Behind many organisational failures are groups of people who knew bad things were happening but felt unwilling or unable to express their concerns. New research shows how leaders can make constructive challenge not just possible but an integral part of a thriving organisational culture. Five actions for leaders: 1) Ask better questions - ones that directly invite disagreement 2) Acknowledge the legitimacy of the challenge 3) Keep meetings interactive & friendly 4) Allocate enough time for open discussion 5) Create a sense of accountability among team members Summary article: sloanreview.mit.edu/article/…. From @mitsmr. A fantastic free White Paper on "Facilitating Constructive Challenge" based on the research: imperialcollegelondon.app.bo…. By @ProfCeliaMoore.

Organisations are designed to produce specific, repeatable processes through specialised roles, norms, & behaviours. When we start working in a new organisation, we learn the social cues to start conforming & fitting in. It's why, when we set out to lead change, we're likely to find resistance. All of those subtle forces built up over time are designed to support existing behaviours & norms. For large scale change, we need to shift from a "manager mindset" rooted in the status quo, to a "changemaker mindset" that can move things in a different direction. Three shifts are needed: 1) From building consensus to building coalition: build a smaller coalition of people who are already enthusiastic about change & can begin to build new norms & expectations 2) From working in an atmosphere of predictability to one of uncertainty: we won't know if things will work until we've tried them - expect them to go wrong & leave room for testing & error 3) From a focus on implementation to exploration: if we don't explore, we won't find better ways of doing things - or better things to do We need both a manager & a changemaker mindset. We have to be able to mode shift between them: digitaltonto.com/2024/to-lea…. By @Digitaltonto