Do I have a capability or a capacity issue?
As a business owner or manager, it can be difficult to know whether a particular issue is related to capability or capacity.
In general, CAPABILITY refers to the skills and knowledge needed to perform a task, while CAPACITY refers to the available resources (time, staff, equipment, etc.) to complete the task.
As a business owner or manager, it can be difficult to know whether a particular issue is related to capability or capacity.
In general, CAPABILITY refers to the skills and knowledge needed to perform a task, while CAPACITY refers to the available resources (time, staff, equipment, etc.) to complete the task.
In this article, we'll explore the differences between capability and capacity issues and how to identify which one you may be facing.
CAPABILITY ISSUES: Capability issues refer to situations where an employee or team may not have the necessary skills, knowledge, or experience to complete a task or project. Some common signs of capability issues include:
• Consistently poor performance or quality of work
• Lack of motivation or engagement
• Frequent errors or mistakes
• Difficulty understanding or following instructions
• Lack of confidence or hesitation in completing tasks
• Inability to learn or adapt to new processes or technology
If you're experiencing capability issues, it's important to provide training and development opportunities for your employees. This may include additional coaching or mentoring, job shadowing, or workshops to develop new skills.
It's also important to communicate clear expectations and provide regular feedback to help your employees improve their performance.
CAPACITY ISSUES: Capacity issues refer to situations where a team or employee may not have the necessary resources (time, staff, equipment, etc.) to complete a task or project. Some common signs of capacity issues include:
• Overworked or stressed employees
• Missed deadlines or delayed projects
• Inability to take on additional work or projects
• Difficulty managing workload or priorities
• Poor time management or organization
• Lack of resources or equipment to complete tasks
If you're experiencing capacity issues, it may be necessary to reassess your workload or resource allocation. This may include delegating tasks to other team members or departments, outsourcing certain tasks or projects, or investing in additional resources or equipment to help your team work more efficiently.
It's important to communicate with your team and stakeholders to manage expectations and ensure everyone is on the same page.
In conclusion, whether you're facing capability or capacity issues, it's important to identify the root cause of the problem and develop a plan to address it.
Capability issues may require additional training or development, while capacity issues may require a reassessment of resources or workload. By focusing on the specific issue at hand, you can develop targeted solutions to help your team work more effectively and efficiently.
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How do I help my team to be more effective?
As a leader, one of your primary responsibilities is to help your team be as effective as possible.
There are a variety of strategies you can use to support your team's productivity and performance.
Here are five key ways to help your team be more effective:
As a leader, one of your primary responsibilities is to help your
team be as effective as possible. regardless of its size or industry.
There are a variety of strategies you can use to support your team's productivity and performance.
Here are five key ways to help your team be more effective:
1. Set clear goals and expectations: Clear goals and expectations are essential for helping your team stay focused and on track. Make sure everyone on your team understands what they are working toward and what is expected of them.
Clearly define key performance indicators (KPIs) and regularly communicate progress toward these goals.
2. Foster open communication: Effective communication is critical for any team to succeed. Encourage your team to share ideas and perspectives and create a safe environment for open and honest communication. Make sure everyone on the team understands the importance of communication and feels comfortable raising concerns or asking questions.
3. Provide the necessary resources: Your team needs the tools, resources, and support necessary to be effective. Make sure everyone has access to the tools and technology they need to do their jobs and provide training and development opportunities to help your team build the skills they need to succeed.
4. Empower your team: Empowering your team means giving them the autonomy and authority to make decisions and take action. This can help boost motivation and engagement, as team members feel more invested in their work and the outcomes they achieve. Trust your team to make decisions and take responsibility for their work.
5. Celebrate successes and learn from failures: Celebrate your team's successes and acknowledge their hard work and accomplishments. At the same time, don't shy away from failure. Use failures as opportunities for learning and growth and encourage your team to take risks and try new things.
In conclusion, there are many ways to help your team be more effective, including setting clear goals and expectations, fostering open communication, providing necessary resources, empowering your team and celebrating successes and learning from failures.
As a leader, your role is to support your team and help them achieve their goals. By focusing on these key strategies, you can help your team become more productive, engaged, and successful.
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Leadership, not one size fits all.
There are many leadership books, podcasts and training that tell you about leadership. However, leadership is quite individual.
You move from people worker to a manager and then fall into the leadership role. It’s the role models that you have watched and your ideal around leadership that helps develop who you are.
There are many leadership books, podcasts and training that tell you about leadership. However, leadership is quite individual.
You move from people worker to a manager and then fall into the leadership role.
It’s the role models that you have watched and your ideal around leadership that helps develop who you are.
Working for bad leaders, teaches you likely the most. I don’t want to be like that person, so I am going to be this kind of leader. No leader is perfect, and early in leadership you learn what works, what is not good and what kind of leader you want to be. I made my fair share of mistakes as a young CFO and leader. Knowing what I wanted to achieve, but how you take the team on that journey was a different story.
I think there is a place for training, coaching and reading books and listening to podcasts but then you need to decide what kind of leader you want to be, and then be honest when you fall short or you hit it out in the park. Ask for feedback from your team – create a save space for them to provide feedback to you – and determine what you will work on 3-4 key pieces of feedback that you want to improve.
How you interact with your staff / leadership team will change overtime. Each individual needs different assistance, help and guidance and needs to be managed or led a different way. No one size fits all.
So when you are a leader you need to be clear on your style but then work out how you operate with different leaders/direct reports in your team.
No one sets out to be a bad leader, however there are a lot of them around. Being a good leader, takes concerted effort and focus and continual feedback and learning.
“The joy of leading people, celebrating success and building an effective team is one of the true joys I appreciated when I led people.”
Things have changed with COVID and while I am all for flexibility, leadership styles need to change to adapt to the new flexible world.
At Whiteark we have some great articles, tools on leadership that we will share with you……
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My love-hate relationship with marketing
I’m an accountant, so I am not supposed to love marketing, am I?
When I started in industry, marketing budget were cut, how can you justify the ROI on that spend. So much time was spent understanding the return on money spent, some easier than others to explain.
However, when cash needed to be saved it was the easiest spot. It didn’t impact the bottom line, that you can really measure easy compared with other costs.
I’m an accountant, so I am not supposed to love marketing, am I?
When I started in industry, marketing budget were cut, how can you justify the ROI on that spend. So much time was spent understanding the return on money spent, some easier than others to explain.
However, when cash needed to be saved it was the easiest spot. It didn’t impact the bottom line, that you can really measure easy compared with other costs.
Then I started my own business, and everything change. Marketing costs started getting put into different buckets;
• Brand – brand awareness. Wanting people to know the Whiteark brand, without awareness people will not think Whiteark when they have a problem. So, with a new business this required a bit of planning, spending and time to get right.
• Events – client events, potential client events & dinner to entertain people was important to build deeper relationships with the right network.
• Content – With the brand in play, having relevant content across social media so potential clients would spot us, understand our value proposition and when a problem came up they would think call Whiteark. Regular content and varied content that was unique was important.
• Podcast – like everyone in the 2020 year with COVID we started a Podcast, it was based on interviewing a leader to understand what made them tick and their leadership journey. It was a great podcast, we did 52 in 52 weeks and then we stopped but we loved the interviews and we got some regular listeners.
• Listings – consulting listings, female network listings and other listings to ensure that we would come up if people were looking
• Website – constant updates to website to ensure new and interesting information
• Brochures – regular brochures that are hard copy and soft copy about our service
• Email campaigns – through Linkedin and/or through Mailchimp through regular newsletters.
• And other things that I now consider marketing…..
It’s hard to measure the success of the marketing stuff listed about but then you speak with a potential client, bump into someone that wants to partner on something or someone reaches out on Linkedin off the back of your postings or seeing some new content.
But whatever the case brand and marketing is important. It’s sometimes hard to measure, but there is ROI. You just need to find the right balance between spend and ROI.
Companies these days, larger companies can measure ROI on marketing campaigns more successfully than they have been able to in the past, which helps them invest in retention, but the cost of acquisition is always a challenge, for most businesses.
When you own a consulting business, the marketing play is a long play, not a short play and therefore you need to be comfortable with what you invest and the return you will make in the short term, and the long term.
So, I am a frustrated marketer and like to see the difference that certain campaigns have on statistics at month end and understand how to make them improve month-on-month. Measuring the key engagement stats every month also helps to understand what people that are engaging with the business enjoy.
If you are looking for a marketing expert, you’ve come to the wrong place LOL, however if you are looking for a frustrated marketer that has learnt to love marketing and all things associated with it, as I founder my business, you’ve come to the right place.
We have some cool content and always something new prepared to read, new templates, new industry reports or we always have something to say, so tune in and you’ll see our content strategy in real time.
I hope you like this article, I had fun writing it. 🌞
You might want to explore other thought leadership articles
The A Team
The A team, how it operated & why it worked?
You know, the team that works well together, delivers outcomes and is a high functioning team – known by Jo as the “A team”. If you have ever been led or been part of the A team, you know what I am talking about.
The A team, how it operated & why it worked?
