Leadership and Culture; their impact on safety
Leadership and Culture; their impact on safety
In so doing we will glean from the lessons that we have learnt through hundreds of hours of Pumalo interventions. We will try and paint a picture of where the concept of safety fits into an organisational culture.
This discussion will force us to ask how we can really influence the workplace performance of our people, and we will try and get to identifying transformational leadership qualities.
SO about the stories...
The first is the story that we learnt while facilitating a change process of a multinational entity in the mining and minerals sector. While engaging with frontline through facilitating experiential learning activities we learnd of a guy who had developed the habit of going in front of the Continuous Mining (CM) machine whilst working underground in a mine. Whats scary about this situation was firstly who was telling the story and then just exactly what they were really saying about their team and their workplace.
I remember going underground for the first time. And it wasn’t like we were even going really deep or anything. At least it wasn’t just to a training slope, where everything is usually ‘spic and span’. Well, putting on my best side and the bravest language I could muster, I blindly trusted the guy that we were allocated to for the visit and off we went. Did I mention that growing up I suffered from intense claustrophobia? Of’course I did not recal to mention that to the guys that we were with.
Anyways, before I could change my mind we were walking into the face area and I was about to taste for myself what its really like working underground. As if one shift would really give me an idea of this kind of life? Well the great thing about walking through the dark development was no one could see my face for the first 15mins. At least until the safety officer turned his headlamp on, straight in into my eyes and caught me like a rabbit in the road for a couple of seconds.
Back in the room on the offsite development program we were discussing the impact on a loss of a life and friend through a fatality. It so happened that it had occured on the weekend before the event, and that it was this very team that had suffered the trauma and the loss.
Before we could see it coming the baton of blame was pulled out and was been tossed around the room. With emtion running high and our peace keeping skills under pressure we decided to take it outside, perhaps the fresh air would help us talk about it in a more sensitive and cival manner.
As we sat outside on the grass under the trees we began to discuss what actually happened... as apposed to what was reported had happened. And some of the older men in the group opened up to speak. A quiet attention rested on the circle of men and women as they listended intently. It was as if we could smell the emtion in the air. "Eish, that man. He called himself Luck" He always went in front of the CM, behind the last line of (roof bolt) support. You know, when we challenged him he used say, "agh man, its all about chance and luck. And today is my lucky day"
Questions
As we sat there and listened to what was being said a barrage of questions stormed up in my heart. What did luck have to do with it? How is it that our (own) culture has such a strong influence on our behaviour? And why is it that everyone around us gets to see what we are before we get to realise who we are for ourselves?
So the discussion demands a look at a definition for the concept Culture.
[SLIDE]
Culture is "the deeply embedded patterns of organisational behavior and the shared values, assumptions, beliefs, or ideologies that members have about their organizations or its work" - Petersen and Spencer
[SLIDE]
Culture is "obedience to the unenforceable" It is a realm in which law, not caprice, but virtues such as duty, fairness, judgement,... hold sway. In a word, it... covers all cases of right doing where there is no one to make you do it but yourself" - John Fletcher Moulton
[SLIDE]
''purpose and principle, clearly understood and articulated, and commonly shared, are the genetic code of a healthy organisation..... the people will know how to behave and they'll do it in thousands of unimaginable , creative ways. The organization will become a vital, set of beliefs.'' - Dee Hock, ‘the birth of the choardic age’.
As we sat together and discussed what the guys were going through we found the courage to talk about some of the questions.
Did he not know any better?
Why didn't any body say something? Or did they?
Emotional Value and community engagement
When thinking about the challenge of addressing safety from the perspecitive of social or human interaction, we can learn alot from the world of advertrising media. One such lesson that stuck out to me is a topic that I recal hearing about in a seminar addressing using emotional value to get on the consumer's "social radar screen".
If we can understand emotional value we can begin to grasp what influences how we invest our time, money, energy, membership and so on. With such an understanding we can the see correlation between the values of a group of people and the decisions behind the actions that they take.
Emotional value, nurtured through relationships of trust, will influence the ability of the leadership of an organisation’s connect and build community engagement with vision, strategy and perhaps even desired behaviour.
Social Capital is the foundation for economic exchange. EQ is defined as the ability to sense, understand and effectively apply the power and acumen of emotions as a source of human energy, information, trust, creativity and influence.
When defining emotional value in the organisational context we can use the picture painted by the leadership function as described in the following four roles:
1. Do our leaders represent the organization's story to various audiences guided by a personal passion?
2. Do the organisation’s leaders create a context were staff can give their best?
3. Do our leaders act as ethical entrepreneurs, assessing and shaping opportunities into viable economic outcomes to ensure the future?
4. Do they nurture relationships of trust with key stakeholders for long term sustainability?
All four above mentioned roles depend on emotional intelligence competencies: comanly reffered to as intentionality, interpersonal connection, empathy, intuition and trust
Research shows that lack of trust can be attributed to 50% of all workplace based inefficiencies
In practice emotional value paves the way for engagement reflected in repeat purchases, sense of memberships and volunteer labor or adoption.
It is interesting for us to note that the current strategies of the Chamber of Mines are referred to as "Mining Best Practice ADOPTION strategies". And we are priviledges to be playing a small but vital role in the transfer of the FOG process from site A to site B.
The second story is that of a guy who jumped on the boardroom table to get his message across.
This is a story of a dynamic leader and how he influenced his world around him. It was after some time working into frontline staff in the mining sector we had an opportunity to facilitate a supervisory leadership development program for the South African division of an international concern.
I remember the first day of the event as I tried to introduce myself and get the middle managers and supervisors to take me seriously. There I was, 30 odd men staring me down, the dirt still thick under their fingernails from the night shift that they had just come off. They were looking straight through me as if to say that I wasn't really in the room.
So like any speaker who finds himself in front an underwhelming crowd. I tried a little humour to break the ice. And needless to say that it went down like a ton of bricks in a paddling pool!
Well after some effort and a few laughs at my own expence, we managed to get people talking, if only about why they thought they should not be there. What was clear that I was not the person to telling them anything and ‘where were their leaders anyway?’ It provided a great place for us to begin a discussion on leadership and what qualities they expected from a leader.
We all had something to say about what a leader is not. However the room became quiet when we tried to come up with our own definition of a great leader. It was in this moment that they told me their story of the guy who jumped on the table!
The organisation was in the midst of a transformation process and line managerment were kind of getting used a new manager almost every now and then. Even the crews would voice there frustration that they never had a manager loing enough to get to know him and learn to work with him.
It seemed that ‘constant change had come to stay’ as a way of life but they were not prepared the new guy that rocked up to take leadership of the business unit. “we had all heard about” they said however it was only in his first management meeting, and he invited the usual exco and some of the managers, that they realised what had come to their corner of the town.
Legend has it that he patiently sat through all the who-ha about whats going on the all too familiar run down of the standard excuses of why they hadn't achieved target... again. And then, that’s when they did not see it coming ... and they were hit by steam train of intention and passion.
In what must have been an expression of frustration ‘the new guy’ stands up to ask a question. The lack of response only fuels the fire of his frustration and before anyone could move their coffee cups out of the way he had jumped on top the precious boardroom table and was shouting to management team like a rugby cheerleader, eye to eye, nose to nose.
"Where is the passion in this place?" is what they heard. What are you doing here?!
Now, I am sure that buy the time I heard the story the guy had grown to be ten foot giant of a man who could pick up cars and uproot trees. However later that week I went passed the mine office, which he had rebuilt, to see for myself. And there it was. A symbol of his open door policy - the remains of a door frame, bashed out, where the "closed door "of management used to be.
Here was a man who was willing to put his feet where his mouth was and follow up his words with some serious action.
What really works
A research team in the USA carefully examined 200 well-established management practices as they were employed over a 10 year period by 160 companies
They observed a lot about what does and does not make leadership work. What stood out was that there are many ways to approach leadership and business and they will all take you quiet far, but what does matter most, it turns out, is having a strong grasp of the business basics. Without exception companies that out performed their industry peers excelled at what they call the four primary management practices - Strategy, Execution, Culture and Structure.
And leaing enterprises supported that with a mastery of any two of the four secondary management practices - Talent, Innovation, Leadership and Mergers and Partnerships.
In an HBR article about this research they refer to this winning combination as the 4+2 formula for business success.
The primary management practices represent the fundamentals of business. But what does it mean to excel in these areas?
Strategy: to devise and maintain a clearly stated, focused strategy
The key to achieving excellence in strategy, whatever you do and however you approach it, is to be clear about what your strategy is and consistently communicate it to customers, employees and shareholders.
Execution: develop and maintain flawless operational execution
As with strategy, it is not what you execute that counts, but how you do it. Disciplined attention to operations is what really counts
Winning companies are realistic. They recognize that there is no way that they can outperform their competition in every facet of operations. So they determine which processes are most important to meeting their customer's needs and focus their energies and resources on making those processes as efficient as possible
Culture: develop and maintain a performance orientated culture
In some quarters of the business world, culture is still regarded as a 'soft'issue. It is not taken as seriously as operational matters. In others, culture is considered important, but the emphasis is on making the work environment fun, based on the idea that when employees enjoy themselves they're more likely to remain loyal to the company
It should be obvious that best way to hold people to (such) high standards is to directly reward achievement.
It is noted that winning companies write down their values in clear, forceful language and demonstrate them with concrete actions.
Structure: build and maintain a fast, flexible, flat organization
It made little difference if companies were organized by function, geography or product. What did matter was if the structure simplified the work.
Winners complemented the four with any two of the following:
Talent: hold onto talented employees and find more
Innovation: make industry transforming innovations
Leadership: find leaders who are committed.
They learned that common beliefs about leadership did not really matter. One that does matter, is the CEO's ability to build relationships with people at all levels of the organization and to inspire the rest of the management team to do the same
Mergers and acquisitions: seek growth through mergers and partnerships
In light of our discussion
Culture
Corporate culture advocates sometimes argue that if you can make work fun, all else will follow. The research findings suggest that holding high expectations about performance matters a lot more.
Some of the most noted observations included:
inspire all managers and employee to do their best
reward achievement with pay based on achievement, but keep raising the performance bar
pay psychological rewards as wells as financial ones
create a challenging, satisfying work environment
establish and abide by clear company values
Leadership
Choosing great chief executives can raise the performance of an organisation significantly. Those great leaders encourage management to strengthen relationships with people at all levels of the organization. Such great leaders inspire their management team to hone their capacity performance bar. In so doing there is a increasing demand of something we call Managerial Leadership.
