leadership

Founders: How to build shared responsibility and accountability in your team

brentlowe Building a Team, Communication, Culture, Entrepreneur, Leadership building a team, Communication, Culture, delegation, leadership, Self Management

Your anxiety is building as fast as your team is growing. Good leaders always know what each member of their team is working on.

Or do they?

At first your team was 3 people, then 7… then 12… 18… 26. Soon it will be in the 40s. Monthly payroll has ballooned. Work is getting done. Things are moving fast forward. But is it enough?

You wonder about the team’s ROI. You worry excellent performance is going unnoticed. Someone on the team must need extra support but you aren’t sure who.

Answering these questions was easy when lunch for the team was a one or two pizza affair. Now? Not so much.

If you’ve opted for a traditional management style, endless books and blogs exist to help answer these questions. Performance Management. Quarterly meetings. Stack-ranking. Development plans. But what if, instead, you’ve chosen the bolder, braver path of nurturing a system of shared responsibility and accountability… of leading together? Then what?

By choosing to lead together, we are also choosing…

…to build a culture based on transparency, trust and agency. Without these elements, we cannot lead together.

…to believe people are fundamentally good and aim to do great work. The alternative is to believe people generally put themselves first, prioritizing personal gain over what’s best for the team.

…to practice working through the messiness of complex problems and relationship dynamics as a way of enhancing our “being human” skills. In doing so, we replace the adult-child relationships of traditional hierarchies. Instead, we build a strong foundation of healthy adult-to-adult interactions.

By moving away from traditional management practices we are not choosing chaos. Nor are we choosing subpar individual contributions or poor team performance. Quite the opposite. When done well, your team will thrive.

One big question still remains. How exactly do we lead together without leveraging the old systems so familiar to us? And how do we silence the voice in our head telling us that–as a leader–we need to know more… be more on top of things?

Leading together is not a subtle change… it’s a paradigm shift. We’re doing more sensing and responding rather than predicting and controlling. Here are four common challenges you may face and what to try instead.

Common Leadership Response: Put in place time consuming performance management tools.

Consider instead: Building a culture of transparency and trust.

Transparency

“If you want people to make the same decisions that you would make, but in a more scalable way, you have to give them the same information you have.”

– Keith Rabois

When leading together, transparency is critical. Tools like Kanban boards, daily stand ups and asynchronous check-ins replace manager oversight. Build a culture of working out loud–making visible otherwise hidden work. Likewise acknowledge information shared by others to close the loop. Need more transparency? Experiment with boosting the flow of critical information throughout the business. Share your need for more transparency and invite ideas from others.

As a leader, increase how often you communicate (and re-communicate) your team’s purpose, values and objectives. You’ll need to do this much more often than you think. See Why Being mocked by my team should be a leadership priority.

Trust

“Trust, but verify,” is a saying made popular by Ronald Reagan during the Cold War. It was a fair statement given the context. As a standard leadership practice, its most often detrimental. It breaks rather than builds trust. When transparency gets done well, verification is a natural outcome.

The team at The TrustedAdvisor provides an equation as a measure of trust. When trust lacks, reflect on what’s out of balance. Credibility, reliability, intimacy or self-orientation?

Common Leadership Response: Consolidate decision making and direction giving with a small number of trusted leaders.

Consider instead: Taking a closer look at your team’s structure & processes.

Structure

To an outsider, a lead together organization can appear chaotic. Gone are the org charts of the past replaced by collections of roles. When we move away from management structures, chaos is a risk. Three alternatives to the traditional hierarchy exist. Parallel teams are small, independent, self-contained teams that resemble each other. Webs of individual contracting consist of specialized teams that agree to deliver on commitments to other teams. Nested teams are collections of sub-teams (usually called circles) each with a purpose aligned with–and supporting–the circle in which its nested.

Whatever structure your team chooses, everyone needs to understand how the structure works. Who is accountable for what? Who’s leading on the delivery of any given team, purpose, project or commitment? Who’s supporting? How will decisions get made? Is your team clear? If you’re not sure, ask.

Process

When things don’t go well, start by being hard on the process, not the people. Assume that, if another person or group was put in the same system using the same processes, results would be the same. What processes–or lack thereof–are leading to the current results? Does everyone understand the process? Complete a retrospective to uncover areas for improvement. Prototype something new.

Common Leadership Response: Push the concern off to another day or replace team members.

Consider instead: Building a development culture and providing individuals with agency.

Deliberate Development

Do you have an expectation that everyone on your team–yourself included–is in constant development mode? Do you see learning opportunities everywhere you turn? Deliberately Developmental Organizations (DDOs) focus on developing the capacities of all team members. They use the culture and operations of the business as a classroom. In these organizations developmental principles are ever present in the day-to-day. An example principle could be: “It’s okay to make a mistake here, but unacceptable not to identify, analyze and learn from it”; or “Everyone on our team always has a stated development goal that gets worked daily.”

Peer development triads offer a simple way of working on our own development. A group of three commit to supporting each other’s development. The process begins with a round of the question “What are you noticing in the system?” to de-personalize feedback loops and practice scanning the broader environment as a team. In a second round, each person shares one thing they’ve been working on improving. The individual then shares what they have been trying and asks the other participants for ideas or advice. Doing so illuminates opportunities not yet seen.

