The Covid pandemic has been a disruptive event thrust upon us. We have all had enough of the havoc it has wreaked over the past two years. However, even within a grand scale disruption like a pandemic, there are opportunities for positive change. We can take back control of the narrative and put ourselves in a position to benefit from disruption.
Covid is but one example of disruption, albeit a major one. Disruption happens in all facets of life, in our professional and personal domains. The one constant, however, is you.
Our attitude towards disruption shapes how we handle change. It also informs how we position ourselves as change-makers, as positive disruptors capable of breaking down, assessing, and reconstituting our reality and lives.
We hand over our agency when we only view disruption as an external force pushing and pulling us from pillar to post. At best, we become reactive to events around us, a bit-part player in someone else's story. When we give up control of our story, we lose the strategic advantage of having agency and the psychological advantage it brings. Our ego is diminished. We lose an essential element of our life force.
Disruption happens to us, but importantly, we must never forget that we can be the disruptor.
You can be a disruptor by speaking up or doing something about a negative aspect of the status quo, whether in your personal life or the workplace. By being the shining light or the champion in the organisation who does not allow uncontrollable, external disruptions to influence or affect your mindset adversely, you disrupt for good. By not accepting the prevailing wisdom or the traditional way of doing things, you can open yourself and others to new ideas and better outcomes.
The key to being a positive disruptor is mindfulness. When we accept our situation or circumstances as a given, as immutable, we tend to slip into sleepwalker mode. We tick boxes and follow the seemingly pre-destined path laid out before us. We park our brains and let habit do the driving.
But you need to be in the driver's seat! Be the driving force in your life. Mindfulness means you are SELF-aware and conscious of your thoughts, situation, and circumstances. It's flipping the switch from ''what does this situation demand from me?'' to ''what can I demand from this situation?''
You can control this – you can control how you approach things and whether you let those things negatively or positively impact you. Focus on your attitude and how you decide to respond. Ask questions. Interrogate. Reframe your outlook. Look for cracks in the facade. Where can you gain the leverage to pry open new possibilities? Imagine new horizons.
Opportunities are everywhere, especially if we are curious. Curiosity is integral to ensuring that you are on the front foot, awake and prepared to move and disrupt.
Adopting this attitude may require becoming comfortable with being a maverick and shaking things up.
Extend this thinking to your business. To be a disruptor, you must:
To achieve Greater Success, don't wait to be disrupted. Be the disruptor!
In my 13 years with The CEO Circle, I have not seen our members tackle a more complex set of collective challenges. Personally, it has been a humbling, exhausting and inspiring experience.
Among the most common topics to come up in Circle meetings was scenario planning. In the normal course of events, scenario planning is an important and regular part of how most successful organisations go about setting goals and strategy for the future.
However, during the past six or so months, scenario planning has taken on a whole new level of importance. COVID-19 introduced such an abundant array of complicating factors into play that when we first grasped its enormity, we all felt dizzy just thinking about its implications.
In truth, we are all still trying to get our heads around what it all means.
There's still no vaccine. No one is entirely sure of the economic ramifications, domestically and globally. And we don't know the long-term effects the crisis may have on such things as mental health, education, international travel and a host of other things.
All of this means that scenario planning is essential.
But scenario planning in the time of COVID can't be what it used to be – it has to be turbo-charged. Events move too quickly, and the stakes are too high to move at a leisurely pace anymore.
As our meetings progressed, we made sure to continually update a spreadsheet of the different topics raised in our Circle meetings. Around 50 separate topics were documented.
The breadth and depth of the issues raised illustrated just how far-ranging the challenges have been for businesses. From concerns about the skills shortage created by the abrupt halt to immigration through to data privacy and security, the issues raised by members have all required significant assessment and policy thought.
The discussion ranged from the way COVID-19 is transforming the socio-economic landscape of Australia through to how organisations might be able to consolidate the positives that have emerged from the crisis.
As the webinar moderator, I was delighted by the optimism of the panellists, with everyone recognising this crisis is a marathon, not a sprint. All agreed we can expect uncertainty to be a certainty at least for the next 12-18 months.
