Leading for Organisational Change

Chapter 8Making It Happen

Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than oneself.

Viktor Frankl¹

Le Weekend

The weekend of the big move was the most anticipated and planned-for of the year amongst the operational teams. They had taken to calling it ‘Le Weekend’ – there was an almost festive atmosphere surrounding it. It was the May Bank Holiday weekend, and they had three days to change the world.

The last Saturday in April was the sort of high spring day where everything seems to warm and loosen and lean forward into summer. By mid-morning there were upwards of 150 people in the Cannon Place office. The post room team, the senior leadership, various partners' families. Everyone had hoodies, orange or blue, with the project logo on the front. There was a Le Weekend playlist on Spotify, and by the end of the weekend some had whole flashmob dance routines worked out. These tiny, ostensibly silly, things really encouraged a sense of team and occasion – they are important details in the story. There were packing crates, IT kit, chairs, boxes everywhere. A mission-control room full of flipcharts, post-it notes and pizza boxes. A whole meeting room dedicated to name badges – one for every person in the new firm, to be put on their new desk, once the new desk was built. ...