Simplicity

It's a theme for 2021. Companies want to drive simplicity, and many CEOs we are talking to consider this to be a key area of focus. Let’s explore why…

As companies grow, shrink and change, they find themselves more complex. But where does it come from? Ultimately complexity is driven by core business functions: process, policy, systems, operating models, and is fuelled further by unclear decision-making. 

Complexity costs companies’ both money and time – and probably more than you would think. On average, complexity costs companies 23% of their cost base. 

So, given its impact, it makes sense that a key area of focus is to reduce complexity. But how do companies do this successfully?

“Simplicity (noun) is defined as “the quality or condition of being easy to understand or do.” And “the quality or condition of being plain or uncomplicated in form or design.””

The five key steps to reduce complexity in your business:

1. Ask senior leaders to write a list of roadblocks in the organisation

2. Ask staff to ask it they could change one process in the company what would it be 

3. Identity themes (4-5) that would reduce complexity 

4. Identify measures of complexity for 4-5 items and targets to drive simplicity 

5. Start a program of work endorsed by the CEO around driving changes in 4/5 items and celebrate success 

It helps to put things in context, so here are some key areas where we have seen improved simplicity that has directly created a financial benefit:

• Remove unprofitable customers - reprice or remove 

• Remove Unprofitable products - stop selling 

• Remove number products in offering (do we neatly need 214 staplers?)

• Clear delegations driving improved and timely decision making 

• Bill / billing process 

Simplicity is an overused term and not many companies do this well. Ask yourself, is it time to spring clean the cupboards in your business? To remove the clutter, simplify the way you work and operate in order to drive a better customer experience and improved financial outcomes…

Remember the secret is to take a non-emotive view of things - no sacred cows!!

At Whiteark we love helping companies simplify through the 5 Step approach. The impact is beneficial for customers, employees and shareholders alike. 

Download our free guide below to help you analyse your business processes and get started…

James Ciuffetelli and Jo Hands have practical experience in helping companies implement change around simplification, and we have seen the benefits this provided first hand. Get in touch for a no obligation conversation about how you can strategically simplify your business.

Browse more articles about change and transformation.

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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

What kind of leader are you?

Leadership is a gift. It's not easy. It's not a popularity contest. It's about setting up your team for success. 

Sometimes as leaders we get lost. Meetings, emails, approvals and pressure and we lose sight of what is important - taking people on the journey. 

We've all worked for good leaders and not great leaders and therefore know what good leadership is ...I think I've learnt the most from the bad leaders that I've worked with. 

Three key considerations for leadership;

1. Lead from the heart 

2. Consistency is key 

3. Understand your why  

Leadership evolves over time. Everyone has their own style and styles are adapted for different people but leaders that lead from the heart is critical to success. 

Leading from the heart is not weak but connecting with people and driving and pulling people with a clear vision.  A leader that takes this approach will get a better outcome than a stick approach. 

Consistency is critical. Having a consistent style and consider how this impacts your team etc.  Have you ever worked for a leader who was chaotic and you didn't know what you would get on each and every day? It creates an unproductive and toxic work environment. 

Everyone has become a leader for their own reason. Know your why. Be deliberate in understanding the why and deliberate driving the outcome you want.  Being passionate and deliberate will drive the best outcome for your team. 

At Whiteark we are passionate about leadership and working with leadership teams to get the best out of their people. Reach out to us for a no obligation conversation and advice around managing talent.  

The Chiefs Podcast | Tune in to more leadership lessons

Article by Jo Hands, Co-Founder Whiteark

Looking to hone your leadership skills? Let us help.

Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes. We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. 

Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au

The war is real...

This time last year (May 2020) companies were downsizing, reducing pays, making employees take annual leave – in short, they were in survival mode. The result? Employees across the world were worried about the security of their jobs. 

But now, the whole dynamic has shifted. It's an employee market.
So why and what does this mean? 

The Why.

• Companies are recruiting 

• Lack of international talent working in Australia 

• Employers are focused on getting people back to the office 

• The economy is going strong 

• People are looking for flexibility and more money 

The What.

What does this shift mean for employers…

Companies 

• The recruitment market is hot and therefore companies need to position themselves to attract the right / best talent

• Companies need to build a talent plan to retain good people - it needs to be different, new and tailored

• Finding the right talent is critical for success of delivering the strategy for the organisations 

• Companies need to be clear on their point of difference for working for them 

• Staff / candidates want to understand what flexibility means - what are your policies and how it practically works 

• Companies might need to consider partnering to get the right capability if market tight 

• Building a positive culture has never been so important and critical to ensure you retain and attract amazing talent 

 
Employees / Candidates 

• People are looking for a sea change, reassessing their priorities and rethinking how much they are working and where they work

• People aren't looking for the normal perks as priorities have changed 

• It's an employee / candidate market - be clear on what you want from your job, position yourself right and look for the perfect company 

• Smile and enjoy the process and do your pros / cons to make a good decision about what company to you with 

People play an important role in the success of your business. In fact, without them you wouldn't have a business a business at all. So be proactive to really think about the changes you are making to responding to the shift. 

