Leadership & Life
Leadership & Life
Barry Dore
2 December 2024
Sharing ‘The Ribbon Exercise’, a powerful guide to exploring and understanding potential.
Over the past 2 decades I have been privileged to work with so many people on a range of development programmes. If I come across these people at some later stage, they often refer back to one exercise I ran, that sticks firmly in their minds. They talk about the significant impact it had on them at the time.
I have regular requests to be reminded of how the exercise runs, as they are anxious to share the same thinking with their teams.
I thought this a good opportunity to set out the exercise as below. If you’ve not come across it before, and want more background, please let me know.
"The Ribbon Exercise
Purpose:
To encourage participants to think about their potential, and how short a time they have left to realise that potential
Materials: 2 metre length of ribbon, a pair of sharp scissors.
Set two questions to discuss in groups:
How much potential have you realised in your life to date?
What is one great achievement still inside you?
Take feedback on the second question only.
Comment positively on the feedback.
Ask what can possibly get in the way of realising those achievements.
Take feedback, focus on the biggest barriers being themselves
Hold up the ribbon and recruit a volunteer to hold each end
I would ask you to imagine that this ribbon represents your life. At one end is the day of your birth, at the other end the day you die. A nice long ribbon? We’ll see.
What’s the average age people live to in the UK?
What’s the average age in this room?
Cut the ribbon towards the midway point, depending on the make up of the group
Invite the birth volunteer to sit down, ask death to remain standing.
Hold up the cut off ribbon
What’s that? (Our life to date)
Can you do anything with it? (Learn from it, use it as a guide to shape the future)
But at (time and date) would you agree it’s the past?
Place the past carefully to one side.
Take end of ribbon
Still a long ribbon?
To stay healthy you’r going tno spend a third of it asleep (cut off one third of ribbon)
Do you ever get overwhelmed with too maqny emails, most of which are simply not important (cut ribbon)
How about pointless meetings? (cut ribbon)
Traffic jams? (cut ribbon)
And that unproductive time in the bathroom you don’t want to talk about (cut ribbon)
Point to death end of ribbon, what does this assume?
That we live to the average, but we never know when the grim reaper is going to march in from the other end. (Cut a small amount of ribbon from the far end)
Thank death volunteer and invite them to return to their seat
Hold up the remaining ribbon (6-12 inches)
What’s this?
(answer is the amount of time we have left to fulfil our potential/realise those achievements.)
I think those achievements you shared are amazing.
I’d hate you to die with them still inside you.
Give remaining ribbon to death volunteer."
***
Barry Dore
2 December 2024
Notre Dame, Apollo 13 and Brexit, the power of the simple and compelling message.
I’ve been really surprised by how impacted I’ve been with the rescue and rebuilding of Notre Dame. I’m cautious to use the term ‘in awe’ after criticising its overuse last week, but a word defined as ‘reverential respect with wonder’ seems pretty appropriate.
My fascination is nothing to do with religion, it’s to do with the rebirth of an iconic building after the devastating fire and astonishment at how such an extraordinary undertaking could be completed in just five years.
I fell in love with Notre Dame over twenty years ago when Jakkie and I had a weekend in Paris. I wanted to make it a really special (okay romantic) visit. (Incidentally if you ever ask Jakkie for her take on this trip she will mention that I managed to book a hotel in the process of being refurbished next to a brothel. Banging all day and all night.)
On our last evening I wanted to go to an expensive restaurant for a special meal but Jakkie was having none of it, she suggested instead we procure some food and drink and take a walk along the Seine towards Notre Dame. Once I’d reluctantly agreed she dived into the nearest store and emerged with crisps, snacks and cartons of their cheapest wine. We walked along the Seine and found a place to sit directly opposite the cathedral, which was illuminated magnificently against the evening sky. It was the middle of summer, still very warm, and it seemed half of Paris had the same idea as us (Jakkie). There were couples and groups lining the riverbank as far as the eye could see sharing food, drink, conversation and laughter. As it got later there was music and dancing, the snacks tasted like cordon bleu cookery, and the wine like a vintage claret (okay I’ve thrown in a bit of exaggeration) but it was truly the most romantic night of my life.
