Suddenly you are remote and you need to find a new way of working. What now?
You adapt.
You put into play your Change Maker Proclivities and activate your maverick strategies. When change is your new normal, then you begin to get a handle on the surprisingly unexpected transitions that move into your pathway.
What’s a proclivity?
A tendency to choose to do something regularly; an inclination or predisposition towards a particular thing
Lexico.com
We all have proclivities, however when using your Change Maker Profile we are concerned on how you make impact. Your impact on what you are working on and how you impact others. It’s important to be able to utilise your strengths and minimise your deficiencies – by collaborating and working with others.
It’s a way to work with teams – to balance the team so that all proclivities are demonstrated within the team, even if certain individuals have little impact in certain areas.
Suddenly you are remote … Change Maker Proclivities
The diagram above shows you all the different types of proclivities. For more information on how these Change Maker proclivities can play out, you might want to read an article I wrote a couple of years ago called The Maverick Change Maker.
I have enjoyed working with the Transformation Hub (a newly formed project team) at the Royal Borough of Kingston over the last couple of months. We have designed and delivered a bespoke programme to assist the development of a high performance team, that can insist other teams to become high performers too.
The programme has a golden thread embedded through it, that enables the individuals, as well as the team, to be able to understand how they deliver impact and how to assist others in doing the same. It also enables the newly formed team to understand how to utilise the ways that teams form and collaborate. Whether that’s within their own teams or the teams that they will be interacting with.
So I was especially pleased to see how the Transformation Hub have been responding to the COVID-19 crises. Prior to even the Government deciding to insist on social isolation, they switched their Change is the new normal module to remote delivery; adopting a wait and see approach to the remaining 2 half day modules. 3 days later the Government requested that individuals worked from home where possible.
Once this decision had been made, the Royal Borough of Kingston team decided to defer the last two half days of the programme. Those modules were High Performance Trust and Building Resilience. Important, but they can wait for now.
Thoughts soon turned to how can the Transformation team support their colleagues in other departments with COVID-19 activity. It’s a big change, especially with such a new team. They are taking a holistic approach, considering not just the tasks that they need to lead and assist on, but also the human dynamics (and emotions) of the people that they are now working with as well as keeping their own team functioning and together.
A big ask for a new team.
I am supporting them through this change, at no additional charge to Royal Borough of Kingston. It’s part of how I see Maverick Leadership (working for the greater good), and developing Change Makers playing out.
How has the programme adapted?
- Following the Change is the new normal module, I ran an additional session (not previously planned) with the transformation team on how to deal with the transition into possible remote working for months, the change to new activities with new teams and how they can take the knowledge gained from previous modules into the new teams. We looked at what they can do to help the other teams and how to build their own resilience.
- Individual coaching of the team members have commenced. This has been a significant aid to their performance and resilience and ability to impact the new teams that they are now a part of.
- I delivered an additional (not previously planned) group coaching/mentoring session yesterday. We looked at a number of things around optimising remote working, team and individual dynamics, how they can assist the new teams. This wasn’t theoretical, lots of practical examples. We discussed how people cope with change and uncertainty and how they can input into this, the feedback that I have received is that this additional session was extremely helpful.
- I have provided a number of informal ‘check ins’ and advice to the management team. I intend to keep doing this. I believe this is important, especially at this time.
Suddenly you are remote
These are uncertain times, and sometimes we just want some support, but don’t know what to ask for. I’m committed to helping others work for the greater good and to provoke maverick leadership everywhere. There’s a maverick solution to everything.
So, How can I help you? No charge!
- Are you an organisation that is struggling right now? Do you now have a team that is located at home and is struggling to function?
- Do you need some support on how to work and manage remotely?
- Do you have employees struggling with the uncertainty and could use some coaching to get them back on track?
Maybe it’s something else?
In the meantime, you have my shoulder to lean on, and my ear to listen. I’m a phone call away … what do you need right now?
