More from the CMI convention. And I was in a session by Jo Owen where he was talking about his discoveries in researching his book, Tribal Business School. There’s a lickle video where he explains what its all about:
http://www.meettheauthor.co.uk/bookbites/1527.html
The way he described it to us was that there are Five Pillars:
1. The Art of Unfair Competition
Tribes survive and thrive because they get fool-proof advantages – they don’t have a bare-knuckle fist fight with a lion to kill it, they shoot it from a distance with a poisoned arrow when its unaware that it is under attack. Jo says that we need to think about how we apply this to our businesses. What are our foolproof advantages? Do we even have any? If not, how do we get them? There is a line of thinking that might say as a Students’ Union in many ways our foolproof advantages are that we have more opportunities than other businesses to impress our customers. In Student Activities, we tend to be the sole provider of activities and therefore new friendship groups – and if we’re not the only people doing that activity, we’re actually the easiest for people to discover. Because we are right on their doorsteps. In a way, the laziness of our students could be considered an unfair advantage to anyone who doesn’t have the ease of access that we have – if they have to search very hard for something, they are unlikely to bother.
An interesting point Jo brought up with this was the idea of picking the right battles. You might not be able to win all of your battles, but don’t make that worse by picking ones that you definitely aren’t going to win. Be pragmatic, sensible. I think of conflict I’ve had in the past, whether inter-departmental, between our office and a student group, or even at home with my girlfriend and I think about the wasted energy and the potential damage to reputation that has occurred unnecessarily.
2. The Secrets of Leadership
And the main secret seems to be that the perfect leader doesn’t exist. Some of the terms used to describe the perfect leader are in polar opposition to each other. The perfect leader would implode under the weight of the contradictions. But what was noticed was that “perfect” leadership changed dependent on the situation and that at each level of leadership, the expectation of the followers (and of the leader themselves) was different.
This didn’t feel like it was massively new news – I’ve read and practiced situational leadership so I’m already a convert to the idea of doing different things to be the best in any particular situation. But it was interesting seeing it expressed in a different context. It was also interesting when he said that followers look for 3 key things when they look to their role model leader: Courage, Contribution and Responsibility. That’s interesting because those are three concepts that can be readily applied to the workplace environment. I can think of times when I’ve seen colleagues show great courage (and also when I’ve seen them be incredibly cowardly) and how I’ve felt about them because of that. Contributing to the overall success of a project is vital, often in terms of simply making the thing happen, but it also shows the people you work with that you are not afraid to muck in to create success and that you are not asking them to do something you wouldn’t be willing to do.
Responsibility is something which I have a major issue about. I look around and I see a culture of blame shifting, a culture where people are afraid to admit to their mistakes. When at work I tell my team – I don’t mind people making mistakes, because with the best will in the world mistakes will happen. What I want you to do is say, yes that was my mistake, and this is how I solve it. A major problem that we have in Student Activities at Leeds is where the committee members of our groups won’t own up to the mistakes they’ve made, sometimes outright lying when the evidence is right in front of them. The problem is that by trying to protect themselves, they create a blame culture and affect people’s perception of them. I think this has a clear link to Jo’s next point…
3. The Respect Agenda
In tribal societies, the emphasis is on the community. These people live and die together. Therefore, there has to be a respect for the community – the individual cannot survive without it. There is a stark comparison to be drawn with Students’ Unions here – the community as a whole supports the activities of the smaller groupings by drinking in the bars and buying things from our shops. Collectivism is at the heart of our model – this isn’t rock science. But the next bit was more like it.
In talking to a tribal leader, Jo was told that before you can respect your peers and your community, you have to respect yourself. This is particularly true if you are the leader. Now think about a society demanding funding from a Union. What is at the bottom of this request? Many would argue that there is no problem with self-respect as they often have a very high opinion of their own importance and how good their are. But does it come from deserving this because they are good or is it something else? I suspect that the main reason societies get demanding about money is because of fear. They fear that they won’t be able to run their activities, that their events won’t be very good, that their members will vote with their feet, and that as the organiser, they will look bad. However, if they are comfortable with what they provide, if they know that it really is a high quality product, they don’t have to worry about the money as people will pay the price. We’re seeing this more and more at Leeds – insecurity is removed not by providing shedloads of cash as a buffer, but through groups understanding their worth, and the worth of other groups. They look outwards at the effect they have on each other now. This is a stella leap from where we used to be. And its due to the fact that they don’t have to talk a big game any more, their activities back them up. The output backs them up.
4. The Search for Fit
The essence of survival and success is perfectly adapting to your environment. The search for excellence is an exercise in futility – stop trying to be like someone else and find out what works for your environment.
I want to take those words and tattoo them onto the foreheads of everyone who works in Students’ Unions. We talk about sharing best practice to not reinvent the wheel. What we mean is, I can’t be bothered to think of an idea, your’s works so gimme that. Every time you put something on a mailbase, take the principle and adapt it to fit your area, don’t just ape it or change the logos. To fit your environment you need to understand your environment. Get out and hear what your students are saying. Create a vision for your area and work to that. We do things differently here and people say “oh well, that’s because you’re Leeds and you can afford to”. So we can. But what can you do with your resources? What are your natural advantages? Work to them and stop thinking you’re in my shadow!
5. Change or Die
I don’t think I need to explain this one. At least I hope I don’t. We’re on a road and the only direction is forward. Don’t change for change’s sake, but keep yourself current, appropriate, interesting. Adapt to your challenges and change for the better. There’s an exercise about future thinking where you think about what it was like 10 years ago compared to now and then project what 10 years in the future will be like. Its actually pretty impossible. Here’s a list of things that didn’t exist or weren’t so ubiquitous in 1998:
iPod, Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, Sky+, Zoo & Nuts magazine, Pear Cider, etc, etc, etc.
Things that are everyday parts of your life (or maybe just my life) weren’t in existence. Now think about your union. What are you still doing that you did 10 years ago? How has that changed? Has it changed? If not, why not?
Overall, Jo Owen presented a number of interesting conclusions, conclusions that can be readily adapted and implemented in a Union environment. That is, if you’re willing to take up that challenge.
Tags: change, jo owen, leadership, responsibility, student unions, tribal business
