WHAT KIND OF LEADER ARE YOU?

Are you a Naked Leader or a Quiet Leader? Has anyone Moved your Cheese recently?....and why does it matter?

To answer those questions; We’re going to need to define what a Naked Leader, or a Quiet Leader is, and to explain where the Cheese comes into it.

THE NAKED LEADER

David Taylor is a Nike man: "Just do it." He's with Nietzsche: we should live each day as if it were our last; stop preparing for life and live it.

If you want success, however you define it, first decide what you want achieve – as a team, organisation or individual. Be very specific. Know what success would feel like, how you would measure it.

Then take action; do something.

Then reflect; did your action take your team, your organisation, yourself closer to success?

If “yes;” do more of it.

If “no” do something else.

Then reflect; did your action take your team, your organisation, yourself closer to success?

If “yes;” do more of it.

If “no” do something else.

Then reflect; did your action take your team, your organisation, yourself closer to success?

If “yes;” do more of it.

If “no” do something else……………etc

 

“Imagine if you simply could not fail:

What would you do? You would do anything

Where would you go? You would go anywhere

Who would you be? You would be free, to be you.”

 

 

QUIET LEADERSHIP

 

David Rock has insights about what motivates each of us to take action. His work is based on the latest understanding of our brains: “If people are being paid to think isn't it time the business world found out what the thing doing the work, the brain is all about?”

 

It turns out that our learned behaviour becomes “hardwired,” automatic responses. This is biologically efficient; it saves us thinking about previously encountered situations. BUT, it can cause us to get stuck in a rut, as the world changes around us. The good news is that new, adaptive, behaviours can be added….if you know how.

 

In order to take committed action people need to think things through for themselves. People are slow to do this, due to the level of energy and, potential, mental discomfort involved. Having an “aha” moment creates the energy needed to overcome the inertia. The Quiet Leader creates that “aha” moment energy for the team.

 

 

For Rock there are Six Steps to Transforming Performance.

 

Step 1.  Thinking About Thinking

               – Leader focusses on improving how people think; not what they think about.

Step 2.  Listen For Potential

              – Leader listens and thinks “how can I help you think this through?”

Step 3   Speak with Intent  

               -  Leader is Succinct, Specific, Generous (see book for definitions)

Step 4   Dance Towards Insight

-       Leader builds Awareness > Reflection  > Illumination > Motivation

Step 5   Create New Thinking

-       Leader follows GROW model ( Rock has a modified version: CREATE)

Step 6   Follow Up

-       Leader employs FEELING: Facts > Emotions > Encouragement > Learning >

Implications > New Goals.

 

 

WHO MOVED MY CHEESE?

 

Spencer Johnson talks about the motivations behind human inertia in the face of change too. “Who Moved My Cheese” is a modern day Aesop’s Fable. It’s easy to recognise ourselves in the characters, our lives in the maze, and our success criteria in the cheese.

 

Two mice and two miniature humans live in a maze. Each day they go out hunting for cheese. One day they strike gold, a plentiful cheese supply, replenished daily.

 

The mice live “in the moment,” and notice that the supply is diminishing and that replenishment has stopped. They aren’t surprised when the supply runs out and go back into the maze to find a new store. They eventually find one. It’s bigger and better than before.

 

The miniature humans respond differently. They are able to think more deeply and have a highly developed beliefs and values system. They are comfortable in the cheese store, so comfortable that they do not notice the dwindling supply; or, if they notice a change, they block it out. They are content where they are and have become fearful of the maze. They are angry that the cheese supply has stopped. They begin to starve. They stay put and discuss how unfair their situation is, how good it used to be and how bad it is out in the maze. Eventually one ventures into the maze; discovers the personal rewards of moving beyond his fears, lives off scraps for a while and then finds the same bigger and better cheese store as the mice.

 

The miniature human reflects on what has happened and draws some conclusions.

 

“Change Happens -  They Keep Moving The Cheese

Anticipate Change -  Get Ready For The Cheese To Move

Monitor Change – Smell The Cheese Often, So You Know When It’s Getting Old

Adapt To Change Quickly - The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese,The Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese

Change - Move With The Cheese: Enjoy Change!

Savor The Adventure And Enjoy The Taste Of New Cheese!

