What do I want to do when I grow up??

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. 

Curious? Want to know more about my experience? Click here.

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?

Article written by Mark Easdown

Individuals, Teams & Enterprise, Mental Models, Ways of Working

““A problem well put is half solved.””

— John Dewey

““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 …””

— Karl. R. Popper

““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.””

— Thomas D. Seeley

““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.” ”

— Manfred Eicher on Jazz Pianist Keith Jarrett Koln Concert 1975

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””

— Tim Harford

 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””

— Taiichi Ohno (Having no problems is the biggest problem of all)

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

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

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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

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.

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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

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.

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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...

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.

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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

Transforming your Sales and Service Model

Are you ready to take on a bold sales and service model transformation? Now is the time to reinvent your model and integrate the value your business provides into the “new” societal landscape post the global disruption of Covid-19. In today’s environment, your successful sales and service transformation will be enabled by strong leadership, facts driven from data and analytical insights, and new approaches to technology.

It is important that you remain flexible and resilient while looking to the future - redefine your operations so that you can emerge stronger than your competitors. You must pivot your sales and service models in response to the new societal landscape - purchasing power is shifting fast, the demand for digital channels is rising. To retain customers, protect revenues and realign go-to-market investments you must pivot your sales and service model to meet the constantly changing expectations of your customers.

Hold tight and embrace the uncertainty – be courageous and apply a different approach to how you would usually gain market share all while monitoring the shift in consumer demands to ensure you are ahead of the competition.

Below are the key considerations for redesigning your sales and service model:

• Rediscover your customer - understand your customers so that you can meet their evolving wants and needs so that you can remain relevant

• Redefine the sales and service journey – segment your customers and focus your efforts on the strongest and most profitable opportunities

• Enhance your product/service offering to meet customer expectations - reinvent through new narratives, approaches and terms, and diversify dynamic offers

• Enable your team with the tools and skills to succeed in today’s digital age – ensure you provide your team with the key enablers that they need to support them in being successful  including training and coaching, sales tools, technology

• Reward your sales and service resources for the right behaviour/outcomes – align on priorities, determine the metrics to monitor, measure performance and reward success to keep your workforce motivated

If you need help with transforming your sales and service model to meet the needs of customers in today’s environment, please reach out to Whiteark for a no obligation consultation and we can help you navigate your future to success.

How to effectively 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:

1. Make a case for change - the 'why'

2. Get Executive buy-in / sponsorship 

3. Build a champion network to drive change 

4. Set goals and measure success 

5. 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.

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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

Why I joined the Business Chicks, Business Club

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:

1. People genuinely looking for support / connection

2. Women are amazing at running their own businesses and juggling so many other commitments

3. 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.

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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

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:

1. 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. 

2. No Executive sponsorship – the Executive team do not sponsor the project and help show how important it is.

3. 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.

4. 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:

1. 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

2. Ensure you have an Executive Sponsor that will support and drive the project and help clear blockages that are in the way

3. Build a change champion network in the organisation – key people that can champion change and support the program

4. 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.

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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

Linking transformation to strategy

In today’s business environment, transformation can take many forms but no matter the type it revolves around the need to generate new value - unlock new opportunities, drive new growth, deliver new efficiencies.

It is critical that the transformation project aligns to the company’s strategy – strategy is fundamental in guiding/aligning decisions and actions to ensure they support the achievement of the company’s strategic goals. A sound strategy helps shape an executable transformation objective.

The value that your transformation project will create/deliver must be aligned to your company strategy and it will help with articulating desired transformation outcomes, from a financial perspective or from an operational perspective.

Once you have aligned your transformation ambition you can build out your transformation program. 

THE STEPS

1. Clearly defined company strategy

2. Determine your company strategic priorities

3. Define your transformation ambition – ensure it aligns to your company strategy/strategic priorities

4. Get leaders involved

5. Build your transformation plan

6. Be clear on what success is

7. Gather resources and expertise

8. Choose the right enablers

9. Focus on culture and change management

10. Measure success

For more support on transformation please explore our range of thought leadership articles…

Leadership – 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.  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.

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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

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

Key considerations for building connection across the organisation post Covid-19

Companies are finding themselves in unfamiliar territory as their employees return to the office post Covid 19 and are learning how to work together again.  Building connectedness is an important part of working together successfully and links closely to employee engagement and ultimately meeting business goals.

For this to happen, leaders need to lead! Behaviour needs to start at the top and it will flow, employees want and need to have purpose and great leadership will support this happening.  Spend the time with your team, have regular check ins, discuss and review/set their KPIs and goals, chat about how they are going, and generally be there for them.

Connection, growth and belonging are all key to a company’s success. Humans naturally enjoy each other’s company and being able to work collaboratively, so it’s often the corridor or kitchen conversation where you really get to understand what is going on.  It is about finding the right balance between flexible work from home and time together in the office.

Some initiatives and areas that impact connection building in the workplace are;

Connectedness Initiatives

Having fun at work has been missed by many, it might be the Friday night drinks, bring your pet to work day or the monthly birthday celebrations, people have missed the opportunity to connect.  Make sure this is a priority, put together a calendar of fun events, ask your team members what activities would make them feel more connected to each other and actively create an informal environment to reconnect.

Team lunches with employees from different departments are a way to get employees interacting with people from across the business and further promotes connection. Employees will benefit from having team activities like a volunteer day where the team can go and help at a charity. When implemented properly, these activities can be excellent for cultivating a sense of unity and belonging.

