Corporate culture

A team that learns is a team that grows. Very often, the best way to support this is to create the right conditions and then get out of the way.

Individual people—you, me, others—are not that great at making sound, evidence-based decisions. We also tend to be suspicious of decisions, made by others, that have the potential to affect us. But there are ways to foster better, more legitimate outcomes and it all starts with vigorous debate.

For some, formal reviews are a time to step back, reflect on the previous months and get ready for the stretch that lies ahead. For others, documenting their mid-year is one more thing on their plate, a mildly annoying time gobbler that just crowds out other priorities. And for leaders with large teams, it’s a time-consuming task that can easily turn into a low-value box-checking exercise.

I was in my mid-twenties, with very little business experience.  Like many young people that age, I was keen to prove to myself and others that I could contribute in useful ways but had nothing remarkable to point to that would give me any special claim to anyone’s attention. I had potential as we all do, but that potential was still completely unrealized from a professional standpoint and could easily have remained so.

Well over ten years ago, in what now feels like a completely different life, I attended a management meeting with a few hundred colleagues.

I admit it freely: Whether it be books or movies, I’m a huge science fiction fan. I recently re-watched one of my perennial favorites—James Cameron’s 1986 ‘Aliens’ starring Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley.