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22 / The National Business ReviewSeptember 26, 2014
How can Kiwi industry prepare for a future where the differences between workers - both domestic and foreign - shrink by the year? This is where higher education helps companies attack the new problems to stay ahead of the evolving world. This special report explores how education providers are responding to the challenges.
Special Report
Executive development and education
Nathan Smith
So your company is growing healthily – that’s good news. And no longer is it a local business serv-ing local customers – it has moved far past that.
The whole world is becoming your local market but there’s one snag in the process. How are your executives going to cope with the different business cultures and alien leadership practices?
Managing all the various local headquarters of a global company should be turning executives into adaptive, dynamic and region-specific leaders so they can survive, along with your business, in a hyper-globalised world. How are traditional educators keeping up with the changes to give executives relevant skills?
After all, the concept of an MBA, for instance, isn’t so much about receiving a flowchart of all possible leadership answers for all possible problems. It’s more about teach-ing leaders how to think and be a shepherd of ideas. Operating an overseas company demands many of the same skills.
But the question of whether all that time and energy spent learn-ing certain ideas built in a New Zealand business environment can truly translate overseas is a ques-tion with heightened relevance in today’s global and decentralised
market.That’s because the
concept of “overseas” now more commonly refers to working throughout Asia, Africa or South America, not just the usual suspects of London, New York or Sydney. The leader-ship skills needed in Shanghai or Bangkok, for instance, might be unrecognisable from a Western point of view.
Auckland University business school
lecturer Dr Chellie Spiller says it’s critical that everybody
in an organisation reads the local market signals with the ability to respond to subtle shifts, “so not just cohering around a static strategy or a rational plan which is usually built from numbers, graphs, metrics and modelling.
“That’s very important but even more is building dynamic capa-
bilities at every site,” Dr Spiller says.
Dynamic capabilities will be crucial if a company wants to play in the long game. It’s no good sticking a line in the sand saying this is the way we’ll always do business. That’s a recipe for failure for any part of an organisation, especially the leadership.
Massey University MBA director James Bennett says it might be about moving out
of leadership, in terms of its old function, and toward asking the question about how a company structures its business model.
“Adaptable business models can better take advantage of cul-tural differences. Having someone locally or an office close to the new market allows a company to break into it a lot quicker.
“That requires a different way
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The bit about integrative thinking, adapting and really understanding is the skill we need to develop in people – Ivan Moss
IVAN MOSS: ‘Learning is a dialogue, not a monologue’
READ LOCAL SIGNALS: Auckland Business School lecturer Chellie Spiller says everyone in an organisation needs to read and respond to subtle shifts
Continued on P29
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THERE ARE NO SHORT CUTS TO BUSINESS LEADERSHIP
BUT THERE IS A FAST TRACK
Je�ÒdZ�ekj�ceh["�YedjWYj0
www.aut.ac.nz/mba [email protected]
0800 AUTUNI
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Mike WardArea Sales Manager – Australasia, Guardian IndustriesMaster of Business Administration
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Nick Grant
In the 100-plus years since the Master of Business Administra-tion (MBA) degree was first offered in the US, the programme has become a globally recognised brand, its recipients acknowledged as well-versed in such disciplines as accounting, finance, marketing, human resources, and operations management.
And, says Arun Elias, director, MBA and post experience pro-grammes at Victoria University’s School of Management, the pro-gramme continues to evolve to meet the emerging demands of the marketplace.
“While the earlier busi-ness model focused entirely on profit maximisation, these days MBA programmes incorporate broader concerns like ethics, cor-porate social responsibility and sustainability,” he says. “And to me that’s very important – it broadens perspectives.”
Dr Elias says internationalism is an increasingly important aspect of MBAs as well – not only does the qualification make graduates more employable around the world but, in recognition of globalisation, “many MBA programmes, includ-ing us, have an international com-ponent – we take students to Hong Kong and China and we’re planning to perhaps go to India next year.”
In Victoria University’s case, there are also upsides to staying at home, Dr Elias says. Because Wellington is a capital city, MBA classes tend to be made up of a mix of students from public and private organisations, which allows a cross fertilisation of ideas and approach-es from the different sectors.
According to Dr Elias, there are three types of students that benefit from MBA programmes.
“The majority of the students use it to climb the ladder and some use it as a means of self-actualisation – these are students in their late 40s and older who take
the opportunity to come back to university as a mature student,” he says. “And then there are those who leave their jobs, do a fulltime MBA and then start something com-pletely different.”