Be Ready To Change Quickly And Enjoy It Again - They Keep Moving The Cheese. “

 

 

WHAT KIND OF LEADER ARE YOU?

 

……So back to the question: “What Kind of Leader are you?” Or maybe that should be, “What Kind of Leader do you want to be?” Which Leadership style is going to be most effective in guiding your Team or Organisation in a world of accelerating change?

 

 

…..and does it matter? I think so.

 

 

If you want to delve a little more deeply; all three of these books are short, inspirational reads.

Or try these links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72bUNxJYAQc&noredirect=1   For David Rock on Quiet Leadership and how he came to write it.
http://www.nakedleader.com/  For David Taylor's Naked Leader homepage
http://www.whomovedmycheese.com/ For Spencer Johnson's homepage

 

AN ENGAGED TEAM IS A WINNING TEAM

 

The Employee Engagement Survey was up on the screen. The room was silent. 60 senior managers were holding their breath. We were about to find out how the 600 people making up our business felt about working for the company, about working for us. My eyes anxiously scanned the bars on the graph, one for each department, one for each manager. My palms were sweating. It was our first Employee Engagement survey. I had no idea what to expect. “Trust the Team” had been my approach to the survey, my standard answer to most challenges on site. “Share what the survey is about, and involve the team in planning how to get it completed. Just be ourselves. Don’t try to influence the outcome. We want to know what the issues are so we can fix them” I’d said. Brave words; I wasn’t feeling brave now. My eyes focussed and found the site score on the screen. Now I was feeling elated and surprised; I was feeling proud for the site and the team. Our score was 73%, into World Class territory.

“How did you do that?” asked a colleague.

“We didn’t really do anything different to normal. The site is on a journey - I think it’s more to do with how we feel and act.” I replied. Her brow was furrowed. I knew that my answer hadn’t helped her as it was meant to.

It was a three hour motorway drive back to site. The traffic heavy but flowing, brain on autopilot, plenty of time to reflect. Plenty of time to come up with a clearer explanation of what I’d done. I hadn’t directly chased an engagement score, the same way I hadn’t directly chased KPI numbers. I had lead the site on a journey though, and we’d delivered those results along the way. How could I explain my approach more clearly and link it to delivery of business results?

My start point is each being proud to own our piece of the action.(See Emotional Economics post). If we can successfully invest our creativity in a venture and are treated with respect we reap immense personal reward, we keep doing it and we get better at it. We grow and improve as the business grows and improves.

The first building block on the road to engagement and KPI improvement was to make the site own-able by the front line teams. The site covers 18 acres with multiple processes housed in separate buildings run by a team of 200 working different shift patterns. Walking round the site could feel like walking through a city centre. It was full of bustle; it didn’t really belong to any one. Everyone there was passing through, in a hurry, with no time to help a stranger. I needed to create some local neighbourhoods; some sense of belonging, of identity. We called the neighbourhoods “ Zones”: processes or areas that a community of 8-10 people could own; could personally invest in, could make a difference to.

Creating the potential for ownership and personal investment is only an enabling step. My challenge was how to give the team a reason to commit themselves to ownership and personal investment; to make that difference. Antoine de Saint-Exupery faced the same challenge:

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to go to the forest and gather wood, saw it, and nail planks together, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” – Antoine de Saint- Exupery

I had the feeling that he spoke from experience. I gathered the whole site team for a team day. It was the first time that the whole site team across all shifts had ever met. We started the day creating a joint vision of what the site could achieve, what that would feel like and what the outcomes would be. As energy and noise levels built in our Zone groups and feedback sessions we decided that it would feel fantastic! We wanted to be there! We quietened down a bit as we listened to each Zone update on where it was now: the successes and opportunities from the year just gone. We were thoughtful, maybe slightly daunted, as we split back up into Zone groups. Our challenge was to commit to three actions per Zone that would move the Zone closer to our fantastic vision. The feedback session was loud, laughter filled, uplifting. We knew where we were going. We knew how to get there. Most of all though we each knew that we could make a difference, would make a difference and what that difference was. We knew that it was our plan and our vision. We knew that we could make it happen.

