The Naked Office

Why I Did It

My “Naked Leader” books are a metaphor for stripping away the barriers that prevent us being successful. After all, we are born naked, with unique talents, ready to fulfill the promise of our first few seconds, and we die, naked, wondering if we did.

When we are young, we are taught – conditioned – what we cannot do. This happens because we hear the word “no” on average 400 times more than we hear the word “yes.” And so we look to others for their approval, and permission. These are the reasons for low levels of confidence and self-esteem, and high levels of stress and depression.

An office – organisation – is a collection of people, and so the experiment that is The Naked Office is a natural extension to the Naked Leader books. It is also a powerful route to get these empowering messages across to a wider audience.

It is not about nudity – if we had wanted that we would have filmed a stag or hen night, or in any city centre at night. It is rather about an extraordinary journey around the respect we show for each other, the trust we have in each other and the way we communicate with each other. The Naked Office does for business what the Calendar Girls did for charity – turning inhibition into success. Taking off your clothes is easy; taking off your prejudices is not.

Five Tips

1. Know where you want to go – have a clear vision for your organisation, so clear it is understandable by a ten year old.

2. Know where you are now – bring the truth in the room – be honest with each other in your communications by never saying anything behind a colleague’s back that you would not say to their faces. Realise also, and always, business issues that are raised are always just personal issues, all dressed up.

3. Know what you have to do to get to where you want to go – By unlocking the skills, talents and strengths of your people – and realise that everything you need, to achieve anything you want, you already have within you.

4. Do it! Take action – what you know is important, what you say more so, however at the end of the day your business (and personal) success comes down to one thing and one thing alone, what you actually do. What you, your people and your organisation actually do, each and every day. Everything else is just noise.

5. To make these happen – do The Naked Leader Deal – to avoid endless discussion, debate and delay, agree to do something, and see where it takes you. There are no answers, only choices, so make a choice and DO SOMETHING. If it takes you closer to where you want to go, then do more of the same, if not, then do something else…

And by the way, I don’t actually care if you believe these tips, or not – I just need you to know them, so that you have a choice. They may inspire you, being positive is not a strategy – what are you actually going to DO? You may feel cynical, being negative is not a strategy – what are you actually going to DO? If you do something, you always move forward. If you don’t, you always stand still. 

I offer a programme based on the TV show, 5 days to amend your ways. The great thing is you can achieve this in your organisation all without removing a stitch!.

If you are interested please contact the office on 01483 766502

David Taylor, June 2009