“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Is a question of the past!!!

Heather McGowan, who inspired us last year at a BBG innovation forum on the future of work, has written a brilliant piece in Forbes this week.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/heathermcgowan/2019/04/03/what-if-the-future-of-work-starts-with-high-school/amp/

Below are some of the gems :- 

According to research by the Foundation For Young Australians,in the developed world, today’s young people may have upwards of 17 jobs across five different industries in a single generation. 

Many of those jobs do not yet exist and those that do will be rapidly and radically reshaped by technology. 

As a result, we need to think differently  how we prepare the next generation for work.

Future jobs of the future will require  creativity and problem the balance will be lost to automation and outsourcing . The human skills such as empathy, social intelligence, creativity, communication and judgment will be key and we don’t  seem to be reaching them in schools. 

What can we do to  retrain those displaced? (Will we in fact be able to?) 

A key element of work in the future is lifelong learning.

We need to think differently about how we define ourselves beyond a one-time application of skills and knowledge in a single set career.

The mindset of a “profession” or “skill” or “specialisation” ( a degree, job title, company affiliation) will be redundant - a doctor, lawyer or accountant will be done by “Google”

What will be needed  is an identity formed from internal validation rooted in purpose, passion, uniquely human skills, and fundamental literacies.

It’s about self-awareness 

It’s about one’s ability and methods for learning, adaptation, and value creation. 

Knowledge and specialisation will not be an asset. 

Your job will be “augmented” by AI and AR - which will not make mistakes.... (and  in my view - the world will be better off . )

We need to teach our children how to interact with AI and the 4th generation - it’s different to what we taught our children in 1st and 2nd revolutions.

The way we teach high school has to change - and there are some interesting “prototypes”

 Heather identifies a few XQ, the Khan Academy and PACE 

XQ 

In 2015, XQ Institute funded 19 different types of high schools. 

XQ’s mission is to fuel America’s collective creativity to transform high school so every student succeeds—no matter their race, gender or zip code.

In the words of cofounder Russlynn Ali, “In the last 100 years we have gone from the typewriter to the touch screen and from the silent movie to virtual and augmented reality yet our high schools remain frozen in time. 

(A full list of the schools can be found here.) 

All 19 schools include 

Foundational Knowledge, to place information in proper context; 

Fundamental Literacies, including digital and computational proficiencies, to navigate this complex new world; 

Generous Collaborators, to work in cross cultural and trans-disciplinary teams; and 

Original Thinkers to create new value while serving our world’s most pressing challenges, cognizant that all students must become 

Learners For Life.

Khan Academy 

In 2014, Salman Khan of the Khan Academy launched the experimental Khan Lab School(K-12) where students  move through competencies rather than seat time or tests, each student is responsible to teach as well as learn to reinforce their capabilities, and each student has a passion project in addition to their core competencies and teaching responsibilities. 

Students were  engaged inspired and enthused ant he energy was electric .

PAST Innovation Lab 

Annalies Corbin founded PAST Innovation Lab in Ohio which in 2016,  - testing the boundaries of the work/school interface. 

By fully embedding teaching and learning in industry R&D, startup and launch we saw exponential growth in students grasp of what is possible. When no longer constrained by the limits of traditional high school, students in the PAST lab excelled — they found the connections between industries and application, and they are able to contribute to solving real-world challenges in real time as full active members of design teams — our kids are only constrained by the limits of their own knowledge, which grows daily.”

Inspired by  Heather E. McGowan - a Future of Work Strategist and Keynote Speaker. More information about her work can be found at www.heathermcgowan.comand www.futureislearning.com

How IOT works

The Internet of Things (IoT) has not only impacted the way we live but also the way we work.

“Internet of Things is the network of devices that are connected with each other and exchange data by interacting with each other.” 

All the devices and objects used are connected to an IoT Platform which integrates the data from all the devices and analyses it to share valuable information. Robust IoT platforms can tell which information is useful and detect  relevant patterns.

IoT has altered the way we interact with the things around us and has led to exponential growth in opportunities in many industries including agriculture, infrastructure, heavy industry, transportation, oil and gas, mining and healthcare.

