Some of my coaching clients find themselves in a role where they consider themselves to be managing rather than leading. Others don’t currently manage people but hope to do so and want to show that they are ready for leadership. Both parties often bring to a coaching session this question: how can I lead without a leadership position?
A few years ago, McKinsey report into leadership behaviours asked 189000 people from 81 organisations around the world which types of leadership behaviour was most frequently demonstrated. They were given twenty different behaviour types to choose from, including remaining composed in uncertainty to giving praise.
McKinsey found that in high-performing organisations, four types of behaviour accounted for 89% of effective leadership. They are:
Effective problem-solving
Strong results orientation
A willingness to seek different perspectives
Supporting others
While it’s clear that different kinds of businesses and the different situations in which they find themselves may require other kinds of leadership behaviour, it seems that these four behaviours could be regarded as core.
With that in mind, my clients and I work together to strengthen their abilities in each of these areas. If they want to work on effective problem-solving, we identify opportunities for them to take the initiative, to get their voices heard, to ask great questions and share their expertise. Doing this well also feeds into a focus on results – also demonstrated by a commitment to delivering on their objectives and their promises as well as to being accountable and responsible.
We work on how they can include others to bring together a group of diverse people with a wide range of skills and experience, strengthening the ability to build effective collaborative teams with a variety of perspectives. We identify opportunities to champion and develop others as part of their own path to leadership.
Working on these core behaviours means that when the opportunity arises, my clients have the experience to show that they are ready to step into leadership roles.
Today’s pebble for you to ponder: how would you assess yourself against these four key leadership behaviours?
If you’re interested in working on your leadership behaviours and making the most of your potential, please do email me and let’s have a conversation about how we can work together.
Think of a cylindrical jar, filled to the brim with water. Turn that jar over and the water pours straight out. Now think of a bottle of water: turn that over and the flow is slowed down by the capacity of the bottleneck.
Within an organisation, a bottleneck is anything that hinders workflow and prevents progress. While bottlenecks can sometimes be things – slow internet, a process that takes 24 hours to update, a canning machine that can’t handle the number of baked beans coming out of the pipeline – they can often be people. The performance of the entire system can be limited by a single person.
How so? Let’s say your business is refreshing its website. The design is ready, the copy is ready, the new headshots are done. All you need now is sign-off from the CEO. She’s on a well-deserved break for three weeks. There’s your bottleneck.
The van is packed for the event. Your colleagues are ready. The marketing collateral is ready. You’ve got snacks for the journey. Where’s the car park pass? Ah, the PA has the paper copy of it – there’s your bottleneck.
These are both instances described to me by clients.
What’s the solution?
When you identify a bottleneck, work on replacing it with a conduit. A conduit is simply a means of conveying something without holding it up. One way of creating a conduit is to delegate– could the COO or the Marketing Director sign off the website copy? Another way is to disperse – perhaps the car park pass could be shared electronically so that the van driver can access it as well as the PA.
It’s important to consider whether you’re the bottleneck. Do you feel like you are doing your team a favour by taking on all the extra tasks but you can’t actually complete them? Perhaps you’re not the best person to fulfil these tasks. Colin Powell said, ‘The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise. In my experience, the people closest to the problems are often in the best position to see the solutions. The key here is to empower and not be the bottleneck.’ Discuss the tasks with your team, define the potential bottlenecks and determine who is best placed to work on this project. If it’s not you, hand it over with clarity and confidence.
Today’s pebble for you to ponder: When you notice a process grinding to a halt, stop to ask yourself – is there a bottleneck here? Can you discuss, define, determine, disperse or delegate to create a conduit?
Over the last few months, one of my clients – let’s call him Neil – has been working on his tendency to compare himself with others, particularly in the workplace. He has found that this tendency leads to anxiety and also distracts him, thus detrimentally affecting his performance which then leads to an unfavourable comparison with his colleagues so then he overthinks things. As you can see, this is not a helpful cycle and one he was keen to break.
