Spotting successful in-house leadership interventions
In
my work, I am privileged to be with many leadership teams in action.
Recently I worked with two business units from a large government
agency. The two groups had run into difficulties. The corporate
services group was driving many changes and the business unit
experienced this as disjointed, overwhelming and interrupting business
as usual activities. The business unit managers were increasingly
pulling up the gangplank and closing off to interactions with corporate
services. All were skilled experienced managers, and within several
hours, we came to a shared understanding of what was happening and had
agreed on a way forward. What assisted this speedy resolution? There
were five features of the group interaction:
1. The two DCE's were open in identifying there was a problem and were open to have new conversations with one another 2. Managers listened to one another - there were no interruptions 3. Managers made helpful observations 4. Managers spoke succinctly - there were no long speeches 5. Managers contributed suggestions of what was currently working and what would help
In
our debrief, I asked the DCE's what accounted for the quality of
interactions? They said the in-house leadership development where
leaders are taught and are expected to use these relationship skills
with one another. I noticed the leader's skills and goodwill with one
another greatly assisted the complex work of effective inter-group
relationships. | 
