Mo Mowlem – Disinhibition in Negotiations
Watching the Channel 4 biopic ‘Mo’ on Sunday 31st January about Mo Mowlam reminded me of the time when she came and gave a keynote speech at CMP’s Getting Beyond Conflict conference in 2002. I had spoken to her on the phone to set up the keynote, and confirm arrangements and was immediately amazed and impressed by her immediacy, lack of ‘front’ and punchy informality (she called me ‘babe’ throughout). She arrived at the venue about an hour early having just completed a marathon TV programme the day before supporting Winston Churchill as the greatest ever Briton. He won, and I’m sure it was as much down to Mo’s enduring popularity as his.
Mo was clearly tired and the effect of her illness was there for all to see but the minute she arrived people flocked to her offering handshakes and she greeted and acknowledged all warmly, spending time to chat. The catering staff were getting lunch ready and she checked in with them, leaving smiles in her wake.
She sat with me for half an hour and took an interest in what we do as a company, swapped ideas about conflict at work and asked me to help her to the room when she was needed as she was ‘struggling to get about these days.’ Her hour long keynote was inspirational pulling out examples from her time in politics and in Northern Ireland particularly. She related it seamlessly to the context of workplace conflict and encouraged us all to persist in our peacemaking activities.
The Channel 4 programme raised the issue of disinhibition in Mo’s character, saying that it was likely that her brain tumour had the effect of reducing and sometimes removing the inhibitions that most of us experience in life’s day to day travails. The film said that she was profoundly affected by that, as she wanted to believe that it was her – all of her – that people loved. Not some medically induced condition. I found it sad to think that someone so immediate and humane might have been struck by such doubts late on in their life. The programme was a vivid reminder however of Mo Mowlam’s capacity to work with people to achieve a goal, to bring people together and to enlist the full range of her personality to do that. Her disinhibition gave her a power of reality and honesty, but also allowed her to tune in to others and know how to work with them. Thanks Mo I’d forgotten how great you were.