Most of us can probably think of a time in our lives when we’ve struggled with ‘comparisonitis’ – a niggly little bug which lingers in our systems, sapping our energy and vigour. I once read a passage which said that if I suggested to you that you took the hero from each of two novels and asked you to choose which one was the best, you would think that was a crazy idea. The heroes have different backgrounds, different experiences, different social circles, different skills and different purposes which they will fulfil at their own pace. It’s true, isn’t it? There is no value in comparing Bilbo Baggins and Elizabeth Bennet. And yet, we persist in comparing ourselves with other people.
As Neil and I discussed his comparison anxiety, we agreed that one way for him to tackle it was to focus on his strengths rather than his perceived shortcomings. To do this, Neil decided to spend time journalling and, to remind him of the journal’s purpose, he added this quotation from Jay Shetty’s book, Think Like a Monk, to the front page of the notebook:
‘If I sold more apples that you did yesterday, but you sold more today, this says nothing about whether I’m improving as an apple seller.‘
Like so many of us who consider journalling, Neil was daunted by the blank page so we devised a list of questions or prompts to get him started. With his permission, I’m sharing his list below in case you’d like to try some strength-journalling for yourself:
If I asked my partner/best friend/trusted colleague to name my strengths, what would they say?
What is my proudest achievement and how did I achieve it?
Am I making the most of my strengths at work?
How do I measure success?
Which of my strengths have I used this week?
When people ask me for help or advice, what kind of help are they usually looking for?
Is there a strength of mine that I feel goes unnoticed or is undervalued? How could I improve that?
Reflect on a challenge I’ve had to tackle – what did I learn from that? What surprised me?
Look back on the last ten years – how have I developed and grown?
What strengths do I value in others? Can I work on those for myself?
How do I solve problems?
What compliments/positive feedback have I received lately?
What have I had to overcome in my life/career? What did I learn from that?
How can I use my strengths to develop my team?
When am I at my best?
How am I a positive influence at work or at home?
Is there a strength I’m neglecting? How can I use it more?
Under what circumstances do I thrive?
How can I have a positive impact/influence within a group?
How do my habits support my strengths?
Neil’s notebook has enabled him to turn away from comparison with others and turn towards comparison with himself. He’s developing a healthy, productive practice which dissipates the anxiety of comparisonitis and spurs him on towards self-development.
Today’s pebble for you to ponder: do you struggle with comparison anxiety? Will you try strength-journalling to see how it could help you?
‘I need to find a fresh way of looking at an issue,’ announced Cassie (not her real name) when she arrived at a recent session. ‘I feel like I have thought and thought – and overthought – about this and I’ve got myself into a rut of responding in the same way every time. That way of thinking, and the actions I take as a result of it, aren’t changing the situation so I need a new approach.’
‘There’s a woman in my team who started the same day as I did. We used to do the same job and then when our boss left, we both interviewed to replace him and I got the job. She seemed ok about it and happy to report into me at the time but ever since then, every time we’re in a meeting with other departments or the head of our department, it seems like she’s trying to outdo me, leaping in to add her thoughts and make her points, completely overshadowing me. I feel like an idiot!’
‘Has anyone else mentioned it to you?’
‘A couple of colleagues have mentioned she’s a bit keen but I’ve never brought it up with her directly. I feel like that would make me look really petty and insecure. And I feel really petty and insecure!’
To paraphrase Epictetus, we are often not disturbed by events themselves but how we react to and think about those events.
A long time ago in my coaching training, I was introduced to the idea of ‘six stories’ and as I was listening to Cassie, I felt like this could help her.
‘You’ve said that you feel like your colleague is trying to outdo you. I’d like you to come up with six other stories about what might be going on here. They don’t have to be realistic or likely – I’d just like you to come up with six other explanations for this situation.’