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore” – Andre Gide

I read Andre Gide’s words after the first team day and after we’d gone on to post record Safety, Quality, Service, Cost and Employee Engagement results in the year that followed it. I share it because I know that it took me courage to trust the Team to set their own Zone objectives; and because I know what we then achieved as a result: RIDDOR accidents reduced to zero for 3 consecutive years, A 44% reduction in Quality complaints, Service level consistently better than 99%, £1,000,000 cost reduction and a 75% Employee Engagement score. Countless individual, discretionary, actions taken by team members in their Zones built into our overall success. I certainly hadn’t initiated the actions directly, neither had my managers. We’d enabled the site team to invest emotionally though, and we were all reaping the reward.

The Employee Engagement Survey was up on the screen. The room was silent. 60 senior managers were holding their breath. We were about to find out how the

CASH GAIN from CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

I had a problem now: The team had embraced the whole idea of Short Interval Control. Their Zone reviews were delivering increased output and reduced defects every shift. They’d kept pace as sales for the new product hit the year three volume forecast in week two of launch. Every four hours the team met for their Zone review and refined their methods. They were undaunted when a new idea had unforeseen side effects or even the opposite effect to that intended. They learnt from the trial and applied what they’d learnt to plan the next move. What’s the problem with that? It sounds like a manufacturing manager’s dream!

The problem was that sales were now levelling off at a run rate that the team could more than cover as a result of all the improvements that they’d made. We were building stock, we had too much capacity. Or, I thought, we had an opportunity to sell more. I discussed the opportunity with the commercial team. We did some work on it together. It didn’t look commercially viable. We’d established a price point in the market, carved out a niche. Better to slowly and sustainably grow the sector, defend our margin. I was going to have to reduce capacity to turn the team’s Continuous Improvement gains into cash. My problem was how to bank those Continuous Improvement gains without demotivating the team who had worked so hard to achieve them; without switching the rest of the site off from our Continuous Improvement Journey.

There was only one way. We’d achieved the launch success together by openly and objectively sharing information. Together was how we would turn this problem into an opportunity too. It was going to take some doing though. The scale of the improvements that the team had delivered meant we were about 40% over capacity. One shift too many out of the three. How could I keep that discussion objective and turn it into an opportunity?

Throughout the launch I’d sat down with the team to update on sales, the brand, customer feedback, progress with engineering modifications and, if I’m honest, why we needed more hours worked or improved performance. I’d slipped a bit of late as the brand had settled into steady state trading and the team had become more self-sufficient. I needed to get those team briefings going again, to share the information and open up some discussion. I expected that we’d need to let the reinstated weekly briefings run for a couple of weeks to allow the team to absorb the information, draw some conclusions, before we could start to talk about capacity.

The team were ahead of me though. The formal briefings might not have been happening but the cross functional launch team still exchanged information informally. The team knew that stocks were building and had the same initial reaction as I’d: it’s an opportunity to sell more. The commercial team had done the work on that – so we shared it. There were worried faces in the room now. “Are we going to be made redundant?” I was asked. I couldn’t give a definitive answer. I had to give an answer though and one that would move us on to seek out the opportunity in the situation. I said “Workshops have helped us get to some creative solutions before. I think we should workshop our way through what the team wants and what the company wants and see how we can get the two to overlap.” There were some sceptical looks and a couple of nods.

A team of us met up the next day: three managers and six team members. I started off by naming the three company needs. They were that the line could produce a given volume at a given cost per tonne whilst meeting the company’s duty of care to the team. The team of representatives had come suspecting that there would be a management plan, an answer, to sell to them. Instead we spent a couple of hours exploring what the important things to them were, what the question was. The representatives would need time to reflect and to talk to their colleagues on shift. We closed the meeting once the discussion on team needs had run its course. We’d built trust by openly sharing our thoughts and needs. We agreed to meet up again in a week. In the meanwhile the team representatives would share a one pager of notes from the meeting with the rest of the team.

A week later a more relaxed group meet for the second workshop . The team representatives knew what the needs of the team were. They shared that the team sought job and earnings security and a better work life balance. During the hectic new product launch period a lot of overtime had been worked and family life had suffered. The team had an idea too on how these might be achieved whilst meeting the company needs. The idea was to reduce the current three eight hour shifts covering five days to two twelve hour shifts covering three.

We wrote the idea on a whiteboard and then wrote up the company and team needs next to it. We ticked off Meeting Volumes from the company needs and ticked off Work Life balance from the team needs.