The consensus is that organisations with strong fundamentals in place and an adaptable, ‘athletic stance’ to challenges and opportunities stand to emerge stronger from this crisis.
With that in mind, here are 10 of the most critical insights to come from our Going The Distance webinar.
We are proud to be able to bring the best and brightest minds together in completely confidential Circles – no hidden agendas, completely confidential and with a vast range of experiences.
For over 26 years now, The CEO Circle has been sharing insights, knowledge and perspectives, enhancing leadership capacity and making it a less lonely existence for all in our Circle. Where else can you have access to hundreds of years of combined experience that would take a lifetime to amass yourself.
We will continue our mission throughout this crisis and beyond the curve, helping you to achieve greater success as a leader.
Andrew Reitzer brings 40+ years of global experience in the technology, retail and wholesaling industries, with significant expertise in M&A, post-acquisition integration and organisational change. From 1998 to 2013, Andrew was CEO of Metcash Limited, overseeing a four-fold increase in sales and a $280 million earnings turnaround. Andrew has been appointed to several company directorships, including Chairman of SG Fleet, amaysim, ARQ Group and George & Matilda boards. A CEO Circle member, he is one of our esteemed CEO Circle Sydney Chairs.
Elizabeth Johnstone is a professional company director with a distinguished career in corporate law including many years as National Director and Practice Head (Company Law and Governance) of legal firm Blake Dawson (now Ashurst). A senior strategic consultant to global law firm DLA Piper, Elizabeth is the current Chair of ASX Corporate Governance Council and has served as a director of a number of publicly listed, private and government boards. She is a former Business and Professional Women’s Association/QANTAS Business Woman of the Year. Elizabeth Johnstone is one of our esteemed CEO Circle and Future Circle Chairs in Sydney.
John Moller has built world-class leadership teams, turned around companies and been a mentor to many during his prolific career in Australia and abroad. He has held senior positions in Honeywell, James Hardie Industries, Adsteam, Repco and most recently with Genuine Parts Company, a US-headquartered company which acquired Repco in 2013. He is the Non-Executive Chairman of GPC Asia Pacific and is on the board of Inenco Group. An esteemed CEO Circle Chair, John has been a member of The CEO Circle in Sydney, London and Melbourne.
Amid this crisis, people are yearning for “excessive decisiveness”. Procrastination is not only a waste of time but could result in you and your organisation’s demise in this environment.
People want leaders to make tough, courageous decisions and have the vision to adapt, innovate and help the organisation and its people emerge beyond the curve in a stronger position – fit for purpose for the new normal!
Quite simply, organisations cannot afford to go through the same old processes they did before all of this happened. Now is not the time for business-as-normal thinking.
The stakes are too high and the speed of change too rapid for organisations to stay stuck in collaborate-and-consensus-rinse-repeat mode. The times we live in call for swift and decisive action, not ponderous deliberations. People want this from their leaders right now.
Perhaps even more crucially, this is what is required if you want to stay ahead of the curve and come out the other end of the COVID-19 tunnel having survived and thrived.
Excessive decisiveness is about accelerating the way decisions are made and problems solved. To do that, leaders must have the resilience to back themselves and back their teams.
It is important to note that excessive decisiveness is not the same as a dictatorial power trip.
Instead, it’s about cutting the layers of padding that slow down quick movement and thinking among teams. It’s about spying opportunity when it presents and pouncing on it. It’s about stripping back and streamlining decision-making processes to the point where rigour and speed become intertwined.
It is also about using technology intelligently and effectively. Organisations reframing, repositioning and accelerating revised and new IT strategies to take advantage of the new normal. What was taking some organisations years to do is now being compressed into days and weeks. Urgency has accelerated the process of digital transformation.
Professor Jon Whittle, the Dean of the Faculty of IT at Monash University, says: "Digital transformation is going to be more important than ever as the economy starts its recovery. We likely will see industries accelerate tech investment post-COVID. They'll need it to get efficiencies where they can, and to give them a competitive advantage. And they've seen from the rapid reliance on tech in the COVID era that digital transformation is possible - and can happen fast."
Leaders who undertake excessive decisiveness create an agile decision-making framework that enables critical team members to assess, decide and act when, where and how required.
