“Effective Leadership is defined by results not attributes” - Peter Drucker

“Why are you quoting Drucker? What has his quote got to do with your work? You are no management consultant or a leadership expert.”

“Ah! Good morning Prasna Rao*. I knew you will jump in even as I was typing that line”

“Clever, But you have not answered my question.”

“A CEO quoted Drucker to me while briefing me on a workshop he wanted me to facilitate for him. He was looking for audacious growth - X to 10X in 3 years. He said this kind of growth will leave indelible stretch marks on everybody’s brain. It will set the tone and style of leadership in the company. It is not about tweeting or writing blogs or delivering speeches. It is about leading people to achieve the impossible.”

“Sorry, all this sounds like a speech for the shareholders. Where do you fit in? Tell me about that”

“As I said he wanted to me facilitate this crucial ideation session and wanted to walk away with some tangible plans. Not a set of slogans. He wanted to know exactly what I would do to make this happen”

“Why does need you for this?”

“ They had a few internal sessions which didn’t work out. People were cautious and safe with their ideas. They suggested predictable stuff. He felt that they were not stepping out of the crease.”

“What exactly did you do?”

“ I had a detailed discussion on the outcomes he wanted. What would make him say the workshop was successful?”

“Good question. What happened then?”

“It caught him off-guard but he recovered fast. He gave me an excellent description of what success of the workshop would like.”

“Be specific RS. What did success look like for him? What specific attributes did he use?”

“Here is a gist of what he described:

• We will be serving customer segments that we are not serving today
• We will have unearthed new customer insights which we did not know
• We will be in geographies we are not in today. No boundaries to our thinking.”
• We will have a new range of products, services, and benefits that don’t exist today”
• We will have new ways to distribute our products/services”
• We will have compelling new propositions that are bold and gutsy
• We will have a pricing ladder that no competition has thought of”

“Sorry to say, this sounds like a laundry list. Any freshly minted MBA can say all this. These are motherhood statements. No one can disagree with this.”

“ Ah, I knew you will say this. The CEO & I knew people will be cynical if he said this. We had to make these statements come alive with specific ideas. So that they don’t remain as nice to have intentions. That was his challenge for the workshop.”

“What did you do?”

“We started by putting together a list of people who could have ideas on all these aspects. We looked around his company. He got his people from marketing, product development, legal, finance, and operations. A few branch managers as well. Then he looked for people from his group companies. His advertising agency. His digital agency. His PR agency. Some of his major sales agents/distributors. He even added a couple of people who had recently retired from the company. And a few ‘freshly minted MBAs’ as you called them.”

“Quite an eclectic mix it must have been.”

“Yes, it was.”

“What did you do then?”

“I had to persuade him to plan for a two-day workshop instead of the one-day he was looking at.”

“Why was that important?”

“Because I knew he was looking for new decision-ready ideas. I also knew that once the workshop was over neither he nor his team would have the time to process these ideas. They would be overwhelmed by the here and now. So I urged to give me two days.”

“ What did he do?”

“He agreed but on one condition.”

“What was the condition?”

“Teams had to make a presentation on a format approved by the board for considering new opportunities. It would ensure that they could be ready to meet the chairman and the board of directors within a day or two of the workshop.”

“What happened?”

“There were at least 3 big opportunities he had identified based on the shortlisting done on day 1. We matched the teams to the ideas and the CEO gave them a clear brief on each concept. He wanted specific questions answered by the team.”

“A very pragmatic approach, I must say. What happened then?”

“The teams worked his brief on day two. We divided our work. Any question on the task or the business, policies, etc he would answer. I would tackle all questions on the process. It was his show on day 2 and I played a supportive role.”

“So it wasn’t just an ideation session.”

“There is nothing called ‘just an ideation session’. All my clients are clear and demand specific outcomes. So our work starts much before the days of the workshop.”

“So this is all serious stuff.”

“Serious stuff, Yes, Boring, no.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that the entire workshop space is ‘psychologically safe’. The client and I agree that people have the freedom to express whatever ideas that occur to them. Neither their nor they will be criticized.”

“Trust you to coin phrases like ‘psychologically safe’. What exactly does this mean?”

“ I did not coin this expression. It simply means ‘a climate in which people are comfortable being themselves and expressing themselves without anxiety or fear.’ “

“Is it really possible?”

“Of course it is. That is the role of the facilitator.”

“What do you do differently to make it ‘psychologically safe’ “?

“ I make it playful. I carry toys. Different kinds of chocolates & toffees, make sure my facilitation is informal in style. When people walk into the room the setup looks different. Every table is filled with soap bubbles, play dough, simple puzzles, variety of chocolates. It straight away signals to them that this is going to be different.”

“What happens after the workshop?”

“Clients agree on clear action steps Who, What, When at the end of the workshop. They agree on one person within the group to drive the initiative. Individual ideas will have individual champions.”

“And you have nothing to do? How do you know they are moving things forward. You & I know that these could be just added to a million other initiatives they are already busy with.”

“You are right. I have seen some of the clients include these into their monthly review cycles. In some cases, the CEO drives this himself. After all, he was the one who wanted the X to 10X in 3 years. He puts together a small team to work with him.”

“I asked you about your role. What do you do to ensure that the new ideas move forward?”

“If I have been hired as a facilitator my role ends with the workshop. I keep in touch informally to check how things are moving. In some cases clients want me to stay involved and work with the team. Then I move from the role of a facilitator to that of a coach egging people to win.”

*Prasna Rao is my best friend and worst critic. He appears the moment I start writing.