Is this the next big transformation?

It was around 508 BC that democracy is believed to have originated in Athens. That’s 2531 years ago, and 4 months to be precise.

Like most things of course, this is debatable because there is evidence to suggest that democratic systems of government may have existed elsewhere in the world before then, albeit on a smaller scale.

The word democracy comes from the Greek words, “demos” meaning people, and “kratos” meaning power; said democracy can be thought of as “power of the people”: which depends on the will of the people.

in Athens, it was a noble named Solon who laid the foundations for democracy, and introduced a new constitution based on the ownership of property. According to this, Athenians were divided into four classes, with political power distributed among them. The highest offices went to those people whose land produced 730 bushels of grain, while the lowest class comprised of labourers who could not hold office, but who could vote in the assembly. Importantly, under Solon’s constitution, native-born citizens could not be enslaved by their fellow citizens.

Unsurprisingly, Solon’s reforms eventually broke down as the ruling classes began fighting among themselves, taking Athens to the brink of civil war. Further iterations then occurred before a man named Cleisthenes enlisted the support of the common people by proposing a new constitution. This new constitution included the establishment of sortation, which saw citizens selected at random to fill government positions, rather than attaining them through inheritance.

It wasn’t every five years that Athenians had the right to vote in the ekklesia, like it is now, but every 10 days. Imagine how many times we would vote to change our government if we could do it every 10 days ??.

Elections are happening in many places this year not least for us in the UK but also America. I guess we should all hope for fair, free and peaceful elections such is the aim of democracy. I’m sure there’ll be some people worrying that these could be the last election before AI really starts to take hold. Who knows?

The point about democracy is that we as citizens get to choose who we want to vest power in to make decisions for us. The choice is both that of a party to govern and the choice of a person as well as a wider team to lead both nationally and locally.

So, we look at the party and we look at the people and we look at their policies and we look at their capabilities to deliver those policies. We look at their experience and we look at their potential.

But we don’t look too closely because, if we did, we would subject them to a much more rigorous recruitment process than we do today. We would look at their background, their experience, their attitude and their behaviour. We might do what we do with university graduates and put them through test after test with only the best getting through to the final stage. We might have them undergoing psychometric assessments so we can predict how they would deal with certain situations, how they would deal with pressure.

For sure, we know that the next five years is going to come with a lot of pressure whether it is defence and security or making difficult financial choices, balancing the needs of education versus health versus taxes versus benefits versus climate. I guess many of us remember the infamous note left by Liam Byrne in 2010 for his successor David Law’s saying “Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid there’s no money. Kind regards - and good luck! Liam.” No doubt, we are fearing the same again.

To make a point out of all of this, I was listening to a series of podcasts in which global business leaders shared fascinating insights into transformation. They explored their emotional journeys as they led their organisations through periods of change and gave some deep insights into what it means to be a 21st-century leader who delivers transformation. The parallels between transforming a company and transforming a country were intriguing.

The series talked about making a call when the status quo is no longer working - remember they are talking business here - a social movement of change, bringing ideas from the group of people to make decisions and seeing what is coming next to create opportunities, before it becomes a crisis. The leaders who were interviewed, each in their own way, showed what it means to lead into the future with humility, honesty and a strong focus on performance.

I can’t go into a lot of detail about everything they covered but a few points and quotes really stood out and showed how interchangeable transformation in a company is with that in a country.

Rob Thomas, Chief Operating Officer of the Mercedes–AMG Petronas Formula One team noted ‘I wish I’d been braver at the start’. Rob is talking about how he led the transformation of the Mercedes team at a critical point in the company's history. He talked frankly about what worked and what he would do differently noting you are always learning lessons, often from failure.

‘Success involves seeing what’s coming and being there first.’ This was the line from Geoff Skinsley, the Chairman of L’Oréal UK and Ireland, when he was explaining how L’Oréal was able to transform into a digitally ready and digital first organisation. They were able to embrace disruption, seeing a clear choice: ‘Either we take part in the disruption or we ourselves will be disrupted.’

The Head of Global Corporate Affairs at Riot Games, Gaude Perez, said ‘Don’t underestimate as leaders the distance you might have from the day-to-day experience of some of your employees.’ Here, Gaude, was talking openly about the cultural transformations Riot Games undertook to shift the disruptive communication behaviours that had emerged particularly with the impact of the pandemic, and how she helped the company's culture by constructing a social movement within the organisation.

With the division that elections so often bring, the other interview that stood out was with Allison Rossiter, the Managing Director of Roche Diagnostics in Australia. Allison talked about how ‘1950s leadership doesn’t work anymore,’ where you must ‘do what I say.’ She stressed the importance of promoting inclusivity and the process of finding the right decision together as a team.

With our recent history of Brexit, I guess it’s hard for people to come together in this way, but for transformations to be successful Allison Rossiter really does have a good point. So we go to the polls, recognising the drivers sitting behind effective change, are not necessarily that different whether you’re a company or a country. We are looking for great leadership, a clear vision, a well thought out plan, strong and effective governance, recruitment of the most talented team we can get, and the most prudent and wise use of the investable funds. We also need to trust.

Thinking back to the Athenians, it probably wasn’t too much different for them.