We have a beautiful Japanese Maple in our front yard. I grew up learning how to tend an organic food garden but I never worked with trees or flowers. So, when I decided I needed to “trim the tree”, I tried to shape it. It was a really bad idea. It looked shorn. I hadn’t spent the time to learn about the tree, to observe that the shoots of this species grow out and up. After I trimmed it, it lost that lovely airy shape for which Japanese Maples are so prized.
 
Needless to say, I had a lot to learn about tending trees.
 
Now, 15 years later, the Japanese Maple is beautiful and spacious as it is supposed to be. And I realized as I was admiring it, how much people are like trees. My work collaborating with leaders and teams on change, growth and development, have proven to me it’s true. You want to keep the essence of the tree and trim the parts that limit growth and responsiveness to the climate and other conditions that trees, and we, find ourselves in.
 
Both trees and humans need nurturance. Water, good, rich soil and sunlight. When we stop providing these things for trees or people, things go downhill. And at some level we all know this.
 
Yet it is common for many of us to ignore or even abandon our bodies. We shut down or ignore the signals it’s sending, both emotional and physical (they’re not really separate).  When leaders do this, it has even bigger consequences. They may think that others don’t notice their lack of self-care or self-compassion. Or they may deny that this can extend to a lack of compassion and empathy for others. Or, as sometimes happens, a leader pours out all this care to their teams, but ignore their own needs and experience profound burn out.
 
We humans love the idea of change and development, especially when it applies to others. 
 
We think nothing of trying to “trim” others to fit our needs. Many of us try to do it with our partners, our kids, our family and our colleagues. Leaders are often tasked with delivering change at the individual, team and organization level. They are sanctioned to nurture and shape a team. Depending upon how skillful they are, this can be productive and positive. Sometimes it has terrible consequences. Mostly, according to research, it just doesn’t work. It’s costly and can create a lot of chaos, for little return on investment. 
 
It's true, we have to keep trying to improve, learn and grow. More than ever this world needs us to dream big, solve problems, and create and deliver sustainable value. But leaders, teams and organizations are all made up of people and you want them to grow without losing the essence of what makes them amazing.
 
My clients and work have taught me that change is only successful when we:
 

• Take the time to connect and understand the individual leader or team. It can’t be superficial. We have to inquire, listen and check for understanding. This is time consuming. It speeds progress later. There is a reason why we behave the way we do. Almost every human behavior made sense at some point in our early life. It was adaptive. It helped us manage in our first systems (e.g., family of origin). We all have habits of mind and body that no longer serve us. They require great intention to shift. 
• Identify what’s currently working, what’s great and effective and why. We have to understand the current behaviors or dynamic enough to respect them and it’s even better if we can truly appreciate the growth pattern just as it is, at least for a moment. We have to share that we see what’s good, what’s brilliant, and make sure people feel heard.
• Identify what isn’t effective or skillful. This has to be a collaborative activity. I don’t like to be told what is wrong and I am not alone in not wanting to be “fixed”. We all exist in systems and sub-systems. Even at the individual development level, leaders need to engage the system to figure out what can be improved or accomplished more effectively. Allow the positive green shoots to keep growing and tackle the rest. 
• Build in time to stand back and collaboratively assess progress. Celebrate what’s going well, discuss where progress is slowed and why, adjust experiments and practices to align with the new learning.

There are few really bad leaders or teams. There may be some really ineffective, unskillful or unhealthy behaviors. Sometimes when I am hired to work with a team, they are already exhausted. They have been working hard to overcome system dysfunction and are being blamed for lack of project progress, even though much of what they are tasked with is out of their control. Once you get to know the history and context, it explains much of the dynamic. There is goodness in every organizational system. I find if you can gain agreement on what needs to be trimmed, you can create room for healthy growth. 
 
Understand the essence of a situation before you do any trimming.   
 
The truth is like trees, people need good soil (healthy culture), nurturing sunlight and rain (care and recognition), the right kind of support to allow for new growth (collaborative, high involvement) and appreciation for their true nature.  We are all one of a kind. 
 
I founded Leadership Consulting Partners almost 24 years ago to collaborate with leaders, teams and organizations to create more productive, effective, and human people systems and practices. If you are reading this to the end, and you find value, please say so and share with others on LinkedIn and Twitter. Thank you! 
 
