One Small Step
Leadership Connect Solutions Ltd is a boutique talent consulting firm focused on improving business performance through better leadership and team structure. With decades of experience on the client side of talent management we are now enjoying life on the other side of the table, helping our clients to answer their strategic talent questions. We help you plan who your next superstar is; nurture better results from your top team; plan out career development opportunities; hold onto best performers; find and settle in your new talent.
In today’s turbulent business climate, an organisation’s success relies on its capability to innovate. Innovation is scary, it requires leaders to have the courage to experiment, to be vulnerable and cope with failures, and inspirational to motivate their teams to learn and try again. Leaders of teams who promote experimenting as a path to learning deliver higher quality results. Here’s an interesting example from Amy Edmondson, a Harvard Professor: Researchers at NASA wanted to test the impact of fatigue error rates on flight teams. The researchers ran tests in flight simulators using a group of twenty, two person teams; half the group was ‘in a fatigue’ position, and the other was ‘well-rested’. The teams ‘flew’ as if it were the last segment of a three-day shift. The ‘fatigue teams’ flew three eight-to-ten-hour shifts – this included at least five take off and landings, sometime up to eight. The ‘well rested’ teams entered the flight simulator, after two days off, essentially, they were entering the flight simulator like their first segment of a three-day shift. To their surprise, the researchers discovered the fatigued teams performed better than the rested teams. As expected, the fatigued individuals made more errors than their well rested counterparts, however, because as teams they had flown more multiple flights, they made fewer errors as teams. Apparently, they were able to work together, catching and correcting one another’s errors, avoiding serious mishaps. In contrast, the well-rested pilots, who flew fewer flights together, were unfamiliar and therefore did not work as well together as teams.
To innovate and chart the future is a role of the leadership team in any organisation. By taking small steps, we work with CEO’s to increase the impact of their leadership team in an uncertain world. If you are interested in nurturing better team results, we can help you get there.