You know, the team that works well together, delivers outcomes and is a high functioning team – known by Jo as the “A team”. If you have ever been led or been part of the A team, you know what I am talking about.
When there is change, do you ever refer back to the memory on how a team should work and operate? Understanding how you build and operate an A team is critical. What makes the A team work & how do you replicate this again to go with A team version 2.
I have been blessed in my career to date to work in an A team, under a great leader and be the boss of an amazing A team.
No team is perfect, and you can never replicate what you have, but the secret sauce of what makes this A team is helpful for any manager and leaders as they build the most effective team possible.
What our people want:
People want to make a difference.
People what to be appreciated.
People want transparency.
People love connection and being something that is bigger than them or their team.
People want to work in a team / company where they can have fun and laugh and be themselves.
This all seems to make sense. So, we need to create and environment for our employees / team that ticks all these boxes.
What our company wants:
To provide a commercial service / product in the market that is leading
To generate a healthy return for the service/product
To stay ahead of the competition
To always improve the way things are done, through continuous improvement
For employees to take accountability and responsibility
So, the question then comes, how do you marry the two?
5 key elements to building & operating an A team:
Hire the right people – be clear on the capability you need. Don’t hire too many people like you. Hire people that are passionate and driven and get other people in the team involved in the recruitment process.
Fire quickly – when you hire the wrong person (and you will) move them out quickly as one bad egg can cause issues.
Build a high-performance culture – give feedback often, reward good outcomes & recognise people with things that matter to them – money, time off, visibility, training opportunity, another project or a promotion. Make sure you give you employees the glory when things go well.
Clear roles & accountabilities – be clear on what they do, their role, how they fit into the overall goals of the team / division / organisation. Be clear on how they can contribute to the team.
Communication – build a culture of constant communication – transparency and get the team to build a better way to do things – as 2 heads or 5 is better than one.
As a leader you have a very important role, to build a high performing team. There will be reasons why it’s hard or impossible but there are always things you can do to improve the performance of how a team operate. They are not rocket science but they will make a big difference.
One thing not to forget, is have fun. You spend a lot of time at work, so don’t forget to have a laugh and enjoy what you are doing. Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously, so don’t forget to smile and laugh.
Proactive approach to culture and employee engagement including flexibility is becoming really critical.
Leadership is an important element for all organisations, to execute successful outcomes having engaged staff is instrumental.
Don’t underestimate the simple things, to retain, engage your staff to get the best out of them. In the current environment with the job market, this is more important than ever.
Article by Jo Hands, Whiteark Founder
Do you have any other items that you would add to the A team list?
Tag a member from your A team or your manager of your A team and discuss what good looks like for setting up an A team.
Want to talk about building your leadership team? Reach out.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.
We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our founder has a combined experience of over 20 years’ working as Executive in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders.
If we can help you, reach out for a no obligation chat to Jo Hands on 0459826221, or jo.hands@whiteark.com.au
Read more articles written by Jo Hands
Life's not always fair, but it's sure made me tough...
Jo Hands writes about what makes her tick, she explains “Life's not always fair, but it's sure made me tough...” When I was a child I was big about justice. I wanted to feel like life was fair. My mother told me that life wasn't fair and I thought that was crap. As I grew up I realised that she was right - life is not fair. Everyone has their challenges, battles and hard times, you are not alone. People want to be perceived as having their life together but no one really does, let's be honest.
When I was a child I was big about justice. I wanted to feel like life was fair. My mother told me that life wasn't fair and I thought that was crap. As I grew up I realised that she was right - life is not fair. Everyone has their challenges, battles and hard times, you are not alone. People want to be perceived as having their life together but no one really does, let's be honest.
The hard times is where I've learnt so much, I've grown, I've backed myself, I've realised how strong I really am. I want to make a difference to people. I love people - I love my team, people I meet, I want people to be successful and I genuinely want the best for people.
I'm good at business, it gets me out of bed in the morning with a spring. I love helping people get the most out of their business. There is so much opportunities to drive better outcomes in business - I see it and I want to help people.
Making a difference isn't easy - there are a lot of people telling you why it's not possible, it's not good enough. Experience tells me to trust my gut. Embrace and push through the change as the outcome will be better they just can't see it. I'm confident in my ability and I'll admit when I'm wrong but I will not stop striving for great.
For people that know me well, I'm an open book, someone who cares so deeply, someone who loves to make a difference and I have a genuine love of people and business optimisation.
Life isn't fair. Life isn't kind. But everyone has their journey that has shaped them and so embrace the imperfections and make the best of your life.
🙃 Smile - lean in - no regrets.
💜 Embrace life and make the best of everyday. Be kind to you - you're only human and you're enough.
🌈 Be kind - you don't know peoples journey and kindness is overrated.
Read more articles by Jo Hands:
We’re Whiteark. Leaders in Transformation & Private Equity.
Fuelled by passion, we revel in working with Private Equity; the pace, targeted focus on business optimisation and limited timeframes spark unforeseen transformation opportunities, which we’re excited to deliver on. Our approach is rooted in data, ensuring the right decisions are made – based on accurate information. Hands-on, we get into the trenches with you, working directly with the management team to realise outcomes expected by shareholders. We offer a range of transformation services which can be tailored to suit standard private equity options; always accompanied by a laser focus on profit optimisation of the business.
Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
Article by Jo Hands, Co-Founder Whiteark
How should we think about Complexity? Is it complicated?
Mark Easdown writes about complexity. In the mid 1980s, a school of thought emerged around “Complexity” and “Complex Adaptive Systems” with the formation of the Sante Fe Institute, formed in part by former members of Los Alamos National Laboratory. The institute drew from multi-disciplinary domains and insights of : economics, neural networks, physics, artificial intelligence, chaos theory, cybernetics, biology, ecology and archaeology. Theories on Complexity and Complex Adaptive systems sought to develop common frameworks and understandings of physical and social systems that was an alternate to more linear and reductionist modes of thinking.
Article written by Mark Easdown
Business Planning, Mental Models, Ways of Thinking & Working
“A complicated system is the sum of its parts. You can solve problems by breaking things down and solving them separately. In a complex system, the properties of the whole are the result of interaction between the parts and the linkages and the constraints. In fact, in a complex system how things connect is more important than what they are. So, the properties of that emergent pattern can never be decomposed to the original parts.” David Snowden
“The problem is complexity (in financial markets) …we cannot prepare for every thread of causality through every interaction; in the speed of the event we find there is no time to make adjustments.” Richard Bookstaber
“Nature likes to over-insure itself. Layers of redundancy are the central risk management property of natural systems.” Nassim Taleb
In the mid 1980s, a school of thought emerged around “Complexity” and “Complex Adaptive Systems” with the formation of the Sante Fe Institute, formed in part by former members of Los Alamos National Laboratory. The institute drew from multi-disciplinary domains and insights of : economics, neural networks, physics, artificial intelligence, chaos theory, cybernetics, biology, ecology and archaeology. Theories on Complexity and Complex Adaptive systems sought to develop common frameworks and understandings of physical and social systems that was an alternate to more linear and reductionist modes of thinking. Members sought to better understand spontaneous, self-organising dynamics and found examples in the;
Natural World - Brains, Immune Systems, Ecologies, Cells, Developing Embryos and Ant colonies
Human World – Political parties, Scientific communities and in the economy
Why bother?
Just say you and your team are facing a complicated problem, then you may break down the problem into component parts, build an expert team internally or partner with external consultants, you may take a data driven or fact-based approach, you may identify best practices create a strategic plan and solve the problem incrementally. However, is that all? Is there a one size fits all solution to problem solving?
What if your problem could be categorised with traits such as;
Levels of uncertainty, ambiguity, unpredictability, dynamic interfaces - many diverse and independent parts that were interrelated, interdependent and linked through many interconnections into a network
The properties of the whole cannot be predicted from the behaviours of the component parts, in fact the network of many components may be gathering information learning and acting in parallel in an environment produced by these interactions – the system co-evolves within its environment
There may be significant political, social or external influences
“Wise executives tailor their approach to fit the complexity of the circumstances they face.” David Snowden & Mary Boone
Where in the real world might it be useful to have sound thinking about complexity and solving problems?
In Project Management
Programs of work and problems to solve come in a variety of forms, at the simpler end of spectrum process re-engineering and best practices serve us well to achieve desired outcomes. Yet increasingly, our problems to solve are complicated, we need to analyse things to figure out what to do and cause and effect are distanced. Complex projects are harder still, they display behaviours such as self-organising, emergent properties, non-linear and phase transition behaviours. We need a different mindset, structure and strategy to wrestle with these problems.
In Financial Markets
These are complex adaptive systems, tightly coupled with unexpected feedback loops, with investors of different investment styles & horizons, the sum of the parts will not explain the whole in a linear manner, there are infrequent extreme price moves, not normally distributed.
In Nature
Complex collective behaviours are displayed when individual ants forage for food and lay down a pheromone trail on the way out from the colony and if successful finding food lay down even more on way back to the colony. Other ants follow this stronger pheromone trail to the food adding their pheromone. So, the pheromone trail becomes the whole colonies best path to food, it is an ant colony optimisation algorithm. Interestingly, this insight has helped form the basis of swarm intelligence and a wide array of solutions across routing and scheduling problems and bayesian networks.
The twenty-first century will be the "century of complexity" Stephen Hawking
COMPLEX PROGRAMS
“Strategy in complex systems must resemble strategy in board games. You develop a small and useful tree of options that is continuously revised based on the arrangement of the pieces and the actions of the opponent. It is critical to keep the number of options open. It is important to develop a theory of what kinds of options you want to have open” - John H Holland
In complex situations "cause and effect are only coherent in retrospect and do not repeat" - Sarah Sheard
Complex problems to solve are unique and they challenge some of the traditional approaches to program and risk management thinking, which may emphasise a need to identify risks in order to control them or completely plan and control programs of work. Examples of complex programs may include: computer systems and networks, buildings, bridges, planes, ships and automobiles.
Let’s take a look at what makes complex programs unique;
Sophisticated structures with many component parts interacting with each other, giving a degree of uncertainty whereby you may not know what you don’t know until it occurs
Unknowable interdependencies across domains, a need for agility and structures that favour the decentralised and local to the centralised approach.
There may be interfaces with complementary projects which present challenges in scheduling of these interconnected systems, teams and resources
The environment may have a political realm where new government decisions or public policy arises
So, what is a desirable mindset for complex programs?
A Forward focus, a willingness to proactively manage project development and critical issues through agility, collaboration and adaptability. You may need nuanced responses and local innovation.
Analysis of likely origins of complexity and thinking through dependencies, seek critical junctions, vulnerabilities & countermeasures. Contingency planning around time, buffering on sequencing, budget and people skills
Dynamic reporting and monitoring, a willingness to pick up early warning signs and take corrective actions
Communications will be dynamic, real time & high visibility (as small changes can have oversized consequences amplified by scale of some projects)
Program planning may have both a single view and multiple integrated project schedules
Cynefin is a framework to deal with predictable and unpredictable worlds (David Snowden)
In 1999, David Snowden described a framework and problem-solving tool which helps to adjust management style to fit circumstances, and has relevance across product development, marketing, organisational design and BCP/DR and crisis management. The framework had 5 domains;
OBVIOUS. Options are clear, steps to success are known, variables well known, cause-effect relationships are apparent, you are able to assess the situation, follow a procedure, categorise its type and base your response on best practice (processes & procedures) and feasible to achieve best possible result. Examples: Product mass production, cooking with a recipe, known scientific issues, known legal issues.
COMPLICATED. Solutions not obvious to everyone but most variables involved are well known, cause-effect relationships are apparent, you may assess a situation, build a diverse team or utilise experts to deliver the best response. The best that can be achieved is a good result, maybe not the best result. Examples: Existing product enhancements, coaching a team, adopting new approaches, hiring process.
COMPLEX. The context is often unpredictable, many factors uncertain, many variables may intervene, data may be incomplete, it may not be possible to determine right options, make predictions or find cause-effect relationships, there may be multiple methods to address issues. Exploring what has a proven record in past situations, small tests or business experiments, simple guidelines, brainstorming, innovation and creativity may drive solutions. Examples: weather predictions, stock markets, poker, epidemic controls.
CHAOTIC. The situation is where nobody knows what to expect, anything can happen, it is impossible to make predictions. You may have to act towards the urgent and important, then check and evaluate result before responding to that result and acting again. Examples: Innovate new products, anything which predicts people’s preferences or behaviours, crisis event and crisis management, warfare
DISORDER. The situation is not known, you need to firstly move to a known domain & gather more information.
COMPLEXITY IN FINANCIAL MARKETS
“In the last few years the concept of self-organising systems – of complex systems in which randomness and chaos seem spontaneously to evolve into unexpected order – has become an increasingly influential idea that links together researchers in many fields, from artificial intelligence to chemistry, from evolution to geology. For whatever reason, however, this movement has so far largely passed economic theory by. It is time to see how the new ideas can usefully be applied to that immensely complex, but indisputably self-organising system we call the economy” - Paul Krugman 1996
“By one estimate, 90% of international transactions were accounted for by trade before 1970, and only 10% by capital flows. Today, despite a vast increase in global trade, that ratio has been reversed, with 90% of transactions accounted for by financial flows not directly related to trade in goods and services.” - Didier Sornette 2003
“Fundamental analysis seeks to establish how underlying values are reflected in stock prices, whereas the theory of reflexivity shows how stock prices can influence underlying values. One provides a static picture, the other a dynamic one.” - George Soros
Financial markets have all the basic components of complex adaptive systems, namely:
Investors have differing investment strategies and horizons from trading at the speed of light to long term cyclical horizons. They take external information and combine it with their own strategic intent and these compete in financial markets => this is adaptive decision making
Financial markets is the aggregation of large-scale collective decision making and actions => these are developing, complex and emergent
Financial markets exist in a non-equilibrium state , are non linear, they experience non-frequent extreme price moves with the aggregate behaviour more complex than would be predicted by the sum of the individual parts.
Financial Markets are subject to feedback loops, where the result of one iteration becomes an input of next iteration
So, how has the emerging knowledge of complexity and financial markets framed regulators thinking?
The global financial crisis highlighted the complexity, leverage, inter-connected and tightly coupled of financial markets. In response we have seen;
Efforts to reduce interconnectedness (intra-day local trading halts, regional collateral exchanges)
Enhanced capital rules (increased contingency buffers and incentives for some activities to be managed by non-bank sector & efforts to reduce concentration of risks)
Enhanced liquidity rules (increase quantum and quality of contingency buffers)
Speed, agility and quantum of central bank and treasury initiatives to address market panics and crisis
A re-think of the rule-making complexity and mental models applied to finance;
“Modern finance is complex, perhaps too complex. Regulation of modern finance is complex, almost certainly too complex. That configuration spells trouble. As you do not fight fire with fire, you do not fight complexity with complexity. Because complexity generates uncertainty, not risk, it requires a regulatory response grounded in simplicity, not complexity. Delivering that would require an about-turn from the regulatory community from the path followed for the better part of the past 50 years. If a once-in-a-lifetime crisis is not able to deliver that change, it is not clear what will.” - Andrew Haldane Bank of England Speech 2012 “ The Dog and the Frisbee” [https://www.bis.org/review/r120905a.pdf ]
COMPLEXITY IN NATURE
In her TED Talk, Deborah Gordon: The emergent genius of ant colonies: highlights an example of a complex adapative system with no central control or management in an ant colony: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukS4UjCauUs]
So, what is the strategy of the ant colony to constantly adapt to its complex environment? As per Deborah Gordon studies;
The ant colony allocates simple roles
At any given time 25% are patrolling, foraging and doing maintenance, 25% are inside with queen ant doing maintenance and looking after larvae, and finally 50% appear to be contingency and in reserve, able to surge as required to collect more food, patrol or more maintenance.
Communications are not centralised, they are dynamic, simple and local rules to adapt to emergent environment
The process is noisy, messy, imperfect and requires individual dynamic communications
Ant colonies can learn at the individual level by trial and error over many generations but this can nurture collective memory and problem-solving skills. The local instructing the central.
“So, the key to unlocking the efficiency of a leaderless system will rely on, among other things: clear role definition, flexible task allocation, a sense of responsibility toward the group, and shared understanding and response to communication patterns. Organizations would need to make an incredible investment in their employees, and vice versa.” Amanda Silver – Organising complexity – How Ant colonies self-manage. [https://medium.com/swlh/organizing-complexity-how-ant-colonies-self-manage-50455358f3cd]
How we should think about complex domains is still evolving, a multi-disciplinary lens across research and practice has been adding to this knowledge pool for decades. It is a vital enquiry for humankind, especially as our challenges become more complex to solve and our climate is as a complex adaptive system.
‘“he climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all. At the global level, it is a complex system linked to many of the essential conditions for human life.”- Pope Francis 2015
LOOKING TO CURATE YOUR BUSINESS STRATEGY? REACH OUT.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.
We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
Article written by Mark Easdown
Simplicity
Jo Hands is talking about simplicity. It's a theme for 2021... Companies want to drive simplicity, and many CEOs we are talking to consider this to be a key area of focus. As companies grow, shrink and change, they find themselves more complex. But where does it come from? Ultimately complexity is driven by core business functions: process, policy, systems, operating models, and is fuelled further by unclear decision-making.
It's a theme for 2021. Companies want to drive simplicity, and many CEOs we are talking to consider this to be a key area of focus. Let’s explore why…
As companies grow, shrink and change, they find themselves more complex. But where does it come from? Ultimately complexity is driven by core business functions: process, policy, systems, operating models, and is fuelled further by unclear decision-making.
Complexity costs companies’ both money and time – and probably more than you would think. On average, complexity costs companies 23% of their cost base.
So, given its impact, it makes sense that a key area of focus is to reduce complexity. But how do companies do this successfully?
“Simplicity (noun) is defined as “the quality or condition of being easy to understand or do.” And “the quality or condition of being plain or uncomplicated in form or design.””
The five key steps to reduce complexity in your business:
Ask senior leaders to write a list of roadblocks in the organisation
Ask staff to ask it they could change one process in the company what would it be
Identity themes (4-5) that would reduce complexity
Identify measures of complexity for 4-5 items and targets to drive simplicity
Start a program of work endorsed by the CEO around driving changes in 4/5 items and celebrate success
It helps to put things in context, so here are some key areas where we have seen improved simplicity that has directly created a financial benefit:
Remove unprofitable customers - reprice or remove
Remove Unprofitable products - stop selling
Remove number products in offering (do we neatly need 214 staplers?)
Clear delegations driving improved and timely decision making
Bill / billing process
Simplicity is an overused term and not many companies do this well. Ask yourself, is it time to spring clean the cupboards in your business? To remove the clutter, simplify the way you work and operate in order to drive a better customer experience and improved financial outcomes…
Remember the secret is to take a non-emotive view of things - no sacred cows!!
At Whiteark we love helping companies simplify through the 5 Step approach. The impact is beneficial for customers, employees and shareholders alike.
Download our free guide below to help you analyse your business processes and get started…
James Ciuffetelli and Jo Hands have practical experience in helping companies implement change around simplification, and we have seen the benefits this provided first hand. Get in touch for a no obligation conversation about how you can strategically simplify your business.
Browse more articles about change and transformation.
Need support in your organisation? Reach out.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.
We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
Article by Jo Hands, Co-Founder Whiteark
What kind of leader are you?
Jo Hands asks the question: What kind of leader are you? Leadership is a gift. It's not easy. It's not a popularity contest. It's about setting up your team for success. Sometimes as leaders we get lost. Meetings, emails, approvals and pressure and we lose sight of what is important - taking people on the journey. We've all worked for good leaders and not great leaders and therefore know what good leadership is ...I think I've learnt the most from the bad leaders that I've worked with.
Leadership is a gift. It's not easy. It's not a popularity contest. It's about setting up your team for success.
Sometimes as leaders we get lost. Meetings, emails, approvals and pressure and we lose sight of what is important - taking people on the journey.
We've all worked for good leaders and not great leaders and therefore know what good leadership is ...I think I've learnt the most from the bad leaders that I've worked with.
Three key considerations for leadership;
Lead from the heart
Consistency is key
Understand your why
Leadership evolves over time. Everyone has their own style and styles are adapted for different people but leaders that lead from the heart is critical to success.
Leading from the heart is not weak but connecting with people and driving and pulling people with a clear vision. A leader that takes this approach will get a better outcome than a stick approach.
Consistency is critical. Having a consistent style and consider how this impacts your team etc. Have you ever worked for a leader who was chaotic and you didn't know what you would get on each and every day? It creates an unproductive and toxic work environment.
Everyone has become a leader for their own reason. Know your why. Be deliberate in understanding the why and deliberate driving the outcome you want. Being passionate and deliberate will drive the best outcome for your team.
At Whiteark we are passionate about leadership and working with leadership teams to get the best out of their people. Reach out to us for a no obligation conversation and advice around managing talent.
The Chiefs Podcast | Tune in to more leadership lessons
Article by Jo Hands, Co-Founder Whiteark
Looking to hone your leadership skills? Let us help.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes. We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business.
Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
What do I want to do when I grow up??
Jo Hands writes about what she wanted to be when she grew up, and the lessons she learned along the way. She explains “In year 9, we needed to work out what we wanted to be when we grew up to pick our majors / subjects that determined our chance to get into 'the' university course. We were just kids and let's be honest, we didn’t know. Some still don’t know today.”
In year 9, we needed to work out what we wanted to be when we grew up to pick our majors / subjects that determined our chance to get into 'the' university course. We were just kids and let's be honest, we didn’t know. Some still don’t know today.
I'm generation X, so considered extremely loyal which explains my first 10+ years of my career. I chose accounting because I loved my accounting teacher at school, she encouraged me, and I just ‘got’ it.
When I finished high school, I took an intern role at an accounting firm for 13k a year. I learnt how to be an auditor. Went to University, and got my first role with Arthur Andersen (that later became EY) the first year, 2002.
My 9 years at EY taught me:
How to work hard
How to problem solve
Teamwork
Accountability
Client service
Industry experience
Ability to work on number of assignments
I worked out I didn't want to be partner and I wanted to really drive an outcome in business, so I left EY to join Telstra. I loved my experience at Telstra which then led to private equity experience.
I love working with private equity because:
I love the speed
I love the focus on activity
I love the simplification on priorities
Measuring success
Holding people accountable
My career has now changed to running my own business, which has been an amazing experience. The ability to not have a boss, being accountable to yourself and your business partner - and being able to make a difference to businesses and people.
I never knew I was going to do my own business or be as successful or enjoy it this much - but it's the depth and breadth of experience that has made it possible.
Your career path is not linear, take the experience, work hard, learn from good people and enjoy yourself, life's too short.
It's ok if you don't know what you want to do, but take a chance, risk, get experience and don’t forget to have a little fun.
Leaders in Private Equity.
Fuelled by passion, we revel in working with Private Equity; the pace, targeted focus on business optimisation and limited timeframes spark unforeseen transformation opportunities, which we’re excited to deliver on. Our approach is rooted in data, ensuring the right decisions are made – based on accurate information. Hands-on, we get into the trenches with you, working directly with the management team to realise outcomes expected by shareholders. We offer a range of transformation services which can be tailored to suit standard private equity options; always accompanied by a laser focus on profit optimisation of the business.
Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
Article by Jo Hands, Co-Founder Whiteark
The Problem Is …. How to Solve It?
Mark Easdown writes about problem solving… Good problem solving needs: cognitive diversity, valuing dissent to mitigate consensus “fails” & “group think”, a clear approach in stressful situations, switch thinking or adding some randomness to process, a healthy power relationship (no hubris or silencing of opposition, a need for participative management & subordinate assertiveness training), multiple approaches to problem solving …
Article written by Mark Easdown
Individuals, Teams & Enterprise, Mental Models, Ways of Working
““A problem well put is half solved.””
““I think that there is only one way to science – or to philosophy, for that matter: to meet a problem, to see its beauty and fall in love with it; to get married to it and to live happily, till death do ye part – unless you should meet another and even more fascinating problem or unless, indeed, you should obtain a solution. But even if you do obtain a solution, you may discover, to your delight, the existence of a whole family of enchanting, though perhaps difficult, problem children …””
““By operating without a leader the scout bees of a swarm neatly avoid one of the greatest threats to good decision making by groups: a domineering leader. Such an individual reduces a group’s collective power to uncover a diverse set of possible solutions to a problem, to critically appraise these possibilities, and to winnow out all but the best one.””
““Probably he played it the way he did because it was not a good piano. Because he could not fall in love with it he found another way to get the most out of it.” ”
Did you know ?
3M has a “flexible attention” policy (take a walk, nap, play a game) as they know creative ideas and problem solutions can sneak up on us as we pay attention to something else. Ideas flow between silos with engineers rotated between departments each few years.
Problem solving is a process followed to find solutions to difficult or complex issues.
What might that look like ?
Variances & deviations from desired outcomes – this may be pleasant (an opportunity) or unpleasant (Apollo 13)
For a problem to be solved suggests some precision in description, identification, root cause
Maybe we have a criterion that our best explanation or lived experience just fails to meet
An exploration of problem solving uncovers useful practices, shines a light on power structures and reveals a wider array of human perceptions, traits & group dynamics;
Author Charlan Nemeth in “No! , The power of disagreement in a world that wants to get along” highlights the case of United Airlines Flight 173, in the days before Christmas in 1978 flying from NY to Portland Oregon, USA. As the plane approached Portland it lowered the landing gear and the cockpit heard a large thump with the plane vibrating and rotating. The pilot questioned the landing gear, aborted landing and put the plane into a holding pattern. For 45 minutes, pilot and crew investigated the flight panel & landing gear problem yet overlooked the fact the plane proceeded to run out of fuel, falling out of sky, killing 10 people of the 196 on board, just six miles from airport. How can this problem solving go so tragically wrong?
Good problem solving needs: cognitive diversity, valuing dissent to mitigate consensus “fails” & “group think”, a clear approach in stressful situations, switch thinking or adding some randomness to process, a healthy power relationship (no hubris or silencing of opposition, a need for participative management & subordinate assertiveness training), multiple approaches to problem solving (broad information search, multiple alternatives considered), a human tendency to not see a solution if it is at odds with majority judgement, the very action of voicing dissent with conviction will alter the perception & awareness of others.
Maybe the way things “are” differ from our best thinking or theory on the way things “should be” .
Let’s take a look at Problem Solving & Mental Models across a few domains; In Adversity, In Manufacturing, In Investment Markets and In Nature
Producing your finest problem solving & improvisation, driven on by adversity
“”Messy : How to be creative and resilient in a tidy-minded world””
In January 1975, 17 year old Vera Brandes stood on the stage of the Cologne Opera House, awaiting a full house, as the youngest concert promoter in Germany. Vera had convinced American Jazz Pianist, Keith Jarrett to perform a solo recital, had arranged the grand concert hall, invited 1,400 people and arranged for delivery of a very specific & artist requested Bosendorfer 290 Imperial concert grand piano.
