Alan writes: “Since 2013, Steve Wintercroft and his wife have been designing polygonal DIY mask kits for home assembly. Human faces. Animals. Weird and wonderful creatures. All are available. The trick is simply this: you go online and order the mask you want; you pay online (£4.50 each) and download the template; then you find some scrap cardboard, some tape and glue and a ruler and craft knife – and the world of dressing-up is, as they say, your oyster!
Next week I am working again with a leadership team. We’ve come a long way in the past year in terms of thinking about strategy, behaviours, individual styles and team alignment. It hasn’t always been easy, but in truth, comparing where they were to where they are is like comparing night and day. One thing remains. Mask-removal.
We all wear masks. Not of the cardboard variety. I mean, we all go through life in our families, in our communities, our churches and in our workplaces either hiding behind a front we put on – or, just as frequently, putting on a front (or a mask) as a piece of combative strategy. We are seldom, truly, ourselves.
My team has moved a long way. The next step is the really big one. Can they now, having worked out what they’re meant to be doing, and having established a good deal of trust, risk removing their ‘masks’ and being themselves. For some this will mean being bolder; for others, it will mean risking being vulnerable. For all of them, it is – I suspect – the step that will move them from being ‘effective’ to being ‘transformative’ and ‘high-performing’. We are only truly transformative when we are ourselves, masks off.
What mask do you wear? What, I wonder, would it take for you to remove it?”
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