What’s that got to do with things? Stick with me. Let’s return to the cathedral. On the evening of 15 April 2019 Paris, France and much of the world watched as fire engulfed Notre Dame. At its peak the 19th Century spire crashed to the ground. The next day, after inspecting the devastation, President Macron promised to have the cathedral open for visitors again within five years. That statement of intent seemed a really rash promise to many, but this week Macron was able to declare that the building would reopen on 7 December. The rescued, renovated and restored cathedral is described as being breath-taking.
The project was delivered thanks to the skill and dedication of two thousand craftsmen and women, a public appeal that raised 850 million Euros and selecting the right person to lead the delivery. But the simple, unequivocal, compelling message from the top provided the essential focus, belief and compelling engagement. Imagine if Macron’s words the day after the fire had been ‘I’m afraid it’s all a bit of a mess guys, goodness knows when or how it will be sorted.’
To repeat the often repeated leadership cliche I hope anyone working on the Notre Dame project, when asked what their job was, would not have answered ‘I’m breaking up stones,’ but rather ‘I’m rebuilding a Cathedral.’
Any leader anywhere who wants to deliver change must start with a similar message. It’s about that leader having a clear vision but critically being able to share that vision in the simplest and most compelling way.
There are two other examples to share. All three are very different and are about creating a change of beliefs, you cannot take people with you tap into and change their beliefs.
Firstly let me take you back to April 1970, Apollo 13 prepares to land on the moon when an oxygen tank explosion necessitates circling the moon and attempting to return to Earth. The famous line ‘Houston, we have a problem,’ spoken by command module pilot Jack Swigert, sparked action at Mission Control.
Apollo 13’s situation was critical and that will have caused stress in Mission Control. I have no doubt that some people will have expected any rescue plan to fail, some may have voiced their fear, some will have kept it to themselves. The engineers were in unchartered territory, facing challengers outside their knowledge and experience.
Step forward NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz who made a categorical statement, ‘Failure is not an option.’ He was no doubt aware of the concern in the room. He needed to overcome that and to change people’s beliefs about what was possible. They had to move from a mindset of ‘this is impossible, we’ve never experienced this before, these guys are doomed’ to one of ‘we’ll find a way to do this, think outside the box, come up with new options, we’re bringing our guys home, failure is not an option.’
What a powerful statement.
(There’s inevitably a discrepancy between the exact words spoken by Swigert and Kranz and the two quotes now embedded in folklore. I’ve tried to avoid focusing on the 1995 movie.)
This example is not restricted to space travel. Imagine a new CEO charged with rescuing a failing organisation. She meets with the Board who tell her the business is broken and is destined to fail. Before she accepted the role she had buried herself in the numbers, she knows the business can be saved but it will require new thinking from the top down. She eyeballs each Director in turn, then announces ‘we are going to save this business, failure is not an option.’
Over the following three months she repeats this simple, unequivocal message to people at every level of thebusiness. It is the bedrock on which the business is saved.
(I know it’s not that simple, it ill be backed up with some people leaving the bus, new appointments, a clear strategy, cultural change etc. My point is it begins with one compelling message.)
My final example is controversial in that it goes to the heart of the most divisive event in British politics in my living memory; Brexit. It was a torrid time as the country turned on itself with family splits, vile social media posts and lies aplenty leading up to the vote in June 2016
The Leave campaign was masterminded by Dominic Cummings. He created a simple statement which was placed at the very heart of the campaign.
Just three words, ‘Take Back Control.’
It was a masterstroke. Just brilliant. In my humble opinion it was the deciding factor in a close contest. Across great swathes of England and Wales, the cities and towns of the north and midlands the Leave vote prospered. People who took little or no interest in politics suddenly had something to latch on to. It took them back to a distant, mythical, non-existent green and pleasant land where our borders were sealed, our navy ruled the seas, our Empire covered half the globe and the only black faces to be seen were driving London buses. They grabbed the vision and headed for the polling booths.
Those who know me well know my political leaning. I was devastated to wake up the morning after to that result. In my opinion Brexit was a disaster for our nation, the Leave campaign was built on lies (remember the battle bus and the prediction that the day after Turkey joined the EU, 80 million of them would arrive on our shores.) Boris, Cummings, Farage, Gove and Rees-Mogg are odious individuals, but that’s not the point, those three simple words were a masterstroke.