The problem for Vera’s project was that the opera house staff had wheeled out the wrong piano and gone home. They had wheeled out a small piano which would not produce enough sound to reach the furthest balconies, the piano was out of tune, the black notes in the middle of the keyboard didn’t work, the piano pedals were stuck – it was unplayable. In the scarce time before the concert, the local piano tuner concluded that given the heavy rain outside, a substitute piano would not survive the transitional trip from nearby storage facility.
Technicians spent several hours trying to make the piano sound halfway decent, the high and low notes jangled, the piano pedals malfunctioned and even the performer was suffering from several days of back pain and wearing extra spinal support. Understandably Keith Jarrett refused to play, but Vera Brandes cajoled, pacified & pleaded and at 11-30pm the concert finally began.
So with Vera Brandes project flashing bright red, what problem solving skills did Keith Jarrett deploy to overcome sub-optimal & malfunctioning tools ?
As the author says “ The minute he played the first note, everybody knew this was magic”, “It was beautiful and strange”, “ The Koln concert album has sold 3.5 million copies, no other solo jazz album nor piano solo has matched it”, “Jarrett really had to play the piano very hard to get enough volume to the balconies”, “ ….”handed a mess, Keith Jarrett embraced it, and soared”.
Toyota Business Practices (TBP) – A problem solving model
Toyota has a rich and deep history of instruction, values, actions shared, practiced, experienced and refined by many staff across many cultures around the world. Its Best Practices are constantly evolving. Toyota Business Practices are an example of tangible approaches to daily work, the essence of TBP is a problem solving model. Whilst a mastery is achieved across time and through daily work and with a mindset of drive and dedication, a basic summary includes the following elements;
Toyota defines “a problem” as a gap between the current state (as is) and future/ideal state (to be). The concept of problem is not viewed as a negative, as to find problems and to take countermeasures to eliminate them leads to continuous improvement.
““No one has more trouble than the person who claims to have no trouble””
A summary of the basic steps of Toyota Problem Solving, 2006 includes;
1. Clarify the Problem: requires understanding and pre-emptive thinking around: Ultimate Goal (what is the contribution, the purpose, how is it realised and for whom?), Current Situation ( talk to people involved, observe, concrete terms) & Ideal Situation ( a clear standard result to be achieved after problem is solved, it is a concrete & achievable and contributes to the ultimate goal)
2. Break down the Problem: requires qualitative and quantitative analysis, prioritise and break down bigger problem into smaller and more concrete ones to observe and find the point of occurrence
3. Set a Target: A target is measurable & states by when & is challenging in nature
4. Analyse the Root Cause: look at the point of occurrence & cascade thinking through asking why & seek peer review. If the countermeasures are applied to something other than root cause – this leads to wasted effort and resources
5. Develop countermeasures: develop many versions, select highest value-add & compliance, build consensus , make clear action plans
6. See countermeasures through: implement with concerted efforts, speed & persistence, share information, inform, report and consult, trial and error to expected results
7. Monitor results & process: ensure targets achieved, understand reasons for success or failure and accumulate continuous improvement knowledge
8. Standardise Successful Process: establish new standard and start next round of continuous problem solving / PDCA
““I have found it helpful to think of my life as if it were a game in which each problem I face is a puzzle I need to solve. By solving the puzzle, I get a gem in the form of a principle that helps me avoid the same sort of problem in the future. Collecting these gems continually improves my decision making, so I am able to ascend to higher and higher levels of play in which the game gets harder and the stakes become ever greater.” ”
Ray Dalio – Principles & Problem Solving in Investment Management
In 1975, Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates which went on to become the world’s largest hedge fund by 2005. He is known as a successful investor, innovator and aimed to structure global portfolios with uncorrelated investment returns, with allocations based on risk analysis rather than by asset classes. In 2011, Ray & Barbara Dalio established a philanthropic foundation and pledged to donate more than half their fortune in their lifetimes. In 2011, he self-published on-line his philosophy of investment which evolved to be an acclaimed 2017 book “Principles” on corporate management and investment. An overview of the framework Ray Dalio approaches problem solving includes;
1. Have Clear Goals: You cannot have everything – prioritise, don’t conflate your goals with just desires and decide what you really want, setbacks are important to making progress – in bad times you may need to modify goals to preserve what you have.
2. Identify & don’t tolerate problems: a useful mind hack if that painful problems are usually a good signpost you have a problem worth diagnosing and improving, don’t avoid problems as they are rooted in harsh and unpleasant realities, be precise and specific with your problem description, pull apart causes and the real problem, fix problems that yield biggest returns and take care small problems are not symptoms of larger ones, failing to address a problem has the same consequences as failing to identify it.
3. Diagnose problems to get at their root causes: don’t jump immediately into solution mode, identify “what” before commencing “what to do about it”, you must identify the root cause – not proximate ones, sometimes you will find the root cause is people or system or process, it can be a painful journey to resolution
4. Design a Plan: visual what you need to do to achieve goals, what needs to change to produce better outcomes, there are possibly many pathways – you just need to find one that works, create a narrative and time lines, identify tasks that connect to the narrative to achieve goals.
5. Push through to completion : you will need self-discipline, good work habits (well organised, to-do lists, priorities) are vastly underrated, establish clear metrics, have another monitor your results, as you discover new problems – repeat
Dalio’s problem solving mental models also covers: self-awareness (knowing your weakness & staring into them is a first step to success), seek to understand what your missing, be humble & radically open-minded (address ego and blind spot barriers), beware of harmful emotions, first learn then decide, simplify, use principles, determine who you should be listening to and what is true, be very specific about problems – don’t start with generalisations, convert your principles into algorithms and have these make decisions alongside you.
“The Waggle Dance” – Nest site selection & group decision making
In the 1950s, Martin Lindauer published a study on house hunting by honey bees and observed that bee scouts perform “waggle dances” on the surface of a swarm to advertise potential new nest sites. Advancing this research Cornell biologist Thomas Seeley noted the process was “complicated enough to rival the dealings of any department committee”, as potentially 10,000+ bees will relocate and need an efficient process to narrow alternatives and mitigate risks of bad decisions. When a hive gets too crowded, its queen and half the hive will swarm to a nearby tree and wait for several hundred scouts to go house hunting. Seeley notes “the bee’s method, which is a product of disagreement and contest rather than consensus and compromise, consistently yields excellent collective decisions”
Let’s explore the bee’s problem to solve;
The bee colony survival is as stake, so an accurate decision is required. New home must be suitable for rearing brood and storing honey and offer protections from: predators, thieves and bad weather.
A speedy decision is required, as the more hours the entire hive is exposed to elements it loses energy and reserves
A unified choice is required. Communications and contestability are crucial, a split decision could be fatal
What can bees teach us about problem solving & decision making?
Whilst the problem to solve is of a clear and stable nature, information may be incomplete or inaccurate
Information in a complex environment may be constantly evolving and changing
Bees use hundreds of independent, widely distributed scouts who return with heterogeneous information (differing constituents, dissimilar components, non-uniform in composition) which may be better or worse and is shared with other scouts by way of a waggle dance, no scout is stifled & the swarm leverages its collective intelligence.
So, how do they find consensus as any individual scout has only direct experience with select potential sites, yet many are examined and considered?
It is in the friendly competition between scouts and the various coalitions all vying for favoured sites, the exercise is not solved with “group-think”, rather a scout may leave the swarm cluster and go to examine potential site to judge its merit. There is no need for an individual scout to have a macro global view of all alternatives, nor a need to tally and compare votes – it is the smarts of the swarm working as individuals or collectives making speedy, accurate and unified assessments.
To recap
As we have seen across multiple domains and across several mental models, problems are not necessarily a bad thing – sometimes they are a pathway to travel to deliver quality strategic outcomes, sometimes they are a link in a chain of continuous improvement (kaizen), if they are material they must be addressed to mitigate severe consequences (Flight 173, Investment Returns and bee hive nest selection), a structure and process is very useful, to solve problems will often reveal some uncomfortable truths about the nature of the individuals, the group, power structures, communications and these must also be confronted and resolved.
Yet, as Keith Jarrett demonstrated bringing passion, intelligence, skill, pragmatism and persistence to problem solving, can yield your teams greatest moment. White Ark is here to help you.
When Richard Feynman faces a problem, he's unusually good at going back to being like a child, ignoring what everyone else thinks... He was so unstuck --- if something didn't work, he'd look at it another way." --- Marvin Minsky, MIT
LOOKING TO CURATE YOUR BUSINESS STRATEGY? REACH OUT.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.
We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
Article written by Mark Easdown
Measure what matters
Jo Hands explains why you need to measure what matters. So much data, so many reports means we’re not sure what we should measure; inactivity of red metrics… Metrics not measured against targets. Targets are soft. There are all issues that we hear from our clients.