As an MBA graduate, Kyran Newell – director of the Christch-urch-based Organisation Develop-ment Institute – doesn’t have to be sold on the programme’s benefits.
“After all, I’ve invested a sig-nificant amount of time and a hell of a lot of money into getting one myself.”
“But,” he notes, “I was aware from go to whoa that it was an exer-cise in self-improvement, and not necessarily for the organisation’s benefit.”
That’s something organisations need to be more aware of when making decisions about executive training and education, Mr Newell says.
“When it’s putting money down on the table for learning, an organisation should be very clear
about what it’s expecting to get for that,” he says. “If the learning isn’t about furthering organisational strategy and improving perfor-mance, it’s probably not very wise expenditure.”
There is a risk in organisations paying for the personal devel-opment of their staff, he says, “because the individual and prob-ably some other employer benefits more than the funding organisa-tion. Anyone who’s been in an MBA programme will know half their classmates change their job within a couple of years.”
Or, Mr Newell laughs, the employee leverages their freshly-minted MBA into a pay rise.
“So I’m absolutely a fan for peo-ple paying their own way.”
The Organisation Development Institute, in contrast, begins with the organisation’s needs and works back from there.
“Our aim is to provide learning that changes leadership skills and behaviours at work to improve organisation results,” Mr Newell says.
“The competency frameworks we use are the competency frame-works of the organisation in which the people are working,” he says. “Then we follow learners back into their workplaces, so they’re step-ping out what they’re learning at work and we’re monitoring what’s happening as far as results go.
“It’s a very much a case of learn-ing, applying, evaluating, learning, applying, evaluating and so on.”
Individual versus organisational up-skilling
24 SPECIAL REPORT: EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION / The National Business ReviewSeptember 26, 2014
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Nathan Smith
According to a OECD Society at a Glance 2014 report, the wage gap continues to rise between executives working in Australia and those in New Zealand.
No one has figured out a remedy for fixing that gap and differences in education levels or quality have been blamed for some of it in the past.
But could education actually be part of the panacea to help bring the wage split back into some sort of balance? On the one hand education can determine a worker’s salary base, on the other hand are all the myriad other reasons for the yawning wage gap. In other words, the fix or cause of the gap probably isn’t the one thing.
Few people take up the challenge of an MBA or advanced business degree for altruistic reasons. Money and success are at the forefront of their minds, so it’s really no wonder an educated executive sometimes chooses to flee New Zealand for golden shores as soon as they’re finished a course.
Waikato University associate dean Ed Weymes suspects that while more or better education for New Zealand businesses might help increase overall salaries, the sheer scale of other much larger economies offers a better reason for the fatter paychecks.
“It may be that one’s qualifications are more recognised in some countries as opposed to other countries.
“And as a general rule one could expect their salaries to rise as their education increases. In fact many North American universities will advertise their MBA on the basis of what salary increase they can expect to receive upon graduation. But that’s a very dangerous game to play,” Mr Weymes says.
Queenstown Resort College chief executive Charlie Phillips agrees that the wage gap is more complex than just education. It’s a hard problem to fix by throwing education at it.
“But with greater skill sets comes the ability to attract a greater yield. A more educated society with greater management capability leads to efficiencies and increased productivity, which in turn increase profits and that’s part of the wage solution.
“If [an executive] is providing value then people pay more,” Mr Phillips says.
And it depends to which country an executive takes their degree. A $100,000 salary in New Zealand could net an executive $250,000 in Australia for doing exactly the same job.
“But that’s the market determining the difference, not the education,” Mr
Weymes says.“People will quite often
equate the reputation of a country to what do they know about education in that country. Harvard, Yale, Wharton and London Business School have an instant recognition, whereas Auckland, Waikato, Otago, where are they?” Mr Weymes asks.
Institute of Directors manager Simon Arcus says it’s a very Kiwi dilemma to convince ourselves what is on offer overseas is always better.
“Often our executives go on to the world stage and get a huge confidence boost because they realise they are competitive on a world scale. That said, it is important that New Zealand executives go out to the world for education to bring back new ideas and opportunities for Kiwi business. It’s a balance,” he says.
New Zealanders have a unique characteristic of being generally more understanding of different cultures. This gets fostered in the classroom where instructors talk “with” students less than they talk “to ” students.
“More generally,
New Zealand offers great variety and globalisation has led to some superb linkages and opportunities with large, well-recognised international providers,” Mr Arcus says.
Ultimately, says QRC’s Charlie Philipps, what a degree provides is a competitive advantage. If it’s from Harvard then the degree will be more prestigious.
“But the content and knowledge being taught probably isn’t a lot different from what a local educator can provide,” he says.
SPECIAL REPORT: EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 25The National Business Review / September 26, 2014
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Plugging the wage gap with education?
As a general rule one could expect their salaries to rise as their education increases – Ed Weymes
Victoria Young
Tertiary institutes are not the only schools for executive development –increasingly top people can learn from within.
That is the view of KPMG lead-ership centre director Deborah Utting who says while executives from her firm attend university courses, there is a lot to learn in-house.
Ms Utting says about 100 or so senior managers and above at the accounting firm use the network’s global frameworks as training tools.
“We would say our internal learnings and external develop-ment complement each other,” she says.
Having time away from the office can be useful for upcoming executives, she says, but a having range of partners focused on dif-ferent industries means leadership can be taught within.
The advantage of having in-house executive development, Ms Utting believes, is instilling the leadership culture unique to that firm.
She says KPMG’s leadership culture is very healthy, and about being engaged and open to devel-opment.
Ms Utting says the strength of KPMG’s internal courses has led the firm to consider providing its executive education programmes
to its clients and others. “We are being asked about it a
lot, which is funny – we are think-ing about it,” she told the National Business Review.
However, she says KPMG is not currently resourced in a way to enable growth just yet.
EY purports to be the only accounting firm in the nation with its own executive education course. Its course is a global pro-gramme taught by experts flown in
from abroad. EY business director Scott
Jacobs, who took the course last year, says it is available to employees out-side EY and that
makes it more diverse. He says the course gave a good
commercial perspective, including government perspectives, profes-sional services and industry views.
Mr Jacobs says people can get caught up in their day jobs, so to step out and take a course with diverse people provides a challeng-ing context.
He says more accountants are getting out of their comfort zones and, while there were days when people had one profession for life, nowadays there is motivation to give things a go.
Mr Roberts says he found the programme had an edge over oth-ers, as it is very practical. He says there were case studies of the big listed companies and talks from people who were quite different “and you won’t get that from a university.”
EY partner Jo Doolan, who manages the course, says the major challenge for professional firms is to ensure those who are technically focused can provide advice that is both practical and commercially sound.
“Without this, we have red tape and excessive costs crippling busi-ness, rather than good commercial knowledge facilitating businesses to make robust decisions.
“Successful education pro-gramnes must have a balance of ensuring technical excellence is balanced by commercial reality,” she says.
26 SPECIAL REPORT: EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION / The National Business ReviewSeptember 26, 2014
SUPPLIED CONTENT
P: 03 943 2373 P: 0508 ODI ODI E: [email protected] www.odi.org.nz
As our economy expands in Auckland and Canterbury, local organisations have a little more discretionary income to invest in retention and development of their people. The appetite for executive development and executive education consequently grows, often driven as a push strategy by potential participants. Organisations are typically responding to such requests, rather than developing executive development and education strategies that serve organisation outcomes.
This is dangerous territory that needs to be carefully navigated. Unless learners are funding their own time and money costs for their executive development and education, and organisations should have a real eye on what they might be getting back for their investment. If they don’t, they are probably investing in waste.
Broadly, the Learn>Change>Improve Results value chain is in play here. Organisations fund the learning of new ideas, tools and methods to change workplace skills and behaviours in order to improve organisation outcomes. This implies a cause-LɈLJ[�JVUULJ[PVU�IL[^LLU�[OL�LSLTLU[Z�PU�[OL�JOHPU��0M�HU`�VM�[OL�LSLTLU[Z�VM�[OL�JOHPU�are faulty, then the investment in learning is unlikely to provide useful results for the business or organisation.
Set-piece learning programmes that don’t follow participants back to work to support application of new skills and behaviours on the job, often mean there are no improved organisation results. Assessment of learning, including project work, is no substitute for workplace evidence of skill and behaviour change. These are the places that the value chain is weakened.
Here’s how to have a healthy value chain:1. Know the strategically important results improvements that you need2. Know the new skills and behaviours required to achieve them3. Find out who needs to step out changed skills and behaviours at work4. Invest in the right programmes for them that:��VɈLY�[OL�YPNO[�[VVSZ�HUK�TL[OVKZ� support the step-out of the right skills and behaviours at work� achieve improved business and organisation results� monitor and evaluate at every step to assure value is being created.
