Career Doctor: An IML Specialist Takes A Problem To Task

 

 

The problem: ‘I’m a new boss who has discovered that morale and productivity are low. What’s the best way to raise standards?’

 

Peter says: It’s easy to become overwhelmed, lost and bewildered as a young first-time manager taking over a dysfunctional team with a very negative culture. The situation can be magnified if there’s little or no support to coach or guide you through the steps you must take to establish your credibility and garner trust from the members in your team. In any case it’s best to have a fluid plan that you can adapt depending on circumstance. Once you have that set, consider the following as team-building tips that will help you execute your plan.

 

Let them know who you are
At the earliest opportunity, speak to the whole team about your work history and who you are as a person, and present an overview of why you were given the position.

Be open with your intentions
When setting out plans for the future, don’t be tempted to outline a “grand plan”. Building trust, boosting credibility and setting out guidelines for a collaborative culture are key. You will need to be inclusive while remaining cautious when explaining your vision of the team’s future, especially when it includes building a stronger more positive and proactive culture within the team.

Up close and personal
Spend one-on-one time with each team member as soon as possible. This provides the opportunity to learn more about each other, find out what’s working well and why, and what could be improved and how. It’s one of the best ways to find out what the real concerns are. This should become a fixed weekly or fortnightly catch-up to provide and receive open and honest feedback.

The task at hand
As soon as you know what’s working well and what needs to be improved from the team, convene a team meeting to advise your team on what you’ve learned from the one-on-ones and how you plan to tackle the areas that need to be improved (after ensuring to ask them for their ideas). Then divide up the tasks, empowering individuals and teams, while you take responsibility for the big-ticket items.

Accountability
Reinforce standards for correct behaviour and performance, referencing job descriptions and codes of conduct. Emphasise that you also abide by these standards. Respect, credibility and trust are supported by consistency and fairness in all you do. You’re a role model from the very first moment you take up the job. Your team will be watching you.

 

Peter Cullen is an education and training facilitator who teaches “Manage People, Performance and Business Effectively” courses. Each three-day program engages participants in developing and implementing their capabilities as manager and leaders.

A Vision Splendid

 

When Starbucks lost its way it had to come up with a whole new recipe. By Fiona Smith

 

When you order a grande chocolate chip frappuccino at Starbucks, you know exactly what you will be getting – a lot of calories, some free Wi-Fi and a friendly chat with the staff, who may amuse you by misspelling your name on your plastic cup.

It is this reliability that helped make the US cafe company one of the world’s most successful retail chains, but nine years ago, Starbucks was ready to implode. The company had over-reached in its ambitious expansion and was forced to close about 900 stores worldwide.

In Australia, which never embraced Starbucks as enthusiastically as other countries, 66 shops were shut down – leaving only 23.

Stepping back in to the CEO role after an eight-year absence, chairman Howard Schultz sought to reconnect the company with its vision and mission statement, which was: “To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time”.

Schultz explained at the time that the company had become too focused on the money and had lost sight of the people.

Starbucks’ turnaround is now the stuff of corporate legend. Reversing from the brink, Starbucks last year posted record-high profits of $US2.8 billion on revenues of $19 billion.

Shultz has said an integral part of the recovery was his decision to stage the company’s 2008 conference in New Orleans, which was still struggling to get back on its feet after the devastating Hurricane Katrina three years earlier.

About $US30 million was spent taking 10,000 store managers to the city, starting their conference with community service – building, painting and cleaning for the residents.

“I went to New Orleans because I knew that if I could remind people of the character and the values of who we have been, by starting the conference, not with the conference, but 50,000 hours of community service, that we would make a difference,” he said in an interview in the Harvard Business Review.

“And if we didn’t have New Orleans, we wouldn’t have turned things around. I’m convinced of that. It was the most powerful experience that any of us have had in years, because it was real, it was truthful, and it was about leadership.”

For all the cynical commentary that often surrounds discussions about company vision statements, aligning an organisation with a higher purpose can be a powerful business strategy, says Sydney-based consultant Alan Riva, who uses the concept of ‘purpose’ to grow businesses.

“It’s the glue that holds everything together,” says Riva, pointing to a study of 50,000 brands that found that the 50 highest-performing businesses were those who centred their businesses on the ideal of improving people’s lives.

These companies grew three times faster than their competitors and were 400 per cent more profitable than the S & P 500.

