Still Moving is groundbreaking in this time of increasing complexity and ongoing disruption. Rowland’s work in the field is 10 years ahead of the industry and she speaks into our deepest need right now. This book is an essential companion for CEOs and anyone leading large, complex change and those who advise them. Let the book speak to you, consume the wisdom, and put that wisdom into practice. You, your family, customers, employees, business and the planet will all be the benefactors.
It is now commonplace to talk about the constancy of change in the business world as a backdrop for the latest best approach to its leadership. This book sets its ambitions far higher: the increasingly intractable and bewildering dilemmas we all see and face, not only in business, but related to issues such as migration, climate change, inequality and terrorism.
Rowland meets this burning need for a profoundly different and more effective leadership with real insight into what this needs to look like – no magic formulas but deep exploration of our own role as leaders. These insights need to be heard and adopted in all walks of life.
Deborah Rowland has written a truly groundbreaking book. Based on sound research, she shows for the first time that success in leading large‐scale change depends not only on what a leader does but, crucially, on how they are – on their inner states and capacities.
How strange that it has taken so long for us to wake up to the fact that the inner states and capacities of leaders really matter. And how wonderful that Deborah has so convincingly been able to open our eyes to that deep truth.
More traditional ways of managing change in this fast, disruptive and increasingly uncertain world are no longer enough. Transformational change requires purposeful leadership with a deep awareness of self and the needs of others.
Still Moving provides the perfect blend of a rigorous analytical study coupled with powerful real‐life stories of successful transformation. If you are about to lead change, this is a must have companion.
I read this book because I have long admired Deborah’s innate gift to look well past the obvious and to illuminate the parts of leadership and change simply not visible to most of us. With Still Moving, she provides a series of insights into one of the great ironies of leadership in this decade: the most effective way to lead through the dynamic, distracting minefields of chaos we face in our lives is to nurture the inner space that enables us to lead from a place of profound mindfulness. Still Moving provides the proof of concept, the motivation and the instruction to begin a leader’s most important journey.
A powerful exposition on the need to first look within ourselves to find the leadership skills required for our fast changing and dislocated world, Still Moving is a welcome and much‐needed contribution on how to lead for positive social change in an era when leaders need to be in a continual state of adaptation.
Within this world Rowland convincingly shows us why a thoughtful, mindful and purpose‐driven approach to leading change is the one most likely to endure.
Still Moving is a compelling and practical guide to the leadership of change. By sharing her self‐reflection and brave journey into her past, Deborah inspires us all to become more conscious and embracing of our own life narratives – a key underpinning of her framework to help us become more effective leaders and agents of change in our organisations and in society today.
An inspiring, practical and provocative take on the power of mindful leadership to reshape our world
Still Moving is an inspiring, practical and well‐researched treatise on how to navigate change in this fast‐moving world. It is a wake up call to more mindful leadership, and Rowland’s writing style took my own mind on a heartfelt and enriching journey. For all leaders of any change, this book could be your most valuable guide.
In Still Moving Deborah Rowland comprehensively describes how fundamental change can only be achieved when leaders combine their own capacity for mindfulness with business transformation. What's more, she pulled this off in my company, where she successfully guided us through a large, complex transformation – she has been in the field, and felt it and shaped it. I can think of no one with greater passion, wisdom and authority on the subject – and who, at the same time, exposes her own vulnerability and learning.
Rowland's book Still Moving is an exciting breakthrough in thinking on leading change and is an invaluable guide for anyone leading major change in business, or in society, today. She uniquely has recognised that the massive scope and rapid speed of today's changes require new approaches, and that leaders must focus on how change is led not just on what change needs to be implemented. And with change a constant part of today’s business landscape, Rowland convincingly sets out the four key inner capacities needed to enhance a leader's effectiveness in such a fast‐paced world.
This edition first published 2017
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Name: Rowland, Deborah, author.
Title: Still moving : how to lead mindful change / Deborah Rowland.
Description: Chichester, West Sussex, UK : John Wiley & Sons, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016040291 (print) | LCCN 2016054026 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119164920 (cloth) | ISBN 9781119164890 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119164906 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Organizational change. | Leadership. | Mindfulness (Psychology)
Classification: LCC HD58.8 .R6937 2017 (print) | LCC HD58.8 (ebook) | DDC 658.4/06–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016040291
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover image: Courtesy of the author
Cover design: Wiley
To Mum and Dad
There are many books that have been described as ‘waiting to be written’. Still Moving was not so much waiting to be written, as needing to be written.
Over the past 20 years and more, so much has been written on the question of effective leadership. And so much has been invested by large organisations in leadership development. It is a puzzle that organisations, and indeed societies, still suffer from major failures in leadership. It is incredible that leaders in one of the world’s most successful car companies thought it acceptable to ‘cheat’ both the regulatory authorities, and more significantly, its customers – a move that is already costing the company many billions of dollars. It is equally extraordinary that a bank which had partnered with one of the world’s leading business schools in developing its leaders could make a major acquisition that triggered its collapse and bail out by its national government.
Readers of Still Moving may be aware of many other instances of such failures of leadership (either from direct personal experience, or from the media), both large and small. It cannot be argued, therefore, that these are individual and isolated cases.
I have spent much of the past 20 years trying to address this puzzle. The potential benefit not only to business organisations, but to societies and the world, from the array of leadership insights is vast. Some of the puzzle is explained by misdirected leadership development. We have expended too much effort in trying to develop leaders simply to inspire and engage their people. In saying this, I am not suggesting that this is not vital. But it is not enough. Most organisations create or destroy value through the major strategic decisions they make. The process, culture and behaviours through which such decisions are taken, and the engagement – or otherwise – of the external environment is at least of equal importance. Yet leadership competency frameworks and engagement processes rarely embrace this.
It is also true that too much of the delivery mechanism for leadership development programmes has been ‘offline’. The intellectual capacity to understand what leadership works in a classroom, or decision‐making conducted in an outdoor team event, is not the same as making it work under the relentless day‐to‐day pressure that comes with leading organisations in today’s massively complex and changing environment.
There have, of course, been significant benefits from this investment in leadership. But, the reality is that most organisations have not seen the expected return. The above reasons only provide a small part of the answer.
In Still Moving, Deborah Rowland provides compelling insights and practical responses to this leadership puzzle that many others and I have encountered.
In her original research along with Malcolm Higgs – Sustaining Change: Leadership that Works (2008, Wiley) – Deborah set out a cogent and coherent framework for leading complex change. Moreover, this framework was validated by empirical research.
Still Moving, again based on thorough and robust research, not only validates the original proposition, but takes it to another level, revealing not only the external practices but also the inner state needed to lead change well.
In recent years, much has been written on the subject of ‘mindfulness’ and what is described as ‘mindful leadership’. Deborah Rowland argues that, while mindfulness is an essential starting point for the inner state of effective and successful leadership, it is only part of the process of leading change. The breakthrough element is the combination of mindfulness with the systemic capacity that makes up the leader’s inner state. In this context, systemic capacity means much more than ‘Systems Thinking’. It embraces not only the personal ability to tune into the feelings and emotions of others, but also the wisdom to understand and appreciate that patterns of events are somehow ‘meant to happen’, and give the leader true insight into what actually needs to, and is waiting to, change.
The explicit connection between the inner capacities and external exhibited practices forms the basis of a new way of understanding leadership. The research demonstrates the vital importance of the inner state as the foundation of what leaders actually practise on a day‐to‐day basis. Moreover, this applies across the range of tasks undertaken by leaders. As well as inspiring followership among colleagues, the idea of combining an inner state with external practice applies across engagement with the external environment and stakeholders, setting strategic direction and strategic decision‐making, building the organisation’s capacity to execute and delivering ongoing performance.
This is not dry theory leavened with obscure academic research. Deborah brings it to life with a wealth of real leadership stories. Stories drawn from multiple sectors, profit and not for profit, national and transnational, provide a rich tapestry of real experience that allows the reader to readily relate the content to their own experience. Moreover, Deborah has brought her personal experience of leadership into every chapter, relating her own triumphs and struggles that must surely connect to every reader’s reality. This is leading change as we know and experience it, explained and understood.
However, Deborah has brought more than her own extensive leadership experience to Still Moving. What is remarkable is the way in which she has used the peaks and the troughs, the joy and the anxiety of her own personal journey of experiencing change. It is this more than anything else that makes the book intensely readable, it brings her own inner state out into the open for us all to see – and to connect with what that has meant to her – and in so doing illuminates what it means and could mean for each of us.
Like all important books, Still Moving needs and deserves to be read ‘mindfully’; to be read with curiosity rather than judgement; to be absorbed with an open heart and open mind. In this way, each one of us who reads this book will have the opportunity to adjust our own leadership, to the benefit of ourselves, those around us and society as a whole.
Roger Bellis has over 25 years’ direct experience of leading change on a national and transnational scale – as a FTSE 100 Human Resources Director, as a Director of Talent and Leadership in large, global organisations and as a consultant working with CEOs and their leadership teams.
