Leadership

Sports  ·  Uncategorized
AKD Sport – Our story so far…

When I first met our CEO (Akin Thomas) at a Sport England conference held at Aston Villa Football Club, we exchanged pleasantries.  Well after a short lunch meeting with Akin we concluded with him proposing we could do some work in the future of which I was open to.  A couple of months after that I was contacted by a colleague regarding a tender and I went to Akin saying ‘I think together we could win this’.  We had a week to bring together our submission and I hoped that we could compete with all the other established organisations out there.  We won and the small team delivered a seminal piece of research that still reverberates across the UK sports and physical activity space, that piece of research and report was ‘Tell Your Story’, that was the birth of the Sports Division at AKD. 

In the past two years, we have conducted pioneering research within the sport sector including ‘Tell Your Story’ which looked at the stories of those within ethnically diverse communities and their experiences of accessing or involvement in sport, click here to read. Following this, we delivered 2 more pieces of research. We are also working with a host of national governing sport bodies, Sport Wales, UK Sports, Sport England and more. The growth has been swift but our range and impact is testament to all the people involved in AKD Sport Division.

Our mission is to be pioneers in sport by bringing insight, stimulating brilliance within the sector and giving original thought leadership to help make changes that benefit all. This gives all the opportunity to access the rich ecosystem of sport and physical activity.

Written by Ladi Ajayi, Head of Sport Division

Leadership and Development and Emerging Future
Diversity and Inclusion  ·  Leadership  ·  Organisation Development
Learning and Development and Your Emerging Future

Organisational learning is rapidly changing. It concerns both the methods and processes used by the organisation and processing at the individual level. However, if we accept that we have no idea what the world will look like in the next 5, 10 or 20 years, what does learning and development need to look like to facilitate the emerging future of organisations.

The history of individual learning has been shaped by psycho-social theories ( each with their own particular frame of reference). These include:

  • Behaviourism
  • Social learning theory
  • Cognition
  • Constructivism
  • Social constructivism.

We look at the evolution of organisational learning and we believe that the U provides a framework to capture the history, but importantly to give an insight into the future.

Theory U has evolved from the Presencing Institute and provides a dynamic framework for systemic change and development.    The concept of ego to eco is a powerful but simple way to capture this journey.

Historically ….

0.0. Learning was in its purest form, where learning had no parameters. Learning was directly applied to your environment and circumstances. There was lots of innovation and creativity. Transmission of skills and knowledge was through direct observation/ experience and word of mouth (storytelling) and was therefore confined to localised communities.

Exploitative (ego)

1.0. With industrialisation, training was a mechanism of control and exploiting resources, the most important being human beings. Learning was about instilling discipline and compliance. Training only benefited the learner in the realms of them being able to fulfil their function (and often stay alive). Therefore learning is linked solely to employability. Creativity is stripped totally away from the process.

Protectionism (ego)

2.0 Externalities associated with the rise of capitalism are mediated by the introduction of regulation. Examples include legislation to protect employees and the rise of the welfare state. Access to formal education becomes more widely accessible.

Organisations see the benefit of developing staff with more generic skills, to provide more flexibility. Learning is still dominated by the current and immediate future needs of the organisation but sold to staff as relevant upskilling. But learning is autocratic and the learner has a passive disposition in the experience. Organisations design learning to allow staff to function within defined parameters. There is an implicit discomfort or fear of allowing learning beyond parameters. Staff respond to 2.0 with a sense of entitlement. “Tell me what to do”, “Give me the answers”, “Give me the handout”. Such a culture doesn’t encourage any sense of critique, reflection or challenge.

A key cause of the fatal accident of KAL flight 8509 out of Stanstead airport in 1999 was the Korean Air’s autocratic cockpit culture. At that time Korean Air trained cadet pilots to respect hierarchy first and foremost. This meant not opposing (challenging) their Captain what ever happened. In the flight 8509 example, the First Officer knew of the imminent danger, but, in line with his learned culture, he kept quiet. A more autonomous thinking style would have led to a different decision, saving the lives of himself and the other crew members.

