Tomorrow night I sleep out. It’s made me think about the people organisations stop seeing.Hey, how are you? Tomorrow night, India and I will be sleeping out at Chorley FC for the Big Chorley Sleepout. Friday the 13th. November. Outside. I’ve been told to bring more layers than I think I need, and then some more. On Saturday morning we’ll get up, go home, have a hot shower and, if I’m honest, probably a bacon butty. One night, chosen by us, with a warm bed waiting at the end of it. For the people this sleepout helps, there’s no Saturday morning shower. It isn’t one night. And it was never a choice. I’ve thought about that a lot this week. Not just homelessness itself, but how good we’ve all become at walking past it. Most of us aren’t cold-hearted. We’re busy. We’ve seen it before. And somewhere along the way, the brain decides that something familiar no longer needs looking at. That doesn’t just happen on our high streets. It happens in our organisations, every single day. Every organisation has invisible people You know who they are. You’ve probably walked past one this week. The operator on the night shift who knows exactly why the same fault keeps coming back, because they fix it every night with a workaround that quietly became the process. The agent on the phones who could tell you, word for word, why customers ring back three times. Nobody has asked them. The team leader who raised the same issue in three meetings, got three nods, and has now stopped raising it. The quiet one in your leadership meeting who used to challenge, and now just agrees. The new starter keeping their head down, because the first idea they shared was met with “we tried that before”. None of them are hiding. We just stopped looking. Nobody makes people invisible on purpose That’s what makes it so dangerous. No leader wakes up and decides to stop seeing their people. It happens slowly, through the diary, the dashboard and the drive between sites. Back to back meetings mean no time on the floor. The dashboard says green, so why go and look? So we walk past. Not with our feet. With our attention. And when people stop being seen, something predictable happens. First they stop speaking. Then they stop trying. Then they stop caring. And most of them don’t leave. They keep turning up, doing exactly what’s asked and not one thing more. You’re paying for their time and getting none of their thinking. Silence is not agreement. Silence is what’s left when people have given up on being heard. Here’s the line I’d love every operations director to sit with this week: Your front line already knows why your strategy isn’t landing. You walked past them on your way to the meeting about it. Stop walking past So here’s my challenge. This week, find one person you’ve been walking past. Not the usual faces. The night shift. The quiet one. The person who stopped raising it. Ask them two questions: “What’s getting in your way?” And then, when they’ve answered, “What else?” Then the hard part. Don’t defend. Don’t explain. Don’t fix it on the spot. Listen, thank them, and go back within a week to tell them what you did with it. One conversation. Twenty minutes. It might be the most valuable twenty minutes of your month. People don’t need you to have all the answers. They need to know you’ve seen them. Tomorrow night Tomorrow, India and I will do our small bit for the people in our own town who are too often walked past. Everything we raise goes to the Chorley FC Community Foundation, Let’s Make a Difference and SVP Chorley Buddies, three local organisations supporting people facing homelessness, hardship and isolation, ideally before they reach crisis point.
If you’ve already sponsored us, thank you, it means the world. We’re aiming for £300, and every pound gets us closer. 👉 Sponsor Lee and India here​ And if you’re in town this weekend and someone catches your eye, don’t walk past. A hello costs nothing. Have fun, Lee Co-Founder of Get Knowledge National Coach of the Year 2025 Author of ‘The People Puzzle’ |
Issue 103: Who are you walking past?
