Learning from shared leadership

The last year has seen many changes. I started Wirework Consulting with new assignments and clients, complex issues and enjoyed working with professionals as an independent leadership/team coach. I still treasure the valuable experiences from my time at Insights Benelux. One of these was our learning from collective leadership; a mindset and way of working that I now use with current clients.

Insights Benelux; a process driven organisation

From 2012 to 2019, Insights Benelux was a process-oriented (PDCA) organisation with collective leadership as the basis for effective decision-making, collaboration and job satisfaction. A scale-up organisation with the goal of ‘unlocking human potential’ and the firm ambition to be ‘the pioneer and organisation of the future’. We used the Scaleup Method for strategy development and Scrum for projects.

Scaleup Impact (Verne Harnish)

Strategy development was an ongoing process that we were flexible about. And it was a moment you looked forward to because it was an innovative and equal process that you went through together with representatives from all disciplines. Every quarter. The Rockefeller Habits are all about rhythm and regularity. It seems like a particularly routine activity, and that’s what it is. But in practice it brings clarity, calm and space to unlock the new ideas that are always present in an organisation.

Leverage for growth

We used Q-rocks to set short and long-term goals. Once a quarter, with all team leaders present, we identified which big pieces of work were really our priorities. Which Q-rocks could be used to achieve a bigger goal? But we always started with short presentations on what each team had done so far. What had gone well? And what are you proud of? And what is still unfinished or partially finished? Sharing these insights works like a magnet. You realise that everything is connected. And because you take the time to put them into words, you understand even better how they are connected and where the interdependencies lie.

Q-rock teams emerge organically

Examples of Q-rocks have been the launch of customer contracts, the implementation of a new learning platform or the introduction of virtual services. All these major projects had in common that they had a cross-team impact on the day-to-day work and took up the time and effort of several teams. As an organisation, we benefited greatly from tackling them together in multi-functional teams. These Q-rock teams were often created organically by colleagues who felt responsible and had specific qualities and competences to fulfil the roles in the Scrum team.

Listening to the opposing voice pays off

Those strategy days were wonderful. After analysis, sharp discussions and new insights, it was always clear what really needed to be done. It sounds easy, but it wasn’t. We regularly ran out of time because there was a dissenting voice in the room. A voice that would only make itself heard towards the end of the day and, at first glance, would ‘throw a spanner in the works’. It seemed to cause unnecessary delays and friction. We often needed an extra (half) day, which is difficult to plan with a full schedule. And yet, by listening and taking the time, the final choice of one or two Q-rocks often turned out to be a very good one. And a confirmation that we were doing the right things, in line with our purpose and Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG).

We are all wired differently

The beauty of the day was that all the disciplines were in the room with different qualities and talents. We had all obviously taken our own medicine (Insights Discovery) and therefore knew exactly where we could complement each other; who was more focused on thinking and action? Who had an eye for the big picture and the details? Who always kept an eye on the people side of things? Who has a highly developed intuition (and therefore surprising, out-of-the-box ideas) and who can make plans beautifully concrete by using their sensation preference? You could be annoyed or amazed by this, but in the end it only made our plans better.

Valuing differences

And it is very rewarding to reach agreement and see the organisation grow. Seeing people take responsibility because it’s the right thing to do. Our results were fantastic. It gave us all wings. It gave enormous confidence, job satisfaction and a flood of new ideas. Change wasn’t the problem. The natural flow of progress made sense to everyone. A time when we really valued the differences between us, were open to being ‘different’. We learnt a lot from each other and all showed leadership.