by Siobhán Bradley | May 31, 2021 | Opentalk Blogs
Have you ever had that situation where you’re chatting away with someone and something you say sparks a thought for them and they in turn spark a better thought in you and then you’re both laughing and saying it together ‘yeah that’s a great idea’?
And so it can be in organisations too!
When you collaborate and I mean truly collaborate, you create a platform for innovation. The act of collaborating can be innovative and the outcomes of the collaborative process can also be innovative.
Many challenges organisations face can’t be resolved by one individual or group alone but require the collective effort of a range of people, with various ‘sights’ on a problem. Persistent challenges often need radical thinking and courage to try new approaches. And where you have new ideas, you have the potential for innovation.
For radical change, real ground-breaking changes to occur, Matthew Syed in Rebel Ideas highlights the need for ‘cross pollination’ of ideas – thinking across disciplines or borders, which hitherto were divided in their thinking or ways of working.
Syed highlights an ‘unmistakable drive towards recombination as a means for innovation’, citing examples of previously unrelated disciplines combining together to produce something new, e.g., behavioural economics. The processes of ‘combining’ and the outcomes that result, open up whole new areas and possibilities.
By sharing and exchanging multiple views of a problem, collaborators can begin to challenge thinking and assumptions, seeing issues from a wider perspective. The open dialogue and process of exchanging is how we build connections with others, breaking down silos and establishing trust- the necessary foundation for psychological safety, a starting point for combining ideas into new possibilities.
When we feel safe, we are more comfortable to be ourselves, to let the creativity flow and to openly share our ideas, with less censor. This positive environment gives a sense of opportunity and possibility and we ‘see’ things that we hadn’t seen before.
While it is important to have new ideas and be creative, we need to move the thinking forward into action to develop something that can add value. And as we know from disciplines like strategy, change and project management, implementation is a critical phase in the success of initiatives. Implementation, is a ‘team sport’ and needs the commitment, energy and focus of all, to move actions forward.
As people, our strong need for social connection can over-ride all other needs when we are in groups and we can be individually perceptive but collectively blind! (Syed). This means we withhold our thoughts and are slow to go against the ‘norm’ and challenge existing practices. We need ways to ensure that the thinking we do together and the processes we follow encourage constructive sharing and exchange and the group broadens thinking, rather than narrows thinking too soon.
A key responsibility for leadership and management is creating the environment where people and thus organisations, can thrive. This involves enabling and safeguarding collaboration and innovation processes to ensure that they reap the multiple potential benefits possible.
In the first of this three-part series on collaboration, I discussed the importance of laying the foundation and developing the right mindset for collaboration. It’s difficult to collaborate well without the right competencies, as was discussed in part two of this series. For the process of collaboration to really work and to be a ‘hotbed’ of innovation, there needs to be free exchange of perspectives and ideas across ‘boundaries’ and an airing of the ‘wild and wonderful’ or normally unheard perspectives. Once aired, the group needs a process to structure the thinking to move it forward into action, outcomes and improvements.
So as a leader or manager, what are some of the other things you can do to enable innovation through a collaborative process?
- Provide forums and avenues for people to think and work across boundaries, e.g., a cross-functional strategy development
- Agree all ideas need to be heard and explored to safeguard from dismissing them too soon
- Agree how to limit censure, to challenge assumptions and ‘tried and tested’ approaches
- Use tools like Appreciative Inquiry and Design Thinking to air wild and wonderful ideas, spark new thinking and to structure the progress from ideas into action
- Think beyond the dialogue stage to how to move ideas forward and take positive action
- Hand over facilitation of the process to others with the right skills
You need a spark to start lighting a fire but you need a lot of other elements, working together to build that spark into something that is roaring and heart-warming. As a leader, you can be the ‘bellows’ giving oxygen to sparks. You don’t always know where those sparks will go but trust the process and enjoy the warmth.
by Siobhán Bradley | May 31, 2021 | Opentalk Blogs
Taking a collaborative approach to how we work needs to become more of a norm, if organisations wish to retain a competitive advantage in a post pandemic marketplace or if we, as a society want to grapple better with many of the complex, unresolved social issues we face, e.g., housing or health. Many of these issues need broad or ‘whole of sector’ approaches to deliver more ground breaking, holistic and enduring solutions to deeply rooted problems (Head & Alford, 2015 and Bradley 2020).