As a leader you need to lean in to ensure you understand where your team is up to and ensure you take a proactive approach.  

The war is real, are you ready to fight? 

Article by Jo Hands, Co-Founder Whiteark

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Looking to capitalise on these trends and plan your own people strategy? Let us help.

Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes. We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au

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

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.

---

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

Data

Every organisation has data in abundance, but not many companies have it organised and streamlined to drive meaningful outcomes.  It's a shame…

Data is powerful

Data that has been analysed with other variables is powerful. 

Data can tell you the Why

Data can tell you why or get you to understand the trend.

Data can drive the predictive analytics

Data can give you the 'so what' or now that we know 'what can we do with this information' .

Data should drive:

• Strategy decisions 

• Operational decisions 

• Pivot on strategy 

• Operational improvement 

• Good commercial decisions 

At Whiteark we are big on data. We use data and data tools to analyse a problem / or root cause and we use data to drive value creation and measure success. 

We have a number of case studies at Whiteark that demonstrate the power of data and what we have achieved with our clients.

Data is powerful. If you need help to generate the power, reach out to Whiteark.

Browse more articles about the power of data: 

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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

Are you making money?

It's a very simple question. Are you making money? Forget accounting standards and the rubbish reasons your results look crap… Be frank. Are you making sustainable earnings in your business?

If you’re wondering how to know, here are a couple of tips:

            1.         Cash doesn't lie - if you are cashflow positive, you are making money.

            2.         Majority of your costs are variable - therefore are aligned with revenue.

            3.         Your pricing covers your fixed and variable costs.

Now, regardless if you are making money or not - the next question is could you make more? In most cases the answer is yes. So how do you do this?  

Increase revenue 

• increase price 

• more effective salesforce 

• more effective marketing 

Reduce costs 

• look at ROI on all costs 

• review fixed costs to make variable 

• review operating model  

Drive improved working capital 

• credit terms reduce to increased cashflow 

• use pcards to pay suppliers 

• improve process to reduce time to    receive cashflow 

There are many levers to increase profitability of your business. That's what we do at Whiteark. 

See some example case studies here.

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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

Forecasting

Article written by Mark Easdown

Decision Making & Planning, Ways of Working with Uncertainty

“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.”

— John Kenneth Galbraith

“Forecasts usually tell us more of the forecaster than of the future.”

— Warren Buffett

“There is great value in bringing together people who attempt to address a common problem of forecasting from different perspectives and based on very different kinds of data.”

— Chris Wood, Sante Fe Institute

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”

— Isaac Asimov

“For superforecasters, beliefs are hypotheses to be tested, not treasures to be guarded.”

— Philip Tetlock

“I prefer true but imperfect knowledge, even if it leaves much indetermined and unpredictable, to a pretence of exact knowledge that is likely to be false.”

— Friedrich von Hayek

“The Lucretius underestimation, after the Latin poetic philosopher who wrote that the fool believes that the tallest mountain there is, should be equal to the tallest one he has observed.”

— Nassim Taleb

A forecast is a statement about the future. (Clements & Henry, 1998)

As authors of “Forecasting” (J.Castle, M.Clements, D.Henry) note; a forecast can take many forms;

• Some are vague and some are precise, Some are concerned with near term and some the distant future

• “Fore” denotes in advance whilst “Cast” might sound a bit chancy (cast a fishing net, cast a spell) or might sound more solid (bronze statues are also cast)

• Chance is central to forecasting & forecasts can and often do differ from outcomes

• Forecasts should be accompanied by some level of certainty/uncertainty, time horizon, upper/lower bounds

• The domain in which the forecast occurs matter, especially if no-one knows the complete set of possibilities  

The authors consider the history of forecasting;

• Forecasting likely pre-dates recorded writing with hunter-gatherers seeking where game of predators might be, edible plants and water supplies. Babylonians tracked the night sky presumably for planting and harvesting crops

• Sir William Petty perhaps introduced early statistical forecasting in 17th Century and thought he observed a seven year “business cycle”

• Weather forecasting evolved with Robert Fitzroy in 1859, who sought to devise a storm warning system to enable safe passage of ships and avoid loss of vessels &/or ships staying in port unnecessarily. Forecasting of nature extended to hurricanes, tropical cyclones, tornadoes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.