The Leadership complexity
Managerial leadership has become increasingly more complicated because of increasing global competition, demographic changes in the workforce, and rapid technological developments. Recently we have experienced the huge impact of the what is been called the modern credit crunch. In our modern global enivironment more and more managerial leaders need to be sensitive to people who hold values that are different from their own.
Mr Druker suggests that "managerial leaders need to learn to lead in situations where they don't have command authority, where they are neither controlled nor controlling."
These changes require a more holistic leadership perspective, which challenges the way that we think about the role of leadership and the relationship between leadership and organizational effectiveness.
A holistic approach would ask that most leaders interact almost simultaneously with a variety of stakeholders in multiple and rapidly changing settings, covering a virtually endless list of contingencies. We therefore need a leadership theory that not only concerns itself with an extensive range of leadership behaviours, but also with how leaders achieve effective functioning across a wide variety of situations.
Because of the increasingly complex nature of organisational life, some researchers have suggested that only managerial leaders who can cognitively deal with the complexities of their settings will function effectively.
This cognitive capacity is the raw mental power enabling a person to sustain increasingly complex mental processes.
Leaders who really transform
Research has revealed a single specific leader competency which, when matched with a specific characteristic of his or her role, will significantly improve the current rate of success which stands at around 20%
The model
Dr Jacques Elliot proposes that there is a level of complexity which characterises each role in an organization. For a person to succeed in a role, that person must be able to process a volume of complex information equal to or greater than the complexity inherent in that role. The roles that make up large organizations can be characterized into seven levels (or sometime referred to as stratum)
The work required in each layer (or strata), is qualitatively different from the work in any other layer.
Using a stratum scale we can make apple-to-apple comparison between stratum level of work and a person's ability to handle that level (or potential capability). If one does not currently have the ability to handle complexity at the level required of a certain position, no amount of training, coaching or personal will can change it
Measuring the complexity
The complexity of any given role is determined by the manager of that role and can be measured using a process called "time-span measurement". Time-span measurement seeks to discover the longest task for which a manager holds a subordinate accountable.
Your current capacity
Elliot identifies three items, or groups of competencies, which in combination determines a person's current potential to do work; knowledge and skills, values and complexity of mental processing.
Research into the domain of mental processing indicates that it is mental processing which holds the key to achieving more frequent success in transforming organizations. Going forward there is one imperative for organizing successful transformation: assign a leader who has the capacity in a role at least one strata higher than the role responsibility for the transformation or change required.
What comes first? If one knows what the power structure is, one can predict what the strategy will be because people follow their self interests. But that we mean focusing on what should happen rather than on what IS going on leads to misdiagnosis and inadequate treatment.
To have a new vision that people share, a vision that leads to action, there must first be a change in the present structure of self-interest so people can freely visualise their new self interest.
To change structure, however, we need a vision.
People in an organisation... need to become aware... that they need to change direction. At this point, we do not get to any detail in direction. We try to create awareness of three realities. 1) yes, we are in trouble. 2) yes, we need to change and 3) yes, we need each other to change.
Vision and mission are only tools to get the organisation to change its structure as soon as possible. Then the development of a strategy needs to be facilitated. It has been said that “Leadership and vision without a structural change are as empty as day dreaming, and to the contrary they only create cynicism because the organization isn't ‘walking its talk’.”
10 stages of corporate lifecycles
What's it about? The struggle to success is a struggle with problems.
There are problems and there are problems. Abnormal problems are only those that occur outside of their expected timing. Before you can judge whether a problem is occurring at a normal time, you must understand the corporate life cycle. Once companies know where they in relation to PRIME, they can learn what they need to do to get there, either for the first time or for a repeat trip.
PRIME ORGANISATIONS have the sustainable edge of functional systems and an efficient organisational structure, institutionalised vision and creativity, and effective planning and follow up.
If we are to describe organisations as they develop through their life cycle we would best define sustainable enterprises by the inter-relationship of flexibility and control.
Courtship: focus on ideas and the future possibilities, making and taking ambitious plans.
Infancy: courtship ends when the founders begin to take risks. The attention shifts from ideas and possibilities onto results.
Go-Go: a rapid growth stage, where everything is an opportunity. organised around people rather than functions, with top-down decision making.
Adolescence: new experience is brought in but the founders struggle to hand over the reins, with much internal conflict and often a temporary loss of vision.
Prime: finding an even balance between control and flexibility with a clarity of vision. "A prime organisation knows what it is doing, where it is going and how to get there".
Stability: still strong, companies lack the youthful eagerness.
Aristocracy: not making waves becomes a way of life where outward signs of success become supremely important, relying on the past to take them into the future.
Recrimination: a stage of decay where the focus is on who did wrong and how to fix it, on cost reductions and turf wars.
Bureaucracy: if they survive the recrimination stage they are survived by paperwork, manuals, rules and policies, all choking innovation and creativity.
Death: companies crumble when they cannot generate the cash they need, the outflow finally exhausting the inflow.
How do we get to prime?