Some solutions to addressing these complex problems have included ‘jumping in with two feet’ or alternatively, the equivalent of ‘putting a band-aid over a large gaping wound’ and then later wondering why the wound never healed or how it became worse! We need a new mindset and set of skills to really tackle and respond to the core of “tough” or “messy” issues.
Increased interest in approaches like design thinking, process automation or AI also indicate a movement toward new ways of thinking and working to deliver different solutions and outcomes. Many of these approaches involve a broader array of people in thinking, planning and implementing. They are underpinned by concepts such as collaboration, involving stakeholders and end users in a process to bring broad and sustainable change. This approach is critical to breaking the cycle of ‘quick fixes’ to generate real and tangible benefits (Grint 2008, Pless & Maak, 2011, Belet 2016).
Recently, I wrote about ‘collaboration being hard to do well, but worth the effort for the multiple benefits it brings to individuals, organisations and society’. To enable more collaboration, we need to develop or enhance individual and collective capabilities and provide avenues to put new knowledge and skills into practice. In developing capabilities, organisations often face a significant challenge in connecting learning to the practical realities of working. This contextual piece is vital in the development discussion, as indicated by the success of collaborative processes like Place Based Leadership (P-BLD) (Worrall, 2015).
For a number of years, I have worked with a particular sector in the public service, delivering an innovative change and collaborative leadership programme, specifically aimed at addressing some of the complex issues facing that sector, including collaboration and capability development. Senior representatives from all the sectoral organisations work collaboratively on cross-cutting, strategic issues. By working together towards a ‘common purpose’, participants together experience their different perceptions of their problems. Through joint disclosure and open dialogue, they share a ‘lived experience’ together. They can then overcome their differences of perspectives, to find new ways of thinking about the issues, which might otherwise have been thought of in fragmented, incomplete ways or avoided altogether.
The experience of this programme reflects wider practice and research in the area of collaboration. For a collaborative process to really work, we have to develop capabilities on a number of levels, including:
Individual Level
- An open and curious mindset to explore ‘unheard’ and different perspectives.
- Skills to cope with the sometimes, fluid process of collaboration.
- Courage to delve into the real and uncomfortable issues to find more sustainable solutions.
- Facilitation skills to give space to all to participate in discussions and solution planning.
Collective and Senior Levels
If collaboration is to become a way of thinking, working and delivering, it needs to become part of the organisational fabric and mindset, role modelled and supported by the most senior management. Therefore, senior managers should:
- Reflect on and improve their own collaborative practices and processes.
- Purposefully facilitate the connection of people across boundaries.
- Think broadly about opportunities for collaboration, even with unlikely partners.
- Support practice-led development initiatives.
- Include the requisite collaborative and facilitation competencies into goal setting, strategic planning and performance discussions.
Collaboration needs to be encouraged and empowered across all levels, complemented by a collective individual willingness to work more cohesively with others. A leadership and management approach which discusses, incentivises and role models collaborative thinking and behaviour encourages this. It all starts with developing the right mindset and skillset so that the commitment and energy can flow in the right direction.
As Matthew Syed (Rebel Ideas) points out, successful collaboration requires a particular attitude – a willingness to share one’s insights, perspectives, wisdom and questions with others. Syed’s research found that those with a more ‘Giving Attitude’, tended to be more successful. If we all had a more ‘Giving Attitude’, we could drive more successful collaborative practices too.
by Siobhán Bradley | May 31, 2021 | Opentalk Blogs
From working with hundreds of teams, individuals and a wide range of organisations, I can attest to the multiple benefits of collaboration. Collaboration can be an effective and sustainable process for ground-breaking problem solving and change through building relationships and cohesion across boundaries.
As organisations face complex challenges, be they entrenched social issues such as health, justice, education or how we evolve our workspaces and practices to a post-pandemic world, collaboration needs to become more of a ‘norm’ of how we work together. Understanding the foundations of healthy collaborative practice will help us benefit more from this way of working.
According to research by the UK’s Institute for Government (Miles & Trott, 2011) and Bradley (2020), the reasons many collaborations run aground boils down to Time, Turf and Trust. While I will expand on what is meant by Time, Turf and Trust, I want to add one other risk to collaboration, which comes in the not so hidden form of Hierarchy.