This book stands on many people’s shoulders. I first wish to thank its three closest companions and indispensable guides: Jackie Gittins, Roger Bellis and Ron Rowland. Jackie provided me with wise reflection and counsel throughout the writing process, each chapter’s first draft would inevitably return to me from her with insight, encouragement, challenge and inspiration. Roger acted as a hugely supportive thinking partner as I embarked on each chapter and an ever‐patient on‐the‐spot helpline for those inevitable moments when I became stuck. Like Jackie and Roger, my father Ron reviewed each chapter as it came off the press and notwithstanding the familial tie would give me just the right amount of gentle challenge when needed – and, of course, heaps of encouragement to his daughter.
The book also rests on the outputs of the research team, who gathered together to undertake my second large study into the nature of change and its leadership. I have already acknowledged Roger Bellis. In addition I particularly wish to thank Anjet van Linge, Professor Malcolm Higgs, Michael Chaskalson and Katie Jones. Anjet – aside from creating the beautiful painting for the book’s front cover – provided much depth of critical insight and spirit‐level wisdom into the Still Moving leadership construct as it emerged from the study. Without the objective research wizardry and clear‐minded guidance of Malcolm this study would have lacked the empirical rigour I wished to bring to a subject that can be so confusing for practising leaders. As a lifelong mindfulness practitioner Michael’s subject matter expertise, intellectual curiosity and kindly compassion brought both depth and spirit to our team. And without the indefatigable Katie Jones we would never have been able to organise and administer such a comprehensive research project in the first place. For assistance in the interviewing process I would also like to express gratitude to Helen Bellis, Barbara Mastoroudes, Anne Behringer and Nicole Brauckmann.
Of course, the research team needed its subjects. So I also wish to acknowledge the 65 leaders from around the world who so generously gave of their time to be interviewed for our study. Their open, honest and in‐depth stories of change fuel this book, making Still Moving very much a ‘book by leaders for leaders’.
One organisation in particular stands out for me as an inspiration for Still Moving. And that is RWE, the Germany‐based energy producer, trader and supplier. In my role as change coach to them and their CEO, Peter Terium, over the past 3 years I have packed in enough leadership lessons about how to take a large system through big change to last the remainder of my lifetime. I am deeply grateful for the experience, and wish to thank all of their 360 most senior leaders whom I have had the privilege to intimately support and learn from. Critically, I could not have accomplished this assignment without the world class, tireless and loving support of a Faculty Team who came together to facilitate the leadership development programme I talk of in Chapter 9. I wish to single out Nicole Brauckmann for her courageous and dedicated partnership with me on the programme, but also acknowledge Roger Bellis, John Briffa, Paul Byrne, Sytske Casimir, Michael Chaskalson, Anke Geber, Judith Hemming, Anja Leao, Paul Pivcevic, Barbara Roscher, Peter Stoppelenburg, Anjet van Linge and Nicola Wreford‐Howard. Petra Rutz too, for how she helped inspire the original programme concept, and Ruud Wilgenkamp and Arndt Brandenberg for their business sponsorship.
This book is not just about others’ leadership. You will discover this book gets personal. I will share with you some key elements of my own leadership journey and how that has been influenced by early life experience. For inspiring me to have the courage to do this – in addition to helping with the editing process – I wish to thank the challenging minds and warm‐hearted support of Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove. They, together with the editorial team at Wiley, have made book writing a pleasurable process. Within this context I also wish to express my deep gratitude to the residents of the village of Portloe, in Cornwall, UK, where I wrote this book. They looked with curiosity and kindness on this strange new neighbour who had arrived from London to write in their midst. Their ongoing encouragement has meant a lot.
If I look back over my past decade of personal growth certain guides feature strongly. Be that Chris Robertson at Spiral Consulting, Judith Hemming at Moving Constellations or Susan Nordhaal, my therapist in Bath, they have all helped me drop into a deeper level of consciousness, a truly perspective altering level from which I now look on myself with more insight and kindness and the world around me with more respectful and systemic eyes. As a species it is natural for us to be well defended and unwilling to be vulnerable. But that doesn’t help us learn and grow. I thank all of my guides and colleagues, who have helped me to open my defences and endanger myself to growth. I hope this book can inspire you likewise.
Last, I wish to acknowledge the loving and supportive embrace of my adopted Rowland family. Their embrace healed my early fractured soul and generously supported me through life. This crib of good values is something I will be eternally grateful for. Mum and Dad, I’m glad you made the right choice.
I sat on the edge of the balcony, my door open, tuning into the sea I saw before me. I sat and watched for a long time. What I saw changed every second and the more I tried to paint it all, the less I was able to. And I realised I did not want to capture the detail. I wanted to find a way to frame what I experienced. The broad bands of grey sky, the sea, the breakers, wet sand, dry sand. And when I painted only that, the stillness and the movement of all that sky, of all the water and the solid sand landed itself on paper.