I guess the starting place is recognising that there is something going on before there is a task - whatever that might be. The long and the short of it is that whenever there is an affinity among people, something is going on. We would tend to use a couple of words to convince of the fact, such as;
Purpose: the result of a purpose one wants to achieve over a period of time
Task: a result one achieves or a process one performs in the short run in order to achieve a longer-range purpose
Need: a constant and ongoing need is neither a purpose or a task
I learnt that the success of my business endeavours would be tied into the success of my vision and purpose. The challenge has become to identify the right tasks that would realise that romantic idea or purpose. And all the time, the busier we get we find a sense that we have not fulfilled our innermost needs. So we try to reassess and optimise our strategies and purpose, ever hoping that we may stumble on the magic formula that will lead us to Prime.
On the optima path, before you start thinking about the market and its need for your gadget, ask yourself what do you stand for?!
Now this proves to be quiet a challenging question, one which we have developed appropriate tools to deal with the confrontation. Such a tool is the approach of sorting out the economic challenges through application of theory.
Systems theory
A framework by which one can analyse or describe any group of objects that work in concert to produce some result.
Question: does safety really enjoy a part IN our perception of the business system?
Question: or is still an add on?
Articles on Wikipedia define systems to “compose regularly interacting or interrelating groups of activities”. It is recognised that organisations are complex social systems; reducing the parts from the whole reduces the overall effectiveness of organisations.
Organisational theory
The systems theory is also fundamental to organisational theory as organisations are complex dynamic goal-orientated processes. The systems approach gives primacy to the relationships, and not the elements of the system.
Q: why is that we get so focused on the ELEMENTS and lose sight of the relationships within our systems?
Q: as leaders are we attuned to the relationships between the systems that we are trying to manage?
This reminds me of the story of the guy who wouldn't start his job until he had received his Daily Safety Brief.
There is a saying that "a fish rots from the head". So when we are working into the lives of men and women of an organisation I always try to get an audience with at least the top 3 of the Exec leadership team.
It was in one such meeting that I heard the story of the winch operator who wouldn't work until he received his daily safety brief (DSB).
How is it that a man can shift from waiting to be told what to do, through system and supervision, into a space where he takes ownership for his own behaviour?
What does it take to cultivate an environment that can achieve that kind of shift?
10 Principles of change management
When asked what keeps them up at night CEO's involved in transformation often say they are concerned about how the work force will be effected, how will they be able to lead their people
They also worry about their company's unique values and sense of identity and about creating a culture of commitment and performance.
Leadership teams that fail to plan for the human side of change often find themselves wondering why their best-laid plans have gone a ry.
1. Address the human side systematically:
Any significant transformation process create people issues.
2. Start at the top
All eyes will turn to the leadership team for strength, support and direction.
The leaders themselves must embrace the new approaches first.
They must speak with one voice and model the desired behaviours.
The executive team must understand that it too is comprised of individuals who are going through stressful times and need to be supported.
3. Involve every layer
Change efforts must include plans for identifying leaders throughout the company and pushing responsibility for design and implementation down, so that change "cascades" through the organization.
The leaders who are identified and trained must be aligned to the company's vision, equipped to execute their specific mission, and motivated to make change happen.
4. Make the formal case
The articulation of a formal case for change and the creation of a written vision statement are invaluable opportunities to create or compel leadership-team alignment.
There is much published account that presents the value of the 'off-site' intervention.
5. Create ownership
It demands ownership by leaders willing to accept responsibility for making change happen in all areas of their influence or control
Ownership is often best created by involving people in identifying problems and crafting solutions.
It is reinforced by incentives and rewards
6. Communicate the message
The best change programs reinforce core messages through regular, timely advice that is both inspirational and practical.
7. Assess the cultural landscape
8. Address culture explicitly
Leaders should be explicit about the culture and underlying behaviours that will best support the new way of doing business, and find opportunities to model and reward those behaviours.
9. Prepare for the unexpected
Effectively managing change requires continual reassessment of it's impact and the organizations willingness and ability to adopt the next wave of transformation
10. Speak to the individual
Most leaders contemplating change know that people matter. It is all too tempting, however, to dwell on the plans and processes, which don't talk back and don't respond emotionally, rather than face up to the more difficult and more critical human issues. But mastering the 'soft' side does not need to be a mystery.
Moving safety to realm of self
Can the empowered awareness of SELF exist in a command and instruct organisational culture environment?
[SLIDE]
Is that why we revert to strategies of behaviour based safety? As a function of our organisational culture that is enforced by command we find that we need external instruction to address internal (personal) issues.
In preparation for this presentation I took some time to discuss these ideas and current trends that we observe on mining industry with executive leaders and safety officials. Here are a couple of the points that were frequently repeated in those brief moments in otherwise very busy and demanding schedules.
As we engage in building corporate cultures that cultivate a culture of safety we must:
VALUE input from and through all levels of the organisation
ensure the RIGHTS & ACCOUNTABILITY of our people
ensure that have adequate systems, training and support
ensure that we proactively cultivate a productive safety culture in our organisation
Perhaps the most difficult part of this entire discussion is best said through the words of this final quote that I leave with you.
"We can only live change... we can never think our way there" Ivan LLich
Leadership and Culture their impact on safety - To learn more about this author, visit Robin Pullen's Website.