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This post is about how we, as business leaders, need to become more inclusive in our choice of language. We need to retain the ability to be truthful to our mission and still not alienate people who do not share our view of the world. This takes a lot of thought and intention because leaders managing through our culture wars are being challenged more and more to “take a side.” Not because it is good for their business, employees and partners, but because it makes for a good sound bite for news outlets. What my clients are teaching me is that inclusive language needs to include everyone, even those with whom we disagree. 
 
Unfortunately, we can’t look to many of our politicians as role models for how to do this. Many of them need to go back to kindergarten, where we learned how to play and be nice to everyone in the class. I am embarrassed when I listen to some of our high-profile politicians. I am not sure what the goal is, but it seems to be to evoke strong emotion and anger. I can tell you I wouldn’t want them representing a hot dog stand, let alone these increasingly diverse, divided, and complex United States. 
 
Due to the content of this post, it’s important for me to share that I am a person who wants everyone to live their happiest, most fulfilling and authentic life. I celebrate LGBTQ+ people and have dear family and friends who identify as such. I don’t understand the fearful and hateful rhetoric directed at LGBTQ+ people. 
 
This week I saw an interview with Brendan Whitworth, the CEO of Anheuser Busch on CBS Mornings. I love it when I catch these interviews because I often see some pretty skillful leadership behavior. I know big company CEOs get a lot of excellent coaching on presenting, framing and language choice. But when done well these interviews are a mini master class on how to discuss difficult topics and manage conflict. Mr. Whitworth was already a pretty accomplished human (former marine and CIA intelligence officer) when he took the reins of the company. I can’t speak to what kind of leader he is as I do not know him but I would bet he is better than the average bear. 
 
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anheuser-busch-bud-light-dylan-mulvaney-campaign-brendan-whitworth/
 
What most impressed me was his clear statement of concern for his employees and business partners and their longstanding commitment to LGBTQ rights. You don’t have to choose one over the other. You can care about them all. The Bud Light Pride Campaign angered some customers who boycotted the brand and this has negatively impacted their revenue. Declining sales can often translate into layoffs. And this includes negative impacts with strategic business partners, in this instance, distributers. 
 
If I could improve Mr. Whitworth’s comments even more, I would have asked him to speak in support of Dylan Mulvaney, the trans woman who partnered with Bud Light during March Madness. Ms. Mulvaney was a business partner after all. She received a lot of harassment after the online Bud Light commercial. Some of it was very hateful and scary. Hate speech can provoke violence. I hope Ms. Mulvaney is safe and that the harassment stops. It would have been good to hear that from Mr. Whitworth. 
 
As we just passed the first anniversary of overturning Roe vs. Wade, I am reminded of another example of the importance of inclusive language. After the ruling, a CEO client was feeling pressure to put out a decisive statement. Some of his team were advocating that he take a public stand in support of choice. His wise Chief Legal Officer recommended a more inclusive response that would send a message of care to all his employees, no matter how they felt about the decision. She knew that there was bound to be strong emotions on both sides and that adding to that would not be supportive, productive or helpful.
 
I am sure it was the right choice for his employees, shareholders and business. This is the job of a business leader, regardless of their personal or political opinions. We should leave the legislation to the politicians and we should make sure we vote for the most skillful and effective of them. 
 
As Pride month comes to a close, I hope we can choose to be kind to everyone, even, and especially those with whom disagree. I have work to do here, and no doubt you do too. My hope is that we can do it together. 
 ________________________________________________________________________________

I write this. No AI tools used. Sometimes I struggle so much to start one of these posts and I know that AI might help prompt ideas, write a few easy to edit paragraphs and generally give me a running start. But I believe we learn to THINK and DISCERN when we write and that seems important to me. I founded Leadership Consulting Partners 23 years ago to collaborate with leaders, teams and organizations to create more productive, effective, and human people systems and practices. If you are reading this to the end, and you find value, please say so and share with others on LinkedIn and Twitter. Thank you! 
 
 
 
 

Spring is almost here in the Midwest and to honor the season, I want to highlight the generative part of helping humans and their systems grow and evolve. Our society and organizational systems are shifting so fast and furiously that the best antidote is to learn faster and more fully embrace the vulnerability and the opportunity that comes with that. 
 
If you have read this blog before you know I LOVE the show Ted Lasso (Apple TV+). It’s fiction. I know. But so often art provides a different vision for all sorts of things. Ted Lasso does that for leadership and teams. 
 