If you need help to assure that your executive development and education investment is delivering value for your organisation, talk to someone who can help you – at ODI we have the consultants, tools and solutions to make sure you are investing in value, not waste.
Why Executive Development and Education Often Doesn’t Work The role of a director is a complex
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says IoD Professional DevelopmentManager Helena Gibson. When theygo to aworkshop or participate in other
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SUPPLIED CONTENT
Executive learning inside and out
DEBORAH UTTING: In-house and external learning complement each other
SCOTT JACOBS: EY’s course is diverse
Successful education programnes must have a balance of ensuring technical excellence is balanced by commercial reality Jo Doolan
SPECIAL REPORT: SPECIAL REPORT: EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION 27The National Business Review / September 26, 2014
Campbell Gibson
The master of business administration degree has seen years of gloom after a sharp fall in applications but it is looking to make a return after an overhaul by top universi-ties around the globe.
AUT MBA director Ken Lee says the degree’s modules have become more flexible for students.
The post-graduate degree is no longer broad and all encapsulating, instead taking a more specialised approach.
“For example, instead of delivering an introductory accounting paper, we teach them the practical essen-tials. This is so executives can interpret the reports that accountants bring them.
“The MBA is coming back stronger. It has seen a lull locally and internationally in the past few years but organ-isations and individuals are recognising the curriculum is about action-based learning and authentic assessment. The stuff they’re learning on the MBA is immediately applicable,” he says.
He says this allows executives to recognise and under-stand the individuals who already have the expertise in fields such as social media, rather than trying to become experts in them.
The customised programmes are fast becoming a trend overseas and have seen the most growth.
The investment businesses are making in higher edu-cation is driven by a belief that it will pay off despite the financial cost. A 2011 Brookings Institution report revealed higher education is the most valuable investment than almost any other asset.
“We saw an increase in enrolments during the global financial crisis because people and businesses had a desire to upskill,” says Mr Lee.
While long-term qualifications have seen growth, short courses are equally gaining in popularity.
Bright*Star Training consultant Kerry Saberton says New Zealand’s ability to withstand the global crisis and subsequent boom made businesses more interested in higher qualifications for staff.
The company is the training branch of Conferenz and taught 1059 people in 2013 but expects this year’s num-bers to reach a whopping 1300.
“There is plenty of quality training out there – the vast majority aimed at introductory and middle management levels – delivered by some great providers.
“However, how do you gain the specifics of what you need to learn at a time and pace that suits, without being away from the business for days at a time and without going through a course or on line learning with varying degrees of relevance?” she asks.
Ms Saberton says in comparison to the MBA, short
courses are more “vocational” and more targeted in what they teach.
“Usually a business will out-line what skills their employees immediately need to know so that’s what we focus on,” she says.
Both Mr Lee and Ms Saberton say that among their top clients are engineers who are starting to climb the cor-porate ladder.
“When engineers move up they realise they need finan-cial literacy, marketing and human resources skills.
“The difference now with MBA graduates in their late 30s who have at least ten years work experience is they have the confidence to move into chief executive posi-tions,” says Mr Lee.
“They [engineers] can feel like a fish out of water. These are all potentially new skills – vital to the development and success of others as well as the organisation as a whole. A daunting task for many – regardless of whether they are new to their role or not,” says Ms Saberton.
MBA sees a surge in enrolments
KEN LEE: AUT executive education director Ken Lee says MBA degrees have seen growth because they are now highly customisable
KERRY SABERTON: ‘How do you gain the specifics of what you need to learn at a time and pace that suits?’
Deborah LaHatte
The University of Otago has proudly announced it will dip its toes in the digital water next year and offer an online MBA.
Otago executive pro-grammes director Ian Laf-ferty says the online version offers the same degree but part-time and from any-where in the world.
The Otago Online MBA has been designed as a small private online course (SPOC), an emerging con-cept Mr Lafferty says is endorsed by reputable business schools including Harvard.
“The aim is to keep classes small. A class of 20 is the ideal number for us.”
Using an advanced technology platform, lec-tures are conducted live, so students share interactive discussions and break-out sessions in the same fash-ion as their on-campus counterparts.
“The most important part of it is the interactive part, the engagement. Even for the online course, it’s the lecturer live in class by video so it’s not really dependent on the technology.
“Obviously the technol-ogy brings students into the class but actually the activi-ties in the class are very similar to the other pro-grammes.”