Concise and practical communications, lateral and flexible thinking on strategy, and the confidence and composure to advance on an opportunity are vital elements of leadership during a time of crisis. Leaders cannot afford to hoard these qualities for themselves. Effective leaders need to enable these qualities to shine throughout their organisation, especially among crucial group leaders.
COVID-19 has set the world on a warp-speed trajectory. For CEOs, you must have a guard of invisible armour around you at all times, as you fight seemingly never-ending battles during this pandemic crisis. Your armour needs to be tough but also lightweight enough to enable swift maneuverability. Resilience is essential for every leader and organisation.
The slow and the tentative will face a painful reckoning. Resilient leaders who can move with excessive decisiveness will prevail during these unprecedented times.
“You will see the dawn to come after this night engulfing our world; you need to see it and call it and prepare for it with all your strength.”
— German poet Rainer Maria Rilke
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, calls it “humanity’s darkest hour.”
In a press briefing held on April 3 in conjunction with the World Health Organization, Georgieva said “this is a crisis like no other. Never in the history of the IMF have we witnessed the world economy coming to a standstill. We are now in recession. It is way worse than the global financial crisis. And it is a crisis that requires all of us to come together.”
The death toll continues to rise across the world. For many, hope is receding as we struggle to absorb the enormity of the COVID-19 pandemic. Few will go untouched in one form or another by this experience.
Though it is hard to fathom, there is hope.
Hope in the selfless service medical professionals and essential workers are providing during such troubled times; in the sense of community we have discovered even in self-isolation; in the words and actions of those leaders who choose to lead and inspire.
Furthermore, we can hold fast to the resilience of the human spirit to overcome the sternest of challenges, even this one. In these dark times, human ingenuity lights the spark that illuminates the future.
Our capacity to transform crisis into opportunity has enabled humanity to emerge from other dark periods. Within crisis is agency, the capacity to decide. To make a decision and take action. Leaders must understand and take on board this idea: In adversity is the opportunity for transformation.
In response to the current crisis, at The CEO Circle, we are running weekly virtual conferences in confidential surroundings with a diverse group of CEOs and leaders of industry from across the country. This is in addition to the more frequent virtual Circle meetings being held to discuss the current situation.
The meetings have provided rich learnings about crisis management during these unprecedented times. They have also provided ample evidence that businesses with an agile and positive mindset can survive and even thrive during this period, and hopefully beyond.
Serious cash flow issues are constricting the majority of businesses; supply chains are haphazard; and consumer demand is uneven and unpredictable, non-existent in some sectors and skyrocketing in others. Organisations are having to make rapid-fire calls daily across every business function to survive.
Sadly, many good businesses will not survive. Some great organisations may even fall by the wayside. But what we are hearing is those adaptable companies that can spot an opportunity and deploy and deliver quickly are finding success even in these grim times.
Importantly, a select number of business leaders are thinking beyond the next move to ‘Day One’, when we get back to some form of normality or as I call it ‘the new norm’. A semblance of stability and continuity will resume, we don’t know what it will look like, but leaders need to have a plan and a vision, so they are ready for when it does arrive.
These leaders are gathering their teams together to run multiple projections across short, mid and long-term scenarios. They are making hard decisions educated by data and informed by the wisdom and experience of trusted colleagues and advisers. They are thinking about how they can serve their customers, clients, stakeholders, and crucially, the community.
These are the leaders who instil confidence. They have a belief, plan and vision for survival, regardless of the realisation that tougher times await around the corner. They know they will get through this as a collective, not pausing for even a single moment, helping their people focus on what matters, maintaining the momentum they have worked so hard to build.
These leaders are making the most of the current situation to bring their teams closer, communicate, connect and engage, building relationships that will stand them in good stead and ahead of the rest. Building trust and rapport, going deeper and making the most of this precious time to build an unbreakable bond. If we can get through this together, we can get through anything.
Over the past decade, many organisation gave lip service to mantras such as ‘digital transformation’, ‘collaborative thinking’ and ‘customer-centric approach’ without actually integrating them into the operational DNA of an organisation. Amid this crisis, those that paid heed to these ideas find they have the flexibility to adapt to new scenarios and rapidly solve problems.
