Digital Leadership in Uncertain Times
Just as conferences moved online, Alex talked with Glenn Wallis at his Success ID Club. She quickly changed her presentation and discusses how leaders can adapt themselves, and help their teams adjust, to the “new normal”.
Just as conferences moved online, Alex talked with Glenn Wallis at his Success ID Club. She quickly changed her presentation and discusses how leaders can adapt themselves, and help their teams adjust, to the “new normal”. It’s a great discussion, full of provocations, good questions and interesting approaches to working in digital teams. Alex covers acknowledging grief, signalling, digital responsibility and taking breaks.
“As we all head into uncharted waters with the current global pandemic (as at March 2020) it was both re-assuring and enlightening to have Alex Mecklenburg come and share her experience and expertise in the space of Digital Leadership, mindful of the current backdrop. ”
How to ask better questions
Great teams know how to ask the right questions at the right time. So how can we help teams ask better questions?
Great teams know how to ask the right questions at the right time. So how can we help teams ask better questions?
Over the last 24 months, I have had the pleasure to work with brilliant teams and leaders who are all weathering change and transformation.
They say you learn as much from your clients as your clients learn from you.
What I learned is that the best most successful teams and leaders are not the ones with the best answers but the ones with the best questions.
When you think about it, it makes complete sense. Having the answers does not necessarily mean you are asking the right questions.
But it is hard. Most of us are trained to be the ones with the best answers. Why do we need to ask more questions when we already have the answer? We have the experience, we have the expertise, we have the solution. It is an impulse reaction, but not one that serves us terribly well today.
To quote a friend of mine: “A lot of new products and services that did not make the mark have been developed because people solved the wrong question really well.”
To become the ones with the best questions, we need to re-train ourselves to break through the behavioural muscle that makes us want to jump right into the answer. There is a lot written about this but very little practical support and tools to help teams ask better questions.
So we made something. We have developed a card game that helps teams think creatively about questions.
We call it PROVOKE, because throughout the moderated play session we use provocations and challenges in a safe and playful environment to help teams get creative, ask questions and build practical creative leadership skills.
How does it work:
Our methodology is tried and tested in education and in industry and uses provocations to work through a real problem while developing creativity, critical thinking, and meaningful questioning habits. We allow teams to explore with play. Provocations encourage new connections with creative challenges and good questions about assumptions and habits.
The game is a catalyst to help break away from more conventional ways of thinking about projects and organisation in a safe and playful environment.
What do teams get out of it:
As teams work on a ‘live’ project question, we have seen teams walk out of the session with a much richer, accelerated understanding of the question, with new thinking connections and provocations that they bring back into the organisation. We have also observed the sheer energy and joy when teams allowed themselves to explore the question in creative, often non-linear ways.
We’ve been beta testing it over the last weeks and the feedback has been amazing. So we thought it was time to share it with you.
Let me know if you are interested to play.
Alex
BBC Analysis - Maintenance
BBC Radio 4’s Analysis show spends some time looking at Maintenance and interviewed Truth & Spectacle’s, Alex Mecklenburg.
BBC Radio 4’s Analysis show spends some time looking at Maintenance and interviewed Truth & Spectacle’s, Alex Mecklenburg.
As Chris Bowlby discovers, keeping our infrastructure in good condition is one of the most crucial and creative challenges we face.
They look at the creativity required in maintaining and improving the roads, bridges, buildings, and technology we already have and don’t look after properly.
Alex talks about responsible innovation and the role of maintenance and legacy in ensuring we make a better world. She makes the case for responsible innovators and says;
“You can maintain something in innovative ways. ”
It’s a really interesting look at getting maximum value from good ideas. Even if they aren’t your own.
David Edgerton (@DEHEdgerton) who teaches History King's College London had an interesting comment that helps contextualise the world we work in now;
“Most of us are imitators rather than innovators […] Creativity today means getting rid of the idea that we live in a radically innovative culture and to set about our world in new ways that may not be quite as dramatic as the false prospectus that is on offer.”
It’s definitely worth listening to if you work within an existing structure and have the responsibility of maintaining and improving it, whether it’s a bridge or a brand.
City Hall Digital Leadership
Alex has been hard at work with DotEveryone and London City Hall on their digital leadership programme. She's having a fantastic time working with people who really care about leading with digital understanding and responsibility.
“City Hall has been piloting a digital leadership programme, starting with senior teams, in partnership with @doteveryoneuk ”
Alex has been hard at work with DotEveryone and London City Hall on their digital leadership programme. She's having a fantastic time working with people who really care about leading with digital understanding and responsibility. New cohorts start in September 2018.
“👏🏼 👏🏼 👏🏼 great work @petite_a who’s leading this programme for us at @doteveryoneuk - building understanding of digital and responsible leadership across the senior team at the GLA - it would be great to see more Mayoral teams do this.”
We can't wait to see how the programme goes from strength to strength.
Ten things about digital transformation by 10 Digital Ladies
Over and over again we see digital programmes failing to deliver real, meaningful change. 10 Digital Ladies decided to ask why, and what could be done differently at our meetup Why it’s time digital grew up: transformation beyond easy answers.
10 Digital Ladies is a networking group for women working in digital practitioner roles such as product management, strategy, engineering and marketing.
Their panel about digital transformation had some interesting insights about inclusive stories, using digital tools well, and managing an organisation going through changes.
“We live in an age of ever increasing complexity. To help us cope with this rate of change, organisations have looked for simple answers to complex questions – adopting digital technologies, tactics, methodologies and ‘digital ways of working’ as the silver bullets of organisation change.
But over and over again we see digital programmes failing to deliver real, meaningful change. 10 Digital Ladies decided to ask why, and what could be done differently at our meetup “Why it’s time digital grew up: transformation beyond easy answers”.”
You can read their full article on LinkedIn - click here.
10 Digital Ladies is a networking group for women working in digital practitioner roles such as product management, strategy, engineering and marketing.
They run small, informal ‘support and networking’ meetings in London, where mid to senior level women can discuss issues that relate to their digital career and could help them reach their full potential.