But I stopped short of writing about the final contribution, ‘Closing remarks and next steps’, promising to do so in a follow up article—which is this. By the way that final speaker was me, as I mentioned last week.
Given my topic, before I was called to the podium, I’d had to concentrate fully throughout in order to relate to what had been spoken over the previous three hours, and I started by saying I was only able to begin planning what I was going to say at the beginning of the programme. From then until it was my turn I was sitting “on the balcony” looking down on all that was being shared.
The main thing that struck me was the emphasis placed by so many on values and culture. I went on to describe the links between them, with values influencing attitudes which in turn influence behaviour. Behaviour is what we observe, and this defines culture – “the way we do things round here”. So when we are looking to influence a culture, it’s not until we get to that behaviour change that we have progressed beyond the necessary to the sufficient, I pointed out.
I then referred to my chat with the Uber driver who’d brought me there, in which he and I noted that while our citizens are aware of whom among the candidates for political office will do best with development, they are still much more likely to reward the “generous” ones who offer them instant gratification. Their behaviour defies their awareness of who would make the best MCA, MP, governor or President.
It all starts with values, I emphasised, and it was interesting that in her recent interview with CNN, when Kamala Harris was asked to justify her change of position on certain policies, she simply said that what remained consistent was the values those positions were based on.
Among them, the most significant value I heard that morning was trust – and indeed as a presidential candidate, Harris was seeking to be trusted through the responses she gave. And indeed one must be trustworthy to be accepted as a Blue Company member. Those within member organisations trust and respect each other, we heard, resulting in staff engagement and motivation, and therefore they attract and retain good talent. It is also trust that brings the members together, making them feel comfortable doing business with each other. NB Stephen M.R. Covey’s book, The Speed of Trust.
All this speaks of good leadership, and I explained that it’s why I use the term “good governance” less and “good leadership” instead, as it sounds more uplifting than the sombre connotations of “governance”.
Good leadership, or good governance, also promote fairness to all concerned, or win-win, with both internal and external stakeholders – as my Uber driver showed that morning, pausing to allow pedestrians to cross in front of us without us losing any time at all. They won, but we did not lose. We just felt good about letting them pass.
I next turned to the second part of my mandate, to comment on the way forward. The morning was an opportunity for purposeful reflection, during which everyone would have come up with thoughts on what to do less of and more of as members or potential members of The Blue Company. This in order to live the values they all embraced – otherwise they would not have taken the time to be at the meeting, I noted.
I hoped that those who were already members would encourage others to become so, and for the non-members I hoped that, what they had absorbed during the morning would accelerate their move towards becoming part of The Blue Company. Generally, I expected that whoever was present would have been further encouraged to interact more closely with those in the Blue Company community.
What is vital is that a critical mass of members is created, so that “Going Blue” truly becomes a movement, one of increasingly significant influence. There we were preaching to the converted, but the expectation was that as a result of it participants would go and make that light at the end of the tunnel a little brighter.
Mike Eldon is chairman of management consultancy The DEPOT, co-founder of the Institute for Responsible Leadership and member of KEPSA Advisory Council. [email protected] www.mike-eldon.com
