Diversity conversations
Dr Eden Charles is a most engaging and challenging presenter on the area of diversity and inclusion. I was one of 50 participants at a recent session of his where he started by asking us to find the person we thought was most different to us and to have a conversation about diversity in our workplace… he had our attention! From there we had to work with our biases (and not the easy ones like I am biased towards Amazon Prime over Netflix!)…it was stretching and purposeful and moving to be part of this learning event. So why am I sharing my CPD experience with you? Well I cannot be a leader in facilitating change in the groups I work with if I am not at the stretching edge for myself.
ZOUD
I have a great interest in coming across relevant and practical tips and tools that capture complex models in accessible formats. So this time it’s ZOUD… The Zone of Uncomfortable Debate. Dr Charles pointed us to the significant research that shows how senior leaders have a lot less ZOUD encounters than is needed. How can we create the environment where constructive, stretching ZOUD conversations occur? TRUST is the answer.
Five Dysfunctions of Team
Patrick Lencioni has done significant work on what makes teams effective… the most crucial factor is Trust, followed closely by ability to manage conflict constructively. So what constitutes trust – how would you define it? For me it is about credibility, reliability, safety, honesty, vulnerability and transparency to name but a few of the qualities in the mix of what the experience of trust is about. We can have trust in specific contexts like seeing our doctor. We also can explore what does trust mean in our teams, our senior leadership team…
Our Leadership Team and Trust
Of course as leader at whatever level, our goal is to have clarity and agreement around what my role and contribution is to the organisation. Leaders want to get on with the job and have a resourceful infrastructure around them. Working as I do now with leadership teams, I am finding that taking some quality time to focus on trust building in the team is as vital as it is to be clear on the purpose and specific duties of the role. It is a vital pillar of the work of the leader – who am I working alongside and what level of trust is there to ensure my contribution reaches its full potential.
Leadership Team Drivers
As we navigate our fast paced world of work it is now more than ever we need the ZOUD, stretching conversations to drive us to leadership that delivers on our purpose. To address questions such as:
- How is our team resourced to lead as well as manage?
- What is the appropriate level of trust I need as a member of this team?
- What is holding us back from making our optimum contribution?
- What does meaningful accountability mean?
- How can we manage differences constructively?
- What is not being talked about that needs to be?
- What is hijacking our performance – what can we do about it?
- How can we acknowledge, celebrate and nurture best practice?
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Diversity conversations
Dr Eden Charles is a most engaging and challenging presenter on the area of diversity and inclusion. I was one of 50 participants at a recent session of his where he started by asking us to find the person we thought was most different to us and to have a conversation about diversity in our workplace… he had our attention! From there we had to work with our biases (and not the easy ones like I am biased towards Amazon Prime over Netflix!)…it was stretching and purposeful and moving to be part of this learning event. So why am I sharing my CPD experience with you? Well I cannot be a leader in facilitating change in the groups I work with if I am not at the stretching edge for myself.
ZOUD
I have a great interest in coming across relevant and practical tips and tools that capture complex models in accessible formats. So this time it’s ZOUD… The Zone of Uncomfortable Debate. Dr Charles pointed us to the significant research that shows how senior leaders have a lot less ZOUD encounters than is needed. How can we create the environment where constructive, stretching ZOUD conversations occur? TRUST is the answer.
Five Dysfunctions of Team
Patrick Lencioni has done significant work on what makes teams effective… the most crucial factor is Trust, followed closely by ability to manage conflict constructively. So what constitutes trust – how would you define it? For me it is about credibility, reliability, safety, honesty, vulnerability and transparency to name but a few of the qualities in the mix of what the experience of trust is about. We can have trust in specific contexts like seeing our doctor. We also can explore what does trust mean in our teams, our senior leadership team…
Our Leadership Team and Trust
Of course as leader at whatever level, our goal is to have clarity and agreement around what my role and contribution is to the organisation. Leaders want to get on with the job and have a resourceful infrastructure around them. Working as I do now with leadership teams, I am finding that taking some quality time to focus on trust building in the team is as vital as it is to be clear on the purpose and specific duties of the role. It is a vital pillar of the work of the leader – who am I working alongside and what level of trust is there to ensure my contribution reaches its full potential.
Leadership Team Drivers
As we navigate our fast paced world of work it is now more than ever we need the ZOUD, stretching conversations to drive us to leadership that delivers on our purpose. To address questions such as:
- How is our team resourced to lead as well as manage?
- What is the appropriate level of trust I need as a member of this team?
- What is holding us back from making our optimum contribution?
- What does meaningful accountability mean?
- How can we manage differences constructively?
- What is not being talked about that needs to be?
- What is hijacking our performance – what can we do about it?
- How can we acknowledge, celebrate and nurture best practice?