In a serviced office, the support staff are briefed on the imminent arrival of the executive board of a government department, including the Permanent Secretary. There is tension and nervousness.
The board arrives, and its members deport themselves with dismissive disdain for the minions deployed about them.
The minister arrives, and is courteous, friendly, and talks to all as an equal.
As the team heads off to their meeting room, the receptionist says ‘well at least one of them treated me as a human being’.
This board is responsible for one of the government’s highest profile departments, and spends huge amounts of taxpayers’ money to deal with some of our most intractable problems. What sort of culture might we expect in their team, do you think, given their exemplary behaviour?
At the same time, look how easy it is to make a good impression. And see how long the memories linger for those who witness it.
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How could a massive project go wrong so unexpectedly? One day, perhaps, we will understand why British Airways (BA) managed to make such a mess of the launch of Terminal 5 (T5). Until then, I have a theory …
Thousands of people worked on this project for years. The whole thing was tested, using members of the public, in advance of the launch. What did they miss?
And then I read a profile of the Chief Executive, Willie Walsh, in ‘The Economist’. It talked about how important T5 was to him, how often he referred to it, and how he knew, to the hour, how much time remained before launch.
Now I had my theory. Something in the culture of BA translated the CEO’s message about the critical importance of a project, into a corporate refusal to accept any bad news about it. I am certain that within BA, a lot of knowledgeable people knew very well that the launch was likely to fail; believing that failure was not an option, they had decided to keep quiet.
It’s a tough challenge for a leader. How do you show strong leadership across a massive organisation, whilst allowing time and space to hear clear messages coming back the other way?
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