WANTED 
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Wanted all CEOs, consultants, HR specialists or OD experts who want to improve communication, trust and cooperation right throughout an organisation but don’t have the time or resources to design a program to make it happen.

If you know this person please forward this email to them. You will be doing me a favour, and you’ll be doing them a favour.

For the last 25 years I have been a business consultant dedicated to liberating human energy at work. I have found that untapped human energy is the greatest opportunity in most organisations because it has the most potential and so few are doing it well. 

During that time I have made a really good living helping organisations get people out of silos, talking to each other and working together for the benefit of the customer and the organisation.

Recently I have come to realise that there is no way I can make a sufficient difference alone and have been looking for ways to give my life’s work more breadth.

The first step was my book, Cracking Great Leaders - Liberate Human Energy at Work. It shows how people can be far more than most people believe. It describes how to get more depth, meaning and connections right throughout an organisation.

Today, as the second step, I am launching my Cracking Great Leaders Program in which I share the step by step process to make it happen - all the information, knowledge, experience and explanations learned over 25 years of research and trial and error.

To the right person this Program might be the most important resource they have ever had, so please stop for a second and think about who you know who might benefit.

If you are still not sure, have a look at this.

Why and how do organisations grow? Additional capital and labour were long considered the main factors. Then the focus shifted to higher productivity. Later it shifted again to increase human capital, interpreted as the knowledge embodied in management and staff. This is important, however, I'm sure the most important parts of human capital are largely ignored: emotional capital and spiritual capital.

In organisations human energy is the power that sustains the system. Human energy is a function of spiritual, emotional, mental and physical energy. Releasing human energy is the first priority of all managers. Yet in mechanical models they suck energy out of the system. Human-energy can be encouraged, nurtured and lead, but trying to limit it, control it, or box it, subtracts energy.
Energy is highly important but most managers don’t see their role as “Managers of Energy”. Actually ‘managers of energy’ is probably the wrong way to think about it. Human energy can not be bought or controlled, it can’t be managed. It can only be given, encouraged and set free. 

Energy is created by managers who believe in their people, more than the people believe in themselves. Most people are like unlocked treasure chests, all they need is someone with the key. It comes from valuing people above all else, even when the going gets tough. It’s about nourishing people: soul (more meaning), heart (more belonging), head (more learning), and body (more income).

Energy comes from constantly discussing the meaning of the work and tying it to a higher purpose. Nearly everybody wants to be part of something that is bigger than themselves. They want to make the world a better place. They want to leave a legacy. Talk in these terms and things start to buzz.

I spend much of my time arguing for far more open organisations than we traditionally have. I call it “unbounded human energy.” And there is no doubt that when people are free to get on with a worthwhile task, unbounded from unnecessary rules, procedures, delays and petty politics almost anything is possible.
However, like most things in life this can be carried too far. The latest physics theory shows that the continued accumulation of information and energy can only occur to the extent that the system is open but not too open.

If the system is too open energy will dissipate. Energy flow is of no consequence unless the energy is trapped within the system where it circulates to do the work before it is dissipated. Perhaps it would help to think of the organisation like a river. If the river is too straight and fast the water will empty out of the river very quickly. However if the water has to move around corners, get into eddies and swirl round then the water stays within the river for a far longer period of time. The average residence time of energy is a measure of the organised complexity of the system. 

If energy is bound up it will not flow. If energy is completely free it loses its complexity. If energy is allowed to linger it achieves maximum power.
The challenge of management therefore is to encourage eddies and swirls within the organisation, build structures for storing energy where people come together and talk, where they can argue and discuss things. Things shouldn’t be too easy. People should come with different views and expand on what was already there to start with. Tearooms, water-coolers, lunch rooms, meeting rooms, social clubs and Christmas functions may be out of fashion but they are critical eddies and swirls for expanding energy within organisations. This is the way to increase energy and information.

How to create eddies and swirls
Some of the other cross-organisation eddies and swirls discussed in my book: Cracking Great Leaders” include:

1. Peer-to-peer Action Learning Groups - designed to bring people together to solve common work related problems by a process of questioning.
2. Decision-making Project teams - designed to examine each major decision and recommend at what level in the organisation it should be made (Tops, Middle or Bottoms).
3. Process Improvement Teams - designed to bring together representatives from each part of the business through which a process flows, to recommend ways to simplify, standardise and streamline the process.
4. Rule Busting Project Teams - designed to examine each rule and recommend the elimination of all unnecessary rules.
5. Eliminating Unnecessary Work Project Teams - designed to examine all workflows and recommend the elimination of any unnecessary work.
6. Customer Improvement Teams - designed to understand each major customers business better than the customer understands it and recommend ways to serve them better.

​Call to action
I'd love to get your feedback on this idea:

• What structures unnecessarily bind human energy?
• What eddies and swirls have worked for you?

My new book (Cracking Great Leaders) is all about making people more powerful. Buy the book. Even if you don't agree with me I promise it will make you think more deeply than normal.

The way we organise work is fundamentally wrong. We put people into narrow jobs when it would be far more effective to put them into broader project teams of at least four people.

Jobs are like putting people into boxes, they resist their what people can do and give excuses for not doing what is needed for successful business.

Project teams can take people with a genius for different ways of thinking and get them working so that the whole team reflects this genius.