Leadership is about providing clarity, engagement and a compelling vision of the future, then delivering that vision. Macron, Kranz and Cummings, not three names you’d normally put in one sentence, but all three delivered on the back of simple, compelling messages. Every leader everywhere has the opportunity and necessity to do the same.
***
Barry Dore
25 November 2024
A very small cog…how the best people can feel overwhelmed and helpless.
Last week I had a fascinating conversation with a passionate and effective conservationist. As part of her work with an organisation whose focus is to protect rain forests and strengthen communities she is just back from visiting Papua New Guinea. Her trip was a potentially dangerous one, as demonstrated by the party having police and military protection throughout, the country has been given a ‘don’t visit unless essential’ status by the UK FCDO.
It really is an extraordinary country. It is believed to be the home of many undocumented species of plants and animals. Only 13% of its population live in urban centres. Most of its people live in customary communities. It is the most linguistically diverse country in the world.
During her trip this conservationist met tribes in the rain forest, she described how friendly and warm their welcome was. She was able to discuss the successes and challenges of the
various projects with the Country Director, and learn first-hand the issues and frustrations that prevented further progress.
She had only been back in the UK a week and was still trying to unpack her emotions and reflections. I could see that the visit had provoked strong emotions. I asked her to give me a single word to describe her experience and she chose ‘awe.’
‘Awe’ is an extremely strong word. It is defined as ‘a feeling of reverential respect with fear or wonder.’ Like so many other words it has been weakened by over-use (no matter how much you enjoyed the ready meal from Tesco it is not ‘awesome.’)
She shared with me that she had arrived home feeling overwhelmed and helpless. I am well aware this happens to conservationists the world over. The combined impact of global warming and biodiversity loss can overwhelm us.
This is not a feeling restricted to conservationists. Those that take an interest in geo-politics will experience such emotions too. We face war in Europe, a tinderbox in the Middle-East, an increase in cyber attacks, leaders obsessed with power, influence and greed, depots with their fingers on the nuclear button, and an uncontrollable, maverick climate denier heading back to the White House, already unscrewing his pen to sign the US withdrawal from the Paris Accord…again Is it any wonder that we feel helpless?
Our beliefs are so powerful and always determine how we feel, act and behave. If we believe we cannot compete against overwhelming odds, that we can do nothing to stop the inevitable march, we feel helpless, stick our heads in the sand, become bitter, withdraw, give up. Or maybe we stop trying so hard to deliver change because what’s the point?
Coping with this feeling of being overwhelmed requires a change of beliefs. You are absolutely right to believe you cannot change the whole world, single-handedly, reverse global warming, end wars. How could you, you are just one of seven billion others we share this beautiful but increasingly thrashed planet with? Each of us is a very small cog in a very big wheel.
But if you can’t change the whole world you can influence change on the world around you. This is when your beliefs become ‘I can make a difference for these people, this community, even, in certain instances, this country.’ Making a difference for one tribal community in a rain forest in Papua New Guinea may be a drop in the ocean, but imagine what can happen if it leads to those people feeling trusted and supported, and beginning to make a difference for themselves. Now think about the growth in influence if this also takes place in thousands, even millions, of other communities.
Begin local, change the world around you, whether its in Papua New Guinea or Preston. As Greta Thunberg said,
‘No-one is too small to make a difference.’
In my own work I try to inspire and enable young leaders to build a safer, kinder, fairer and happier world. I always define it as ‘make that difference in the world around you, and never ever give up believing that you are making a difference.’
***
Barry Dore
18 November 2024
Body, Heart, Mind & Spirit, the route to fulfilment.
In my last blog we looked at happy cows making better milk, then made the short leap
across to the proposition that happy employees delight customers. Let’s explore this in more
depth. Having happy people in your team or organisation is wonderful, who doesn’t feel
good when colleagues are smiling, laughing and having fun? Positivity is infectious (as
unfortunately is negativity). Happy people will work hard, delight customers and deliver
results.