Agency

To enhance our skills of “being human” while building healthy adult-to-adult relationships, we each need agency. Agency is the opportunity to act for oneself. In the words of Simon Wakeman, managing director at UK-based digital agency Deeson, “If you try to be a very directive leader [and take agency away], you can break the system very quickly. But there are times when you have to be directive because you need to stop something from going off the cliff.” As leaders, we can fall into the trap of taking agency away with every pothole. When a team hits a pothole, it learns. When it drives off a cliff, it dies.

Common Leadership Response: Stepping in and taking over.

Consider instead: Modelling the identification of tensions and the taking of radical responsibility.

Tensions

In leading together we’re called upon to strengthen our ability to sense tensions. As leaders we are familiar with how traditional management structures work. When problems arise, it’s easy to slip into autopilot, moving into solution mode. We are much less skilled at acknowledging and naming the tension messages our bodies are sending us. Next time you find yourself concerned about the performance of a colleague or team, start by asking yourself, “What specifically is my tension?” Is it frustration? Anger? Worry? Sadness? Fear? Discomfort? Start with the tension, not with a solution.

Radical Responsibility

Leading together requires everyone to step into a mindset of radical responsibility. As a leader in your team, you likely do this with ease. When it comes to building a culture of radical responsibility, many of our colleagues suffer from learned helplessness–a real or perceived lack of control. Leaders can inadvertently keep their colleagues trapped in a self-perpetuating pattern of deflecting responsibility. Step one is helping those individuals state and document their responsibilities.

Calling out your colleagues when they have not met their responsibilities is hard. Doing so is at the heart of radical responsibility. When we’re part of a team that is building trust, we are much more reluctant to be perceived as tough by demanding our peers keep commitments. Developing a practice of accountability partnerships helps. In a team without a boss, encourage everyone to invite another team member to be an accountability partner… and to practice having the tough conversations when necessary.

Does this sound hard? Leading together requires intention and effort. Sure, traditional management approaches are easier. They’ve been around for eons. They’re sterile, clean cut and super-efficient, aren’t they? So why are 85% of employees in those systems are disengaged? Because traditional management systems are not catalysts for developing self-managing, flexible and divergent thinkers.

Building shared responsibility and accountability in your team can be messy, but ultimately beautiful – with measurable business benefits. Thinking differently and pushing boundaries got you this far, didn’t it? Why not take the next bold step with your team and lead together.

download a free chapter of lead together

I help Founder CEOs of companies between 5 and 40 people who are experiencing early-stage success and ready to scale – especially those wanting to build shared responsibility and accountability within their team.

Click here to get your free copy of the 5 principles and 6 leadership roles for scaling a sustainable, prosperous company.

Are we in the Midst of a Major Paradigm Shift?

brentlowe Building a Team, Communication, Culture, Entrepreneur, Leadership business coach, coaching, decision making, leadership, readiness

Over the last year, commuter traffic has dropped and trains travel empty while house prices in the suburbs rise. Might we be in the midst of a permanent shift in how and where work gets done?

For those of us in the business of helping improve workplaces, it’s been long known that 85% of employees rate themselves as disengaged at work. In response, companies try to be different…. progressive. Yet disengagement remains unchanged. Why? Disruptive technologies have transformed the products and services companies offer along with how they deliver them. In contrast, the workplace has remained relatively consistent. We continue to work within the same paradigm – the traditional hierarchy. In the words of Stephen Covey,

“If you want small changes in your life, work on your attitude. But if you want big and primary changes, work on your paradigm”

Often it feels comfortable doing our best within a system that has brought so much bounty to society. But what happens when our current systems begin to fail us? When what we’re taking from our planet far outstrips Earth’s ability to regenerate? When individuals revolt against oppression or a lack of opportunity? When pandemics upend our equilibrium and show us how our current ways of working no longer serve?

Almost overnight we are experiencing a paradigm shift to more organic, ecosystem-like ways of working. Concepts like radical responsibility, transparency and decentralized decision-making are no longer fringe but a necessity. This shift isn’t one of minor tweaks within the current system. We’re being called to embrace a new mindset – one of leading together.

Organizations, including 400-person Oakville-based recruiting firm Ian Martin Group, are making new choices. Dynamic human systems of shared responsibility and accountability replace top-down leadership models. The result? Stronger businesses, healthier talent pipelines and higher team engagement.

Many hear the calling for new-century leadership. they live the values underlying this boldly collaborative way of being within their personal lives. yet they find themselves enacting old patterns in their workplace. Along with my co-authors Susan (New Zealand) and Travis (San Francisco), I wrote Lead Together to support the shift to these new ways of working. We share stories from over 60 teams boldly, bravely and intentionally moving beyond the traditional.

Lead Together: The bold, brave intentional path to scaling your business

can be found at leadtogether.co, through any online book store or on Audible.

This article was originally published in the Neighbours of Olde Oakville magazine – July 2021

How to be a great coaching client

brentlowe Building a Team, Communication, Culture, Entrepreneur, Leadership business coach, coaching, decision making, leadership, readiness

Investing your hard earned dollars to engage with a coach could be a fantastic decision.

It could also be a waste of your time, money and valuable mind space.

Let’s assume you’ve selected a wise, seasoned coach. He or she is only half the equation. The other half is you. Are you prepared to be a good coaching client?

I can speak from experience having employed the services of various coaches over a span of 25 years. At times I’ve been a fantastic client. Other times I’ve failed in my client role.

For the last 15 years, I’ve been a coach to early-stage entrepreneurs, seasoned CEOs and accomplished business leaders. Sometimes my clients show up ready and willing to work. Other times they’ve made my job almost impossible.

Along the way I’ve found three characteristics lead to the most productive coaching experience.