One prominent example to have arisen from this crisis is remote working, which so many senior managers had previously viewed with suspicion. People have discovered that remote working is efficient and doable. It is fast becoming the new normal. Already, managers and employees are planning to make remote work the default setting for their organisations even beyond this crisis.
As well as getting us through this period of self-isolation and widescale lockdowns, remote working presents an opportunity for all of us to start integrating our home and work life in a more productive, holistic way. A new mindset is emerging that moves beyond the dead-end work/life balance dichotomy we have laboured under to something more fluid and organic. We have the opportunity to truly integrate the Self into the circles of work, family and community.
On a personal front, now is the time to concentrate on prioritising Self. Focus on you and throw yourself into establishing positive new habits and breaking bad old ones. Exercise, move, walk, run, cycle, yoga, whatever it is to ensure you are at your best. Eat well and find time for stillness and creativity. If you fall over, everyone else will suffer. Make you a priority for yourself and those who depend on you.
Take the opportunity to reconnect with family. One of our Circle members summed it up beautifully this week. He said: “With the entire family working and schooling from home, we eat together 21 times a week. I look at it as 21 opportunities to sit and eat and reconnect with my family. When am I going to get that again?”
Make every moment count and be present in every moment, for you and all those around you.
Use this time to think differently. We have truly been forced to think outside the box. Way outside the box. This is not a whiteboard scenario. It is happening now. Who would have ever thought we would be in this global pandemic situation, where lives are lost and economies close down globally? Few could have predicted this Black Swan event. Now is the perfect opportunity to reinvent; personally, professionally and within your organisation.
Things are bleak right now. We don’t know how long we will be here. The certainties we held as self-evident only weeks ago have crumbled before our eyes. But rest assured we still have hope. We can decide our response to this crisis. We can take action – move forward calmly – linking purpose and drive to the change you want to see in the world. Your people; all those around you will remember how you responded and what actions you took during this time and more importantly how you made them feel.
For leaders everywhere, this is the time to stand up and lead, with compassion, empathy, intelligence and positivity. It will test all of us immensely, but it is something we must do for ourselves and those around us. It is something we must do for our greater success.
There’s a beautiful hashtag doing the rounds on social media right now: #apartbuttogether. It succinctly expresses how so many of us are feeling as we tread through the fog of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
It all feels so strange. Terms like social distancing, self-isolation and lockdown have infected our everyday language and now dominate our thinking, putting us all on edge, unsure about what it all means. Very few of us have ever experienced anything like this.
It’s crucial, however, that we don’t begin to feel estranged. Self-isolation shouldn’t mean social isolation. Social distancing shouldn’t become emotional desolation. We can’t let this viral pandemic become a mental health one.
We need to stay connected. We need to keep communicating. We need to be kind to ourselves and each other.
I have distant memories as a child of being dragged to the phone to speak to relatives in Greece. I would shyly say hello across a crackling international phone line to people I only knew from black and white photos. I was self-conscious about my Greek. I was never quite sure what to say.
But I knew it meant the world to my parents. Hearing a voice made them feel connected to the world they had left behind. It was a heart line to their loved ones.
My father raised me to respect and honour family, friends and community. If he could not be there in the flesh for a friend or family member, he would be there on the phone. He understood the importance of belonging to a community, both his new one here in his adopted homeland and the old one half a world away.
This sense of respect, honour and community is encapsulated in an extraordinary Greek word: philotimo. The former US President Barack Obama sums up philotimo beautifully:
“In all of our communities, I still believe there’s more of what Greeks call philotimo—love, and respect, and kindness for family and community and country, and a sense that we’re all in this together, with obligations to each other. Philotimo—I see it every day, and that gives me hope.”
Philotimo guides my being. It underpins everything in my life and all that I do. I turn to it as a source of strength. We need philotimo now more than ever.
We might be stuck at home in self-isolation, but we should never feel alone. We might not be in the same room, but we can still talk, laugh and cry together. We can discuss our hopes and fears. Get deep and meaningful.
Pick up the phone. Skype. Zoom. FaceTime. Whatever you like best. We are so lucky to have the technology that enables us to remain connected to the people we love, as opposed to even 10 years ago.
