Life in 2009 - Time to think about Behaviours

The first blog from 2009

I'm in the middle of changing jobs. I'm staying in Global Solutions, but moving to the Capital Projects department, in a rather wide role covering programme management of a large initiative, strategy and change, and maybe more. I've been effectively double hatting already for an uncomfortable length of time, with more to come unfortunately. Maybe that experience will be worth a blog posting once it is finally over. It is also a (feeble) excuse that you haven't heard from me since the New Year.

And what a year this will be. I joined the workforce in 1982, at the height of the Maggie Thatcher recession in the UK, and of course there has been nothing like it since, and Maggie's slump will probably seem like a walk in the park by the time this one gets into full swing.

The business implications are obvious, and completely understandable really - Shell is far from being an island nowadays. By the way, I'll make myself foolish by suggesting that the oil price and GDP are not as correlated as everyone seems to be assuming just now. It is quite possible that the slump in GDP is severe, but that we still have 100 dollar oil again, perhaps even as soon as in 2009. There are causes for the two to go the same way, but also causes for them to diverge. Obviously the impact to our company, and the right strategy choices, depend on both indicators.

How I would like to characterise 2009 is that this will be a year where people will generally not be behaving at their best. We all have our mood cycles - within a day, a week, a month, a year, a decade - and we know what they do to us. We all know that if someone is going through a rocky patch in their marriage, then the rest of us have to try to give them a bit more leeway - try to be positive, gloss over bad remarks, create diversions. At work, 2009 already feels like everyone is going through a rocky patch in their work marriage, all together. It is no wonder - there is pressure all around, whether from home, from fear for job, or just some boss demanding yet more cutbacks. It will not be fun.

So my plea is that this places a greater emphasis than ever on our behaviours. If more of us can role model good behaviours in 2009, then our collective rocky patch might go away a bit quicker, won't be so miserable as otherwise, and maybe even create some competitive advantage for our company. More important, maybe we can positively affect the fragile well being of the humans about us.

Of course, behaviours are the sort of nice to have stuff not normally associated with tough times. That is just why I raise. Unlike some discretionary things, behaviours come for free in financial terms. Not much seems free in 2009, and we need to take advantage of those things that are.

What behaviours? well, we have lots of clues from Group. As I've written before, I really like LAT, and I'm sad that Jeroen van der Veer seemed back away from those so soon after their launch. But I guess we can add some more basic behaviours for special use in rocky patches, the ones we try (and usually fail) to display at home when our partners are in a bad cycle. Compassion, no bullying, humour, positivity, shaper than usual sensing, tolerance, sharing the load all come to mind. All backed up with lots and lots of feedback.

Read the list above and see if you can make a pledge. If we all try our best we can help. Especially feedback helps. Sadly, I've seen already in 2009 the direct opposite of many of the listed behaviours in senior leaders - but haven't had the guts so far to intervene. Those of you who work with me, please give me the feedback I need (positivity, for example, is hardly a natural strength of mine!).

Let us get through this together!