Let’s go further, happiness gets us underway, but full engagement comes when your people
feel fulfilled. It’s defined as ‘meeting a requirement, condition or need.’ Fulfilment is
achieved when people are fully engaged.
Of course you want your people to be engaged. The problem is where do we start? It's just a
broad statement to begin with, how can we break it down?
Here's the proposition, we can engage our people at four different levels; the body, heart,
mind and spirit. Only when we engage all four levels can we achieve fulfilment.
I'm going to give you some examples of elements I mean within each of the four dimensions.
There are many more so if you choose to use this model you can add further examples.
Engaging the body is the entry level. It's pretty near the bottom of Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs. When we engage the body, we pay people a wage that on a sunny day, when they're
feeling pretty contented with life, they would at least accept was reasonable for the job. I’m
sure most people would like to be paid more, what we cannot do is to underpay our people.
We can underpin that with appropriate terms and conditions. This could include pension
provision, number of days holiday, bonuses etc.
Most organisations will have some kind of flexibility over this which can make you a more attractive employer. For example there's a current debate on four day weeks, they could offer generous paternity leave, remote or
home working etc. Individual managers will almost certainly have less flexibility but the good ones will occasionally bend the rules over things like additional bereavement days, or permission to work from home for a couple of days to care for a sick child.
There are a couple of other essentials before we can move on from engaging the body. You
have a responsibility to create a safe working environment for your people, and to ensure
they have the basic skills and tools they need to do the job. Far too many people are trying
to work with inadequate equipment.
Most organisations are pretty good at engaging the body but there is always more that can
be done.
Let's look at engaging the heart. This brings us straight back to being happy at work covered
last week in the blog. You absolutely can create a working environment where people work
hard but also have some fun. For me these are essential steps in building as high-
performance culture. When we engage the heart we also ensure that we treat our people
with respect, that we listen to them and care for them.
The third level is engaging the mind. This is where I feel so many organisations could do a lot
more. When we engage the mind we want to stretch our people, to give them freedom
within a framework to build their skills, to develop them. We want to know their ideas for
how things could be improved. We listen to them. We seek out development opportunities
through any combination of training programmes, time off a personal study, joining an
organisation wide project team, coaching them. There are so many other examples, this is a
big area in which I believe there are many wins to be gained.
There is one further level, and that is where we engage the spirit, here we achieve the
ultimate level of engagement this is where we enter the world of fulfilment. Now our people
believe the work they are doing is truly worthwhile, it's in line with the organisation’s
purpose and vision. People can see line of sight between what they do every day and how
that contributes to the vision in line with the purpose. They understand that their work is
truly important. If they also resonate with what the organisation does we get even higher
engagement.
They also feel their values are closely linked to the organisation values and they see those
organisation values demonstrated every day by senior leaders.
I hope you can see how this framework can be used both to measure current levels of
engagement and see the opportunity to improve. Start with yourself. Look at each of the
four levels again and score yourself out of 10 in each level. Now you have a picture of how
engaged you are and where the gaps are. Sounds like a good one to discuss with your boss.
To be honest if you're not pretty much fully engaged it's unlikely you can build full
engagement in others.
You can do the same with your team. I suggest you could individually carry out this exercise
with team members, identify some clear gaps and discuss those which are common with the
team as a whole.
Lots to go out there, you are never go to achieve 100% engagement across the board, but
what an opportunity to identify and address issues. I'm very happy to discuss any part of this
with you individually if you contact me. Experiment with the model, use it to develop
individual action and development plans.
There is no doubt that if people are happy, engaged and fulfilled they will be more
productive and effective. As an authentic leader you can build each of these. If you do so
you will be rewarded with a step change in productivity, effectiveness and results.
***
Barry Dore
11 November 2024
Happy cows make better milk
Take a few minutes out to think about something for me. When are you at your most productive? You can choose to think about this question in the context of your life at work, it is completely applicable in your life outside work as well.
Let me hazard a guess about what your answers are. It’ll be something along the lines of when you are doing something you enjoy, when you feel good about yourself, and when you are happy. As an ex-colleague would often remark, ‘happy cows make better milk.’