A readiness to work

Imagine showing up at the gym for a session with your trainer. It’s 2pm in the afternoon on a clear, crisp winter day. You walk through the gym entrance, pass the front desk and head onto the rubber flooring that lines the workout space. Behind you is a trail of snow from your heavy winter boots. You announce to your trainer that you’re ready for your workout.

She looks at you quizzically and starts asking questions. Your answers reveal that you forgot your gym clothes, haven’t eaten all day and skipped the assigned stretching. How effective do you imagine this workout will be?

A good coaching session is to the mental/emotional self what a trip to the gym is for the physical self. Just as the gym session requires good prep— healthy eating, stretching, proper clothing—so does a coaching session. The best coaching clients arrive at sessions with an agenda or a clear desire to create one. A great coaching session starts off with the client saying something like:

“I’ve been experimenting with what we discussed last session”
“I need your help tackling a challenge I’m having”
“Did you receive the note I sent yesterday with thoughts on what I’d like to cover today?”
“I need the first 10 minutes of our call to get some things off my mind before we dig in”
“I’m not sure where we need to go with today’s call and am looking for you to help guide me”

In every case there is pre-thought and a clear intention to work. An experienced coach will jump in with you wherever you are at… and this is your time, your life, your intention. Come prepared and focused.

Truth telling

A friend comes to your house for a visit and, while you are making coffee in the kitchen, opens a closet to hang his coat. The closet is quite full so he reaches in to make some space. As he does so a hidden skeleton pressed against the back wall collapses into his arms. Your little coffee visit just became a bit more…. complicated.

We are social beings. Hiding our guilt and shame is how we strive to maintain a sense of safety in an otherwise anxiety provoking world. Having been a coaching client, I know how hard it can be to look at my own fears. Sharing those fears with someone else–even a trained professional–can feel overwhelming. As a coach, I’ve come to see how fears often vanish when given a safe space to step out from the shadows.

Seasoned coaches are both trained and prepared to help surface and work with hidden truths. Until those fears are allowed to surface, progress will be stifled. Get the most out of your coaching relationship by bravely sharing the fears that hold you back.

Decision making

You have $50k sitting in your bank account. That’s the full extent of your savings. A potentially lucrative high risk investment opportunity comes your way. The minimum to partake is $50k. If the investment works out, you’ll have $500k within 2 years. If it doesn’t, you’ll be broke. Unsure what to do, you call your coach.

A good coach will not make this decision or any other decision for you. Why? You (not the coach) need to live with the consequences—the good and the bad—of every decision you make. Coaches can ask helpful questions and share insights from their past experiences. Sometimes they’ll point you to helpful resources. They can assist you in creating decision criteria. If you need a sounding board, they can do that too. It’s helpful to talk through options. In the end you need to decide. If you desire to get the most out of your coaching relationship, prepare to make decisions. Decisions move us forward.

My parting reflection is that not every coaching session is a home run. Coaching is a journey. Often the best nuggets come in the last five minutes of a call. It’s not unusual for one session to feel like a dud only to have the next be life changing.

Bring your best to each session and expect your coach to do the same.

Solving the job title quandary for progressive teams

brentlowe Building a Team, Leadership, Management leadership, naming teams, teams, virtual retreat experience

Self-organizing, self-managing, leading together, flat organization… and highfalutin titles. We want it all. What’s a team to do?

It’s well documented that over 85% of employees rate themselves as disengaged at work. In response, companies try to be different… progressive. Yet disengagement barely shifts. Why? Because we try to keep our feet in two worlds.

Power hierarchies are at the root of the problem. Think of the best employee engagement initiative you’ve seen. Was it a game changer? I bet not. And I also bet the power hierarchy didn’t change either.

Replacing the pyramid of power with a model based on self-organizing is a game changer. Its success or failure depends on embracing the full concept, not just the easy parts.

Every organization on the journey to self-organizing comes up against the same questions.

“What do we call ourselves?”

“Joan was a VP at her last company and she wants that title here too. What do we do?”

“What do I put on my LinkedIn profile?”

Our brains work by association. When I say Vice-President, you think of a position high within a hierarchy. A VP is someone with power in an organization. Let’s look a few more associations we have to traditional titles.

Of all Fortune 200 companies in 1955, only one was led by someone holding the title of CEO. The term didn’t appear in the Oxford English Dictionary until 1972. How many companies do you know that don’t have a CEO today? But why the term Chief Executive Officer and is it appropriate in self-organizing businesses? The term chief traces back to the Latin word caput, which translates to head of a group. An executive is “someone in a high position, especially in business.” The most frequent use of the word officer references those holding positions of authority in the army or police department. Coming full circle, a president is “the chief officer of an organization usually entrusted with the direction and administration of its policies.” A director is “a person in charge of an organization or of a particular part of a company’s business.” And, lastly, a manager is the person responsible for managing an organization.

Do you see the pattern? Head of, high position, rank, authority, police, direction, in charge. These words are all close neighbours of power. Each word on its own is quite benign, but remember that our brains work by association. Building a different organization requires that we move away from language pulling us into the past.

So what can we do instead?

Use a universal name for everyone on your team

All 19 people on the team at French company Fly The Nest hold the title of co-founder. This might seem strange at first but isn’t a new constellation of people formed every time someone joins?

A similar approach replaces the word founder with leader. Everyone in a company leads something, even if that something is small. Rather than asking individuals accustomed to leadership titles to lose those titles, show how everyone is a leader.

