Fool If You Think It’s Over
Oh my word, what a week! It began with Worzel Gummidge impersonator and cheese deviant* Boris Johnson pronouncing that “Home Working doesn’t work” on the front page of the compost fodder that is The Daily Mail. I initially dismissed it as another topic that the Conservative party were trying to drag into the culture wars, although I couldn’t quite figure out why.
Then Dominic Cummins, Johnson’s former consiglieri, tweeted that back in 2020 the newspaper proprietors had been phoning up to demand the government get workers back in offices because working from home was ‘killing us’.
So that’s it. We have to go back to offices so that we can buy newspapers, so that their owners can afford their donations to the Conservative party.
And we all though it was because the commercial landlords were twisting his arm, didn’t we?
Meanwhile, Jacob Rees Mogg, the laughably titled Minister for Government Efficiency and Brexit Benefits (don’t ask), had demanded civil servants return to their offices. So they did. The Department of Education went from having the highest ratio of staff working from home to the lowest. Impressive, huh? Less impressive is the fact that there weren’t enough desks for them and so they have to work in corridors, in the canteens or even standing up! At one office an entire team got turned away due to overcrowding.
Who could have possibly foreseen such an outcome? Well, almost anyone who, unlike Rees-Mogg, lives in the current century. A parliamentary answer showed that the DoE have 8,009 staff and 4,200 desks. He obviously wasn’t a maths graduate.
Whilst the UK government makes a complete arse of the whole situation, the Republic Of Ireland’s government, which actually has a Remote Working Strategy and is legislating to make it a right, carries out an annual study that shows it benefits employees and employers (its third iteration is due out this month). A recent evaluation of the survey results concludes it also benefits the economy and assists in meeting carbon reduction targets.
And we use to take the mickey out of the Irish for being thick …
(Apologies to non-UK readers for the parochial nature of this bit but I think you can probably find similar stupidity in your country. Sadly.)
* h/t to Neil Usher for coining this
Dark Side Of The Moon
Whilst we are on the subject of our PM, I read a fascinating piece on his personality in The Conversation. I was aware of the ‘dark triad’ of psychopathy, narcissism and machiavellianism, traits that belong together and overlap. These traits exist in all of us but are obviously far more pronounced in some!
However, this author prefers a ‘more wide-ranging model is called the “dark factor” model. This suggests that the essence of “bad character” is a desire to ruthlessly put your own interests before other people’s, and to pursue them even when they cause harm to others. Besides psychopathy, narcissism and machiavellianism, the dark factor model includes traits of spitefulness, moral disengagement (behaving immorally without feeling bad), entitlement (believing you deserve more and are better than others), and egoism.
It’s become a bit trite to label people as ‘a narcissist’ or ‘a psychopath’, something I am guilty of as I have referred previously to ‘My Psycho Boss’. I’ve always qualified that with ‘I don’t know if he was REALLY a psychopath’ but this model gives a much richer way of interpreting the actions of ‘dark personalities’, which he undoubtedly was.
There’s always a danger of slipping into amateur psycho-analysis but I think it’s important that we look at the shadows side of the human condition because it is an aspect of everyone’s personality. Denying it is not helpful or healthy and spotting when it is surfacing allows us to address it and moderate our behaviour.
Whilst this article focused on a particular individual I am sure you can think of a few other prominent political leaders who this applies to and probably a few people you’ve come across in your professional and private life. It’s good to be vigilant and spot them early so you can mitigate their impact on you and yours.
Strange Things
At the Meaningful Work Cafe, a group that I help to run with my colleagues Andrew Horder and Dave Cordle, we had an ‘Untalk’ from Dr. Nick Heap, who’s been working with people and groups for longer than most of us have been in long trousers.
Nick sent us off in pairs to think of the questions we really wanted the answer to. We reconvened and then took turns to ask our question, which Nick did his best to answer, with interjections and additions from others as they felt suitable. It was a fascinating conversation that went in quite unexpected directions. It was a sort of ‘Ask Me Anything’ in person (remotely!).
I like these sorts of approaches that challenge the ‘normal’ formats of meetings and open them up to chance and serendipity. I’ve been to a few ‘Unconferences’ and ‘Open Space’ events and I find them fascinating and energising. However, even I found them a bit disconcerting at first. Some people find them so challenging they only stick it out until the coffee break and then flee (they’re normally the ones in suits, wielding business cards)! Once you get used to the idea of participating in the format and co-designing the event, it’s very liberating and aways leads to interesting places.
This is very much in the pirate spirit of going to ‘The edges of the Map’, exploring the unknown and seeing what you can find. It’s invariably where the treasure is. Seth Godin also talks about looking at the edges to find new ideas and insights. Today, more than ever, we need to sail out towards the bit of the map that says ‘Here Be Dragons’ and discover new lands.
It’s quite hard to get support for Unconferences and Open Space in corporate settings because they are unstructured, don’t have defined deliverables or outcomes and are, well, different. Yet these organisations say they want the serendipitous collisions, new insights and innovative thinking that these events enable. Perhaps they are looking for predictable unpredictability …
Follow Me, Follow You
How do you lead? Are you a servant-leader, an authentic leader, an adaptive leader, and autocrat, a consensual leader, a directive leader, a democrat, a heroic leader, a strategic leader - I could go on. There’s a bewildering range of models out there, it’s not surprising people get confused about what they should be doing, or just feel overwhelmed at the prospect.
I’m going to run some sessions to take the lid of leadership and see if we can figure out how best to release the leadership ability in everyone. I’m particularly interested in discussing some of the challenges people face when they are called upon to lead, either because they have a formal position in the hierarchy like team leader or department manager, or because they feel compelled to make something happen and change things.
If you’ve got some issues that you’d like discussed, challenges that are stopping you from stepping up to lead or that you are struggling with when you do, then drop me an email or DM me on LinkedIN or Twitter. (All messages will be in complete confidence).
I’m probably going to call it ‘The Leadership Lounge’ and do it on Zoom. If you think you’d be interested in taking part, let me know and I’ll keep you posted.
Thanks for point me to the Dark Factor, it seems a more fluid and realistic model