Enabling (eco)

3.0. Here we witness the shift from ego to a eco. Technology is prominent in the shift from 2.0 to

  • The first level is the utilisation of technology. Digitial platforms for learning will see virtual reality and augmented learning as a common feature within years. MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are providing amazing platforms that take distance learning to extraordinary levels. A MOOC hosted by the Presencing Institute was able to engage a global audience of 75,000 at no cost to learners.

The second level of technology is a maturing understanding of the learning process. Neuroplasticity provides revelatory insides into the brain’s ability to form new neural connections throughout life.

Organisations began to recognise and respond to individual needs. A more holistic type of learning such as well-being, mindfulness illutrate a shift well beyond an individual’s role. This change also reflects the changing relationship between the organisation and individual. Jobs for life, loyalty and dependency disappear from the vocabulary. This recognises a shift in power in which the individual’s expectation of organisational behaviour increases. (Less need to focus on IQ more on self awareness and EQ)

And so to the future….

A lot of organisational learning processes and platforms provide the capacity to understand the past. For the majority, learning is reflective and helps us to understand the past so we can function in the present. But learning is part of the creative process for defining a new future. What if our current learning cultures and processes have no correlation with our potential future? That means that rather than learning being a liberating process, allowing us to prepare for the best and intended future, we become slaves to the past and simply tinker (rearranging the deck chairs). So in order to ensure that learning is fit for future purpose, we must answer the following questions:

  • What future is trying to emerge in your organisation?
    • What are the learning processes that are required to facilitate that future?
    • What role, using self as the most important change agent will you undertake in the learning?
Organisational consciousness

ORGANISATIONAL NEEDS are the core of why learning exists, its purpose and the consequences of its purpose. Organisations that are profit driven will traditionally have a narrow scope of activity. If it doesn’t add to the bottom line, there is no or little justification in engaging in a learning activity. An example is the diversity agenda. Many organisation push back on diversity and inclusion, because they don’t see how it adds to the bottom line.

If organisational needs are centred in an ego mindset, what shifts an organisation from ego to eco? The shift will be caused by a maturing organisational consciousness. Organisational consciousness is the place in which an organisation’s intention and impact extends beyond its organisational needs. Organisational consciousness is an amalgamation of organisational, individual and societal needs.

INDIVIDUAL NEEDS are where stakeholders, staff, management and shareholders care equally about organisational needs and organisational impact. They want to work for organisations that do good, and this extends to other societal issues. Employees want to develop and grow in ways which traditional organisations did not encounter.

Most learning is geared to only allow a few to shape the future. But if you were able to galvanise the potential of the majority of the organisation, what type of future could they help you to shape and how much quicker. A crucial feature of the future is that organisations need Autonomous Critical Thinkers. Such staff have a stronger emotional, political and social connection to organisations because the relationship is mutually beneficial.

SOCIETAL NEEDS are defined as fundamental disconnects that result in major negative outcomes for majorities. Customers demand more from organisations they engage with. They expect more integrity from products and services. They expect organisations to do good and make organisations more accountable. Abolishment of child labour was driven by customers, not by board members.

We shouldn’t see organisations as simple reactive to these shifts. These are external drivers, but already we are seeing organisations shifting.

ORGANISATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS is important because it will be fundamental to the learning culture and platforms that organisations will need to create their emerging future.

So for learning and development here are 3 key questions that will help you to shape the future of your function:

  1. How do we create the learning culture and platforms that allow our organisations intended future to emerge?
  2. How do we facilitate learning that allows employees to “connect to their best me”?
  3. How do we facilitate learning that allows our organisation to respond positively to societal needs, that exist beyond its organisational need
Some features to consider

Some of the features of learning could involve the following:

Awareness

Organisations need to be aware of their challenges and successes – actual and potential by asking for and acting on feedback from all parts and levels of the organisations – they need to create a culture where ‘failure’ is seen as a learning opportunity – takes time to learn so sometimes need to slow down to speed up!

Transparency

Organisations will need to be more transparent to staff who are autonomous critical thinkers. If you want to optimise the potential of your organisation, then staff need to have a greater understanding, so that they can help shape the future wanting to emerge

Playfulness

Learning is a dynamic process that needs to facilitate, creativity, exploration and discovery.

