- The moveFrom managing teams to leading a function
- He expectedFrameworks and structured techniques
- Ideas that stayedWu wei, and process philosophy
- What changedHis senior team took ownership
Not what he expected.
He expected management frameworks and structured techniques. Working with John and David introduced him to something he hadn’t anticipated.
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.
The ideas became something Tim could examine against his own experience. He wasn’t expected to adopt a particular thinker’s position.
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.
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.
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.
When the best leader’s work is done, the people say: we did it ourselves.Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, 17
He noticed a change in how the team responded.
Team members stepped into their own leadership, took ownership of solutions, and demonstrated accelerated growth that was noticed across the broader organisation.
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.
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.
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.
I now layer complementary and contrasting ideas to analyse situations with much greater depth and nuance.
That development requires some patience. For Tim, part of the value lies in having to work out what the ideas mean for himself.
Because you aren’t handed pre-packaged answers, you must be comfortable sitting with ambiguity while you synthesise and integrate these ideas.
His advice to someone considering the work is straightforward.
If you’re seeking rigid certainty, you may find it unsettling. But if you want to expand your perspective and elevate your leadership it is extraordinarily rewarding.
Tim JohnsDirector, Octopus Electric Vehicles