This is a first step for Otago, whose vice-chancel-lor last year was reported as dismissing the growth of MOOCs (massive open
online courses).Mr Lafferty thinks
MOOCs have not made an impression in the univer-sity education world: “The completion rates are so low – about 8%.”
But Massey University’s National Centre for Teach-ing and Learning acting director Duncan O’Hara says while Otago’s move is quite a shift from where it had been previously, many universities are making digital moves, including Waikato University’s data mining software MOOC, the University of Auckland’s first MOOC with a con-sortium FutureLearn later this year and Massey’s own suite of MOOCS with Aus-tralasian consortiumOpen-2Study.
But he says the vast majority of Massey’s educa-tion is already online.
“We have been the first in this space. We were the first to line up with an inter-national consortium to deliver MOOCs. We have been delivering education in the way Otago is describ-ing for at least five and probably seven years.
“We have made a fairly significant investment in increasing the technol-ogy capacity to stream out more of our lectures to dis-tance students regardless of whether they are under-graduate or postgraduate. So every university is shap-ing up in slightly different ways.”
Mr O’Hara argues edu-
SPOCs, MOOCs and the rising commodification of education
Continued on P28
/ The National Business ReviewSeptember 26, 201428 SPECIAL REPORT: EXECUTIVE DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION
Now is the time. Transform your thinking with a tailored programme designed for today’s business professionals. A Victoria University MBA will change the way you make decisions and develop your leadership skills to enable you to take your career to a new level.
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From P27
Chris Quin
Organisational success depends on the quality of decision-making – on lead-ers showing good strategic judgment.
The missed opportuni-ties from bad decisions are legendary. Decca’s Dick Rowe turned down the “Sil-ver Beatles” in 1962 because he believed guitar bands were going out of fashion. Twelve publishing houses turned down JK Rowling before she signed with Bloomsbury. There were only 16 lifeboats on the Titanic.
Today we have more information than ever to “help” us make big calls and this is challenging. In the digital services industry, the landscape is constantly changing. The pace we need to move at makes it impossible to consider all the available data before we act. But we leaders still take a rational, logical approach to making decisions, clear-eyed as we weigh up the pros and the cons based on the information we have time to absorb … right?
Well, not really. Because we are subject to “cognitive bias.” Rather than consider-ing information objectively, we look at it with a range of
preconceived thoughts.The academics
categorise these biases. Confirmation bias, or seeking information that confirms our expectations and hypothesis, is the worst offender. (Many of us would have seen great examples of this during the election campaign.) Then there’s anchoring bias, relying too heavily on the first piece of information offered. Default option bias is a tendency to rely on the existing option. Not to be confused with the endowment effect, the framing effect, the curse of knowledge effect, bounded awareness, or escalation of commitment (you can Google that lot) – all of which create a risk our decisions are made before we’ve read the brief or even talked to anyone.
So are we doomed to being trapped by our biases? Will Dad’s political views or the first business case we read or the cost we’ve already sunk into that dud IT system mean that we can’t clearly judge how best to act?
No – so long as we don’t believe what we think.
There are a number of things you can do to thwart cognitive bias, while still making a timely decision.
You can choose an open-minded group leader – someone who you know is not bound by the same preconceived ideas as you or your management team. This may be someone out-side the team, external to the company, or simply new to the business. Or you can ask one of the team to deliber-ately play devil’s advocate on a particular subject.
To generate genuine debate about an issue, you can set up competing sub-groups to work on solutions. It’s important to make sure you anonymously gather input from the introverts so all voices are heard.
There is also evidence that using the humble
whiteboard increases infor-mation sharing in meetings.
One of the simplest ways to improve decision-making is to consider multiple options. Author Paul Nutt found 70% of all important strategic decisions made by management teams were locked in after they’d looked at only one alternative. There’s evidence that when you look at two options, your overconfidence about the first option subsides and decisions improve dra-matically.
We all have preconceived ideas and I’m sure, if we’re honest, we’ll admit that many of the cognitive biases described above are famil-iar.
By refusing to believe what we think, we can ensure that we and our teams make better deci-sions even when the pres-sure is on.
Who knows, it could mean for your business the difference between sign-ing the Beatles in 1962 and signing the Tornados (yes, you may need to look them up on Spotify).
Spark chief executive Chris Quin recently completed the Stanford Executive Programme, where he and 162 others from 32 countries and 39 industries spent six weeks focssed on the tools and knowledge they needed to drive growth in their organisations. This article is based on one part of the programme.
