“He sat and observed us for an hour, [and then] basically Derren Brown’ed us"

Going from 18 years of working at PR agency Brands2Life, having started in 2004 as an account executive and leaving in 2021 as an MD in its technology practice, Armand David moved to an in-house role, as BT Group’s corporate affairs director, digital.

Sitting just shy of three years in his role, and thanks to an illuminating leadership development session, David says a pivotal moment in his career came in the downstairs offices at the BT Tower via a leadership development training programme. The time spent in those offices saw David emerge with a clearer understanding of how to stay in his lane, by not staying in his lane at all. 

The context

A sage boss once gave David the advice of being “mindful” about what projects he said yes to, because once he picked them up, he couldn’t give them back. This stuck with him.

After a lifetime working at a PR agency where David had to be all things to all people, he assumed his new in-house role at BT would need him to stay in a clearly defined role. But he was wrong.

The moment

“We [communicators] aren't a simple system and we don't sit in clearly and tightly defined roles."

“When I started at my new job at BT Group in January 2022 I took the advice [of his old boss] to heart, and thought it was a very wise observation. The unintended consequence of that, which was my own interpretation of my role in the organisation, was that I was moving into what night loosely be thought of as a simple system,” explains David, who said he was cautious of treading on his colleagues' toes.

“Turns out that was completely wrong,” he says. “It took a while for me to understand both the opportunity and the need to manage and treat a big organisation as a complex system, where everyone should find ways to egg the organisation on.”

This understanding was solidified a year into the role in the downstairs offices of the BT Tower, where David says a “real defining moment” happened during a leadership development session.

“We talked about simple and complex systems,” he explains.

“We were doing work as a team to build our leadership performance and one of the things you [learn to] do in these sessions is lean into the discomfort as a team in order to shape better ideas. We were talking about how we improve the dynamic of those disagreements and the opportunity for each of us to contribute to those conversations, even when they were not clearly defined in the scope of our roles.”

The group also discussed collective responsibility and breaking down internal silos so everyone in an organisation or team feels collective ownership of big strategic moments. But David then had an epiphany: “We [communicators] aren't a simple system and we don't sit in clearly and tightly defined roles. All we do is wear multiple hats and play multiple roles to our communities, our people and our stakeholders.”

This led David to ask very probing, but hypothetical questions about his role within BT Group and how he and his team can embrace the skill of leaning into discomfort to achieve collective agreement. “He sat and observed us for an hour, [and then] basically Derren Brown’ed us and said ‘you realise none of you have asked a question and every single one of you started a conversation with the words ‘I think’ instead of asking or engaging with anyone else’. It was a really fascinating rundown.

“We were all involved in and concerned about our own context and not each other’s, and we hadn’t built up our empathy and our understanding. That's what was really at the heart [of it], because we were all operating within our own individual context and we needed to step out of that see [ourselves] as part of a greater whole that is much more complicated.

The takeaway

"It sounds mind-numbingly obvious..."

“I wish I’d had this insight earlier,” he admits. “Different environments are encouraged by the leaders, and one of the lessons I'll take from it is to try and create an environment where nobody feels they have to stay in their lane.”

David explains that he will try to instil being comfortable and supportive while leaning into each other’s space, professionally. “We aren’t just here to do our job, but to help others and this challenges the mentality of us vs. them. It sounds mind-numbingly obvious but these are some of the behaviours we fall into.

“It builds on the whole idea that we are collectively one team, but there are more opportunities for us [different business functions] to work together and strive for better outcomes [than we think].”

As the conversation on what he had learned from the experience, David mused: “It’s almost encouraging, this idea of us embracing the complexity of the system, and [finding a way to] flex our personal skill set and preferences to meet the needs of the business.”