This is hardly rocket science but once more we come across a leadership issue at work which too many managers still simply don’t understand. It’s so simple, these things always are, there is nothing complicated about being an effective leader.
Think of Bill, the autocratic command & control manager in ‘Lead Like Mary.’ How does he treat his team? Simple answer, badly. He doesn’t trust them, micromanages them, giving little freedom, undermines them, shouts, demands, punishes, at the worst extreme bullies them.
The team deliver results, but only because they want to keep their jobs. They do so half- heartedly without enthusiasm, they’re not able to use their initiative and have no desire to anyway. There’s no incentive or desire to go the extra mile. The team are unhappy bunnies, far away from being truly productive.
Now think of life under Sidney, our weak-willed, lilly-livered manager. His team are frustrated, lack direction, feel unsupported and exposed. More unhappy bunnies, far away from being truly effective.
How different are Mary’s team? Her role as a coach, along with her focus on inspiring and enabling, ensures her team are highly motivated. They feel trusted and supported. But they are also encouraged to grow, given freedom, pushed to develop and held accountable. They will always go the extra mile. They are a close team who work and play together. They are happy, truly productive and produce quite excellent milk.
I did promise it’s not rocket science.
In the private sector there’s something called the Service-Profit Chain, which goes something like this.
Highly motivated staff delight their customers, building loyalty and repeat business, deiivering long-term, sustainable profit.
I well remember way back when a Director of my company was shown this model as part of a plan to drive productivity.
‘I’m uncomfortable with profit being the last word,’ he announced after several minutes of studying the model, ‘it needs to be right at the beginning.’
He just didn’t get it.
Incidentally it’s easy to make this model appropriate in the voluntary sector, often it’s as simple as replacing ‘profit’ with ‘results’. You can also replace ‘customers’ with a more suitable word.
I’d also insert ‘happy’ after ‘motivated.’.
It’s not only the team managers who impact on the happiness of their teams, lots of people in an organiation have interactions with those team members, for example senior executives will come into contact from time to time with them. Those interactions, which are usually brief, have an impact well above what you would often imagine. To what extent do they leave the team member feel happy? Or at worst do they have the opposite effect, which can be truly destructive.
There’s a famous quote attributed to Mary Angelou, the American memorist, poet and civil rights leader (a remarkable woman, read her Wiki profile.)
‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’
Let me bring that to life with a real example. The corporate business I worked in was a hospitality company which owned and ran thousands of pubs. They had some of the most well-known brands around in their stable. For a reason I can’t remember I was with the Managing Director, my boss, a man famed for his command-and-control mentality who was never one to hold back. We were traveling down the M6 one evening in the back of his chauffeur driven car (living the dream) on our way back to Birmingham. He suddenly decided to drop into a Cheshire pub, very recently reopened as a new brand after extensive investment.
We walked into an incredibly busy pub. The restaurant area was full of people eating, the bars were packed, staff working flat out, the manager working hard to keep the wheels turning. In short it was a great night with happy customers and committed staff.
The MD started to notice things that were not as they absolutely should have been according to the brand template and manual. I can’t remember exactly, but things like
‘’Why has that person been served that drink in an unbranded glass?’
‘’When our order was being taken why was there no attempt to upsell.’
‘Why has that bar server got a green apron on instead of a black one?’
You can see what’s coming. The manager was hauled away from service to sit with us whilst the MD questioned, harangued, and almost hung, drew and quartered him about those brand anomalies.
At 9.30pm in a packed pub!
With a final threat of his future employment if these brand anomalies weren’t corrected, we climbed back into his chauffeured car and left.
You can imagine the impact, vividly described to me by the local business manager the following day. A pub manager in meltdown.
I’m not saying these issues weren’t important for the delivery of the brand offer. Not at that time of night, in that situation. Congratulate the guy on what was happening around him, mention that brand disciplines were crucial once the business was settles, thank
him for what he was doing…then let him get on and do it.
As I said before, its not rocket science.
Without a doubt, happy staff who feel good about themselves will be far more productive. Just like them cows.
Of course there’s more to high productivity than happy staff, and we’ll look at the other drivers next time.