Promote the benefits of the office like being able to collaborate in person, informally bounce ideas off each other, the coffee machine and of course Friday night drinks! Set up wellbeing information sessions, often your employee assistance program provider can run these.  Organise fitness in the park or at a nearby gym for your employees. For some, the office offers a sense of calm and control over their day and fewer distractions than at home, these people will be key to connecting those that are feeling more anxious about being back in the office.   Schedule your team meetings on a day that everyone is in to promote face to face time.

To help employees focus and reengage with your strategy, run cross functional sessions on your strategy and 5-year plan, discuss what’s working well and get feedback on what you can be doing better. Sessions on behaviours and values could also be considered.  Consider joint departments leading regular town halls to; share what is going on, interview new starters, share good news like record sales or new business and also acknowledge specific achievements of team members.

Having the right Flexible Work Policy supports connectedness.  In developing your policy seek feedback to see what employees preferences are around flexible work. As with any successful change, seeking feedback and employee input will result in a more effective outcome. Employees are working from home in a variety of combinations from 1-5 days per week.   Finding overlap days where the majority of the team are in the office is important.  Having team meetings on these days and organising fun activities described above to connect people will help with this.   Ensure that you have the flexibility to review your policy as things change or if the current arrangement isn’t working.

Employee Engagement

Employee engagement represents the levels of enthusiasm and connection employees have with their organisation. It’s a measure of how motivated people are to put in the extra effort for their employer and is often a sign of how committed they are to staying.

Now would be a good time to run an employee engagement survey. Tailor your questions to get constructive feedback for your business and ask questions about what initiatives will help them in feeling more engaged and connected to your business and their colleagues. Then use this feedback to run cross functional focus groups, then develop an action plan and actually implement it. Too often employees take the time to fill in the survey and provide feedback and nothing is done, this can be demotivating. 

This article has described just some of the ways that you can build connectedness across your business post Covid 19. Please get in touch if Whiteark can help you with developing your business and people plans.

8 Key lessons we have learnt from launching our own podcast

We launched Whiteark - The Chiefs Podcast in October 2020.  We have loved every minute of it.

What makes leaders tick? The Chiefs gives you insight into what makes our great leaders so great. With organisation’s top chiefs in the hot seat each week, we chat about the highs – and lows – and lessons along the way; tackling the biggest issues people are facing today. We know that leading can be a lonely role and we believe that learning from other great people is one of the best resources we have. So join us on our journey, and enjoy the stories behind some of the greats…

At the end of May here are the key statistics for our podcast:

• Number of Episodes: 32

• Key Topics covered (maybe some groupings) – People and Leadership, Impacts of Covid, Post Covid Recovery, Data, Transformation, Innovation, Sales and Service.

We have interviewed a range of leaders; young, older, CEO, Executive, owning and running their own business.  Each leaders provided so many great tips and lessons around their leadership journey.  It’s very inspiring.  In 30 mins it’s amazing what you can learn about someone. 

We feel privileged to have some amazing leaders that have shared their stories with us and our leaders and we are also privileged to have so many loyal followers. 

When I reflect at the end of the week; on my highlight it’s likely that that the podcast will be my highlight – I’ve met someone new, I’ve learnt something new and it’s given me some inspiration / perspective.  I feel very honoured and privileged to be able to take their precious time to share their journey and wisdom with our Whiteark family.

There are 8 key lessons we have learnt from interviewing 35+ leaders on The Chiefs Podcast:

1.   Everyone has a story – regardless of age/role etc everyone has a story to tell.  Tell your story so your business understands how you got here and what this role means to you.  People want to know your story.

2.   People learn most from their mistakes – failure is ok -it’s how you respond that is important. Everyone makes mistakes, yep it’s true but it’s how you respond that separates people.  Learn from your mistakes and move forward.

3.   Your job is to make hard decisions.  It’s not all about consensus, you need to make the right decision for the organisation.  Listen, understand and make a decision – your people will respect you for it.

4.   Sometimes your job is lonely so finding like-minded professionals for connection is important.  For me business chicks business club has been a God send but find your mentor, your support network.

5.   Trusting your employees and giving them he environment to flourish is critical.  Trust is easy to say but actions speak louder than words. 

6.   Being able to navigate ambiguity is critical – make decisions, pivot and dealing with ambiguity and moving forward will be critical.

7.   Being a leader requires you to be at your best – look after yourself – put your oxygen mask on first and ensure you look after yourself so you can come back tomorrow for another day.

8.   Be authentic – authentic leadership – be yourself and your people will respect you and follow you.  While it’s talked about a lot really being true to you and being your own leader is critical.

While there are other lessons that we have learnt these would be have been the top 8. 

We continue every week to bring you leaders that inspire, challenge and give you a different perspective. For an investment of 30 mins of your time – please tune into The Chiefs each week on Wednesday to ensure you don’t miss a beat.

If you would love to be on our podcast – please click the button below and we will be in contact.

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Want to talk about building your business? 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

Resilience

Article written by Mark Easdown

Individual, Enterprise & Ecosystem Strategy & Planning, Ways of Working

““The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places.””

— Ernest Hemingway

““Resilience is the capacity of any entity – an individual, a community, an organisation, or a natural system – to prepare for disruptions, to recover from shocks and stresses, and to adapt and grow from a disruptive experience.””

— Judith Rodin

““Don’t seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will-then your life will flow well.””

