What did I learn from my first Interim Executive assignment?

I’ve just completed a 7-month contract as the Chief Operating Officer for the Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (SMCT). What did i learn? And what would i say to anyone else considering pursuing an interim role?

Context first. In March, I committed myself to career exploration. No wrong answers, no lofty goals: just allowing curiosity to guide me. I’d heard about Interim working from a previous Board member, and been introduced to the Interim team at Omera Partners (Omera Partners have a great set of explanatory resources so i won’t go into it here.). And fairly soon after I was discussing the COO job.

First discovery was that Interim appointing is different. I had some very honest organisational context from Omera: SMCT were a large NFP with $60M a year of spend, an essential service battered by COVID, in the middle of a CEO transition and with a fair few ‘acting up’ roles on Exec. In that context they didn’t want a revolutionary: the brief was look after the team, keep inflight projects flying and get planned new project off the ground. The brief is about the organisation’s need.

There was no application documents required — just a CV and a series of conversations

Senior level skills are taken for granted; of course i can write a Board paper, run a budget, all that. This process was to ascertain fit. I had a coffee with the interim CEO, then half an hour on the phone with the Trust (Board) Chair. I liked them, and the challenge seemed interesting and one i could learn from. It moved quickly: I started a few weeks later; would’ve been earlier if logistics had allowed.

About recruitment, I learnt:

• Focus on the problem the org needs solving
• It’s culture fit, not tick-box skill scoring against criteria

Beginning

I had to learn fast. And i don’t mean about processes (the systems have their own momentum: I was told i when needed to sign invoices), i mean the people. I was listening for culture, to answer the question i’d started with: how can i be helpful? How can i be helpful for these people, here and now?

About beginning, I learnt

• Ask questions — open questions
• Intuit your way under the words to understand the culture of how things really are
• State your perceptions. See if they ring true for people. If they don’t — you aren’t necessarily wrong but it’s useful data that people think you’re wrong
• Show gratitude. People are schooling you into their world; that’s a form of labour

And then i uncovered what seemed like the three great interim secrets

• You’re inside but an outsider
• You’re disinterested
• You have an expiry date, but until then you are fully in

Being an outsider

Being new, from outside the sector, I had a lot to learn but also I could see things fresh, with less baggage. Creating a fake example to illustrate: SMCT only painted with brushes, never a roller. Because, years ago, someone decided that rollers were bad. And they all knew this was correct. I suggested using a roller; for some this was genius, for others, heresy. It isn’t important whether they changed to using rollers, continuing my frivolous metaphor. What matters is the fresh eyes raising other possibilities. I was drawing on other experiences, other domains of knowledge but mostly I was just asking ‘hey, why is that like that?’ and listening very closely to what was said, and not said.

I was seeking to understand, which meant looking for the tensions between the surface and deep cultures. On the surface was a professed allegiance to documented procedures. But underneath, a fair bit of ‘just phone Jeff, he’ll sort that out’. It takes an outsider to see that both are happening, both have value but sometimes conflicts between them explain what’s not quite working.

Example. There were thoughts from the Board to improve project management. And a team working on how to do this were focused on harmonising processes. I suspected this wasn’t tackling the most significant issues, so i did some digging, set up a questionnaire and discovered that the bigger underlying issues were governance, scope definition and quality assurance processes. And in so doing, i set up some low-cost changes to processes which, at worst, will provide data. I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, have done that without my expertise in complex org program management from prior jobs but that would’ve been useless without having the outsider mindset.

Being disinterested

It’s not that I’m not interested, it’s that I don’t have a stake in the outcome. I wasn’t seeking an ongoing role, and i didn’t have to pass a probationary period. (Either party could end the contract with two weeks notice.)

Because the quality of the relationships with peers and bosses was not directly material in the long term, there were no politics. No drive to form long-term allegiances, nor working to resist being co-opted into Team Stasis or Team Dynamite. So, for instance, I could name sacred cows, such as calling out that one staff member who’s a poor fit for their role but since everyone’s developed workarounds it isn’t dealt with.

Fully in, but for a fixed time

Having a clear expiry date makes it much easier to focus your energy. And those things you’re able to do, you can fully do because you are an employee with your hands on the controls. I contrast this with consultancy — where you can observe and advise, but you can’t really do things. That’s not to say consultancy doesn’t have its place — but it’s different to being an interim.

There were a few issues that were extremely important to address, and i made clear decisions on how far i’d go. For one, i ran a workshop to identify the issues fully, then handed over for incumbents to take forward. For others, i told peers and boss that i would not even begin to explore — because without being there to see them through, it was a waste of effort and counterproductive. Vacuuming the car a month before sale makes sense, but stripping the engine and leaving a post-it on a bag for the buyer isn’t fair.

Learnings:

• Filter issues by time: actively change what you can, resist trying to change what you won’t have time to see through
• Apply ‘skilled ignorance’ — be talented newbie seeing things fresh
• Maintain an attitude of disinterested distance — I care, and i’ll do my very best for this org but i’m not emotionally invested

The graphic equaliser approach to peer support

Remember those 90s hi-fis, where dads fussed about getting just the right amount of bass by tweaking one of about 20 sliders? I found i could be a supportive influencer simply by choosing what to amplify and what not. Showing up to the meetings on Diversity Equity and Inclusion didn’t offer much in the way of expertise and it wasn’t my core role to drive the change. I didn’t say much, the People and Culture manager was driving it well and people were showing up and contributing; but my presence amplified the sense of Exec support and created more momentum for change.