“Are we OK on Job Security?” I asked moving down the needs list. We were the team assured me. Each of the current three shifts was made up of five people. At the moment there were three vacancies being covered on temporary contracts, a fourth leaver was expected and a fifth team member wanted to move to another department. That department would shortly have a vacancy due to retirement. Creative! That was job security ticked off the list.

Only cost to go now. We came up with a win win on that: the new shift pattern was a thirty six hour week, the old thirty nine. To achieve our cost per tonne need the pay rate had to pro rate to the hours. To achieve the earnings security need the team had to earn for three more hours per week than the new pattern gave them. The compromise was that we would pay thirty nine hours and bank the extra three to be called off at a week’s notice anywhere on site. The win to the team was that annual income was maintained. The win to the company was that overtime to cover seasonal peaks would be covered at single time instead of time and a half. We’d ticked off all the needs!

The team were enthusiastic to move to the new pattern as soon as possible. A week later we were up and running. At the three month review the only amendment was to drop out the banked hours. The team preferred the certainty of fixed hours. If they needed some top up overtime the view was that they would volunteer for it in the normal way.

By openly and objectively sharing what we wanted to achieve we’d turned a problem into an opportunity and banked our Continuous Improvement gains.

THREE WAYS TO BE BETTER UNDERSTOOD

We all know that feeling of puzzlement, or worse (!) when we’ve explained an idea, checked for understanding and the team head off in different directions as if the briefing had never taken place. It’s certainly happened to me. Reflecting on those occasions I’ve identified three root causes and three key learnings. Each learning can be explored in a safe and fun way through a simple facilitated workshop.

I

The management team were in a large meeting room gathered around a set of instructions that their facilitator had just issued them. The Board were outside in the corridor. Inside the room a maze leading from the door of the room to the far corner was being constructed from available materials; tables, chairs, flip chart easels and hazard tape. The management team had a clear brief: set up the maze, blindfold the board and verbally guide the board safely through the maze. The Board waited outside in the corridor, literally in the dark. After 45 minutes the maze was ready and an authoritative spokes- person had been nominated to issue carefully crafted instructions. The Board were blindfolded and led into the room. The clear and concise instructions were read out. The Board members hung back, hesitated, looked confused and hung back at the entrance to the maze adjusting their blindfolds self-consciously. The spoke-person repeated the instructions with added emphasis and volume speaking slowly and clearly to urge the blind folded Board to form up in single file, each touching the shoulder of a colleague ahead and walk through the twisting maze.

Half an hour later the task was accomplished. “How did that feel?” asked our facilitator; “Management Team feed-back first.”

“They wouldn’t follow the instructions, it was really difficult, really slow. I’m not sure what went wrong I thought our instructions were really clear.” said the crestfallen spoke-person.

“We didn’t know what was going on, what we had to do. We were just left in a cold corridor, blind folded and marched in. I felt frightened and confused. I didn’t know what expect” said our MD with some passion.

We sat down and explored what the exercise had felt like for each participant. “What could we do differently next time?” asked our facilitator.

“We should have let the Board know before they came into the room what was going to happen, what to expect, what the aim was” came back the reply from the Board and the management team.

Key learning: Communicate any change and the purpose of it as early as possible to all stakeholders.

II

We sat back to back on the floor in groups of eight. In our hands we held wooden shapes. On our eyes we wore blindfolds. We were in cross functional groups. We all worked to make the same brand a success. We all had different professional skills: Accounting, Marketing, Engineering, Procurement, Sales, Product Development, Consumer Insight, Manufacturing and Human Resources. The mood in the room was light hearted. As a brand team we worked closely together and knew each other well. Banter and laughter flowed as we enjoyed our break from the day job and speculated inventively and at each other’s expense about why we had driven to a Yorkshire farmhouse to sit blindfolded on the floor.

“The first part of the exercise is for each group member to describe your piece to the rest of the team” called out our facilitator, straining to be heard over the rising volume of debate and humour.

