I attended an interesting presentation by the Chief Executive of Rio Tinto, Tom Albanese. Much of the discussion revolved around the Rio Tinto strategy moving forward - but nonetheless some interesting points made that have a bearing on HR and L and D planning as well.
1. Albanese sees a great sense of opportunity in Australia and says that how we react to these opportunities will define our future. Australia is in a strong position economically but it is at a critical juncture. The decisions that are taken now will have a massive impact on future generations.
How do we maximise and prolong our resources?
How do we deal with the skills shortage?
How do we lift the capacity of the minerals sector?
2. He sees an unprecedented move by people into cities from rural environments, particularly in developing countries such as China and India. About 1.4 billion people will move into cities globally and as they move they will require additional housing, roads, schools and consumer goods.
3. In order for Australia to take advantage of this sustained demand for metal, there is going to be a huge need for expertise and for skilled labour. Rio Tinto employs 17000 people in Australia and is the largest employer of Aboriginal labour as well.
4. Albanese sees the critical place for skills and training. 20 years ago engineers were being churned out in great numbers. To reach these types of numbers again we need major shifts in thinking. Today the attraction of banking has been more apparent than a career in engineering. So it is a full commitment required in the schooling system as well to ensure that people are steered to this sector.
5. Albanese also points out that in order to increase their talent pool, Rio Tinto has looked to the Aboriginal community. They have taken up the challenge of doing pre-employment training as well as adjusting the interview process to suit this community. 8% of the Rio Tinto workforce is Aboriginal.
In order to continue to punch above its weight globally, Australia need to see challenges as opportunities.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Frontline Management
We are so excited! We have won the Best Frontline Management program award from LEARNX and Training Australia magazine. The award is for the frontline management program that we developed for Toll.
The reasons for receiving the award are:
- An innovative approach to delivery. We made sure that we used a blended learning process including mainly face to face delivery as well as DVD input.
- The program is specifically tailored to the transport environment and this ensures complete engagement from the participants
- Yes - there is theory but the emphasis is on practical examples and scenarios which ensure that the level of confidence of participants increases
- The portfolio of evidence is user-friendly and this also increases the percentage of completions on the frontline management program
- The facilitators are familiar with the Toll 'story' and relate their insights to what happens in practice
- A varied and exciting content also keeps the learners engaged - there are guest speakers from within the business; there are external videos; the groups build LEGO models and there are debates, role-plays, quizes and theoretical input.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Conferences 2008
AHRI 2008 was their best conference ever as far as speakers are concerned.
Some very interesting insights emerged and some of my main learning points are outlined below.
All across the speakers, I noted the links in their thinking to what LEGO Serious Play achieves and when it comes to thinking creatively, LEGO Serious Play methodology is where all of this great thinking has the possibility of becoming a reality.
1. Daniel Pink
Daniel is the best-selling author of 'A Whole New Mind' and he looked at the 6 abilities that we need in this fast-moving world.
Brains are complex and one side specialises in linear, sequential and rational thinking while the other side looks more at the context and not only the text.
Our jobs used to be best suited to functions of the left side of the brain where we could follow things step by step and where analysing spreadsheets was important.
But this is no longer sufficient.
Big picture thinking through the metaphorical right brain is as important and if we don't value this function of the brain, we will be left behind our competitors.
The world balance has shifted as a result of
Now in Australia, we are a population of 21.1 million with 21.26 million mobile phones.
Companies competing in this environment are looking to give the world something that they didn't know they were missing - the IPod strategy!
If we are to take bold and inventive leaps, or take something functional and infuse it with something unusual, we will not achieve this through left thinking alone.
Asia is also causing us to off-shore routine functions. India will be the largest English speaking country in the world and together with free telephony, any function that can be reduced and written down with a right answer will be done by Indians at a lower charge-out rate.
Automation where software in fact takes over some the sequential operations of a business, is going to be outsourced to other parts of the globe.
So what do we need to do to overcome these challenges?
We need:
When General Motors lost 10 Billion Dollars in one year, Bob Lutz, CEO said about having to turn the business around:
"We are now in the arts and entertainment business and we are putting a huge emphasis on design."
Design is what is so important in terms of solving problems - we should be keeping a design notebook and keeping notes on good and bad design - this should be a fundamental business literacy.
Again - linking this to LEGO Serious Play thinking we play out in the real world what is happening in the mind!
2. Story
Get your organisations telling stories...
(Is this not where LEGO Serious Play becomes so powerful??)
3. Symphony
Create opportunities for diverse teams with diverse thinking to come together - with all these different types in the room seeing things from different perspectives, we start to see things in a systemic way and from a strategy perspective.
Again - this is what LEGO Serious Play Real Time Strategy workshops achieve. We have different types of people participating in real time in a cohesive way looking at what the organisation could be facing in the future and coming up with a better way forward.
4. Empathy
How do we enhance our empathy skills? Are we too self-oriented or do we see someone else's point of view. With LEGO Serious Play we have an enabling environment to encourage seeing the world from someone else's perspective.
5 + 6. Play and meaning
Have fun in what you do and also give meaning to what you do.
These are also key LEGO Serious Play principles.