In season 2 of Ted Lasso, episode 10, “No Weddings and a Funeral”, the character Sam Obisanya (played by the marvelous actor Toheeb Jimoh) says to his girlfriend, Rebecca, “There is something I should warn you of, I’m only going to get more wonderful.” 
 
This scene is impossible for me to forget! It so reminds me of the work I do and what I hope to evoke from the leaders and teams with whom I (am so very lucky) to work. My peeps in learning and development all know that growing can be so difficult, painful at times, that we often forget that it is also joyful! Becoming more skillful has such a return on investment for all of us. But in the middle of the chaos of new learning, it’s easy to forget this.
 
Trying out new ways of being, testing new behaviors or language can be unsettling and uncomfortable. It’s as true for all my clients as it is for me. By the time we are adults we have often become knowledgeable and highly competent. We have a track record of success and all the "habits of mind", or "stuckness", that comes with that. Learning a new way to listen, communicate, manage conflict, coach our teams, or whatever we are trying to develop, often feels off at first. Like a garment that doesn’t fit or flatter us. We feel vulnerable, especially when the new behaviors we need to practice are in public forums,  with our teams or in meetings. 
 
When clients tell me that they are worried they will look fake trying a new approach or new behavior, I say that this is normal. Feeling fake is part of the process. New things or new ways often feel fake. And truthfully it may look fake at first, especially if your team knows you well and have gotten used to your habits (and they have). We all exist in a system and systems depend on homeostasis to function even more than individuals do. So, it’s common for your boss, peers, direct reports or other stakeholders to become skeptical or unsettled by your experiments. In fact, one of the things that makes leadership development so difficult is that not only do we depend upon our habits of being, but everyone else we work (and live with) do too. Sometimes people don’t want us to change, because then they might have to change too. 
 
If you are serious about becoming a more effective, successful leader, keep going. As you practice new behaviors, they will start to feel more comfortable. The end game is to be more skillful, to evoke the best, most purposeful contribution from others and yourself. When you start to see the positive outcomes of the changes you endeavor to make, it’s highly probable you will feel accomplished, happy and experience greater ease at work and in life.
 
The magic that happens when already amazing, fully competent adults give themselves permission to try something new, experiment, make intelligent mistakes, meet those with self-compassion and learn is thrilling! Letting go of at least some of the fear and acting from a more curious, open-minded, learning mindset can be exceptionally freeing.
 
In fact, the most fantastic outcome of stretching, learning and growing is greater flexibility and freedom to choose the best and most effective approach or response regardless of whatever comes our way. Believe me, you will only get more wonderful! 
                                       ____________________________________________
I write this. No AI tools used. Not opposed to them (yet). I like the act of writing. I believe we learn to THINK and DISCERN when we write and that seems important to me. I founded Leadership Consulting Partners over 20 years ago to collaborate with leaders, teams and organizations to create more productive, effective, and human people systems and practices. If you are reading this to the end, and you find value, please say so and share with others on LinkedIn and Twitter. Thank you! 
 
 
 
 

Star Trek fans will know that when approaching (vs. be approached by) a Klingon, they use the simple greeting, “What do you want.” As a kid, I really loved this practical directness. I was raised to make people feel welcome with a greeting and that continued into adulthood. But in my work life the greeting I often wanted to use was more Klingon than nice.  
 
And I have come to see the practicality of this type of greeting when we receive meeting invites. One of the biggest complaints I hear from clients is that there are way too many meetings. They have no time to do their real work: to think, strategize, execute and coach their employees. Of course, this is the work that most senior leaders and their teams have been hired to do!
 
Meeting fatigue is ubiquitous. “Weekly time spent in meetings has more than tripled since February 2020, according to data from Microsoft.” Steven Rogelberg, a professor at UNC-Charlotte, has studied meetings for two decades. His latest research suggests that big companies each waste about $100 million a year on unnecessary meetings.” (Link to Bloomberg article below)
 
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-09-27/work-shift-weekly-newsletter-unnecessary-meetings-are-a-100-million-mistake
 
Adam Grant says there are four reasons to meet: to decide, learn, bond and do. 
 
I would add a fifth. When there are big, important milestones, celebrations or announcements that you want to make sure everyone (whether it be a team or a whole company) hears at the same time, a meeting can be efficient. But far too many meetings are “information sharing”, or “updates” which can be accomplished in more efficient ways.
 
