Leadership - Peter Crow | Helping boards govern with impact

Published on: 9 December 2013

On governance in local government

Local councils have had a rough time of it lately. Earlier in the year, the Christchurch City Council lost the ability to issue building consents in its own territory. More recently, the Office of the Auditor-General issued a report highlighting governance failures at Kaipara District Council as one contributing factor in the Mangawhai sewerage project debacle.

Sadly, these failures of governance are not isolated cases. While some local councils govern well, the quality of governance in local councils in New Zealand appears to be quite variable. In an effort to address this, Lawrence Yule, President of Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ), recently announced that LGNZ has partnered with the Institute of Directors (IoD) to develop and deliver a new governance training programme—the goal being to improve governance standards amongst elected councillors.

LGNZ should be congratulated on this initiative. A high-quality professional development programme should enhance the quality of governance at local councils, provided councillors embrace the programme and the learning therein. However, the challenge—and it's a big one—is to gain traction quickly. Councillors live with a three-year horizon (the triennial election cycle), so they may find themselves surplus to requirements if voters are not happy with progress when they return to the ballot box. Hopefully, the opportunity to make a difference will provide sufficient motivation for mayors and councillors to act expeditiously. Time will tell.

Published on: 5 December 2013

ANZAM'13: Keynote presentation, day2

The keynote to open the second day of the ANZAM conference was delivered by Prof Jonathan West, of University of Tasmania. His talk, Are innovation theory and practice oxymoronic? Tasmania as Exemplar, provided a breath of fresh air and a reality check for those involved in innovation research and entrepreneurial activities.

West noted that, despite the best intentions of researchers, very little innovation research has any meaningful impact on practice. He suggested that this is because most research and practice is based on the myths that innovation is necessarily based on high-technology, and that "we (Tasmanians) punch above our weight". He then proceeded to dispel the myths and offer an alternative approach. Millions of dollars are spent every year, on strategies and innovations efforts that have no real chance of providing a material return. Rather than ignore existing successful industries (in Tasmania's case: wine, horticulture, aquaculture, others) and try to create whole new replacement industries (high-tech, biotech, nanotech), West asserted that stronger innovation outcomes (and the follow on economic and societal benefits) would be far more likely if innovation efforts were focussed on improving existing strong industries and sectors.

West used the example of the wine industry, and suggested that if the size of the industry was doubled—through investment and genetic, product, production and distribution innovations—then the level of unemployment and a host of other negative indicators would plummet. The natural assets of the state and the demand for premium wine suggest such growth is readily achievable. However, two serious stumbling blocks exist: belief in the myths noted above are so deeply held, and innovating within an existing successful industry simply isn't "sexy". Consequently, governments and industry are reluctant to invest for the common good, and, in many cases, innovation efforts are subverted by incumbent companies for fear of increased competition emerging. The promise of the holy grail (biotech, nanotech and information technology) is simply too compelling, even though the chance of achieving a strong return is slim, at best.

West's remit was refreshing, for it tackled what is clearly a delicate topic head on. Such candour needs to be encouraged.

Published on: 5 December 2013

ANZAM'13: Leadership & Governance interactive session

A new innovation that has been introduced to the ANZAM conference this year is the Interactive Session. Whereas the format in the main conference sessions emphasises the presentation (with 5 minutes for questions), the interactive session encourages conversation, with several quick-fire presentations followed by an extended discussion. Many of the papers I heard can best be described as research works-in-progress, rather than completed studies.

Derek Man spoke about value of moving beyond "hero" leadership, towards an alliance model, not dissimilar to that employed by companies endeavouring to form strategic alliances. He asserted that the increasing complexity of business demanded a new approach, but stopped short of providing any robust theory or evidence of how such a model might work effectively in the anglosphere. Man's ideas are not dissimilar to those discussed by Dimovski at ECMLG several weeks ago.
Clive Boddy provided a very revealing insight, by drawing a link between the descriptions of toxic and destructive leadership in the psychology literature, and the traits of leaders in company failure situations. Boddy's noted that the behaviours and excesses of leaders in many failure situations are remarkably similar to those of psychopaths. He introduced the term corporate psychopath, applied it to the triumvirates that held power in several high-profile failures (Enron, Worldcom), and described some of the behavioural indicators that characterise such leaders.
Kumudini Heenetigala questioned the shareholder primacy "value" that dominates governance practice, particularly in AngloAmerican jurisdictions, and noted that many "causes" of company failure can be traced back to factors commonly associated with the agency perspective of governance and the shareholder primacy value. These include a lack of accountability at the board level; unethical practices by board and management; duty of care breaches; and, acting in a reckless or irresponsible manner.

