Should you have a ‘coaching culture’ in your organization? (I say No!)
I met Jon Ingham (@joningham) earlier this year when we both spoke at an HR Conference in Dubai, and I’ve been following his blog with pleasure ever since – I like how he’s willing to take a stand and make a point about how to make HR much more effective in organizations.
We’ve been debating the benefits of building a coaching culture in organizations.
I laid down my position here, and you can see Jon and me taking different stands in the comments. (If you’d like, drop me an email and I’ll send you a copy of the article.)
Jon’s just stirred the pot again here – part of an excellent series he’s just done reporting from the CIPD conference in Manchester.
The executive summary of our two positions:
I say don’t don’t build a Coaching Culture.
He says you should
(Actually, I don’t think our two positions are actually that far away from each other… after all, Box of Crayons’ flagship product is our Coaching for Great Work program giving managers practical coaching skills.)
But what about you? Is coaching flourishing in your organization? And where do you stand on building a culture committed to coaching?
Great Work Quote #58: “Want to accomplish something, any-damn-thing? Sharpen your political skills!”
“Want to accomplish something, any-damn-thing? Sharpen your political skills!”
~ Tom Peters
Tom Peters was the first guru I bumped into when I started in the world of business, and having seen him speak just last week I can report he remains as dissatisfied and irritated with business as usual as ever. And bravo for that.
His quote reminds me that Great Work is rarely accomplished by yourself – you need others to make it happen. Sometimes that’s people with technical skills and expertise, but for many of us in organizations it’s about building the relationships that help us influence.
Technology is helping that – the Great Work Interviews are a case in point on how I’ve managed to connect with some fabulous people.
But technology is not it. It really comes down to a willingness to stop feeling like you can’t do anything, that you’re too small, too unknown, too old, too new, too inexperienced, too experienced (and yes the list goes on) and start getting smart by connecting to smart.
Or to put it another way…
Thinking about doing more Great Work… Who matters? And do they know you?
Great Work Interview – Anna Filipopolous
If you’ve ever flown with Air Canada – and I’ve spent a little too long sitting in their seats – you’ll have bumped into the work of Cara Operations. They’re a long-standing Canadian company, and as well as running some of Canada’s best known quick service restaurants they provide the catering for Air Canada flights. Anna’s the SVP of People Development there, no small task as her remit covers people working for Cara and as part of a franchise structure, as well as covering six different brands with different cultures.
Anna’s background includes time in the pharmaceutical and the consumer goods sectors, and she comes to this interview with a great deal of experience in the day to day ebb and flow of change and people engagement.
In this interview you’ll find:
- How she managed a process to rebrand an organization – and have people actually engage in the change process
- The importance of ‘micro behaviours’ – and why they’re critical to Great Work
- The power of acting like it’s the future (sounds confusing but makes sense in the interview)
- Five things Anna believes can get in the way of doing more Great Work – and how to tackle some of those challenges
The interviews are all between 25 and 30 minutes long.
You can either download them here as mp3s, or go to iTunes, type in “Great Work Interviews” and you’ll see them all there.
Great Work Interview – Merlin Mann
Here’s a confession. I want to be able to think like Merlin Mann.
He’s really smart on the topic of productivity, and in fact some part of his success comes from 43Folders.com which is a reference to David Allen’s Getting Things Done system. But his work is not just about productivity. It’s about creativity and purpose and striving to stay human and sane in a busy and distracting world and doing work that matters, doing Great Work. And he does all of this in funny, provocative, iconoclastic way.
In fact, writing this introduction and listening to the interview again has already provoked me to shift some of my own commitments in an effort to, as he puts it, “identify and destroy small return bullshit. Shut off anything that’s noisier than it is useful.” Great stuff indeed, and this is a wise and funny interview.
In our conversation we talk about:
- How the present is a “remedial course for the future” – and the pros and cons of those ‘creation myth’ stories of where people find clues for their Great Work
- The importance of an open heart and just where that might lead you
- The connection between productivity and creativity
- The two levels of prioritization (and how freeing it is to know that)
- And quite a bit more
You can follow Merlin on Twitter at http://twitter.com/hotdogsladies
The interviews are all between 25 and 30 minutes long.
You can either download them here as mp3s, or go to iTunes, type in “Great Work Interviews” and you’ll see them all there.
Assuming positive intent
This recent post by Seth “Does he ever run out of smart things to say?” Godin reminded me of this powerful (self) management principle:
Assume positive intent.
What that means is when you’re irritated, annoyed, frustrated and generally want to sigh in deep exasperation about another person… take a breath, remind yourself that they are human (however contrary the evidence seems!), and assume that they’re operating from a place of trying to do good rather than not.
It’s one of those “I took the path less travelled by/and that has made all the difference” moments.
If you’re stuck and seeing the other person as an irritant, then your confirmation bias will identify and interpret all actions as on-going irritations.
If you’re open to see their positive intent, then you see them as attempting, however poorly, to do something positive.
It’s a way to reconnect to Martin Buber’s I/Thou state of being, rather than falling back to a less human I/It way of seeing the world and in particular that person.
This isn’t an easy thing to do, by the way. But it’s a powerful tool, and one worth practicing.