If a meeting is unnecessary, the prevalent recommendation from experts is to cancel it. But we don’t do this. According to Steven Rogelberg, “employees want to skip one third of their meeting invites.” Yet only 14% of us decline. And I am aware of how hard this is for clients to do even though they tell me they know that it would vastly improve their team’s productivity and sense of accomplishment. 
 
When I work with teams on this issue, they are brave in theory and scared in practice. In one-on-one meetings they tell me that they are hesitant to decline a meeting invite, even when they know it will be a waste of time. They are worried how it will look, of being left out of important future discussions or not being “seen". These reasons make sense emotionally and wreak havoc on productivity and performance.
 
I advocate we behave more like Klingons for meetings. Adopt a more practical set of responses to meeting invites and make it really okay for people to use them. If you do it right, these questions should become standard: What is the purpose for this meeting? Is a meeting the best way to accomplish this goal? For this purpose, who must be in this meeting? Why am I being invited? 
 
I especially want leaders to encourage employees to decline meeting invites when they know it is not the best use of their time. In 2023 I hope it’s more common to just say “no” to meeting invitations where your attendance serves no real purpose. 
   
Moira Clarke founded Leadership Consulting Partners 21 years ago to collaborate with leaders, teams and organizations to create more productive, effective, and human people systems and practices. If you are reading this to the end, and you find value, please say so and share with others on LinkedIn and Twitter. Thank you! 

Once or twice a week I get pinged on LinkedIn for job’s that fit my profile. Though I rarely apply for a job, I like to look at them sometimes just to see what companies are looking for, the competencies they request and how they incorporate their cultural values or attributes. It’s interesting.
 
Sometimes I can see an organization intentionally leading with their culture and strategy. Companies like Apple, Salesforces and Microsoft do this very well. But what I am most struck by when I read position descriptions is how overwhelming many of them look. I can almost see the hiring manager offloading as much of their job as they possibly can. Sometimes the position description looks like it requires a person capable of scaling tall buildings in a cape. 
 
Then I see posts from academics and leadership influencers about the importance of balance, rest, not overworking, etc. Like this most recent one I saw from Adam Grant on Twitter:
 
“In toxic cultures time off is a reward earned by working to exhaustion. Burnout is proof of commitment, and vacations are required to recover. In healthy cultures, time off is a right granted to everyone. Well-being is top priority and vacations are encouraged to rejuvenate.”
 
And most of us love these posts! What’s not to love? But, is this realistic all the time in many jobs? And does such a workplace really exist outside of Denmark? Or unless you are a tenured academic?
 
I imagine it can be daunting when you are looking for your next move. Because it's what companies are not including in the position descriptions that is more important to most of us than the actual responsibilities of the role. Of course, organizations and potential employees need to find a skills, experience and responsibilities match. But what makes us actually love or hate a job is harder to assess from reading a position description.
 
As I think back on my many jobs, these are the attributes at the top of my list of “most loved”:

• My role allowed me to stretch and grow my skills. There was a lot of variety. The role had challenges but they were interesting and just scary enough to keep me on the edge of my learning. I was able to hone my craft. 
• My boss and superiors really listened to me. When I was leading the project, they included me early, at the design phase. They would include my team and I when were responsible for implementation. I was clear on my accountability. The responsibilities came with commensurate authority. My boss didn’t second guess me. They didn’t always take my recommendations, but we had robust debate about their decision and what I felt might be at risk with their approach.
• I worked with committed and smart colleagues who challenged and supported me in equal measure. We had difficult conversations. We made each other better. We worked actively to build trust.
• My boss enabled me to build the team I needed to deliver. She/he challenged me to make sure I gave folks I inherited a chance to “reset”, develop and grow. But trusted me to make the final decision on team members.
• My immediate boss wanted to do the right thing. They were ethical. They weren’t paragons of courage. I have that in spades. But they had my back when it really mattered. 
• I had a best friend at work. We celebrated each other’s wins and lifted each other up when things looked bleak or didn’t go our way. We kept each other’s confidences.
• And finally, my boss and superiors didn’t care where I worked as long as my team and I delivered on our key objectives. I need to work from home at least two days a week and probably 3 some weeks. This is where I do my best, most creative work. I need quiet time to think and strategize. I have always been this way. 

