Preparing Leaders for an Era of Uncertainty and Ambiguity

Stonewater is a leading social housing provider with a mission to deliver good quality, affordable homes to people who need them most. It was successfully created from the merger of two associations; establishing a strong, dynamic and well-managed social business offering a refocused set of services for customers. They are considered to be one of the Top 100 not-for-profit organisations to work for according to the Sunday Times Best Companies annual list.

Stonewater had been going through a period of significant change as it moved towards becoming a more customer-focussed organisation, enabled by greater use of technology and more agile ways of working. The Covid 19 pandemic reinforced and accelerated the need for all leaders to not only survive, but to thrive in an ever-changing, ambiguous business environment.

The aspiration for the programme was that by developing an agile mindset, the Stonewater leaders and managers would have a new, almost ‘inherent’ capability to respond to new, uncertain or changing situations.

The aspiration for the programme was that by developing an agile mindset, the Stonewater leaders and managers would have a new, almost ‘inherent’ capability to respond to new, uncertain or changing situations – without needing to reference a set of defined guidelines or prescribed responses (which inevitably slows down decision-making).

 

Our Approach – it’s about Mindset

OE Cam partnered with Stonewater’s People team to design and deliver a Values Based Leadership Programme that would fundamentally shift their Leaders and Managers’ mindset.

Whilst traditional leadership development helps leaders to learn new tools and techniques, it may not result in actual behavioural change. To deliver more sustainable change, you need to address mindset. A person’s mindset includes the core beliefs they hold and provides a frame of reference which guides the decisions they make and the behaviours they exhibit.

As Business Psychologists, we know that if an individual’s internal beliefs and values do not match their behaviour, they experience a stress called ‘cognitive dissonance’ (1). As behaviour is public and cannot be taken back, the way to resolve the imbalance is for the person to actually adjust their internal beliefs – which results in a longer-term shift in mindset. The behaviour changes sought in our agile mindset programme were to be small, incremental adjustments rather than radical transformation – so would not threaten anyone’s core belief systems.

The overall objective of the programme was to build leadership capability so that managers could deal with ambiguity and lead by responding to the circumstances in which they found themselves in a way that reflected Stonewater’s values being ambitious, passionate, agile, commercial and ethical.

Specifically the programme intended to:

  • increase self-awareness of the participant’s current mindset
  • educate colleagues on the elements that constitute an agile mindset
  • help them develop future ways of working that reflect a more agile mindset.

To measure the successful delivery of these objectives, we developed a self-reporting questionnaire that would be used at two points in the programme to identify changes in mindset and behaviour of the leaders and managers.

OE Cam’s Agile Mindset Model (shown below) was developed from research conducted with our European partners (2) and built on the work of other published research such as Denning (3), Prof Victor Dulewicz & Dr Malcolm Higgs (4), Amy Edmondson (5) and Simon Hayward (6). This model informed the structure of our programme:

OE Cam’s Agile Mindset Model (2020)

agile mindset OE Cam

To ensure that the programme built on leadership development work Stonewater had previously undertaken, the People Team mapped their existing Leadership Model to the OE Cam Agile Leader model. With significant overlap between the two models, the new programme would be a powerful extension to the Stonewater model – and not a replacement.

We launched the programme with a highly interactive session that introduced the model and the broad concepts to be covered. While the model consists of four dimensions, it was important to show the many crossovers and connections so that participants understood the context and could see the holistic nature of the programme. We used gamification methods to engage the delegates with the content and really kick-off the learning process with maximum impact.

This was followed by four half-day ‘deep-dive’ interactive workshops each focussing on one of the four areas of the model. We employed a variety of learning methods to introduce new concepts and provide delegates with a safe environment to test and challenge their own thinking, apply new tools and techniques and identify specific ways they could modify / change their behaviour. By mixing delivery techniques we catered for the different learning styles of the delegates e.g., knowledge transfer activities were followed by reflection and practice.

