From 'Them and Us' to 'All of Us'

Valuing Individuals for the Benefit of Everyone

by

Daniel Astarita , Managing Director, Kesslers

Dr Nia D Thomas FRSA Director, Knowing Self Knowing Others

Daniel and Nia’s paths crossed when Daniel joined Nia as a guest in episode 52 of The Knowing Self Knowing Others Podcast and they realised that even though their work backgrounds were very different, they shared common belief in the importance of people-centric leadership for team effectiveness and organisational success.  

From Them and Us…

From the 1970s through to the early 90s we relied on a collective worker’s voice.  It was the age of the trade unions, which made the UK an enviable place to work.  They drove huge advancements in working hours, the introduction of the minimum wage and ensuring equal rights for disabled people. But the latest forecast predicts that 2024 will likely see the fourth year of a decline in union membership, with only around 18% of the workforce (6 million

people) being affiliated with any kind of union.  The largest group resigning their membership is women in the private sector. 129,000 women have left union membership within a year, accounting for two-thirds of the fall. So, is it time for employers to put a greater emphasis on individuals? 

We should never lose sight of the achievements and advancement that were made, but we are getting close to 40 years on from when the health and safety legislation championed by the unions was written into law. The world has changed beyond recognition, business has changed and so have people.  Our basic needs, ambitions and motivations aren’t what they were five years ago, let alone 40! But has workplace culture kept pace? 

There are outstanding examples of culture shift, across organisations both big and small but how do we influence a more extensive turn of the dial?  How do we move from ‘them and us’ and start promoting ‘all of us’’?.  How do we recognise the individual amongst the melee and give them a voice within the organisation? 

We know that people want to be valued and they want a voice. It’s essential for wellbeing, creativity and overall happiness. Is having a policy or a procedure going to be enough? How do we embed a leadership culture where employees recognise how complex their people are, and respond to a far greater spectrum of needs and wants than ever before?   

… To All of Us

Three ways that we can ensure people have a voice in the changing world of work is to implement three strategies that elevate the opinions, ideas and contribution of individuals.  Firstly by facilitating the awareness of self, secondly valuing and nurturing individual development and thirdly engaging everyone in the running and development of their organisation:

1.Self-Awareness at the Centre: Many people are not as self-aware as they think they are.  If we don’t raise awareness of self-awareness in our organisations and put the topic on the table for discussion, we put off talking about ‘how’ we do what we do, in favour of talking about ‘what’ we do.  Talking about the soft stuff is far more difficult than talking about the hard stuff… 

We need to explore the three layers of self-awareness:

• Reflection of hard and relational skills. Give your people the opportunity to reflect on and explore with others, their hard and relational skills.  We call soft skills ‘relational skills’, because let’s face it soft skills are far more difficult to acquire and hone.  It also helps to move away from the unhelpful, fluffy perception that soft skills still have, particularly in male dominated industries.  Line managers, coaches and mentors have a critical role to play in helping people explore and determine their values, goals and biases.   
• Recognition of impact. Reflection alone is just introspection.  If we really want to develop our self-awareness then we have to look beyond ourselves and start to recognise the impact we have on others.  As Stephen Shedletzky says, the challenge we have is seeing the label on the jar when we’re inside the jar!  Managers, coaches and mentors have an important role in raising the mirror up to their people and facilitating constructive feedback.  If you’re a leader in your organisation, you can seek out constrictive feedback or ‘feedforward’, by asking: what could I do more of? What could I do less of? What would you like me to do differently next time?  
• Regulation of behaviour. Once people have their feedback or feedforward, they have a choice to change their behaviour.  They can choose to care more, reflect more, listen more, judge less… Whatever choices people make, they can make them from a place of awareness.  These choices are important because behaviour has consequences. Unless people operate from a place of awareness their relationships are never going to be as effective as they could be.       

2. Nurturing Individual Development: Developing self-awareness practices means being proactive in owning and implementing change.  The best way to do that? Create a plan.  A personal development plan gives visibility, structure and accountability to an individual’s growth and advancement.  It also demonstrates very clearly that the organisation values the individual. It creates a space to set out reflection, recognition and regulation activities, owned by the individual and supported by the organisation. 

Kesslers recently replaced personal development plans (PDPs) with continuing professional development plans (CPDPs): a small change to the long established PDPs that were in place.  Using a short, medium and long term model, individuals’ plans are iterated regularly with a rhythm that is systematic and embedded into the culture of the business. Everyone’s CPDP are linked to the pillars of the business strategy and are crucial to the long term growth and development of the company. 