In practice, ‘collaborative processes’ are often little more than a series of meetings with poorly aligned agendas and goals. Many groups think that they are collaborating by ‘coming together’. But collaboration is more than sitting around a table and ‘discussing’ or ‘managing a meeting’.
Collaborative processes lend themselves well to situations where there are:
- Many stakeholders involved, with multiple perspectives on what the problem is and a range of ‘right’ or possible solutions.
- Unresolved, deeply embedded issues, which perhaps, previous attempts failed to address.
- Time and energy to invest in a more thorough process to fundamentally address issues.
Collaboration, as a process therefore, requires an investment of TIME. Ultimately this investment will lead to better relationships, ways of working together and better outcomes.
However, the process and outcomes of collaboration often suffer from TURF wars – each person minding their patch – and the very barriers collaboration is supposed to break down can become more entrenched, reinforcing or developing ‘factions’.
From my work with senior teams, I see that a source of this dysfunction is often rooted in the divisional structure of organisations. Although the leadership team comprises divisional heads, responsible for strategic decisions about the whole organisation, they are judged on the performance of their individual areas. They must ‘fight’ for limited resources for their area and over time the divisional walls can go higher. The coordination of these various needs, tends to be channelled through an individual ‘leader’, who in effect becomes an ‘arbiter of factions’.
How can you overcome this ‘turf’ tendency?
- Build a systemic view of issues – this helps you to see the interrelationships and dependencies with others across the organisation and that all are part of a bigger ‘system’.
- Align individual agendas to the overall organisational strategy and the purpose of collaboration.
Few organisations across any sector are immune to these issues. It is still rare in my experience, to see a cohesive and united leadership culture, where individuals ‘give up’ their agendas for the good of the whole organisation. Though there are of course examples of good practice- this practice is not pervasive enough yet. If senior managers are coming to the top table to ‘fight’ for limited resources and to defend and promote their ‘patch’, it’s hard to see where there is room for TRUST. As the behaviours of the top team shape the mindset and culture across the wider organisation, it is important for leadership to be practiced in building trust. (See my previous blogs discussing the importance of Trust and how to build trust).
Some key points around Trust, in relation to collaboration, include:
- Focus on Relationships – the key to success in most disciplines is an ability to build relationships and specifically in collaboration, with people with very divergent thinking and needs to yours.
- Agree the behaviours and values you want to uphold in the collaborative process, role model them and agree how to hold each other to account.
And finally, HIERARCHY is endemic in any system but once it is introduced into the collaborative process, the dynamic of conversations changes. Often the ‘most senior’ person leads the collaborative process. Due to ‘hierarchy’ they typically become the focal point and people either yah or nay their thoughts or even worse, wait for them to take the lead, before following suit. Which begs the question, why they are in a ‘collaborative’ process?
If you are facing this hierarchy challenge:
- Agree values and practices you will follow to maintain the peer relationship model.
- Allow those, no matter their level, with the appropriate facilitative skills to manage the people dynamics and movement of the process forward.
Collaboration might seem easy but if it were, we’d all be doing it well and enjoying productive processes all the time. Working in a truly collaborative way requires embracing a new way of thinking and working. These essential foundational points can help you engage with the process more easily. In summary:
- Pick the right issues
- Dedicate Time to the process
- Be aware of and avoid Turf wars, driving the organisational agenda forward
- Build the foundations for and/or strengthen Trust
- Avoid the trap of Hierarchy- identify the person with the requisite skills to facilitate
Collaboration requires commitment to a process – a commitment at the individual, collective and organisational levels, if collaboration is to become a more embedded approach and an effective one for problem solving and change. Echoing the conclusions of the UK’s Institute for Government report (Miles & Trott, 2011), ‘collaboration is hard, but it is worth it’.
by Siobhán Bradley | May 31, 2021 | Opentalk Blogs
New year resolutions can often trickle out just as the first days of spring appear. Yet, these early days of spring are invigorating and a great time to refocus on goals. I always feel that there is still much time to follow through on commitments but I am grateful for the necessary ‘jolt’ into action.
We all lose focus on our goals at some stage. Instead of trying to ‘eliminate’ this inevitability, a better use of our energy is to improve our chances of staying focused. Becoming aware of what distracts you and why, can be the beginning of breaking a cycle or pattern of behaviour, which isn’t helping you. A more effective or sustainable approach is to find a steadfast ‘mechanism’ that helps you to regain that focus.