A deliberate gap was built into the schedule between each module to allow people time to internalise the content, modify their mindset and embed new behaviours. To further reinforce learning that had taken place in each session, we worked with Stonewater to design a series of practical ‘nudges’. These were sent to the delegates as reminders of key concepts learned and encourage new habits. Nudges included handy A5 reference cards , email banners as visual reminders and direct prompts to modify meeting agendas to embrace agile mindset principles.

 

Outcomes Delivered: Tangible Behaviour Change

The self-reported survey results showed there has been in an increase in understanding of the principles of an agile mindset and behaviours. Increased awareness also highlighted where delegates had not been exhibiting agile behaviour, so small, expected declines were seen in the questions which required longer term or organisational change.

Approx. 75 Directors and Managers attended the five sessions over a 12-month period. While the Executive and Directors went through the programme in two coherent groups, the constitution of the manager session varied for each element. This had the advantage of introducing colleagues to a wider range of diverse perspectives as well as giving them the opportunity to make new contacts across the organisation.

As a result of the programme, the Stonewater Leadership cadre now has a common language and toolkit to discuss how to incorporate principles of the agile mindset into daily working practices. This greater understanding has led to them make tangible changes to their behaviours.

As a result of the programme, the Stonewater Leadership cadre now has a common language and toolkit to discuss how to incorporate principles of the agile mindset into daily working practices. This greater understanding has led to them make tangible changes to their behaviours. For example, meeting agendas were modified to deliver more agile focussed outcomes – such as including time to think about the external perspective or more consideration of future business needs as well as the immediate requirement (ambidextrous thinking).

Other deliverables cited in feedback collected by Stonewater include:

  • Proactively sharing the concepts and techniques to their teams – over time this will embed the learning across the members and have a knock-on ripple effect with colleagues they interact with
  • Making time to read more material around the subjects and take an external perspective – this change in behaviour will increase the insights and ideas that are bought into the organisation and help them understand and respond to future changes / challenges.

 

During the final review session, the delegates reflected on what they would do differently as a result of the programme. Responses came from across all four elements and the main themes included:

  • Carving out time for creative thinking
  • Creating the environment for others to put forward and challenge ideas
  • Stay true to oneself
  • Truly check-in with others to ensure they are really OK
  • Be honest and open
  • Seek opinion from outside of Stonewater
  • Test ideas and opinions with other team
  • Help self / others to reframe negative language
  • Ask for and give both positive and constructive feedback
  • Treat mistakes as an opportunity to learn
  • Call out self and others for having a fixed mindset.

 

Creating an Environment for Continuous Learning

Key learnings from the programme included the importance of reinforcing and supporting colleagues as they embed new behaviours. This was illustrated by anecdotal evidence gathered when Stonewater asked colleagues what they required going forward – ideas included developing a community of attendees to support each other and share successes / learnings. Another suggestion, that Stonewater is now acting upon, was providing additional relevant material on the internal learning platform*.

To fully internalise the new agile mindset and embed behaviours longer-term, delegates will need ongoing support as they continue to develop new ways of working. Organisations can help by creating an environment conducive to continuous learning – for example, providing opportunities to apply the new techniques explored in the programme into project work / meeting agendas and use more considerate and positive language.

Performance conversations and reviews should include time to explore how mindset has shifted, what new techniques the individual has used, how their behaviour has changed and what areas they can still work on going forward. In addition, using 360o reviews to evidence how leaders’ behaviour has changed would help colleagues recognise areas where they can still make further improvements.

 

Conclusion

The idea that we are living in an increasingly ‘VUCA’ world (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) is not a new one but we know now that a key characteristic will be adaptability. Indeed, the business landscape for 2022 will be dominated by the mantra ‘test, learn & adapt’ and to navigate this next era will require a brave new mindset.

Whilst traditional development programmes tend to focus on skills and competencies, it is mindset that will shape leadership development going forward. OE Cam’s Agile Mindset Model defines the core set of components for leaders to develop in order to build sustainable leadership capability for the long term. By developing the leaders’ attitudes and perspective you are giving them an almost ‘inherent’ capability for dealing with the ongoing uncertainties in the world of work.

julie.brophy@oecam.com