‘Seriously? Just any six stories, no matter how ridiculous they are? OK.’ Cassie typed the following on our virtual whiteboard.
She’s an undercover agent from one of our competitors whose mission is to make me leave and join their business.
She thinks I’m really busy so it might be helpful if she takes the lead in meetings.
I’m imagining it and she’s just behaving normally.
She’s applied to be on The Apprentice and is practising getting her point across before all the Alpha Males dominate the conversation.
She’s conspiring with the head of the department to undermine me.
She wants to look good for the next opportunity that comes up.
‘How’s that? Now what do I do?’
‘Firstly, how did coming up with those six stories make you feel?’
‘A bit daft to start with but it’s actually good to force myself out of the rut of thinking about it the same way I always do. The crazy ideas really jolted me out of that!’
‘As you look back at those ideas, do you think any of them might have any truth to them?’
‘Number 2, and 3 and 6 maybe. But those are all assumptions, aren’t they?’
‘Good point. Do they give you any opportunities to take any actions which align with your values?’
‘Well, I really value honesty and transparency so it would make sense if I talk to her about it. Like I say, I’ve avoided bringing it up for fear of sounding petty but actually, I’m not really being fair to her if I make assumptions. The next time it happens, I think I’ll talk to her privately afterwards and say I’ve noticed her enthusiastic participation and that I’m wondering what’s behind that – is she just loving the work or is she hoping to move on? That kind of thing. Now I think about it, I’m sure she’s not doing it to belittle me so it would be good to talk about it and see how I might be able to help her raise her profile or gain a promotion, if that’s what she’d like.
‘Even though it might be a tricky conversation, I think we can make it constructive and productive. I feel more positive about the situation now.’
Cassie was stuck in a situation she felt she couldn’t change. Using ‘six stories’ to help her reframe the issue helped her find a fresh perspective and make a plan to change it.
Today’s pebble for you to ponder: is there an issue you need to reframe? What six stories could you tell yourself about it?
When a client decides on an objective that they’d like to complete between our sessions, I will often ask them ‘on a scale of 1 to 10, how committed are you to completing this action?‘. An answer of 8 or higher suggests that the objective is likely to be completed. Anything lower than that prompts me to ask more questions to see what needs to change in order for the client to feel more committed to fulfil the action – perhaps we need to break it into smaller goals, change the timescale, enlist someone else’s help. The point of this questioning is to shape the objective in such a way as to make it compelling and beneficial to complete.
One of my clients in particular is now very adept at evaluating his action plans and tweaking them accordingly so that he’s confident he will achieve them. He will often end this process by declaring ‘action beats intention’, a phrase which resonates with me.
‘There’s no such thing as an ideal daily routine. The best model is the one that works for you. Successful people don’t keep similar schedules. Their common practice is experimenting to learn what suits them. Don’t be a slave to others’ habits. One size doesn’t fit all minds.‘
It can be easy to be influenced by people in the public eye – whether that’s an entrepreneur, a celebrity, a personal trainer or a wellbeing guru. If you read that Elon Musk only gets six hours of sleep a night, perhaps you’ll be tempted to set your alarm an hour earlier. Maybe you’re inspired by Richard Branson to take an ice bath every morning. Perhaps you’d like to start your working day at 10am like Jeff Bezos – how might your employer feel about that?
As Grant writes, successful people aren’t slavishly following the routines of other successful people: they are finding out what works for them and committing to that. Setting your objectives at an achievable level makes it far easier for you to fully engage with them, fulfil them and then set another goal. Setting an overly ambitious goal could mean you struggle to achieve it and give up entirely.
Action beats intention.
A 15-minute walk you actually take each lunchtime is better than promising yourself to go for a 45-minute swim three days a week and managing only one swimming session.
Fortnightly one-to-one meetings with your direct reports which you stick to rigorously are better than a weekly meeting which gets bumped from the diary every now and then because something else came up.