“This is a beautiful piece of research. We have these shining stars of businesses that show that purpose and vision are what really helps galvanise a business,” says Riva, who consults for companies such as yoghurt maker Chobani, BUPA and CoreLogic RP Data.

But not all visions are created equal. The author of that research, former Procter & Gamble global chief marketing officer Jim Stengel, says some are too short-sighted to inspire anyone.

“Does a shared goal of improving people’s lives sound, well, too idealistic for the rough-and-tumble of business? What about practical, hard-nosed goals such as making the quarterly numbers, increasing market share, and cutting costs?” Stengel asks in his book GROW: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit At The World’s Greatest Companies.

“All are crucial, but the best businesses aim higher. When many business leaders articulate mission and vision statements, they typically talk about having the best-performing, most profitable, most customer-satisfying, most sustainable, and most ethical organisation.

“Strip away the platitudes, and these statements all aim too low.”

Such lack of ambition is a “recipe for mediocrity,” he says. Instead, the core beliefs of a business should be linked to fundamental human values that remain relevant through all sorts of business cycles and changes in strategy.

So, a vision should be “visionary”, but it also needs to connect to winning in terms of a customer or market, says the national leader of strategy consulting practice, Monitor Deloitte, Jeremy Drumm. If the customer or market are omitted, then employees are left to rally around products and services. “And that never inspires and is really a poor war cry,” he says.

 

“A strategy is only good if someone else is doing the exact opposite. In order to win in a market, there must be somebody else doing something differently.”  – Jeremy Drumm, Monitor Deloitte

 

Another principle is that the vision should be broad enough so it remains relevant over decades.

Walt Disney’s simple vision – “To make people happy” – is open-ended enough to accommodate expansion into new businesses.

“If they had gotten really detailed and gone down a path [in their vision statement] of winning in animation, that would have been quite limiting and wouldn’t have seen them go into amusement parks or ships,” Drumm says.

 

Drumm uses the term “winning aspiration” to describe an organisational vision, but other commonly used terms are credo, manifesto, statements of intent, mission and core ideology.

Swedish furnishings company IKEA explains its vision (with a charming, slightly Scandinavian syntax): “At IKEA our vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people. Our business idea supports this vision by offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them.”

Microsoft keeps it short and simple: “Our mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more.”

Some companies with enlightened-sounding aspirations today had more blood-thirsty rallying cries previously. US footwear company Nike had “Crush Adidas” as its 1960s motto, but now says its mission is “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world”.

Responsibility for coming up with a vision varies from company to company. It can be dictated by a founder or CEO, it may involve consultants and, sometimes, it is a lengthy process of harvesting and distilling the views of every employee.

Drumm’s view is that it’s the CEO’s role to define and express the “winning aspiration”. “You don’t want to spend money and waste too much time on getting the perfect language around a vision statement, but if you don’t have one, then you don’t have a North Star and all the choices that you make underneath that will be unfounded … which is a horrible place to be because you will spin your wheels and waste more money.”

When a vision is in place, it should be relatively stable, underpinned by strategies that may change frequently, says entrepreneurial strategist, Paul Broadfoot.

“If you’re going to turn something around, a vision helps. Sometimes, it’s not until there’s a dramatic need for a turnaround that a vision gets renewed, or a strategy is linked more to a vision,” says Broadfoot, author of the Xcelerate book.

“The best businesses have both a strong vision and a strong strategy and that they have developed together.”

Drumm starts the strategy conversation by asking: “Where do you play?” and “how do you win?”

The first question examines the value of particular markets, customer segments, and sets of products and services.

“Those are pretty meaty questions but if they’re not answered in the context of the [vision], they won’t resonate,” Drumm says. “They are the essence of how you set strategy.”

“Those are the hardest questions you could possibly answer. They need to be mutually reinforcing and to align with your winning aspiration.

“And a strategy is only good if somebody else is doing the exact opposite. In order to win in a market, there must be somebody else doing something differently – either in that market, or in a different market in the same way.

“Otherwise, you all just fight and the prices go down and it’s a death spiral.”

Being Professional Doesn’t Mean You Stop Being A Human Being

One of my (many) professions these days is a public speaker. I often attend conferences in all sorts of sectors that I would never otherwise get to see up close and personal.

It’s a great privilege and generally I learn two things. The first is that every sector and industry think the challenges they struggle with are unique to them – but they’re not. Everyone, regardless of where they work, is living in the same moment of time and is beset by the same trends and problems as the rest of the world.