That ‘steadfast mechanism’ is one simple word. Purpose.
It may be simple in size but it is significant in importance.
From over 20 years helping hundreds of people, teams and organisations get back on track with strategy, or a change plan, or work through a conflictual situation or to get better outcomes or find their resilience, quite typically, the point in the discussion, which ‘jolts’ people into action or to change unhelpful patterns of behaviour, is a question or a discussion on purpose.
Like any good coach I should now ask you what purpose means to you? It means different things to different people in different situations. Dictionary definitions range from, it is a ‘reason for something’, a ‘cause’ or it is a person’s ‘sense of resolve’. Purpose is often connected to themes like motivation, mission, values, authenticity, determination and drive. Purpose is an incredibly rich and powerful word. It covers a lot, succinctly. It is typically overlooked.
On some leadership/management development programmes I include a simple exercise to help people understand purpose and to voice what is important to them. Many of them find this exercise powerful and moving because they realise how much they’ve steered off course as they continuously get wrapped up in the day to day ‘busyness’ of relentless delivery and juggling multiple commitments- with no time to think and absorb what they are doing and why. The reflection is often, rewardingly, a significant jolt for people, as it sparks a more balanced, authentic and therefore more impactful sense of self, which strengthens them as individuals and as organisational leaders.
This practice experience highlights that ‘purpose’ plays a few interlinking but critical roles for people. Purpose is like a compass as it gives direction and can help you hold your course or get back on track if the way becomes foggy or unclear.
Purpose is also a motor as it is energising. Purpose strengthens conviction in self, in decisions and actions. (Re)connecting with what is important to you- your values, gives a ‘jolt’ forward. The energy needs to be channelled in the best direction for it to be effective and efficient. Motors are therefore like ‘rudders’- helping you to hold your course to reach your destination efficiently.
Purpose is also like an anchor: if the way becomes ‘rough’ or you wobble or have setbacks, it might be good to drop anchor for a while to hold steady. As an anchor, purpose helps you retain power and stay in control of sometimes fluid situations.
Purpose is therefore intricately linked to resilience. Greater conviction and confidence help you move forward with strength and resilience to challenges. Resilience is our ability to cope with varying demands of work and life and remain determined, focused, confident and in control under pressure (Jones et al, 2002). Therefore purpose/ resilience is a ‘driver’ or motor and it gives us the agility we need to flex to changes in organisations and in life. It ensures we remain ‘masters of our own fate’, ready to create or avail of opportunities.
Life is 10% what happens to us, 90% how we respond
Helping people to build awareness as to how they react to situations is a well-chosen path to finding better, alternative approaches, if required. Being aware and being ‘able’ to do something about it are however, two different things. A powerful, sustainable approach to help people respond better, is to help them tap into what makes them who they are – their values, motivators, dreams.
As a people manager remembering the importance of purpose could be a game changer when faced with, for example, low energy and motivation in teams; building commitment to change or with poor organisational communications. Remembering purpose helps you focus on the ‘bigger picture’; or identify your own goals in the absence of clarity around organisational goals.
Defining a common goal or purpose is therefore like a ‘compass’ when faced with strategic choices in organisations. Purpose acts like a ‘gelling’ agent, pulling a diverse range of people, needs or priorities together around a common goal. In my experience in strategy or change planning with top teams, the turning point in their own dialogue with each other is when they agree or remember their common organisational purpose. It is often the necessary ‘jolt’ to impasses or tricky situations.
Building or finding purpose is the motor or drive needed to move forward and is therefore an important element for life effectiveness. Exercises to enhance self-awareness and build emotional intelligence can help you to live and work closer to your true values, your purpose. Greater expression of this authenticity and less dissonance between what you say and do, between what you need and want, is the motor and rudder you need for resilience in life, it’s the compass and anchor to keep you focused, whether an individual or a collective in an organisation.
