A checklist of ‘Five Essentials for Cut-through Communication’ caught my eye in a recent AICD article titled ‘Recovery Position’. The list comes from an interview with Shane Fitzsimmons, the former Commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service and the 2021 NSW Australian of the Year.
The interview records a summary of his approach to leading and communicating under VUCA-type change conditions (where V = volatile, U = uncertain, C = complex and A = ambiguous). For him it starts with “telling it straight” and:
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Giving people the most accurate and up-to-date information you possibly can
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Being clear about what you know and don’t know
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Explaining what you are doing about the event or issue and why you are doing it
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Detailing what you want others to do to be part of the solution and
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Showing humility, empathy and care for those impacted and the welfare of your people, customers and the community.
I’m sure many of you will remember how he poignantly modelled this last ‘communication essential’ when he travelled down to specifically attend the funeral of one of his volunteer firefighters, killed in a firestorm. Then after the service he knelt down and gently placed the firefighter’s helmet on the head of the dead man’s son.
To me this is a great example of ‘symbolic leadership’ which is not so much about what we say but where, when and how we say it.
Reading the article caused me to reflect on those dark days when the sun turned orange and the harbour bridge was barely visible through blankets of smoke. And then the lockdown days of Covid when we all stayed in isolation. Many of us struggled to work from home, especially when children and grandchildren were part of the household. Then we needed to learn to breathe through masks as we tried to keep 1.5 metres apart from foraging shoppers in supermarket isles.
I wonder to what extent wearing masks, social distancing and back-to-back video conferencing has begun to limit our opportunity to lead symbolically, express our feelings and consequently our ability to have open and insightful conversations.
Although ‘zooming’ has been an amazing communication channel to keep organisations functioning and information flowing, my observation is that this form of communication is often pretty transactional and devoid of many of the subtleties which give conversations real depth. Also trying to read the body language of faces in little gallery boxes isn’t easy. And of course we sometimes have those who fail to turn on their cameras. What are they wearing and doing behind their blank screens?? To the question ‘Are you ok?’, the response often seems to be ‘yep – all good.’, when I sense it’s just the defensive tip of a larger, underlying emotional iceberg.
This seems especially the case when conflict arises and participants either get embroiled in win/lose debates or defending their fixed ideological positions. As Otto Scharmer points out such interactions are more often about “re-enacting patterns of the past” whereas “dialoguing and exploring” are all about “enacting emerging futures”.
Particularly when interacting virtually, I believe it takes an emotionally aware and skilled process, as well as task, leader to pull conversations up into the top half of Scharmer’s Theory U Framework.
As Shane Fitzsimmons relates in his interview, being part of an emergency volunteer organisation from his early teens where “dominating, arrogant, obnoxious, authoritarian leadership didn’t cut it”, was a marvellous opportunity for him to learn about diversity, consultation, collaboration, engagement and teamwork. All of which, plus well-honed active listening skills, not only encourage great dialogue but also generate the collective creativity needed to explore, in Scharmer’s terms, ‘emerging futures’.
Such conversations can even lead to outcomes encapsulated in the Aboriginal word Makarrata, or ‘a coming together after a struggle, facing the facts of wrongs and living again in peace’.
Stay safe
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