The second is that a lot of people, especially when asked to present at an industry conference, confuse being a professional with being a robotic, bland and impersonal bore.

It’s as if they believe they must not allow any particle of their personality, humour or lived experience to intrude on their presentation. The result is not only eye-glazingly dull, but would have been much better handled if they’d simply distributed a copy of their (often endless) Powerpoint and remained seated while the audience read it.

The horror of your life intruding on your work has reached pathological proportions among some who strive to be taken seriously. I blame the pernicious phrase “work/life balance” for this epidemic. If you think about it, the idea simply does not make sense. Do you go to work when you are dead (dead inside, perhaps, in some jobs)? No. Well, in that case, work cannot be separated from life. It’s one part of it and that is all.

This false elevation of “work’’ as the only thing that exists outside of life may be part of the reason so many professionals appear allergic to letting anything personal slip out when they’re representing their job or employer. Sadly, such attempts at separation not only fail, they’re damaging.

When I mentored young aspiring career women (another profession of mine), I would often have to explain to them that a particularly nasty and inexplicable comment from a superior was what I called a toxic emotional fart. It was invariably an aside designed to make the young person feel inferior and was unnecessarily mean and annihilating. The young recipient of the bad smell had often spent days puzzling over it and may even have wept a few tears.

“A lot of people confuse being a professional with being a robotic, bland, impersonal bore.”

My explanation was that the toxic fart had nothing to do with the shaken young woman (or man). It was simply an unconscious expression of what occurs when so-called professionals suppress their humanity and have emotional baggage they will neither acknowledge nor deal with. The pressure of the things they ignore builds up until it must escape and when it does it covers all those nearby with its odour.

A professional is not just someone who turns up on time, follows through on their commitments, delivers work by the due date and knows their business – although all those things are important.

They’re not just people who deal fairly, honestly and ethically with their clients, colleagues and staff, important though that is. They don’t simply pay their appropriate taxes (yes, professionals do that, too, they’re also good citizens), and obey the laws of the land. Although they must do all of those and more.

A professional is a person who understands – not just their own job – but themselves. This matters because until you understand yourself – your motivations, vulnerabilities, weaknesses and toxic baggage (we all have some), you haven’t a hope in hell of understanding other people.

It’s called emotional intelligence and really professional managers have lots of it.

If you don’t, you can bore us all with stats and graphs and “consumer insights” until we’re blue in the face, but you’re not fooling anyone, except yourself.

Stay professional while also embracing your humanity with our suite of leadership and management short courses. Whether you’re looking to improve your communication skills to build stronger relationships in the workplace or grow your emotional intelligence to ensure you’re staying self-aware and human, our courses will help you enhance your professional development without becoming impersonal or bland.

A New Way To Look At Decision-Making

By Michelle Loch FIML, Neuroleadership and Communications expert, Founder and Director at Michelle Loch – Leading Humans

 

As I have become older, and busier, and more distracted in my work and home life, my capacity for making decisions has felt really challenged, and from my conversations with colleagues, it seems I am not alone in that challenge.  There are a number of things that can get in the way of making decisions.

 

I often say to my clients…’people don’t know what they want and they don’t tell the truth’. This is not intentional, but our natural cognitive bias and subjectivity get in the way. We are not good at challenging and stretching our thinking (which is why having a great coach is invaluable) so what we think we want and have articulated is often not quite right and there is a need to reflect deeper.

Another of our human challenges is our relative incapacity to manage complex and conflicting data, or simply the volume of information inside our heads. When it gets too much, it’s overwhelming and the brain interprets this as threatening and pulls back it’s thinking in favour of protection.

Thirdly, our need to be ‘accepted’ is one of our strongest human motivational drivers, and the risk of making the wrong decision, or a decision that might negatively impact the favourable perceptions of others toward you, even if that risk is very low or indeed if the decision is necessary, will evoke an avoidance response and procrastination will ensue.

Here are three ideas you might like to consider in order to improve your decisiveness.

 

Figure out What you Really Want

 

This is actually quite a tough one to do on your own, but take some time to reflect on the real outcome you are looking for. It may be useful to ask these questions of yourself:

 

  • What are my big picture goals that relate to this, and to my life/career/role?  Can I articulate them in one or two sentences?
  • Is there a specific dilemma that is causing the need for this decision?  Can I articulate it in one or two sentences?
  • How do I feel about this issue and how do I want to be feeling around it?
  • In one sentence, what is the specific decision I am needing to now make?