Silence fell momentarily. “Well I’ve got a sort of pillar box with a cloud on top” ventured a voice within our group. …. Then “Mine has a straight bottom section with a slight rebate, there is a right angle corner, followed by a lobe with a radius whose diameter is half the length of the bottom section”…… There is a pause. “I’m really sorry but I can’t picture that”comes the voice that had described the pillar box and cloud. ….”I couldn’t really understand yours either I’m afraid” replied the voice which used the geometrical description. Our group falters momentarily, unsure of how to move on.

We’re saved by a clap of hands from our facilitator. “Anyone having difficulties?” It turns out that we’re all up against the same problem. Each group is clear about the task and keen to succeed at it. We suspect there will be prizes at the bar later! We routinely work together in exactly these mixed cross functional groups so this should be easy. But it isn’t. “What’s holding us back?” asks our facilitator.

“We’re talking different languages” volunteers the pillar box and cloud voice. I need to see an image to understand and then add detail later. …”Really?” queries the geometrist “I’m the other way round; I build up an understanding of the whole from its component parts.” There is silence in the room as we truly understand the implications of something that every one of us thought that we already understood; that we each have different communication styles.

Key learning: Communication style is about more than just dialling up or down data or concepts within a message to tune it to an audience. The message must literally be in the language that the audience speaks in order for the message to understood let alone acted on.

III

“Okay, I’m going to read a description out to you twice. The first time I read it I’d like you each to just listen. The second time I’d like you to draw what I’m describing on the pad in front of you.”

There is a shuffling of notepads, seeking of pencils from the jumble of water bottles, discarded hand outs and dishes of mints littering the table in front of us. It’s the closing exercise of a four day course. Among the dozen of us in the room thoughts are turning to home, our families and traffic on the journey back.

“It has a brown almost hairless body, an elongated face, tubular ears, a steeply arched muscular back, powerful hind legs, shorter front legs with claws for digging and a long snout with nostrils that can be closed for burrowing on its end.”

After the second reading we all hold our pictures up self-consciously and amid comments that explore the bounds of the corporate Diversity policy.

“Anyone know what I was describing?”…..none of us do……..”It’s an ardvaark.”

“I don’t know what an ardvaark even looks like” calls out one of the team.

“Actually it looks exactly as you’ve drawn it.” Around the room every picture is different. There are elephants, rabbits, one ardvaark, a gruffalo, two kangaroos, a mole and a couple of “unfinished masters.”

I understood two things from that exercise. The first was, I think the intended message; that we all heard the same words and yet we each interpreted those words very differently. The second was to me more important; that the only person who had accurately interpreted the message had been open to what he heard and “gone with it.” The rest of us had filtered what we heard to fit into what we knew and missed the point.

Key learning: Communication is about how we listen as much as it is about how we speak.

SHORT INTERVAL CONTROL - MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU

“Short Interval control that’s what all those disused wipe off boards you see around manufacturing plants are – right?” came the question.

My answer was “Well it can be. It depends how you set about it.”

Short Interval Control (SIC for short) is a way to enable front line teams to own and drive hour to hour performance; a very simple and powerful means. Sometimes though it doesn't seem to "stick." One key to making SIC effective is to recognise that SIC is a means to an end and not an end in itself. A second is to recognise that for it to be sustainable it must be embraced by the front line teams who will use it.

Here are the stories of three SIC rollouts that I’ve been a part of. I’ve titled them Good, Bad and Ugly…. There were learnings from each. I start with Ugly and move through Bad to Good. I hope that after reading on you can start off at Good….

UGLY

I was a Shift Supervisor running two lines. Our new Factory Manager had just been appointed. Whiteboards were being put up alongside the lines.

“What are they for?” asked my Team Leaders “They’re blocking the gangways. We can’t get the rework trolleys through any more.”

“I’m not sure what they’re for – I’ll ask the Production Manager at the shift meeting. Are you sure that we can’t get the trolleys through?” I replied

I asked about the boards at the shift meeting but my manager didn’t know either. He came and had a look with me at the problem with getting the trolleys through. He agreed that we’d have to get the boards taken back down. Later in the shifts the boards were stacked against the wall.

At the end of the week the boards went back up in new positions and the Production Managers were briefed on the data capture requirements. The briefing was cascaded to we Supervisors and on to our Team Leaders.

Completion was patchy. We’d got off on the wrong foot with the boards. To be honest we couldn’t see the point of them. We understood what had to be done. We understood the potential consequences of non-compliance. The main blocker for us was that we didn’t understand how the boards could help us to do our jobs or believe that they could.