Schedule and prioritise regular and frequent video calls with your colleagues and clients. Hearing a voice, seeing a face will mean so much more than an email. Show kindness.
Check-in with the vulnerable. Keep in touch with those you know have struggled with mental health issues. Share a joke, listen to their problems. The immensity of what we’re going through will leave many feeling hopeless, potentially triggering a downward spiral into despair, depression and worse. Reach out to them.
Many people live on their own. Their social lives may have revolved around work, social gatherings, going to the gym, book clubs or church. Don’t forget them. Be with them.
Look out for the elderly. Many already struggle with loneliness and isolation, a problem the current crisis will exacerbate. Observe all the advice on safe distancing, but ask if they need help with groceries, meals, prescriptions or anything else. Talk with them.
Use social media for the power of good: share reliable information, funny memes and cat videos. Watch live streams of musicians and other performers. If you’re in a position to do so, reward their efforts with a monetary contribution. Share love, not hate.
As individuals and as a society, we’re all in this #apartbuttogether. Throw your heart lines out to all those around you, including the most vulnerable who need our help now more than ever. Believe in the power of philotimo. We will get through this, together.
If you or someone you know needs to talk to someone about mental health, the Beyond Blue Support Service offers short term counselling and referrals by phone and webchat on 1300 22 4636.
Beyond Blue link for COVID-19 specific information:
https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/looking-after-your-mental-health-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak
Beyond Blue support services (which includes call / web-chat / email support / forums): https://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/get-immediate-support
Similarly, the EA is the eyes and ears of the executive at all times, which often means being alert to potential issues, conflicts, and any new bit of information that may be helpful to the executive or organisation.
Highly attuned EAs are adept at reading the tone of communications and interpreting the emotional and psychological tenor of what is going on around them. They are in a unique position to close the gap between the CEO’s perception and that of other employees by working closely with both the executive suite and the various levels and departments of an organisation. The best EAs can even act as honest brokers in the workplace, mediating between employees while always advocating in the best interests of their CEO and their organisation.
Look deeper and you will find the EA is an organiser, motivator, pulse-taker, and mediator all rolled into one. At The EA Circle, we recognise and value the critical role executive assistants play in the modern workplace. Within our confidential forums, we offer the professional support and guidance that can take you to the next level of your career as an EA and help you grow professionally and personally.
So what is positive self-disruption?
Positive self-disruption is about making a conscious choice to grow as an individual by engaging in new experiences and ideas. It’s about viewing disruption not as a negative, destructive force but as a positive one that enables you to create a growth mindset. It’s about pushing beyond your comfort zones.
It’s also a way we can develop our foresight. When we throw ourselves into new scenarios and unexplored terrain, physically or mentally, we equip ourselves with the tools to become a day-after-tomorrow thinker. Rather than running on autopilot, we start to think creatively in response to the new stimuli we experience. Positive self-disruption teaches us to become accustomed to change and to factor it into our strategic thinking.
We live in an age of disruption. Individuals, businesses, communities and governments are all experiencing their own versions of it, brought about by technological, economic and cultural factors. No one is immune. How we handle the challenge of disruption often comes down to the resilience, flexibility and positivity we carry within ourselves.
Positive self-disruption helps us build our reserves of resilience, fosters flexibility and promotes positivity. Through positive self-disruption, we can find calm within the chaos; recognise opportunity within change; and as leaders, understand how we can navigate difficult times and challenging scenarios.
So how do we engage in positive self-disruption?
Firstly, we identify areas of our lives in which we want to grow and improve. These are usually health, career, family and finances. The big picture stuff. Stop and reflect on your life. Prioritise what’s important. Make it a testing ground for growth. Introduce positive self-disruption by unleashing a little controlled chaos.
So many of us have become regimented in our approach to life. Being organised is great, but becoming a creature of comfort leads to complacency. Soon enough, our habits and ways of thinking become ossified. We stagnate. Our bodies get soft, and our minds lazy.
Positive self-disruption requires us to shock our systems a little. Positive self-disruption hurts, but in a good way. Real growth requires genuine effort.
