Case study

Giving his senior team room to lead.

When Tim Johns moved from managing teams to leading a whole business function, he wanted to develop his self-awareness and learn how to lead a larger organisation.

His story, mostly in his own words. With a working model of the idea that stayed with him.

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SyntropiseCase file No. 1

Subject: Tim Johns
Position: Director, Octopus Electric Vehicles
The move: From managing teams to leading a function
He expected: Frameworks and structured techniques
Ideas that stayed: Wu wei, and process philosophy
What changed: His senior team took ownership

Filed byJ.S. & D.P.

StatusStill developing

Contents

01Not what he expected
02Knowing when to step back
AA working model of wu wei
03Something that keeps developing
→His advice

Organisation

Case file No. 1 · Section 01 of 03

Not what he expected.

He expected management frameworks and structured techniques. Working with John and David introduced him to something he hadn’t anticipated.

Interview transcriptCard 1 of 8

It is highly participatory and conversational. David and John present new thinkers, worldviews or thought processes as hypotheses, debating and exploring the nuances of each idea.

Tim Johns

The ideas became something Tim could examine against his own experience. He wasn’t expected to adopt a particular thinker’s position.

Interview transcriptCard 2 of 8

You don’t leave with a single ‘correct’ way to operate, but with rich stimulus onto which you layer your own experiences, insights, and leadership style.

Tim Johns

Case file No. 1 · Section 02 of 03

Knowing when to step back.

One idea that stayed with Tim was the Taoist concept of wu wei. He began exploring what it could mean to lead without always forcing an outcome.

Interview transcriptCard 3 of 8

Naturally, leaders often feel compelled to step in, provide answers, and direct outcomes. I began applying wu wei in coaching my senior team by posing questions instead of providing solutions and giving them space to navigate challenges.

Tim Johns

Exhibit AA working model of wu wei

When the best leader’s work is done, the people say: we did it ourselves.

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, 17

Stepping in. The leader supplies the answers.Drag the lever, or use the arrow keysDrag the lever

He noticed a change in how the team responded.

Interview transcriptCard 4 of 8

Team members stepped into their own leadership, took ownership of solutions, and demonstrated accelerated growth that was noticed across the broader organisation.

Tim Johns

Process philosophy also changed how Tim understood the people he was leading. Thinking of a team as continually becoming helped him question the habit of treating situations as fixed problems with fixed solutions.

Interview transcriptCard 5 of 8

Realising that teams are multi-dimensional, constantly evolving organisms made up of individuals at different stages of their own journeys has transformed how I view growth and organisational development.

Tim Johns

The team, as filed.Your visit no. 1. It won’t look quite like this next time.

Case file No. 1 · Section 03 of 03

Something that keeps developing.

Coming from a STEM background and working in technology, Tim found philosophy opened an unfamiliar area of learning. His curiosity is part of what keeps him coming back.

Over time, the way he works with the ideas has changed too.

Interview transcriptCard 6 of 8

I now layer complementary and contrasting ideas to analyse situations with much greater depth and nuance.

Tim Johns

That development requires some patience. For Tim, part of the value lies in having to work out what the ideas mean for himself.

Interview transcriptCard 7 of 8

Because you aren’t handed pre-packaged answers, you must be comfortable sitting with ambiguity while you synthesise and integrate these ideas.

Tim Johns

His advice to someone considering the work is straightforward.

Tim’s advice

**Tim Johns**Director, Octopus Electric Vehicles

Case file No. 2 · not yet opened

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