— Epictetus

“Kintsugi”: Kin meaning golden & tsugi meaning joinery, so “to join with gold”. In Zen aesthetics a different perspective emerges with broken ceramic pieces repaired using gold leaf and with great care thus highlighting the damaged history rather than hiding it. The object is given a fresh start, proudly wearing the flaws of its accident. Origins attributed to shogun of Japan,  Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408)

According to the Oxford English & Australian Concise Oxford Dictionaries, resilience is a noun, with key attributes;

• Capacity to recovery quickly from difficulties, toughness

• Ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape, elasticity

• Recoiling, resuming original shape after bending, stretching, compression, shock, depression

Yet, the quotations above highlight a unique resilient frame of mind: “strong at the broken places” & “a fresh start, proudly wearing the flaws” & “don’t seek for everything to happen as you wish it would”. Judith Rodin believes “Resilience isn’t an inherited characteristic, it really is a skill” which would then enable you “to prepare for disruptions”.

Let’s explore some scenarios across individual resilience, ethical resilience & the resilience dividend.    

At the individual level, the global pandemic, economic downturns, recessions and increase in uncertainty and anxiety highlight the need for resilience. As Diane L Coutu “How Resilience Works”, (HBR May 2002) observes, resilient people have certain defining characteristics;

• They take a sober and down to earth look at the reality of the current situation

• They search for and construct meaning for themselves and others, they build bridges to a better and fuller future

• They continually improvise, they imagine new possibilities & put resources to new uses

Are resilient companies filled of optimistic people?  Jim Collins in researching “Good to Great” sought counsel of Admiral Jim Stockdale to learn more…

“You must never confuse faith that you prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be”

Admiral Stockdale was a pilot whos’ plane was shot down over Vietnam in 1965, he endured 7 ½ years of captivity and torture and a POW. He organised a system of discipline & communications with fellow POWs, refusing even under torture to offer his captors any intelligence. He earned the Congressional Medal of Honour. He observed the POWs who broke fastest where the ones who deluded themselves about the reality and severity of their ordeal, they were optimistic they would be out by next week, next month, Christmas ..

The Stockdale Paradox, is that in the face of hardship you must;

• Maintain clarity about your reality  ….. however at the same time … Find positivity and hope for the future

In turning around demoralised workforce or lagging business performance, executives and teams must maintain a sober analysis of current state and conjure up a sense of possibilities and brighter future states.

Constructing meaning out of circumstance, continually improving and staying future focus

Austrian psychiatrist and Auschwitz survivor in his book “Man’s search for meaning” realised that to survive the camp, he created an imagine of himself delivering a lecture after the war on the psychology of the concentration camp to help others understand what they had been through, he constructed concrete goals and endured to deliver his vision.

In “Resilience: Hard won wisdom for a better life” by Eric Greitens, the story of Emil Zatopek shows us happiness and resilience can co-exist. In 1940 at age 18, he was forced by a coach at a Czech shoe factory to run his first race. Yet in adversity and during the race he discovered a love of running and a passion to succeed which set the direction of his life. Within 4 years he held Czech and world records. In the 1952 Olympics, he won the 5km and 10km and decided to run in his first marathon. He was an unorthodox runner, he wore his pleasure and pain for all to see, he crossed a line a winner in a world record time.

In our workplaces, mistakes are made, lack of frameworks and preparation, poor judgements and unintended consequences emerge. In “The Power of Ethics : How to make good choices in a complicated world”, Susan Liautaud gives us the following two real world examples and the need for frameworks around Ethical Resilience, the need for preventative measures, swift action and measures to recovery across leadership team and an organisation.

““Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better””

— Maya Angelou

Natasha’s Law (UK) & Ethical Resilience

On July 17 2016, Natasha Ednan-Laperouse aged 15 boarded a plane at Heathrow with her father and best friend for a vacation in south of France, they stopped to buy breakfast at Pret A Manger. She meticulously examined food labels as he had allergies to nuts, sesame seeds, dairy & bananas, her father double checked the label and there were no warning signs around the store. Tragically Natasha suffers a severe anaphylactic shock, her medicines nor shots of epinephrine would assist, French paramedics rushed her to Nice hospital where she died.  

Sesame seeds had been baked into the dough of the baguette, this was not listed on the package nor visible on the bread. In September 2018, a coroner’s court found Pret A Porter have previously received 21 other instances of allergic reactions, 9 of which involved sesame seeds. Pret A Manager director or risk and compliance testified that the chain had acted in accordance to the law, highlighting differing labelling rules for food prepared in-store and off-site. So, the chain had adhered to food-labelling laws but fallen short of a higher ethical standard.

In October, CEO issued a public apology and instigated wide spread labelling of individual packaging, posted full ingredients online, promised to respond to allergy-related incidents and vowed to work with government, charities, peers to improve the law which emerged in 2019 was known as “Natasha’s law”.  

The CEO was asked by author what steps might have been taken to have built ethical resilience and recovery; his response acknowledged earlier labelling expense concerns, preparing food in-store was to deliver quality and freshness to customer, there had also been concerns about complexity in compliance and in-house labelling with many vulnerabilities and potential points of error in value chain. The CEO acknowledged they should have delivered more than the law required, they should have been proactive and once they saw missteps – they should have told the truth, taken responsibility and moved forward with a plan to recover.

Microsoft conversational AI bot called Tay ( T= Thinking, A=About, Y=You) & Ethical Resilience

In 2016, Microsoft launched a social experiment in Tay, with the intention that the more people chatted with Tay the smarter its learning and natural language would evolve. In less than 16 hours, a particular type of attack saw Tay posting thousands of racist, sexist and anti-semitic comments via Twitter.

Microsoft immediately deleted posts, took Tay offline and apologised for “unintended offensive and hurtful tweets .. which do not represent who we are or what we stand for, nor how we designed Tay”. The company acknowledged it had not anticipated this sort of attack, but should have and outline lessons learned moving forward and the complexity of managing positives and negatives of AI systems.

The author highlights the very public cycle from resilience to recovery; Tell the truth, take responsibility and have a framework and make a plan to fix the problem or flaws.