Choose or invent new words

Many self-organizing companies use the term Lead Link or Cross Link for the leader of a team (often called a circle). These roles are different from traditional leadership positions. They focus on linking the purpose of the team to the purpose of the company. Sound a little weird? That’s the point. If we use the language we’ve always used, we’ll associate with paradigms of the past. The term Lead Link (since evolved to Cross Link) took root in an organizing system known as Holacracy.

Whatever names you choose, learn from the team at Buffer. They realized that women represented less than 2 percent of their developer candidates. As a result they took several steps to attract more women. For example, they removed words such as rock star, ninja and dominate from their role descriptions. These words tend to resonate more with men. Whatever titles you choose, ensure they don’t discriminate.

Rely on the team, circle or department name

Take a look at the team page for Celo.org, a team dedicated to building an inclusive financial system. None of the team members list role titles per se. Instead they focus on their team or area of contribution.

Traditionally we might say, “Joan Thompson, Vice-President, Marketing”. Instead consider, “Joan Thompson, Marketing”. This might lead you to think, “but how will people know how senior I am?” Within the company, leadership doesn’t come from titles but rather from building trust. Externally, make your company’s approach to titling a feature rather than a bug. Choose to boldly, bravely and intentionally be different. Rather than trying to fit into an old system, take pride in building something new.

Adopt API’s

Choosing to be a lead together team in a hierarchical world can be challenging. Sometimes we may choose to create APIs. APIs are the bits of software code that allow different applications to connect and communicate with each other. For example, you may choose to recruit for a VP, Marketing where, internally, VP stands for Value Producer. This way, everyone in your organization is a VP.

Whatever you decide, choose consciously. Think about the titles you create and the unconscious associations that may result. I’ll leave you with one last example. If you choose the title “Head of” what associations might follow? The head is where the thinking happens. It controls the hands and the feet. Is the person filling this role doing all the thinking? Is everyone else on the team meant to take all their direction from that person? Sounds like a quick path to disengagement.

Move Beyond Zoom Fatigue and Build Your Virtual Team’s Culture

brentlowe Communication, Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership leadership, virtual retreat experience

What do you think of these two bits of data?

Point #1: The Bank of Montreal is one of Canada’s oldest banks (est. 1817). It’s also Canada’s fourteenth largest employer. The company is now planning for a whopping 80% of its team to adopt new, flexible work arrangements. In response to COVID, the bank’s HR Chief has said, “We’ve been able to maintain continuity of banking services with far more people working outside the office than we ever thought possible. We thought it was critical that we were in the office to make something happen, and what we’ve proven through this is that’s actually not the case.”

Point #2: A recent survey asked business leaders, “What do you see as the biggest challenge with working from home?” The biggest challenge, by far, was the preservation of culture and team at 42% .

This IS our new reality. Work will never be the same again—ever—and that’s a good thing.

If the Bank of Montreal can embrace a future of flexible work, anything is possible for organizations a fraction of the size.

Our use of virtual meetings will define our team cultures from here on out. It’s a new skill for all of us. It’s time to learn! Here are five culture-supporting tips and ideas.

Check-ins

Always start virtual meetings of three or more people with a check-in question. Invest the time upfront to engage everyone, lighten the mood and deepen relationships. The check-in question can be as simple as “How are you feeling in this moment?” Experiment with different questions depending on the group and what you’d like to achieve. Is deepening personal connections important? Does the group need a bit of fun, energy or humour injected? Is focus the priority? If so, try something a bit more radical by asking everyone to join in a minute of silence or take three deep breaths. Here are a few questions to help get your started: What’s the best thing that’s happened to you so far today? What is your personal weather status (cloudy, foggy, sunny, etc.)? What would you most like to get out of this time together? If you were a superhero, what would your name be?

Maximize Breakout Rooms

If you are using software that doesn’t provide breakout room functionality, switch! Virtual breakout rooms are a must. Without them, your meetings will fill with broadcast style communication. Break groups apart for one-on-one or small group conversations then come back together. Combine an activity like 1-2-4-all with breakout rooms… magic!

Temperature Checks

When we’re in a room with others, we can read body language, watch eye contact, see hand gestures. Much of this gets lost on video. Use questions and visual responses to test the group’s resonance with ideas. Fist-to-five is my favourite. It starts when someone says, “Let’s see where we’re at by doing a fist-to-five.” On the count of three, much like in the game rock-paper-scissors, everyone in the group responds to a proposal or statement. In unison everyone holds up between 0 and 5 fingers. A closed fist = I don’t support or I’m not feeling good about this statement. I’m blocking. Five fingers = I love this proposal or I’m feeling awesome about this statement. Can’t see everyone on the screen? Use the chat function. At the count of three, everyone types in their number and hits enter.

Inject more personal

In an office environment, we learn about each other simply by being together. We walk to get coffee or overhear conversations. Getting that same level of personal connection requires more effort when remote. Try a simple round of show-and-tell to bridge the connection gap. Give everyone 3 minutes to run around their house and find an artifact from their past. They’re looking for something that’s important to them. Give each participant time to share the item, explaining its history and importance. Easy, fun, effective.

Go over-and-above

From time-to-time it’s worth investing more energy and money in creating a special on-line experience. It will be a while before we can meet together retreat-style. Even retreats are going online. My good friends at The Offsite Co. offer a virtual retreat experience. They have a package that you can customize that includes everything from lip-sync competitions to escape rooms. Sometimes we need to go BIG!

It’s time to become an expert in virtual and new ways of working. What else are you trying? Let’s all keep sharing and learning together. This IS the new normal.

