All posts by Dorothy Nesbit

When it’s time to look again at your organisation design

Developing leadership across your organisation,

Sometimes, it’s hard to improve on what comes my way so I offer here a brief posting from Seth Godin with a link to some organisation charts of well-known organisations by cartoonist Manu.  Which one rings true for you?

Manu’s funny brilliance aside, this collection of org charts might help you think hard about why your organization is structured the way it is.
Is it because it was built when geography mattered more than it does now? Is it an artificact of a business that had a factory at its center? Does the org chart you live with every day leverage your best people or does it get in their way?

Ten years after the day that became known as 9/11

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It was bound to happen.  Ten years after the day that became known as 9/11, the events of 11 September 2001 have been extensively revisited.  I have been aware of television programmes, radio programmes.  Today I heard a review of a drama on the subject.

So many things have been in my thoughts.  In recent days, I have become aware of facts that were previously unknown to me.  Almost 3,000 people died as a result of the events of that day, for example, of whom about 46 were twins.  I have been struck by occasional glimpses of testimony and especially by the woman – mother of one of those who died – who said her life ended on that day.  I wonder if she knows that, insofar as this is true, it reflects choices she has made rather than some inevitable reality.  I remember the shock of the seeing the first images of the twin towers with flames and smoke billowing from them and finding it hard to comprehend that no, this was not some disaster movie but real life.  I think of so many other events that escape our attention and which, still, affect so many people around the world.

As it happens, just as the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, my dear friend Len Williamson sends through a link to an 11-minute talk by Julia Bacha on TED.  Take a look at what Julia Bacha has to say about the world’s interest in nonviolence, he writes, and I do.  Bacha highlights how one community in Palestine successfully used peaceful demonstrations to persuade Israel to move the boundary away from their lands and onto the official ‘green line’ boundary.  She also highlights how little the world’s media does to cover nonviolent action.  If you want your cause to be heard, it may help to use violence.

For better, for worse, those behind the attacks on America’s Twin Towers in New York and on the Pentagon  in Washington, D.C. wanted to be heard.  If Bacha is right in what she says, there’s just one thing we need to do if we want something different going forward:  to let go of paying attention to violent protest and to train our attention on those who speak to their cause by the means of nonviolent action.

I say amen to that, even whilst recognising that I, too, have a way to go in learning to ignore the violence and to engage without fail in that which is not violent.

Enjoying Beethoven? After the event

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Matthew Rose, Paul Groves, Sarah Connolly and Helena Juntunen

If you’re quick, you can still catch Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis on BBC iPlayer following Sunday’s performance as part of the Prom series – just follow this link.

I say this with a little trepidation – as a member of the London Symphony Chorus I was on the concert platform and feeling just a little anxious on the night so I know I gave a slightly less than optimum performance.  The thought of being seen on screen giving anything less than the perfect performance is not easy for me.

And even as I share this, I am fully aware of the folly of such a high expectation:  performance is, by it’s nature, a bit of a messy business – a perfect entry here, a less than perfect ending there.  To think this way is also a form of vanity – as if the experience of members of the audience depends on me and me alone.  In truth, the end result is the sum of the parts just as it is in any other “workplace”.

If the feedback of friends and family is anything to go by, there was enjoyment to be had regardless of any nerves, mistakes and omissions.  Some played “Spot the Dot”  and others bathed in the magnificence of Beethoven’s music.  And equally, I notice how much – as I watch the recording – I enjoy seeing my colleagues sing and with no thought of any mistakes they may be making.

Such is life!  There is always a gap between our perceptions of ourselves and the perceptions others have of us.  There is, too, the risk that we believe our own story about what others might think.

The mistakes are done and nothing about the performance will change.  Still, there is much to enjoy.  The question is:  will I choose to enjoy it?

Go to the funeral – it means more than you think

Developing as a leader, Emotional Intelligence, ,

Hospitals and funerals are two places we rarely want to go. Even when we feel genuine love and concern for the person involved or his/her family, we’re distracted by how going to those places makes us feel – awkward, afraid for our own health or mortality, guilty, sad or a whole host of other emotions that may arise.


Alan Dobzinski describes how this situation came up for two of his clients – both leaders in their respective organisations. Click through to Alan’s blog to learn how skipping a funeral had huge repercussions for one leader.