How IoT is playing the role of catalyst for various industries? 

IoT Platforms have helped various organizations to reduce costs by improving the efficiency of the processes, utilizing assets in a better way and increasing productivity. With the real-time monitoring of assets and an improved tracking system, better and quicker business decisions can be taken.

Smart wearables and smart devices have been a major byproduct of IoT. Using real-time data  systems have become more responsive. Data plays a crucial role in IoT, hence having a large storage capacity is very important.

Many threats can be avoided with the help of real-time alerts using IoT. With real-time updates of the workers at a site,  safety is improved. Smart cities using IoT have more efficient traffic, transportation and water management services.

IoT is a major part of Industry 4.0, the 4th industrial revolution, which is improving all our lives by helping us make better quality decisions more cost effectively, both personal and business.

To succeed with their IoT projects, CIOs and business leaders should thoroughly examine and understand how IoT works.

By Sanjeev Verma

Sanjeev is the CEO  of Biz4Intellia, responsible for leading Biz4Intellia’s global business strategy and operations. He has been an Internet of Things (IoT) enthusiast from the beginning of his professional career. Sanjeev loves to read and write articles related to disruptive technologies

Gender Diversity - is mentoring a pathway to leadership advancement?

At BSI we believe that a major driver to Innovation is Diversity and Inclusion. As a result - this blog will include whitepapers and stories related to this topic. 

Richard Sterling - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardsterling1 hosted a forum of 26 leaders of Australia’s largest companies around gender diversity and lack of leadership opportunities for women - resulting in some interesting observations .

Mentoring as a key pathway to leadership opportunities - is it?  

It was noted that mentoring is a key tool for men and  women aspiring to senior leadership roles, however there is no evidence that being mentored  was a pathway to leadership for women, but there was clearly a correlation between leadership advancement and mentoring for men. 

Why??

Sponsors and Specific Intent seems to be key 

The difference seems to be that with male executives who are being mentored, there seems to be the specific intent (even an informal intent) of achieving a promotion. The Catalyst study refers to this as Sponsorship.

Sponsors are defined by Catalyst as being advocates in positions of authority who use their influence intentionally to help others advance. Mentors on the other hand provide advice, feedback and coaching which can all be quite unstructured and lacking clear objectives.

It is this difference which makes mentoring a road block to promotion and a significant source of frustration for many up and coming female executives. As several female executives commented to me, “…. it is a way of keeping women in their place.”

Perhaps this is harsh, but the sentiment is nevertheless very real, and the net result is that talented women simply stop seeking career progression with their current employer in favour of seizing opportunities with other companies or even competitors.

A Change of Intent

So what are the barriers that prevent or at least slow women down in securing senior leadership positions?

If there is the intent to promote talented women to senior positions, then this intent must be reflected in the career development programs offered. 

Progressive companies are now providing Sponsorship programs and Mentoring programs as two distinctive streams.

Sponsorship programs have the specific intent of increasing the number of women being promoted. This means that a greater effort is placed on identifying the most talented women to be sponsored and it requires the active and positive participation of the company’s senior executives.

Merit Doesn’t Go Away

A Sponsorship program is not a guarantee of a promotion, but it provides women with crucial access to career making help and seems to level off the playing field. 

Merit will continue to play a significant role, but the principles of merit need to be challenged. The Australian federal government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency provides a couple of examples of challenging the principles of merit: 

(a) making a dedicated effort to identify unconscious bias in recruitment and promotion;

 (b) using an executive search firm to find candidates from non-traditional pools as opposed to searching the usual networks.

From a corporate perspective Sponsorship programs need to be viewed as a serious investment in developing and retaining the best talent.

Finding talent, nurturing talent and providing career advancement should be seen in the context of being ahead of your competition. 

If women are not winning senior executive and leadership roles within their current company, then that company is putting itself at a major disadvantage. 

The realisation of which may come when it is too late to implement a solution.

10 Steps for Getting More Women into Leadership

According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Australia is making progress on many aspects of gender equality. However it notes that female representation in leadership continues to be a cause for concern.

