Saturday, September 25, 2021
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
How do you prevent burnout at Crunchtime?
It’s well known that “cadets” and “professionals” of Firms, Consultancies and Armies work gruelling hours required in the final weeks before deadlines.
“we call this Crunch Time”
If the success of the project comes at the cost of your teams mental or physical health and burn out - is it worth it?
What is burnout?Burnout is a bone tired , soul tired, heart tired kind of exhaustion
Flavio Serapiao Andrew Hill and Boris Groysberg write a great article in the HBR about a research study identifying three interconnected behaviours that characterise effective leaders in the Army (link below) .
- Be approachable and open,
- Know the system and mission.
- Managing the risk between 1 and 2 - is the X factor that makes a good leader a great leader!!
1. What is Approachable and Open?
- Showing that you care - being empathetic
- Minimizing barriers between the leader and the team.
- Let the team know (through words and actions) that their voices matter.
- Effective listening
- Be open to new ideas
2. Knowing the system and mission
- Be Crystal clear of the Mission, Vision, Values and Goals
- Understand the operations and tasks that are essential to mission success.
- Be technically competent to a high standard.
- Know what they don’t know - and be able to fill the gaps
- Get out to see what’s happening on the “factory floor”
- Understand the costs and consequences of operational decisions.
- Being able to see the big picture
3. Balancing the risks between the mission and the people.
A leader who never takes risks will never achieve victory - however if he is reckless with the lives under his or her command it will diminished effectiveness, decreased morale and discipline, and a higher risk of outright disobedience…… and potentially create “burnout”
How do you manage this risk and get your team to outperform at Crunch Time and more importantly prevent “Burnout”?
This is where the rubber hits the road, and what makes a good leader a great leader!!
Here are some cool tips
Before Crunchtime
- Build loyalty and trust - invest in your people , building commitment, loyalty, and ownership
- Align the team with the mission, vision and values . Look after the people - they will look after the mission
- Have activities to maintain morale and confidence during crunch.
- Have open lines of communication so that team members could signal problems.
- Set clear goals, so teams can understand the bigger picture when a mission involves a significant potential sacrifice, creating shared understanding.
- Be prepared to put the team before their personal interest
- Be obsessed with your team’s professional development. Continually upskill and reskill your team
- Make mental health a priority. Make it clear that seeking mental health support is not a sign of weakness.
During Crunchtime
- Set aggressive but achievable goals. Learn from your team’s failures, and provide feedback to address their development gaps.
- Share the burden and be a part in the team’s sacrifice.
- Keep open lines of communication. Be transparent and keep them updated
- Don’t put your personal interests over the team’s.
A leader’s ability to balance the risks of mission and to people is key to success
Here is the link to the article
Monday, August 30, 2021
AIIA shares the opportunity for Australia to be a Major Player on the World Stage - through Technology
It’s an exciting time to be on the technology and innovation space in Australia and the AIIA have prepared an 83 page report suggesting a roadmap of how Government can support the #nexttechrevolution.
The importance of Learning, Reskilling and Upskilling is weaved throughout this whitepaper
The Opportunity
Investment in innovation and technology is giving us - as a nation - a transformative opportunity that is a game changer - and for us to take advantage of this - we need to change our mindset and change the way we and others view us - With our size location a strategic advantage!
We need to not only focus on the research and R&D - but also on the commercialisation of the technologies and research that we undertake!
Those that drive technology innovation and commercialisation at the core of their strategies will win and it is key for Australian Government to continue backing tech innovation to stay ahead of the curve
We are at the start of a great trajectory
It is pleasing to have ScoMo (our Prime Minister) stating as a major economic and policy goal for Australia to be a leading digital economy by 2030 - with a $1.2 billion Digital Economy Strategy.
And the NSW Government investing $2 billion in its Digital Restart Fund with Victor Dominello leading the charge !
Venture Capital investing has shown some significant returns with over 20 unicorns being created over the past few years!
It is a start - And I am sure there is a lot more to come!
Government Support
Government have acknowledged that
• Recognising that digitising the economy is critical to our national success;
• Increasing the R&D tax incentive and introducing a patent box;
• Appointing a Minister for the Digital Economy;
• Funding a National Freight Hub;
• Investment in digital skills; and
• Investing in cyber security resilience
The AIIA suggested the areas of focusing the following areas - and this whitepaper recommendations of what the government can do in each of these areas
- health,
- manufacturing,
- agriculture, and
- digital government ;
- AI, Quantum, digital engineering,
- industry incentives and
- cyber security.