Studying a little and often for your professional qualifications could be more effective than taking a couple of days of annual leave before the exam and cramming your head full of knowledge until midnight, arriving at the test centre exhausted.
When we set an objective, taking time to hone it to an achievable, motivating goal is time well spent. The lofty ambitious plans we intend to complete will remain as plans unless we take action.
Today’s pebble for you to ponder: when you consider the phrase ‘action beats intention’, what springs to mind? What action will you take this week?
‘I’ve got a big team with a lot of very creative people,’ said Kelly (not her real name) at a recent session. ‘My issue is creating an environment in which everyone feels they can make suggestions and contribute.
‘I’m not talking about problem-solving meetings. I’m talking about the ‘dream big’ kind of meetings – new products or new avenues for us to explore as an organisation.
‘One of the issues is that we have some very big personalities and some strong emotions. We seem to end up in a situation where meetings can be dominated by three or four people, some people say very little or nothing – either because they’re scared of being judged or maybe because they think they don’t need to. Once an idea gets criticised, feelings get hurt and we get off track. I need a more positive approach!’
‘Have you heard of plussing?’ I asked. Kelly hadn’t and in case you haven’t either, here’s a brief overview.
Plussing is thought to have started at Disney and has become an everyday part of the creative process at Pixar. Like Appreciative Inquiry, it looks for the positive about an idea and then it builds on that – hence, ‘plussing’.
Key to successful plussing at Pixar are three ideas taking from the world of improvisation:
1Accept all offers
When I first heard about plussing, I struggled to get my head around the idea of ‘accept all offers’ until I thought more about improvisation.
Imagine two actors who have no idea what the other is thinking. Actor one holds up a banana to his ear, says ‘hello’ and then passes it over to actor two, saying ‘It’s for you.’
Actor two then has a choice – he could of course say ‘what are you talking about? That’s a banana!’ or he could accept the offer, take the banana and improvise a phone conversation.
Now think of that in an ideas session – person one comes up with an idea, and person two runs with that idea, rather than declaring it’s a terrible idea and closing the conversation down without any room for improvements.
2 Use ‘yes, and’ rather than ‘yes, but’
Having accepted the offer, it’s time for you to add to it and using ‘and’ rather than ‘but‘ can make all the difference here. When we hear the word ‘but’, we brace ourselves for rejection and judgement: ‘and’ accepts an idea and builds on it.
3 Make your partner look good
I think both the former points play into this last one. When we accept an idea and build on it to make it even better, we do make our team member look good. We listen to them with curiosity and without judgment with an objective of creating great ideas together, rather than wanting to make ourselves look good at someone else’s expense.
Having taken Kelly through plussing, we then thought about how she could apply it in her context. She has decided to be very open about it and take the team through the principles and then they are going to apply them together to create a special celebration event for her organisation. To create an environment in which everyone contributes, she’s going to try a written idea generation technique. She will present the team with the scenario and then simultaneously, each team member will write down the first idea that comes into their head. They will then pass it to the person next to them who will read the idea and add to it before passing it to the next person. This is a sure-fire way for the team to get used to the idea whilst also ensuring everyone contributes.
Interestingly, Kelly also volunteers as a leader in a children’s group – she’s going to try plussing with them too to help them express ideas in a safe, encouraging environment which won’t squash their creativity.
Today’s pebble for you to ponder: could you add plussing to your creative ideas conversations?
At the end of a recent session, a client and I were discussing his sleeping patterns.
‘When I worked in the city,’ explained John (not his real name), ‘I used to leave home at 7am to get to the motorway by 20 past so I could be at my desk by about 8. I knew that if I left home even 15 minutes later, the traffic would build up and I might not get to work until gone 9. I had to get up at 6 to make sure I could get everything done and leave on time. Consequently, I was in bed by 10 every night, Sunday to Thursday.
