About Richard Eason

I've spent over 25 years working in hierarchical organisations – 16 years in the military, followed by more than a decade in local government at a senior level leading on climate and transport.

Across both contexts, I've seen the same pattern: progress stalls not because people don't care, but because something unspoken is slowing things down. I call it polite resistance.

The Moment I Remember

One afternoon in our open-plan office, I stood over a colleague, raising my voice and questioning their delivery. The room froze. People stopped working. My colleague sat silent.

I remember that moment clearly, but I didn't understand it then.

Over time, through reflection, I realised what I'd done. I wasn't creating conditions for honesty. I was making honesty dangerous. People were protecting themselves from me.

That wasn't an isolated incident. It was a pattern. My directive approach was creating exactly the resistance I was frustrated with.

What Had to Change

  • Stop using frustration as a management tool
  • Start asking "what do you think we should do?" instead of always giving the answer
  • Make it possible to say "I'm struggling" without triggering public criticism
  • Apologise when I got it wrong

This wasn't quick. It was years of difficult learning, stumbling, trying again. It continues.

The Five Conditions

Out of that learning came five conditions I use to examine my own leadership. Each one can build momentum or create friction.

  • Speak Without Fear: Am I making it safe to raise concerns, or are people staying quiet?
  • Shared Ownership: Is responsibility distributed, or am I hoarding control?
  • Confident Action: Can people act without waiting for permission, or have I created dependency?
  • Follow Through: Are we delivering on commitments, or do promises drift?
  • Keep the Rhythm: Does progress sustain when things get hard, or does momentum die?

They aren't a sequence. They work on each other, and any one of them can be the thing that's slowing you down. I tend to start with Speak Without Fear, because if people won't say what they think then my reading of everything else is unreliable. That's a preference, rather than a rule.

What This Is and Isn't

The Polite Resistance Index is built on my own experience. It reflects patterns I've observed and, often, created myself. It isn't peer-reviewed research or proven methodology. It's a framework I find useful and that others have told me resonates.

You might look at the five conditions and see them differently. That's fine. The value isn't in agreeing with the framework. It's in the act of reflecting.

I'm also gathering insight into where local authority leaders find this hardest. Seeing how other people answer these questions changes how I read my own. This work helps my practice. It might help yours.

I hold an MSc in Practice-Based Research and I'm currently a Director in a London borough.