Prototyping

Learning experience must accelerate the opportunity for innovation – taking calculated risks. The impact is a more innovative culture, change is manageable and positively embraced and failure is quick. Cost effective

Co-creation

Learning experience should break normal boundaries and be inclusive of different clusters of staff, suppliers and clients. Learning and development becomes part of all working parts of the organisation rather than simply an add on or mandatory compliance process.

So what?

The so what is how important is your future and what investment are you willing to make? Change is inevitable, but the challenge is are you simply tinkering or are you truly allowing your potential to emerge.? We advocate that your emerging future is going to be deeply influenced by the quality of learning and maturity of your organisational consciousness.

Akin Thomas is the CEO of AKD Solutions, an international Organisational Change Consultancy.

Email – akin.thomas@akdsolutions.com

Web – www.akdsolutions.com

Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/akinthomas/

Diversity and Inclusion  ·  Leadership  ·  Organisation Development
Disruptive Learning – a learning method to help your intended future to emerge
Introduction  

Society is evolving rapidly and it feels like often we can’t keep up. Our children will be doing jobs that we’ve never heard of. Business will be conducted in ways which for many of us are unimaginable. So if we don’t know what our world will look like in the next 5, 10, 20 years, how do we prepare our organisations for such uncertainty. What learning methodologies do we need to adopt to allow our people to design and create the future that truly optimizes the possibilities ahead of us?  

The potential of people is huge and yet for the majority sadly squandered. In our organisations lies so much latent talent and yet we have failed to galvanise this and use it for the advantage of our businesses and society as a whole. How have the cultures of our organisations, and the way in which we learn and develop allowed for such inexcusable waste of human brilliance?   

In this paper, we introduce the concept of Disruptive Learning as a tool to address the above. Disruptive Learning is about how we learn forward and not backwards. It’s not a complex idea, but it is unconventional and for many organisations, it will be uncomfortable and counterintuitive. However, nothing great was born from convention, so why are we so determined to cling to it? Disruptive learning is a mindset and thought process for designing learning experiences that challenge the norm, facilitate exploration and discovery. If you want to design the future, then at some point you need to disrupt your present.   

The danger of learning backwards  

Although there is much to be celebrated about how we learn in the workplace, we must acknowledge some key flaws.   

Firstly our learning is heavily influenced by our formal education process. For many of us around the world, we experience an education system designed for an industrial revolution era. At its core is creating a workforce for compliance and conformity. You are rewarded for getting things right and penalised for getting things wrong. This is one of the biggest flaws in how we learn. Mistakes have rewarded us with some of the most significant inventions and breakthroughs that we benefit from now.     

John Pemberton was a biochemist, who fought in the American Civil War and sustained a sabre wound to the chest. This led to an addiction to morphine. Pemberton sought to find a cure for this addiction. Instead, he discovered Coca Cola. Everyone reading this paper has probably used the invention created by Dr Spencer Silver.  Dr Spencer Silver, a 3M scientist, was busily researching adhesives in the laboratory. In the process, he discovered something peculiar: an adhesive that stuck lightly to surfaces but didn’t bond tightly to them. The Post-it was created. 

Percy LeBaron Spencer was working on magnetrons—high-powered vacuum tubes that generate short radio waves called microwaves—when he accidentally discovered microwave cooking. The engineer was doing his job as usual when he noticed that the candy bar in his pocket had melted. Quickly Spencer realized that it was the magnetron that was causing this phenomenon. By 1945, he had filed a patent for his metal cooking box powered by microwaves. 

These are a few obvious examples, but millions more exist. If you reflect on your personal experience, you will probably find that profound learning experiences have often come from getting things wrong. So why do we struggle to embrace this truth?   

Unfortunately, we are taught to fear failure. This is indoctrinated into us as children and remains with us throughout our personal and professional lives. So naturally, it’s a very present feature of many organisations we work for. We have to get things right. Our jobs, our reputations depend upon this.   Therefore our learning processes reinforce this reality. Getting things right may provide gratification, but it depreciates learning opportunities and experience. You may get an immediate reward, but you won’t learn much from getting things right. Our most profound learning often when we got things wrong.  