‘Four years ago this month, our business swapped to home-working literally overnight. The first few weeks of lockdown were a bit chaotic – we were working out how to home-school our children, who was working in which room of the house, how to get our food-shopping done, all that kind of stuff so our routines were all over the place.
‘As we all got more used to it, I felt like I had to get back to that pre-lockdown routine: in bed by 10pm, up at 6am. It felt that it was a good, disciplined thing to do at a time when everything felt out of kilter. And four years later, I’m still doing it.
‘Lately, though, I’ve wondered whether that’s a good thing. I don’t need to be up that early any more and as our children get older, it seems like I’m going to bed just after them!’
‘What difference would it make to you if you changed that routine?’
‘I don’t really do very much that’s useful at 6am – I just lie in bed, scrolling through news sites or social media until 7am when the rest of the family wake up. I could set my alarm for 7 and it wouldn’t have any negative impact on our day. Likewise, I could have more free time in the evening with my wife after the kids are in bed and wind down a bit more before heading up to bed.’
‘How do you feel about that potential change now?’
‘It sounds good – although I’m kind of wondering how this has never occurred to me before! A routine should be a help, not a hindrance, shouldn’t it?’
You may wonder what relevance this has to you. It’s John’s last sentence which struck me: a routine should be a help, not a hindrance.
How many routines have you fallen into at work or at home? If I asked you why you did things that way, how likely would you be to answer ‘we always do it that way’? Routines that may once have been necessary, helpful or reassuring may no longer work in your current circumstances. Here are a few examples from my clients:
A weekly one-to-one with your direct reports that could go to fortnightly now they’re all settled in their roles
A meal delivery kit you used to love but doesn’t fit your lifestyle now
A daily 15-minute video call to catch up with your colleagues when you’re now see them face-to-face two days a week
Organising the monthly social for the team even though it’s become an onerous task you don’t really enjoy
A subscription to a publication you no longer read and piles up unopened on the coffee table
Compiling the Friday report that never results in any actions
The Peloton bike that helped you stay physically and mentally fit during lockdown but is now a really expensive clothes horse.
I’m sure you can think of others. Why not spend a few minutes listing the routines you have and then ask yourself the following questions?
Is this routine important/necessary?
Does it still work for me?
Am I the right person to perform this routine?
Could I make a change to this routine which would improve it?
It may be that you have to work through this process with colleagues or family members but the important thing to remember is John’s realisation: a routine should be a help, not a hindrance.
Today’s pebble for you to ponder: which of your routines needs to be refreshed?
Michelle
PS No post next week as it’s Good Friday. I’ll be back on 5 April.
When she joined our call last month, the first thing that Lily (not her real name) did was to apologise for yawning. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said, ‘I just can’t stop yawning. I’ve been so busy lately and I’m shattered.’
‘What have you been up to?’
‘Oh, it’s all good. Work is going well, in fact, so well that I’ve been asked to recruit another team member so I need to get on with that. The children seem much more settled at school now and have signed up for all sorts of after-school activities so by the time one of us has picked them up and got them home, we’re straight into the tea, bath, bedtime routine while I’m trying to take a couple of phone calls and then my husband and I eat, try to tidy up a bit, and then I like to do an hour or so of work before we watch a bit of TV and then fall into bed. It takes a while to fall asleep as my mind is buzzing! I’m getting up early to do half an hour on the treadmill when I catch up with any emails from the US office and then it’s time to get the kids up for school. Did I tell you about the fundraiser I’m organising for the school’s residential visit?’
‘No – I’m not surprised you’re tired!’
‘I know – I never really stop. My husband keeps saying I need to create some boundaries but I always see that as a bit of a negative thing. These are all things I love doing so it doesn’t really matter if they bleed into each other, does it? To create a boundary feels very defensive and all about keeping things out – what if I want to just want to jumble it all up?’ Lily laughed.
‘If you went out for a meal and you had to choose your favourite three courses, what would you choose?’