2. Lynda Gratton
Lynda is Professor of Management Practice at London Business School
Lynda spoke about the importance of creating 'hotspots' in an organisation as this is where cross-divisional elements come into place. We can then span boundaries and jump into different worlds where we do not normally operate.
For example, at Tesco, they wanted to conduct a staff engagement survey. Where did they go for assistance? To the marketing team - why - marketing had been doing external customer surveys for years.
So how do we create hotspots where ideas can ignite?
Knowledge workers are volunteers and you are looking for their discretionary effort to be creative.
Where teams are too similar, you rarely have hotspots. So, keep it diverse and yet not too complex so that the team falls apart.
The value of a company is not held so much in the people themselves, but in the relationships between people.
To move from the big freeze to hotspots you need to build a cooperative culture.
Create this cooperative culture from the top. If the Exec team itself is not cooperative, people notice as kids do when they see their parents fight.
Select the right people to join your team - a person who is too competitive does not do well in an environment that wants to be supportive.
Give gifts to employees in terms of time - such as mentoring and coaching as this builds a cultural cycle of cooperation.
Practices, processes and habits create hotspots - measure your own organisation to see if they exist!
Some very interesting insights emerged and some of my main learning points are outlined below.
All across the speakers, I noted the links in their thinking to what LEGO Serious Play achieves and when it comes to thinking creatively, LEGO Serious Play methodology is where all of this great thinking has the possibility of becoming a reality.
1. Daniel Pink
Daniel is the best-selling author of 'A Whole New Mind' and he looked at the 6 abilities that we need in this fast-moving world.
Brains are complex and one side specialises in linear, sequential and rational thinking while the other side looks more at the context and not only the text.
Our jobs used to be best suited to functions of the left side of the brain where we could follow things step by step and where analysing spreadsheets was important.
But this is no longer sufficient.
Big picture thinking through the metaphorical right brain is as important and if we don't value this function of the brain, we will be left behind our competitors.
The world balance has shifted as a result of
- Abundance
- Asia
- Automation
Now in Australia, we are a population of 21.1 million with 21.26 million mobile phones.
Companies competing in this environment are looking to give the world something that they didn't know they were missing - the IPod strategy!
If we are to take bold and inventive leaps, or take something functional and infuse it with something unusual, we will not achieve this through left thinking alone.
Asia is also causing us to off-shore routine functions. India will be the largest English speaking country in the world and together with free telephony, any function that can be reduced and written down with a right answer will be done by Indians at a lower charge-out rate.
Automation where software in fact takes over some the sequential operations of a business, is going to be outsourced to other parts of the globe.
So what do we need to do to overcome these challenges?
We need:
- Design
- Story
- Symphony
- Empathy
- Play
- Meaning
When General Motors lost 10 Billion Dollars in one year, Bob Lutz, CEO said about having to turn the business around:
"We are now in the arts and entertainment business and we are putting a huge emphasis on design."
Design is what is so important in terms of solving problems - we should be keeping a design notebook and keeping notes on good and bad design - this should be a fundamental business literacy.
Again - linking this to LEGO Serious Play thinking we play out in the real world what is happening in the mind!
2. Story
Get your organisations telling stories...
(Is this not where LEGO Serious Play becomes so powerful??)
3. Symphony
Create opportunities for diverse teams with diverse thinking to come together - with all these different types in the room seeing things from different perspectives, we start to see things in a systemic way and from a strategy perspective.
Again - this is what LEGO Serious Play Real Time Strategy workshops achieve. We have different types of people participating in real time in a cohesive way looking at what the organisation could be facing in the future and coming up with a better way forward.
4. Empathy
How do we enhance our empathy skills? Are we too self-oriented or do we see someone else's point of view. With LEGO Serious Play we have an enabling environment to encourage seeing the world from someone else's perspective.
5 + 6. Play and meaning
Have fun in what you do and also give meaning to what you do.
These are also key LEGO Serious Play principles.
2. Lynda Gratton
Lynda is Professor of Management Practice at London Business School
Lynda spoke about the importance of creating 'hotspots' in an organisation as this is where cross-divisional elements come into place. We can then span boundaries and jump into different worlds where we do not normally operate.
For example, at Tesco, they wanted to conduct a staff engagement survey. Where did they go for assistance? To the marketing team - why - marketing had been doing external customer surveys for years.
So how do we create hotspots where ideas can ignite?
- We need a feeling of cooperation
- We have to create networks to allow people to jump the boundaries
- We have to create igniting questions
Knowledge workers are volunteers and you are looking for their discretionary effort to be creative.
Where teams are too similar, you rarely have hotspots. So, keep it diverse and yet not too complex so that the team falls apart.
The value of a company is not held so much in the people themselves, but in the relationships between people.
To move from the big freeze to hotspots you need to build a cooperative culture.
Create this cooperative culture from the top. If the Exec team itself is not cooperative, people notice as kids do when they see their parents fight.
Select the right people to join your team - a person who is too competitive does not do well in an environment that wants to be supportive.
Give gifts to employees in terms of time - such as mentoring and coaching as this builds a cultural cycle of cooperation.
Practices, processes and habits create hotspots - measure your own organisation to see if they exist!
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