Trends emerging at the start of the 21st Century have highlighted many crisis; pandemics, cyber-security attacks, storm damage, wildfires, systematic and structural failures that impact communities, cities & ecosystems. These trends can be amplified by;

• movement of populations and urbanisation (stressing social cohesion, infrastructure and services) 

• complex adaptive & evolving systems, with both;

  • globalisation advancing and vulnerabilities for problems to spread quickly across the globe

  • climate change impacting fires, floods, storms & greenhouse gases

In response resilience is being studied across an ever-increasing landscape including: health & wellbeing, psychology, psychiatry, community & human development, change management & workplace, medicine, epidemiology, nursing, education, software and distributed systems, engineering. Infrastructure, economic development, environmental, leadership & strategy.

““In the twenty first century, building resilience is one of our most urgent social and economic issues because we live in a world that is defined by disruption. Not a month goes by that we don’t see some kind of disturbance to the normal flow of life.””

— Judith Rodin

In her book “The Resilience Dividend”, Judith Rodin describes Resilience noting the thinking of ecology, engineering, psychology, systems thinking and adaptive cycles.

“Resilience is the capacity of an entity – an individual, a community, an organisation, or a natural system – to prepare for disruptions, to recover from shocks and stresses and to adapt and grow from a disruptive experience. As you build resilience, therefore you become more able to respond to those you can’t predict or avoid. You also develop greater capacity to bounce back from a crisis, learn from it, and achieve revitalisation. Ideally, as you become more adept at managing disruption and skilled at resilience building, you will be able to create and take advantage of new opportunities in good times and bad. That is the resilience dividend”

So, what attributes might an individual, community or organisation develop to be more resilient ? 

• AWARENESS : must be aware of strengths, assets, liabilities, vulnerabilities, the infrastructure, human and natural systems and a willingness to constantly re-assess, take in new information and adjust settings

• DIVERSE: draw from a diversity not any core critical function (individual, organisation, community, capabilities, information sources, technical elements, people and ideas)

  • William Saito served as CTO of NAIIC and deeply involved in Fukushima power plant disaster with 2011 earthquake and tsunami. He maintains it was “group-think” that saw highly skilled and experienced engineers and administrators ignore warnings and place back-up generators in basement and susceptible to flooding.

• INTEGRATED: The left hands must know what the right hand is doing & have alignment of goals, across systems, sectors, divisional or government silos. It needs to presence of feedback loops.

• SELF REGULATING: these domains can withstand disruptions, anomalous situations and will not fail catastrophically. It is enhanced due to elements, planning or design

• ADAPTIVE: capacity to adjust to circumstances, taking new actions, modifying behaviours, making improvements even before s disruption to avoid or mitigate effects.

  • The Vietnamese communities living in public housing in New Orleans had social and community networks in place for their >5,000 people which meant that roughly 80% had left the city before Hurricane Katrina arrived. The community showed resilience and adaptability in emergency accommodation solutions and then in the return, re-build and re-establishing of church and community.

The author provides a large number of real-world examples of what good looks like spanning: Readiness, response and revitalisation (which is a much fuller forward experience than just recovery), the need to get ahead of the threats (what can be reinforced? What can be practiced?), coordinated leadership and well-trained resources,  acknowledging that a crisis will confound all plans and preparation and the importance of social cohesion – as friends, neighbours and colleagues are usually the first asked to respond.

The concept of resilience dividend has a dual meaning;

• It shows the difference between how a disruptive incident, shocks, stresses affects communities / ecosystems who have made reliant-related investments & those communities who did not

• Demonstrates the benefits to communities / ecosystems accrue such as jobs, social cohesion, infrastructure, equity , reduction of poverty and crime

Around the world, this co-benefit & resilience dividend is noted in the design of co-purposed infrastructure for example;

• Amphitheatre, Cedar Rapids, Iowa is both flood control and an entertainment space & community gardens.

• SMART Tunnel, Kuala Lumpur (SMART = Storm water Management and Road Tunnel) is a designed 3 section tunnel combining storm water flood drainage & motor vehicles on differing levels. In category 2 storms, which occur approximately 10 times pa, the tunnel transports both cars and flood waters in lower section. Whilst in category 3 storms, the road is closed and tunnel used for flood water flow.

Building resilience is key at the individual, enterprise and ethical levels. The resilience dividend is an important strategic concept.

In May 2018, the National Resilience Taskforce was established which sought to develop a national disaster mitigation framework to reduce the impact of disasters. A report emerged “Profiling Australia’s Vulnerability: The interconnected causes and effects of systematic disaster risk.  As the report notes on page 41, “ More focus is needed on the intersections & interdependencies in the systems that support us, from local to global levels”

““We need to remember that the future is not pre-determined in any important sense. It is not an unknown land into which we totter unsteadily one day at a time, but an extension of the present that we shape by our decisions and our actions. The future is not somewhere we are going but something we are creating. We all have a role in shaping Australia’s future.””

— Professor Ian Lowe

Source: https://www.aidr.org.au/media/6682/national-resilience-taskforce-profiling-australias-vulnerability.pdf

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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

Will Covid-19 make or break you?

We have had a year of ambiguity and we will never go back to ‘normal’ for some industries and companies this has meant growth / opportunities and for others it has been meant something quite different.

Regardless of how I have been impacted professionally; everyone has been impacted personally.  This experience could have been positive or not so much. 

However I believe we are in the fork in the road…which path are you going to take?

We are now in May 2021 and you need to be clear is Covid19 going to make or break you?