• Yet, history is littered with failures in forecasting, large and small;

  • Ambiguous forecasts from Oracles of Delphi and Nostradamus

  • UK storms 1987, with lives lost and approximately 15million trees blown down

  • Failure to predict 1929 Great Depression or severity of Global Financial Crisis, mid-2007 to early 2009

  • “When the Paris exhibition closes, the electric light will close with it and no more be heard of it” – Sir Erasmus Wilson & “a rocket will never be able to leave the earth’s atmosphere” – NY Times 1936

What do we want from forecasts ?

• Do we want just accuracy? To what degree is that even possible across complicated and complex domains?

• Do we want cognitively diverse teams to make us more aware of extreme events? Thus, minimising downside risks?

• Do we just want comfort, ideological support and evidence of our existing beliefs? Do we want entertainment?

• Do we want to influence a target audience, shift consensus or established beliefs?

These answers may differ if you are a CEO, CFO, Head of Sales, Head of Innovation, an Insurance Actuary, Epidemiologist, Politician, Economist, Intelligence Agency, Shock Jock or Sports Commentator.

For example, it was a mainstream view of epidemiologists across last 20 years that a pandemic was a prominent risk;

“The presence of a large reservoir of SARS-CoV-like viruses in horseshoe bats, together with the culture of eating exotic mammals in southern China, is a time bomb. The possibility of the re-emergence of SARS and other novel viruses from animals or laboratories and therefore the need for preparedness should not be ignored.”- David Epstein 2007

https://davidepstein.com/lets-get-ready-to-rumble-humanity-vs-infectious-disease/

https://cmr.asm.org/content/cmr/20/4/660.full.pdf 

So, is COVID19 perhaps SARS2?  Clearly, forecasting a pandemic is desirable. How do we give prominence to diverse voices & data and what are the better practices to observe and implement?

SUPER-FORECASTING

In October 2002, the US National Intelligence Estimates (a consensus view of the CIA, NSA, DIA and thirteen other agencies with > 20,000 intelligence analysts) concluded that the key claims of the Bush Administration claims about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq were correct. After invading Iraq in 2003, the US found no evidence of WMDs. “It was one of the worst – arguably the worst  - intelligence failure in modern history” notes Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner in their book “Superforecasting : The Art and Science of Prediction”

In 2006, IARPA was formed to fund cutting-edge research with the aim of potentially enhancing the intelligence community work. IAPRA’s plan was to create a tournament-style incentive for top researchers (intelligence analysts, universities & a team of volunteers for the Good Judgement Project (GJP)), to generate accurate probability estimates to questions that were;

• Neither so easy that an attentive reader of the NY Times could get them right , nor

• So hard that no one on the planet could get them right

Approximately 500 questions spanned: economic, security, terrorism, energy, environmental, social and political realms

Forecast performance was monitored individually and in teams, and Tetlock’s GJP team proved 60% more accurate in year 1, 78% more accurate in Year 2.

• What did these forecasting tournaments learn about the attributes of super-forecasters that may be of relevance in Commercial or Government organisations? Here are a few;

• Superforecasters spoke in probabilities of how likely an event would occur (not in absolutes : yes/no), this better enabled them to accept a level of uncertainty – it made them more thoughtful and accurate

• Superforecasters were often educated yet ordinary people with an open-mind, an ability to change their minds, humility and an ability to review assumptions & update forecasts frequently, albeit at times by small increments

• Actions which were helpful included;

  • Breaking the question down into smaller components and identifying the known and the unknown, focus on work that is likely to have better payoff, actively seek to distinguish degrees of uncertainty, avoid binding rules. Consider the “outsiders” view, frame the problem not uniquely but as part of a wider phenomena

  • Examine what is unique about problem and look at your opinions and how they differ from other people’s viewpoints. Take in all the information with your “dragonfly eyes” and construct a unified vision, balancing arguments and counterarguments, balancing prudence and decisiveness – generating a description as clearly, concisely and as granular as possible

  • Don’t over-react to new information – a Bayesian approach was useful

• The GJP found that while many forecasters were accurate within a horizon of 150 days, not even the super-forecasters were confident beyond 400 days, forecasts out to 5 years were about equal with chance.  

• What about forecasting teams versus forecasting individuals?

o   With good group dynamics, flat and non-hierarchical structures and a culture of sharing – teams were better than individuals – aggregation was important. In fact teams of super-forecasters could beat established prediction markets.

o   The note of caution around low performing teams came when people were lazy, let others do the work or where susceptible to group-think.

“Unchartered : How to map the future together.”

— Margaret Heffernan

Daryl Plummer of Gartner, a technology advisory firm who produces forecasts for customers who wish to discern hype from reality.