Performance reviews are flawed. Harness the power of retrospectives instead.

brentlowe Building a Team, Communication, Culture, Entrepreneur, Leadership leadership, Teamwork

Has it already been a year since the last one?

You make your way to a small meeting room. You find your colleague nervously watching the clock, waiting for your arrival. They nod as you list their shortcomings. You pepper in praise in hopes you don’t come off as a total ass. It’s performance review time and you both know you just need to push through.

Performance reviews stink… and we all know it.

No matter how sensitive a leader you may be, providing feedback is uncomfortable. How many times have you found yourself delaying the process? Or rushing through it? Or just skipping it altogether? It’s a process deeply flawed.

Retrospectives provide an easy and more authentic way of giving and receiving feedback.

Imagine adopting a process where your team comes together to improve. While performance reviews tend to be one-way dialogues, retrospectives encourage a multi-way conversation.

“What did we each learn?”

“What was our experience?”

“What will we do differently next time?”

“How can we make things better?”

New ideas and helpful reflections surface when teams ask themselves questions. Retrospectives create a space that encourages the free flow of feedback amongst team members.

Routine retrospectives create a cadence of reflection.

Unlike annual performance reviews, retrospectives reoccur throughout the year. They can occur once a week or once a month or once a quarter or at the end of a project. How often your team meets is up to you. Making them routine strips away the emotion (and dread) inherent in most feedback processes. Software teams often host retros at the end of their two week sprints. It’s an opportunity to assess what they’ve learned and to plan for the next two weeks. In my own team, we have different cadences depending on what we’re working on together. Our meetings have a comfortable, casual feel. We chat about what’s working well and what we can do differently going forward.

The Four L Retrospective: Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed For.

Experiment by running your first retro. It’s easy. I recommend (and often use) the Four L Retrospective format. This approach works well in any size group creating a safe space for sharing feedback. Smaller groups can complete the process verbally. If you have a larger group, hand out post-it pads to capture and share ideas. Each post-it note holds a single new idea. To start, give participants a few minutes to come up with a list of responses to the following statements:

What I LIKED about X is…

What I LEARNED from X is…

Where I LACKED in my own performance during X is…

What I LONGED FOR during X is…

X is the period of time or project you are retrospecting on.

Next participants share their thoughts or post-it notes under each of the four “L” categories. Keep going until everyone has shared every idea they have. If any are the same or similar, group them together and create clumps of ideas around one topic. You will likely find big ideas and themes start to emerge. Then it’s time to ask the group two questions about everything they’ve heard.

“SO WHAT? What are your big take-aways from everything you’ve heard?”

“NOW WHAT? What do we want to do with this information? What actions do we plan to take?”

A tip: The statement “Where I LACKED in my own performance during X is…” refers to the person answering the question. Ideal responses will sound like, “I could have done [this thing] better.” It’s not an opportunity to point fingers at others and tell them what they lacked. Slipping up here can quickly shift the energy of the room into one of blame and defensiveness.

Everybody is equal in the process.

Retrospectives give a voice to everybody in the room and create a multi-sided conversation. In a retrospective, we’re both giving AND receiving insights. As a result we’re more likely to be empathetic, less judgmental and more open — to show up as our best selves.

The power of one hour together.

I recently worked with a client team of about 45 people to help them learn and adopt the 4L process. We created six groups of about seven people. Each group went through the four Ls together. Every person in the room had the opportunity to contribute and be heard. After an hour, each group shared highlights with the whole room. The CEO and Founder of the company was an equal participant along with everyone else. With this brief (one hour) exercise, the team got a good sense of what was working and where things could be better. The insights came from the people living and breathing the work every day.

What if a grenade gets dropped in the middle of the room?

Sometimes there are big ugly issues. They may be raw and they may make everyone in the room super uncomfortable when unearthed. It’s in these moments that a neutral, skilled facilitator is key — someone who can honour the emotion and ask the right questions to get to the core of the problem. A good facilitator will diffuse tensions, keep ideas flowing, and create a sense of “we’re OK” in the room. After a few practice runs, someone on your team will be ready to step into the facilitator role.

“Wow that was a lot better than I thought it was going to be!”

People often come to their first retrospective with fear. They are afraid of being blamed and shamed. They are afraid of speaking their mind. Once they have been through the process they’ll see it’s easier than anticipated. People want to — and can — show up as their best selves when given space and the voice to do so.

Give one a shot. My bet is that you’ll find many different uses for this simple tool. I’d love to hear from you. Let me know how it goes.

I blog to help Founder CEOs scale solutions to problems worth solving. My latest book, Reinventing Scale-Ups can be found here. Be the first to receive new articles by signing up for my newsletter here.

Move away from toxic hierarchy for good by Going Horizontal.

brentlowe Communication, Culture, Leadership, Self Management Future Of Work, leadership, Self Management

It all started as an experiment.

“Our goal was to experiment radically, to find new ways of being and working together.”

Samantha Slade — a force-of-nature with a background in cultural anthropology and education — co-founded Percolab, an international co-creation and co-design firm in 2007. “We were a group of social scientists and business people. The idea was to create a lab, explore future ways of working, and put a theoretical framework around it.” And so they did. Percolab has expanded internationally and kick-started a movement to change the way businesses organize.

Slade’s book Going Horizontal — Creating a Non-Hierarchical Organization, One Practice at a Time (BK Publishers) boldly makes the case that “hierarchy in organizations is obsolete” and presents 7 concrete practices to help organizations flatten their structures. She tours the world, providing practical training sessions to help businesses large and small, emerging or established, industrial or high-tech to reimagine how they work together.