Don’t let the bear market ruin morale

Developing as a leader,

Thanks to Carrie Bedingfield, CEO of Onefish Twofish marketing consultancy, I picked up a link to an article on communicating to staff during bad times, called Don’t Let the Bear Market Ruin Morale.  It’s a succinct reminder to leaders to keep communicating with their staff through the bad times with a few thoughts on what and how.

This is a big topic – so much of the way staff feel about their work is down to the way their leaders communicate with them.  And depending on your style of communication and the relationship you create with those you lead, you may or may not get to hear about how they really feel in the workplace.  At the same time, there’s a paradox at work (as there so often is).  Communication is hard work!  And at the same time, the more you get it right, the more your work becomes easy.

How are you communicating with your staff during these hard times?  And to what extent does your communication with staff reflect the way you are communicating with yourself?

Meditating: a personal experience

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Monday morning.  When my alarm goes off it interrupts a seemingly interminable dream of the not-so-pleasant variety.

In the dream, I turn up at 7pm prompt ready to sing in a concert.  I open my bag to find that everything I expect to take out of it – my music, my concert clothes – are not there.  It seems that we are singing with a second choir who have things organised – they are able to offer me a black top with the regulatory below-the-elbows sleeves.  I ask if anyone has a skirt or trousers and several people tell me they’ll check – before disappearing into the dream ether.  I look around me and find the entire contents of my wardrobe seem to be at hand – except, that is, anything black.  7.30pm comes and I discover the concert doesn’t start until 8pm – I have an extra half hour to fill the gaps.  Except that I don’t manage to fill the gaps:  I just have more time in which to feel stressed and run around trying to find clothes and music unsuccessfully.

Waking, I notice how some details of the dream are totally true to life (the bag I open at the beginning of the dream is one I’m using a lot right now) and others are strangely off beam (I am always ready for a 7.30pm concert in time for our warm up, which is usually at about 6.40pm).  Others are, of course, figments of the dream-state imagination.  I also reflect that it’s not surprising to have had this dream at this time.  It’s not just that I am returning to work after a break and face the prospect of several weeks of busy-ness at work and in my hobby as a singer.  It’s also that in the past week my dreams have indeed been varied and vivid.

This seems to have been a side-effect of my time spent at Oxon Hoath on retreat.  This was a brief sojourn – I arrived on Tuesday afternoon and left after lunch on Friday.  Still, I have been meditating up to five times a day.  In the morning, I have done two full meditation rounds before breakfast, comprising ‘asanas’ (simple yoga exercises – not nearly as stretching as the one shown, though this photo tickled me rather), ‘pranayama’ breathing, meditation and a gentle return.  We have also meditated as a group before lunch and then, in the afternoon, I have enjoyed two more meditation rounds.

What does the meditation comprise?  After the preparatory asanas and pranayama breathing, I close me eyes and repeat a mantra that has been given to me by my teacher – over and over for a full twenty minutes.  The effect is a slowing and deepening of my breathing.  As my thoughts arise I simply let them go, returning to the mantra.  Sometimes my thoughts are active – a kind of inner chatter.  Sometimes, my mind is more still.

In our shared discussions, people get to ask all sorts of questions which range from questions about the experience of meditating to questions about the body of spiritual teaching from which the approach springs.  Questions about meditation can reflect or stimulate a certain anxiety (am I doing it right?) which spring from the belief that somehow there is such a thing as the perfect meditation to which we can all aspire.  It reminds me of discussions about sex, except that the word “transcend” replaces the word “orgasm”.  My teachers have always, however, highlighted that every experience is OK.

My own experience seems quite mundane in the moment – a gentle falling away of inner chatter and an increasing sense of peace.  It’s easy to tell myself that in some way I am falling short.  My vivid dreams tell me, though, that something is happening – some release of stress, perhaps, or a greater connection with self.  And if this is the result of just two days’ meditation, how much more is possible over time?  For doesn’t it make sense that, like exercise, the effects of meditating on a regular basis are cumulative, like exercise or gardening?

In truth, even the act of arranging my schedule to make it possible to meditate has an effect.  By doing this I am giving priority to a certain way of being, perhaps even to being over doing.  For to a greater or lesser extent, the act of meditating brings me to greater stillness within myself, or opens my awareness to the greater stillness that is already within.