Your best future cannot be created by playing it safe and striving to get things right. And if we provide learning methodologies and opportunities that reinforce this, we do ourselves, our organisations and our societies a great disservice.   

I was recently listening to Jim Rohn and he said something that resonated:   

“Here’s why we don’t really reach into the future. We are trapped, either by regrets of the past or the routine of the present.  (We are) so busy with the routine of the present that we don’t give much thought to designing the future.  Or (we are)  trapped by the past with regret of past losses, past failures, past mistakes and we relive them over and over again, not for the benefit of changing it for the future, but just because we feel that our lives have been less than favourable, simply because of all the things that have happened to us in the past”.   

This statement is as applicable to an individual as it is to an organisation. Routine can consume all your energy. There is never enough time. We are constantly busy. We are being measured on the “now performance” and if “now” isn’t good enough then there could be serious consequences. Football managers have only a handful of games to get it right before a replacement is being sought. When your shareholders are your boss, there is constant pressure to deliver for the now. So where is the time and space for the future?     

And let’s not forget the regrets that Jim Rohn referred to. Mistakes paralyse leaders and therefore the organisation. And when mistakes are perceived so negatively (and some rightly so), then bravery will retreat and “steady as you go” will come to the fore. Your focus will be on now and ensuring self-preservation rather than creating new spaces of opportunity and possibility.    

We need to recognise the importance of now and optimising now. But we must understand the importance of the future and carve out time to think about this. We need to acknowledge the mistakes of old, learn, but move on. How do we move forward with the right balance?   

Most learning is backwards. We look backwards to create our present. Learning from past mistakes is important. It would be irresponsible not to learn from the past. But here’s the problem. The evidence suggests that we don’t actually learn from the past. If you think on a personal level, the number of times you’ve had to repeat the same life lesson, because we didn’t learn.    

Disruptive Learning  

At the core of this paper is the question “How do we create a learning culture and platforms that allow our organisation’s intended future to emerge?” 

Disruptive learning

The first thing we need to do is learn forward and not backwards. Convention can’t create your intended future. But disruption can. Disruptive learning is a method to enable the fullness of your future to emerge.    

Disruption is now part of the language of business and gradually becoming part of the learning vernacular. But let’s be clear about what disruptive learning is. A dictionary definition of disruptive is to prevent something from continuing or operating in a normal way. For clarity, I am defining disruptive learning as:  

A learning experience that radically challenges conventions and norms and provides the catalyst to new possibilities, opportunities and outcomes.     

Disruptive learning has no predicted outcome other than if you embrace the experience and reflect deeply on the experience, something of immense potential could emerge. Professor Jules Goddard, a fellow at the London Business School helped to shape the concept of Disruptive Learning. He said it’s a challenging learning method that is deliberately deconstructive to allow for new thinking and possibilities to emerge. He continued there are aspects of disruptive learning that may be counterintuitive. Professor Jules Goddard said “ If you think it’s measurable, it’s not worth doing! The real value we bring by definition is immeasurable. We have a sense of whether something is important and making a difference. When you start to put numbers on it, the experience and the potential are distorted.  Measures make it comfortable. 

Uncomfortable..but let’s explore anyway… 

The disruption is highest when the feedback is lowest. When a group of senior executives from France found themselves in a remote village in Mumbai, some simply didn’t want to be there. They were extremely uncomfortable and didn’t understand the purpose. They hated the lack of structure. But the journey didn’t end there and profound learning was the result. It was back in the hotel, in the moments of reflection and discussion that profound learning and ideas emerged, that was transformational for the individuals and the organisation.    

Disruptive learning means that you must be courageous and be willing to look beyond the immediate feedback and trust in the process. The return on investment won’t necessarily come from the actual activity. It will probably come from the experiments that the experience stimulates. “What is the one question that comes from my experience that if we found the answer would have a profound impact on the organisation?” This means we will need to rethink how we evaluate a disruptive learning experience. Conventional measures of learning that we use in organisations will be too restrictive. The evaluation will be the experience, the impact and what emerges. This means courage and patience!  