What we know:

• The world has changed

• Companies have changed

• Households have changed

• How we think about work/life has changed

• A lot has changed

• We are not going back to ‘normal’

• There is ambiguity

• Consumer/Customer expectations have changed

How we respond?

Our initial response is survival – what do we need to do to survive Covid19 – personally and professionally.  The focus was on being able to survive and working out how to work with teams remotely. 

The response then shifted to thrive – how do to create opportunity. Restaurants moved to delivery, takeaway and industries and businesses pivoted.  Looking for opportunities to capitalise/optimise the business.

We are now living with ambiguity but businesses need to start revisiting its strategy, priorities and operations to ensure it is maximising its results.  We don’t have all the answers, we don’t know what normal is but continuing to move forward, make decisions and pivoting on changes is critical.

Key things to ensure you consider:

1. Customer/consumer expectations & how this has changed. Use data to validate.

2. Do you need to rethink your supply chain, suppliers and how you source your key services/goods?

3. How can you make your operations more cost effective?

4. Do you need to rethink your talent strategy – what do you need to own, what can be outsource/partnering  

5. Measuring what matters and report regularly so changes can be made?

6. How do we maximise the cash flow of the business? Focus on short term and long-term initiatives to drive improvement in cashflow

7. Revisiting investments to ensure it supports new priorities reviewing investments to ensure it supports new priorities and ensure aligned return on investment.

As a leader in an organisation it’s imperative that you take decisive action to ensure you set up your business for success.  Running scenario analysis and understanding the ‘what if’ are important to understand how you will pivot if something changes.

It’s a chance to relook at priorities, operating model and how you measure success for your business.  It’s the chance to show strong leadership with your organisation and team and ensure it maximise it chance for success.

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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

Quick tips for engaging your workforce

Engaging your workforce isn’t easy.  Every generation is engaged differently.  So, one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to increasing engaging with your workforce doesn’t work.  You need to think outside the box and ensure your approach is tailored.

Statistics show (and it make sense), if you have an engaged workforce they are more productive, more gets done and the financial results of the organisation are improved.  So all in all it’s a great result.  Every company should want this outcome but how do they get it and what do companies do wrong? 

Most companies do their annual employee engagement survey and measure what they need to improve.  They then come up with a number of initiatives to drive improvement – they focus on them for about 2-3 months and then they fall off. 

These activities are normally determined by management on what they think will fix the engagement.  Without engagement from the right level of people these activities don’t do the trick.

What I have seen work really well is to have a People Committee – this committee is made up of representatives from each team and they are responsible for regular / informal pulse checks and work on key initiatives that can put in place to increase engagement. This works really well and I have done this in 4 separate companies. 

The team determine what they want to do and all you need to do as leader is give them the support to put the initiatives in place.  They will come up with initiatives you will never have thought of, they will drive them and execute them and feel part of the improvement that is being put in place/made. 

This will drive engagement.

Have fire side chats with the team to talk through what drives them, what needs to change and where they need support.  When you start a new role or on an annual basis make sure you speak to every single person in your team and really understand how people feel and how you can make a difference.

Engagement is more important than ever.  What are you tips to engage with your employees?  Please feel free to share in the comments or join the conversation on LinkedIn.

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 Looking to develop your 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 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

Prospective Hindsight and the Pre-Mortem

Article written by Mark Easdown

Business Strategy, Leadership, Collaboration, Ways Of Thinking & Working

““We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.” - Greek lyrical poet, Archilochus.
Or restated: ‘you do not rise to the challenge, you fall to the level of preparedness’”

““If you want a man to keep his head when a crisis comes you must give him training before it comes” ”

— Seneca

““Hope for the best, plan for the worst” ”

— Lee Childs (Character Jack Reacher)

In a nutshell, What is Prospective hindsight?

It is the generation of an explanation, reason, narrative for a future event (as if it had already happened). As if one had taken a time machine forward and looked backwards.

A simple and effective example this shift in thinking is provided in the below 1989 study: ……. “ consider predicting the winner of the first basketball game of a championship series. Before the game predicting the winner is based on general factors: match-ups between key players, team strengths and weaknesses, etc. Even past games are used to identify factors relevant to the imminent contest. After the game it's a different story. The defeat of one team is explained both by these general factors and by specific events like Player A's early foul trouble Player B's 'off night', too much inactivity since the team won its previous series, etc. Such events are too numerous to anticipate beforehand and to relevant to ignore afterward.”

Your executive and team makes sense of its environment by observing what happens and reasoning why these things have happened. Your CFO or COO may have a deeper understanding of business drivers and processes and possess greater explanatory skills whilst your new recruit may generate a new fresh insight with less knowledge of the context.

We usually explain the past (why did this occur) and predict the future (what if scenarios). We analyse the past often to draw meaning and insights to apply to forward thinking. Strategically, it would be very beneficial if we could improve how we anticipate future events and help us make more successful decisions and next steps. 

Back to the Future : A Prospective Hindsight study, 1989

In 1989, Deborah Mitchell, Edward Russo and Nancy Pennington undertook a study: “Back to the Future: Temporal Perspective in the Explanation of Events”;  on how people think and what role does certainty play in people generating reasons, explanations, narratives about an event? If people generate more explanations about past events, is this because the event had happened in the past? Or because of the certainty with which people think about things in the past?  The experiment findings were;

• Certainty matters more than past of future in itself

• People who thought about a future event with certainty generated more reasons and explanations than those who considered a past event with uncertainty

• Adding certainty added 30% more reasons and twice as many action-based reasons than abstract reasons

“Winning Decisions, Getting it right the first time”, Russo & Shoemaker, 2002

An experiment found prospective hindsight generated 25% more reasons for the following questions;

“How likely is it a woman will be elected the leader of your country in the first election after the next one” Think about all the reasons why this might happen. For specificity, provide a numerical probability.