Don’t believe what you think
The problem is never
how to get new
innovative thoughts
into your mind, but
how to get the old
ones out.
Chris Quin
cation is seen as a commodity now. “We are providing a service to students. That’s a huge shift from where higher education has been.”
Students are demanding much more of institutions in terms of quality, conveni-ence – “all of the things higher education has never really had to consider before.
He expects the demand from con-sumerisation to change models to help universities become more competitive. “Universities in New Zealand and Australia are well ranked but lots of new ones are challenging our place.”
He says that can also be seen from “where the government is pushing as well – they are going to give us a set pool of money for higher education in New Zealand and they are going to start using investment models.”
Mr O’Hara says Massey has found from what it has learned from its MOOCs “is a commentary on how we are moving in society. Society wants bits and pieces of education – we want to study on our own time and at our own pace largely.”
It is now looking at ways to take MOOCs and ‘pathway ‘them into a qualifi-cation.
The MOOCS act as a taster to courses offered by Massey, particularly those based on Massey’s expertise including agriculture.
So far Massey has offered three MOOCs, five times, attracting 2000 enrol-ments – and has achieved a 25% comple-tion rate. “That’s not a bad rate – that’s 250 students from a free course who could potentially move into a qualification with us or come study with us.”
Meanwhile, the University of Otago has also launched a new MBA in associa-tion with the Institute of Directors, where students and lecturers gather for eight four-day weekends a year (for two and a half years) in Queenstown, Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin.
Mr Lafferty says that will be kept to 20 students too.
SPOCs, MOOCs
of thinking. So what are we doing to prepare our future business leaders for structuring better business models to achieve optimum outcomes?” Mr Bennett asks.
The caricature of New Zealand business as open and innovative, says Auck-land University executive development director Ivan Moss, sometimes actually is true. A lot of New Zealand businesses by global stand-ards are quite small, lending far more adaptability to changes in any operating market.
This is pretty much how the concept of ambicultur-alism entered the business lexicon. Arriving in a new country with a dominant swagger isn’t useful any-more if you’re a business leader. It takes training and skill to be able to tune in and work with others across cultural and physical boundaries.
University of Otago lec-turer Kris Cooper explains how the best type of leader-ship training is tailored to individual business’ needs where 70% is standard les-sons while 30% is different.
“That may seem like a small proportion but in real-ity that 30% can be the suc-cess or failure of the person’s ability to lead in particular contexts,” Ms Cooper says.
“There are some univer-sal things we need to teach. International accounting rules for instance. But the actual learning bit is adap-tive,” Mr Moss says.
“Learning is a dialogue, not a monologue. The bit about integrative thinking, adapting and really under-standing is the skill we need to develop in people,” he says.
Developing cultural intelligence is certainly part of this, but there’s a lot to be said for business acu-men as well. Sometimes an individual will respond in the culturally expected way, other times they won’t. The key is building an executive with the skills available to deal with each.
For instance, a New Zealand chief executive of a failed company operating in China spoke of his own leadership problems in the country. According to his Chinese employees, they knew his plans were flawed from the start but didn’t tell him because “he was the CEO.”
This absolutely alien authoritarian mindset kept the CEO in the dark until
the company collapsed. Ms Cooper says the issue here was a lack of global thinking. Thankfully this mindset can mostly be taught.
“It’s about listening. Pick-ing up one business context and applying it to another and expecting it to work is totally avoidable. That’s when you need good judge-ment to see whether it’s you
who needs to change or they who need to come on board.
“You’re never going to be able to train for every situ-ation you come across. But you can train executives to be curious and open. They can change and adapt or perhaps apply more pres-sure depending on the con-text,” Ms Cooper says.
Dr Spiller says New
Zealand leverages its multiculturalism tendencies well. The days of a homogenous ethnic group sitting round a table are no more. Leaders have to take stock of different perspectives working around them if they’re going to correctly assess a situation.
“Rather than falling
back on one’s own cultural norms, it’s about really challenging leaders to listen and communicate effectively across boundaries.”
Mr Moss thinks in five years’ time New Zealand business leaders are going to be highly dynamic, com-ing as they do from back-grounds of great diversity.
“The balance is going to shift in a really healthy way. We’re going to get leaders who are able to deal with ambiguity and complex-ity very well. In the short term, there’s a chance we’ll get the one-hand-clapping phenomenon but I’m cau-tiously optimistic about the medium term,” he says.
SPECIAL REPORT 29The National Business Review / September 26, 2014
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