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Action Centred Leadership in the New Norm .docx

Action Centred Leadership in the New Normal

ted Learning Theatre of Learning drama based training

‘Oh yes, I’ve seen that on so many leadership courses……”

Go on any management or leadership programme and at some point, John Adair’s Action Centred Leadership Model will pop up on the Powerpoint slide, (that wouldn’t be a ted course then).
A little bit of a history lesson here;

Did you know that John Adair developed his model in the 1960s and 70s during his time at Sandhurst Royal Military Academy and while working at The Industrial Society as Head of the Leadership Department?

“Well I never”’ I hear you say.
Action Centred Leadership in the New Norm

The 1970s was of course the decade that saw Britain really struggling. Do you remember The Three Day Week ? I do, well just. Our economy was troubled by high inflation, commercial users of electricity were restricted to three consecutive days a week. TV companies had to stop broadcasting at 10.30pm;

“People were miserable at work, their lives had been turned upside down and when they came home, they couldn’t even watch TV!”

“How do we make a cup of tea?” (this is difficult to comprehend, being a Yorkshireman)

“In terms of comfort, we will have a harder Christmas than we have ever known since the war.” Ted Heath, British Prime Minister

There was an urgent need to manage the British post war economy.

John Adair advocates that, to be an effective manager and leader, we need to keep the right balance between the TASK, TEAM and the INDIVIDUAL; achieve results, build and maintain employee engagement, develop teams and enhance productivity.

ted Learning delivers traditional management training courses and programmes that will enable your managers to maximise their potential by gaining or refining their management skills

Since the 1970s the Action Centred Leadership Model has been widely adopted by organisations and it is certainly something we, dramatically, explore as part of. ted Learning’s Leadership Courses.

Back to today and as the lockdown eases and the ‘new normal’ starts to take shape people are cautious about returning to their place of work.

Boris Johnson has announced that the Government’s guidance on returning to work will change from 1st August.
“We’re going to give employers more discretion and ask them to make decisions about how their staff can work safely”.

There is so much that organisations need to think about.

Are we ready to return to work?

To Do List

  • Reconfigure the workplace to make it safe. (Task)
  • Change working patterns to reduce the amount of people in the office at any one time. (Task)
  • Process the increase in requests for homeworking. (Task)
  • Procure sanitisers and PPE. (Task)
  • Order masks. (Task)
  • Make sure our people have the right equipment to work at home. (Task)

There are so many practical issues to consider.

Hang on, what about the human element?

Everything on these lists needs to be done. They are all as important as each other. With so many practical things to be done, all too often the Individual and Team points are overlooked. Allowing our focus to drop from our most important asset, our people, is likely to have an adverse impact on employee engagement, productivity and sense of belonging.

At ted Learning we can help with completing the individual and team items on your to do list.

ted learning - Patrick Holtby - Theatre of Learning drama based training
Patrick Holtby

Patrick has been part of the ted Learning team since soon after the business was formed. He has worked extensively within transport, manufacturing and pharmaceutical sectors as well as in hospitality.