Colonel Athens keynote
I (Oscar) read some time ago about the New Zealand rugby union team culture. The topic was of tremendous interest because there has to be solid reasons why a nation of not much over five million people can be so successful at a world sport for so long. The feature I remember in that article is that after every game is over and the team has showered and back in their team uniform, the team cleans the change rooms … lead by the captain.
Colonel Athens first ‘S’ was ‘Sweep the Shed’. As soon as he said it I thought ‘I wonder if he’s going to mention the NZ rugby union team’. He did. His fulcrum image relating to leadership was ‘get in and get your hands dirty too, leave the place as you found it’ OR … expect others to clean up after you. His point was the choice a leader is making is feel what their people are feeling OR not be able to truly relate to them. If the former is chosen at the fulcrum, respect will build, the leader will make better decisions as they will have ‘felt the work’.
Colonel Athens other four S’s were:
- See the Vision
- Show an Interest
- Say the Words
- Set a Reminder
All five S’s ‘parent fulcrum’ are ‘selflessness or selfish’. I don’t feel this needs much explaining. He spoke of the need in warfare, his ‘work’, to ALWAYS be selfless, the ‘team’ has to come first. Anything else will be fatal. Clearly less is at stake in our workplaces but similar thinking applies. ‘Am I considering me with respect to …, or am I first considering those who will deliver my results?’ (Remember, a leader needs to get results through people.) Our choice is tip the balance in our favour as a ‘successful leader’, or not …
Our full day workshop – ‘In Leading CI, What Must I Be Good At?’
At the 2025 AME conference, Jon Colby (emcee) quoted Steven Covey – ‘Leadership is a choice, not a position’. The context of Jon’s quote was that no matter your title, you’re not leading if people aren’t following. A title doesn’t motivate and inspire others, actions can though. Actions that positively impact those around you is a choice you have.
Thus, to have people follow Continuous Improvement initiatives (or any management led initiative), what must you choose to regularly do? Further, to be able to confidently make such choices, what skills do you need to be practicing such that they come to the surface naturally when they need to? This was the focus of our workshop, there were three main skills we illustrated, provided examples of and started the practice. Nineteen people attended.
The first was be very clear on clarity of expectation – clear standards. We had ‘red poster / green poster’ on the whiteboard and ran our mini simulation to illustrate the point. (This PDF expands on this topic.)
The second and third skills related to everyday problems that will be confronted when standards are clear:
- People who ‘don’t know, can’t do’.
- People who ‘know, can do, but aren’t doing’. I.e. they are capable but are making a choice not to.
In response we illustrated and practiced two countermeasure skills. The ability to instruct others (an ability quite different to being able to do the task) and the ability to have people follow you. A leader, important in CI[!], by nature of the word, has followers.
The feedback was very positive, parts of three feedback forms are below.
We’re running this workshop again in Melbourne in July through AME Victoria, please contact me (oscar@vwaust.com) if you’d like to participate.