On the 23-25th October 2012, MiDDLEGROUND delivered the Systemic Leaders Module B. A key part of day 3 of the programme was the opportunity to hear Peter Fryer tell his story of using the Complexity Principles and Methodology in his role as CEO of Humberside TEC. Here are his reflections:
All leadership activities, including leadership programmes, are about change. We only need leadership where we want things to be different, where we need change of some sort. In any change situation we have to ask “who most wants things to be different?”, and it is they who must lead the change. However in most situations those who want the change actually want others to change, such as:
- employees to work more effectively
- mangers to treat them more fairly
- customers to buy more of their products
- and so on.
The change they want is for others to be different, but they are quite content to stay the same.
Enlightened organisations that are seeking improved customer care from their staff have realised this and instead of putting their resources into customer care programmes put their effort into treating their staff the way they want their staff to treat their customers. This is because our behaviour is most affected by others’ behaviour towards us. Change is about getting others to change their behaviour and they have to have a very good reason to do this, and one of the strongest drivers of change is if others are behaving differently towards us. So if leaders want change they must be that change. They have to live and breathe that change constantly, and it will gradually bring about a change in others.
The Middleground Leadership Programme impressed me most because the facilitators “got this”. They were the change that they wanted in the participants.
Thanks to Peter Fryer, 9th November 2012