So much data, so many reports means we’re not sure what we should measure; inactivity of red metrics… Metrics not measured against targets. Targets are soft. There are all issues that we hear from our clients.
It sounds simple - and it is - but measure what matters.
Be clear on strategy, priorities and key lead indicators for the business. One report with key metrics versus targets and an agreed plan where metrics are not on track.
Here’s how I work out key metrics:
Start with a driver tree of what key elements drive value
Pick top metrics - no more than 15 than it off work impact the results
Ensure there is clear accountabilities of metrics - which executive is responsible?
The report should go out each week with key call outs, and - if over a 4 week period - the metrics are off base, then a remediation plan is required to resolve and rectify issues.
At Whiteark we love helping our clients set up their reporting through:
Building our driver tree
Identifying key metrics
Identifying targets and profiles
Building robust reporting framework
Measuring what matters sounds simple but not many companies do well.
Do you?
Want to know more…? Read other articles in this series - click here.
Browse more articles about change and transformation.
Need support in your organisation? Reach out.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.
We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
Article by Jo Hands, Co-Founder Whiteark
Simplification
Jo Hands talks about the importance of simplification and where to start when trying to simplify in your own business. Companies create complexity as they grow, and action is required to change. You don't want to shave around edges, so instead create a set of criteria - and be very clear on what must change. Then build a program of work around this.
Simplification... it's the buzz word. But it’s not to be eye rolled, because when done effectively, it can have brilliant (and profitable) outcomes.
The power of simplifying your organisation can:
Drive improved employee experience
Drive improved customer experience
Drive efficiency and better commercial benefits
Improved governance
Improved simplification
…and more
Companies create complexity as they grow, and action is required to change. You don't want to shave around edges, so instead create a set of criteria - and be very clear on what must change. Then build a program of work around this.
Ask yourself, does your company have:
Too many products
Too many price points
A complex labour module
A complex IT / technology set up
Governance processes
Decision processes
It's the time to take a hard line on simplifying your business in order to drive improvement. Download our free guide below to help you analyse your business processes and get started…
James Ciuffetelli and Jo Hands have practical experience in helping companies implement change around simplification, and we have seen the benefits this provided. Get in touch for a no obligation conversation about how you can strategically simplify your business.
Browse more articles about change and transformation.
Need support in your organisation? Reach out.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.
We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
Article by Jo Hands, Co-Founder Whiteark
Perspective...
Jo Hands is talking perspective. She explains “There are things in life that result in an increase in perspective. It's normally something unpleasant. So it takes some unpleasant to happen to you or someone you love to create perspective. The perspective needs to be strong enough to drive a change in behaviour. The perspective needs to be consistent / enduring enough to make long term sustainable change.”
There are certain things in life that result in an increase in perspective. It's normally something unpleasant.
So does it take something unpleasant to happen to you or someone you love in order to create perspective? Perhaps.
The reality is, your newfound perspective needs to be strong enough to drive a change in behaviour. And this newfound behaviour must be consistent and enduring in order to make long term sustainable change.
Ask yourself:
What things in your life have given you perspective?
Has it resulted in a behaviour change, and if yes, for how long?
Our recent shared experience of Covid19 has given everyone perspective (in differing degrees) which has resulted in behavioural changes throughout society.
These ideas have been taken from our podcast episode with Bernard Salt about Building A Better Australia (EP016). 🎧 Tune in to 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐟𝐬 🎧
Let’s explore some emerging thoughts as a result of altered perspectives:
People are considering career changes
People are thinking differently about work - and what flexibility means to them
People are reconsidering overseas trips and business trips
People are considering where they live
People are considering how they spend there money
These ideas have been taken from our podcast episode with Bernard Salt about Building A Better Australia (EP016). 🎧 Tune in to 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐟𝐬 🎧
This disruption has triggered major changes in the way people think and operate, and has resulted in a number of trends:
A push for flexibility or people are changing jobs
Remote working: Living regionally, working CBD
People changing jobs with a major challenge around War On Talent
These ideas have been taken from our podcast episode with Bernard Salt about Building A Better Australia (EP016). 🎧 Tune in to 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐟𝐬 🎧
So, what does this mean for organisations and leaders?
Acquiring and retaining talent is more difficult
Policies around flexibility are critical
Building connection with team members will result in better retention
Leaders need to tweak their style as a result of hybrid working and find something that works for teams and organisation
Executives need to proactively manage their people - creating a great place to work, with flexibility and opportunity and ensure attract and retain top talent . Having a clear people plan and communications will be critical
Building a way to measure productive work is really important that moves from hours to time to be productive
Leaders need to pivot to be relevant, right now. How are you pivoting your style to be relevant?
Need some inspiration? Reach out to us for a no obligation conversation today.
Browse more articles about change and transformation.
Need support in your organisation? Reach out.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.
We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
Article by Jo Hands, Co-Founder Whiteark
How to effectively navigate change...
Jo Hands explains how to effectively navigate change. When it comes down to it, change isn't easy. Most people resist it. Most people find a way or an excuse not to change. It's human nature. But change is inevitable and for high performing companies a must. So as a leader you need to determine, how to navigate change?
Change isn't easy. Most people resist it. Most people find a way or an excuse not to change. It's human nature.
But change is inevitable and for high performing companies a must. So as a leader you need to determine how to navigate change…
Five key tips:
Make a case for change - the 'why'
Get Executive buy-in / sponsorship
Build a champion network to drive change
Set goals and measure success
Communicate, communicate, communicate
When you start change program, you will have naysayers - people who say it's not going to work, we have tried this before, it's not worth the effort. You need to push through and show them all you can make change - showing activity and outcome is critical.
The culture of an organisation will determine how hard it is to drive change - and therefore doing some change around culture is critical.
There are so many things you can do to drive culture improvement but the most important is to have the right leaders. If you don't have the right leadership team, you will likely fail - and so your job is to get the right people in your team to run and manage the teams.
Change is required - having a team that proactively manages change will give you the best outcome.
Be bold, ignore the naysayers and make change.
Browse more articles about change and transformation.
Need support in your organisation? Reach out.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.
We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
Article by Jo Hands, Co-Founder Whiteark
Forecasting
Mark Easdown writes about forecasting. The prediction process starts with propositions, then verified, quantified and made actionable. A robust peer review occurs and 95% of predictions are modified along the way. Plummer routinely scrutinises predictions with actual events and these results are highlighted at conferences – championing the successes and sharing insights across those that were wrong. “Nobody here is hired because they’re psychic; there hired to generate insights that are useful – even if they turn out wrong. It’s useful to get you thinking”.
Article written by Mark Easdown
Decision Making & Planning, Ways of Working with Uncertainty
“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.”
“Forecasts usually tell us more of the forecaster than of the future.”
“There is great value in bringing together people who attempt to address a common problem of forecasting from different perspectives and based on very different kinds of data.”
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”
“For superforecasters, beliefs are hypotheses to be tested, not treasures to be guarded.”
“I prefer true but imperfect knowledge, even if it leaves much indetermined and unpredictable, to a pretence of exact knowledge that is likely to be false.”
“The Lucretius underestimation, after the Latin poetic philosopher who wrote that the fool believes that the tallest mountain there is, should be equal to the tallest one he has observed.”
A forecast is a statement about the future. (Clements & Henry, 1998)
As authors of “Forecasting” (J.Castle, M.Clements, D.Henry) note; a forecast can take many forms;
Some are vague and some are precise, Some are concerned with near term and some the distant future
“Fore” denotes in advance whilst “Cast” might sound a bit chancy (cast a fishing net, cast a spell) or might sound more solid (bronze statues are also cast)
Chance is central to forecasting & forecasts can and often do differ from outcomes
Forecasts should be accompanied by some level of certainty/uncertainty, time horizon, upper/lower bounds
The domain in which the forecast occurs matter, especially if no-one knows the complete set of possibilities
The authors consider the history of forecasting;
Forecasting likely pre-dates recorded writing with hunter-gatherers seeking where game of predators might be, edible plants and water supplies. Babylonians tracked the night sky presumably for planting and harvesting crops
Sir William Petty perhaps introduced early statistical forecasting in 17th Century and thought he observed a seven year “business cycle”
Weather forecasting evolved with Robert Fitzroy in 1859, who sought to devise a storm warning system to enable safe passage of ships and avoid loss of vessels &/or ships staying in port unnecessarily. Forecasting of nature extended to hurricanes, tropical cyclones, tornadoes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.
Yet, history is littered with failures in forecasting, large and small;
Ambiguous forecasts from Oracles of Delphi and Nostradamus
UK storms 1987, with lives lost and approximately 15million trees blown down
Failure to predict 1929 Great Depression or severity of Global Financial Crisis, mid-2007 to early 2009
“When the Paris exhibition closes, the electric light will close with it and no more be heard of it” – Sir Erasmus Wilson & “a rocket will never be able to leave the earth’s atmosphere” – NY Times 1936
What do we want from forecasts ?
Do we want just accuracy? To what degree is that even possible across complicated and complex domains?
Do we want cognitively diverse teams to make us more aware of extreme events? Thus, minimising downside risks?
Do we just want comfort, ideological support and evidence of our existing beliefs? Do we want entertainment?
