As we approached the end of lockdown, one of the directors in our Curated Leadership Conversation said: “We need to start getting people back to our offices, but we need to reconfigure the offices as current layout of chairs, desks and furniture won’t work for social distancing and the new way of working.”

As the other participants, also directors, took this in, she added: “Sorry Dave, this isn’t leadership is it, tables and chairs?”

“Well,” I said after a moment’s thought, “maybe it is. Leadership is about creating an environment where everyone can do their best work. And that includes the physical as well as cultural environment. So, maybe tables and chairs count here. What’s your policy for getting people back into the office?”

They looked at each other and one said, “We haven’t talked about it.”

“Well, you have an hour, here and now – you could talk about it,” I prompted.

What’s your policy?

“It’s a mandatory return to the office, no debate,” someone ventured.

“We can’t do that,” said another. “There will be some people who for very good reason will not be able to come back to the office”

A further director said “Why not leave it up to them, let them come and go as they please?”

The first two said: “No way, that’s too loose.”

How about Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the office, with Monday and Friday open choice, a fourth proposed.

And so for an hour they had a great conversation, weighing up the available options, the need for temperature checks and consulting staff as well as HR and what they thought were the legalities.

At the end of the hour, one said: “Dave, we haven’t nailed it but we are going to meet again next week without you to finalise it. By the time we meet with you again we will have sorted and communicated our policy.”

Some challenges but we are handling them

True to their word, by the next Curated Leadership Conversation they had finalised and published their policy, providing direction, clarity and consistency across all regions of their organisation.

They discussed some challenges, including a small minority who weren’t able to comply, although HR was helping case by case.

“Well done, all,” said one. “I’m really glad we had the conversation and that we followed through on it. I think it would have been chaos had we all just went our separate ways. People talk and would have quickly flushed out unfairness and inconsistency.”

Janice, who originally raised the issue, said: “This is great, an example of us leading as one, we need more of this. Dave, this is an example of where a policy was definitely needed, though I think there is a counter conversation to be had about empowerment. Can we talk about that?”

“Go on then” I said.

It’s not a course, its work

Curated Leadership Conversation™ is one of our Leadership for Results programmes. We curate conversations between groups of leaders from the same company about aspects of leadership and they talk about them in the context of their business.

Between them, they sort out what they need to sort out to create an environment for success. It’s not a course, it’s work, although they are sure to learn about what really matters and about each other, coming out the other end a stronger leadership unit.

In one of the early sessions, we enable the participants to distinguish between doing, managing and leading and, from that point onwards, the conversation is about leadership.

By maintaining the conversations at the leadership level, the participants begin to permanently operate at a higher level. Consistent leadership makes things better for people and makes for better business.

We live in challenging and uncertain times, demanding consistent leadership.

Develop yours here.

The future of the Workstation

As we are talking tables and chairs the Image shows Unio, the future of the Workstation. Electric height adjustable desk and monitor. It’s future tech ready.

Futuristic shape and wireless appearance Unio saves up to 27% in floor space.

I love it, though have no ties or commercial affiliations – details here www.greenwhitesice.com