Today I attended my first Great Insiders event. I'd been very much looking forward to it for some considerable time - even more so because of recent events! I met some fantastic people, swapped ideas for how to avoid the common mistakes internal consultants make, and acquired fodder for further thought! (Phew!)
One thing that stuck with me was an expression that Jill and Liz from Suffolk came up with:-
"leading from behind"
The horse represents the company: the head where the vision and thinking goes on (!) could be senior managers or the board, the legs the "powerhouse" aka operational staff who carry the weight of the labour. The head is blinkered, only seeing straight ahead, oblivious to everything around, below and behind it. The legs are tired, possibly overburdened, but follow the head regardless.
The yoke represents the constraints that everybody in the system feels - "that'll never work here because of x, y, z". Regulation, legislation, lack of creativity. Too much conformity, control. (See how the horse frolicks playfully in the field when he has been un-tacked!)
So that leaves the farmer, walking along behind the horse, detached and guiding *ever so gently* via the reins. He is aligned to and can see clearly the direction where the horse is heading. He can also see the bigger picture and steer the horse away from the puddles and divots. The horse trusts the farmer to guide him through the field as they work together to sow the seeds of change (ok, that was probably taking the metaphor slightly too far - I'll leave it to your imagination to take this further......)
So, in case you haven't guessed it by now, Great Insiders are the farmer in this scenario. Here are some of the problems we share with the farmer (amongst countless others):
- The farmer doesn't hold the reins steady enough - dropping them, not applying enough pressure. This confuses the horse, potentially everything comes to a grinding halt.
- The horse becomes upset and kicks or bites the farmer in self-defence, hurting the poor farmer.
- The horse doesn't trust the farmer, and with a mind of its own wanders off, either stumbling on the rough ground and hurting himself, or tempted by juicy grass grazes to excess, which then leaves the horse bloated and regretful.
And my favourite one of all - The horse becomes frightened by loud bangs and runs off, pulling the farmer off balance and sending him flying face-down in the mud (thanks to Paul for this one!)
Have you ever had projects that have gone wrong and left you feeling, well, shit?
If you want to be a great farmer, sorry - insider - then download yourself a copy of the report - "7 mistakes... and how to avoid them" and come join us on LinkedIn. See you there! :o)