What does it look like? 

Because Disruptive Learning is unconventional, I can’t give you a nicely presented package. And you shouldn’t want one. What we can do is share some examples of disruptive learning and some of the characteristics you should be seeking to include.   

I asked Professor Jules Goddard about his most disruptive learning experience. He provided two examples: 

Finding Your Voice in a Remote Village in Mumbai  

“It was when I was at the edge. I spent a week in Mumbai, with executives from Danone. We found ourselves remote in a village with no agenda, other than to find our voice and hear the voices of others living very different lives from ours. I still remember the flavours. Some of the executives couldn’t understand why they were there and wanted to leave. We experienced extreme discomfort, physically and mentally. We found a health centre and a school. We taught at the school for a few hours. We placed ourselves in the minds of very different people for a while. Later in a luxury hotel, we had a sense of guilt and voyeurism, but we reflected on our discomforts and mental models. Those who didn’t want to be there suddenly got what’s going on.   

Who is the Most Interesting Person you know? 

On another occasion, Professor Goddard took a group of executives from Prudential to California and hooked up with Andre Norman. Andre Norman is also known as the Ambassador of Hope. Andre’s years were framed by crime and violence and led him to be sentenced to over 100 years in prison. Whilst in solitary confinement Andre had an epiphany, went from an illiterate to teaching himself law, and eventually won an appeal after 14 years. Professor Goddard team up with Andre Norman with a group of executives with the objective of “finding the most interesting person in the city”.      

We went into the most dangerous parts of LT in a car. We drove around, when saw someone interesting, we stopped the car and ask the person “who is the most interesting person in the hood”. We met some remarkable people.  We did this 5 times and ended up meeting a woman hosting 25 homeless people in a park. We talked 3-4 hours to this woman and those who were homeless. I recall it had a profound impact on HR Director. She stayed in contact with one of the people for at least one year after the experience.  

The Elizabeth Line       

When the  Elizabeth line is fully opened it will be the technologically advanced railway in Europe.  What stood out was that his most profound learning when he was scared (words somewhat edited!).   He was doing things he had never done, he was getting things wrong in front of prominent people, in some ways he was screwing up.  But the learning was profound. On reflection, he saw that nothing in a classroom had created an emotional and profound learning experience.   

Designing a Disruptive Learning Experience  

The key thing to remember in your design is that you only create the framework and the spark to ignite the experience. The rest is down to those involved.    

So what are some of the characteristics of disruptive learning experiences: 

Discomfort  

The common denominator for all disruptive learning experiences is discomfort.  

Steve Murphy is the Managing Director of MTR Elizabeth line in London. He recalled having to deal with the most controversial industrial relations issue the industry had faced in a generation. On top of that, he had to face Bob Crow, one of the UK’s most formidable union leaders. Steve Murphy recognised the issue had the potential to destroy the company he had built and rip the industry apart. On reflection, he said that his most profound learning was when he was genuinely afraid. “It turned out to be really successful, but what made me focus and perform at a high level was fear”. 

Chizoba Mojekwu, the former HR Director for the Central Bank of Nigeria, recalls a 9-day course at the Harvard Business School. She recalled she spent 3 of the days in tears (along with other colleagues).  She noted that the pain was worth it for a profound learning experience that has never left her.   

We are not advocating that you deliberately make people cry or construct scenarios with the intent of scaring people to death. But there must be discomfort. If you accept that convention will not allow your best future to emerge, then you need to create a framework for learning that places people in uncomfortable (but managed) circumstances.   

Forget the classroom! 

In our research, another common feature is that disruptive learning doesn’t take place in a classroom or sitting in front of a computer. It is more likely to take place in an unusual location with people you normally don’t engage with. Professor Jules Goddard participates in a village outside of Mumbai and to the suburbs of California, not normally reserved for senior executives of global brands.   

Going with your gut! 

A lot of the learning experiences I’ve developed for clients have been intuitive, lacked a lot of structure, but were unbelievable impactful. The parameters were outlined and within this space, we provide freedom to see what would happen. 

