01
What other organisations actually tried.
Not the case-study version. The version with the part that failed still in it, and what it cost to find that out.
Leadership Coffee · Singapore
The ExCo asks if it is working. You answer alone.
When a promoted leader does not land, or the bench does not hold once the role opens, it comes back to you. Once a quarter, eight in-house L&D and HR leaders take ninety minutes on one of those problems.
Chatham House. Nothing recorded. Nobody in the room sells, including me. Who is at the table
Ask for a seat.
No date is set yet. Seats are released to this list before the date is published anywhere.
What you take back
What you carry back to the office.
Ninety minutes, one question, and seven other people who run your function elsewhere.
02
A read on whether yours is unusual.
That is a hard call to make from inside one organisation. It is a much easier one in a room of people running the same function elsewhere.
03
Seven people you can call in six months.
They run your function, know your constraints, and owe you nothing. That independence is what makes their perspective useful.
The ninety minutes
No slides. No round of introductions that eats the hour.
Clock times go out with the invitation. The shape does not change.
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01
Coffee
People arrive, get a drink, sit down. No name badges and no icebreaker.
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02
The question
I put it on the table in about five minutes, say why it is worth the morning, then stop talking.
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Round the table
Three minutes each on how the question shows up where you are. Specifics, not positions. This is the part that decides whether the rest is any good.
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04
The room works it
The sharpest version gets the rest of the hour. You leave with something you can try, and the names of the people who have already tried it.
The questions
One question a quarter.
Four rooms a year. Each takes a single question and stays on it, because a room that covers leadership in general covers nothing.
Q1 · Transitions
"Why do the leaders we promote take a year to land?"
The promotion decision was sound. The first year is where it gets proved or lost. What people have put around a newly promoted leader, at what point, and what actually changed as a result.
Q2 · Performance and influence
"The talent review said presence. Then what?"
A technically strong leader is told they need more presence, and nobody in the room can say what to change on Monday. How people have made that feedback specific enough to act on, and what they did when they could not.
Q3 · High potential
"The bench looks fine on the chart. Does it hold?"
Two names against every critical role, and an uneasy feeling about what happens when one of them opens. What people are using as readiness evidence, and how often it survives contact with the actual appointment.
Q4 · Change
"The restructure landed. The behaviour did not."
The chart is new and people are still working the old one. What people have done about that beyond a communications plan, and which of it moved anything.
The table
Who is at the table.
Seats are matched so the room is level. Eight people carrying a similar weight of decision, from organisations that are not competing for the same answer.
In the room
- Heads of L&D, learning and talent
- HR Directors and CHROs
- OD and people leads
- In-house, owning or shaping the leadership development budget
- One person per organisation
Not in the room
- Coaches, consultants and trainers
- Platform, assessment and EAP vendors
- Recruiters and search
- Anyone whose job is selling to the people function
- No exceptions, including for people I like
The rules
Three rules. They are the reason it works.
Chatham House. Nothing is recorded, written up, or posted afterwards. What gets said in the room stays in it, including by me.
No slides. Nobody presents. There is no deck, no framework walk-through and no speaker.
No pitch. I convene this and I sell executive coaching, so the rule is worth stating plainly. I do not pitch in the room, and nobody is followed up as a lead for having been there. If you want to talk about working together, ask me on a different day.
FAQ
Frequently asked.
If yours is not here, ask directly.
There is no date yet. What am I asking for?
A place on the list the next room fills from. Rooms run quarterly, seats are capped at eight, and the invitation goes out from this list before the date appears anywhere else. If that date does not suit you, tell me and you hold your place for the next question.
Is it really free?
Yes. No fee, and nothing is attached to it. I cover the room and the coffee.
Is this a pitch in disguise?
No. That is the third rule, and it is the one the whole thing depends on. If it ever stops being true, stop coming and tell people why.
I am a coach or a consultant. Can I come?
No. Your being there is the thing that stops the room working, however good your intentions are. Happy to talk separately.
Why do you ask for my organisation and role?
Two reasons, both about the room rather than about you. Eight seats means the table has to be level, and one organisation gets one seat so nobody is sitting opposite their own head of function.
Can I send a colleague instead?
Yes, as long as they are in-house and hold the same kind of decision. Tell me who is coming so the room stays at one person per organisation.
Where is it held?
Central Singapore, in the morning. The venue goes out with the invitation.
What happens to what I say in the room?
Nothing. It is not recorded, transcribed, written up, or turned into content. If I ever write about a question a room worked on, it carries my own read of it and nothing anyone in the room said.
Eight seats
Ask for one.
Rooms run quarterly and the list is how they fill. Two minutes to ask, and no obligation to take the seat when it is offered.