//don't get me started...

What does it take to be at the Centre of Change? It can be exciting, stimulating and challenging, whilst also stress-inducing, messy and tiring! I had a great conversation with Garin Rouch as a prelude to an event with the CIPD in London in October 2022. Amongst other things, we talked: ▶️ What does it take to be the person in the middle, and have an impact and stay sane? ▶️ How can you prepare and protect yourself? ▶️ Why you need to have the courage to get uncomfortable and ‘speak truth’ to those with more power than you. It gives you a sense of how I see change work, and in particular change practice.

This is the first of two webinars that were held on the same theme. Naomi Stanford is a well-known consultant, theorist and practitioner, most often associated with Organisation Design. Naomi has ample experience of leaders and organisations flailing around looking for guaranteed ‘right’ answers and solutions, and sometimes a magical 'Silver Bullet', looking to her, as the expert, to provide one. The reality is, there is #NoSilverBullet. Naomi joined Steve Hearsum, writer and researcher of a new book on the functional collusion that surrounds Silver Bullets, as they discussed the search for guaranteed answers by leaders, organisations, consultants and practitioners of the various different disciplines of organisational change (HR, OrgDev, Change, OrgDes etc). Questions that drove our inquiry included: - How far is the projection of expertise useful and when does it become an ethical consideration? - What can we learn from our experiences as consultants and practitioners about how to work with clients' expectations, however unrealistic they might be? - What happens, as it has with Naomi, when guru status is conferred and how does that amplify the problem? - In amongst all the theories, can there ever be one that passes for a Silver Bullet? There will be two webinars, catering for different timezones, and both will be recorded. The format of the session will be a short dialogue between Naomi and Steve, short break out sessions and a Q&A.

This is a recording of the first of two webinars that were held on the same theme. The phrase "There is no Silver Bullet for....." is increasingly used in conjunction with many of the complex challenges we face today. COVID-19 on its own has repeatedly been talked about in terms of how there is no simple answer to both the virus or the social, political and economic challenges it has catalysed. In the last #NoSilverBullet webinars, we considered what drives the need for certainty. This time, Steve Hearsum was joined by Dr Mark Cole, author of Radical OD and a soon to be published book on Unlocking Leadership. We considered how Leadership Development - in how it is construed, bought, sold and delivered - is one more facet of the collusion that goes on, often unconsciously, that there are certain answer to complex problems. As Mark himself would say, "it is the myth of fixability." The questions we covered included things like: - Leadership Development is the answer to what question? - To what extent are we as purveyors of or practitioners in Leadership Development culpable in creating a false sense of security in clients? - What role do business schools and executive education play in this dance? - What needs to change, if anything, to change this culture of co-dependency?

Steve Hearsum (ODNE) started off his contribution to the day by allowing everyone to jump from head to heart and afterwards shared his insights on cultural differences in OD contexts within his take on ‚Experiencing intervention with Steve Hearsum’. Group discussions lead to ideas about cultural differences and similarities between UK and the rest of Europe (EU). INOC website: http://www.inoc-network.org/ INOC LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8325304

This was a talk followed by discussion I gave as part of the Tavistick Institute For Human Relations lunchtime series on Wednesday, 10 November 2021. Consultants all have ethical lines to tread – that almost seems self-evident. Ask a consultant if they have ‘ethics’ or ‘values’ they work to and the answer will be a resounding yes. Drawing on my own experience and research as a consultant, I reflected on my personal ethical conundrums. I then invited others to do the same, asking them to reflect on their own consultancy practice, particularly when comparing the work of independents and boutique consultancies with the apparent ‘evils’ of big consulting firms. We are all at risk of functional collusion, the only question is whether we are aware of that and are prepared to do anything about it.

Business schools and executive education, and arguably many of the organisations that they support - consultancies, accountancy firms, business gurus, etc - are based on a fairly narrow set of assumptions about the nature of organising. Market managerialism dominates and, whilst there are exceptions, the vast majority of what is taught and researched assumes that we design work in a narrow way. - Hierarchy is necessary; - Power is concentrated in particular roles; - The departments/functions we create exist to support this way of organising, not to challenge it or suggest alternatives; - 'Value' is still largely defined primarily in monetary terms, rather than social or environmental value; - Anyone who dissents is categorised as being an outlier, outsider or utopian. Martin Parker is the author of a book that challenge's the orthodoxy that business schools are fit for purpose when it comes to developing leaders and managers, and offers a radical solution: shut down all the business schools and replace them with Schools For Organising.

Dave Ulrich joined Steve Hearsum for the latest in a series of conversations about the functional collusion that exists around 'Silver Bullets' and quick fix solutions to complex problems in organisations. Leaders are under huge pressure to find answers to complex challenges and there is no shortage of people out willing to meet that need. Whether it be the packaging up of old ideas as new fads, or crafting elegantly polished sales pitches around methodologies, tools and techniques, you don’t have to look far to find purveyors of Silver Bullets. Dave and Steve, plus our audience, had a rich and engaging conversation, not short on opinion and stories from real life, that touched many of the issues that arise when leaders look for certainty when little exists, yet many are prepared to sell solutions that purport to work, whether they be new fads or old packaged as new.

What drives the need for Silver Bullets, and why are leaders and organisations so prone to looking for them?... This is a recording of the first of two webinars (the same event run twice) on the question of what drives the need for certainty in organisations, and by extensions leaders..... We are faced with many complex challenges today e.g.: - How to respond to the impact of COVID-19 - Addressing social and racial inequality - New technology - Climate change - Attract and retaining talent etc. In response to these, we see leaders often searching for a Silver Bullet, a guaranteed solution, a certain fix to these and other problems. However, like the mythical Silver Bullet, guaranteed solutions are hard to find. That doesn’t stop those at the top of organisations – and often lower down – looking for them. What is less clear is what drives that need. Is it fear, if so, of what? Anxiety? Privilege? Hubris? Narcissism?... Steve Hearsum and Simon Cavicchia were the hosts.