The prediction process starts with propositions, then verified, quantified and made actionable. A robust peer review occurs and 95% of predictions are modified along the way. Plummer routinely scrutinises predictions with actual events and these results are highlighted at conferences – championing the successes and sharing insights across those that were wrong. “Nobody here is hired because they’re psychic; they’re hired to generate insights that are useful – even if they turn out wrong. It’s useful to get you thinking”.

The author notes “that what matters most isn’t the predictions themselves but how we respond to them, and whether we respond to them at all. The forecast that stupefies isn’t helpful, but the one that provokes fresh thinking can be. The point of predictions should not be to surrender to them but to use them to broaden and map your conceptual, imaginative horizons. Don’t fall for them – challenge them.”

“How to Decide” : Annie Duke – Simple Tools for making better choices

The author presents some useful tips that teams can use to elicit uninfected feedback and leverage the true wisdom of the crowd in decision making. This is especially useful where key forecast & value chain insights and institutional knowledge is held across multiple SMEs and stakeholders;

The Problem;

• “When you tell someone what you think before hearing what they think, you can cause their opinion to bend towards yours, often times without them knowing it”,  “The only way somebody can know that they’re disagreeing with you is if they know what you think first. Keeping that to yourself when you elicit feedback makes it more likely that what they say is actually what they believe”, “To get high quality feedback it’s important to put the other person as closely as possible into the same state of knowledge that you were in at the time you made the decision”, “Belief contagion is particularly problematic in groups”

Tips to elicit those insightful cross-functional perspectives;

• Elicit initial opinions individually and independent before the group meets. Specify the type of feedback or insights required and request an email or written thoughts be provided before meeting. Collate these initial opinions and share with group prior to meeting. Now focus on areas of “diversion”, “dispersion”, avoid using any language around “disagreement”

• Anonymise feedback to group – this removes any influence from the insights or opinions of higher status individuals

• Anonymising feedback also gives equal weight to insights and opinion and allows outside-the box perspectives to be heard

• Anonymised feedback will also allow mis-understandings to be discussed and the team to grow in knowledge together

• If the team needs to make a decision within a meeting; try

  • Writing down insights and passing to one person to write on a whiteboard – maintaining anonymity

  • Writing down your insights and pass to another person to read aloud to the group

  • If you must read your own thoughts to group – start with most junior member and work towards most senior

“Radical Uncertainty: Decision Making for an unknowable future”

Authors: John Kay & Meryn King  

“The belief that mathematical reasoning is more rigorous and precise than verbal reasoning, which is thought to be susceptible to vagueness and ambiguity, is pervasive in economics”& Jean-Claude Trichet of the 2007-2008 GFC; “As a policy-maker during the crisis, I found the available models of limited help. In fact, I would go further: in the face of the crisis, we felt abandoned by conventional tools”

The authors draw a number of helpful lessons in the use of economic and financial models in business and in government;

• Use simple models and identify key factors that influence an assessment. Adding more and more elements to a model is to follow the mistaken belief that a model can describe the complexity of the real world. The better purpose for a model is to find “small world” problems which illuminate part of the large world radical uncertainty

• Having identified model parameters that are likely to make a significant difference to your assessment, go and do some research in the real world to obtain evidence on the value of these parameters to customers or stakeholders. Simple models provide flexibility to explore the effects of modifications or scenarios.

A model is useful only if the person using it recognises it does not represent the world as it is really is, rather it is a tool for exploring ways in which decisions might or might not go wrong. 

Uncertainty : Howard Marks : https://www.oaktreecapital.com/insights/howard-marks-memos/

In his May 2020 newsletter to Oaktree Clients, Howard Marks notes the field of economics is muddled and imprecise, there are no rules one can count on to consistently show causation, patterns tend to repeat, and while they may be historical, logical and often observed, they remain only tendencies. Excessive trust in forecasts is dangerous.

When considering current forecasts, he notes the world is more uncertain today than at any other time in our lifetimes, the ability to deal intelligently with uncertainty is one of the most important skills, the bigger the topic (world, economy. Markets, currencies, interest rates) the less possible it is to achieve superior knowledge and we should seek to understand the limitations of our foresights.  

A forecast is a statement about the future, a future we cannot know everything about , yet it remains a useful tool for decision making, scenario modelling, stress testing and planning. The map is not the territory, so with forecasting we should learn from better practices around collating diverse views and data, building cognitively diverse teams, constantly challenging assumptions, leverage the wisdom & insights of your subject matter experts, maintain intellectual humility & resiliency facing uncertainty, use models wisely and adopt a bayesian approach.

“No amount of sophistication is going to allay the fact that all your knowledge is about the past and all your decisions are about the future.”

— Ian Wilson. Former GE Chairman

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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

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