 

Investigate all the Options

 

Make a long list of options and alternatives.  Consider including the options of doing nothing, going with your gut, and also the not so palatable ones like making the unpopular decision. Your first options will be the obvious ones…then ask yourself the following questions…

  • What else could I or others do?
  • What would Richard Branson do?
  • What other perspective could I take?
Michelle is a well-known Thought Leader, Speaker, Author and Mentor, and is Director at Michelle Lock – Leading Humans


Kill off Choice

 

We live in a sophisticated, privileged and complex world with many, many options and choices.  It’s overwhelming.

The etymology for the -cide in the word decision literally means ‘to cut off’…or ‘to kill off’….think pesticide, suicide, genocide, insecticide. Cutting off choices sounds severe, but is not limiting, it’s liberating, freeing you from the curse of endless choices.

First list your options then connect back with your desired outcomes and bigger picture goals, and try to reduce the options to a maximum of 3…or less.

 

Hypothesise and experiment

 

Your brain is not designed for, nor good at, absolutes. When you’re thinking, your entire brain network is firing in complex ways with no simple ‘off switch. The concept of stop, start and continue is more difficult than you think, the stop and start bit in particular.

 

Your brain loves to stay in it’s comfort zone because that is both non-threatening, and therefore energy efficient, both of which are of vital importance to your brain.

 

One way to overcome this is to adopt an experimental mindset – like a hypothesis. After gaining clarity, investigating the options, killing off choice, and connecting the most useful option to the desired outcome, you can then articulate the experiment that you (and possibly your team) are about to enter into.

 

“I have decided that we should ….my thinking behind that decision is …..l expect the outcome to be….but let’s treat it like an experiment and review it in two weeks to see if it has been the right decision”

 

Pressure off…brain happy…you can move on to the next decision knowing that it’s not an absolute and reducing the risk of failure and humiliation.

Michelle  will be one of many speakers at our upcoming Sydney Conference on the 5th October 2017. Book Now to hear Michelle and many other specialists in their respective fields discuss attributes of successful leaders at this full day event.

 

A Few Home Truths On The Future of Work

 

IBM and Yahoo say get back in the office but advocates of remote working are adamant it’s the way to go. By Kate Jones

 

 

Remote work has been hailed the way of the future, yet leading tech companies are starting to swing away from the trend.

IBM, a pioneer in the work from home movement, is the latest organisation to summon its employees back to the office. The tech giant had allowed its staff to work from home since the 1980s and had long touted the benefits. Between 1995 and 2008, the company said it had reduced its office space by 7 million square metres and sold most of that space of $2.4 million (AUD). By 2007, 40 per cent of IBM’s 400,000 global staff was working remotely.

But in a statement to staff, IBM management said bringing staff to the office would foster more powerful and creative teams. They denied it was a cost-cutting measure.

IBM is not the first big name to reverse its remote work policy. Yahoo axed its work from home program in 2013, with CEO Marissa Mayer copping widespread criticism for the move. Other US-based firms Best Buy and Reddit have also recalled their employees back to the office.

Supporters of traditional office working say pulling employees together results in more collaboration and ultimately, innovation. Yet critics say giving employees the freedom to work where they want allows them to be more productive and engaged.

 

 

“Being outside the office is really linked to creativity because you’re not disrupted by that work environment.”
– Ush Dhanak, Collaborate HR

 

 

One in three Australians now regularly works from home – a 10 per cent increase in 15 years, according to data from the Australian of Bureau Statistics.

Collaborate HR’s Ush Dhanak says the pros of working from home definitely outweigh the cons.

“There’s the time you’re not spending on travel to and from work – people I’ve spoken to have said they’ve gained up to two-and-a-half hours a day,” she says.

“I think another pro is to be in an environment outside of the office. That’s really linked to creativity because you’re not disrupted by that work environment.

“The biggest benefit is building better relationships with your leader or your manager because there has to be an element of trust if you’re going to be working from home.”

Employees feeling isolated or tempted to procrastinate are downfalls of remote work, but these can be managed, Dhanak says.

“Have expectations, clearly communicate those expectations and have measures in place and also balance it out by making sure they’re still part of the team,” she says.