“We need to unlearn behaviours to reconnect with healthy habits.”

If we think about our personal relationships, they are equal, adult-to-adult partnerships. We don’t let friends tell us what to do and if they try, the friendship becomes strained. “In our personal lives we know how to show up in egalitarian ways,” says Slade. “For some reason in the work realm we pick up hierarchical structures left over from the industrial era.” This vertical culture puts the boss at the top, responsible for solving problems and making decisions (like a parent) and the employee accepting these decisions unquestioningly (like a child). It becomes difficult for team members to work to their full potential, who instead find themselves feeling trapped.

“Let’s create more collaborative, conscious humans who can show up fully.”

If you want your team to show up inspired and enlivened, ask yourself ‘how am I showing up in my personal leadership?’ Examine your own vertical habits. Slade says there are non-hierarchical practices you can start integrating into your personal or professional life today. “You can develop your skills quietly until you find ease and nuance. You don’t need to tell anyone or ask anyone’s permission.” For example, there is nothing to stop you from asking your team to give you feedback. “What do you appreciate about how I did that? How could I amplify that?” Start rewiring the way you interact with your team.

“Deep transformations come from small practices.”

Micro practices are integral to Slade’s work with clients because they are simple to learn and can be applied by anyone in an organization. “They are inclusive to anybody and everybody who may be feeling that the way things are isn’t working.”

Checking In

How do you show up for meetings? Once everyone is seated, do you jump right into the agenda? Next time, try checking in with each person at the table and asking how they feel about the task at hand. Invite everyone to share their feelings about the project and witness each other, without discussion. “This surfaces the team’s emotions and brings rich information into the group,” says Slade. “The meeting will be more on task, more relevant and more in flow.” The meeting room becomes a safe space to share and disengaged members are invited to join.

Collective time

Slade contrasts team meetings with the discussion you might have with a group of friends while planning a holiday. Everyone shares ideas, offers to take on tasks. There is energy and excitement. How do you invite that energy into your next team meeting? “Try inviting anyone at the table to put a point on the agenda,” says Slade. “This micro practice sets a completely different tone from the moment the meeting begins.” Invite each person to assign one of four categories to their agenda item: 1. Information — you listen to me, 2. Feedback — I listen to you, 3. Co-create — we all do something together, 4. Propose — we all make a decision together. Each team member self-attributes a set amount of time to get through their item and becomes accountable for running it through. “This small switch changes everything,” says Slade. “The meeting becomes collective time where everyone is empowered to contribute. I find people start showing up kindly and caring for one another, even sharing some of their time with someone else’s agenda item if something pertinent is going on. It really creates a feeling of mutual support and solidarity among the group.”

“But we’ve never done that before…”

About now you are probably picturing the nay-sayer at the table. We can all picture someone from our work environment who resists change and who is comfortable with the status quo. Slade recommends first trying out these micro practices in “safe spaces at work where there is trust and wiggle room.” Maybe it is with a smaller team, or with a group where trust already exists. “Once you have lived it and felt the value, you won’t show up the same way when you face that nay-sayer,” says Slade. “You will totally own it and will be totally confident in the impact the change can have.” As your skills are rewired you can take them into more high-powered situations.

Adding a barista won’t fix it.

Internationally, up to 85% of people don’t show up engaged with their work. There is a groundswell of freelance workers who don’t want to work in the traditional setting. College graduates won’t commit to traditional organizations. This is a systemic issue that is not going away. “The current way we set up and run our organizations will not carry us through,” says Slade. “As humans our default is to operate as a community, it is in our nature. We want to be respected as equals and that is difficult when one person acts as the boss of the community.” To make matters worse, there are not many models out there. As one of Slade’s emerging and rapidly growing clients expressed: “If we don’t go intentionally and with care we will end up with a hierarchical modality by default.”

More collaboration

Applying these simple micro systems yields meaningful, transformational change. Clients come to Slade because they want to plan strategies differently. What they often discover is that much of their team is not working to its full potential. When they are invited to collaborate, a new energy is unleashed into the organization. “They learn to work collaboratively and efficiently in an enlivening way that can carry them forward. It doesn’t feel like a compromise, there is courage and strength in the work and it is no longer getting diluted,” says Slade.

Practice in a safe space.

Samantha Slade and her colleagues regularly guide highly practical, immersive training sessions on these micro systems. In these sessions, participants have the opportunity to practice and hone their skills. “The specific practices will be decided by the participants,” says Slade. “Individuals will even say who they would like to have facilitate each practice by inviting others or stepping up themselves. So much power will be given over to the participants.” You will leave with a shared vocabulary of the 7 domains of practice: Purpose, Meetings, Decision Making, Transparency, Autonomy, Learning & Development, Conflict and Relationship. The training is a safe space where all will be comfortable trying out new things without judgment. “They will leave having shared a collective experience and feeling the shift that this makes.”Find an upcoming session here. This blog has been written by my good friend Sue Wakefield. Thanks Sue!

Host the most collaborative meetings of your career.

brentlowe Building a Team, Communication, Leadership Culture, Facilitation, leadership

“What if suffering could be eliminated at work just by treating each other like adults?”

