PLEASE ACCEPT MY APOLOGY FOR THE SITE BEING DOWN FOR SEVEN DAYS.
Everything is back in order and to restart, here are links to recent posts (excluding wine and travel posts)
- The shared leadership imperative
- Pain or gain from structural change?
- Creative Christmas gifts
- Making the complicated simple
- Framing a vision for the Tarkine
- A youthful mindset
- And the fairies danced at midnight
- Penetrating the USA market
- Inspiration and longevity from gardening
- Australia’s corporate blindspots
- Australia’s creeping inertia
- Climate change attitudes part two
- Conservative ideology and climate change
- Syndromes not found in the textbooks
- Cultivating an open mind
- We took them for granted
- Diversity, inclusiveness and aussie rules
- Spirituality and religion
- Provenance in the Tamar Valley
- In all humility
- When cost cutting doesn’t pay
- Choosing and sustaining a life partner
- Fulfilment from creativity
- Reality of climate change – the trees don’t lie
- The dignity of man
- Organisational authenticity and meaning
- Happiness – a journey not a destination
- What is your purpose in life?
- An English professor, a publican’s daughter….
- A leadership crisis
- A quiet revolution begins
- To blog or not to blog?
- Life advice from the pointy end
- Beware reality television politics
- Hope, optimism and high expectations
- Maturity and dignity required on asylum seekers
Brian Cook, the Geelong Football Club CEO – who has steered three premierships at Geelong and two at West Coast – was interviewed recently on Fox Sports. He was asked what the pre-requisites are for a good coach. His response was compelling – “the two most important elements are leadership and cultural development – the ability to achieve the desired culture in the club and to lead the eight assistant coaches in a way where they operate as an effective team. The technical and tactical elements come second”. I reflected that the most successful leaders in my experience have also focused on creating team culture and team decision making processes as their primary objective. The vision and strategies in these organisations were generally defined by, agreed to, and lived by the team.
The concept of shared rather than authoritarian leadership has been an espoused “preferred state” in most modern organisations, but has often been derailed by leaders who have problems giving up control. If only they could see the irony that the former CEO of Levi Strauss, Robert Haas articulated – “the more you share leadership and responsibility, the more you multiply your own effectiveness through the effectiveness of others…..you have to accept the fact that decisions and recommendations may be different from what you would do alone…..different but possibly better. You have to be willing to take your own ego out of it”.
Why change? Traditional leadership styles are a carry-over from the evolution of the industrial era which created centralised systems and hierarchies to support those times. Ingrained for centuries, they remained accepted as the norm. Today, they are increasingly coming under pressure to change to modes that will support the new imperatives in business and society.
Getting a sniff of the need to change, there’ve been many well intentioned attempts to introduce shared leadership, only to see them despatched to the “too hard basket”. We’ve seen as many failures as successes, because it takes commitment and then relentless determination to establish the mindsets, processes and rules to make it work.
I was lucky enough to work with an organisation in the late 90’s where three years of hard work created a powerful team environment. Staff and managers stepped up to wear the hat of their assigned role, as well as that of leader, often “taking one for the team” and seeing the organisation as a whole. It was underpinned by agreed goals, mutual respect and strong adherence to the team norms (like not tolerating territoriality, passivity or mediocrity). People who couldn’t comply were rejected by the team – or volunteered to leave. There was less “wheel spinning” and everyone felt valued and recognised. It reminds me very much of the team culture at the Sydney Swans over recent years.
If today’s leaders (be they in community organisations, family businesses, sporting clubs or large corporations), can’t see this irony, there are some powerful forces at work that will apply the brakes to centralist, heroic and authoritarian leadership styles. The digital world demands that we share. A former boss said once, “information gives power”. Today, sharing information gives power. So does sharing leadership and responsibility.
Social media is also helping to redefine leadership. As Michael Fauscette writes, “people have new levels of empowerment because of their on line voice, and expect experiences from organisations that mimic those in their personal life….power and communication are networked, not hierarchical and one way”. Organisation cultures must therefore change to meet these new requirements – or people will move to places where cultures have already been transformed.
In a shared leadership team, each person fulfils a clear role and all members strive for a common, agreed goal. A true team provides the right environment for the pursuit of quality, customer service, productivity or whatever is agreed, in a changing environment. Intact teams also provide strong social and emotional rewards, including self-esteem and a sense of being valued. There’s great satisfaction in being part of a high performing team where critique, learning and personal development flourish.