&

“Imagine that the first election after the next one has occurred and a woman has been elected the leader of your country. Think about the reasons why this might have occurred. Then provide a numerical probability of this actually occurring”

Given the importance and value of improving the decision-making process, researchers, social scientists and psychologists set about leveraging the findings of prospective hindsight studies and try to identify a framework upfront to identify your decisions that might lead to poor outcomes and create a safe environment for dissent in views. In 1992, Gary Klein, a cognitive psychologist developed a pre-mortem risk assessment approach.

The Pre-Mortem

The pre-mortem framework and strategy;

• Considers the reasons around why something might fail, enhances collective intelligence of the group

• Encourages prospective thinking (rather than retrospective thinking) , leverages findings of studies in field

• Consider upfront future events before a decision is made (things within your control and outside your control)

• Considers factors that have resulted in the failure of a project or initiative, all voices are equal

• Creates a safe environment for participants to utilise expertise, experience and intuition to aid decision making  

If you choose a multi-disciplinary and cross functional team of participants what will fall out of this process are valuable insights into weaknesses in current state business environment and processes, the new initiative and any integration concerns. This exploration of the initiative, the pre-mortem findings, the countermeasures proposed will also likely reveal the positivity and attitude of participants to the project. The process liberates participants to speak up whereas in other situations they would feel they were not seen as team-players.

The basic steps

Gary Klein suggests some basic steps;

• Bring together a diverse and informed team familiar with decision or initiative

• Imagine a worst-case scenario (embarrassing & devastating), Imagine a crystal ball good enough to see failure but not the reasons

• Ask team members to spend some time independently and silently generating reasons for the failure

• Collate and consolidate a comprehensive list of concerns and issues

• With a prospective viewpoint, the team is now able to reconsider plan/initiative and countermeasures

• Keep revisiting the list, which keeps the possibility of failure alive and reduces overconfidence or group-think   

It is not the steps followed, the importance of pre-mortems is in the ability to switch thinking and the prospective hindsight viewpoint. 

Daniel Kahneman (2002, Nobel prize winner and expert in judgement and decision making) describes a simpler version;

…. When the organisation has almost come to an important decision but has not formally committed itself, Klein proposes gathering a brief group of individuals who are knowledgeable about the decision. The premise of the session is a short speech: “Imagine that we are a year into the future. We implemented the plan as it now exists. The outcome was a disaster. Please take 5 to 10 minutes to write a brief history of that disaster”

In which domains might pre-mortems be valuable?

Program and Project Management

• Ongoing risk analysis, risk mitigation measures, addressing weaknesses and integration issues

• Improving structural integrity of initiative and identify opportunities, quicker responses through project lifecycle

• Pre-emptively, in any domain that a “Post Implementation review” or “Post Mortem” is undertaken

Product Development and launch

• Workshop 6-month ahead scenarios ; “Product failed to launch”, “Product failed to deliver”

• Flawed beliefs may emerge, may be an alternate way to deal with ambiguity, highlight potential failure points, enhances greater collective awareness

• With findings run mini experiments on pilot, devise risk mitigation and test app, take small bets, perhaps UX professionals can de-risk initiative

Investment Opportunities

• Mitigate group-think, ensure a sufficient range of alternative model input assumptions, approaches and viewpoints considered, enhance investment business case, mitigate downside risks, poor practices and avoid making material mistakes, record findings and revisit frequently

Strategy, Resilience and Risk Management

• Workshop “Kill the company” or “Kill the budget” or “Kill the forecast”, “Risk Management: BCP, DR, Contingency Planning” identify ways in which these could fail, identify the challenges, points of failure, assumptions and develop mitigation plans

• Complement a HAZOP; Hazard and Operability Study to see how system and plant deviate from design intent and may create risks to manage 

• Workshop new strategic partnership proposal covering pricing, inventory, distribution, commercial size and acumen of partner, mutual ways of working

• Strategic planning tool for innovation and risks for domains such as : environmental, social, ethical, economic or empowerment

So, is this pre-mortem just another to-do list or a glass half empty view of the world?

Certainly, throughout history success has derived through good mental models, pre-empting and avoiding mistakes, inverted and switch thinking and leveraging prospective hindsight;

““... prevention is worth a pound of cure” ”

— Benjamin Franklin

““The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way””

— Marcus Aurelius

““When I begin my work in the morning, I expect to have a successful and pleasant day of it, but at the same time I prepare myself to hear that one of our school buildings is on fire, or has burned, or that some disagreeable accident had occurred, or that someone has abused me in a public address or a printed article, for something that I have done or omitted to do, or something that he had heard that I had said—probably something I had never thought of saying.””

— Booker T Washington

““Invert, always invert: Turn a situation or problem upside down. Look at it backward. What happens if all our plans go wrong? Where don’t we want to go, and how do you get there? Instead of looking for success, make a list of how to fail instead–through sloth, envy, resentment, self-pity, entitlement, all the mental habits of self-defeat. Avoid these qualities and you will succeed. Tell me where I’m going to die so I don’t go there.” ”

— Charlie Munger (Berkshire Hathaway)

Pre-Mortems might be a useful tool business hack that could take as little as 30-90 minutes or multiple sessions, perhaps it might be your unfair advantage, your “low-cost and high-payoff kind of thing” (see below).

