What if the post- pandemic organisation needs something very different from our leadership?

The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have. The last year has taught us this. We have faced challenges we could never have imagined and many of our beliefs about work have changed for ever. Our teams have faced into sudden and dramatic changes that disrupted the rhythms and patterns of their lives. We have found depths of resilience, creativity, empathy and kindness that we never knew were possible.

On the plus side, we have largely welcomed not having to commute for hours every day, dinner with the children and the productivity of uninterrupted desk time. On the other hand, the pluses come at a cost; screen-fatigue, work-home life boundaries challenged, tensions around space and Wi-Fi, lack of social interaction with colleagues.

Most of the organisations I work with are looking forward to a future with less office space, more remote-working, and extensive use of technology tools for communication and training. They are designing the future of work around what the last year has taught them; but is that going to be enough?

For pretty much all of the 90s I worked for the Motorola Corporation. Those ten years of varied, challenging and global change leadership experience were pretty much the bedrock that my last 15 years have been grounded in. Motorola was not perfect, but it was innovative and humanely people-centric. If the business had not contracted as it did, I would probably still be there.

During the ritual winter clearing-out of my office, I came across some Motorola paraphernalia. One thing in particular made me think; “Individual Dignity Entitlement” (IDE) was a very controversial, global Motorola process. I am told there was even a Dilbert cartoon about it!

The Institute of Directors are hosting events throughout Scotland in support of the Publication of  "The Game Changer" by Alistair Gray. 

The next will be held at Cairn Energy’s offices at Lothian Road in Edinburgh on Tuesday 26 November at 1800h. Attendance is by registering via the IoD website. Here is the link to the event.

The Performance Collective has partnered with Alexander Dennis for five years now. We now deliver their management and leadership development programmes, provide one-to-one leadership coaching and development workshops for their Executive team.

The following is an article published in the Alexander Dennis internal communications. It is reproduced with their permission.

Lessons from a Three Legged Stool

I made a three-legged stool. I have never made anything from wood before and had pretty low expectations of the results that I could achieve. However, my stool is sturdy, functional and, if I say so myself, rather beautiful. More importantly, I had the time of my life doing it. I had a complete sense of flow state and timelessness in the process. In one day I split out a log, made tenons and mortices, shaped a seat and sculpted the legs on a shaving horse.

Our partners James Bowen and Brian MacNeice have published  Powerhouse. This book uncovers the performance secrets of some of the world’s most impressive institutions. Documenting James' and Brian's first-hand study of 12 diverse global exemplars, Powerhouse provides a provocative insight into how top organizations consistently lead their fields.

Looking across these different, seemingly contrasting institutions, Powerhouse goes further - identifying common components of their models for winning, and providing a valuable, practical framework for any organization to achieve enduring high performance.

The book tells the stories of organisations such as The Grameen Bank, The Mayo Clinic, Tata Group and Medecin Sans Frontier. It's a great leadership read whether you sit down and read it cover to cover, or  dive in and out for inspiration.