Women remain underrepresented at every stage of the career pipeline in Australia, with poor representation at the C-suite and CEO levels.

In the 2017-18 Workplace Gender Equality Agency survey, only 17% of CEOs were women. Research shows that most CEO appointments come from line roles such as Chief Operating Officer and that approximately 30% of key management positions are held by women in Australia today.”

The Business Council of Australia, McKinsey & Company and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency teamed up to undertake a study using three years of Workplace Gender Equality Agency data as well as interviews.

The result, 

‘ Women In Leadership: Lessons from Australian Companies Leading The Way’, 

This report provides an evidence-based recipe for dismantling barriers to women’s participation at senior levels. Based on the observations of leading practice made for the report, 10 steps for getting more women into leadership was designed.

1. Build a strong case for change
2. Role-model a commitment to diversity, including with business partners
3. Redesign roles and work to enable flexible work and normalise uptake across levels and genders
4. Actively sponsor rising women
5. Set a clear diversity aspiration, backed up by accountability
6. Support talent through life transitions
7. Ensure the infrastructure is in place to support a more inclusive and flexible workplace
8. Challenge traditional views of merit in recruitment and evaluation
9. Invest in frontline leader capabilities to drive cultural change
10. Develop rising women and ensure experience in key roles

Each of these steps comes with detailed explanation and case studies.

 You can download the full report here.

#diverseworkforce #diversityintheworkplace #diversity #mentorshipmatters #mentor100kwomen#coaching

Angela will be sharing her strategies and stories in her quest for innovation, diversity and inclusion in the workplace

BBG Enterprise Forum

Angela Lovegrove will be sharing her strategies and stories in her quest for innovation, diversity and inclusion in the workplace

It has been proven time and again that a culture of Innovation and a philosophy of Inclusion are cornerstones to the growth and well-being of a sustainable organisation, and will drive recruitment and retention in the future marketplace, How do you create and infuse this culture into your organisation? What magic potions and strategies do you have to do to make this happen?  Angela Lovegrove has infused Innovation, Diversity and Inclusion into the culture of every organisation she has worked in  – from managing a startup to a successful exit to leading teams as an executive at Salesforce, Telstra and now NBN Business. We are delighted to have her share her stories, strategies and insights with us  at our BBG forum next Tuesday. Angela will share with us some of the strategies she uses  to infuse those policies into the DNA of the day to day work-life of every employee who works with her. How she empowers people to take risks, knowing that their team has their back. "It's about working together, It's about trust" says Angela  Angela  has a knack of making every person in her team feel that they are important and that they belong, encouraging them to be the best that they can be and do the best that they can do. Innovation, DIversity and Inclusion is a culture – a way in which we behave…. and its not easy to lead as a women in a predominantly man's world!!   The session will also unlock the issues that may present in your business. . . and give angles to build that culture, that you may not have even thought of! If you are interested in learning, collaborating and growing with us, and believe you have something to offer our members, I would like to invite you as my guest on Tuesday 26 March.  Click here to register If you are interested, please don't delay! as there are only 6 places available, so please click on the link above and reserve your spot now.

Where & When

Date: Tuesday 26 March Time: 7:30am - 10:30pm Location: BSI Seminar room, L7 14 Martin Place, Sydney

About Angela Lovegrove

Angela has over 20 Years International Business Leadership experience in the Technology sector working across the Financial, Services, Government, Telco, Construction, Mining, Fast Moving Consumer Goods Industries, Retail, Not for Profits, Manufacturing and Health Angela has led the setting up of technology start ups – Quofore Europe, Asia Pacific, Masterpack Europe, Tenuteq Europe, High growth leadership Quofore Asia, Salesforce.com Australia, nbnco Business and Transformation leadership at Telstra Business NSW Australia. ​