‘Where did that question come from? Er, ok: I’d start with a spicy gazpacho. Then I’d go for a rare steak, with some crispy French fries and some green beans. If I had room for dessert, I’d have a sticky toffee pudding with some clotted cream on top. I’d need to do a bit longer on the treadmill the next day after all that lot!’
‘That sounds like an amazing meal. What would you think if the waiter brought all those lovely choices to the table at the same time, in one big dish?’
‘Grim! That would be disgusting! I wouldn’t be able to enjoy any of them properly.
‘Oh, I see where you’re going. There are no boundaries in that meal – it’s all jumbled up together. To enjoy it properly, I need them as separate courses, on separate dishes (and please don’t serve me French fries in a mini bucket!) and with a pause in between.
‘Doing all this stuff I love in this rather ‘mish-mash’ fashion, no boundaries, no proper downtime, could mean I’m not enjoying any one of those things as much as I could be and wearing myself out in the process. That’s an interesting thought.’
We spent the rest of Lily’s session working through her projects and tasks, creating some blocks of time with boundaries where she could focus on one thing at a time, and looking at how she could get some more rest. A month later, she reported back that she was becoming accustomed to her new process and noticing the benefits of boundaries. ‘I’m still getting things done but it seems to be taking less time and I’m better rested. Boundaries don’t have to be a bad thing!’
Today’s pebble for you to ponder: what boundaries do you need to create?
American poet and essayist Adrienne Rich wrote: ‘The most important thing one woman can do for another is to illuminate and expand her sense of actual possibilities.‘ To me, those words describe my coaching work perfectly: as I listen to a client, I’m looking for an opportunity to shed a fresh light on an issue and to widen the client’s perspectives. Watching them develop and achieve what really matters to them is such a privilege!
As it’s International Women’s Day today, I’d like to celebrate one of the amazing women I coach: Lee Iggulden, Creative Director at Welshot. I recently wrote a post for Welshot’s blog – Facilitated Learning with Welshot Progressive – and in her latest session, I suggested to Lee that she might like to return the favour. Barely 24 hours later, the following arrived in my inbox.
Let me tell you a story…
I’ve always been interested in self-development, so much so that I think the self-help section in a bookshop was invented just for me! You know the concept of a fantasy dinner party where you can invite anyone you’d love to spend time with? My whole table would be made up of business experts, coaches, organisational psychologists, mentors and I would spend my evening listening, talking, asking questions, and learning all night – this would be my happy place!
My career in my earlier life is very different to what I do now, but even in my days at the Foreign Office, I’d get myself booked onto every continued professional development course available. From team building to what makes people tick, from learning styles and personality traits to how to think differently – I love it all. I revel in it!
Fast forward a few years and I no longer work in a Government Department: alongside my business partner, Eifion, I now own a photographic training and event company called Welshot. As a business owner, my love of self-help and professional development has never once waned – indeed, it has only got stronger. I have an unquestionable thirst and desire to learn about anything business-related.
I have so many questions and so many thoughts, and no matter how many books I read or how many courses I attend, nothing, and I mean nothing, can beat one-on-one time with a business/professional development coach.
So much has changed since the pandemic: what I wanted before Covid is very different to what I want now – and that includes the direction I want to take our business in. Luckily for me, Eifion, feels the same way. In December 2022, I said to him – ‘Eif, I’ve got some very big plans and ideas and I don’t know where to start first – I think I might need some help.’
I didn’t know Michelle personally but I’d seen her on Facebook as we have a mutual friend so my first step was to follow Thinking Space Coaching on Facebook/Instagram, then I signed up for her e-Newsletters and subscribed to her blog.
By the time I’d brain-dumped all my ideas into a notebook and mentioned to Eifion that I wanted some help to clarify and un-jumble my thoughts then make a plan of action, I already knew that I wanted to work with Michelle: someone I was familiar with but with whom I didn’t have a personal relationship – someone independent and objective.