“They’ve still got to have a touch point for employees and managers.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helping People Achieve

Written by Tony Burns FIML, CEO of HPA Incorporated “Helping People Achieve”

At a young age my parents instilled in me the mantra that giving back is the best reward in life. Taking their advice, I have dedicated my time to making life easier for others, and as the Chief Executive Officer of HPA – Helping People Achieve, I am very humbled to have the opportunity to lead such as amazing team.

Our vision as a company is to empower people. Supporting them through development of confidence, independence and life skills to lead a fulfilling everyday life in a world where there are no barriers. The HPA team are the only motivation I require to continue our journey and remain focused on our commitment to be an innovative employer.

But high-performance cultures don’t just appear, I understand that and have pushed towards finding what motivates people throughout the organisation. I have lived and experienced all types of leadership over my years working with people including in my amazing current role. I feel these experiences have really given me the tools of the trade to be a great example of leadership and how it can help others achieve.

Below are some of my personal leadership qualities in relation and processes with “Helping People Achieve”.

Define Your Culture

Company culture is the personality of a company. It defines the environment in which employees work. Company culture includes a variety of elements, including work environment, company mission, value, ethics, expectations, and goals.

Its important to all our employees, because our workers really enjoy their time in the HPA workplace when they fit in with the company culture. What I have found is that people tend to develop better relationships with all coworkers, and are even more productive to help get buy-in and align the organisation behind our strategy.

Mentoring

Mentoring is also an essential leadership skill. In addition to managing and motivating people, it’s also important that I can help others learn, grow and become more effective in their roles and responsibilities.

Below are 12 quick tips to remember when approaching mentoring, to help make sure both you and your mentee get the most out of your session.

1) Approach each mentorship differently
2) Set expectations together in the very beginning
3) Take a genuine interest in your mentee as a person
4) Know when to wait before giving advice
5) Improve your emotional intelligence
6) Don’t assume anything about your mentee — ask
7) Be really forthcoming about mistakes you’ve made
8) Celebrate their achievements
9) Give more than you ask for
10) Seek out classes or projects related to skills your mentee wants to develop
11) Solve for the long-term
12) Lead by example

Transparency

I’ve never bought into the concept of ‘wearing the mask.’ As HPA’s leader, the only way I know how to engender trust and buy-in from my team and with my colleagues is to be 100 percent authentically me—open, sometimes flawed, but always passionate about my work.

Inspiration

Leaders aren’t self-made; they are driven. A lot of people have given me inspiration over the years and great inspiration and fantastic advice, and I was fueled by my beliefs and an internal drive and passion to do great things and inspire along my journey. That’s why I’m always willing to offer motivation—to friends or strangers. I know the power of inspiration.

Networking Is Working

I have found that Networking is one of the most important professional skills you can develop. It is defined as ‘exchanging information, contacts and experience for professional or social purposes’. It’s about building two-way, mutually beneficial relationships—one person at a time. I truly believe that people who build strong internal and external networks within their organisation are often better positioned to:
– work collaboratively
– be aware of greater opportunities for our company
– be in touch with the right people to get ‘things done’

Passion

You must love what you do. In order to be truly successful at something, you must obsess over it and let it consume you during your process of achieving greatness. No matter how successful your business might become, you are never satisfied and constantly push to do something bigger, better and greater. My passion and drive to make a difference and create possibilities for others is how I live my life every day. I am truly living my purpose to ‘Help People Achieve’.

Innovation

In any system with infinite resources and infinite expansion of population—like HPA, or like all of humanity—innovation is essential for not only success but also survival. The innovators are our leaders. You cannot separate the two. Whether it is by thought, technology or organization, innovation is our only hope to solve our challenges and speed bumps along the way.

Tony will be one of many speakers at our upcoming Sydney Conference on the 5th October 2017. Book Now to hear Tony and many other specialists in their respective fields discuss attributes of successful leaders at this full day event.

‘You Must Have Passion and You Must Care’

Stephanie McConachy MIML has very strong ideas on what makes a great leader and she plans to practice what she preaches. By Carolyn Boyd

Pounding the pavement training for half-marathons, Stephanie McConachy has a ritual. She arranges a three-stage music playlist in advance. “It’s all about the race strategy; you can’t go too fast too soon,” she explains.

McConachy chooses her music based on beats per minute, focusing on getting her running rhythm just right for different stages of the race. The methodical approach is not so different to how she has charted her career – recognising that during the early years she had to lay the foundations, take the time to get involved and gain broad experience.

