Brewing Leadership - The Barista Way!

Coffee.? Café’s.? Culture.? It’s almost a new acronym right? ?The 3 C’s of how we facilitate the doing of work.? The 3 C’s also enable ‘creativity’ so there’s probably an argument for the 4 C’s!? But when we step back and look at our systems of work, and the boundaries that define our organisation, our functions and teams, to what extent do we consider external factors that facilitate the doing of work and that our boundaries are more fluid than we realise.?

It’s in café’s where genesis of strategies or restructures are hatched.? It’s in a quiet corner of the café where we share our concerns about our boss with a colleague.? It’s in a café where we go to sit by ourselves and allow the white noise and smells stimulate our senses, and our mind, to help us write the plan, or report that we’ve been stuck on for days.?

What does the café represent?? It represents a space for openness.? For being creative. ?For being a refuge from a toxic team culture.? It may well be the one factor that has kept a good person in your team, simply because they have somewhere to decompress throughout the day.?

So where do the psychological, and physical, boundaries of our organisations really start and end? ?And is this the opportunity for those designing organisations, cultures and ways of working, and even the physical buildings in which we work to create the space and environment that enables organic connection and collaboration (two more C’s!)? This is as much about design factors as it is the way leaders enable this openness through their own actions.? A leader isn’t a café.? But they can signal directly and indirectly the importance of relaxed connections, sharing of information, and allowing those they lead to just be themselves. ?Just as we are in the café.

So let me leave you with this. To what extent is your local barista a quasi-member of your team or organisation?? Let’s face it, we migrate to 1) the cafés that are within walking distance, and 2) the cafes that serve good coffee.? The barista is the ultimate enabler of everything we’ve discussed above.? So perhaps our leaders need to do some barista training, get out and spend a week making coffee and learn a little bit about enabling the business of getting work done!