Actively and visibly rejecting cultural assumptions

SMCT liked to kick things upstairs: to get something new underway, a paper needed to go to the Executive for discussion and approval. There were a couple of times when i said ‘no; just do it. I’ll tell Exec later it’s being done’. This was a judgement call by me on each issue, but it was also a conscious demonstration of empowerment. I suggest that as an interim i had an easier time consciously modeling new working methods — because depending on its success, the later team can hold onto it, or disavow it. Low-cost experiments are the best and an interim’s changes can be low cost.

Innovation is different, outside the buzzword culture sector

I was blown away by the depth of professional expertise I encountered. I had hospitality services, facilities, infrastructure building, gravedigging, horticulture, crematoria and more in my remit. In all of these are deep experts, sector-leading knowledge and skills.

In museums, ‘be more innovative’ has become an exhortation to cope with declining budgets. A sector rooted in scholarship and design is ‘innovative’ by default; doing the default isn’t innovative. ‘Get an up and coming designer to do something different’ isn’t innovative. It’s pretty normal. Innovation would be focusing on wider ecology, embedding entrepeneurial behaviours, for example.

At SMCT, people get on with innovation without neon signs shouting about it. It popped up in unlikely places, too.

Making long-term impact — people

I focused on finding and amplifying talent. I appointed one acting-up manager to the role full time, and recruited a marvelous leader to a new role in a partially new function. As I found cultural architects for better ways — the empowering leaders, the deep thinkers — I amplified their value. As an outsider without history, my view that ‘person X has underused capability in waffle-making, and we all know we need more waffles’ was expressed to them, and of them. So they’ve heard me confirm their ability, and I’ve told the new CEO they’re ones to watch and promote.

One manager expressed a missing capability in the org. I got them in front of the executive to present, and it ultimately led to a new strategic priority for the incoming CEO. Who then shaped a restructure and a recruitment to deliver that priority. Without me, that person would not have been heard, and the capability the org needs wouldn’t have been developed. And in five years, there’ll be a step change in one part of the org because I created a platform, gave one person a microphone, and repeated their message in other fora.

This links to the idea of timely intervention. All I could do in my tenure was amplify that voice, so it’s what I did.

But could it lead to permanency?

Early on, I was asked if i’d stay longer.. Later on, the incoming permanent CEO asked if I would. I said no each time. It was for many reasons, not least my continued wish to explore. But my takeaway was how good it felt to be clear, to be confident enough in my value, and the nature of the role, to be able to be 100% certain and transparent, while knowing it didn’t and wouldn’t affect my performance or reputation. Rewriting the PD for the next incumbent’s recruitment was a useful service. I had more knowledge than anyone else of what the area needed for the next 18 months.

The biggest learning

I found that it wasn’t technical knowledge that counted in this role, though in many areas it really helped. What really mattered was being able to bridge, align and drive change in culture, process and purpose. At SMCT lots of attention was historically given to process, but not so much on the capability and culture. During my time, other interims and I catalysed the conversations for the better; focusing aligning team and individual accountabilities with processes that enable, and tweaking processes to liberate talent. The experience has taught me i’m good at it, and it’s what i’ll consciously promote as a superpower in future.

More importantly, the interim role is about doing what’s needed to support and advance the organisation and aligning one’s own practice to that need is in some ways the opposite of a permanent leadership role, where aligning the organisation to your vision (which is what you were hired for, usually) drives your actions.

Ending

As i approached the end, i became very conscious of an internal frustration. Despite the logic of all the above, i had become invested in the success of my team. You don’t oversee a team of 120 without getting invested. I had great peers, had developed real respect for a whole range of people in other departments, and a strong sense of the SMCT’s value to the community. And yet, it was still right to leave. Because the role needed someone making a 3–5 year commitment and if that wasn’t me then clearing the way was necessary.

At an exec level, feedback is harder to come by. I figured this would be even harder in interim positions. So i made a quick google form and asked about 20 people to feed back anonymously. Some was simply gratifying, but others gave useful pointers which i think show the tensions of the interim role really well:

In general, Paul challenged the status quo and encouraged the organisation to think carefully about the reasons for initiating and proceeding with projects. In doing so, he was able to get stakeholders to think critically about not only the benefits of proceeding with projects, but also the process of making decisions to undertake projects. This has been enormously helpful.

Operated as a sounding board for cross-functional insights — demonstrated ‘what good looks like’ at an executive level

Illustrating different ways of thinking and working and insights into how to think and make considerations at an enterprise level

[you should] be mindful of the unknown (to you) historical context that has led to the evolution of the situation/scenarios that you are in. Being able to empathise with that will ensure greater buy-in from others; in what will be a condensed period and hastened timeframe in which you can generate and foster relationships and stakeholder management.

The last one is interesting because it drives home a key point; i don’t think there’s a ‘correct’ answer to deal with people’s deep stories. My approach may not have been the right one. Is it useful to invest in the history? Or does that get in the way of the ‘fresh perspective’? I am not sure, and I’ll be taking that into future assignments.

I was useful, I learnt from great people, and I left SMCT stronger than when I found it. I’d started with a keep it steady brief. I did that, and also handed over a stronger team to the new CEO and catalysed improvements across multiple areas.

Would I recommend interim working?

I would but it’s important to say that’s partly about my orientation to the world. Learning is unbelievably energising for me. In Courtney Johnston’s excellent recent post (open in a new tab, now, honestly), she touches on fluid vs crystallised intelligences. The former being experimental and improvised, fast and flexible, while the latter is more about applying the skills and knowledge already learnt. This was a lightbulb for me. I need to be using both forms of intelligence to perform well

So interimming (?) was experience like no other, with few downsides for me. The thing I missed was long-term building; not seeing a big project through, or reshaping strategic purpose over three years. So while I don’t think it’s for everyone, if this suite of observations feels comfy to you, I heartily recommend it!