Mold

Today, I took my usual “places unexplored” walk.

Basically it is a tour to an office or area at work that I have never been to, because it is out of my usual line of walk.

Naturally, it gets harder to find such places the longer I work in a place, but it actually gets to be more fun the harder it gets.

I was amazed at the order in the place I explored today. Usually, places that get no attention suffer from a lack of care, but this was different. The only person in this work area decided he would make this space his own.

There are few people in the world who demand excellence of themselves even when no one cares.

I am thankful to have been molded by parents that hold such values.

Hierarchy

We live in a culture where the hierarchy must always be proved right.

If you are not careful, all information that flows to the top fuels confirmation bias – information provided supports already held beliefs of the leader.

With a truly smart leader, there is free flow of information bottom up for decision making.

With most leaders, information only flows at the small circle around the tip of the spear.

Something strange happened yesterday. An associate had superior information but was scared to share, for fear that it would be taken as an affront to the hierarchy. I had to tell him to share and if he’s challenged, he should say I told him to.

It made me reflect on how organisations can be designed to not have the right information coming through. I also reflected on how much is kept away from me too, with an assumption that I will be uncomfortable to be wrong.

There is always work to do as a leader to remove the barriers to information flow.

– Osasu Oviawe