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“To discover just how much an impact leadership has on culture in an organisation I will share three stories with you.
In so doing we will glean from the lessons that we have learnt through hundreds of hours of Pumalo interventions. We will try and paint a picture of where the concept of safety fits into an organisational culture.
This discussion will force us to ask how we can really influence the workplace performance of our people, and we will try and get to identifying transformational leadership qualities.
SO about the stories...
The first is the story that we learnt while facilitating a change process of a multinational entity in the mining and minerals sector. While engaging with frontline through facilitating experiential learning activities we learnd of a guy who had developed the habit of going in front of the Continuous Mining (CM) machine whilst working underground in a mine. Whats scary about this situation was firstly who was telling the story and then just exactly what they were really saying about their team and their workplace.
I remember going underground for the first time. And it wasn’t like we were even going really deep or anything. At least it wasn’t just to a training slope, where everything is usually ‘spic and span’. Well, putting on my best side and the bravest language I could muster, I blindly trusted the guy that we were allocated to for the visit and off we went. Did I mention that growing up I suffered from intense claustrophobia? Of’course I did not recal to mention that to the guys that we were with.
Anyways, before I could change my mind we were walking into the face area and I was about to taste for myself what its really like working underground. As if one shift would really give me an idea of this kind of life? Well the great thing about walking through the dark development was no one could see my face for the first 15mins. At least until the safety officer turned his headlamp on, straight in into my eyes and caught me like a rabbit in the road for a couple of seconds.
Back in the room on the offsite development program we were discussing the impact on a loss of a life and friend through a fatality. It so happened that it had occured on the weekend before the event, and that it was this very team that had suffered the trauma and the loss.
Before we could see it coming the baton of blame was pulled out and was been tossed around the room. With emtion running high and our peace keeping skills under pressure we decided to take it outside, perhaps the fresh air would help us talk about it in a more sensitive and cival manner.
As we sat outside on the grass under the trees we began to discuss what actually happened... as apposed to what was reported had happened. And some of the older men in the group opened up to speak. A quiet attention rested on the circle of men and women as they listended intently. It was as if we could smell the emtion in the air. "Eish, that man. He called himself Luck" He always went in front of the CM, behind the last line of (roof bolt) support. You know, when we challenged him he used say, "agh man, its all about chance and luck. And today is my lucky day"
Questions
As we sat there and listened to what was being said a barrage of questions stormed up in my heart. What did luck have to do with it? How is it that our (own) culture has such a strong influence on our behaviour? And why is it that everyone around us gets to see what we are before we get to realise who we are for ourselves?
So the discussion demands a look at a definition for the concept Culture.
[SLIDE]
Culture is "the deeply embedded patterns of organisational behavior and the shared values, assumptions, beliefs, or ideologies that members have about their organizations or its work" - Petersen and Spencer
[SLIDE]
Culture is "obedience to the unenforceable" It is a realm in which law, not caprice, but virtues such as duty, fairness, judgement,... hold sway. In a word, it... covers all cases of right doing where there is no one to make you do it but yourself" - John Fletcher Moulton
[SLIDE]
''purpose and principle, clearly understood and articulated, and commonly shared, are the genetic code of a healthy organisation..... the people will know how to behave and they'll do it in thousands of unimaginable , creative ways. The organization will become a vital, set of beliefs.'' - Dee Hock, ‘the birth of the choardic age’.
As we sat together and discussed what the guys were going through we found the courage to talk about some of the questions.
Did he not know any better?
Why didn't any body say something? Or did they?
Emotional Value and community engagement
When thinking about the challenge of addressing safety from the perspecitive of social or human interaction, we can learn alot from the world of advertrising media. One such lesson that stuck out to me is a topic that I recal hearing about in a seminar addressing using emotional value to get on the consumer's "social radar screen".
If we can understand emotional value we can begin to grasp what influences how we invest our time, money, energy, membership and so on. With such an understanding we can the see correlation between the values of a group of people and the decisions behind the actions that they take.
Emotional value, nurtured through relationships of trust, will influence the ability of the leadership of an organisation’s connect and build community engagement with vision, strategy and perhaps even desired behaviour.
Social Capital is the foundation for economic exchange. EQ is defined as the ability to sense, understand and effectively apply the power and acumen of emotions as a source of human energy, information, trust, creativity and influence.
When defining emotional value in the organisational context we can use the picture painted by the leadership function as described in the following four roles:
1. Do our leaders represent the organization's story to various audiences guided by a personal passion?
2. Do the organisation’s leaders create a context were staff can give their best?
3. Do our leaders act as ethical entrepreneurs, assessing and shaping opportunities into viable economic outcomes to ensure the future?
4. Do they nurture relationships of trust with key stakeholders for long term sustainability?
All four above mentioned roles depend on emotional intelligence competencies: comanly reffered to as intentionality, interpersonal connection, empathy, intuition and trust
Research shows that lack of trust can be attributed to 50% of all workplace based inefficiencies
In practice emotional value paves the way for engagement reflected in repeat purchases, sense of memberships and volunteer labor or adoption.
It is interesting for us to note that the current strategies of the Chamber of Mines are referred to as "Mining Best Practice ADOPTION strategies". And we are priviledges to be playing a small but vital role in the transfer of the FOG process from site A to site B.