Do we want to influence a target audience, shift consensus or established beliefs?
These answers may differ if you are a CEO, CFO, Head of Sales, Head of Innovation, an Insurance Actuary, Epidemiologist, Politician, Economist, Intelligence Agency, Shock Jock or Sports Commentator.
For example, it was a mainstream view of epidemiologists across last 20 years that a pandemic was a prominent risk;
“The presence of a large reservoir of SARS-CoV-like viruses in horseshoe bats, together with the culture of eating exotic mammals in southern China, is a time bomb. The possibility of the re-emergence of SARS and other novel viruses from animals or laboratories and therefore the need for preparedness should not be ignored.”- David Epstein 2007
https://davidepstein.com/lets-get-ready-to-rumble-humanity-vs-infectious-disease/
https://cmr.asm.org/content/cmr/20/4/660.full.pdf
So, is COVID19 perhaps SARS2? Clearly, forecasting a pandemic is desirable. How do we give prominence to diverse voices & data and what are the better practices to observe and implement?
SUPER-FORECASTING
In October 2002, the US National Intelligence Estimates (a consensus view of the CIA, NSA, DIA and thirteen other agencies with > 20,000 intelligence analysts) concluded that the key claims of the Bush Administration claims about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq were correct. After invading Iraq in 2003, the US found no evidence of WMDs. “It was one of the worst – arguably the worst - intelligence failure in modern history” notes Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner in their book “Superforecasting : The Art and Science of Prediction”
In 2006, IARPA was formed to fund cutting-edge research with the aim of potentially enhancing the intelligence community work. IAPRA’s plan was to create a tournament-style incentive for top researchers (intelligence analysts, universities & a team of volunteers for the Good Judgement Project (GJP)), to generate accurate probability estimates to questions that were;
Neither so easy that an attentive reader of the NY Times could get them right , nor
So hard that no one on the planet could get them right
Approximately 500 questions spanned: economic, security, terrorism, energy, environmental, social and political realms
Forecast performance was monitored individually and in teams, and Tetlock’s GJP team proved 60% more accurate in year 1, 78% more accurate in Year 2.
What did these forecasting tournaments learn about the attributes of super-forecasters that may be of relevance in Commercial or Government organisations? Here are a few;
Superforecasters spoke in probabilities of how likely an event would occur (not in absolutes : yes/no), this better enabled them to accept a level of uncertainty – it made them more thoughtful and accurate
Superforecasters were often educated yet ordinary people with an open-mind, an ability to change their minds, humility and an ability to review assumptions & update forecasts frequently, albeit at times by small increments
Actions which were helpful included;
Breaking the question down into smaller components and identifying the known and the unknown, focus on work that is likely to have better payoff, actively seek to distinguish degrees of uncertainty, avoid binding rules. Consider the “outsiders” view, frame the problem not uniquely but as part of a wider phenomena
Examine what is unique about problem and look at your opinions and how they differ from other people’s viewpoints. Take in all the information with your “dragonfly eyes” and construct a unified vision, balancing arguments and counterarguments, balancing prudence and decisiveness – generating a description as clearly, concisely and as granular as possible
Don’t over-react to new information – a Bayesian approach was useful
The GJP found that while many forecasters were accurate within a horizon of 150 days, not even the super-forecasters were confident beyond 400 days, forecasts out to 5 years were about equal with chance.
What about forecasting teams versus forecasting individuals?
o With good group dynamics, flat and non-hierarchical structures and a culture of sharing – teams were better than individuals – aggregation was important. In fact teams of super-forecasters could beat established prediction markets.
o The note of caution around low performing teams came when people were lazy, let others do the work or where susceptible to group-think.
“Unchartered : How to map the future together.”
Daryl Plummer of Gartner, a technology advisory firm who produces forecasts for customers who wish to discern hype from reality.
The prediction process starts with propositions, then verified, quantified and made actionable. A robust peer review occurs and 95% of predictions are modified along the way. Plummer routinely scrutinises predictions with actual events and these results are highlighted at conferences – championing the successes and sharing insights across those that were wrong. “Nobody here is hired because they’re psychic; they’re hired to generate insights that are useful – even if they turn out wrong. It’s useful to get you thinking”.
The author notes “that what matters most isn’t the predictions themselves but how we respond to them, and whether we respond to them at all. The forecast that stupefies isn’t helpful, but the one that provokes fresh thinking can be. The point of predictions should not be to surrender to them but to use them to broaden and map your conceptual, imaginative horizons. Don’t fall for them – challenge them.”
“How to Decide” : Annie Duke – Simple Tools for making better choices
The author presents some useful tips that teams can use to elicit uninfected feedback and leverage the true wisdom of the crowd in decision making. This is especially useful where key forecast & value chain insights and institutional knowledge is held across multiple SMEs and stakeholders;
The Problem;
“When you tell someone what you think before hearing what they think, you can cause their opinion to bend towards yours, often times without them knowing it”, “The only way somebody can know that they’re disagreeing with you is if they know what you think first. Keeping that to yourself when you elicit feedback makes it more likely that what they say is actually what they believe”, “To get high quality feedback it’s important to put the other person as closely as possible into the same state of knowledge that you were in at the time you made the decision”, “Belief contagion is particularly problematic in groups”
Tips to elicit those insightful cross-functional perspectives;
Elicit initial opinions individually and independent before the group meets. Specify the type of feedback or insights required and request an email or written thoughts be provided before meeting. Collate these initial opinions and share with group prior to meeting. Now focus on areas of “diversion”, “dispersion”, avoid using any language around “disagreement”
Anonymise feedback to group – this removes any influence from the insights or opinions of higher status individuals
Anonymising feedback also gives equal weight to insights and opinion and allows outside-the box perspectives to be heard
Anonymised feedback will also allow mis-understandings to be discussed and the team to grow in knowledge together
If the team needs to make a decision within a meeting; try
Writing down insights and passing to one person to write on a whiteboard – maintaining anonymity
Writing down your insights and pass to another person to read aloud to the group
If you must read your own thoughts to group – start with most junior member and work towards most senior
“Radical Uncertainty: Decision Making for an unknowable future”
Authors: John Kay & Meryn King
“The belief that mathematical reasoning is more rigorous and precise than verbal reasoning, which is thought to be susceptible to vagueness and ambiguity, is pervasive in economics”& Jean-Claude Trichet of the 2007-2008 GFC; “As a policy-maker during the crisis, I found the available models of limited help. In fact, I would go further: in the face of the crisis, we felt abandoned by conventional tools”
The authors draw a number of helpful lessons in the use of economic and financial models in business and in government;
Use simple models and identify key factors that influence an assessment. Adding more and more elements to a model is to follow the mistaken belief that a model can describe the complexity of the real world. The better purpose for a model is to find “small world” problems which illuminate part of the large world radical uncertainty
Having identified model parameters that are likely to make a significant difference to your assessment, go and do some research in the real world to obtain evidence on the value of these parameters to customers or stakeholders. Simple models provide flexibility to explore the effects of modifications or scenarios.
A model is useful only if the person using it recognises it does not represent the world as it is really is, rather it is a tool for exploring ways in which decisions might or might not go wrong.
Uncertainty : Howard Marks : https://www.oaktreecapital.com/insights/howard-marks-memos/
In his May 2020 newsletter to Oaktree Clients, Howard Marks notes the field of economics is muddled and imprecise, there are no rules one can count on to consistently show causation, patterns tend to repeat, and while they may be historical, logical and often observed, they remain only tendencies. Excessive trust in forecasts is dangerous.
When considering current forecasts, he notes the world is more uncertain today than at any other time in our lifetimes, the ability to deal intelligently with uncertainty is one of the most important skills, the bigger the topic (world, economy. Markets, currencies, interest rates) the less possible it is to achieve superior knowledge and we should seek to understand the limitations of our foresights.
A forecast is a statement about the future, a future we cannot know everything about , yet it remains a useful tool for decision making, scenario modelling, stress testing and planning. The map is not the territory, so with forecasting we should learn from better practices around collating diverse views and data, building cognitively diverse teams, constantly challenging assumptions, leverage the wisdom & insights of your subject matter experts, maintain intellectual humility & resiliency facing uncertainty, use models wisely and adopt a bayesian approach.
“No amount of sophistication is going to allay the fact that all your knowledge is about the past and all your decisions are about the future.”
LOOKING TO CURATE YOUR BUSINESS STRATEGY? REACH OUT.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.
We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
Article written by Mark Easdown
Why I joined the Business Chicks, Business Club
Jo Hands writes about why she joined the Business Chicks, Business Club. She explains - “I’ve always loved the Business Chicks events – they are always inspiring, give you perspective and a great way to connect. The Business Chicks brand is strong and it has a strong ability to bring out the best in people.“
Image Credit: businesschicks.com
I’ve always loved the Business Chicks events – they are always inspiring, give you perspective and a great way to connect. The Business Chicks brand is strong and it has a strong ability to bring out the best in people.