When a true team culture is established with its norms and behavioural expectations (often around respect, listening and personal obligations to the team), it’s hard for leaders (or anyone else) to violate the culture. It’s also a hard place to want to stay if you’re unaligned. As we move from the old industrialised world business cultures to those of the knowledge economy, some of the different imperatives can be summarised as follows:
| OLD – Hierarchical model | NEW – Social business model |
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I’d like to hear your personal experiences and thoughts. Does change depend on having a leader who believes in shared leadership, or can organisational culture be changed by the people? Do staff really want shared leadership or do some have fear of the commitment and step up needed?
Image by Omar Eduardo
Fanned by the hurricane that is the digital world, creeping globalisation and undeniable climate change, mature economies are undergoing huge structural change. Christopher Rollyson argues that the major driver of change is actually people placing greater value on consumer experience. They demand better choice, access, convenience and quality at a time when consumer power has never been stronger.
The pace of change is certainly accelerating, as is the noise from many affected by job losses in industries like manufacturing, retail and traditional media. There are plenty of ostriches playing the blame game – “It’s the carbon tax!” (even before its introduction) or, “it’s Fair Work Australia” or “it’s the exchange rate”. Conditioned by a legacy of handouts and bailouts, the complaints are also generally accompanied by calls for the government “to do something”.
Fortunately, there are also business leaders who see the change towards a knowledge economy as an opportunity rather than a problem. Peter Roberts’ recent piece in The Australian Financial Review highlights how enlightened companies are finding the way to adapt and benefit. He cites companies like GE, which has identified $30 billion of near term opportunities in Australia in areas like LNG and wind power. We don’t all have the deep pockets of GE, but there are other impressive examples of adaption to a changing world, such as the gradual transition of LJ Hooker from property developer to sustainability manager. My own experience suggests organisations that embrace environmental and sustainability challenges, tend to drive costs down and foster innovation more rapidly than those that choose to treat them as an imposition.
The knowledge economy isn’t the exclusive domain of high tech and big companies. In reality, the biggest changes will come from the application of innovation and knowledge in the low to medium technology sectors, which form the bulk of the economy. These sectors include food processing, transport, the hospitality industry, and service industries in general. They provide the possibility for intelligent customer-focused business solutions that will attract consumers like magnets.
Julian Cribb has written a compelling opinion piece called Australia in 2050. He paints a picture of the biggest economic driver being knowledge (including technology and advice) and thebiggest export sector climate adaptation, where we use our own natural climate volatility experience as an intellectual springboard for creating new industries. Opportunities will span food production, water management, construction of homes and workplaces, urban design and tropical medicine.
What can governments do? The most relevant policy responses are likely to be around supporting financial pressures borne by innovative firms, and re-focusing the role of Australia’s knowledge infrastructure, particularly universities and scientific institutions. There will also need to be a much greater commitment to R&D, in the way that China has committed to spend an incredible 2.2% of GDP annually ($320 billion) on R&D in the latest five year plan. Such responses are required to diminish the debilitating brain drain from Australia to places like Silicon Valley. We need to see the level of debate about our rapidly changing economy, migrate from whingeing and blame, to insight and possibility.
image by jason hoover
This year, inspired by our daughter’s new Oxfam job, the family decided to make gifts rather than buy them. We also imposed a $20 limit (which was blurred a bit in some cases). The process put more meaning into gifting and produced some highly creative outcomes. In some cases, they involved weeks of work. 7 people exchanged 42 bespoke items and it was an absolute blast!
While the list below would probably be best published in November 2012, it may serve to inspire others to adopt the theme for next Christmas. Our gifts included:
- A clock made from a Lionel Ritchie vinyl (featuring “All Night Long!) with dominoes stuck on to mark the hours and a battery powered clock mechanism at the back. Genius!
- Fifty metres of handmade festival bunting
- Homemade chalkboards using special chalkboard paint, and white chalk.
