Development points
The most powerful way to achieve performance improvement in organizations is to clarify exactly how the leaders intend to improve themselves both individually and collectively.
Of course
this can be personal and sometimes painful for all concerned.
Three
summers ago we had our last family holiday with our two teenagers. As the years
had passed they had both become more and more assertive, not to say rebellious
about their parent’s choice of holiday destination. By the time the boy was 17
and the girl 18 dialogue had more or less broken down. So we chose to spend a
week in Bruges.
Neither
child knew much about Bruges and it was only when we were on the platform
waiting to catch the Eurostar out of London that they started to find out more.
Gradually their comments became more and more scornful as we tried to assuage
them with promises of delights and excitements to come. But it was no use and
it got even worse as the Eurostar sped off in one direction whilst we were left
on a wet platform to take the suburban train further into Belgium.
Something had
to be done. I invited the other three to say just one thing each about my demeanour
and or behaviour that they thought I could improve in the interests of their
individual and collective health and temper. Now they all thought that this was
a good game. They entered into it, including partner Sharon, with what can only
be described as ‘enthusiastic gusto’ and I had to restrict their comments to just
one each. They were just starting to enjoy themselves a little more when I
advised that the game was not over, but that we now needed to turn our
attention to each of them in turn.
The
exercise resulted in an atmosphere of mutual openness, trust and tolerance that
had seemed unlikely beforehand.
Three years
on and our daughter is in Thailand having a wonderful time with two girlfriends.
They are all strong characters and Ursula texted me from the departure lounge
to say that they had just played “that game.......”
It works in Boardrooms
too.
posted by Tim @ 12:11 AM
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