After spending almost 25 years in Senior Leadership positions with giants like IBM, Vodafone and British Petroleum, Susan Basterfield walked away from it all. Again and again, she saw good ideas stifled while the “privileged few told everyone what to do.” Humans could make independent decisions in the outside world. Why then, she wondered, were they forced to lose agency and autonomy when they walked through the office door? She had built her career under a cloud of assumptions about hierarchy that suddenly didn’t make sense. “I started to see workplaces as factories where the goal was to extract as much as possible from employees for the benefit of the shareholders.”

“A hypothesis was forming: What if suffering could be eliminated at work just by treating each other like adults?”

So began the second season of Susan’s career. She joined Enspiral, a collective that supports and “sprouts companies that want to organize differently.” (www.enspiral.com) She also co-founded Greaterthan with the mission to “make self-management and participatory governance in organizations a new normal by spreading culture, knowledge and practices.” (www.greaterthan.works)

Susan now spends her days taking open-minded leaders and their employees on a journey of discovery to establish a new way of working. Liberating Structures, a collection of 33 microstructures created by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless are integral when collaborating with clients to flatten the traditional hierarchy and are a great first step to changing the way your team works together. (www.liberatingstructures.com)

“Liberating Structures create an even-participation scaffold.”

These powerful tools will help you structure your next meeting to foster participation and engagement with the task at hand. Having trouble breaking through with a team member? There are structures to help reimagine the relationship and take it to the next level. These processes have been honed to create a space where participation is encouraged and creativity is valued. “Liberating Structures do not assume that any one way of being and working in groups is better than any other,” says Susan. “They create a framework where employees can work to solve problems together.” What does this look like when you step into a meeting environment?

1–2–4-All!

This is just one of the many Liberating Structures and a go-to when Susan wants to create a safe, creative space for a group. It allows the group to come to a decision about an agenda or priority list. The name is catchy and the process is simple

All sit quietly and reflect on what they think the priority should be for one minute.

The room splits into pairs and spend two minutes discussing in a personal way and listening actively to the other person’s list. Ideas are shared and everyone is given an equal chance to speak.

Two pairs merge to make groups of four and share again, starting to look for patterns and similarities.

All:

The groups of four are each given equal opportunity to share with the entire room and then the priorities are set based on what surfaces.

And just like that, everyone in the room has been afforded a space to freely express their ideas and to be heard.

“Liberating Structures are super practical.”

Could you apply 1–2–4-All to your next meeting? How would it change the mood in the room? And if everyone left the meeting feeling important and validated, how would it change the way they spend the rest of their day? “Its hard for people to believe that good ideas are not attached to tenure or position,” Susan says.

1–2–4-All is just one of 33 different tools you can add to your leadership or facilitation toolkit. Liberating Structures provide a blueprint for leaders to invite everyone’s ideas equally and work collaboratively with their entire team, regardless of title or seniority.

“The workplace becomes a place you can grow intentionally as a human. Where you can do meaningful and significant work.”

When employees feel their opinion really matters, they become engaged and walk through their office doors with a sense of fun, adventure and creativity. Yes, you really can be happy at work. Imagine the untapped creative potential of your team, just waiting to be set free!

Learn how

Join Susan, Brent and Astrid Pruitt for Liberating Structures Immersive Training October 21–22, 2019 in Toronto.

In this fast-paced 2-day workshop you will be introduced to many of the Liberating Structures in an active “see one, do one, teach one, do another one” method of learning. You will leave the workshop with an arsenal of new tools and a multitude of ideas on how to apply to your work the very next day. “I guarantee leaders will be able to use two or three instantly in their next meeting or idea generation,” Susan promises. With just two days of immersive training you can change the course of how your company relates and set the foundation for a braver, more open way of working together. One where employees feel empowered to take responsibility for their own development and the success of your organization. “We can create work places where everybody is invited and welcome to participate equally.”

Register before September 25th and take advantage of special early bird pricing.

To find out more about the event or to register, visit: https://tiny.cc/hnt8az. To inquire about bringing your team and benefitting from group prices, contact [email protected] or [email protected].

Written by: Susan Wakefield

Ready to scale your business and tackle problems worth solving? Here’s how.

brentlowe Climate Change, Leadership leadership

The personal journey to bona fide leadership — and becoming a powerful force for good — scares and excites everyone called to it.

The thrilling pursuit of solving the world’s most pressing issues is a group effort. For those willing to lead, drawing others to a shared intention has its challenges. Frustration mounts when, despite best efforts, others don’t follow. Self-doubt becomes an unwelcome companion.

Do you aspire to be a leader who confidently taps your full potential? One who builds a strong team and makes a meaningful difference?

If so, the world needs you… and it needs you now.

I work with those ready to step up and step in with grit and drive. Those wanting to make a bigger impact and willing to do the essential work of inward transformation.

I believe we are all stewards of a complex and fragile ecosystem — one pushed to its limits.

“The latest IPCC report indicates that, in the next decade, in order to avoid climate catastrophe, human civilization must undergo a radical transformation of unprecedented scale.” (1)

And I’m optimistic. I see a path back from the brink through redesigning how we live and work together. Bringing this redesign to fruition takes real leadership. Not the kind indicated by titles found on business cards or in email footers but rather one coming from deep within.

“How to facilitate this transformation in social systems, rapidly and at an unprecedented scale, is the number one leadership challenge of our time.” (1)

There is a growing subset of leaders who are championing transformation. Through their leadership, businesses of all sizes are evolving and succeeding. Thinking is shifting. Ego-driven decisions benefitting a few become eco-system collaborations that consider the whole.

