One thing I know for sure, is that change cannot happen without action

How real are your initiatives? Is your organisation 'philosophising' or 'walking the talk'. Ticking boxes on the latest hot topics such as well being, diversity and innovation, to name but a few is no substitute for the 'real deal'.   

In fact raising the hopes of people in anticipation of a fundamental shift on a topic that is important to them and then not delivering can cause more harm than good.  So, don't do it - yes you heard correctly, one of the few challenges where I am saying 'not to do something'. Only promise change through initiatives if you are really serious about actually doing something different that will positively impact people.   

Test yourself. Choose an initiative, one that has had senior backing and a big 'noise' associated with it. Then go out there and see if you have really 'walked the talk'. Analyse whether the anticipated benefits have been achieved, conduct interviews, carry out surveys, observe behaviours - seek out the truth and be honest with yourselves about whether you have been philosophising or really creating change.  If not, why not? Take it on the chin and then really take action.

Understand the passions that your people have and give them some 'off grid' time to experience them.   

Whenever a new employee is taken on, organisations generally make it their business to understand the persons experience, skills and ambitions. Usually, in very small print right at the bottom of someone's CV are a couple of lines outlining their hobbies.   

We need to turn this on it's head. One of the most important things we need to understand about people is what make them passionate, what really makes their heart sing. So, make it one of the key things you get to know about them and also share your passions in return.   

But then take this a step further - find time for people to indulge their passions. Give them 'off grid' time - say 1 day per month as a trial. Allow them, encourage them to use that time to do something that 'makes their heart sing'. When they come back into work ask them whether it has helped their motivation, inspired new ideas, contributed to their happiness but most importantly, has it enabled them to experience being 'whole' in their professional life?  

Bring the organisation to life by bringing the people to life. 

This is a very specific challenge to any of the FTSE 350 companies who gave a negative reason as to why there are a lack of women on boards. Do a role swop with me - a working mum of three children for one day.

Just to set the scene, my day starts at 5.30am. I wake up and spend a few minutes 'just being', seeing what comes into me head, browsing the headlines and identifying my priorities. By 6.30am I have fed and watered the chickens, ducks and feral cat, emptied and re-loaded the washing machine, run the bath, made pack-ups and set the breakfast table. By 8am I have responded to all of my emails and social media comments, written a challenge of the day, story of the day and thought of the day. My to-do list will be done, children bathed, fed, dressed, listened to and ready for school.

Sadly Linkedin does not allow enough words in a post for me to outline the rest of my day which ends at about 10pm. But this should give you a flavour of what to expect.

This is a genuine challenge. The question is not whether I am capable of getting through your day but are you capable of getting through mine?

Inspired by all of the women out there juggling everything and still capable of so much more.

Walk in each others shoes. Once a month have a 'role swop' day. That means that each leader within the organisation gets randomly picked (good, old fashioned names out of a hat) to swop with a randomly picked person from a team. 

Then just for one day they each have to do the others job.  For the leaders, it will inform, develop and bring more empathy as they start to truly understand what needs to happen in the organisation to make it work at 'grass root' level. For team members it will do exactly the same but from a different perspective, allowing them to understand the competing priorities and difficult decisions leaders sometimes have to make.   

At the end of each 'role swop' day both the leader and team member have a meeting, facilitated by a third member - from another team for objectivity, to analyse and feedback to each other on what they saw as the key challenges, strengths and potential to improve.  

Give it a go, looking at things from a new perspective can be truly inspiring!

Let go of the budgets - yes you heard me, just let them go. 

Allow your teams to be responsible for their own budgets - how much do they think they will need? How much do they think they will generate or enable others to generate? Let the team manage their budgets and discuss progress with their leaders - in a positive and constructive way.   

If things go wrong, have a back up plan - an 'oops didn't see that coming' pot that teams can access with the help of their leaders. 

Set guidelines, there is only so much money available in total so when all of the budgets are in, analyse the over or underspend - yes you may find an underspend believe it or not and then go back and talk to the teams, as grown ups about how to resolve the deficit and manage priorities.  

And don't just ask teams to think about £'s, that is only one aspect of a budget. £'s are incurred by people and activities required to generate outcomes. 

So, encourage your teams to think about that too - how are the outcomes going to be achieved , can they afford if, if not what other options do they have? Empower them to manage their resources, be creative about how they use them and provide support not punishment if the plans go awry - that's life.

Allow people to choose their team. One of the reasons why so many people are unhappy at work is that they simply do not enjoy what they do. What if we allowed our teams to 'play' (within the realms of reality).

