Sir Ken Robinson, the author of best-selling book The Element, spoke at the Pink Elephant ITSM conference in Las Vegas about the state of today’s business environment and the challenges facing working professionals today. About 1600 people attended his presentation.
“We’re living in a time of the revolution,” he said, referring to the fact that there are things happening, particularly in technology, that have no precedent in human history. The jury is out on whether we can cope, he added.
Coping requires doing things differently. “Most people don’t enjoy the work they do,” Sir Ken said. “They just do it. It’s something you just wandered into because of some biographical process.” I’m not an accidental project manager – I chose this career, but I know of many people who fall into Sir Ken’s category. “Our lives are not linear, they’re not straightforward, they’re organic,” he said. “We owe it to ourselves to do something we are content with.”
The business challenges
The first challenge is the growing population. Sir Ken explained that the number of modern humans estimated to have ever lived at all is put at around 60-120 billion. A massive 10% of those are alive today. The population is growing, and there’s no guarantee that the Earth can support this growth. Hence the rise in green projects and the focus on sustainability. This will potentially also translate to different ways of working in terms of using the best skills available which may well mean team members overseas.
The second challenge is the rapid progress in technology which allows us to connect with colleagues and project team members as well as friends and family. Social media plays a part in this, but fast wifi, mobile networks, tablet devices and smartphones all have a role too. It changes the way we expect to get responses and the timeframes we are prepared to wait for answers.
The skills leaders need
Sir Ken listed 3 characteristics of great leaders in the modern business age.
Diversity
“Great leaders tap into diversity, not conformity,” he said. He encouraged team leaders to build teams with diverse individuals. This provides more creative input, differing opinions and builds a stronger team.
I hope you already have a diverse team, but if you don’t, think about what you can do to bring a number of different views on to the project team. One easy way to do this is to invite a customer to a meeting or workshop and get them to feedback to the team about how they feel the project is going.
Facilitation
Great leaders know how to facilitate creative groups. It’s important to understand how groups work and how groups connect using technology like social media. Being able to facilitate discussion towards an outcome and use creative problem-solving techniques means getting the best out of team. Facilitation is, fortunately, a skill you can learn, so if you don’t feel comfortable running group sessions or standing in front of a room with a pile of sticky notes, then find a training course and brush up your facilitation skills.
Innovation
Sir Ken said it was important to know the conditions where innovation would flourish and those where it won’t. Create an environment on your project where innovation is the core of how you work and you’ll benefit enormously from the creative energy in the team.