Heads up or heads down?

I had a really interesting meeting with the Board of a major business in the finance sector yesterday. I was pitching to do some work with them around their strategy and how we could help them embed this in the thinking of their people and encourage much needed behavioural change. It was a really good session, apart from one thing which I will mention in a future post, because, unlike other Boards I have worked with, they seemed seriously interested in what their people thought about the strategy and how they could help them feel good about the significant changes they are proposing.

This reminded me of the above conversation starter picture from Delta 7. How often in your organisation have you heard people say things like "not worth it - they wont listen anyway" or worse "not worth it. If my idea works they will take the credit and if it doesn't I will get fired"? Jesh.......

For me sucessful organisations are those who realise that their people have all the answers and that they must therefore encourage them to raise their heads, have a go and EVEN to fail.