Try running a small experiment, take 3 teams each focused on different aspects of the business. Get each team to choose an anchor - the person who will not rotate to another team as part of this exercise. The anchor then presents the raison d'etre, working protocols and outcomes of their team to everyone involved. All of the other team members are then empowered to choose which team they would like to join for a trial period of 1/2 weeks. Now a level of common sense will be required, i.e if everyone only chooses one or two of the teams there may be some deeper issues you need to address first!

Can we make people happier and more engaged by giving them a chance to try something new, that they are naturally more drawn to? How will it affect the longer term quality and outcomes of the team? After an initial period of training and familiarisation, can the new level of energy and motivation outweigh the upheaval of creating the change in the first place?

I don't know the answers but we won't find out unless we try!

Are you really doing what you do to the best of your ability?

Challenge of the day for leaders and managers. You don't need to make or sell 'funky' products & services to be a great organisation to work for. What matters is that you do what you do, to the best of your ability and that of all of your people. 

Take the '8 point test', to see whether you are getting all of the potential out of all of your people including yourself.

1. how much of your time do you spend responding to complaints/issues as opposed to hearing about new ideas?

2. on average, how many applicants do you get for a job vacancy?

3. what is your attrition rate?

4. what is your sickness rates and do you understand what the main contributing factors are?

5. how much time do your people spend on doing their 'day' job as opposed to learning/development, team building and socialising/playing at work events?

6. Do you have any way of measuring/understanding how 'happy' your people are?

7. Describe your culture in 5 words and conduct a survey to see what % of your people agree or disagree with it.

8. Conduct another survey, ask your people to list their top 3 priorities in life - not at work but in life, thats really important. Analyse the results, work out how or if the organisation contributing to them?

Stop leading and start being. 

All of my role models, without exception, have inspired, empowered and developed me, not by explicitly leading but by being. 

Being with me, spending quality time with me - very often our meetings would purposely by away from the office so that the environment was 'classless' and I was free to talk about both professional and personal concerns and achievements. 

They would often look at my work with me, give constructive feedback but always made me see and understand my true value. 

They shared themselves with me - they were human too. We had a relationship, we had genuine respect for each other - they saw me, they heard me, they helped me to help myself and they let me into their world too.

So, leaders - open up, make relationships with people, empower them, mentor them, believe in them, trust them but most of all teach them to lead themselves.

For every person in an organisation - forget grade, seniority, experience or skills, just do this one small thing everyday, preferably to people you don't know that well or do not know at all . 

Ask someone you are stood next too, sat next too, walking next to or within talking distance - "how are you today? how is life going?" When they answer, look at them, give them your full attention. Do not interrupt or start talking about yourself, just let them have their moment. Just as you will have yours when someone else returns the favour.

That's it - nothing complex or big just small, subtle changes to show people that you have seen them, heard them and care enough to ask about them. 

Amazing the difference it will make to someone, somewhere.

Everyone has a story and behind that story lies the key to unlocking their true potential. 

At an organisational level we focus on the superficial stuff - experience, jobs, education, skills etc. We need to get behind this, to really unpick the threads that lead to the passion, motivation and ultimately, the way to unlock that potential. 

So, the challenge is to find a way to understand the person behind the CV. 

What is their background, what are their hobbies, their passions, the things that really motivate them, what is really of value to them? Find a way to see the 'whole' of the person not just the part they think or you think that you need to see.

Consider changing your on-boarding process - take it outside, for a day or more not just hours. Make it about so much more than the role and the immediate team. Widen it to include people from across the organisation including leaders. Multi-task, use on-boarding as a way to have frequent, cross-function events and time out. Think outside of the box. The best way to get to know people is to spend quality time with them, not just when they start with you but throughout their time with you.

It is only the only way to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts

Start being a leader by showing your vulnerabilities, failings and weaknesses as well as your strengths, experience and skills.

Mark Manson writes this about Charles Bukowski, an German-American writer and poet, womaniser, alcoholic and gambler “The genius in Bukowski’s work was not in overcoming unbelievable odds or developing himself into a shining literary example. It was the opposite. It was his simple ability to be completely, unflinchingly honest with himself – especially the worst parts of himself – and to share his feelings without hesitation or doubt”.

Read his book and then think about what being a leader really means. 

For me it's as much about showing your vulnerability and weaknesses as it is about your strengths and ability to make decisions.

True leadership is about inspiring me, igniting my passion and belief in a cause or goal, making me feel valued and but perhaps most of all, giving me the space and honesty to support you when you need me to.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Subtle-Art-Not-Givin…/…/ref=sr_1_1…

Mental health is the number 1 threat to an organisations productivity. 

Roughly half of the UK population are unhappy with their jobs. Management is seen as dis-connected and remote. Customer service is still a dream versus a reality. Organisations are judged on their ability to generate profit rather than meaningful value. 

