Don't Sweat the Big Stuff

Today's Straits Times article carried an interesting article, "Dreaming big? Don't sweat the big stuff", so said Charles Leadbeater, an invited speaker for a Social Innovation event held at SMU recently.

According to him, the key to innovation is online collaboration - it's about achieving big things with small stuff and not about the conventional way of creating impact ie doing "big stuff to achieve big things".  It's about connecting people in a "right kind of a way" and put together a team of people who can achieve quite a lot for much less, with fewer resources expended. 

In other words, it's about putting in place many small but right things to create the desired big impact and not about top-down strategic/corporate planning. 

In this modern web-based age, "planning (should be) replaced with constant communication".

With this article, I began to review what my direct report told me the other day about his plan to only put in place incremental changes for his team in the new FY.  Perhaps he is a true maverick, ahead of his time, in terms of his attuneness to the increasingly online collaborative environment the new generation of workers are exposed/used to.

I used this article as a central talking point to chat and prepare my new first-level frontline supervisors.  It was exhausting talking to the 4 of them consecutively but it was satisfying to seek an understanding of their fears/concerns, expectations and wishlist.  Of course, it was also time to deliver my usual leadership spiel.

My take-away from the session:

1. New leaders need to be excited about and aware of their new roles and responsibilities; or to have their sense of excitement stirred up
2. New leaders need to be reminded to take an active lead and adopt a mental shift in their frame of mind, ie not to wait for directions and guidance but to actively contribute ideas and views
3. New leaders need to be counseled on the wisdom of going beyond focusing on their direct JHs but also to be aware of the need to engage and seek buy-in from other equally important stakeholders
4. Encourage the team to learn to shift away "from a culture of expecting to be told what to do and the need to wait for a plan to a culture of encouraging people to be participants, to collaborate, to seek one another out and decide for themselves, without being told what to do"
5. New leaders need to have the wisdom to make the right judgement call on when and how to decide on what right things to do without being told or to wait for approval or endorsement of plans

Lastly, to close the loop, to bring the outcome of these conversations back to the eventual shepherds of this pack of sheep as learning points for their ongoing journey.

I wish and pray for the new team to succeed in bonding together and identifying the same inspiring vision for them to move together in tandem and tune in this new FY.