have the right capabilities, skills and tech to manage it properly? And if technology has become a plague,…

Leadership in Chaos: 4th edition. Career bending, toleration and shared experiences. "A man may keep very busy indeed without doing any thinking at all, and the easy course—the course of least resistance—is to keep so busy that there will be no time left over for thought". Harvey Firestone, "Men in Rubber”. Summer Wagner Change: career bending. The world of work is changing, reshaped by forces ranging from demographic shifts (getting older), transformative technology (AI/AR/VR/blockchain), multi-polar globalization (rise of China and India), to unbundled, distributed work and a work/life reset. Welcome to an era of career bending times, where to survive and stay relevant, we need to continue to reinvent ourselves. This means actively planning for long term careers, lifelong learning and updating our own operating systems. It may also mean evolving our management styles, focussing less on our “zone of control” or “size of kingdom” and more on our “zone of influence” and “zone of impact”. Less on being bosses and managers, and more on being leaders and coaches and learners. A thought for leaders: As Pope Francis said “we are not living an era of change but a change of era”. As the world of work changes and industries transform, are you preparing yourself, and your people, for these shifts. Are you taking control and agency over the change or will you be swept by the tide wherever it takes you? Remember that career bending, is far better than career ending. Summer Wagner Culture: toleration. Dominic Rabb resigned as the Deputy Prime Minister of the UK following accusations of bullying. In his resignation letter, he said the inquiry had “set the threshold for bullying so low” and created “a dangerous precedent”. He pointed out that, he hadn’t sworn, shouted, thrown anything, physically intimidated or intentionally belittled anyone. But, as this piece describes, having a ‘threshold’ for bullying is out of date. It’s now recognised that bullies are as likely to undermine or discriminate against individuals with a pattern of smaller slurs or “microaggressions”. Yes we all want results, but the reality is that a fearful workforce is often an underperforming workforce, and the best-performing teams are “psychologically safe”, unafraid to speak up about mistakes and to challenge their bosses and colleagues. A thought for leaders: Organisational psychologist Adam Grant has said that “to understand the values in a culture, we often examine which behaviors get punished. But we also need to consider which behaviors *don't* get punished—what people get away with”. And as John Amaechi says “A culture is defined by the worst behaviour tolerated”. What do you tolerate? And how can you raise the bar to ensure you have a safe culture? Summer Wagner Resilience: shared experiences. “Be more resilient”. Seems like a constant these days. Chin up, and all that. As if it’s a state people can just readily access. A switch they can flick. But as Bruce Daisley points out in this wonderful piece about what he learned about resilience when his desk buddy died, it’s not that simple. He laments the loss of a colleague, with whom he shared a “tea round”. A simple shared experience, and something he suggests was our “quietest loss” post pandemic. As a token of love, he and his colleagues knitted a woollen blanket for the patient. And…