My work focuses on convening and supporting this growing subset leading the shift from ego to eco. As a coach, convener and communication facilitator, I support leaders and teams in three areas:

Understanding what powerful possibilities are emerging for the future of work;
Turning these possibilities into reality by navigating the emotional landscape of transformational change; and
Bringing new practices to life that invite and enable others to participate.

Through this work, rigid hierarchies and positional power plays retreat. In their place, collaborative, self-organizing teams emerge. These teams are more equipped to address the social and environmental challenges we face.

Together we scale businesses that are tackling problems worth solving. We increase the impact of important projects. Along the way we operate with a shared belief: the role of leaders goes far beyond delivering financial returns. Ecosystem stewardship is a core responsibility.

To scale = Grow in size and impact

Work is an expression of our individual values and an opportunity for meaningful contribution. Profit-making is ingrained in many of the businesses I support and is a reflection of value delivered. It can be an important measure, and it is not everything.

To me, money is valuable only when spent to:

improve our collective life experiences,
grow our knowledge, and most importantly,
sustain the world we’re called upon to steward.

Now is the time for leaders to lead. Now is the time to tackle the world’s biggest challenges. If you are ready, I’m here to help as your trusted performance coach. I’m here to help you bring your leadership vision to fruition. I’m here to support you in scaling your company so it has an outsized positive impact on the future.

Ready to be your best leadership self? Ready to build a strong team and make a meaningful difference? Send me an email, or better yet, call so we can schedule a time to share ideas and explore possibilities. It’s time to speed up your leadership journey so you can be a powerful force for good.

Let’s do this!!

Brent

The Scale Coach for Founder CEOs

Otto Sharmer, MIT Sloan School of Management Senior Lecturer and founder of the Presencing Institute.

Mastering the shift from hierarchy to eco system

brentlowe Culture, Leadership Culture, leadership, Teal

The promises of new ecosystem ways of working sound so good.

Radical responsibility.

Full transparency.

Decentralized decision making.

But how does an organization get there from here?

Here usually feels like: Policies. Bosses. Performance Reviews. Reporting Structures. Human RESOURCES. Middle Management. Incentive Plans.

Not so inspiring!

Along with my co-authors, I wrote Reinventing Scale-Ups as a way of sharing experiments in new ways of working. Since its release we’ve been helping more and more companies make the shift. Along the way, we’ve continued learning and have a few new things that can help you on your journey. Here are my top 5.

Listen to the Naysayers

Naysayers are a pain in the ass. They point out all the things that could go wrong. They push back. They resist.

And we need to listen. There’s gold in those opinions!

Until naysayers feel heard, understood and valued, their heels remain firmly planted. They keep retreating to the safety of what they know.

Take time to listen. Engage with the intention of hearing and understanding their concerns. Don’t try to change their mind. You can’t.

Over time, new possibilities for moving forward will emerge.

Focus on building new practices

The shift to ecosystem-based or agile or Teal or [insert your preferred name here] takes root once team members start working differently. They talk differently. Act differently. Meet differently. Decide differently.

Doing differently is anchored in new habits… or practices. Here’s the five part scaffolding I use with my clients.

1) Philosophies and intentions. What rooting philosophies & intentions will shape your new ways of working?

2) Principles and practices. Every company needs to develop its own set of principles and practices through experimentation. What are yours? (We explore many examples in Reinventing Scale-Ups.)

3) Rituals and routines. Once defined, how are the new practices kept alive and baked into the DNA of how your company runs? This usually requires some sort of cadence.

4) New colleagues. How will each new team member learn the elements core to your company’s DNA?

5) Reflect, review and refresh. What works now might not work 6–12 months in the future. Where is space created to review and refresh intentions, principles, practices, rituals and routines?

Learn how to give, and more importantly, receive feedback

Free-flowing feedback is a core, essential element of healthy ecosystems. Hierarchies, on the other hand, rely on the intermittent and funnelled flow of information. Since most of us grew up in the latter stilted system of feedback, we’re not great givers or receivers.

Invest the time to anchor your team to a shared approach to feedback. There’s no need to re-invent the wheel here. My preferred model is Radical Candor by Kim Scott. Crucial Conversations is another great option. Find one that works for you and invest the time in boosting everyone’s skill level.

Language matters

Language is imperfect but it’s what we’ve got. Shifting to new ways of working while using words associated with old ways of working… well… doesn’t work! We stay stuck in the past.

If you are working differently, describe it differently. If your old team meetings were top-down affairs, reshape and rename them to reflect a new participatory approach. One of my clients uses “Team Connect” to reflect the vibe of equal participation in their meetings.

Respect the journey of change

On the path from hierarchy to ecosystem, individuals cycle through three phases of change. For some, it’s a linear path. Others jump around.

Stage 1: The Intellectual Journey of Change

Do I get “it” (this new way of working) intellectually?

Can I define it with clarity?

Is my definition aligned with others’ definitions?

Can I intellectually agree with “it” and believe “it” makes sense?

Stage 2: The Emotional Journey of Change

How is this change personal to me?

Has “it” landed emotionally?

Am I ready to question long-held beliefs and personal views?

Can I let go of emotional attachments I have to the past?

Stage 3: The Practical Journey of Change

How do I need to alter my day-to-day patterns and habits?

In what practical ways do I need to change how I act and react?

Are you shifting from hierarchy to ecosystem? I’d love to hear your experiences.

I blog to help Founder CEOs on their journey from kitchen table to 200 employees. My latest book, Reinventing Scale-Ups can be found here. Be the first to receive new articles by signing up for my newsletter here.