Meditating on leadership

Developing as a leader, ,

Yesterday was my first day back at work after a short break – spent in the depths of Kent at the Oxon Hoath Retreat Centre on a TM retreat.

TM – or transcendental meditation – is one of the first meditation techniques to become popular in the West.  Like many other ‘alternative’ approaches, it attracts a wide range of responses – from those who revile it, through those who are interested in its benefits from a purely pragmatic point of view right through to those who are deeply versed in the spiritual thinking and teachings that lie behind it.

I fall squarely in the middle of this spectrum (at least for now).  I was attracted to TM as much on the recommendation of a good friend who is also a highly successful businessman as I was for any spiritual reasons – though I do enjoy the opportunity to learn more that is on offer at Oxon Hoath.  My friend’s experience on starting to meditate was typical and included such things as increased concentration and effectiveness.

What on earth, though, has meditation to do with leadership?  Well, quite a lot.  Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, whose careers have focused on conducting research into what differentiates the most outstanding leaders, include a whole chapter on Mindfulness in their book Resonant Leadership.  Why is it important for leaders?  Here’s a quick brainstorm:

  • Practices such as meditation which support mindfulness help to clear the mind, leading to increased clarity of thinking and improved decision-making;
  • Clearing the mind also reduces levels of stress by releasing stressful thoughts and clearing the mind – a bit like clearing a blocked cognitive ‘drain’;
  • Sustaining mindfulness through regular meditation or other activities helps leaders to sustain the high levels of performance needed to lead effectively over time (and to know when it’s time to stop and rest):  mindful leaders can lead effectively for longer periods during the day and over time.
Perhaps at the heart of the benefits for leaders lies the role leaders play in shaping the direction of an organisation or part of an organisation.  How can you shape the direction of an organisation if you are anything but clear thinking – mindful?
If you’d like to enjoy a glimpse into the experience of meditating you’ll find I have more to say in my next posting.  If you would like to look into the possibilities to train to meditate, you might like to make contact with the Meditation Trust, who offer courses in the UK.  Alternatively, Peter Russell’s book The TM Technique is recommended as a very clear introduction.