The positive self-disruption of engaging in a new habit or challenging activity can help you improve physically and mentally. It gives you fresh perspectives on the world and a new appreciation of your place in it. Positive self-disruption can make you feel vulnerable. It loosens your grip on certainty. It makes you stretch. This is a good thing.
Identify areas in your life where you feel you’re stuck in quicksand. Maybe you’ve let your health go or become jaded about your work. Find an activity that will get your body moving. Do something to fire up your neural pathways. Learn a musical instrument. Take up yoga or meditation. Learn a martial art. Read classic Russian literature. Get out of your bubble and experience the world.
When I next ask you the question of what have you done for yourself this year, how have you disrupted yourself in these past twelve months, I don’t want regrets. I want a list of things, exciting things you have done to be a better healthier version of you, to enable your growth as an individual. Make it happen today!
In simple terms, AI is a form of intelligence that operates independently of humans – it's about creating programs or machines that can think, or at the very least, mimic cognitive functions to perform advanced tasks.
For many of us, probably the most famous example of AI are the exploits of chess-playing supercomputers like IBM's Big Blue, or more recently, AlphaZero, the creation of Google's AI research subsidiary DeepMind.
Over the years, these much-publicised chess games have pitted human against machine in a battle of strategy. They give us a glimpse into how far AI has progressed, how intelligent it has become. These mind games have also given us pause to reflect on more existential questions: What happens when these machines are so smart they don't need us anymore? What happens when they truly start thinking for themselves?
This description from an article in Wired of AlphaZero’s evolved intelligence indicates how far AI has come:
AlphaZero taught itself chess (as well as go and shogi) starting with no knowledge about the game beyond the basic rules. It developed its chess strategies by playing millions of games against itself and discovering promising avenues of exploration from the games it won and lost. It also searches far fewer positions than Stockfish [an earlier chess-playing AI machine] when it plays. The result was a chess player of superhuman strength with a style that is human-like.
At a more mundane level, AI is now part of our everyday lives at work and in the home. When we search for something on Google, AI-powered search bots look for what we want. AI powers digital assistants like Siri, Cortana and Alexa. An AI chatbot might ask us if we need help with something when we open our banking app. And of course, AI is used in industries like mining, manufacturing and agriculture to improve efficiency, product quality and the safety of employees.
The accelerated advances in AI over the past ten years have also led to increased awareness and discussion about its possible economic, societal and ethical repercussions. Some of the smartest people on the planet, like Elon Musk and Bill Gates, have issued dire warnings about a future in which humans become secondary or subservient to AI.
“With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon. You know all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water and he’s like, yeah, he’s sure he can control the demon? Doesn’t work out,” Musk said in 2014. Recently, Gates likened AI to nuclear energy in its potential to be weaponised. "The world hasn't had that many technologies that are both promising and dangerous — you know, we had nuclear energy and nuclear weapons."
With such a big and complex topic, it can be hard to cut through the noise. Getting a level-headed perspective is helpful, especially when media coverage seems more inspired by Hollywood's nightmare scenarios than a rational appraisal of what's going on.
So it was refreshing to hear Professor Jon Whittle speak at the most recent round of CEO Circle breakfast events in Melbourne and Sydney.
Professor Whittle is the Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University. He is a world-renowned expert in software engineering and human-computer interaction (HCI), with a particular interest in IT for social good. Earlier in his career, he was a lead researcher at NASA on software engineering challenges for space systems.
Professor Whittle started by telling the audience he wanted to "cut through some of the hype about AI". He signalled he would focus on some of the ethical considerations raised by AI for businesses and society generally.
“You can barely pick up a newspaper, listen to the radio or go on social media these days without seeing a story about how AI is transforming the world. But I think it’s fair to say there’s a lot of hype around AI and certain promises about what AI will do in the future,” he said.
Professor Whittle gave a brief history of AI, from its beginnings with the Turing Test devised in 1950 and the invention of the first neural network in 1954 through to the high-velocity developments into areas like Deep Learning. Along this development path, Professor Whittle says, there have been AI 'winters'; times when AI hit a peak in its hype cycle only to go dormant again.