Whiteark was launched in July 2020 in the middle of Covid19 and I am lucky to have an amazing Co-founder who is so supportive of me and everything we are co-creating through Whiteark. We have a great team here and 2020 was our foundational kick-off.
In January 2021 I was reflecting on finding some like-minded people that would give me connection, perspective, different experiences and an opportunity to grow. I research and joined Business Chicks Business Club.
The induction session was expectational – inspiring to see so many ladies doing great things for them and looking like me for an opportunity to connect, learn and grow. The fire side chats and virtual events have been great and I’m so excited about attending the offsite in early May 2021. An opportunity to reflect, connect, challenge and really help support each other as we grow our businesses.
In your life, you need to find your kind of people.
People how lift others higher. Who bring out the best in you. Who teach you, who support you and that always know they have your back. What I have learnt about myself from joining Business Chicks Business Club:
People genuinely looking for support / connection
Women are amazing at running their own businesses and juggling so many other commitments
It’s an environment where people want you to be successful and they are interested in you and how to support and help you
In Corporate life, it’s disappointment that it’s normally the more senior women that have made it that don’t provide the support for the women coming up the ranks, why is this? Maybe’s it’s why women go and start up their own thing and do something bigger / better for themselves. I’m passionate about supporting women – helping them find their voice, work through the things that are holding them back and giving them the opportunities to prove to themselves how amazing they are.
If you are looking for your kind of women, people to raise you up, support, connect and provide a sense of tribe – and we are in this together – look no further than Business Chicks Business Club. I’ve only just started but I feel like it’s just what I need right now and probably forever.
Need support in your organisation? Reach out.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.
We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
Article by Jo Hands, Co-Founder Whiteark
How to deliver a successful transformation program
Jo Hands writes about how to deliver a successful transformation program. Nearly every project today is called a transformation. Most companies are changing, evolving and putting in programs to change the way things are done and these call these programs – ‘transformation project’s. It doesn’t matter what the programs are called, what matters is the that it achieves the outcome you are expecting.
Nearly every project today is called a transformation. Most companies are changing, evolving and putting in programs to change the way things are done and these call these programs – ‘transformation project’s. It doesn’t matter what the programs are called, what matters is the that it achieves the outcome you are expecting.
The statistics are terrible, however on average 20% of transformation programs achieve the required outcomes, this is a terrible statistic. Many companies put money, focus and effort into delivering the outcome however they are unable to deliver the required outcome.
Why?
There are four main reasons that transformation programs are not successful:
Success for the project has not been defined and is not well understood. Being very clear on what the project is trying to achieve, what is success and how the results are going to be measured is critical.
No Executive sponsorship – the Executive team do not sponsor the project and help show how important it is.
No accountability for the outcomes. The roles & responsibilities are not clear and the people running the program are not being held accountable and this flows down.
The organisation doesn’t want the change/they haven’t bought in and they make it so hard that the organisation gives up. It’s all too hard.
Once one or all of the 4 above happen the transformation program will likely not be successful, will not deliver the required outcome and next time people try they will say we tried this and it doesn’t work in our company.
No one sets out for it not be successful so how to do maximise the chance of success for your transformation program. There are four main things that will help maximise success:
Be very clear on what success is – define success, work out how to measure success & ensure you communicate this change to people impacted and key stakeholders
Ensure you have an Executive Sponsor that will support and drive the project and help clear blockages that are in the way
Build a change champion network in the organisation – key people that can champion change and support the program
Demonstrate progress and the ‘what is in it for me’ mentality to show people why change can be great
The success of transformation will be driven from the ability of the lead:
To set up the program for success
To get buy in
To not listen to naysayers
To focus on delivering outcomes and communicating
To build out the what is in it for me
The lead for the transformation needs to be very strong leaders, someone who is not worried or concerned about driving change and showing resilience.
From experience, I have seen many transformations go really well. I am someone who doesn’t like to give up and I like to be on the winning team – everyone makes mistakes and from these comes learnings and experience that helps you when you do your next program/project/transformation.
At Whiteark we love helping our clients with transformation; focused on ensuring that we can use our experience to help ensure their transformations are successful. If you are interested in having a conversation about how we can help you, reach out.
Need support in your transformation project? Reach out.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.
We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
Article by Jo Hands, Co-Founder Whiteark
Leadership – your legacy
Jo Hands writes about leadership - and creating your legacy. It doesn’t mean you are old – legacy. What leadership legacy do you want to leave? What kind of leader you do want to be? What do you want to be remembered for? When I think about Legacy I think about leaders that I have had in my career. Which ones have inspired me and which one disappointed me.
It doesn’t mean you are old – legacy. What leadership legacy do you want to leave? What kind of leader you do want to be? What do you want to be remembered for?
When I think about Legacy I think about leaders that I have had in my career. Which ones have inspired me and which one disappointed me. I use this to work out what kind of leader I want to be. How about you?
Words that I want around my leadership:
Strong
Decisive
Quick to respond
Caring
Challenging
Outside comfort zone
I want to be a strong decisive leader that is focusing on the greater good of the organisation and team. Sometimes this requires you to make hard decisions but you do it for the greater good. I want to encourage, challenge my people and get them outside their comfort zone to do bigger things and know that I have there back. My role is to bring out the best in people, team and organisation and this is about finding the people to invest in and the people to manage out/exit.
Great leadership will not make you popular but it will make you respected. No one wants to be unpopular but as a leaders if you are too focused on making people like you and not upsetting people you will likely be an average leader at best. You have to make the hard decisions – you need to take people on the journey. Change management is not a person/role it’s the way leaders take the team on the journey.
Leadership is a journey – you need to fail to learn and be the best leader you can be. It’s a decision every day, it’s being honest when you get it wrong and it’s having another go the next day – it’s being resilient.
There have been a number of leaders that I have admired in my career – David McGregor from EY, David Thodey from Telstra. These leaders taught me about finding your way, being your authentic self, there is no perfect way but find your way. It is such good advice.
I have learnt just as much from the leaders I haven’t respected and it’s made me realise on the leader I don’t want to be – selfish, focused on individual gain and not taking a strong stance on unacceptable performance.
I love to learn from leaders; what works for them, what doesn’t and what they have learnt on their journey. The highlight of my week to do the Chiefs podcast focused on getting lessons and learnings from a range of different leaders. Tune in …we should add in link.
At Whiteark we are lucky to work with so many amazing leaders, to get leaders to connect and to provide thought leadership and other insights to leaders on key topics that are important to them.
If you want to know more about us, reach out for a no obligation chat.
Want to talk about building your leadership team? Reach out.
Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes.
We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our founder has a combined experience of over 20 years’ working as Executive in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au
Article by Jo Hands, Founder Whiteark
How to make change stick
Colin D Ellis explains how to make change stick. Organisations talk a lot about change and transformation, but in general most aren’t very good at doing it. A recent SAP survey found that of the 84 per cent of organisations that started transformation initiatives in the past year, only 3 per cent had actually successfully completed one.
Organisations talk a lot about change and transformation, but in general most aren’t very good at doing it. A recent SAP survey found that of the 84 per cent of organisations that started transformation initiatives in the past year, only 3 per cent had actually successfully completed one.
Thoughts from Colin D Ellis
One reason for this is that while senior managers get very excited about smarter, faster ways of doing things when they’re pulling their business plans together, they forget that to achieve them they have to stop doing some things and redefine the way they get others done.
Cultural evolution is frequently cited as the biggest enabler of successful change, yet very few organisations ever take it on, opting instead for quick-fix training solutions, restructures, operating model changes or (as is currently en vogue) promises of hybrid working.
It’s not that any of these things are wrong, it’s just that in order to deliver transformation and make change stick you need to establish a new foundation upon which to build them. Those foundations contain the following:
A sound business case for change. This will answer the ‘why this and why now?’ questions from staff and stakeholders alike as it’s not good enough to simply say ‘we need to transform’, there has to be a sound and logical rationale for doing so
A redefined culture. This is the activity that almost all teams or organisations forget to do and yet it’s the most important. Without redefining the vision, behaviours and collaboration principles expected of each other you have nothing to transform to
Public accountability. There needs to be a senior executive within the business who is prepared to throw their reputation, energy, money and effort behind the activity to ensure it delivers what was promised in the case for change. This person will also encourage all the other executives do their bit to ensure that the change happens.
Clear, unambiguous communication. This should focus not only on the activities required to complete the initiative, but also on the personal change required to achieve success. I don’t mean an email or poster, in Comic Sans font, pinned up on a noticeboard, but regular effort from those accountable for the transformation.
With an appropriate level of justification, definition, accountability and communication, culture change or transformation isn’t as hard as some would have you believe. If you’re not prepared to do these things, then your staff would like you to stop talking about transformation as if you mean it. However, if you are, then you can guarantee then they’ll be up for it too and that will make everything stick.
Colin D Ellis is an award-winning speaker, facilitator and best-selling author of Culture Fix: How to Create a Great Place to Work. You can find out more about him and the work that he does at www.colindellis.com
Measuring success is an essential part of any business or organisation. Without proper measurement, it can be challenging to determine whether your efforts are having the desired impact and whether you are moving towards achieving your goals.