Lessons in leadership from the conductor’s podium

Developing as a leader, ,



This article is one of two I offered this week for publication on Discuss HR.  Take a look to see which one got posted!
Recently, I reached a point when I could look back on half a lifetime as an active member of the London Symphony Chorus.  As such, I have enjoyed the extraordinary privilege of performing alongside many leading professionals whilst still being an amateur, enjoying my love of music whilst pursuing my career.  Today I take time to bring both interests together in order to ask:  what have I learnt about leadership as a member of the London Symphony Chorus?
In case you read Janice Caplan’s article last week, I preface this article by highlighting differences between the concert hall maestro and line managers in more traditional workplaces.  On a day-to-day basis, for example, it is our “voice reps” who ensure that we have enough singers for each concert and who will soon notice if attendance is poor.  Our music director, on the other hand, is attentive to the quality of our singing.  The re-audition is our only one-to-one though, as well as re-auditioning chorus members every three years, a good music director will attend to an individual’s contribution on an ongoing basis.
Conductors have a variety of relationships with us.  Some of them will work with us on a regular basis over a number of years whilst others will be rare partners in making music.  Some have inspired us to new heights in our music making whilst others have left such a poor impression that the queue to sing under their baton is perilously short.
Amongst the leadership qualities I notice conductors often show a life-time commitment to music-making.  Leonard Benstein, for example, died just weeks after we recorded his own work, Candide, in December 1989.  Sir Colin Davis, now in his 80s, conducted my parents many years before I first sang under his baton.
Some conductors are driven by a vision and, like musical entrepreneurs, spend many years in pursuit of their vision.  Whilst hindsight makes a career look easy, the truth is it takes hard graft, persistence and a tolerance of uncertainty to succeed.  Davis’ Wikipedia entrance references the “freelance wilderness” he himself described, beginning in 1949.  It’s only with hindsight that he’s become known as a great champion of the now much-loved music of Berlioz.  In a similar way, Richard Hickox worked hard to develop his reputation as a champion of British music, slowly earning the license to conduct and record works that were barely known and rarely performed.  The persistence of both men has afforded opportunities to me to sing an extraordinary breadth of music.
At the level at which we sing, conductors relentlessly pursue high standards as well as interpreting the music.  In his pursuit of musical perfection Hickox never finished a rehearsal early, for example, and Davis is consistent in urging us to sing slightly ahead of the beat and in encouraging us not to “chew” our vowels.  In rehearsal, such conductors show extraordinary attention to detail.  Still, the moment comes when it’s time to let go of refining the details and engage with the spirit of a piece.  In my early years with the Chorus, when Hickox was our music director, I appreciated his pep talk ahead of a concert, which helped me to step onto the platform with a strong sense of connection with the music.
The best conductors are themselves fine musicians and in this sense they lead by example.  If they’re not, it soon shows:  when one conductor repeatedly berated the chorus in rehearsal we were quick to notice that the error was his and slow to forgive him for his behaviour towards us.  The relationship between a conductor and musicians can be tricky and this is often a function of his (or her) world view and personal confidence.  Solti famously never worked with amateur musicians, for example, so that when we were scheduled to sing with him in 1997 we sang alongside professional singers.  In rehearsal his assistant conductor repeatedly asked to hear the ‘professionals’ and then the ‘amateurs’.  This was not a move which earned our respect even though we were thrilled to have the opportunity to sing with him (an opportunity thwarted by his death just days before the concert).
There are other ways in which conductors lead by example.  The conductor is, for example, the visual centre-point for the audience as well as for all the musicians.  If (s)he slips, there’s nowhere to hide.  What’s more the conductor is the chief interpreter of the score, and every performance carries his personal stamp:  no critic expects to write “great performance – except for the conductor”.  I vividly remember a performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, conducted by Daniel Barenboim at London’s Royal Festival Hall.  It’s rare for me to be carried away by a performance of Beethoven’s 9th – it is too frequently performed and uncomfortably and persistently high in the voice.  Barenboim stood on the podium and barely moved a muscle in a performance that had everyone involved completely spellbound.  His was the courage to do something that is rarely (if ever) done and to risk the extremes of success and failure.  More recently, Martyn Brabbins showed a different kind of courage when he conducted Havergal Brian’s rarely performed Gothic Symphony, conducting 800 singers and 120 orchestral players as well as soloists.
Some of the conductors whose leadership I have most enjoyed have inspired me with their love and generosity.  It has always been a pleasure to sing under the baton of Antonio Pappano.  I always think ‘ice cream seller’ when I work with Pappano.  At the same time, more than any other conductor, he radiates a quality I can only describe as love – for the music he conducts and for the people he works with.  I feel safe in his care as well as inspired to perform from a place of deep connection with the music.  How can I do anything other than give of my best?
As it happens, Pappano was Barenboim’s assistant at the Bayreuth Festival some years ago:  leadership in the world of music includes nurturing the next generation.  I remember watching one quietly understated act of sponsorship some years ago, when the chorus was rehearsing Mahler’s 8th Symphony alongside the National Youth Orchestra under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle.  Part way through the rehearsal Rattle signalled to the young timpanist to take his place on his podium so that he could walk back into the hall and listen to the assembled forces.  I remember thinking that this was no accident – that this was as much about sponsoring this young man in the role of conductor as it was about any need to test the balance of sound from chorus and orchestra.  (And yes, I was delighted to watch the young man concerned, Robin Ticciati, make his debut conducting the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican).
So, vision, commitment, pursuing high standards, leading by example, love and generosity – these are some of the qualities it has been my privilege to observe amongst conductors.  What qualities do you observe – and appreciate – amongst leaders inside and outside the world of work?

Accountability: are we getting it right?

Developing as a leader,

David Cameron speaks at a youth center

This blog posting was one of two I offered for posting on Discuss HR on Thursday 18th August.  Take a look to see which one was posted!

On Monday evening, 8th August I was at home in a quiet side-road in the suburbs of South East London when I became aware that there were far more people on the pavements than I am used to seeing.  Looking down the street towards the Shopping Centre (which is just two minutes walk away) I was shocked to see a line of police officers carrying riot shields.  I watched the scenes that unfolded, which culminated in two cars being set alight before the young men and women involved moved on.