According to Professor Whittle, three factors are currently driving the momentum of AI:
He says different types of AI do different things. While the media has focused on advances in Deep Learning, we also see AI in forms like Language, Search, Planning, Modelling, and Computer Vision.
For business leaders, he reiterated that at enterprise-level it is crucial to focus on the particular problem you want to solve. He said, at this stage, AI performs very well with specific and defined tasks, but not so well if the problem is too general.
"The successes we are seeing with AI in certain industries are where they are identifying the part of their business that is most relevant to be transformed by AI. So, for example, in financial services, incorporating AI into risk management is an obvious area where you would apply AI," he said. "Know what problem you are trying to solve."
Professor Whittle’s most critical message is that leaders have a moral duty to think about the ethics of AI as it applies to their business.
"Be responsible in your application of AI. You've got to think about issues of bias and ethics. That's not for somebody else to deal with … It's for everybody to worry about."
AI is here with us now. It's no longer science fiction, even if some of the scenarios we see in the media appear fantastical. It's being used in our businesses now, and it's already changing the way we live. As with the emergence of any profound technology, it is in our hands to decide how we use it.
By thinking deeply and listening to experts like Professor Whittle, business and community leaders will be better placed to use AI for our greater success, and the greater good.
You can learn more about Professor Whittle and his work at the RHS Monash Data Futures website.
Purpose shapes and drives culture. When the purpose is poorly defined, or we lose sight of it, culture is created on the run or by guesswork. This scenario mostly leads to dysfunction, as values compete at cross-purposes, and people within organisations battle or form alliances with others who share or enable their set of chosen values. Alternatively, we get inertia, which also leads to dysfunction.
At best, a culture beset by conflicting values muddles through. At worst, the culture is hijacked by people with negative mindsets, operating from self-interest rather than for the greater success of the organisation. At other times, complacency and stagnant thinking pervade the culture, leaving it open to abuse and lapses in ethical behaviour.
Unfortunately, the Banking and Financial Services Royal Commission has brought such examples to light.
Some of the common threads running through many of the incidents highlighted so far in the Royal Commission include dishonest dealings with customers and the development of internal cultures that fail to meet broader community standards and expectations. These are serious issues for banks and financial institutions, which erode the valuable currency of trust that is vital to the sector’s ongoing health and, ultimately, prosperity.
However, it would be a mistake to think other industries are immune to these factors too. That’s why the lessons drawn from the Banking Royal Commission can be applied elsewhere. The details may differ, but questions of ethics and culture challenge every organisation across all industries.
One of the most significant issues to come out of the Royal Commission so far is cultural complacency. No organisation can afford to fall asleep at the wheel if it wants to maintain an accountable and transparent culture. Complacency bred by success, as evident within some of the Australian banking sector, becomes a breeding ground for wilful ignorance and, in the worst cases, outright unethical behaviour.
Part of the problem with complacency is that it also leads to reactive rather than proactive thinking. Questionable behaviour within organisations needs to be acted upon rather than brushed aside until it becomes an entrenched part of the culture. Success can blind us to the very things that eventually become our undoing. Complacent cultures lose their sense of urgency, waiting for problems to present instead of finding the issues that need fixing.
Another thing to come out of the Royal Commission reports is the prevalence of insular, non-critical thinking that can erode the ethical rigour of organisational cultures. This is especially the case within large organisations that lose sight of the people they should be serving and turn inwards instead, becoming increasingly bureaucratic.
Organisations need to engage in a conversation with their customers not only for excellent customer service but also because customers will tell you what you are doing wrong in an often more forthright way than employees will. An open and responsive relationship with customers is an excellent feedback mechanism for the cultural fitness of an organisation.
The responsibility for fostering an ethical and healthy culture falls upon each employee. However, an organisation’s leadership must step up and guide the process, by their words and, most importantly, their actions. Board level governance needs to align with internal processes, especially on critical issues like the structuring of remuneration and rewards for employees. Other monitoring measures for ethical behaviour, like whistleblower programs, also have to be given more than just lip service.
When confronting the challenges of ethical behaviour and culture, organisations have to ask themselves:
Every organisation should strive to build a culture that values ethical behaviour, both for the inherent good of being ethical, but also because ethical conduct nurtures trust between organisations and those they serve.
