How David Robertson led his team through major change without losing a single person

Short of direction, not ideas

David wasn’t short of ideas. He was short of direction.

There was always a huge amount going on. Too many routes, and nobody outside the business to test them with. So he stalled. Procrastination dressed up as thinking.

He put off getting help for a long time. His reasons: no time, and a belief that his problems were his alone.

“I needed clarity, and a better use of my time, from people outside my company.”

Ten minutes of madness

In his first Inner Circle session, David volunteered to go first. Ten minutes of what he calls “disorganised madness”.

His peers, senior leaders who had made the same kinds of calls, cut through it and handed it back smaller and clearer. A path forward.

“They showed me I wasn’t alone, my problems weren’t as big as I thought, and there was a path forward.”

What changed

• Through a lot of change, no turnover on his team
• His high performers kept performing
• He stopped spending energy on what he can’t control, at work and at home

“Through a lot of change we’ve had no turnover, high performers are still performing, and people seem genuinely happy.”

His advice

“Don’t wait as long as I did.”