 
When I see this list, I feel elated and excited! If I had ever had a role with all these attributes, aligned my skills, experience and work I enjoy, it would have been amazing. But I never had that job. I had a few of these attributes at several different jobs, but never all of them. And there is a final “attribute” I didn’t include. I am a person who loves work. I am intense and prone to burnout and I needed a boss to say, “That was great, your team did an amazing job! Now I want you to take time off to recharge. I insist. I don’t want to hear from you for a week!” I never had a boss say that. I needed that more than anything. 
 
No job is perfect and it doesn’t need to be. But you need to create your list. Factor yourself in. Be really clear about what is essential, your “must haves” and “nice to haves”. Don’t compromise on your “must haves”. From your list you can create questions that will allow you to focus on the things that matter to you most. I am certain this will lead to a happier work life. 
   
Moira Clarke founded Leadership Consulting Partners 21 years ago to collaborate with leaders, teams and organizations to create more productive, effective, and human people systems and practices. If you are reading this to the end, and you find value, please say so and share with others on LinkedIn and Twitter. Thank you! 
 
 

In 2019 I began a two-year program to become a certified mindfulness meditation teacher. I had used mindfulness with clients and their teams for many years. I started a meditation practice when I was 20. I hadn’t studied with teachers in a while. But I have always committed to my own development and it seemed a good time to focus on building greater “internal capacity”. With COVID lockdowns starting in the second year of the program, little did I know how important building greater internal capacity would become! It was a great program. It was long. A lot of work. At times it was really difficult to keep up. And it profoundly changed not only my meditation practice, but how I work.
 
Clients, even when they don’t necessarily like it (especially at first), will often tell me how much they appreciate a moment to stand back from the drama, from all the meetings and constant activity. I am intentional about sharing these practices with clients, almost all senior level leaders. Now more than ever, leaders and their workplaces need reflection time. Responding with greater clarity and equanimity is more important than ever. Our gut reactions aren’t always skillful. They don’t create the outcomes we intended. When clients take a moment to stand back and breathe, take care of themselves and their own needs, they can respond with greater choice and skill. 
 
When I ask clients to practice reflection or some other form of meditation, they often tell me that it is very difficult. I understand this. There were times I dropped my meditation practice when things were really busy or difficult (or both) in my life. Of course, these were the exact moments where meditation would have been even more helpful than normal. And I was aware that part of the constant activity, the fear of standing still, was that I might really feel what was going on and I didn’t want to do that.
 
This is why mediation can be so hard at times for me and so many of us. If we sit or stand, or walk with the intention of sustaining moment to moment awareness, we open our attention to whatever is there. The thoughts, emotions and body states that we notice may be familiar. They can be pleasant. They may also be very uncomfortable. Paying attention, on purpose, can open the door to the cognition, the feelings, and memories they spark that we would prefer to ignore, deny or actively push away. Yet whatever is there, is still there, sometimes roiling just below the surface of our awareness and often doesn’t go away until we “sit still” with it, acknowledge and accept it, just as it is.
 
Jon Kabat-Zin, Professor Emeritus of the University of Massachusetts’s Medical School defines mindfulness as:
 
“Awareness, cultivated by paying attention in a sustained and particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.” 
 
This last part, “nonjudgmentally” has been the game changer for me. For most of us, what makes meditation difficult is that we often have a judgement of what we think and feel. “Good, bad, weak strong”, we add a constant stream of opinions about our own experience. Learning to simply accept what we observe and notice, can be fraught with danger or at the least, discomfort. Especially if we think of these judgments as the truth, backed up by years of repeating them and then acting on them (whether we know it or not). They create a kind of “neural groove” constructed from what we have made up about the world. And this can limit choice in how we respond. 
 
Letting go of the judgment of what I notice, letting it be, just as it is, I am able to recognize that none of this internal data is inherently good or bad. But I don’t know this until I allow it more fully into my awareness. 
 
The thoughts and emotions are often linked to memories or stories I tell about myself and my life. And when I become more fully aware of these I can finally decide if replaying them is useful or if they are or were ever true. And if my clinging to them, is supporting my life and work or not. If not, I can finally let them go. I have a choice. And with life and work, especially the work of leadership, choice is key. This is even more important when you are responsible for running a city, a corporation, or a country. 

This is why I say each time I meditate, I die a little. But what dies, what I let go of, is flawed thinking based upon old, worn-out ideas about myself, my relationships and my work. I am letting go of the belief that I have to have all the answers, that I might be less worthy, or not smart enough or the fear that I really don’t belong. This realization allows me to be more intentional about how I behave. To act more aligned with my values, goals and the creative spark that lives in me and all of us. Even as some belief or idea I held about myself is dying, some more effective, skillful, compassionate and generative notion is being born.  
 
