Trevor Cousins’ leadership blog

I was having coffee this week with a guy who is one of the directors of a social marketing company in Brighton. He and his fellow co-founder have set up really democratic processes in their company such as everyone knowing what everyone else earns. It’s straight forward stuff but surprisingly radical and rare to find. They got the idea from a book called Maverick! by Ricardo Semler when they were setting the company up in 2002.

As we were talking I mentioned a team coaching model that I am using at the moment which is based on the premise of “deep democracy”, meaning that for a team to function properly all the voices in the team need to be heard.

It occurred to me how bizarre it is that structures where everyone gets to be heard and to know what is going on is consider cutting-edge, risky or just plain weird.

In her fantastic book, Fierce Conversations Susan Scott makes the point that organisations tend to avoid soliciting the views of staff, of having real, honest, direct and “fierce” conversations. It’s easy to think that turning a deaf ear means opinions will evaporate. But as anyone who has gathered around a water cooler or collected in a company kitchen will know, the truth about what’s going on in the organisation is expressed all the time. She makes the distinction between “official truth” and what’s really being said: “ground truth”

Wouldn’t it be better to open up discussion and allow differing opinions to be heard? What’s to fear if the conversations are happening covertly anyway.?

I once overheard someone say to a colleague: “I can’t be seen to be going on leadership training. My team might think I don’t know how to lead.” How hilarious is that? This person thought that his team wouldn’t have noticed he couldn’t lead effectively! It’s the elephant in the middle of the room syndrome.

So I guess the message behind today’s ramble is – don’t ignore other people’s opinions – your staff, customers or other stakeholders. They aren’t going away and they could just give you insights and perspectives that will actually help you!

Resources:

The social marketing agency is Nixon McInnes: www.nixonmcinnes.co.uk

Fierce Conversations – achieving success in work and in life, one conversation at a time and Maverick! are both available from www.amazon.co.uk.