***
Barry Dore
4 November 2024
Without a fourth commitment NHS reform is ‘delulu,’ and why I’m ‘Puttin’ on the Rizz.’
I really do admire the thought, focus and planning that the government are putting into
fixing the NHS. Anyone who thinks it can be fixed without radical change simply doesn’t
understand just how broken it is.
Wes Streeting and his colleagues, assisted by new cash injections from their Iron Chancellor,
are committed to delivering their ten-year plan for the NHS in the spring. They have,
however, shared the three commitments which will form the core of the plan.
From hospital to community
From cure to prevention
From analogue to digital.
You know what is coming, I blog and speak about it constantly. However strong the
commitment to drive change, however impressive the plan is, whatever the financial
investment is, whoever is sitting in the Health Secretary’s chair, it cannot, will not be
successful without a fourth commitment.
From management to leadership.
Let me explain why.
The NHS is stacked high with managers. I’d be willing to take a bet that many of them are
jolly good at their jobs. They administer complex systems and processes, fixing things when
needed, writing reports, measuring this, that and quite possibly the other. They manage the
status quo and many of them are highly efficient.
So are managers, is management, important? Of course it is, but hang on, most of these
managers don’t just manage things, they also manage teams of people. Many of these
managers, in truth, find this the hardest part of their job. They’re at home and happy dealing
with systems issues, but introduce a team member with an emotional issue and they are a
fish out of water.
In short the NHS is over managed and under led.
Change will only succeed with a significant focus on creating more of a balance. It needs
highly efficient management but it is crying out for highly effective leadership. And I mean
the right kind of leadership.
Management is about the status quo. It’s about administering, fixing, measuring, reporting.
It’s focused on the present, and too often the past.
Leadership is about the future. It’s about inspiring, enabling, trusting, coaching, It’s focused
on the future.
Why is it so important?
Because radical change is needed, and the key people who will deliver that change are not in
Government, or NHS England or other august bodies, they’re charged with creating the
vision, the plan and the resource. Those who will deliver the change are the 1.5 million
people (just in England, let alone the rest of the UK) who work in the NHS. They’re the
change agents.
And if they’re going to deliver effectively they need to feel motivated, to be inspired by the
vision, to understand the plan and to have absolute clarity on their part in delivering it, to be
given freedom, not micro-managed (yes I know freedom sounds a dangerous thing in such
an understandably controlled environment, but freedom within a framework is both
essential and perfectly possible), to enjoy coming to work, to be trusted, treated fairly, to
have development sessions with a boss who coaches them, to be given the credit when
things go well .
That’s why ‘from management to leadership’ is the catalyst that will drive the changes
needed. Leadership at every level, in every part of the NHS. Leaders who inject energy,
belief and desire.
Without that, if these radical changes are foisted on a demotivated, poorly led workforce
they are doomed to fail.
You may have noticed the remarkably clever link I have made with the title of today’s blog.
‘Delulu,’ What’s that about? Is that even a word?
It is now, in fact it’s a contender for word of the year, being compiled by the Collins,
Cambridge and Oxford dictionaries. I had a look at some of the words in contention. They
have apparently been popularised by Generation Z (those born between1995 and 2012) and
even Generation Alpha (those no older than 10 or 11) and have grown in popularity on Tic
Toc and Snapchat. Maybe as a Baby Boomer I shouldn’t be surprised they pass me by.
It's like as whole new language is developing which old people like me won’t understand.
Here's some examples on the list.
The aforementioned ‘delulu’, (being unrealistic with your expectations)
‘Yapping’ (talking at length about things that don’t matter that much)
‘The ick’ (a sudden feeling that you don’t like someone, popularised by Love Island)
‘Boop’ (a gentle tap on the nose or head as a joke or to indicate affection. Be careful with
this one)
‘Side quest’ (disappearing from a large group on a night out.)
‘Swiftie’ (an enthusiastic fan of Taylor Swift)
‘Beige Flag’ (a boring partner. I thought I’d heard Jakkie using this one on the phone the
other day, I was clearly mistaken.)
And my personal favourite, already used massively on line, ‘Rizz’, defined as having style,
charm or attractiveness.
Now this is one I can relate to, Baby Boomer or not. Pass me a mirror.
***