About Our Monthly Forum

Angela's presentation will be followed by a Think Tank session on her presentation and a series of interactive break-out group discussions. As a guest at our monthly Business Forum you will have the opportunity to network, learn and collaborate with other guests and BBG members in a way that will help you overcome common business obstacles whilst getting to know the members of our dynamic Sydney Enterprise Chapter. I'm sure you will find this forum useful, informative and stimulating. I look forward to seeing you there.  Click here to connect with me on referron and download the app and upload your profile, as I plan to connect you to the room! Yours in business growth, Ivan Ivan Kaye Chairman M: +61 413 339 888 ikaye@bsi.com.au | www.bsi.com.au L7, 14 Martin Pl,Sydney, NSW 2000 PS have a look at our spark weekly and subscribe for free to read about what is happening in our world of innovation and  business growth

Click here to register

Ten challenges the world needs to solve

Source - technology review https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612951/ten-big-global-challenges-technology-could-solve/amp/

1. Greenhouse gases - where to store and repurpose the excess CO2
2. Storing Renewable  energy from solar, wind and sea - how to store enough to replace coal
3. The universal flu vaccine 
4. Dementia treatment -  The number of people living with the disease is skyrocketing. (10pc over 65, 30pc over 85 in USA) Advances in neuroscience and genetics are beginning to shed more light. Hopefully there will be a solution to shut down the devastating effects of the condition.
5. Ocean clean-up - Billions of tiny pieces of plastic—so-called “microplastics”—are now floating throughout the world’s oceans poisoning birds, fish, and humans.
6. Energy-efficient desalination - There is about 50 times as much salt water on earth as there is fresh water. As the world’s population grows and climate change intensifies droughts, the need for fresh water is going to grow more acute. Reverse-osmosis desalination facilities are being used is Israel, which now gets most of its household water from the sea. How do you make it cheaper. As far as climate-change adaptation technologies go, creating drinking water from the ocean ought to be a top priority.
7. Safe driverless car - If they can be made reliably safe, traffic jams might be eliminated, cities could be transformed as parking lots give way to new developments and most of the 1.25 million deaths a year caused by traffic accidents would be eliminated 
8. Embodied AI - where imaginary can interact with real things as people and animals interact with each other. Will machines have souls? 
9. Predicting earthquakes Over 100,000 people died in the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami—triggered by one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded—killed nearly a quarter of a million people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and elsewhere. Predicting earthquakes would allow people to evacuate unsafe areas, and could save millions of lives.
10. Brain decoding- Cracking that code could lead to breakthroughs in how we treat mental disorders like dementia, schizophrenia and autism. It might allow us to improve direct interfaces that communicate directly from our brains to computers, or even to other people—a life-changing development for people who are paralyzed by injury or degenerative disease.

What killed these companies - a culture of innovation is key

Inspired by  Stephanie denning (Twitter @stephdenning 

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/stephaniedenning/2019/03/10/cultural-tipping-points-why-companies-lose-their-innovation-edge/amp/

A Culture Of Innovation  is the invisible asset that is often credited for its success, and it has been seen that it is key for the growth and sustainability of a business. 

Kodak , NOKIA and  RIM (BlackBerry Xerox, HP and Sears Incr giants - failed - because they stopped taking chances - they stopped innovating!

Why would good teams, with excellent people and the best intentions, kill great ideas?

What changes the collective behaviour from innovation to survival 

Safi Bahcall a physicist, in a Harvard study identifies “A Cultural Tipping Point” - when the leader and employee would rather keep their “job” rather than take chances.  

Company-wide innovation is forgone for personal career advancement and safety. 

“In order for innovation to occur and for  ‘crazy’ ideas to turn into successful products, people across the organization need to be incentivitized to invest their time in moving projects―not themselves―forward,” writes Bahcall.

So how do you Overcome The Cultural Tipping Point? Bahcall has an algorithm.... The Bahcall Culture Equation

M = (E x S^2 x F) / G

Leaders can tip the balance and raise the value of M—ensuring that radical innovation continues in even the largest company—by tweaking four key control parameters. They are equity fraction ( E), fitness ratio ( F), management span ( S), and salary growth ( G). Note that none of these are elements of “culture.” They are better described as elements of structure: organization design. As the equation below illustrates, a higher M results from increasing E, S, and F (the parameters in the numerator), and decreasing G (the denominator).