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/strategic-decisions-when-can-you-trust-your-gut

Gary Klein: “The premortem technique is a sneaky way to get people to do contrarian, devil’s advocate thinking without encountering resistance. “

Daniel Kahneman: “The premortem is a great idea…  in general, doing a premortem on a plan that is about to be adopted won’t cause it to be abandoned. But it will probably be tweaked in ways that everybody will recognize as beneficial. So, the premortem is a low-cost, high-payoff kind of thing.

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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

Practical Wisdom: Making sense of the eco-system

Article written by Mark Easdown

Business Strategy, Leadership, Collaboration, Ways Of Thinking & Working

““It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.””

— Richard Feynman

““Without this texture of experience, the data shoved before these executives’ eyes loses any truth. Context and colour are absent; all that remains are abstract representations of the world rather than the world itself.””

— Christian Madsbjerg, Sensemaking

““Practical wisdom,” Aristotle told us, “is the combination of moral will and moral skill.””

— Barry Schwartz

What is it when you encountered an executive team, your boss, a colleague, a team member, a peer displaying these following characteristics;

• Understanding the context, the enterprise strategy and how to serve the common good

• A balancing of conflicting directives, interpretation of rules in light of the situation

• Perception, sharing others views, see the shades of grey, can apply practical solutions to particular problems

• Does the right thing because it was the right thing to do, with the interest of the common good in front of mind

• Applies wisdom, knowledge and experience, learnings from previous mistakes to a specific context

 It is Practical Wisdom in action…

Aristotle (384-322 BC) in the Nicomachean Ethics distinguishes between three types of knowledge:

• Episteme (universal, theoretical understanding),

• Techne (skill, craft, technique understanding)

• Phronesis (practical wisdom, prudence, ethical knowledge, rational, linked to the senses, to perceive, to deliberate and action orientated).

  • His basic ingredients of Practical Wisdom were: Knowing one’s role or objective, perception of particular situations, an informed intelligence, learning from experience, deliberation on the best course of action, it is not enough just to be wise, you must actually do it. 

  • Practical Wisdom has evolved through time with the writings of Thomas Aquinas and many modern-day scholars, thought leaders and business schools.

So, Why (Where) is Practical Wisdom still relevant and of interest today?

Practical Wisdom within law-making

In 2019, the final report of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry was handed down by Commissioner Kenneth Hayne. The report underscores many fundamental themes;

• Importance of boards getting the right information and challenging management (yet adds the caution:  “Often, improving the quality of information given to boards will require giving directors less material”)

• A call to arms to fix corporate culture (assess culture and governance, identify problems, deal effectively with problems, set the tone from the top, ensure ongoing and robust reviews)

• Remuneration and Incentives tell staff what the company values

• Best interests of a company is not a binary choice between the customer and shareholders

Commissioner Hayne offered the following practical wisdom/principles to guide a review of ethics and conduct for boards and business leaders;

• Obey the law

• Do not mislead or deceive

• Be fair

• Provide services that are fit for purpose

• Deliver services with reasonable care and skill

• When acting for another, act in the best interests of that other

Practical Wisdom and the role of leaders

Wisdom, knowledge and experience are required for leadership and managerial decision making in; goal setting and an integrated view (including an ethical, moral and societal view), pricing policies (fair & equitable outcomes, supporting strategy (grounded in data plus context), budgeting (dealing with uncertainty, unpredictability, models and assumptions), leading through crisis (need for eco-system thinking) staff wellbeing ( the individual needs and the common good), strategic partnership balanced scorecards (ability to see through conflicting scores at what is really important in relationship).

Leadership should not wait for a crisis, for revenues and budgets to go off-track to engage the wider views. Pandemic of 2020, has been a great example of leadership teams who have been forced to stop, listen and reach out across their ecosystem (customers, employees, suppliers, relationships with banks and government) and to re-invent and re-imagine themselves.

Often when things start going wrong, there is an inclination is to either make more rules to prevent certain outcomes occurring or to put in smarter incentives to encourage the right outcomes. Practical Wisdom can be a guide when many conflicting rules appear at odds with the underlying principle & enterprise strategy  (see Starbucks example).

https://www.reutersevents.com/sustainability/comment-what-aristotle-and-confucius-can-teach-todays-csr-professionals

““The problem with a rule-book based approach is that it actively undermines practical wisdom. When people become used to complying with policies, they stop thinking for themselves. This is probably in part behind the terrible incident at a Starbucks in Philadelphia when a manager called the police to remove two black men. Racism was clearly a factor, but the incident began when the manager refused to allow one of the men to use the restroom, in accordance with company policy that they were for customers only. Had the manager followed the principle of hospitality, which should be at the heart of the coffee chain’s ethos, rather than one of its policies, the situation would probably not have escalated””

Practical Wisdom and desirable characteristics of individuals and teams 

How might your organisation better consider virtues and practical wisdom in the recruitment of individuals, the building and binding of teams, project sprints or cross functional collaborations?

Practical wisdom would be demonstrated in the masterful blending of knowledge and experience, an understanding of both the specific context of a situation and a wider more integrated perspective, wisdom and action. The ability of individuals and teams to  work for the common good and do the right thing at the correct time because it is the right thing to do, suggests a balance: a challenge of group-think and dominant assumptions, awareness of limitations and willingness to seek inspiration externally, ensure cognitive diversity and balance creativity/breaking through thinking with obedience to rules and resistance to change.

Yet, nurturing practical wisdom may even appear add odds with our enterprises and societies which are becoming more complex and interconnected, more specialised, more bureaucratic with rules, regulations and letter of the law compliance focus. It is balance to be found for each sector and enterprise (see Timpson example).

https://www.reutersevents.com/sustainability/comment-what-aristotle-and-confucius-can-teach-todays-csr-professionals

“UK key-cutting and shoe-repair chain Timpson; “Under founder John Timpson’s principle of “upside down management”, all staff are authorized to do whatever they judge is necessary to give the customer the best experience. This empowers everyone in the organization to think about how to do the right thing on a daily basis and never hide behind the policy book. The company does have some specific policies, too, but these reinforce rather than replace the emphasis on principle.””