The Adelaide marketer has recently been appointed to the Institute of Managers and Leaders’ board after spending seven years on the organisation’s committees, including South Australia’s Young Professional Group and the Young Manager Advisory Board.

Growing up as the daughter of two self-employed business people — her mum is a dentist with her own practice and her dad is a geologist — McConachy saw first-hand that a strong work ethic can take you places. They taught her, she says, that you need to work hard to get things done.

Throughout her early career, the 29-year-old has had a string of role models. One quality has stood out to her about each of them. And it’s this single, impossible-to-measure quality that McConachy says makes a great leader.

“They were really passionate about what they were doing, they were enthusiastic, they had really strong belief and purpose,” she says.

McConachy has always been fascinated about what makes people tick. As the third of four children, she played the role of the “agitator and disruptor — that annoying third child, but also the mediator”. At university she started studying psychology but switched to marketing as it seemed a more interesting career that was still about getting inside people’s heads.

In her role as a marketing manager for global consultancy PwC, McConachy leads a team across Australia. She tries to live by the mantra of “just do it” — even if everything she does isn’t perfect. And she tries to be the type of leader she admires.

“It’s incredibly important that they care about the team that they’re leading,” she says.

It’s about taking the time with people. “It’s not just a ‘Hey, how is it going?’, but actually connecting with everyone on a one-on-one and asking them, ‘How are you today? What’s going on?’ And actually wanting to know the answer.

“If you don’t understand the people you’re leading, you can’t effectively lead them. That care and that curiosity is really important.”

For McConachy, communication is key to being a great leader: “Having that big-picture vision is incredibly important, but more important is how do you actually communicate it? Without communication, you can’t lead effectively, because no-one actually knows what we’re trying to do. Half of us are trying to go to the North Pole, the other half to the South, which just doesn’t work.”

McConachy says the leaders she admires are excellent communicators. “They often have that charismatic edge, but they can communicate really effectively and get their vision across so they take you on the journey with them,” she says. “They’re not just pointing and saying, ‘Go there’. They’re saying, ‘OK, we’re going to go there and this is how we’re going to do it and here’s a paddle for you’, so they bring you on that journey with them. And you want to follow them. You want to get on board.”

Trust is also an important factor and it goes both ways.

“I need to be able to trust my leaders,” she says. “I want them to trust me and to give me that space, because without that trust, I can’t do it all on my own; you can’t do it all on your own, we need to work together. You need to have that trust that if you fail, you fail and we can work it out. And I trust you enough that we don’t need to be in each other’s line of sight every single second to make it happen.”

While she agrees some people take to leadership more naturally, McConachy argues leadership skills can be learnt. “Some leaders just have this X-factor and you go: ‘How can I bottle that? What actually even is that?’ But soft skills can be developed. EQ [emotional intelligence] can be developed as well. Self-awareness is very important for leaders and sometimes it takes people a little bit more digging and listening and wanting to take on that feedback to get there, but it can be learnt.”

Having recently joined the The Institute of Managers and Leaders’ board, McConachy hopes to bring a unique perspective to the role, but stops short of saying she can inject a ‘youth voice’. The 29-year-old can certainly provide insight about the issues facing younger managers and leaders.

“I’m just really excited,” she says. “Looking around the table and talking to everyone it’s such an amazing group of people.”

McConachy has her sights set on further board roles in the future. “I see that as a real aspiration to be a non-executive director with a portfolio of board appointments,” she says. “I’m currently on a few other committees and would love to get involved with more boards in the future.”

Outside of work, McConachy can be found helping her furniture-designer husband in his business. Or out and about enjoying the top-class food and wine that the lush regions around Adelaide produce. And she is also focused on her next half-marathon. But that’s OK, she has a game plan.

“A strong beat can get you through,” she says.

FIVE PEOPLE STEPHANIE WOULD INVITE TO LUNCH

“First, I need someone who could bring the lunch, so a chef. Heston Blumenthal (pictured) has really challenged people’s perception of what food is and can be. So Heston to bring lunch and also to challenge us. Then Seth Godin. He’s a marketing genius and he’s just such an inspirational person and all throughout my marketing career, Seth’s been my go-to. I’d also choose Louis Theroux, the British documentary maker who’s forever curious. He’s disarming, he tackles any type of topic. He would ask really interesting questions, so probably get the best out of that group dynamic. Then I need a fictional character – Yoda. I love his quote: ‘Do. Or do not. There is no try’. He could bring a bit of wisdom to the group. And then Madonna, the queen of rebranding and reinvention. She would add a bit of a wow factor and bring some fun stories.”