The implications for the organisations we work for have, without doubt, been significant.  A variety of organisations (magistrates’ courts, prisons, the police etc.) have played a very direct role in restoring law and order.  Retailers have been coping with damage to their property as well as the cost of stolen goods.  Diverse employers have had to make decisions about employees who have been identified as participants in the riots.

The rhetoric of politicians has been predictable.  Prime Minister David Cameron, following his first emergency meeting, was quick to condemn the acts of rioters, setting up a moral dichotomy between the bad guys and the good guys (those who took part in the riots and those who were in some way affected by their actions or involved in responding to them).  Having quickly coined the term “broken Britain” he laid out plans on Monday to “turn around the lives of the 120,000 most troubled families” by the next election.  As well as recognising the direct impact on many organisations of last week’s riots I invite you to consider what politicians’ responses tell us about the dos and don’ts of accountability.

Accountability is a tricky term, with multiple meanings and applications.  The banking crisis in 2008 highlighted questions of accountability between organisations – the banks to governments, for example, and governments to their electorate.  Within organisations, it raised questions of who is accountable to whom – and how to hold people to account.  When we get accountability wrong, we mask the problems of our organisations even whilst appearing to take action.  This is the “sound and fury” approach to accountability, characterised by vociferous complaints and maybe even decisive action – without ever taking long enough to get to the root causes of a problem or issue.  It has its benefits – at least on the surface:  in particular, it can protect an organisation’s leaders from the pain and vulnerability that comes with owning their mistakes.

When we get it right, something deeper and more lasting occurs.  Accountability is no longer a matter of blame and condemnation when something goes wrong.  It is an ongoing dialogue between parties (a manager and employee, one team and another, or members of the Board) about desired aims and outcomes, who will do what and when in order to move towards those desired outcomes, what’s working and what’s not working and what needs to happen next.  In an accountable organisation, for example, feedback at annual appraisal time comes as no surprise and is openly shared as the basis of a discussion, rather than given under the cover of anonymity as a stick used to beat the unsuspecting employee.

It seems to me that there is a paradox at work at the heart of every effective system of accountability.  When we strip out blame we create the opportunity for a deeper and more productive mutual dialogue because we make it safe to be “in the wrong”.  At the same time, in a true system of accountability, each party knows that it may be them who has the hardest lessons to learn.  By creating safety for everyone involved we make it possible to engage in the very depth of the dialogue needed to hold people to account.  In other words, true accountability is safe – but not the easy option.

If our country’s politicians act with wisdom in their response to the recent riots, they will understand that the louder the sound and fury, the more key people are likely to be let off the hook.  I hope they will take time to investigate the complex factors which, together, stimulated the riots and to take the most difficult learning for themselves as well as to mete out justice to others.  Closer to home I wonder, how has your business been affected by the riots?  What do you see as the key lessons in organisations if they want, truly, to create effective systems of accountability?  And what is the role of HR in facilitating accountability in their organisations?

Talking about leadership

Developing as a leader,

Monday, 8th August.  This afternoon I finished my first draft of an article about leadership, drawing on my experience as a membership of the London Symphony Chorus.  The article will be published next week, on Discuss HR as well as here on my blog.  I mentioned a number of conductors I worked with and wondered, afterwards, if any of them have spoken about leadership.  My first stop has been YouTube, which is such a fabulous resource.

Perhaps because he was one of the last conductors I mentioned in my article, I looked first for interviews with Antonio Pappano.  It has been a rare treat for me to sing under Pappano’s baton and I feel blessed every time.  I always find myself thinking of Pappano as having something of the ice-cream seller about him – there’s something about his Italian/Essex/American accent and his looks that makes me think gelato.  This takes nothing away from my deep respect and affection for him – in truth, these are simply qualities he transmits in abundance and which I mirror back.  I found a number of interviews with him and dipped into one in which he talks about the genre of verismo in Opera – just follow this link to hear him.

It led me in turn to another in which I listened to Jonas Kaufmann singing Vesti la giubba under Pappano’s baton.  Kaufmann’s singing is powerfully emotional and – as Pappano describes in his interview – nonetheless perfectly controlled.

Now… back to leadership.