What really matters when the world is on fire?

Sorry I fell out of the blogosphere for a while. We had a dramatic personnel issue which both sucked time and also preoccupied me (in the sense that every time I sat down to blog, all I could think about was this particular issue - which I was well aware I could not speak/write about).

When you are badly let down by someone you trust completely in a work environment, it is highly disruptive. I have spent a lot of time re-examining every aspect of that relationship and many aspects of that person's work. But, more insidiously, I ended up challenging the very notion of workplace trust - and that is a very dangerous path down which to go. Trust and confidence are very much the cornerstones of a functioning business and it is truly unfair on other colleagues when I start to treat them in a way which implies that I do not fully trust them (or feel that I need to corroborate things that they tell me).

On the other hand, those people who trust me to do my job effectively and protect their interests are entitled to expect that I will not make the same kind of mistake twice. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice.....

So, I don't know what path to walk at this point but I'd better work it out very soon. Oddly there does not appear to be much advice out there. I know my personal credibility has taken a hit with this incident so I need a strategy to rebuild that, if possible. Suggestions on a postcard please.

On a positive note, my mood was lifted recently by the visit of an good friend and someone whose business acumen I greatly admire - Simon McCrum from Darbys Solicitors. Simon cut his spurs in my old stamping ground (North West) at Pannones - a firm which took off in a very distinctive direction and grew quickly, not so much by rewriting the rulebook as simply cheerfully writing a new one. Now he and his partners at Darbys are seeking to break new ground by redefining the normal relationship between the public and lawyers with their Blue and Purple schemes. Simon is a fascinating guy who never loses sight of where he is going and knows how to rate and value his people. Writing a new business model once is impressive; if he can pull it off a second time, that will be a spectacular achievement.

As he recounted his story, one point that came across clearly (a point made in "The Upside of the Downturn" by Geoff Colvin) was the importance of "setting fire to the platform on which you are standing" i.e. it is difficult to convince a management team of the need for violent change if things are going reasonably well. Simon clearly set out his vision of impending crisis in the legal profession so that his partners would see why he was going to take the firm in a whole new direction. Having shared that vision, they committed to leaving "the burning platform" as soon as possible. Colvin uses this image to explain why recession is actually a great time to creatively rebuild a business - i.e. it is not hard to convince people that there is a need to change when the economy is on the rocks anyway. Buy One Day, Get 12 Months Free is our response to the burning platform and we intend to evolve it into a new relationship with local people.

Are we still on a burning platform? FTSE at a relative high. France and Germany have announced the end of their technical recessions. Bernanke has been given an early second term endorsement at the Fed and a bounce in all the Business Confidence surveys has been widely reported.

I still smell flames. I reproduce here almost ALL the headlines from the first two pages of the Guardian's business section today:

1. Toyota ponders UK output cuts as sales slump
2. What next after the scrappage scheme is scrapped?
3. US hotels let the stars go out as luxury becomes...taboo
4. Global advertising slump cuts profits in half at Sorrell's WPP
5. Downturn leads to dive at Five with revenue plunging 35%
6. Fujitsu cuts 10% of British jobs as IT work dries up
7. One child in six at home with no working parent

I don't see enough people responding to this burning platform. Simon and Darbys are unusual in redefining parts of their business model, as are we.

So do as Simon Says (oh, tell me you didn't see that one coming!). Set fire to your own platform or expose the flames which are already burning - with your trusted team, stop pretending that you are doing OK to survive the crisis thus far (if nothing else, remind your colleagues that unemployment is forecast to remain at record highs for several years). One of the great benefits of this approach is you get to see who is creative, unflappable and trustworthy when the fire is lit - and who ought to be left behind. In truth, no single leader can transform an organisation - he can only be the driving catalyst and focus of a team effort. While Simon has the likeable self-belief of someone who believes he can change the world, he is the first to admit that taking the team with him was a vital pre-condition.

While we at Blenheim Palace are ahead of the curve in changing our business model in this turbulent environment, perhaps now is the right time to focus on the people who have made that journey with us, because in truth every last one of them has done a superb job. It turned out that when the fire was lit, we had an amazing team who focussed and delivered all the way.

And that probably neatly answers the question of trust I posed myself at the beginning. I would be doing a great disservice to everyone if I let one very bad apple distort my appreciation of the wonderful team we have here. The power of a trusted team unleashed far outweighs the damage caused by one errant individual.

Thanks for listening to this stream of consciousness - I feel better for letting it flow.

Post a comment