The second story is that of a guy who jumped on the boardroom table to get his message across.
This is a story of a dynamic leader and how he influenced his world around him. It was after some time working into frontline staff in the mining sector we had an opportunity to facilitate a supervisory leadership development program for the South African division of an international concern.
I remember the first day of the event as I tried to introduce myself and get the middle managers and supervisors to take me seriously. There I was, 30 odd men staring me down, the dirt still thick under their fingernails from the night shift that they had just come off. They were looking straight through me as if to say that I wasn't really in the room.
So like any speaker who finds himself in front an underwhelming crowd. I tried a little humour to break the ice. And needless to say that it went down like a ton of bricks in a paddling pool!
Well after some effort and a few laughs at my own expence, we managed to get people talking, if only about why they thought they should not be there. What was clear that I was not the person to telling them anything and ‘where were their leaders anyway?’ It provided a great place for us to begin a discussion on leadership and what qualities they expected from a leader.
We all had something to say about what a leader is not. However the room became quiet when we tried to come up with our own definition of a great leader. It was in this moment that they told me their story of the guy who jumped on the table!
The organisation was in the midst of a transformation process and line managerment were kind of getting used a new manager almost every now and then. Even the crews would voice there frustration that they never had a manager loing enough to get to know him and learn to work with him.
It seemed that ‘constant change had come to stay’ as a way of life but they were not prepared the new guy that rocked up to take leadership of the business unit. “we had all heard about” they said however it was only in his first management meeting, and he invited the usual exco and some of the managers, that they realised what had come to their corner of the town.
Legend has it that he patiently sat through all the who-ha about whats going on the all too familiar run down of the standard excuses of why they hadn't achieved target... again. And then, that’s when they did not see it coming ... and they were hit by steam train of intention and passion.
In what must have been an expression of frustration ‘the new guy’ stands up to ask a question. The lack of response only fuels the fire of his frustration and before anyone could move their coffee cups out of the way he had jumped on top the precious boardroom table and was shouting to management team like a rugby cheerleader, eye to eye, nose to nose.
"Where is the passion in this place?" is what they heard. What are you doing here?!
Now, I am sure that buy the time I heard the story the guy had grown to be ten foot giant of a man who could pick up cars and uproot trees. However later that week I went passed the mine office, which he had rebuilt, to see for myself. And there it was. A symbol of his open door policy - the remains of a door frame, bashed out, where the "closed door "of management used to be.
Here was a man who was willing to put his feet where his mouth was and follow up his words with some serious action.
What really works
A research team in the USA carefully examined 200 well-established management practices as they were employed over a 10 year period by 160 companies
They observed a lot about what does and does not make leadership work. What stood out was that there are many ways to approach leadership and business and they will all take you quiet far, but what does matter most, it turns out, is having a strong grasp of the business basics. Without exception companies that out performed their industry peers excelled at what they call the four primary management practices - Strategy, Execution, Culture and Structure.
And leaing enterprises supported that with a mastery of any two of the four secondary management practices - Talent, Innovation, Leadership and Mergers and Partnerships.
In an HBR article about this research they refer to this winning combination as the 4+2 formula for business success.
The primary management practices represent the fundamentals of business. But what does it mean to excel in these areas?
Strategy: to devise and maintain a clearly stated, focused strategy
The key to achieving excellence in strategy, whatever you do and however you approach it, is to be clear about what your strategy is and consistently communicate it to customers, employees and shareholders.
Execution: develop and maintain flawless operational execution
As with strategy, it is not what you execute that counts, but how you do it. Disciplined attention to operations is what really counts
Winning companies are realistic. They recognize that there is no way that they can outperform their competition in every facet of operations. So they determine which processes are most important to meeting their customer's needs and focus their energies and resources on making those processes as efficient as possible
Culture: develop and maintain a performance orientated culture
In some quarters of the business world, culture is still regarded as a 'soft'issue. It is not taken as seriously as operational matters. In others, culture is considered important, but the emphasis is on making the work environment fun, based on the idea that when employees enjoy themselves they're more likely to remain loyal to the company
It should be obvious that best way to hold people to (such) high standards is to directly reward achievement.
It is noted that winning companies write down their values in clear, forceful language and demonstrate them with concrete actions.
Structure: build and maintain a fast, flexible, flat organization
It made little difference if companies were organized by function, geography or product. What did matter was if the structure simplified the work.
Winners complemented the four with any two of the following:
Talent: hold onto talented employees and find more
Innovation: make industry transforming innovations
Leadership: find leaders who are committed.
They learned that common beliefs about leadership did not really matter. One that does matter, is the CEO's ability to build relationships with people at all levels of the organization and to inspire the rest of the management team to do the same
Mergers and acquisitions: seek growth through mergers and partnerships
In light of our discussion
Culture
Corporate culture advocates sometimes argue that if you can make work fun, all else will follow. The research findings suggest that holding high expectations about performance matters a lot more.
Some of the most noted observations included:
inspire all managers and employee to do their best
reward achievement with pay based on achievement, but keep raising the performance bar
pay psychological rewards as wells as financial ones
create a challenging, satisfying work environment
establish and abide by clear company values
Leadership
Choosing great chief executives can raise the performance of an organisation significantly. Those great leaders encourage management to strengthen relationships with people at all levels of the organization. Such great leaders inspire their management team to hone their capacity performance bar. In so doing there is a increasing demand of something we call Managerial Leadership.