Building a Culture of Positive Disruption

 

Leaders can help create a culture that encourages employees to question the status quo to benefit the company. By Nicola Heath

Albert Einstein made a strong case for disruption decades before it became a buzzword.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them,” said the famous scientist.

In other words, if you want to upset the applecart, you need a culture that values creativity and questioning the status quo.

Disruption is a key component of success in today’s business landscape. “In an environment where things are changing very rapidly and where new opportunities are coming up all the time… it’s the quick or the dead,” says Anya Johnson, Senior Lecturer in Work and Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney Business School.

The link between culture and performance has also been firmly established. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, “[a] positive corporate culture—one that engages and motivates employees—helps a company’s bottom line.”

“Being a good listener is absolutely critical to being a good leader. You have to listen to the people who are
on the front line.” – Sir Richard Branson

What does a culture of disruption look like?

“Workplace culture can inspire disruption,” writes Leanne Hoagland-Smith in the Chicago Tribune.

A culture of disruption is one “in which people feel psychologically safe to speak it out, to say things that perhaps are not popular or that perhaps go against the norm,” says Johnson.

Without it, “the people at the top of the organisation are the ones that drive the agenda,” she says. “Often they’re not the people who are… in contact with the market in the most direct sort of way.”

Subtle cues that an organisation doesn’t value questioning of the status quo can shut down dialogue and stifle innovation, says Johnson. Often these organisations become “monoliths”, driven in one direction by a single overarching view until they are usurped by a more agile competitor.

Peter Wilson, Chairman of AHRI, says that to create a culture of disruption, CEOs must get out of the executive suite and spend time at the coal face, talking to the employees who serve the customers.

It’s an approach favoured by Virgin CEO Sir Richard Branson, one of the leading disruptors of his generation. “We encourage all of our companies to seek feedback from their staff and implement great ideas where possible,” Branson wrote in a 2015 blog post giving examples of ideas proposed by Virgin Trains employees that had been adopted by the company.

Wilson also cites David Thodey, who was famous for his use of Yammer during his tenure as Telstra CEO. A 2015 HBR article reported that Thodey used the tool to cut through layers of management to directly engage with the telco’s thousands of employees. It gave him “an immediate and intimate look into what wasn’t working at Telstra” and “demonstrated that employee participation made a difference,” notes the author.

Wilson agrees. “[Thodey] said he learnt a lot more about what was going on than the traditional performance reports that headed their way up to the CEOs office.”

What leadership qualities help create a culture that invites disruption?

Johnson says as a manager or a leader it’s important “to have intellectual humility, to be willing and open to having your ideas questioned, to being non-defensive when others perhaps are critical of a particular direction [in which] you’re moving… your team.”

Learn more leadership tips at the Institute of Manager and Leaders events

Waste Not, Want Not

 

Why toilet paper market disruptor ‘Who Gives a Crap’ is on a roll.
BY GLENN CULLEN

 

With a company name of Who Gives a Crap (WGAC), it would initially seem incongruous that the first lesson many of its staff will learn is one of perseverance. A self-proclaimed market disruptor of the toilet paper industry – which donates 50 per cent of its profits to improve sanitation in third world countries – the business only really got legs because one of its co-owners refused to get up off his seat.

Founded by Simon Griffiths, Danny Alexander and Jehan Ratnatunga in 2012, WGAC needed to raise $50,000 in pre-orders to start production of its toilet paper range. Griffiths (pictured) came up with the idea of sitting on a toilet in the warehouse and not getting up until they met the target, all the while filming an ad and livestreaming his, ahem, movements. There were scenes reminiscent of Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon and some numb buttocks but 50 hours later the mark was met and Who Gives a Crap got wings.

“The idea that you can sit on a toilet for more than two days and start a business through sheer belligerence says a lot about the company,” explains Phil King, head of production and sourcing.

Five years on and WGAC has moved millions of toilet rolls, donated about $500,000 to its charity partners and employs 28 people in an operation that’s expanded into the United States, Philippines and now England.