(mining and oil and gas and renewables not mentioned - not technologies as it relates to renewables )
How government is and can continue supporting the digitisation of the country
- Being intentional in supporting technology in growth areas
- Supporting the creation of industry hubs
- incentives such as commercialisation australia and entrepreneurs programme, RDTI and export grants - supporting Australian technology innovators are supported to thrive, not just survive, through a strong shift from a research driven agenda to one of commercialisation.
- Supporting the building of skills - specifically a focus of microcredential skills and accreditation
Some of the players in the AIIA
• Bridget Tracy, AIIA NSW Council
• Ron Gauci, AIIA
• Ramah Sakul, SAP
• Peter Anstee, CyberCX
• Ashok Mysore, Infosys
• Kristina Kipper, KPMG
• Anna Phan, IBM
• John Mackenney, Adobe
• Ben Peterson, IBM
• Michelle Frazer, DB Results
• James Jackson, Accenture
• Simon Bush, AIIA - simon@aiia.com.au.
• Dr Tim Mumford - Infrastructure Australia
• Marie Truelove - CSIRO Data-61
• Dr. Ian Oppermann - Chief Data Scientist, NSW
• Adam Beck - Smart Cities Council, Australia & New Zealand
• Dr Graeme Kernich - Frontier SI
• Teresa Scott - Australasian Procurement and
Construction Council
• Dr Tim Smyth - Adjunct Professor, University of Technology Sydney
• Jordan Griffiths, Accenture
Here is a copy of the report
https://aiia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AIIA-Growing-Globally-Competitive-Industries.pdf
Thursday, August 19, 2021
Aug 21 Transformation Forum with Emma Sidney
Sunday, July 25, 2021
This is why we need to take Climate Action
(The pictures are of my grandchildren Sienna and Maya)
“A 3°C future will find us wedged between a geoengineered rock and a very hot place.” (The Economist )
Some interesting excerpts from the Economist this week
Three degrees of global warming is quite plausible and truly disastrous ( The Economist)
Science seems to be telling us that a 3°C world is a pretty likely outcome if nothing more gets done and might still happen even if things go very well indeed.
Judging by the results of specific studies, the differences between 2°C and 3°C are, in most respects, far starker than those between 1.5°C and 2°C.
Adaptation
Green roofs, water sprinklers and improved air-conditioning can all help. People can switch to more indoor living during the summer months.
What of the people with no air conditioners?
The increase in the “wet-bulb” temperature
The “wet-bulb” temperature is a measure that reflects this combined effect of heat and moisture on the difficulty of keeping cool.
Once the wet-bulb temperature reaches 35°C it is barely possible to cool down, especially if exercising. Above that people start to cook.
Richard Betts, a climatologist in Britain’s Met Office who has led several surveys of the impacts of high-end global warming, says that beyond 2°C small but densely populated regions of the Indian subcontinent start to be at risk of lethal and near-lethal wet-bulb temperatures.
Beyond 2.5°C, he says, places in “pretty much all of the tropics start to see these levels of extreme heat stress for many days, weeks or even a few months per year.”
Wet-bulb temperatures approaching or exceeding 3.5°C have been recorded, very occasionally, near the India-Pakistan border and around the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Mexico.
Weather-station data published in 2020 showed that such extreme humid heat actually occurs more often than is recorded, mostly in very scarcely populated parts of the tropics. The study also found that its incidence had doubled since 1979.
Drought and drier conditions on 2/3 of planet
In less humid places, heat depletes water supplies. A modelling analysis of water scarcity at 1.5°C, 2°C and 3°C found that two-thirds of humanity will experience progressively drier conditions as the climate warms. At 3°C, periods of dryness currently treated as exceptional 1-in-100-year events are projected to happen every two to five years in most of Africa, Australia, southern Europe, southern and central United States, Central America, the Caribbean and parts of South America.
As a result, some modelling suggests that at 3°C more than a quarter of the world’s population would be exposed to extreme drought conditions for at least one month a year. California’s megadrought, which has affected the water supply for consumption, sanitation and irrigation as well as fuelling record-breaking fires, gives a glimpse into what this could look like for large swathes of the planet, almost all of which face far higher hurdles to adaptation than one of America’s richest states (albeit one with a high number of poor people).