- Homemade calendars, photo albums and greeting cards
- Flywire mesh in a material covered painted frame to hold jewellery (earrings etc)
- Large kitchen jars containing lollies or teabags, with a chalkboard strip for labelling
- Rhubarb champagne which needs to sit for 3 weeks. It gets drier and more alcoholic with time. (Suggest reducing the sugar in this linked recipe by up to 50% on personal preference)
- Homemade vintage apron, shower hats, bow tie, headband, phone holder and felt moccasins
- Home cooked shortbread, chocolate plum puddings, rocky road and chocolate bark
- Small clay vases with magnets to use as fridge displays
- Album covered drink coasters
- Pesto made from home grown basil
- Hand knitted fingerless gloves, footy beanie, socks, headbands and scarf
- Crushed and engraved vintage spoons as herb garden markers
- Beautifully sewn serviettes and cushion covers
- A magpie repelling bike helmet
- Painted plaster of paris paperweight
- Boutique virgin olive oil bottles infused with chilli, garlic and rosemary
- A heat bag in the shape of a sausage dog
- Lead light painted glasses for candles
- Handmade hats for Alessi kitchen monkeys (salt and pepper shakers, timers etc)
Any other ideas, or would you rather store them up to surprise for next year?
Summary of main posts last 18 months
Hyperlinks are provided. Note that the list excludes travel and wine posts
- Making the complicated simple
- Framing a vision for the Tarkine
- A youthful mindset
- And the fairies danced at midnight
- Penetrating the USA market
- Inspiration and longevity from gardening
- Australia’s corporate blindspots
- Australia’s creeping inertia
- Climate change attitudes part two
- Conservative ideology and climate change
- Syndromes not found in the textbooks
- Cultivating an open mind
- We took them for granted
- Diversity, inclusiveness and aussie rules
- Spirituality and religion
- Provenance in the Tamar Valley
- In all humility
- When cost cutting doesn’t pay
- Choosing and sustaining a life partner
- Fulfilment from creativity
- Reality of climate change – the trees don’t lie
- The dignity of man
- Organisational authenticity and meaning
- Happiness – a journey not a destination
- What is your purpose in life?
- An English professor, a publican’s daughter….
- A leadership crisis
- A quiet revolution begins
- To blog or not to blog?
- Life advice from the pointy end
- Beware reality television politics
- Hope, optimism and high expectations
- Maturity and dignity required on asylum seekers
After my wife read the first draft of this post about making things simple, she said, “you’re guilty as charged – you’ve written a complicated piece on simplicity!” She was right. Complicating things is what we tend to do. But here’s the good news. As information, the pace of change and choice grow quickly, we don’t need to roll over and accept that complexity must prevail.
Edward de Bono said, “Dealing with complexity is inefficient and an unnecessary waste of time, attention and mental energy. There is never any justification for things being complex when they could be simple”.
I asked a friend who plays golf very well, what tuition books he reads. He replied, “a golf swing is simple mate, you just focus on the ball and hit it – constant analysis complicates it”. On reflection I thought that his comment was a poignant metaphor for life itself.
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple defines innovation and creativity. It’s true in technology (think Steve Jobs), art, photography, design and fashion. Coco Chanel said, “simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance”. Leonardo da Vinci offered “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”.
Perhaps the greatest challenge in removing complexity is in communicating simply – and this can be a real burden. Mark Twain made a telling comment “I apologise for the length of my letter, I didn’t have time to make it shorter”. It’s not hard to think of examples in our own working lives where we’ve over cooked our written and spoken communication. A former boss of mine claimed that if you couldn’t put it on one page then you didn’t understand it. Something is simple or complex depending on the way we choose to describe it.
It’s tough getting simplicity in workplaces, where making things appear complex tends to be an art form. Jargon, sounding important and impression management are often actually rewarded in organisations. For leaders who can see the value of a simpler, more inclusive approach concerted effort to de-complicate, achieves reduced costs and mistakes, and improved morale and return on investment. Making the complex clear always helps people work smarter – because it’s a lot easier to figure out what’s important and ignore what isn’t. Note however that Einstein said that “everything must be made as simple as possible, but not simpler”.
In our personal lives we’ve become so materialistic and self-indulgent that the next new toy or experience isn’t special for long. Accumulation of “things” has led to clutter in both our living space and inner space. We’ve also tended to be more excessive with what we try and fit into our lives, what we consume and the way we obsessively protect our kids. It’s also easy to allow the struggle and strife of others to become part of us – which is something the Kinks say we should eliminate in their little known song, Complicated Life.
