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I’m back! Away within a client business, snow and Christmas (was it really 8 weeks ago) have kept me out of Purple Frog during daylight hours for much of the last 4 months.
In that time I’ve obviously become comfortable with the pace of activity, peace and quiet in my temporary working environment because the vibrancy, speed of thought and action and sheer desire to do more that is the Purple Frog way, has been something of a shock to my returning system.
It’s not that my ‘home’ for the last 4 months has been slow or dull. Far from it. It’s just that the complexities of inter-dependent teams, workstreams, logs, programme meetings, ‘brown paper’ meetings and meetings about meetings all seem to conspire against any dynamic forward motion. Sure things get done. In some cases there have even been real ‘outcomes’ but everything runs at a pace that erodes the ability for keen minds to resolve, create, plan and deliver in a diligent, inspiring and efficient way – barriers are built not removed.
Now I’ve worked within corporate client businesses before – sometimes for 12 months or more – so I should have got used to this modus operandi. The trouble is, when you work in an agency like Purple Frog, it’s easy to be hood winked into believing that our working environment is the norm.
Some businesses have tried to address the inevitable inertia that gets created within cultural and operational systems that are essentially bureaucratic. Meetings without chairs, brainstorm/blue sky sessions etc. Others create brand values designed to motivate lean thinking and action but the real answer is to create environments where the people that want to speak up, move forward, create and inspire – even if this means rubbing the status quo up the wrong way – can flourish rather than becoming suppressed.
Somebody said to me recently that the trick in meetings is to avoid asking questions that require debate and answers. Better to keep quiet, let the agenda run its course and then everyone can leave on time and go about their business. This is the priority over defining purposeful direction and action or resolving issues.
As my Dad (who was a world beating business maverick) once said, “This is no way to run a railroad”.
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