Playfulness  

One of the most powerful and liberating learning methodologies. It is the most natural form of learning.  Playfulness has two key components, exploration and problem-solving. But when children begin they play, they don’t have a structure for what the issue is nor an intended endpoint. But through play, they discover both. We need to liberate those designing the future to play.   

Carefully Constructed Chaos 

Often disruptive learning is an experience that is in the moment and without rehearsal. We need to help people recognise, reflect and truly embrace these experiences to optimise them. 

We can also construct these experiences. A great way to describe it is Carefully Constructed Chaos.  This means carefully constructing the parameters of the experience, but allowing the middle (the content, the chaos) to emerge.  

Also remember the experience itself is only one component of the experience. True learning will often follow through reflection and asking deeper, more challenging and meaningful questions than would have been previously generated. 

To carefully construct chaos you first need to understand what normality is to those involved. You need to gain some insight into the individuals involved to gain some understanding of the professional and personal challenges they have experienced. I work with an amazing charity, Breaking the Silence, which works with victims of domestic violence, forced marriage and human trafficking. I have included them in the design of some leadership programmes because I know that participants will find it hugely uncomfortable and transformative. But if there are victims/survivors of domestic violence then it would not fulfil a chaotic dimension. 

Often these are constructed engaging with people outside of the participants’ normal social field.   The London Business School has facilitated sessions where former gang members and ex-prisoners have worked with senior executives, allowing them to explore London in ways that for them are unimaginable.  

The Role of Technology  

Technology is now an inextricable part of life, including learning.  Therefore we need to understand its role in disruptive learning. 

Artificial Intelligence is a good starting point.  Artificial Intelligence is “The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.” (1)  Amazon Web Services also mentions learning, problem-solving and pattern recognition in their definition.(2).   

AI has four key components: human thinking, rational thinking, human acting and rational acting.   AI wants to think like a human, but move beyond so that it can think and act in the most rational, optimised way. This is powerful, but can it be disruptive?  If we agree that human creativity is responsible for the future, can AI create the future or merely optimise the here and now. No doubt geniuses are working hard to achieve this.   

What technology provides is accessibility and connectivity. We can access information in ways which are incredible and connect with people and ideas that were inconceivable even 10 years ago. But this does come with a health warning. Technology can democratize information. However, the notion of personalisation can be counterintuitive to democratisation. The architects of social media seek to understand your profile and preference and then push information to you that suits who your persona says you are. This is particularly prevalent in our politics, where we see how political parties are using social media to carefully pinpoint campaign information that suits your profile.  

Netflix will suggest you may want to watch this, and more often than not we trust these recommendations. Personalisation may make it easier to sift through the noise, but it can also make us lazy. Disruptive Learning requires you to be intentional, going beyond what Facebook or Twitter or YouTube predict you will engage with. Disruptive Learning requires you to deliberately seek out new ideas and new people.     

Who is disruptive learning for? 

Disruptive learning is a tool that should be used by anyone who has responsibility for imaging and creating the future for an institution. Here we focus on organisations. (corporate, public or voluntary).  But it can be applied on a micro lee 

When should you apply Disruptive Learning?   

Disruptive Learning is a tool that you should use sparingly, otherwise, you lose the uniqueness and flavour of the experiences. I think that two great opportunities for disruptive learning are: 

  • Developing new and emerging leaders  
  • When there is deliberate space for future planning  

When working with new and emerging leaders, you want them to be responsible for the present, but more importantly the future. They are the talent, that likely to have some responsibility for governing the future, so surely they should have a stake in creating it. By applying disruptive learning in their formative years as leaders, you create a foundation, which will be profound and shape how they lead. 

When your organisation is embarking on planning the future of your organisation, be brave enough to rip up the rule book, start with a blank sheet and facilitate a disruptive learning experience. It will remove the barriers of convention and allow them to explore possibilities that other “workshops sessions” will potentially inhibit. From the experience, questions and hypotheses will emerge that will allow for a much fuller experience of future planning.  

Akin Thomas is the founder and CEO of AKD Solutions