Bahcall’s equation, includes the relationship between “a certain size at which human groups shift from embracing radical ideas to quashing them…the magic number M,” 

without going into great detail - the principal is 

The greater the increase in salary between levels, the more likely people are incentivized to pursue salary over innovation.  

It’s 4 p.m., should you focus on project work or on politics?  You need to decide how you’ll spend the final hour of the workday. Should you experiment a little more with your design, or should you use the time to network, currying favor with your boss of other influential managers? 

Such daily choices, says Bahcall, is what really determine the level of innovation at a company ― not cultural changes instituted from the top. 

The culture of innovation, says Bahcall,  is proportional to the perceived marginal return of an employee for an hour spent working versus politicking.

Bahcall’s culture equation, at its heart, is really a story of misaligned organizational incentives. How large organizations adopt structures that promote selfish behaviors and disincentivize innovation. 

Creating a culture of innovation - one needs to set up structures, policies and incentives that is defined and measured the longevity of a company is determined by the quality of its cultural DNA

There is a great article in HBR where Bahcall explains his formula  really well 

https://hbr.org/2019/03/the-innovation-equation

Company Secretaries need to make the move to Digital and Automation

AI, cloud computing and machine learning is available to organisations  - but it still takes an enormous amount of organisational change, motivation, authority and desire to make it happen.

Who does an organisation go to to help with this digital transformation. 

I believe this is the hottest space in consulting over the next 10-15 years - and if you can nail this..... you as a consultant will be set! 

Below is an article by Andrew Bursill of the  Automic Group on how they are helping Company Secratries “digitally transform”

Cloud computing, e-signatures, block chain, advanced artificial intelligence … there’s no denying technology has changed the way many of us work. Yet, despite the rise and rise of technology and automation solutions, company secretaries are still feeling the burden of manual tasks, many of which are being carried out the same way they were 20 years ago.

According to market research carried out by Automic Group, 72 per cent of company secretaries in Australia feel overwhelmed by the administrative tasks attached to their role. And given today’s strict guidelines and growing emphasis on governance and compliance, the role of the company secretary is now busier and more complex than ever before.

Preparation of ASX forms, manual calculations for share placement capacity, and Board approvals for circular resolutions are among the tasks that cause company secretaries most frustration, according to the research. They are not only stressed by the time it takes to complete these manual processes, but also the inaccuracies that commonly occur due to the manual data entry, and the additional work involved in correcting issues.

Despite these being long-standing pain points for company secretaries, the industry seems to have missed out on the automation technology so many other sectors have been enjoying for years. While broader business software and tools like e-signatures have helped, there has never been a solution purpose-built for company secretaries of ASX-listed entities. And it was this gap that Automic Group set out to fill. 

'We made it our mission to revolutionise the way company secretaries work,' explained Paul Williams, Managing Director of Automic Group explained. 'As a business we are committed to delivering technology-focused, customer-centric software and it just made sense to open up the benefits of technology to company secretaries.'

'We set out to alleviate the manual workload and improve efficiency and compliance. Drawing on the knowledge and expertise of experienced company secretaries and an innovative technology team, we developed the CoSecPRO platform.'

CoSecPRO has been specifically designed to address the pain points Company Secretaries face and automate the way tasks are carried out.

Key functionalities include:

• automation of Securities placement calculation (7.1 and 7.1A) utilising existing registry data
• automation of Appendix 3B (and future replacements) in a form that can be uploaded to the ASX market announcements platform
• director Management which includes onboarding, trading, resignation workflow automation and production of Appendix 3X, 3Y, 3Z and Form 484
• end to end circular resolutions management, including e-sign functionality for Directors integrates with existing Board Management software solutions
• standalone solution offering board management capabilities such as board meeting workflows, agenda management, prioritising action items and minute taking.

The introduction of the platform is an exciting step in the right direction for the governance industry. Company secretaries are currently overwhelmed with responsibilities and the pace of business is not slowing down. As it continues to evolve and grow, automation technologies such as CoSecPRO need to be embraced to ensure greater accuracy, compliance and efficiency into the future.

To find out more about CoSecPRO, visit cosecpro.com.au to register your details.