Moira Clarke founded Leadership Consulting Partners 21 years ago to collaborate with leaders, teams and organizations to create more productive, effective, and human people systems and practices. If you are reading this to the end, and you find value, please say so and share with others on LinkedIn and Twitter. Thank you! 

I hear so much about the growing importance of purpose and meaning at work. With the “great resignation”, or more accurately, the “great attraction” to record high job openings, it makes sense that organizations are paying more attention to this. Creating more purpose and meaning at work is complicated. But will create a worthwhile return on investment by increasing engagement and discretionary effort.
 
When I work with clients to improve their employee engagement, we usually need to start by enhancing purpose and meaning. At the macro level, the company needs to be clear and transparent about the organization’s actual value proposition or “lived mission”, and how this value proposition is aligned with their work. Then they need to make sure that their jobs are structured to create as much autonomy, mastery and purpose (see Daniel Pink’s excellent book Drive) as possible.  
 
Once a client is clear on their value proposition, then they can create their talent acquisition and retention strategy. According to the Hogan Personality Assessment, there are 10 motives, values, and preferences that contribute to engagement, suitability and happiness with an organization and role. They are: recognition, power, hedonism, altruism, affiliation, tradition, security, commerce, aesthetics and science. 
 
When I work with an executive who is unhappy in her/his role, if it is not due to dissatisfaction with the boss relationship, it is often a misalignment between their main motivators and the company’s mission. For instance, if the executive’s highest motivators are commerce, security and recognition, working in a commercially focused, high paying, for-profit organization is likely to be fulfilling and feel purposeful. If, however, their main motivators are altruism, affiliation and science, they would likely be happier in an organization that has a more human-centric mission (e.g., that exists to improve people’s lives).
 
Sometimes, the organization is doing a good job aligning their mission with their talent acquisition strategy, easily attracts talent, but can’t retain it. In this instance I recommend they conduct a climate audit to assess the leadership and roles. It’s important to design roles with as much autonomy (agency), opportunities to develop (to build mastery), and purpose as possible. And then ensuring that leaders know how to create a work climate that nurtures this, will improve retention. 
 
A couple years ago I was working with a client and as part of the engagement project, I suggested that we conduct “stay interviews” to see why employees choose to stay at the company. We found that the top motivators included: it was a fun place to work where employees could build strong relationships, including friendships and be well compensated for the work they do. When we shared the data with the CEO, he was a little disappointed. I wasn’t surprised or disappointed. The data made total sense to me. I could see that the affiliation, commerce and hedonism (which mostly means "enjoys having fun") motivators were common attractors for their employee population. Many employees felt it was a fun place to work and stayed due to the meaningful friendships they made. You could do  a lot worse!
 
The bottom line: when organizations are clear and truthful on why they exist, operate aligned with their values, communicate their value proposition honestly to their employees and prospective employees, and strive to make their jobs as rich as possible, they are much more likely to attract and retain aligned and energized, “best-fit” employees.  
 
Moira Clarke founded Leadership Consulting Partners 21 years ago to collaborate with leaders, teams and organizations to create more productive, effective, and human people systems and practices. If you are reading this to the end, and you find value, please say so and share with others on LinkedIn and Twitter. Thank you! 
 

The last couple of years I have been exploring design, particularly architecture and product design. I am motivated to learn more because I can see how it can guide and improve my work with organizational people systems. In this post I want to explore a few of Dieter Rams design principles and how they might apply to designing people systems. 
 
Dieter Rams is a German industrial designer and academic. He was chief of design at Braun for 40 years, and for the furniture company, Vitsoe. I was introduced to his work when my husband installed Vitsoe cabinets and shelves in his home office about 12 years ago. They are so simple, beautiful and well designed. They are extremely well made and functional. Even though they are wall mounted, when you move, you take your Vitsoe with you. 
 
I think of Rams as the best kind of visionary because he is practical. He started thinking about the environmental impact of products long before it was fashionable. He didn’t want products to need to be replaced because he understood how wasteful it is. One of his principles is that products should be designed to last. Though I find all of Rams ten design principles relevant to my work in organization development, I will start with a few and perhaps do a follow up post on a few more. 

