Will anybody tell the director they are naked?
How many times have you stood by the water cooler and exchanged amazement with a colleague about decisions made by your boss or your senior directors?
How many times have you questioned their behaviour, and had no idea why they can't see the knock on impacts? Are the consequences intended, do they know something we don't? Or, has nobody pointed out the impacts to them?
More and more I hear myself saying "it's like the Emporer's new clothes", as I observe these water cooler chats and observe the shaking heads in conference briefings! As someone who has worked in the field of organisation behaviour for many years, I am really interested in this behaviour. It isn’t always about whistle-blowing over a breach of heath and safety, a risk to patient safety, fraud or criminality. These incidents don’t call for huge investigations or a call to stop work and resolve the issue.
This is about honest, open communication within organisations. Hierarchy that is flat enough to enable a decision to be made quickly and easily, and the impact of those decisions to be clearly seen.
It's about the people working on a project, in the detail, being the people who present their ideas and inform the decisions. It’s about people being able to speak up, share their ideas and raise concerns, whatever their role or level. When communication is top down and involves a long line of meetings, briefings and presentations, detail, and more importantly, intention, is lost.
This can be as simple as a director's decision to reduce space and reorganise office layouts and ways of working, whilst retaining a large, swanky office and a personal parking space for themselves. A classic case of "do as I say...''. As they talk about the sacrifices needed as the organisation saves money, and how they are investing in people, the irony is visible in the shakes of heads and heard loudly in the small group conversations after the event. It’s rare for this to be pointed out to the director in question at the time, why? Whose job is it to point out the impacts?
The reports which emerged following the President's Club dinner at The Dorchester have sparked huge, emotionally charged debates. Whatever your personal perspective, the thing that amazes me most – did nobody, at any point, think this was a bad idea? I can’t believe that members of the organising committees didn’t have concerns – why didn’t they raise them? If they did why did nobody listen?
Whose job is it to ask the questions and raise concerns?
There maybe a HR Director or business partner – is it their job?
What about their peers – is it their job?
There are probably external consultants in the business – is it their job?
The directors may have coaches – is it their job?
Or, is it about creating a culture where it becomes the norm to raise an issue, to point out the irony, the discrepancy and the unintended consequences? A culture where these views are listened to, and taken seriously. In my view, whatever the organisation’s sector or line of business, we need to create cultures where it is the norm to speak up, raise concerns, ask questions and put forward ideas? When we talk about inclusivity across organisations, this is what it means to me.