How to build a better world one (risk) decision at a time?

With the pressures created by the current economy it is not unusual to find people are becoming more concerned about safety and seeking ways to return to stability. When this applies to individuals, this behaviour closely matches 'survival' behaviour. Where it applies to collectives -be that communities, organisations, nations etc - we start observing behaviours such as group-think, territorialism, nimby-ism, terrorism and more worryingly, the search for stronger leaders who are believed for their promise to return the collective to 'safety' and 'stability'.
 
Safety and stability are myths, which even strong leadership cannot help bring to life. Why? Because the 'laws of nature' dictate that risk is the norm and continuous change (AKA evolution) is positive. These are the simple, but for a lot of people, counter-intuitive principles which will help rebalance decisions for better (more peaceful) outcomes.
 
All this is based on a false belief that risk is the polar opposite to safety, and that only safety can avoid blame (see 'False' Risk Continuum below). Nothing could be further from the truth! Evidence shows that (command-and-) control behaviours actually attract more extreme 'survival' behaviour in others - be that flight or flight - leaving the collective more open to extreme behaviours and scenarios as described above. 

 

 

In order to win, we need to complete the continuum with the polar opposite to control. So here is what the full risk continuum looks like: 

 

The polar opposite of control is neglect. Without adding the consideration of neglect to our decision-making processes, risk will continue to be seen as needing to be avoided instead of embraced as that what helps us survive, grow and evolve. 

 

The trick is not to control but to find balance, build resilience to change, letting go of control and learning with the flow as set by the 'laws of nature'!

 

 

 



Thought of the day ... on silo-working

The true impact of silo-working, competativeness and lack of collaboration! Does anyone really win?

Thought of the day ... on innovation

If necessity is the mother of invention, why do so many organisations chuck money at it?
 
Innovate on a shoestring and you will surprise yourself with what you come up with! Mini examplary challenge - If you had no money for learning & development, how would you go about it?

Share with me what you come up with ...

Thought of the day ... on high performance

Those who stop learning day-to-day, stop performing. The curve of continuous change is too steep not to direct your own learning. If you struggle to keep up-to-date, make time to COLLABORATE!

Reflection on the Benefits and Weaknesses of Formal and Informal Learning

Following my last blog post I had some further thoughts about the benefits and weaknesses of formal and informal learning. Please feel free to add your thoughts as I am sure these lists are complete.

Qualification/Certification Routes

• Specialist/Expert Thinking = Rewarded
• Reward = Certificate which is recognised across organisations and sometimes comes with a pay rise or career progression

Weaknesses:

- Expensive and time consuming

- Topic-specific (staff cannot specialise in everything!)

- Is there such a thing as a Specialist or Expert?

- May not change a person’s behaviour

- Leaves staff wanting more formal courses

- Usually provided by external organisations

- May stop other less qualified staff from learning and acting

- Often directive in its approach

- Suggest ‘right & wrong’ thinking

- Mostly based on hypothetical scenarios

- Difficult to measure impact on the business

- Based on ‘one size fits all’ thinking

- Paper certificate offers false re-assurance of passion for the subject, skills and/or knowledge

- Encourages rigorous risk practices and risk averse thinking (see Blog pages)

Benefits:

- Structured

- Easy to measure quantitatively

- Useful when the skill does not exist in-house

- Statutory requirement for some service areas

- Makes partnership working easy

Informal Learning

• Generic/Flexible/Transferable Thinking = Not Rewarded formally
• Celebrates transferable skills and passion-driven

Weaknesses:

- Difficult to measure quantitatively

- Less structured

- Does not cover all skills, particularly technical skills

- Cannot replace statutory required qualification routes, such as Social Work, Teaching etc.

Benefits:

- Often free or low cost – offer more for less (Personalised Pick & Mix Approach)

- Encourages flexible and innovative working practices

- Encourages staff to stay curious and passionate

- Encourages reflective and critical thinking

- Encourages humility and willingness to learn from others

- Encourages the sharing of information and interdependency

- Learning is motivated by current service-specific dilemmas and challenges and is relevant in the moment

- Recognised as a more powerful way to learn

- Work is learning and learning is work

- Celebrating the skills and knowledge in-house through coaching and mentoring

- Encourages personal accountability over learning needs

- Is often autonomous or social

RELATED BLOGS:

What you (think you) know can hurt you - http://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthaettus/2012/12/12/9-ways-you-should-be-using-twitter/?utm_campaign=forbestwittersf&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social