BAD

Now it was my turn to be rolling out SIC boards. I’d visited plants where SIC was working and talked to front line employees aglow with pride and enthusiasm in their line’s performance. I’d taken the learnings out of my “Ugly” experience too. We’d make sure that we explained the purpose of the boards and how they would help the line teams achieve their objectives.

We ran workshops that showed how the measures on the boards linked to site objectives. We showed team members how to complete the boards. We took feedback about where to position the boards. We provided ready reckoners in response to concerns about some of the calculations. We provided mentor support at each line review to deal with any roll out bugs.

The fill out rate was patchy and fell off rapidly.

Why? My learning was that we were still treating the completion of the boards as an end. Not a means to an end. That end being to provide the line teams with a tool with which to drive line performance. We’d given the teams an understanding of the purpose of the boards. We were one step on from having people trained purely to complete the boards. The teams still did not have belief in, or ownership of, the SIC process though. The line teams did not see the boards as their own.

GOOD

The boards were not being willingly used. So I took them down.

I ran a Team Day (see Employee Engagement – A Success Story post). The front line teams identified their Objectives for the coming year. They were asked how they would measure success and how they would track progress. The Teams were committed to achieving their Safety, Quality, Service and Cost Objectives. After all they’d come up with them themselves. They were committed to tracking their progress as well.

The three production Zones each constructed SIC boards. The boards were the solution that the teams came up with to tracking progress. The boards captured similar information in each Zone because each Zone needed to track similar measures. The boards were each different though. They were owned and built by the teams and reflected the teams’ needs, space constraints and creativity. The most important factor was that these boards had been invented by the front line teams to help them to do their day job.

The boards are still in use four years on. We’d asked the teams a different question this time: “What are your goals and how will you track them.” Instead of: “Please will you fill out these white boards? – they’re really important.”

So…..back to the original question: “Short Interval Control that’s what all those disused wipe off boards you see around manufacturing plants are – right?”

My answer should have been: “It depends which question you ask your team. If you ask the team to fill out whiteboards SIC is likely to fall into disuse. If you ask the team to set their own goals and track them you will get a very different outcome; you will have sustainable SIC in place”

A RETURN ON INVESTMENT for EMOTIONAL ECONOMICS

Analogue or digital?

It was the Ice Breaker for the meeting. Fifteen or twenty of us had come together for the morning from across Dorset and Hampshire. Drinking coffee together in the room were owners of small thriving businesses, flying in the face of stories of recessionary gloom; an executive Head Hunter finding it harder than ever to track down the “right” people; a public sector HR team working to overcome communication barriers for the digital age under 35’s and the analogue over 40’s; a booming private corporate manufacturer seeking ways to up skill the front line team to keep up with the pace of expansion; the MD of a printing company talking of paradigm shift, of re-inventing his business and, wistfully, of skills obsolescence. Our Ice Breaker question was to identify the key business challenge facing each of us.

The answer to our Ice Breaker question wasn’t very enlightening. Change was the key challenge for each of our businesses. The Ice Breaker question hadn’t identified anything we didn’t already know. It had got us to recognise that we had a common challenge though and whetted our appetites to understand it and share insights. It was time to refresh our coffee cups, seek out the last of the chocolate digestives from under the camouflaging layer of ginger nuts and to sit down in groups to get behind the truism.

Most in the room had recognised the opportunities brought by changing business conditions: the thriving small businesses capitalising on niche demand, the expanding corporate growing its bottom line through raw efficiency and new technology, the public sector team working on the language and means of communication for the workplace. Strategies were in place or being quickly put into place. This was familiar territory. The Head Hunter and the Printer moved our discussion on in the direction of people and skills. Ambiguity was the new business norm said the Head Hunter, to nods from around the table, and that required a different type of Leader. “Hard won skills developed over years can become obsolete overnight” added the printer “at the front line and in management.”

The Head Hunter and the Printer had got us there. Our challenge as Leaders was to engage our businesses, the whole of our businesses, with delivering change. The strategy was just a vehicle for the journey. The journey would be long and arduous. We would need teams of drivers, navigators and mechanics to complete it. Those were our business teams. We would need fuel too. Motivation and emotional investment by our business teams would be the fuel. We had to provide that motivation; to show our teams that it would be a sound investment for them; to spell out the Emotional Economics for our teams and our businesses.