• Good design makes a product useful.
• Good design is aesthetic.
• Good design makes a product understandable.

 
When I work with a team or an individual, I want to make their job easier, to make an impact on their performance and their business success. They are taking precious time away from their day-to-day work for an hour, a day or more, and what we do together must be useful to them. This requires a lot of collaboration and planning up front to figure out what they really need, which may be very different than what they say they want in our first meeting. 
 
Rams believes that the aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness. However, only “well executed products can be beautiful”, so quality really matters.  For my work this means that the organization design, process or practice needs to be thoughtfully introduced, explained and implemented. It needs to appeal enough to the participants that they take the risk to engage in using it. When they do practice, they have the requisite coaching and support to get started, and it works as promised. They are motivated to keep practicing.
 
One specific example from my work is designing performance management systems. I have collaborated with many clients to create or update their system and process. Performance management too often involves complicated, long, detailed processes and forms. Most are automated and connected to the HRIS system. But it’s not uncommon for managers and employees to be frustrated with them. They can easily become a “check the box” exercise. If they are complicated and time consuming, the focus becomes about completing them and turning them in. It’s easy to miss the real point of this important organizational ritual.
 
The main goal of a performance management system is to ensure that the organization is fully acknowledging the value creation and enablement of all its employees. If well designed and executed it serves as a structured, equitable process for recognizing and rewarding the contribution of all employees, based upon qualitative and quantitative data. It can better align compensation with contribution, and help identify employee’s development needs. If your system is working well, managers and employees use it because they see how it benefits them and the organization. And it allows them to celebrate, in a more formal way, all of their contributions. 
 
I see more innovation and improvement with performance management systems. When I work with a client on this type of process, I want whatever approach they choose to align with their expectations and outcomes. And I want the system to be well thought out, meaningful to managers and employees alike, easy to use and worth the effort.
 
Good design is needed everywhere. And it is even more important when organizations are trying to evolve, improve, change or transform an institutional system. Any change is difficult enough. Good, well executed design has the potential to make change efforts more successful. Well designed and implemented people systems and processes can help create more productive and meaningful workplaces, and ultimately improve organization performance.  

Moira Clarke founded Leadership Consulting Partners 21 years ago to collaborate with leaders, teams and organizations to create more productive, effective, and human people systems and practices. If you are reading this to the end, and you find value, please say so and share with others on LinkedIn and Twitter. Thank you! 

​“Being fully present to what is, without judging or evaluating or wanting something different, is the most basic act of love.”   C.W. Huntington, Jr.
 
All of my work, whether at the individual, team or enterprise-wide, whole system level, is about change, growth and development. It’s exciting and at times, daunting work. Each of us human beings have our own orientation to change. According to personality data, many of us don’t welcome or enjoy change, especially when it is goes hand in hand, as it often does, with an ambiguous future state. 
 
There are a few folks who are wired for change. They welcome it, and sometimes pursue it because they actually relish it (even, when it isn’t necessary). But in research, this shows up as a minority of our species.
 
When I think about accepting things as they are, I think of it as a vital part of any change that can’t be skipped. And when I invite clients to become more fully aware of the current reality, it is because I don’t think any real change happens without a full understanding of what we are really, already in the middle of. Through accepting the present moment, I am not advocating that we surrender, accept our fate or give up. In fact, for me, accepting reality, being open to what is really happening in any system, is the first step to any worthwhile change or development journey, from quitting a bad habit (smoking) to transforming an organization, or any other large, complex system.
 
When confronted with the need for change, the most difficult thing for most of a us to do is to allow ourselves to accept reality, what is actually happening in the fullest sense. Instead, we often spend a lot of energy “defending the fortress” (e.g., strategy, products, structure, talent choices), especially if we had a big part in deciding or creating them. And this “fortress”, whether still effective or not, has become “institutionalized” in myriad organizational habits of how we think, decide and communicate. 
 
If we are not completely aware of what it feels like to be fully present to “what is”, it is often much more difficult to accurately assess and then creatively envision a more successful future. 
 
Some of us ignore the need for change or shut down. A few brave souls, a.k.a., “change agents” spend a lot of energy battling the fortress. But in their frustration (“fighting” against systems is exhausting!), the way they go about it, can be ineffective. This is because their communication about the need for change is full of, subtle and not so subtle, judgement and blame. This can be experienced by others as arrogant, even when the change agent is motivated by deep care and a strong sense of responsibility (as they often are). Because we over-identify with the systems we have had a hand in creating, when a change agent boldly questions our work, it can feel insulting or like a personal attack.
 