This session really caught my imagination. The three studies summarised above are a small sample of over 100 studies presented in thIn my view, sessions like this should be included in the programmes of all research-oriented conferences. The supportive, collegial style of engagement by other speakers and attendees provided a considerable amount of useful feedback, much of which should lead to more robust research outcomes as the various studies are finalised, I'm sure.

Published on: 4 December 2013

ANZAM'13: The importance of organisational leadership systems to leader sense-giving

Peter McKiernan (Murdoch University, Western Australia) presented research which explored the effect of organisational leadership systems (OLS) on leader sense-giving. This paper caught my eye because it offered a different perspective—sense-giving, not sense-making. The possible effects of contextual factors in the leadership process are not well understood. McKiernan's longitudinal study sought to address this gap in the knowledge, by analysing qualitative data collected from interviews with leaders in 37 multinational firms, in order to discover whether the OLS is a trigger, enabler or barrier to leader sense-giving. The results showed that a degree of inherent complexity and ambiguity are triggers for sense-giving, and that objective (external) factors appears to have the biggest impact.

I asked the "so what?" question after the talk, and McKiernan said that this is the next step in his work. To understand implications for practice. I look forward to seeing the fruits of this work, because it is likely to be helpful to enhance leadership effectiveness in high change environments.

Published on: 29 November 2012

On becoming "globally influential"

Every day, news stories and articles from a plethora of sources arrive in my email inbox and news reader software. The deluge is self-inflicted—I need to read widely for my doctoral studies. Mind you, having a voracious appetite for general knowledge doesn't help much!

Every now and again, an article seems to lift itself off the screen, seemingly to attract extra attention as my eyes scan down the headings. Today, one such article was the "Top 100 global thinkers for 2012" list, published by Foreign Policy magazine. I looked at the FP list, because I was fascinated to know whether Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma or the Pakistani student Malala Yousafzai featured anywhere. To my surprise (and delight) both appeared in the top ten.

It seems that, in 2012 at least, global influence is strongly correlated with politics and activism. With one exception (Sebastian Thrum—a computer scientist who has been working on the driverless car), the top ten are all activists or politicians fighting for various causes. It's not until you read further down the list that musicians, economists and business people start to appear.

The point of this muse? Perhaps if you aspire to become globally influential, you should turn to politics in a volatile state, or embrace a vital cause. But most people motivated by these endeavours couldn't care less about fleeting appearances on "influence" lists. Rather, their primary motivation is the cause they've chosen the invest their hearts and souls in, and the enduring impact of their efforts. And therein lies a lesson for us all, as we ponder our role in society and contribution to it.

Published on: 23 November 2012

Governance in sport: the same or different?

What role should governance (especially Boards) play in sport? Should sporting codes be governed any differently than commercial businesses or not-for-profit agencies?

These questions are raised from time-to-time—often by the media and commentators, and especially when a team or code is not doing so well. Yet another case was reported today, this time concerning New Zealand Cricket. Dion Nash is reported as saying "the board is failing in its duty to lead the game in the right direction." Such criticisms are not new. The challenge is in finding and implementing the remedy.

The moving parts that make up a sporting code are familiar—a board, administration, management, players (called workers, employees, volunteers in other contexts), spectators (customers, consumers). In my view, sporting codes are just another form of organisation, albeit with goals specific to their context. Therefore, they should embrace [sound] organisational constructs and practices, including governance.

Dion Nash's call for the NZC Board to take control of the sport's destiny (and ultimately the Black Caps' performance) via sound top-level planning (strategy) has much merit. The development of strategy is now widely accepted in academic circles to be a major task of the Board. To do this effectively, Boards need to be comprised of people who understand the market and emerging trends, and understand and participate in the development of strategy. In NZC's case, that means appointing suitably knowledgeable and competent people to the Board, and soliciting well-structured contributions from various specialists.

The time to act is now. But will the NZC Board be so bold as to make the necessary governance adjustments—for the good of the game?

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