Crossing the Bridge

This afternoon, I have been inspired by this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No8XWKx-gQg&t=3s

It came to my attention through a LinkedIn post by Laksh Raghavan, who I know to be an excellent systems thinker and humble person giving high quality service to his clients. The link to his LinkedIn post in here and I recommend engaging with it: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/laraghavan_leadership-systemsthinking-activity-7208810841633144832-ux17?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

The part of the video that really struck me was the message about discouraging one to ones. Anyone who knows me well will know that I fully endorse this sentiment. What is the purpose of the one to one? If you are working in an entrepreneurial way, if you have a purpose, it is aligned with the organisation you are working for, you are given the appropriate amount of autonomy to enable effective working, you are allowed to innovate (within reason), you know how decisions need to be made and there is open and honest communication, there is absolutely no need for one to ones.

I have spent my whole career having and conducting one to ones as part of company policies and seeing people having unofficial one to ones about the work, gaining additional information in the workplace that excludes others who are not informed. I perceive one to ones at a personal level as nannying, boring, insignificant and a waste of time. If someone is working as they should be then you do not need to sit in a one to one talking about or to that person specifically. I perceive one to ones about the work a waste of time. You do not need to be giving a specific individual information that you don’t give to other team members. All that does is foster a sense of being secretive, it can alienate others in the team and at worst it could foster favouritism and for others in the team, the opposite. It can alienate. Any feedback required to do the job should be open and done at the time it is required, not sitting in a one to one meeting.

In my approach ‘Creating the Conditions for Change©’ I talk about how we organize, structure, communicate and set the rules and boundaries of our work to enable us to be and act differently. I use the viable system model as the inspiration for my work, changing the focus from management to leadership and system leadership. Leaders give each other the space and purpose and incentive to do the work well. Managers control and restrict and often play games to maintain their power and control. Only when people are trusted to work well, will they work well. If you trap them in unforgiving structures with archaic rules about having one to ones, appraisals, only being given information via a whole string of hierarchical relationships, is it any wonder that people become disengaged?

We talk about a mindset shift towards systems thinking but in reality it is still only the brave who are daring to step into the space.