Don't you just love fresh approaches?

I was lucky enough today to come across a company called Delta 7. They take a really fresh approach to their facilitation. Rather than me try to explain what they do check out a selection of their stuff below.

Piers Carter

Leadership Coach & Consultant

Delta7's Conversation Starters - November 2010

Welcome to the November 2010 edition of 'Delta7's Conversation Starters' - a series of images created from a decade's experience running visual dialogues in large organisations.

The first three images this quarter were among those used at a seminar we ran at Cass Business School in November on the subject of "the unspoken at work".  Many thanks to the OD Innovation Network for organising the event.  Do drop us a line if you'd be interested in attending similar future workshops.

We hope you find these images thought-provoking and amusing. As with all our work, they were created to get people talking, so why not print out and use* them to kick off a conversation with the people you work with? Alternatively, you might like to use them in your blog or a PowerPoint presentation.  If you find them useful, please let us know!

This was inspired by a comment from a client recently about the meeting culture they were experiencing at work. They were frustrated:  When this sort of pattern persists it can cause significant personal and financial costs.

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Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord's four box model

Unless you're a military historian, you probably haven't heard of General Kurt Von Hammerstein-Equord.  He rose to become commander-in-chief of the German army between the wars, and is remembered for being a staunch opponent of the Nazi regime.  That is, unless you've read widely in organisational behaviour, in which case you probably only know him for the following, slightly un-PC remark about his officers, that's often used to comment on modern-day organisations:

I divide my officers into four classes; the clever, the lazy, the industrious, and the stupid. Most often two of these qualities come together. The officers who are clever and industrious are fitted for the highest staff appointments. Those who are stupid and lazy make up around 90% of every army in the world, and they can be used for routine work. The man who is clever and lazy however is for the very highest command; he has the temperament and nerves to deal with all situations. But whoever is stupid and industrious is a menace and must be removed immediately!

The quote comes from a manual on military command written in 1933.  If Hammerstein-Equord was a modern day consultant he would have immediately sensed a two-by-two matrix, so we have indulged ourselves and mapped it out.  We've found this picture generates some very interesting conversations!

If this diagram tickles you, you might want to follow up by reading Venkat Rao's trail of posts on "The Gervais Principle" (starting here), which follows a similar idea. This series has attracted a lot of attention and for good reason. Be warned - it's more like reading chapters in a book than reading blog posts.  Worth the effort though.

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How Good are your Decisions?

I was speaking with a client recently and I asked her, if she could get her staff to do one thing consistently and do it well what would it be? She told me it was decision making, the ability to make decisions under pressure and in her absence.

As part of my Extreme Teams research I asked former soldiers, aid agency workers, business owners, sports people and medical professionals a similar question and decision making is frequently mentioned.

Teams and businesses need either an individual to make the decisions or a mechanism for making decisions.

So, how do you decide how to decide?

My coachees, when asked about the effectiveness of their decision making, often talk about the context in which they are making decisions or the amount of time available or how it depends on whom is present. This is all valid, however, once you have a system for deciding how to decide, once you realise how important decisions are, you can go to work and make your decision. My Extreme Teams interviewees all say, any decision is better than indecision, at least a wrong decision can be put right but a lack of decision is a huge barrier to team success.

On deciding how to decide you have 5 choices which combine the amount of inclusion you wish to give the team or group and the amount of ownership they have over the process.

o   Decide & Announce

o   Gather Data from Individuals & Decide

o   Gather Data from the Group & Decide

o   Consensus

o   Delegate with Constraints

This can often reflect your preferred style however, the best decision makers or leaders are able to flex their styles – and should one style not work they can fall back on other styles.

It shows increasing levels of inclusion and ownership the team experience as the leader includes them in the process of decision making – as we all know this requires time and effort and if, as a leader, you stay in the Decide & Announce approach you must understand the consequences – less ownership and inclusion and therefore less commitment from the team.

I suggest that this is not about one size fits all, rather different ways of decision making suit different situations – Situational Decision Making.

When I used to train the Police in riot training skills, ‘decide and announce’ was defiantly the decision making style of choice.

Finally, last week the head of my children’s school texted and emailed to say school was closed due the snow – regardless of the hassle factor, the great thing was she made a decision; she made it quickly, early and allowed all the parents to make alternative plans. In previous years, other heads have left the decision until we arrived at school or phoned halfway through the morning to say they were shutting, which was much more disruptive.

So, to conclude, begin making decisions, like any skill it needs practise. Once you have made a decision, something should be different following the decision. Never leave the site of a decision without taking action – otherwise it will just be a thought, opinion or idea and not a proper real time decision.

Piers Carter

Leadership Coach & Consultant