I was recently re-reading some of David Maister’s material. In his book, Managing the Professional Service Firm. A story he tells about being sought out to give a keynote at an in-house event made me wonder how many firms (and the people within them) are living the firm’s published values.
Here’s the passage:
Most of the calls I receive about speaking to in-house company events are from companies that want a speech that is entertaining, informative, stimulating, or motivating. What they don’t seem to want is anything that specifically addresses the way they run their firms or the real-world changes they are really trying to make.
For example, I recently received an inquiry asking me to convey to the audience the importance of living up to the organization’s “sacred values” (including the need for collaboration). They wanted me to be inspiring.
However, when I asked if I could poll the audience as to how well the organization was currently performing on collaboration and what the current barriers to collaboration were, the organizers were terrified at the potential for disruption. I was not hired for that speech.
Here’s a link to an online article by Maister on the same topic.
I urge partners not to continue living in a world of denial when it comes to serious issues they must address. This applies to a serious issue in many firms, the need to “out-place” a partner.