Decentralized Leadership
Bootcamp

Week 1: Unleashing leadership in everyone

We will explore a new leadership paradigm and why we need to ‘upgrade’ our inner Operating System (our mindset, our way of being, our culture) if we want our self-management ‘apps’ (structures and processes) to work.

Our key practice this week is coaching and we will discover how easy it is to end up in a ‘parent-child’ dynamic where we automatically give advice and solutions, instead of empowering people to find their own.

Self-management pitfalls addressed:

• Introducing new structures/processes, but not realizing how ingrained old (parent-child) habits and ways of being are

• Giving teams/individuals authority but still defaulting to being responsible, giving advice, problem-solving etc. so that individuals/teams remain dependent on us!

• Thinking that I/we need to solve issues we see, design solutions etc. instead of coaching others and placing it with them

• ‘The pendulum of doom’ – moving away from top-down, we swing too far and end up in ‘abdicated leadership’, allergic to anything resembling hierarchy, authority, structure etc. which leads to dysfunctions like accountability vacuums and a ‘prison of politeness’

Week 2: Upgrading psychological safety (trust & openness)

In week 2, we dive into upgrading the levels of trust and openness in our relationships in order to create thriving self-managing teams. We explore what psychological safety is and isn’t, and how to listen so that others feel truly seen.

Our key practice is a relationship conversation – how you can bring up ‘pebbles’ (tensions) with someone in order to strengthen a relationship, or restore the trust when the relationship has really broken down.

Self-management pitfalls addressed:

• The buddy trap or the ‘prison of politeness’ – the shadow side of a culture of care means we don’t dare or we don’t know how to have difficult conversations

• If we can no longer pass the buck to a manager or HR, how do we deal with our conflicts?

• Assuming that new structures/processes will magically create a harmonious, collaborative climate – but there is no getting around needing to talk about difficult things sometimes!

• Taking relationships for granted and being a ‘consumer’ instead of ‘producer’ of our relationships – assuming the good ones will always be good, and that the bad ones are unfixable

Week 3: Peer-based accountability and development

This week we look at how to create a culture of feedback and development, as well as how to support people to take ownership when we see that their commitment or motivation levels are low.

Our key practices are an alternative feedback conversation and a non-negotiable conversation – how to support people when they are struggling with a decision or process that is non-negotiable (policies, team agreements etc.).

Self-management pitfalls addressed:

• Feedback culture is all talk – we want to have a feedback culture but there are so many obstacles (concerns about hurting others, how to make it ‘land’, how to do it when we are equals etc.)

• People aren’t developing – if you take away managers and performance management systems, how do people develop and progress in their roles?

• Lack of accountability culture – we don’t know how to hold each other accountable if not in a top-down way

• Gossip culture – because we don’t know how to give feedback or hold each other accountable, we have backchannel conversations, resentment brews and people often end up leaving or being laid off when there is no other solution

Week 4: Shared responsibility and distributed decision-making

In week 4, we start to apply what we’ve been learning so far to groups. How can we facilitate team meetings, discussions and decisions so that the team is responsible, instead of me driving or being responsible all the time?

Our key practice this week is facilitating decisions and starting to pay attention to what’s ‘under the surface’ in a group so we can support them to get ‘unstuck’.

Self-management pitfalls addressed:

• Teams/groups are dependent on one or a few individuals for leadership instead of leadership being truly distributed

• Getting stuck in arguing about ‘surface issues’ and being totally blind to what is ‘under the surface’ and how it is obstructing us from moving forward

• Thinking that practicing new decision-making methods will automatically make us more collaborative and efficient

• ‘Death by consensus’ – finding decision-making tedious and slow

• Lack of commitment and ownership of decisions

Week 5: Transforming teams

This week we deepen our understanding of the ‘working climate’ in a team and how to transform conflicts when they arise. When we can become skilled at this, magic happens!

Our key practice is facilitating groups ‘under the surface’ – how to shift a climate that’s hindering a group, and how to clean up ‘moose heads’ (infected issues).

Self-management pitfalls addressed:

• Automatic responses to conflicts – trying to smooth them over, avoid them, fix them etc. instead of coaching a group to be responsible for transforming them

• Trying to collaborate, discuss or decide on ‘surface issues’ when there is an unproductive climate going on or tensions are festering ‘under the surface’ that we don’t talk about

• Unresolved (or ignored) tensions and conflicts costing us energy, efficiency and psychological safety

Week 6: Pulling it all together

In our final week, we explore our personal mindsets that are in the way for us to be leaderful in a self-managing context. This is often the most powerful piece. We also close the group with some appreciative feedback and create a plan for ourselves to continue our personal development journey.