Canadian HR Reporter

STRATEGIC CAPABILITY NETWORK'S PANEL of thought leaders brings decades of experience from the senior ranks of Canada's business community. eir commentary puts HR management issues into context and looks at the practical implications of proposals and policies. CANADIAN HR REPORTER September 19, 2016 EXECUTIVE SERIES 9 www.scnetwork.ca Join our professional community of Canadian HR & Organizational Leaders: • Connecting @ monthly events • Collaborating with peers • Challenging conventional thinking The Power of Human Capital CULTIVATING LEADERSHIP FOR 35 YEARS Great Leaders GROW www.scnetwork.ca Are blindfolds rooted in egotism? Four SCNetwork members engage in a back-and-forth on Kate Sweetman's presentation Ian Hendry: I thought Kate's case studies using well-known companies (such as Louis Ger- stner at IBM) brought the six blindfolds to life. My sense is they percolate in most com- panies, to varying degrees. It was interesting that she rooted them in egotism to a large extent. Paul Pittman: If I am honest, it didn't feel totally breakthrough and I felt I had heard some of it before. Nonetheless, it was com- pelling and contemporary. I don't believe all of the blindfolds are ego-driven. I think quarterly shareholder pressure to keep mailing the dividend checks af- fects the willingness of manage- ment to change a winning formula — even when a visible storm is on the horizon — if they are not in- cented to act "out of the box." Ray Johnston: If "ego" was at the heart of them all, I'm not sure that "humility" and "self-aware- ness" are the silver bullets. Steve Jobs could be the poster boy for a number of the blindfolds and certainly he wouldn't have won a Mother eresa humility award but, nonetheless, Apple has been pretty successful. Ian: Jobs happened to be right but there have been lots of CEOs who made bets that companies never recovered from. Using English history, I must confess Sweetman's case study was very powerful. Tracey White: If you take (Sweetman's) example of Robert Falcon Scott's expedition to the Antarctic: Scott was part of the Royal Geographic Society and had a career as a British naval officer. His experiences, social standing and education led him to pursue an expedition strategy that relied on conventional tech- nologies (horses for sled pulling). e story of Scott's failure later became one of misfortune. A competitor who was not bound by these things readily adopted new learnings from a culture the British would have considered in- ferior. Roald Amundsen's success was credited to luck when penned by the Royal Geographic Society who wrote the history. Ian: This was a classic case of blind ignorance and sadly it would have been too late for even a "whistleblower" back then. Paul: e Scott of the Antarctic story was interesting but, closer to home for many of us, the IBM or- ganizational environment and the fact base that led to Gerstner's de- cisions was more compelling. En- vironment and available informa- tion play a big part in the position a CEO takes. In retrospect, we all like to ret- rofi t a crime to our latest theory but how do you know when an en- vironment that is going to prevent the crime is necessary? Tracey: I was glad Kate refer- enced Carol Dweck's work on mindset because this, combined with loss aversion, are what I be- lieve is at the root of our current corporate malaise. I agree with Paul about meeting quarterly shareholder expectations. Dweck talks about fixed and growth mindsets. I will go farther to say the rewards on offer to execu- tives promote a fi xed mindset. is, combined with a desire to maintain privileges, leads to be- haviours that create blinkered decision-making. ( is is another topic but things like excessive short-term fo- cus; share buy-backs over capex spending are examples). Ian: Most people know that I am somewhat empathetic to the role of the CEO. Often times, it's a pretty lonely spot. I think that sometimes they are forced into taking positions because the sup- port around the executive table is weak. The board expects decision- making and if professional sports players can stop playing for a coach, executives can make a CEO fail as well. Exactly how well are executives plugged into their areas of expertise? Ray: Kate made that point about the stance executives take in the way they connect to both internal organizational and ex- ternal shockwaves. Actively scan- ning for new information/trends, translating them into threats and opportunities, and then mobiliz- ing the organization to respond characterize the role of a leader in this model. (It's about) suspending precon- ceived notions (blindfolds), being receptive to new thinking and able to focus and energize the or- ganization to action. Confi dence in one's ability to search out and genuinely create the culture need- ed to succeed requires a genuine curiosity, a thirst to grow and a desire to have real impact. Tracey: is would refl ect a "growth" mindset. So executives who are part of a privileged social class, with experience and educa- tion from a diff erent economic, technological and social era, are tripped up by fixed mindsets. Hence, they fail to spot a new technology that is completely disrupting their business model: Digital. is caused the departures of CEOs at three of Canada's best known corporations in July. Ian: I think we agree that blind- folds are an organizational leader- ship issue, not just a CEO failure. I think her ROI formula though made it clear that leadership is the key multiplier. Paul: I really liked the ROI formula and would have liked to spend more time on that. I don't agree that the important things can't be measured — if they are important, you fi nd a way to mea- sure outcomes through proxies. Otherwise, how do you know you need to change and whether the change is a success? It is the emergence of poor outcomes pro- jected or otherwise that tell you that you need to change. Ian: I actually think change is now passé. Disruption implies something much more dramatic. I think Kate was persuasive in making that well-understood. And I'm sure her book has some of the answers. there to become information and knowledge. "So are we doing everything that we can to ensure that that ac- tually happens — so these blind- folds come off and we can do what we need to do?" When it comes to the assump- tion "We know what's best for the customer," that can be a particu- larly insidious blindfold, she said. "It's an inability to have empa- thy for customer frustrations and needs — to really connect into who they are and what their is- sues are. Because when you have a customer, whether it's an internal customer... or external customer, you have to realize what you do absolutely aff ects their own suc- cess, their ability to deliver what they need to," said Sweetman. "Unless you empathize and un- derstand that, you're never going to succeed because they're not go- ing to connect with you and trust you. You have to have inquisitive- ness to really say, 'What matters to you?' And then through that conversation comes a real answer." To remove those blindfolds, or- ganizations must realize they are self-imposed. "Every single one of those blindfolds, if you have the self- awareness, you can take off your- self," said Sweetman. If people can shift that mindset not only in themselves but also in senior management and teams, it's incredible how quickly change can occur. e core re-invention principle is simply to see reality for what it is, she said. "Have information coming into you and be willing to see it." Blindfolds self-imposed SCN < pg. 8 Four SCNetwork members engage in a back-and-forth on Kate Sweetman's presentation Four SCNetwork members engage in a back-and-forth on Kate Sweetman's presentation Four SCNetwork members engage in a back-and-forth on Kate Sweetman's presentation Four SCNetwork members engage in a back-and-forth on Kate Sweetman's presentation PANELLISTS: • Ian Hendry, president of the Strategic Capability Network and vice- president of HR and administration at Interac in Toronto • Paul Pittman, founder and president of the Human Well in Toronto • Ray Johnston, president of RD Johnston Associates in Toronto • Tracey White, owner and managing director at Strategy in Action in Toronto Ian Hendry Paul Pittman Tracey White Ray Johnston

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