The gist of the operation is this: WAGC sources its forest-friendly toilet paper, tissues and paper towels and has them manufactured in China. They’re shipped to Australia and distributed to seven warehouses around the country, ordered almost entirely online and then sent direct to the consumer. Most employees work in the ‘customer happiness’ department, that is sorting out orders and ensuring people get their product.

“On the inside, we look and operate like many start-ups,” King says.

“We’re really de-centralised; there is no office and while we do have hubs like the Inspire 9 work space in Melbourne where a few of us gather, most of the team work remotely. We have customers, team members and warehouses across three different countries and that makes communication really important.”

To wit: this year marked the first time the full team actually all met in person.

Smart use of technology has thus become key to operations. WGAC uses platforms such as Slack (group messaging), Trello (project management) and Zendesk (customer service).

“We have some structured, standard meetings, but we are [the corporate structure] very flat and, typically, people take a lot of ownership for their piece and get their heads down. We’ve gotten really good at being succinct in our communication with each other. Our days aren’t bloated with internal meetings because they just don’t work.”

The hybrid model of splitting profits with donations is core to the operation, with Griffiths maintaining that if there wasn’t the prospect of financial return for some of WGAC’s early backers they may have struggled to get the level of interest they did. King also feels pure not-for profit ventures can get more political.

“In the NGO world there are multiple stakeholders in terms of your philanthropists and I suspect that takes more time, takes you away from what your core vision is,” he says.

For the staff it is also a vital plank — they can earn a wage, take shares in the company and contribute to an organisation that is making a difference.

 

“Employees want companies that give them a reason to get out of bed to feel that they are doing something positive,” King says.

 

“Everyone has a common bond around why they are here, yet it’s rarely spoken of. We all enjoy toilet humour, but really the given is that we all enjoy being part of something bigger than ourselves.”

While King maintains that mix can provide a best-of-both-worlds scenario, giving money away is not always as easy as it sounds and often comes with an extra level of scrutiny.

Griffiths discovered this first hand with the Shebeen Bar in Melbourne, an establishment he ran where profits from the exotic lagers and wines were slated to fund overseas aid projects.

But because it didn’t make cash profits for three years and was ultimately shut down, largely through complications arising from regulatory issues, there was no scope to fund anything. It resulted in some media barbs but Griffiths was unrepentant, saying he would do it all again.

WGAC appears to have no such woes with their key beneficiary, Water Aid, delighted with the amount of money that is now being raised for them.

“I think that there is extra responsibility in being a social enterprise, because so many consumers place their faith in us and will us to succeed on their behalf,” King offers. “But the positive energy around that is the best of that world, not the worst.”

 

The disruptors

Who Gives a Crap is in good company in shaking up its field, joining the likes of Uber, Airbnb and Deliveroo in changing the industry paradigm. Here’s a few other market disruptors you may not have heard of:

Quid: Big Data is everything these days and Quid is making waves in the information platform sphere with its Internet scouring tools to create trend maps that tell its customers what is getting media traction.

Shoes of Prey: An Australian company that allows you to design your own shoes at a sensible price while guaranteeing their fit. Carrie Bradshaw would be proud.

Space X: Rockets to Mars are not just a Hollywood fantasy for Space X, the aerospace disruptor that aims to get people to the red planet in the coming decades. Started by Elon Musk, founder of electric car company Tesla.

Temple & Webster: Taking on IKEA and department chains may sound foolhardy but Temple & Webster has found quite the niche with its subscription-based homeware offerings.

Social Intelligence: A human resources company that uses next-level social media scanning to determine whether there are any red flags attached to that would-be employee.

 

 

Did you know . . .

  • 2.4 billion people across the world don’t have access to a toilet.
  • More people have a mobile phone than a toilet.
  • WGAC boasts that its production method has saved 47,968 trees and 101,170,933 litres of water, while 8060 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions have been avoided.
  • Almost 900 children under five die every day due to lack of adequate toilets and diseases associated with poor sanitation.
  • There are no inks, dyes or scents in WGAC products and they’re ‘tree free’, whereas more than 98 per cent of toilet rolls sold in Australia are made from virgin fibres (non recycled and typically from trees).
  • Since 1990, nearly a third of the current global population has gained access to an improved sanitation facility (that’s 2.1 billion people).
  • A World Health Organization study in 2012 calculated that for every $1 invested in sanitation, there was an economic return of $5.50 in lower health costs, more productivity and fewer premature deaths.