This same process can also apply to our individual growth and development. We all hang on to some of our habits of leadership even when they may no longer be effective in our current lives. Many of our leadership mental models were formed early, growing up in our family systems. Though constructed when we were young, they still show up in our leadership decisions and behaviors many years later.  Standing back to soak in reality, here and now, can be quite a revelation, if we let it in. And from this more open, accepting place, we can decide if some of our habits of mind and behavior are effective and productive in our current context.  
 
At the team or organization level this process is more time consuming. You have to create a psychologically safe space where people can tell the powers that be what is happening. This step requires leaders pause the action, sit still, quiet the critic, allow, and even “accept” what they are learning. In this way, “being fully present to what is”, allows for deeper listening and understanding. At this phase, we have to suspend judgement and evaluation, and the yearning for something to be different (easier, simpler, more as we would like it to be). To really listen, you have to be open and curious and when practicing this, judgement and evaluation will only diminish the safety required to tell the truth.
 
Finding a way to accept fully what is, in this present moment, is absolutely an act of love. It says, without blame, or judgement, I accept you, I accept me, this situation, this difficulty, this mistake, and this joy of full awareness, in the midst of all of it, just as it is. And from this more generative space, the seeds of change are nourished and true creative transformation may flourish. 
 
C.W. Huntington, Jr. (1949-2020) was a translator and interpreter of Sanskrit and Tibetan Buddhist literature. He was Chair of Department of Religious Studies at Hartwick College. His most recent book, What I Don’t Know about Death, was published this year posthumously,

Moira Clarke founded Leadership Consulting Partners 21 years ago to collaborate with leaders, teams and organizations to create more productive, effective, and human people systems and practices. If you are reading this to the end, and you find value, please say so and share with others on LinkedIn and Twitter. Thank you! 

 
 

In many recent client conversations, they express the desire to continue to work from home or go to a hybrid schedule. They also share that most of their teams don’t want to go back to the office. Executive clients universally express a desire to get back to the office in person, at least part-time. Many clients have delayed going back to the office or are phasing in their new hybrid schedule and trying to motivate folks to return at least a few days a week.
 
On LinkedIn and Twitter, I see countless articles pointing out that most knowledge workers really don’t want to go back or want to go back on a limited basis. This matches what I am hearing anecdotally from almost all my clients. 
 
But what to do if you are a leader of a team that must be in the office due to your industry or their roles? 
 
Before I answer this, I’ll share a story from what feels like ancient, pre-covid times (3 years ago). I was visiting a client on a Friday afternoon. At some point in our meeting she said, “I have to come in on Fridays because otherwise it’s the ‘completely empty management wall’ on most floors.” I looked at her quizzically. She proceeded to tell me that her team (and many others) were expected to be in on Fridays but most of the managers worked from home on Fridays. All the leaders’ offices were on the exterior wall of the building. The cubicles were spread on the internal parts of the floor. Yes, it’s kind of awful, but it’s still pretty common. The Friday I was visiting, all the offices on her floor were empty, except for hers. 
 
She didn’t like the message it sent. She worked for a large global company. Working from home was not possible for most of their work force and she thought it sent the wrong message that rank and file needed to show up, but the management didn’t. She felt it looked like a double standard. I agreed.
 
If everyone can work from anywhere in your organization – great. But if some roles need to be on site and you are an organizational leader, especially at a senior level, you should be present for them, in person, at least part of the work week. Your presence sends the message that they matter to you, that you care about them enough to show up and that even though you may not need to be there, because they are, you want to be.
 
We are living in unpresented times. Equity in corporate practices and policies is being carefully watched by many of your employees (and it probably always was). So how you structure your return to work really matters. Extra attention, care and communication in crafting your remote or hybrid work policies will pay dividends. One of the worst things you could do it create yet one more policy that smacks of privilege, especially for those who have the privilege of leading others. 
 
As you decide your return to work, make sure you don’t have an empty “management suite” or wall or whatever. Your presence is required to inspire and motivate the teams upon which your business depends. 

Moira Clarke founded Leadership Consulting Partners 21 years ago to collaborate with leaders, teams and organizations to create more productive, effective, and human people systems and practices. If you are reading this to the end, and you find value, please say so and share with others on LinkedIn and Twitter. Thank you!