It struck us recently that there are fundamentally two kinds of organisations to work in - those which are "on the front foot" and those which are "on the back foot".
I think you'll know what these phrases mean - most people do when we mention them - though their origins are not that clear. They may be taken from fencing or combat sports (boxing perhaps), where being on the front foot has connotations of being on the attack, moving forward.
Being on the back foot implies you stepping away from your opponent, pushed towards the ropes. Or they may come from cricket. When a batsman can get onto the front foot because the bowler is slow or the pitch is easy to play on, he can generally score shots more easily. Someone bowling fast at 90mph and bouncing the ball towards your head generally gets you onto the back foot.
Which type of organisation are you in? One on the front foot - proactive, spotting opportunities, celebrating success, hopeful, encouraging each other, confident with customers, staff and stakeholders? Or on the back foot - reactive, worried about failure, spotting problems, under attack, lacking confidence, not getting on with each other?
In our experience, it's almost certainly more fun and fulfilling to work in a FFO (front foot organisation). Let us know if you disagree!
And what do you need to do to get onto the front foot? Have a look through the slides below for some ideas…