On our introductory call, Michelle told me about her background and I discovered that, via her work in publishing, she had already been coaching people within the photographic industry and we had some mutual connections. We immediately hit it off and started working together in January 2023.
In case you’re wondering how coaching works, each month I complete a progress review form which I send to Michelle a few days ahead of my session so she can prepare and make the most of our time together. As I complete the form each month, I say ‘WOW – look what I’ve done this month, look what I’ve achieved in just a year!’.
The following Monday at 8.00am, I make a cup of coffee, shut my door, turn off all my notifications and get my notebook out and sign into our session: this is MY time to talk about whatever it is I want to talk about in a creative, non-judgmental, safe space.
Talking to Michelle allows me to ‘think while I speak’ – I’ve realised over the years that’s how I work best. Our sessions give me the opportunity to voice my questions, ideas and thought processes to someone who is willing to listen but also asks questions (sometimes quite challenging ones!), and where appropriate, offers a different perspective. She keeps me accountable too!
I no longer don’t know where to start – I come away from each session with ideas and plans and goals. Most of – if not all – the goals, targets and ideas I had in December 2022 have now been actioned, with new systems and processes in place. I am continually moving forwards and no longer have so many of those ‘Funk Days’ where I get stuck in my own thoughts!
Michelle is a coach, not a teacher, but I learn from every conversation we have.
Before we started working together, Lee was already a successful businesswoman, full of ideas and acumen and generosity. As you can see from her lovely words above, our work together helps her be more of who she wants to be and do more of what she wants to do.
Let’s leave the last word to Lee.
Lee’s pebble for you to ponder: how are you committing to your own personal development?
The largest motor vehicle in the world began life as a loom manufacturer when Sakichi Toyoda developed a self-powered loom. By 1937, his son Kiichiro Toyoda established the growing car manufacturing department as a business in its own right: the Toyota Motor Company. In case you’re wondering why the name changed: Toyoda has ten Japanese strokes in it: Toyota has a more auspicious eight strokes.
Anyway, Toyota has long been known for its philosophy of ‘the complete elimination of all waste in pursuit of the most efficient methods’ which has led the business to develop the Toyota Production System. This system was informed by the quality control work of Dr W Edwards Deming in Japan in the period following the Second World War. In the 1980s, Dr Deming wrote a book entitled ‘Out of the Crisis‘, in which he outlines his fourteen Points for Management: number 8 is ‘Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company’.
What’s the connection with Japanese lanterns?
The Toyota Production System has thirteen pillars, one of which is known as Andon – the Japanese word for a paper lantern.
Toyota regards every employee as an expert in their field and as such, gives them the power and the responsibility to bring any problems to the team’s attention. Pulling the Andon cable (or pushing a button) lights up a signal to alert everyone that a team member has spotted a problem or an opportunity to make an improvement on the production line and production is automatically halted. The team then comes together and before they start work on resolving the issue, the person who flagged it up is thanked for doing so. Identifying a problem right there and then gives the company the opportunity to address it immediately and therefore prevent longer term, potentially more costly issues.
Imagine yourself at work and, you know that, at any point, you can raise an issue or concern and it will not only be acted upon but the first thing that will happen is that you will be thanked. Your working environment is one where you are trusted, valued as an expert and asking for help, raising a problem to be solved or a chance to improve workflow is celebrated. To me, this seems like the very definition of a psychologically safe environment. It fulfils Dr Deming’s eighth point by driving out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.
Most of us don’t work on production lines but we could devise our team’s equivalent of Andon and work to create an environment where we feel trusted in our field and that our concerns are acknowledged, appreciated and acted upon. You could metaphorically raise a red flag, press the pause button or sound a klaxon – whatever your team feels would best symbolise the right (and the responsibility) to alert the team to a potential issue.
Today’s pebble for you to ponder: could Andon work in your workplace?
Turning over pebbles 