Practical Wisdom and thinking about data and analysis

In 1973, Clifford Geertz, an anthropologist characterised his field notes and data as a “thick description” which was a multi-faceted examination of human behaviour (facts) plus how it related to the deeper cultural context. The aim was to observe, record, analyse and interpret a “thick description” to gain a deeper understanding and meaning.

Practical wisdom may be applied to your data in the steps you take to understand the enterprise strategy and desired outcomes (What do you want to achieve? Be direct and specific), How you engage across business to understand the source of data, cost/benefit and data integrity, whether any recent material changes in technology, enterprise practices, calculation or collection of time series of data. A constant reflection on choosing meaningful metrics, ask yourself “how do I know that” and “why is that important?”. The willingness to sense-check data analysis with subject matter experts, review lessons learned from prior errors, periods or external eco-system or industry benchmarks.

https://www.marketingweek.com/adidas-marketing-effectiveness/

““Adidas is on a journey to shift from marketing efficiency to marketing effectiveness, admitting a focus on ROI led it to over-invest in digital and performance marketing at the expense of brand building.” ….
Wrong metrics “ led Adidas to over-invest in paid search ….. an error it uncovered in its Latin America market when a breakdown at Google AdWords and therefore inability to invest in paid search didn’t lead to a dip in traffic or revenue coming from SEO.””

The purpose of an enterprise is evolving rapidly and is no longer just to “maximise shareholder value” declared the Business Roundtable in 2019. In 2020 CEO Larry Fink of Blackrock informed clients of a new ESG standard: “making sustainability integral to the way we manage risk, generate alpha, build portfolios, and pursue investment stewardship, in order to help improve your investment outcomes”. In 2020, the Pandemic forced business to re-examine and re-imagine themselves. As these trends continue there is a need for something fresh and new (or perhaps revisit something rather old).

Practical Wisdom; making sense of the eco-system is a “secret sauce” for individuals, teams , management and enterprise. As a way’s of working and thinking, it remains highly relevant today. Read deeply, reflect, listen, build cognitively diverse teams, collaborate and play it forward. Whiteark is here to assist.

“ “Virtue makes us aim at the right end, and practical wisdom makes us take the right means””

— Aristotle

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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

The Importance of Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement refers to the process of defining, analyzing, and improving business processes to increase overall quality, while removing as many waste activities as possible.

“Article by Jo Hands, Whiteark Co-Founder & Director”

There are three types of waste in Lean:

1. Muda

The major process wastes including, transport, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, over-processing and defects.

2. Mura

The waste of unevenness or inconsistency in your process. It stops your tasks from flowing smoothly across your work process and therefore gets in your way of reaching continuous flow.

3. Muri

The waste of overburden, when you assign too much work to your team, you place unnecessary stress on both your team and process.

If you want continuous improvement to become part of your culture, you need to focus on getting rid of the unevenness/inconsistency wastes (Mura) and overburden wastes (Muri) first. Eliminating all major process wastes (Muda) is almost impossible but focusing on reducing their adverse impacts on your work is key for implementing continuous improvement.

Companies should consider having a funding model for Continuous Improvement initiatives - making changes to processes to increase their profit, improve employee satisfaction, and accelerate productivity and efficiencies. Most often, business budgets do not include an allocation for continuous improvement – and a large amount of money is not required to make a substantial impact. Organisations should create a continuous improvement culture and encourage their people to look for opportunities to improve processes across the business and where the identified opportunities,

1. Align to the company’s strategic priorities/strategic direction and;

2. Size up to have biggest impact

There should be a funding model to support these initiatives. To execute on a continuous improvement process, benefits should be associated.

Below is a simple, common model that is used for Continuous Improvement, referred to as the Deming Circle – Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA). This model is a never-ending cycle that aims to help companies improve further based on achieved results.

Phase1 – Plan:

Define the objectives and processes required to achieve the desired goal. Setting output expectations is critical to achieving continuous improvement, as the precision of the goals and their completeness is a fundamental component of the process of improving.

Phase2 – Do:

Apply all that has been considered in the Planning phase. Expect that unpredicted problems may occur, which is why, if it is possible, you should test your plan on a small scale and in a controlled environment. Standardisation will assist with applying the plan smoothly – clear roles and responsibilities are essential.

Phase3 – Check:

Audit your plan’s execution “Do” phase and assess if your objectives and processes and goals from the “Plan” phase worked. To avoid recurring mistakes or if the team identified problems with the process that need to be eliminated in the future you need to undertake a root-cause analysis.

Phase4 – Act:

You developed, applied, and assessed your plan, now you need to act. If everything in “Do” worked well and you were able to achieve the original goals, then you can proceed and apply your initial plan. Your PDCA model will become the new baseline.

The benefits of the PDCAs model, includes: helping your team identify and test solutions and improve them through a waste-reducing cycle, stimulates continuous improvement culture (people and processes), allows your team to test possible solutions on a small scale and in a controlled environment, and prevents the work process from recurring mistakes.

Companies are looking for ways to increase their quality and reduce their costs which is why process improvement has become so important in today’s operating environment for the following reasons: customers have higher quality expectations, strong competition within the market and an unpredictable economic environment.

Whiteark has the expertise to help you with your continuous improvement needs, if this is something your business would like to explore, please reach out to Whiteark for a no obligation consultation.