Kesslers recognises that any future market share increase or improved profitability will be led by the individuals who make up the team. Kesslers want the very best talent to drive the business forward, and the best people are those who care about themselves, their development and how they can contribute to a positive, dynamic business. 

3. Engaging Everyone: ‘Employee voice’ panels provide a platform for people to express their perspectives on company policies, workplace culture and customer interactions. This allows self-aware leaders to integrate employee feedback into decision-making processes and organisational improvements.

Kesslers have a simple principle, and by no means is it a new one: the ‘Open Door’.  It's easy to say and often hard to do.  Having an Open Door means welcoming discussion, debate, dissent, disagreement and inclusive decision making.  People can talk about anything, from the choice of tea bags, to customer expectations and company policies to something that's affecting them outside of work. 

It’s also important to recognise the views and thoughts of the quieter voices and create opportunities for people who do not have the confidence to voice concerns or opinions in an open forum.  Providing a range of touchpoints for people, whether that's the employee forum, anonymous engagement surveys, message postboxes or the appointment of employee champions; finding a way to listen to everyone is a critical factor of engaging individuals. Hearing it means the problem can be tackled together and greater cognitive diversity means better problem solving. When leaders are proactively accessible it creates an opportunity for people to share what’s on their mind.

Final Thoughts

The working world is shifting ever further away from the Industrial Era to the Information Age and the inclusion of individuals in organisational effectiveness is as essential to the individual as it is to the organisation itself.  As L. David Marquett says, no longer are the roles of ‘thinking’ work and ‘doing’ work separated by hierarchy. Research has shown that strategic level disconnect was a barrier to organisational effectiveness and a mitigator is inclusive decision making.  If we want to include people in real and meaningful decision making, we need to ensure that they are equipped with the tools to know their values, their beliefs, their strengths, weaknesses and biases.  Then, and only then can they come to the table to offer up their ideas and innovations in such a way that builds positive relationships with others where they are respected, valued and heard. 

It should be of no surprise that routinely, the companies with the highest level of staff engagement and staff satisfaction are those that continue to achieve the fastest levels of growth. We need to learn the lessons of history and study cultures and global practices of those that continue to thrive in a time of turmoil. Whether that is the “no fear of failure" culture that is synonymous with Amazon, or the levels of workplace benefits available to the Danish workforce, there’s potential to learn and adapt.. Did you know that year on year Denmark comes out on top of workplace surveys? 

Kessler is over 135 years old in name and has, like many businesses, grown from a hierarchical model where people ‘knew their place’.  In 2021, when the private equity investors decided not to support the business after COVID, the leadership team bought the assets and decided to go it alone. Leaders stood up in front of the people who had been let down and made redundant two weeks before Christmas, asking them for forgiveness and making a promise that the future would be different. Leaders promised to listen, share and support them.  They promised to give their people an opportunity to progress and create a culture of leadership responsibility, and acknowledgement and credit for work well done.  

Fast forward three years, with 98% staff retention Kesslers are enjoying a  third year of double digit growth and more importantly, the company was profitable in 2022 for the first time in twelve years.  They have continued to achieve positive figures each year since.  Moving from a culture of ‘them and us’ to a culture of ‘all of us’, benefits individuals, teams and businesses as a whole.

What will you do to create a culture of ‘all of us’?   

About...

Daniel Astarita is the Managing Director of Kesslers, London; a company with a long, esteemed history in the retail design industry. He has over a decade of dedicated leadership experience, and he's overseen the creation of numerous award winning Retail Activations and displays for brands worldwide. Daniel is deeply vested in nurturing a culture of creativity, problem solving and continuous improvement within his team. In January 2022, Daniel led Kesslers through a merger with a large corporation and learnt much from the challenges and successes of that transition.  In November 2023 Daniel successfully completed a management buy-out for the business. 

Nia Thomas is the Director of Thoughts and Ideas at Knowing Self Knowing Others , host of The Knowing Self Knowing Others Podcast , and author of soon to be released The Self-Awareness Superhighway: Charting Your Leadership Journey .  She has a doctorate in business administration with a research interest in self-aware leadership.  She also works full time as a Director of a Children’s Charity, with a career spanning 25 years in the public and charitable sectors in Wales and England.  She describes her work in the public and charitable sector as ‘what’ she does and self-aware leadership as ‘how’ she does it.  

March 2024

Daniel Astarita on LinkedIn

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