The Leadership complexity
Managerial leadership has become increasingly more complicated because of increasing global competition, demographic changes in the workforce, and rapid technological developments. Recently we have experienced the huge impact of the what is been called the modern credit crunch. In our modern global enivironment more and more managerial leaders need to be sensitive to people who hold values that are different from their own.
Mr Druker suggests that "managerial leaders need to learn to lead in situations where they don't have command authority, where they are neither controlled nor controlling."
These changes require a more holistic leadership perspective, which challenges the way that we think about the role of leadership and the relationship between leadership and organizational effectiveness.
A holistic approach would ask that most leaders interact almost simultaneously with a variety of stakeholders in multiple and rapidly changing settings, covering a virtually endless list of contingencies. We therefore need a leadership theory that not only concerns itself with an extensive range of leadership behaviours, but also with how leaders achieve effective functioning across a wide variety of situations.
Because of the increasingly complex nature of organisational life, some researchers have suggested that only managerial leaders who can cognitively deal with the complexities of their settings will function effectively.
This cognitive capacity is the raw mental power enabling a person to sustain increasingly complex mental processes.
Leaders who really transform
Research has revealed a single specific leader competency which, when matched with a specific characteristic of his or her role, will significantly improve the current rate of success which stands at around 20%
The model
Dr Jacques Elliot proposes that there is a level of complexity which characterises each role in an organization. For a person to succeed in a role, that person must be able to process a volume of complex information equal to or greater than the complexity inherent in that role. The roles that make up large organizations can be characterized into seven levels (or sometime referred to as stratum)
The work required in each layer (or strata), is qualitatively different from the work in any other layer.
Using a stratum scale we can make apple-to-apple comparison between stratum level of work and a person's ability to handle that level (or potential capability). If one does not currently have the ability to handle complexity at the level required of a certain position, no amount of training, coaching or personal will can change it
Measuring the complexity
The complexity of any given role is determined by the manager of that role and can be measured using a process called "time-span measurement". Time-span measurement seeks to discover the longest task for which a manager holds a subordinate accountable.
Your current capacity
Elliot identifies three items, or groups of competencies, which in combination determines a person's current potential to do work; knowledge and skills, values and complexity of mental processing.
Research into the domain of mental processing indicates that it is mental processing which holds the key to achieving more frequent success in transforming organizations. Going forward there is one imperative for organizing successful transformation: assign a leader who has the capacity in a role at least one strata higher than the role responsibility for the transformation or change required.
What comes first? If one knows what the power structure is, one can predict what the strategy will be because people follow their self interests. But that we mean focusing on what should happen rather than on what IS going on leads to misdiagnosis and inadequate treatment.
To have a new vision that people share, a vision that leads to action, there must first be a change in the present structure of self-interest so people can freely visualise their new self interest.
To change structure, however, we need a vision.
People in an organisation... need to become aware... that they need to change direction. At this point, we do not get to any detail in direction. We try to create awareness of three realities. 1) yes, we are in trouble. 2) yes, we need to change and 3) yes, we need each other to change.
Vision and mission are only tools to get the organisation to change its structure as soon as possible. Then the development of a strategy needs to be facilitated. It has been said that “Leadership and vision without a structural change are as empty as day dreaming, and to the contrary they only create cynicism because the organization isn't ‘walking its talk’.”
10 stages of corporate lifecycles
What's it about? The struggle to success is a struggle with problems.
There are problems and there are problems. Abnormal problems are only those that occur outside of their expected timing. Before you can judge whether a problem is occurring at a normal time, you must understand the corporate life cycle. Once companies know where they in relation to PRIME, they can learn what they need to do to get there, either for the first time or for a repeat trip.
PRIME ORGANISATIONS have the sustainable edge of functional systems and an efficient organisational structure, institutionalised vision and creativity, and effective planning and follow up.
If we are to describe organisations as they develop through their life cycle we would best define sustainable enterprises by the inter-relationship of flexibility and control.
Courtship: focus on ideas and the future possibilities, making and taking ambitious plans.
Infancy: courtship ends when the founders begin to take risks. The attention shifts from ideas and possibilities onto results.
Go-Go: a rapid growth stage, where everything is an opportunity. organised around people rather than functions, with top-down decision making.
Adolescence: new experience is brought in but the founders struggle to hand over the reins, with much internal conflict and often a temporary loss of vision.
Prime: finding an even balance between control and flexibility with a clarity of vision. "A prime organisation knows what it is doing, where it is going and how to get there".
Stability: still strong, companies lack the youthful eagerness.
Aristocracy: not making waves becomes a way of life where outward signs of success become supremely important, relying on the past to take them into the future.
Recrimination: a stage of decay where the focus is on who did wrong and how to fix it, on cost reductions and turf wars.
Bureaucracy: if they survive the recrimination stage they are survived by paperwork, manuals, rules and policies, all choking innovation and creativity.
Death: companies crumble when they cannot generate the cash they need, the outflow finally exhausting the inflow.
How do we get to prime?
