the one where it’s your last day and you think about what you’ve learnt

Actually today is a double-last-day for me.

After almost 18 years I leave the place I’ve called my home in so many ways - The National Lottery Community Fund. And after the best secondment I finish at Save the Children.

I’ll post where I’m off to very soon but first I wanted to share what I’ve been thinking about as they both come to an end (spoiler alert this one is mostly about human behaviour).

·?????? People want to experiment, but they need a sandpit to do it in

Things we all say all the time: lets ‘test fast, fail fast’, run a ‘test & learn’ programme, build a ‘prototype’. And absolutely this is essential. What we talk about less is the environment the experiment lives in.

What I’ve learnt is quite simple – the more your colleagues feel trusted, psychologically safe, supported, and encouraged, the greater the chance of success for the trial. Fact. The more an experiment feels like a fun space also the greater the chance of success. Double fact. You can set in train all the project plans you like but without those 2 things the experiment’s gains will be limited. We hurt ourselves less in a sandpit and we grow more as a result of throwing ourselves into it.

·?????? People appreciate inspiration

I’ve written about this before but the thing I call ‘Architectural Leadership’ reaaallly works. One strong pattern I’ve noticed when facilitating co-design (particularly at pace), is that on a first try people tend to rebuild what they’ve had before. So when youth groups design youth centres they draw a box (even when encouraged to be world class) and when colleagues design their new systems they describe the one they’re getting rid of.

So what I’ve learnt here is not to miss the step of stretching imaginations and convening others to do that – ‘have you seen X?’, ‘let me show you Y’, ‘let’s hear from Z’…..and then we’ll do some designing with a newly stretched brain muscle, pushing the boundaries with what’s possible.

·?????? People LOVE language

Like really, really, love language. I would say 100% (no joke) of the projects I’ve led have had a moment where people wanted to throw themselves into a bath of words and indulge in the bubbles. And I get it, I also love language – we know from Lou Downe that ‘what you call a thing changes what it does’, so it’s important. But boy can it be a derailer.

So fine to spend time on what the language of the thing is, absolutely create common language but do also spend time on common understanding of the language. Years ago I remember a colleague saying – “when we say ‘customer-centred’ I do this, but I’ve noticed you do that”. When you do have the common language and understanding, attach yourselves to that language even if it’s not your favourite word (let it go people) and move on.

·?????? People need sight

This is how we make good decisions. We see what’s on the horizon, we see where the clashes and gaps are, we see what others have as their goals (to piggyback onto), we see patterns and we prioritise.

How you do that will vary – roadmaps, group papers, group meetings, systems, and tools – but be conscious about it. Ask yourself what sight you are giving to those you need a decision from – the better sight you enable, the more your recommendation will be signed off. Make it easy for your decision-maker, no one will ever not thank you for that.

·?????? People want to celebrate

Guess what? We’re proud of our work, the content of it, what it achieves for others, the quality of it, the effort we put in, how we got it done, who we achieved it with, and the circumstances it was done under. Same goes whether for colleagues or customers.

So help people celebrate – give them the methods, spaces, and name-checks to say how great the thing is but be genuine about it – help them see what the thing they’ve built unlocks for others. They won’t say it themselves as they’ll be humble about their achievements but champion the results. In a world full of delayed gratification lets enable some real-time joy.

·?????? People are people

Now, as I write this one I’m conscious anyone who I’ve worked with will think it’s aimed at them. It’s not. This is about a pattern I’ve noticed and not a particular organisation, team, or boss. I’ve had 20-ish roles in my career, and this is definitely a clear pattern.

Structure (like language) is another thing that takes over at points. And I get it, again it’s super important and I’ve spent a lot of my time talking about how we organise ourselves around product and strategy, so I believe in getting it right. But what’s interesting (as someone who has supported existing colleagues to embrace new ways of working and new colleagues to embrace new ways of working) is that we’re all the same. Whether a new employee or not we tend to enjoy the same bits of our jobs and get stuck on the same pieces, it’s just our starting points may be different.

To me the key bit is defining what things wrap around those humans (that inevitably will be very similar to the other human beings you knew before) – because people are people. What support do they have? What coaching or skill enhancement do they need? What tools and systems do they have? Where do they come together to gain confidence? How do they shape? How will those supporting colleagues be supported themselves?

And why that matters - well, because in a world where we’re in a loop of redesigning ourselves, that means the energy is on us and not on the outside world. Which is kinda our whole purpose. So what if we redesigned our approach to our redesign? What if the shift was to work in the present?? I’ll leave you with that one.

My present, today, as I finish, is to say thank you to the army of amazingly kind and clever people I’ve met – I’ve learnt soooo much – I appreciate you and want to say thank you, I’ve loved every minute x