Food shortages
In the summer of 2010 temperature records which had stood since the 1880s were broken in Russia, the world’s third-largest wheat producer; temperatures stayed up around 40°C for weeks. Wheat yields fell by about one-third: Russia banned exports in order to maintain its own supply. That led to price spikes on global food markets which have since been linked to civil unrest in a number of low-income countries.
Sea level rising from melting of The West Antarctic Ice Sheet
3°C world would be committed in the long run. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which until a decade ago was considered pretty stable, is crumbling at the edges. There is growing evidence that at around 2°C of warming it will begin to break down completely. “If that point is passed, the evidence suggests that the rate of ice loss from West Antarctica will increase dramatically,” says Nerilie Abram of the Australian National University.
Nor could the indigenous cultures of the Arctic or the rainforest survive in anything like their current form. Much of the Earth-as-was would be forgotten, as well as lost.
Adaptation
The limits to adaptation apply to nature, too. Animal and plant species adapt to warming climates by shifting to cooler ones where possible. Already fish are on the move, some species edging away from tropical waters to temperate, others from the temperate to the chilly. Land animals unable to trek to higher latitudes can, if they live in hilly places, find respite at nearby higher altitudes instead. But these strategies only work up to a point: mountains have peaks, and the Earth has poles.
Extinction for those that can’t Adapt
And it only works for species and ecosystems that are able to move faster than the climate warms.
Coral reefs do not have that facility.
They are predicted to disappear completely in a 3°C world (their boiled, bleached fate is worsened by the fact that higher carbon-dioxide levels make seawater too acidic for them). Some such failures to adapt make the world hotter still.
The Amazon rainforest, already weakened by logging and burning, would be very unlikely to survive in such a world. In its passing it would release further gigatonnes of carbon into the atmosphere.
Is it ok because it’s not our problem - but our children’s problem?
Will this future arrive ?
- and if so - how quickly
And more importantly
What can we do about it
- Recognise there is a problem - acknowledge the science
- Identify ways to halt the rise in temperature
- Look to adapt - (aka Branson , Musk and Bezos exploring space?) What else?
As Einstein said
“Insanity is doing the same thing even though you know it’s going to kill you! “
The alternative point of view
The deniers - are they denying that temperatures will not rise to more than 3 degrees?
Or
Are they denying that if it does increase by 3 degrees it’s ok?
It would be interesting to hear their point of view and alternative scientific studies .
Maybe forums such as the Client Action Forum can create discussions that can enable us to be aware of the science and make informed decisions and identify paths of what we can do to make this world a better place for our children.
The ability to Choose and take Action
One of the most amazing gifts we have as a species - is that we have the ability to hope and choose.
I choose to be hopeful, I choose to be optimistic , and I choose to be aware of what is happenning around me and “take action” to make a difference
I look forward to collaborating with you - with a view to find solutions to this “wicked problem”
Wednesday, July 7, 2021
Remote Work - a game changer - do you agree?
Covid-19 has brought about a major positive change - remote work and a blended work environment
According to new report by Oxfam and Catalyst (a global nonprofit that focuses on building workplaces that are equitable for women)
based on a survey of more than 7,400 employees worldwide)
"remote work options gives them the flexibility to balance childcare, home care and work and could retain women with child-care needs in the workplace
Women are 32% less likely to leave their job if they can work remotely and
- 30% are less likely to look for another job -
- 63% more likely to report often or always being innovative,
- 75% more likely to report often or always being engaged;
- 68% more likely to report high organizational commitment; and
- 93% more likely to report that they feel included.
Once remote work stops for a company - many women will be forced to quit due to a lack of child care and workplace flexibility.
A mother’s burning decision "Is my job to earn money or raise my children?"
With remote working environments is this a decision that does not have to be made again?
However
Innovation , high engagement and organizational commitment can only exist if remote work is executed properly by employers.
Protocols and systems - need to be clearly defined - with outcomes and tasks to be clearly articulated
Time differences need to be taken into account
The Organisation needs to operate like everyone is remotely, regardless of whether one is in the office or at home,.
For instance, if there is an in-office conversation about a project and one employee involved in that project is working remotely - that person should be brought into the conversation!
The goal - to be able to advance and thrive in you career and at home.
So here’s the burning questions
Can an organisation be totally remote ?
What can you do to make this happen?
Monday, July 5, 2021
Digital learning predicted to grow from 260b to 1trillion by 2026
Welcome to the #nexttechrevolution