Aromas and ideas mingle

The conference room was alive with animated discussion now. The buffet arrived unheeded. It sat, building a head of steam under silver domed covers, spirit burners keeping the polished tureens on the simmer. Ideas, aromas, flavours and debate simmered and mingled across the room. It wasn’t so much Change that was the challenge. Our challenge was to create an environment where Change was driven by our teams instead of happening to our teams. An environment where our teams invested in the business and the business invested in them. We understood the strategic needs of our businesses. Had we fully understood that our businesses were made up of teams of people? Did we understand the needs of the people making up our businesses?

That was a tricky question to answer. It needed some thought. There was a momentary dip in the roar of discussion across the room. The spicy aroma of the onion bhajis and fragrant curries drifted over from the buffet and tempted us towards the long linen draped table on the back wall. The decibel level in the room rose again: a clatter of plates and the occasional shout of laughter overlying the hum of conversation as we discussed, reflected and ate together.

Out came an i-phone: “Lets Google Gallup and see if there’s been a poll on what needs business teams have.” Glowing on the tablecloth in front of us was what people told Gallup got them out of bed in the morning, informed their decision of whether they opted in or out of the team, of whether they contributed to the business of which they were a part, businesses like ours’:

I know what is expected of me at work

I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right

At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day

In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work

My supervisor, or someone at work, cares about me as a person

There is someone at work who encourages my development

At work, my opinions seem to count

The mission or purpose of my organisation makes me feel my job is important

My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing good quality work

I have a best friend at work

In the last six months someone at work has talked to me about my progress

This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow

That’s what teams have told Gallup that they are looking for from their Leaders. The strategy is in there hidden behind “know what is expected.” Ninety per cent of the teams’ needs are Emotional and personal and nothing to do, directly, with business strategy. Discussion breaks out immediately:

“It’s our role to link the team’s needs with the business strategy”……” surely the team should be part of creating the strategy of the Business? “……..” if they were that would fulfil their emotional needs and the business’ needs at the same time.”…..

….“What happens if the teams’ emotional needs aren’t met – let’s Google that.” The answer winks back knowingly from the all-seeing black rectangular screen. Comparing companies with upper quartile team engagement against those in the lowest quartile Gallup says:

Customer satisfaction is 12% higher.

Productivity is 18% higher.

Profitability is 16% higher.

Safety Incidents are 49% lower.

Quality defects are 60% lower.

Absence is 37% lower.

Why reach higher? - Emotional Economics

….“What’s the monetary value?” The Dale Carnegie website values the opportunity at $350 billion for the US economy. Emotional Economics is worth $350 billion a year in one economy. Now we’re clear on the key challenge for us as Leaders: Its Emotional Economics.

INCIDENT FREE OPERATION - A JOURNEY TO SAFETY

We'd just achieved a three year Safety record: Zero RIDDOR's. To celebrate the achievement we shut the site down on the following Friday and took a long weekend. The journey to that long weekend went like this:

There was a thump as the undercarriage of the small turbo prop plane bumped down on the runway. The pilot applied reverse thrust hard to hold us from becoming airborne again in the gusty cross wind. We were momentarily thrown forward in our seats. We’d all braced ourselves in readiness though and the stewardess had made sure our cabin bags were securely stowed. We’d been warned by the pilot about the landing procedure and to ready ourselves for the landing. We were safely on the ground at Aberdeen airport.

I was in Aberdeen to visit contacts in the offshore oil industry to learn more about Behavioural Safety and Incident Free Operation. I was doing well – our landing had given me my first demonstration of Behavioural Safety’s power. The landing of that small plane in those gusty conditions had all the classic Behavioural Safety elements. The pilot had explained the situation, the hazards, the action plan for a safe landing and our role in it. We passengers had taken responsibility for our actions and done up our belts, stowed our bags and braced ourselves as requested; or we’d done our best to. I’d needed a bit of feedback from my neighbour that my bag would impede an emergency exit and then some more from the stewardess about my braced position. That constructive challenge and willingness to look out for each other is another element of Behavioural Safety; so is being prepared to take the constructive challenge on board.