Leadership in Chaos: 3rd edition. Emergent discovery, positive dissent and output vs input. “Listen to others, you will be wise. The beginning of wisdom is silence”. Pythagoras Ellen Jantzen Change: emergent discovery. The secret of change, Socrates said, “is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but building on the new”. Innovation therefore, is critical. And achieving it, should be less about individuals, and more about a culture of Emergent Discovery. This means continually searching for ideas in novel spaces; developing speculative conjectures; and relentlessly questioning hypotheses. It requires a culture where people, particularly leaders, are comfortable with impossible ideas and challenging dogma. A culture that views “flawed” ideas not as dead ends, but as building blocks. And where the evolution of ideas is a collective, shared responsibility. This is how management need to change in an emergent discovery culture. A thought for leaders: A world of permanent VUCA, has different demands on an innovation culture. Emergent Discovery is a fresh approach, that builds a successful innovation culture. It requires that you, as a leader, make it acceptable to broach the unreasonable. That you leverage your critics’ insights, to improve ideas. And that you make it about ideas, not personal ownership (so it’s not personal if it fails). Ellen Jantzen Leadership: positive dissent. What do the following disasters have in common; the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Gary Lineker throwing the BBC into chaos and JP Morgan suffering reputation damage and lawsuits, for retaining Jeffrey Epstein as a client after he pleaded guilty? The answer is: why don’t managers see it coming? They don’t, as this article explains, because dissenters and doubters can’t speak up (along with some pluralist ignorance). So group think sets in. James Detert, a professor at Darden School of Business, says evolution has hard-wired us not to deviate from our group. “If you think about our time on earth as a species, for most of it we lived in very small clans, bands, tribes, and our daily struggle was for survival, both around food security and physical safety. In that environment, if you were ostracised, you were going to die. There was no solo living in those days.”  A thought for leaders: Leaders need to persistently praise people who speak up. The penalties are often more obvious than the rewards, so keeping your head down means safety. As Warren Buffett said: “As a group, lemmings may have a rotten image, but no individual lemming has ever received bad press”. How can you support a braver culture of positive dissent and encourage doubters to speak up? Ellen Jantzen Culture: output vs input. Remote work battles roll on. But as the tide rises on flexible work, it's becoming clear that bad leaders will eventually lose the remote-work war. Some issues are generational (older management are less in favour of remote). Others are related to control and the need to look over shoulders every minute. Despite robust research supporting remote work, bad leaders care more about the theatre of productivity, and remain “input management” focussed. Good leaders conversely, care about real productivity, motivation and “output management”. With widespread tech layoffs, some companies have increased input management styles…

Leadership in Chaos: 2nd edition. Fortitude vs resilience, beyond the hero and disengaged. “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius— and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.” E.F. Schumacher. Patrick Scott Change: fortitude vs resilience. Resilience is a popular word these days. Understandable, given the perma-crisis. It was one of the key takeaways from Davos 2023 (replacing disruption) and on the back of continued geo-political risk, economic crisis and uncertainty, McKinsey and the World Economic Forum launched the Resilience Consortium. A framework for organisations to help navigate change. Bruce Daisley, author of Eat Sleep Work Repeat and most recently Fortitude, has a different view. He questions whether the myth of resilience is dangerous, as it puts the onus on individual resilience rather than addressing the excessive demands and stresses we often live through. The term Fortitude on the other hand, focusses on the strength we draw from each other and on collectiveness, which is most typified by the incredible people of the Ukraine ✊. A thought for leaders: As leaders, our capacity to manage through change has never been more important. But we mustn’t forget, particularly in a world of remote working, the importance of collective resilience, vs the individual. Struggling alone, keeping the stiff upper lip, is dangerous. Developing collective fortitude and togetherness is the key to successfully navigating change. Patrick Scott Leadership: beyond the hero. We often see leadership as the lone hero. The one that intervenes, to imagine and deliver a new reality. The Steve Jobs monolith myth. But, leadership manifests in multiple ways. It is as complex and dynamic as the people, communities, and situations that call it into being. Inspirations and actions that drive change are both individual, and collective. So, there’s a need for more inclusive leadership narratives. Ones where solidarity is prioritised over individualism. And where leaders foster inclusivity to drive success. A thought for leaders: This article advocates for a new beyond the hero narrative for inclusive leadership. A narrative that includes 3 key elements. 1. that leadership manifests in multiple ways (so avoid the monolith). 2. that leadership is community-driven (so listen to the frontline). 3. that leadership, when diversified, drives real systemic change (inclusive leadership works). This narrative shift should manifest in 3 ways, 1. Language and stories, 2. Policies and practice and 3. Culture and behaviour. Hero’s are great, but we all know, it takes a village. Patrick Scott Culture: dis-engaged. The world of work is changing and management consultant Gallup's latest report The State of Work 2022, is startling evidence of that. They found that, globally, only 21% of employees are engaged at work and only 33% claim to be thriving in their overall wellbeing. Most say that they don't find their work meaningful, don't think their lives are going well or don't feel hopeful about their future. While a separate study found that 40% feel burnt out. It feels like a tipping point and a crisis. A thought for leaders: The data is clear. People are unhappy. What leaders do next, is less clear. But, something must be done. The latest data from 4 day week trials…

Leadership in Chaos: 1st edition. Everyone's vulnerable, the age of outrage and the era of EX.