Resilience has long been a topic for discussion in the leadership domain but it has reached mass appeal in recent months as people find ways to cope with the uncertainty and change that a global pandemic has induced. As individuals and organisations alike look for ways to respond constructively to the current and future challenges, finding or reconnecting with purpose is likely the key to building sustainable responses to remain the ‘master of your own fate’. Now quoting Benjamin Disraeli- the secret of success is constancy to purpose.
by Siobhán Bradley | May 31, 2021 | Opentalk Blogs
On the cusp of 2021, what sort of vision does 2020 give you? Where are you at in terms of your goals and achievements for this year and your focus for the future? Reflecting on progress and self-practice is a critical element of leadership and personal development. But reflection is only helpful if you do something with it and translate the learning into action and better outcomes.
Be clear in your reflection as you will ‘go in the direction in which you inquire’. Your reflection could review what has or has not happened or been achieved in the past year and allow you to explore what helped or hindered progress, identifying how you would better approach something similar next year. Retrospectively reviewing an issue can feel negative and judgmental as you can end up focusing on what was ‘wrong’ or missing. So, to counterbalance that possibility, focus also on what you would like to achieve and build a picture of the ‘desired future’. Projecting forward feels more positive, energising and enabling.
A common complaint I hear working with leaders, managers and business people is that they feel ‘time poor’ – they are so busy they have ‘no time to think’! However, everything we do stems from the quality of our thinking- so we need to invest in it (Kline).
To take time to think, is to gain time to live.
But how do you look at your thinking, I hear you ask! Kline talks about the importance of organising your thoughts. To think effectively, she advises, you have to give yourself space, free from tension and rush – There is so much to do. There is so little time. We must go slowly. (Taoist saying).
Also, listen attentively to yourself and ask yourself questions to encourage fresh thinking, challenge limiting assumptions and build confidence in self. Questions such as: What am I trying to accomplish? For whom? What do I really want? What assumptions am I making? What additional resources can I avail of or alternative perspectives can I incorporate? could really help you ‘shift gears’ from going ‘full speed ahead’, to taking the time you need to reflect effectively and get perspective on issues.
Effective thinking, therefore, takes time but it saves time in the end and it helps you to channel your energy and focus in the direction that will best serve you. With more practice at thinking, similarly to anything else in life, you can make your thinking ever more effective and thus impactful. And if you want your thinking to translate into positive outcomes you have to make sure you identify relevant goals, be open & honest with yourself and be clear about your focus.
If something is relevant to you, you are more likely to take an active interest in it. Connect with a purpose and connect your goals to that purpose. The more relevant goals are to you and your needs, the more likely you’ll find sustainable motivation, energy and drive to face the inevitable challenges in achieving them.
Effective reflection also involves being open and honest with yourself. A critical element of openness and honesty is having a degree of ‘humility’ – accepting that you can and at times need to learn. If you approach learning with what Dweck called a ‘Growth Mindset’, then you accept life as a journey of continuous learning and growth. This realisation reduces the pressure on you to ‘get it right’ all the time, while still being open to improvement.
Being focused is about making resolutions and sticking to them. Making resolutions is quite easy. But how many resolutions do you sustain beyond the initial burst of energy and commitment? Building capability and resilience to follow through and get back on track if you lose focus is critical. Many people give up when they falter or they lose track of their focus because they are balancing multiple responsibilities and commitments. However, reconnecting with purpose gives focus. What is important to remember here is what Gallwey discusses- maintaining focus is not about never losing focus, but about shortening the periods of time in which you lose focus. If you learn the warning signs of falling focus you can intervene in a more- timely manner.
Focus is driven by desire. Having the courage to want what you want is an important starting point. In my experience, people often hold themselves back. They are afraid to want what they want or they are missing conviction in purpose and often confidence in self. This poor self-trust can lead to a paralysis of action. Gaining clarity of and then learning to accept one’s ‘desire’ can often be the propulsion forward. Gaining this awareness and building acceptance, confidence and capability in self to progress forward, requires an element of change- a change in you, which involves changing something you are doing or not doing to get a different outcome, or improving something you are already doing to enhance its impact. The process of getting to this level of change involves an internal shift in your mindset or thinking. This ‘transition’, according to Bridges is necessary to be able to focus on your goals.
Looking back to focus forward allows you to (re)-connect with purpose and give you direction and energy. Being clear on your focus guides your decision making, development and change. Giving yourself time to think, being honest and ensuring quality reflection is positive and enabling. Taking the time needed for this can help you create a picture of the future that inspires you. This well-constructed bridge to the future allows your hindsight to become 2021.
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