Herrmann's Whole Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) is a wonderful tool to help people with different thinking types to understand and value each other so they can maximise their genius seamlessly.
This is one of the themes in my book Cracking Great Leaders

​Bruce Holland

 In my experience there are two types of managers:

1. Refrigerators
2. Radiators.

This may sound simplistic but I'm sure you have all felt what I mean. In the presence of some people (refrigerators) I feel about as strong as an earthworm. In the presence of others (radiators) I feel I could do almost anything.
Refrigerators suck energy out of the system. They make people feel useless, worthless and hopeless. They have all the ideas. No one else has much to offer. They have to be at the centre of everything. In their presence others give up.
Dig a bit and you will find Refrigerators are small people. They don’t trust others and they tend to micromanage. They rely on themselves. They push others away so others don't get close enough to find out about their weaknesses. They react negatively when people criticise them because they are insecure and see it as a personal attack. They bully and intimidate others because they feel weak and fearful. Small people repel us. They are trying to make us smaller and weaker, so that by comparison they feel stronger. They create tense environments where people are scared.
Radiators push energy into the system. They make people feel BIG, worthwhile and hopeful. They allow others to suggest ideas. They know everyone has a Genius factor and helps them find it. In their presence almost anything is possible. They create intense environments where people are challenged.
They give you something you didn't have before. They are trying to make you stronger and bigger than you thought was possible. If you are a BIG person, you are much more likely to choose to say, "I'm going to trust this person because together we can do things that I can't do alone." "Including them, may benefit both of us." "I feel good about myself and I'm sure they are good too!"
Radiators know:

1. Most people in the organisation are underutilised
2. This capacity can be liberated with the right leadership
3. It does not require bigger investment to multiply results.

Radiators are irresistible talent magnets, not necessarily because they are the best recruiters, but because people flock to work for them, in response to their reputation as “the place to grow.” It becomes a snowball that grows and grows towards self-perpetuating success.
Cracking Great Leaders know human nature.
Take the following test. Rank the following three statements from most true to least true:

1. Humans are basically “bad” (lazy, self-seeking, can’t be trusted)
2. Humans are basically “good” (hardworking, giving, trustworthy)
3. Humans are both good and bad.

What are your answers? Write them down below before reading on:

1. Most true:     _____________________________________
2. Next:            _____________________________________
3. Least true:    _____________________________________

I think humans are both good and bad. We all have the potential to be radiators or refrigerators. Leaders who work at it will become radiators. They are the leaders others are attracted to, want to follow and want to help be successful.
These are some of the themes I discuss in the book:
Cracking Great Leaders Liberate Human Energy at Work Get it here.

I’m a qualified accountant and I think we’ve got our business standards all wrong.
We still pretend that tangible assets are most important when research shows us that intangible assets account for about 95% of the market value of many organisations. It’s not the bricks and mortar than matter, it’s the people.  Specifically it’s the Knowlege assets, the Relationship assets, the Emotional assets, the Reputational assets and the Time assets that count. And behind each of these lies LOVE, TRUTH and BEAUTY.
In my new book “Cracking Great Leaders Liberate Human Energy at Work” I put forward the business case for Beauty. Here is an excerpt from the part on Beauty:
Beauty
Many managers feel uncomfortable discussing beauty which is strange because many of our greatest scientists have understood its importance.
Paul Derac the winner of the Nobel Prize for physics in 1933 said: “It is more important to have beauty in ones equations than to have them fit experiment.” 
Also, it was the search for beauty that drove Einstein. He believed nature displayed a beauty that was discernible. The characteristic feature of Einstein's beauty was simplicity. He used beauty as his most important measure of success. He always tested his thoughts and discoveries against a measure of beauty. Imagine his reaction if his famous formula (E=MC²) had had 20 factors. Max Planck wrote that in Einstein’s general theory of relativity “the intimate union between the beautiful, the true and the real has again been proved.” 
I'm sure beauty is the source of much Greatness in business, yet we seem to be blind to it. As John Fitzgerald Kennedy said: “I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty.”
When I talk about beauty, I have in mind a combination of ideas like:

• Being of human scale
• Being elegant, simple and easy to understand
• Being life affirming
• Being in balance and harmony with nature
• Being close to the Godlike qualities that exist in all of us
• Being deep in the sense of universal truth
• Being close to the essence of the issue.

Beauty is the result of being present. When you are present you see beauty everywhere. When you are absent there’s no way you can see beauty. You need to be in the present, looking. 
One of the great joys of taking up art was the way it forced me to look and be present. It was like wearing glasses for the first time; suddenly I saw shapes, outlines, colours, contrasts, negative spaces and depth that I had been unaware of before. 
Managers also need to get into the habit of testing their thinking and their results against a measure of beauty. Their search for beauty will lead to truth and reality. 
I recommend a three part Beauty Scale to measure the beauty of your work:

1. Does it pass the WOW scale? Where: 1 = 'A real turnoff.' 10 = 'I love this.'
2. Does it pass the design scale? Where: 1 = 'Repulsive/unfriendly.'10 = 'Breathtaking.'
3. Does it pass the worthiness scale? Where: 1 = 'Who cares?' 10 = 'Earth shattering.' 

Call to action

1. Can you imagine a world where everyone scored 10,10,10 for everything they did? I’d love to get your feedback on this idea, even the accountants!
2. My new book (Cracking Great Leaders) describes a new business model based on love, truth and beauty and shows leaders how they can implement it within their organisation. Read the book. Even if you don’t agree with me I promise it will make you think more deeply than normal.

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