Not sounding like a particularly attractive proposition, right?

The solutions are part of human nature, they don't need to be invented. Let’s start with 5 basics and work from there:
1. Create meaningful goals with all of your people not just the senior leaders. Measure the success of your goals in value created not purely profit.

2. Put culture at the top of the agenda, create a senior role to ensure your organisation has a 'heart' and operates as a 'live community' not a hierarchical machine.

3. Physically and emotionally move management to sit, work and play with the wider organisation so they can both see and feel how it really is.

4. Bring back passion and self-motivation by creating space in people's day to play and be involved with something they love, link the creative output to what you do.

5. Create working space that is a destination you choose to go to not a prison you have to be in.

Business with purpose - it's no longer about being the best in the world but being the best for the world.

"without a sense of purpose no company can achieve its full potential" Larry Fink, President of Blackrock

And so we now have Certified B Corporations. Certified B Corporations are verified by the non-profit B Lab who stand for a positive impact on society and the environment.

Effectively this means that people and the planet now sit equally at the table with profit - although I would argue that people and planet come first driving value then profit. But I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I'll take this equality as a massive step forward from where we are right now.

B lab compile a list of the top 1,000 companies who achieve the highest scores within their B impact assessment. They are referred to as Honorees. Click the link below to check them out - but before you do, ask yourself:

Is your organisation on this list?

Is your organisation aspiring to be on this list?

Is your organisation a certified B corporation?

Has your organisation heard of certified B corporations?

Does your organisation care about being a certified B corporation?

The fundamentals of capitalism are changing, don't get left behind.

https://bthechange.com/best-for-the-world-2018-all-honorees-f30a880f8ac0

Some new ‘rules of the road’ for a truly modern organisation:  

1. ‘Transactional transformation’ is simply repeating what has already been done which means you are probably in an ‘over fished’ sea. Stop doing it 

2. ‘Seemingly impossible’ transformation is the real deal and the only true chance you’ve got for real growth. Find the passion and guts to do it 

3. Transformation is evolution not revolution. It needs to happen as a matter of course, it’s just the new business as usual. If that’s all you offer there is no resistance to change as there is nothing to resist 

4. Attracting the right people is predominantly about a ‘can do’ mindset, ability to self manage, empathy to get the best from others and being able to truly ‘see’. Technical skills and experience are the support act 

5. Shareholder return is just one outcome for success. Doing something that is purposeful, adds real value to the way we live and allows people to experience work as a something they want to do are critical ingredients to attracting customers and employees 

6. Ego’s, power bases and political manoeuvres are out. Competency, trust, innovation and being a ‘whole’ person is in.

A blueprint for 'seemingly impossible' transformation  - a common and purposeful goal, a culture built on trust and 3 distinct but related groups of people: Visionaries, Translators and Inventors:  

a) Visionaries are unafraid of failure, truly 'get’ the customer and are not constrained by reality or only what has been done before 

b) Translators have a 'can do' mindset, are fantastic communicators that help people to understand abstract concepts and they instinctively know how to make the abstract a reality 

c) Inventors have great technical knowledge only surpassed by their thirst for more, they are driven by 'how' and live in an alternative universe.  

These groups cannot be managed or led, they are conducted like a finely tuned orchestra and mentored as emerging prodigies. Welcome to the organisation of the future. 

We always talk about 'organisational transformation'. Well, we believe that this is a misnomer. It is not the organisation that needs transforming but the people that bring the organisation to life. 

We can re-model, re-structure, re-engineer processes and come up with ingenious technological solutions but without the hearts and minds of people, true transformation is simply not possible. 

In a world where transformation is now the 'norm' and 'business as usual' the exception, it is absolutely vital that we harness the passion, belief, motivation, imagination and sheer determination of people. Without it, we can only deliver 'transactional' transformation based on what has already been tried and tested, with it we can deliver the 'seemingly impossible' transformation based on imagination and the sheer guts to give it a go.

I think this seems a more intuitive way to think about organisations - creating ripples that flow inwards and outwards, to steer direction, create purpose and harness the passion and creativity of people, to deliver a far richer set of outcomes than simply profit.  

Profit is only as good as the value it can create.  

Value only counts if it adds something positive to someone’s life, in some way.  

Neither profit, value or outcomes can become a legacy if they are not accessible to the people, who can benefit the most from them.  

Re-defining capitalism therefore becomes a way, whereby you do the best for others rather than simply being the best only for yourself.  

And it feels a hell of a lot better than climbing the corporate ladder alone, with armour and without purpose.   

We all have a chance to leave this world in a better place than when we entered it. 

That’s the opportunity of a lifetime, don’t squander it.   Who is prepared to be the bright spots to start to drive this change?