The Midlands Organizing Team that I manage gives us the flexibility to direct resources quickly to respond to opportunities and bolster particular campaigns. I have been a GMB organizer since 2007 and a Senior Organizer since 2012. In 2018, I did a management apprenticeship that transformed my management practice and changed my life. We looked at autonomy and mastery. How we all need ownership over our work and to feel that we are achieving. I started to ask myself why I was checking diaries to make sure they were full when I should have been focusing on the results. Why did I think I had all the answers when I had six people in the team out, on the ground, in workplaces day in day out? I realized that my team meetings were just me talking and people trying to guess what I wanted them to say, instead of being creative thinkers or problem solvers, instead of challenging the norm and sharing their ideas.

When it came to team meetings, we scrapped agendas. If I needed to communicate any procedural information, I would send an email. Our time together is precious, it should be spent developing our campaigns and ideas, reviewing campaigns that are already in motion, understanding our direction of travel, creating our ‘commander's intent’ and, most importantly, getting to know one another, strengthening our bonds.