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The Art of Work ‘Human at Work’ Symposium 2021 - Staying Human

We’ve seen the very best and sometimes the very worst of human nature particularly around how people have been treated at work. Some people have worked throughout the entire crisis while others have needed to shift to working from home or have been furloughed and living with the uncertainty of knowing when they might return back to work. It’s true to say no one persons experiences have been the same.

So this year, we wanted to take some time firstly to honour the past 12 months and also reflect on what’s been happening in the workplace through several lens.

Staying Human

Firstly, we looked at how our leaders have faced the challenges of supporting both the front line and back office. But also in doing this, also understanding the thoughts and concerns of those who have being supporting the supporters. This has been especially true of HR and other professional services as they have supporting concerned internal staff and managing the anxieties within their wider community.

Listening to both Penny Weatherup, HR Director with Volkswagen Group UK and Ian MacBeath, Strategic Director, Health and Wellbeing, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council share their experiences it was apparent that this has been both challenging but also fulfilling. But both agreed it had enabled them to re-examine their leadership style to ensure they could respond with speed and confidence to the ever changing situation. Trusting their teams and their decisions was key but also understanding their own personal boundaries and needs.

  • “Staying human for me means that I didn’t manage to stay human at times! Even maintaining my exercise as much as possible (my go to release) didn’t always work. But when I did exercise it helped me relax and regain perspective on life. Inevitably, working days have been longer and mentally there has been a lot more to consider when switching to different ways of working. I began volunteering for MacMillan in the summer as a telephone buddy, talking to people who have cancer. I have found the experience really fulfilling and hope I have made a difference to the people I talk to. There is always someone experiencing something more challenging than me, again a sense of perspective. Being able to switch off and talking to family and friends that I love, laughing, sharing experiences and sometimes crying together have all helped me stay human. The experiences of the last 12 months have taught me that nobody is perfect and it’s ok sometimes to admit that I’m not feeling my best!”

  • “During the pandemic I found delegating early and trusting my colleagues to do the right thing - and connecting them to each other to prevent decision-making bottle-necks enabled me to retain a better overview and manage my own workload; we all knew it would be a marathon not a sprint!”

Stories from Lockdown

In this session we took a deeper and more personal look at the thinking behind our fledgling ‘Go Human’ social enterprise which we set up during with our great friend Rich and Andy Ward of RAW Brothers. For us this has not in any way been ‘a lost year’ and setting up our new social enterprise to champion being more human and humane at work, has at times been the glue that has kept us on course despite the storm raging outside and all around us.

We all readily admit is an ongoing journey but at the very heart sits a belief that we all need to champion great stories we hear about being human at work but be brave and call out those practices and comments that we see and hear around in both the workplace, at home and on social media. If you want know more about becoming a Go Human Supporter or Partner do make contact with us.

To being this session to life we were extremely fortunate to have the chance to listen to some very personal stories about the impact on lockdown of our lives from some very different perspectives

  • Denise McMurray who joined the NHS just 2 weeks ahead of the pandemic shared so powerfully her personal reflections around the past year. Working in an environment at times overwhelmed by sadness with Covid staff led ‘wobble rooms’ for those struggling to cope. But also where compassion and simple kindness had been vital to being able to continue to function in her leadership role which can always been demanding but is now perhaps more challenging than anyone had never imagined.
  • Paul Burgess who is a long-time supporter of ours spoke about his own lockdown experience, being made redundant during lockdown while manging and maintaining is own mental health. The pandemic has resulted in some real low points many of us feeling fed up with the situation and wishing things were ‘normal’. While we can’t control the circumstances we are in, we can control how we react to them, and we can focus on we do have rather than what we don’t.”
  • Sarah Jepson Jones - Sarah spoke at last year’s symposium for us about having her daughter Gabriella who has quadriplegic cerebral palsy and returned this year to talk about being on maternity leave during lockdown coping with a new baby and Gabriella while trying to return to work. She spoke about her sense of loss during what she had hoped this time would be a more normal break after having Tiggy and also the loss all NHS support for wonderful ‘G’ during this time

Finally in this session we invited everyone to join us as a Go Human Supporter or Partner to help us amplify our voices to create a more human and humane workplace

The Human Leader

Finally in our last session we looked at some fresh thinking around The Human Leader. Together we explored the ‘nature/nurture’ debate and whether we can develop those ‘human’ attributes through increased self-awareness and providing a fertile environment around us. And we started by looking at how we can do this by focussing on psychological safety, developing mutual trust and empowering others.

At the heart of human leadership are the interactions we have with each other. To bring this to life, our rehearsal practitioners, Phil and Harri, played out a ‘return to work post Covid’ conversation between a manager and team member demonstrating that even a well-intentioned and experienced manager has to consider the complexity and challenge of human leadership. Following the conversation we were able to explore some of the characteristics for human leadership and distilled these into four key elements;

We also explored the different ‘language’ which we would expect to hear when we are experiencing human leadership – words like ‘patience’, ‘care’, ‘kind’ and ‘hope’. Some of our discussions along the way, identified a number of valuable themes and ideas. These included; - That organisations are – and need to be treated as – human systems - We need to question whether our values and purpose are truly ‘lived’ - We all need to have the courage to speak out more when we see inhumane behaviour and actions - A hope that the next generation will embrace this more fully and naturally

But how do we maintain ‘human leadership’ in the face of commercial pressure? Our overriding conclusion is that commerciality and human leadership are not mutually exclusive. By treating others as you would wish to be treated, we are creating a healthy eco-system that will flourish and be more resilient in the face of challenge and change.

Finally…..

We hope this has provided an overview of tour rich conversations and reflections but of course if you would like to know more about our Human at Work and Go Human thinking, do give us a call on 07801272363 or just email: [email protected]