Page 16 - Dainfern Precinct_Issue2_2022

BUSINESS
The focus on ‘done’ also promotes
a culture of experimenting which
inevitably leads to innovation. What
I like to do with leaders is really
encourage them to use that concept
beyond products, think about
minimum viable policies, minimum
viable processes. Can we take that
same concept and just make things
able to be released and shared and
get feedback? And that way, we keep
moving at speed.
The second horizontal line on your
piece of paper gauges are you a
perfectionist? Are you stopping
things being released because in
your view they aren’t perfect? Mark
the second line 'Perfectionist' and
note where you think you might be to
identify how far you’re shifting.
SHIFT 3
FROM COMMAND AND CONTROL TO
TRUST AND TRANSPARENCY
Our third shift is the move from
command and control to trust and
transparency. And again, I often see
command and control given a really
bad name. We demonise people
or leaders who use command and
control.
However, I think it’s important
to acknowledge that command
and control served us well, once.
These strategies worked best in
highly predictable environments.
Leaders were rewarded for their
ability to command and control.
So to get in a position now to say
it’s the wrong thing to do might
be right but may not be kind and I
think we need to think about that
as we encourage leaders to make
shifts.
mark where they think their boss is
on command and control. There can
often be a gap and it’s really worth
exploring why there is a gap and
what we can do to get across it.
SHIFT 4
FROM FAILURE-AVERSION TO FAILURE-
SEEKING
Our fourth shift is from failure-
aversion to failure-seeking. At the
Australian-Israeli Innovation Summit,
a question was asked of one of the
vice presidents of Intel in Israel:
What is the secret sauce of Israel’s
innovation ecosystem, because
they’re amazing, they’re incredible
with what they do. And she said quite
simply, “We are rewarded to fail. We
have a culture of failure-seeking. We
fail fast, we learn fast. Failure equals
Photographer: Kylie de Guia, Unsplash success, it teaches us lessons, it
shifts our perspective and it gives us
The interesting thing is, when you talk courage to experiment.”
to employees who are operating in a
command and control environment, One of the ways that leaders
they will tell you that it feels like really struggle is that they believe
punishment to them. They feel like we’re asking them to fail in front of
they’re always being punished. customers. And they say, “But we
can’t fail in front of the customers,
I work a lot with leadership teams. we will lose our customer base. We
When you get them behind closed will lose revenue, we will lose the
doors, they tell you that they do not confidence of the Board.” But that’s
enjoy being a command and control not what we’re talking about here.
type of leader, it exhausts them. The shift that leaders need to make
Ultimately, it disempowers people and is to “How do I encourage failure-
reduces autonomy, and if we want
to be effective at moving at speed seeking within my teams, within our
in this disruptive environment, we organisation?” This is not an “It’s okay
need autonomy. High trust and clear to fail when we’re on the outside of the
accountability create conditions for new organisation”- it’s keeping it internal.
ideas, new products and new services. To what extent are you currently trying
to avoid failure and to what extent are
you seeking failure? Write down on
So let’s ask the question, where are your page on the fourth line 'Failure'
you on the command and control, and note where would you put yourself
trust and transparency line? And
on that continuum.
here’s a fun little exercise I get my LIBERATION
CEOs to do. I get them to mark
where they are on this line in terms So far we have gone through four
of command and control, but then shifts, really critical mindset shifts that
they have to share it with their we need to enable before we have a
leadership team and get them to hope of having an agile organisation.
Photographer: Laura Chouette, Unsplash
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