G20 - the world’s away day
Posted by Marcus Cato
April 7th, 2009
Away days are often seen as an unwelcome interruption to normal day to day running of the organisation, like an unwanted present or visitor. So the preparation, if any, is typically rushed or sparse. Many managers do not clear the everyday operational clutter in their minds to make space for focussed thoughts on the agenda or issues for the day.
Yet the preparation for away days is critical. The thinking time and shifting of mind sets away from the normal day to day operational realities enables participants to contribute and be engaged with the topic of the event. The world back at the office can operate without you - it does when you are on holiday - but on those occasions we tend to plan more and put things in place.
Away days are also opportunities to build on existing or new relationships as well as tap into each others’ expertise, experience and knowledge. Interestingly more and more people who join an organisation attend away days even before or soon after they start work. First impressions can be lasting impressions in these instances; someone new to an organisation needs to prepare well with disciplined thoughts and disciplined action in creating a positive credible impression. This may augur well for long term collaborative working and quicker access to resources.
In fact the G20 meeting is an away day for the Presidents and Prime Ministers of the world. We can see all participants have issues back at home, but despite this they have a common purpose and their preparation has been thorough in looking to:
- Stabilise the Global Economy
- Introduce a more rigorous controls on the financial sector
- Put the economy back on track for sustainable growth
All of these have a huge impact on what is going to happen in the future. The French and Germans seem to favour more rigorous regulation and have even before the away day made their feelings clear by trying to influence the event. They could not have done this without some disciplined thought beforehand. Obama is new to the team so he will be using some of his time to make a credible impression for building and maintaining new relationships with other nations.
Are these the right things for the G20 to focus on or will they disappear into the Bermuda Triangle like some other G20 issues like the eradication of poverty!?
April 7th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Marcus
I like the lateral thinking here - Gordon, Barak and Angela on an away day. The expectation is that so much brain power and influence working together can be powerful enough to change the world. Similarly with a company or departmental away day they are only as good as the expectations we have of them and the disciplined thought and behaviour we invest in them. At their best away days create significant breakthroughs, change cultures, deliver real results - this always links with the effective implementation of these wonderful ideas back in the real world. To take your analogy on Gordon, Barak, Angela etc will deliver high sounding ideas (do they gather round flip charts and use post its?!) but some senior civil servants will be the real people who turn the brain power into action. The ability of the away day participants to pass the baton on to the implementers will be vital. Maybe that’s why world poverty has not been tackled effectively!
April 8th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
I would partially agree with you Steve. My reservation is that when Gordon, Barack and Angela return from the away day like other senior leaders/managers, the initial imapct of the ideas and plans are often not discussed or shared with the implementers. The consistency of implementation is sporadic accross organisations. Unless someone is given the explicit mantle to champion a particular new initiative, efforts fall well short of promises and expectations. This also begs the question, what responsibility do those who do not attend the away day have in making sure what was agreed is implemeneted? Is it explict enough as part of their role to ask the difficult questions to attendees to really understand what was agreed and therefore what needs to happen? Or do they just sit passively and listen for the report back and act on what they are asked to do?
Again when the ‘away dayers’ return, do they pause and think through what messages and actions really need to happen and who should drive it? Or do they just get caught up in the latest crisis or challenge facing the organisation and gently let go of the away day outcome? However in these economic circumstances there is a real need for away days that work and for outcomes not to be lost in translation.