The old saying, “less is more” resonates with me. The fewer friends, possessions, and experiences we have, the more we appreciate and enjoy them. Simple living, which is about people being satisfied with what they need rather than what they want, is different from living in poverty – it’s a lifestyle choice. The choice might be around frugality, health, ecological footprint, stress or just increased quality time. The people I know who live this way are, without exception, the happiest. The art of having less but enjoying our lives more, involves a few simple changes in perspective, like understanding where our true values lie – and focusing on them.
What else can we do? We can try to minimize the impact of negative people in our lives as part of our search for simplicity and elegance. It doesn’t mean removing ourselves from criticism, but it does mean taking control of our environment. We can also escape from the “everyday” to get doses of perspective by experiencing wilderness, meditating, and volunteering, for example.
Simplifying our unnecessarily complicated lives can also extend to what we eat. I’m reminded of my mum’s sign in her library, “live simply so others may simply live”. There’s also a lot to be gained by being more like children – learning, appreciating what’s around us, being active, having fun and above all keeping things simple. What ideas do you have for making the complicated simple?
Last year the battles were about logging native timber in the Tarkine, right now it’s about mining. On the one hand there is the economic growth argument about extracting valuable minerals, and on the other the recognition of the significance of the ecosystem. Finding sensible solutions must start with an understanding of the place and the issues, and finish with a spirit of compromise, because there are no right answers in these debates.
There’s no doubt that the Tarkine is one of the world’s great wild places. It is a landscape of such breathtaking beauty that it is impossible not to love it. It is an expansive 447,000 hectare wilderness area which contains remarkable natural and cultural values, including one of the world’s most significant remaining tracts of temperate rainforest.
The Tarkine is now generally recognised as that part of north west Tasmania bounded by the Arthur River and its tributaries to the north, the Pieman River to the south, the Murchison Highway to the east and the Southern Ocean to the west. Most of the land is either managed by Forestry Tasmania or the Parks and Wildlife Service. Much of the Tarkine is listed on the Register of the National Estate and there are a number of reserves that provide the Tarkine with some level of conservation protection.
The Cradle Coast Authority Master Plan for the Tarkine describes it as, “a place of sustenance for its inhabitants, a breathtaking, fragile wilderness for those in search of renewal, a robust landscape rich in minerals and forest resources, and a playground for the communities that surround it”.
The Tarkine is Australia’s most significant tract of rainforest wilderness and Tasmania’s largest unprotected wilderness area. It is described by the Australian Heritage Commission as “one of the world’s great archeological regions” with aboriginal middens, artefacts and rock carvings that predate the pyramids.
There’s been much debate and emotion about land use priorities in the area – for tourism access, primary production, logging and mining. Conservationists have sought to have the Tarkine classified under the world heritage listing. The Forests Agreement of September 2011 has brought timber industry and conservationists closer, although many issues remained unresolved. Tasmania, now facing reductions in contribution from commercial timber, is increasingly looking to the resources sector for economic growth.
How do we, as stewards of this 60 million year old wilderness, make sensible decisions on its future at any point in time? We can rest assured that it will involve compromise from all sides. As a plan is developed for the Tarkine, some guiding principles are needed, and these might be a good start:
- Manage the Tarkine for multiple end use according to the sensitivity and significance of particular areas, rather than lock it up
- Special parts of the Tarkine, notably the primary rainforest, should be totally protected from logging, mining and recreational vehicles (these areas may be the focus of world heritage)
- Controlled tourism access that leaves no footprint should be encouraged
- Community involvement in decision making is essential
Such guidelines need fleshing out and adding to. They may well end up allowing a flourishing adventure tourism industry based on walking, some selective logging for value added timber in agreed areas and mining with appropriate rehabilitation, in areas other than primary rainforest. Honey production and agriculture in existing cleared areas would sit comfortably under these guidelines.
They would not, however, allow clear felling of native timber in the region, nor allow projects such as the proposed open cut tin and tungsten mine in primary rainforest at Mount Lindsay by Venture Minerals. That particular proposal, for a 3.5km x 3km 200 metre deep mine, is not within the scope of these guidelines. It’s also the sort of project that depends on the price of tin to be high for its sustainability.
If the right information is gathered and shared, and if there is willingness to compromise, worthwhile outcomes can flow. They will only be forged by people working together. As the old African proverb goes:
“if you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together”.
We also need to remember that we are transitory human beings making decisions in a microsecond of time, in the context of what has gone before us.
