A core leadership responsibility
What do we mean by ‘cultivating conditions’?
Cultivating conditions means two things:
- The way the work is done, and
- The climate people are working and growing in.
Both are a leader’s to shape, and both grow capability.
For example:
| The moment | What else could be there |
|---|---|
| How many times a day does someone ask you what they should do next? | Where else could they find that? A plan they can see, a job board in the workshop, an agreed way of picking up what is next. |
| Someone asks how to do something they have done once or twice before, and you tell them how again | A question could do the work here. What do you remember from last time? What steps did you take? How it is asked matters as much as what is asked. Curious and warm, it invites them to recall what they already know. |
| The same question comes to you from three different people in a week | The answer could live in two places. In the system, as a checklist or short video they can refer to. Or in the team, through training that builds the capability. |
| Someone keeps their own spreadsheet on the side, because the system will not do what they need it to | That spreadsheet is information. Ask what they use it for. The answer may show what the system or process needs to handle. |
| Two teams are not working well together, and it is looking like the people | Look at what each team is measured on. When the measures are narrow or contradict each other, both teams are doing what they have been asked to do. Measures that include what each team needs from the other make working together part of their work. |
Why cultivating conditions matters
How we cultivate conditions
In what we teach
We teach people not just how to do things, but how to cultivate the conditions that make the doing easier.
This runs through everything we teach, from self leadership to organisational leadership.
Cultivating conditions shapes how we deliver our learning too. Our workshops and programmes are designed so new ways of working are easy to learn and apply at work.
In how people learn with us
We apply the same thinking to our own learning environment. It fits around the flow of work, with learning little and often, in the ways that suit each person:
• Facilitator-led workshops, online and onsite
• Self-led courses and Knowledge Base in the Equip Learning Hub
• Regular open coaching sessions
• Additional practice sessions
• A peer learning community
We create a safe place to ask questions, practise and grow alongside others.
Reviewing the conditions
The conditions can be hard to see from the inside.
Our environment and engagement survey gives insight into how the workplace conditions may be affecting people’s ability to fulfil their role.
It shows where to focus, for increased impact. Sometimes removing the barriers to applying existing capability is the answer, rather than increasing capability that may still be constrained by the conditions.
Curious whether any conditions might be inhibiting your people from fully applying their capabilities?
Part of the bigger picture
The future is uncertain, and the present is complex.
Our Dynamic Leadership approach is how we can deal with this.
We:
- Shape what we can by cultivating conditions,
- Equip our people with what they need to fulfil their role, and
- Grow their capability to navigate a wider range of what may come.