I guess the starting place is recognising that there is something going on before there is a task - whatever that might be. The long and the short of it is that whenever there is an affinity among people, something is going on. We would tend to use a couple of words to convince of the fact, such as;
Purpose: the result of a purpose one wants to achieve over a period of time
Task: a result one achieves or a process one performs in the short run in order to achieve a longer-range purpose
Need: a constant and ongoing need is neither a purpose or a task
I learnt that the success of my business endeavours would be tied into the success of my vision and purpose. The challenge has become to identify the right tasks that would realise that romantic idea or purpose. And all the time, the busier we get we find a sense that we have not fulfilled our innermost needs. So we try to reassess and optimise our strategies and purpose, ever hoping that we may stumble on the magic formula that will lead us to Prime.
On the optima path, before you start thinking about the market and its need for your gadget, ask yourself what do you stand for?!
Now this proves to be quiet a challenging question, one which we have developed appropriate tools to deal with the confrontation. Such a tool is the approach of sorting out the economic challenges through application of theory.
Systems theory
A framework by which one can analyse or describe any group of objects that work in concert to produce some result.
Question: does safety really enjoy a part IN our perception of the business system?
Question: or is still an add on?
Articles on Wikipedia define systems to “compose regularly interacting or interrelating groups of activities”. It is recognised that organisations are complex social systems; reducing the parts from the whole reduces the overall effectiveness of organisations.
Organisational theory
The systems theory is also fundamental to organisational theory as organisations are complex dynamic goal-orientated processes. The systems approach gives primacy to the relationships, and not the elements of the system.
Q: why is that we get so focused on the ELEMENTS and lose sight of the relationships within our systems?
Q: as leaders are we attuned to the relationships between the systems that we are trying to manage?
This reminds me of the story of the guy who wouldn't start his job until he had received his Daily Safety Brief.
There is a saying that "a fish rots from the head". So when we are working into the lives of men and women of an organisation I always try to get an audience with at least the top 3 of the Exec leadership team.
It was in one such meeting that I heard the story of the winch operator who wouldn't work until he received his daily safety brief (DSB).
How is it that a man can shift from waiting to be told what to do, through system and supervision, into a space where he takes ownership for his own behaviour?
What does it take to cultivate an environment that can achieve that kind of shift?
10 Principles of change management
When asked what keeps them up at night CEO's involved in transformation often say they are concerned about how the work force will be effected, how will they be able to lead their people
They also worry about their company's unique values and sense of identity and about creating a culture of commitment and performance.
Leadership teams that fail to plan for the human side of change often find themselves wondering why their best-laid plans have gone a ry.
1. Address the human side systematically:
Any significant transformation process create people issues.
2. Start at the top
All eyes will turn to the leadership team for strength, support and direction.
The leaders themselves must embrace the new approaches first.
They must speak with one voice and model the desired behaviours.
The executive team must understand that it too is comprised of individuals who are going through stressful times and need to be supported.
3. Involve every layer
Change efforts must include plans for identifying leaders throughout the company and pushing responsibility for design and implementation down, so that change "cascades" through the organization.
The leaders who are identified and trained must be aligned to the company's vision, equipped to execute their specific mission, and motivated to make change happen.
4. Make the formal case
The articulation of a formal case for change and the creation of a written vision statement are invaluable opportunities to create or compel leadership-team alignment.
There is much published account that presents the value of the 'off-site' intervention.
5. Create ownership
It demands ownership by leaders willing to accept responsibility for making change happen in all areas of their influence or control
Ownership is often best created by involving people in identifying problems and crafting solutions.
It is reinforced by incentives and rewards
6. Communicate the message
The best change programs reinforce core messages through regular, timely advice that is both inspirational and practical.
7. Assess the cultural landscape
8. Address culture explicitly
Leaders should be explicit about the culture and underlying behaviours that will best support the new way of doing business, and find opportunities to model and reward those behaviours.
9. Prepare for the unexpected
Effectively managing change requires continual reassessment of it's impact and the organizations willingness and ability to adopt the next wave of transformation
10. Speak to the individual
Most leaders contemplating change know that people matter. It is all too tempting, however, to dwell on the plans and processes, which don't talk back and don't respond emotionally, rather than face up to the more difficult and more critical human issues. But mastering the 'soft' side does not need to be a mystery.
Moving safety to realm of self
Can the empowered awareness of SELF exist in a command and instruct organisational culture environment?
[SLIDE]
Is that why we revert to strategies of behaviour based safety? As a function of our organisational culture that is enforced by command we find that we need external instruction to address internal (personal) issues.
In preparation for this presentation I took some time to discuss these ideas and current trends that we observe on mining industry with executive leaders and safety officials. Here are a couple of the points that were frequently repeated in those brief moments in otherwise very busy and demanding schedules.
As we engage in building corporate cultures that cultivate a culture of safety we must:
VALUE input from and through all levels of the organisation
ensure the RIGHTS & ACCOUNTABILITY of our people
ensure that have adequate systems, training and support
ensure that we proactively cultivate a productive safety culture in our organisation
Perhaps the most difficult part of this entire discussion is best said through the words of this final quote that I leave with you.
"We can only live change... we can never think our way there" Ivan LLich
Leadership and Culture their impact on safety - To learn more about this author, visit Robin Pullen's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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