The taxi sped through wide tree lined streets of well kept, dignified, slightly austere grey stone buildings. Outside were Porsche’s, Range Rovers, Astons by the score; the trappings of wealth. It was like driving through Mayfair. I said as much to the taxi driver. “You wait” he said. I saw what he meant as the taxi dropped me off outside the address of my first appointment. A slender all glass building, rose out of the elegant plaza like a silver fountain. Aberdeen was enjoying the fruits of the oil wealth flowing in from the stormy North Sea.

Settled in an all glass office with a panoramic view of the city I sat drinking coffee with one of the contacts I’d come to visit. Alex and I talked naturally and freely about the Safety journeys of our companies and the challenges we faced. We hadn’t met before. We were just two people sharing common challenges and solutions we’d tried. Alex told his story with a heartfelt passion and a glint in his eye. His operation had just completed a year in the North Sea that would have been completely Incident Free were it not for a paper cut sustained refilling the office printer. The paper cut had happened right at the end of the year. Alex was frustrated about the accident but proud that the culture of reporting all accidents and near misses was so deeply embedded that it had been reported. He and the team would learn from the accident and achieve Incident Free next year.

Three light bulbs clicked on simultaneously in my head:

Light bulb One – Alex has achieved an Incident Free Operation even in an environment as inherently hazardous as offshore oil.

Light bulb Two – Alex made it happen with his heartfelt passion and the gleam in his eye. He led, he inspired others to believe, follow and (if it came to it) to comply

Light bulb Three – Alex is the key ingredient in this operation becoming Incident Free. He’s surrounded by an impressive building and an array of processes but it’s him that’s making it happen.

I visited another contact. The smell of money was still very much in the air of the wide corridors and softly lit rooms. These were successful businesses in a very profitable industry that historically had a chequered record on safety. Sam explained that the frontier culture of North Sea exploration attracted risk takers in the Board Rooms and on the rigs. Changing that culture from the top had been a key element in the journey towards Incident Free Operation. Change from the top was essential. Permission had to be given for any employee to stop an operation if it was unsafe. This was literal permission. The CEO stood in front of employees and explained that’s what he wanted them to do. Then he gave them a card repeating that they not only had permission to stop an unsafe act but that they were required to. On the front was the requirement to Act Safe. On the back of the card was his personal phone number. Employees were to call that number day or night if they were impeded by Line Managers or anyone else in Acting Safe.

I pictured the CEO as a man with a heartfelt passion and a gleam in his eye. The key to making it happen. All three light bulb elements were there again.

I came back from that trip inspired. Incident Free operation was possible. Like Continuous Improvement; Safety was about organisational culture. Leadership and clear permission to the team were one essential part of that culture. The second was, as on the aeroplane, making constructive peer to peer challenge the way the company worked.

My challenge was to turn the inspiration from my Aberdeen trip into action. I needed more believers. The highest risk area of the site was run by a team of 100. We’d start with them. Workshops were run to understand the team’s Safety concerns, their view of the priority that Safety was given by managers and what part the team itself played in ensuring a Safe Operation. The team were also taken through the psychology of risk and the effects of familiarity on risk perception. They role played giving and receiving constructive challenge. We screened a DVD about Meerkats watching out for each other. The combination struck a chord.

Action teams were set up to tackle the Safety concerns raised by the team. As a result a line remodel that had gone in the previous year was reversed. Smaller but no less significant line changes followed to improve Safety. The team could see that they really could make a difference to their own Safety.

Safety Champions were trained and, together with Managers, praised or constructively challenged behaviours. Our British reserve makes praise and constructive challenge the hardest skill to practice. But just as our training workshop showed us that familiarity with a hazard dulls our perception of its risk; so practice in praising and challenging reduces the embarrassment felt! “Good, Bad, Ugly” forms were introduced to help. A simple A4 page split into three to capture what’s seen as a work area is walked. They seem to help de- personalise the feedback

The final element in cementing Behavioural Safety as a team behaviour was the Team Day on which the site team constructed the site and zone vision and objectives. (See Employee Engagement - A Success Story Post).

That is the journey that took us from 19 RIDDORS in 2004 to three Zero RIDDOR free years from 2009. It’s a milestone on the way to Alex’s Incident Free operation in Aberdeen. The journey continues.