Corporate oxymoron

'Corporate social responsibility? Why is that part of this course? You seem to have slipped it in as an after thought.' Is what many of my students comment about the MBA module I teach.

Few of them believe that private sector companies show much interest in anything beyond profits and growth.

I beg to differ.

One of my students told me about Bovis Lend Lease Community Days. Outsiders may see this as a warm and fluffy idea for junior staff to bunk off work for a day to mess about with local community groups doing 'good works.'

The construction industry has a macho reputation and property developers aren't seen as kindly uncles of the community. However an increasing number of projects involve partnership working, where the needs of users and major stakeholders have to be considered and included. Projects may involve a lot of work to adapt plans to suit patterns of use. Bovis Lend Lease are ahead of the game in making community consultation and cooperation part of company practice.

The company has a code of conduct and core values which read well. I tend to be sceptical about the theory until I see it in action.

This video shows the beginning of a site induction with a basic safety message:



I found an interesting obituary of Sir Frank Lampl. I'd never heard of him, but he got a job with Bovis in the early 1970s and worked his way to the top. He oversaw the sale of the company to Australia's Lend Lease and became life president of the united company: Bovis Lend Lease.

In Czechoslovakia he was only allowed to work as a construction labourer, but turned this to good advantage:

'If you come through the ranks..... you have a much better feel for what's happening on the site.'

I've met many people who used to work in construction, but couldn't bear the strain of recession, redundancy and the struggle to find work. I was astonished to read his goal for the company, particular Bovis International:

"I wanted to build up a business that didn't suffer so much from the economic cycles." He introduced US construction management skills allowing rapid completion of complex projects.

How macho was Frank Lampl? He wanted to be remembered 'for fairness and caring.' 'Most success depends on colleagues, on the team. People at the top can have large egos, but you must never say 'I': it's always 'we''. Colleagues described him as a compassionate man and an exceptional leader, but always hard nosed.

Frank seems an excellent example of a Level 5 leader, with the ability to drive things forward without crushing colleagues or blaming others for his mistakes. A humble man, who was also a survivor of 2 concentration camps and persecution under the Czech communist regime.

How did this warm and fluffy company do in the current economic downturn?

They delivered an operating profit after tax for the half year of 220.2 million Australian dollars, which represents a 17.2% increase on the corresponding period for the prior year. The UK part of the business experienced a fall in profits because of a significant slowdown in its EMEA markets (Europe, Middle East & Africa.)

It's NOT a fair cop Guv

In recent days we've had news of a murder and arrest of a neighbour. The man was subsequently released on bail. Looking back on UK murders that received a lot of media coverage, there have been some cases of an arrest, trial and subsequent acquittal, where police have focussed on the suspect to the exclusion of other evidence. On resuming the case, the trail has gone cold.

I think about clients who get impatient with creative problem solving processes and just want to fix the problem in the shortest time possible. They risk PREMATURE EVALUATION and the consequences that flow from poor decision making. They may also suffer from confirmation bias, where they seek to collect evidence that confirms their preconceptions, rather than keeping an open mind. When people were hanged in the UK for capital offences, the consequences of a bad decision could be fatal. This is the still the situation for people with limited means in some States of the USA, as the film 'Conviction' demonstrates.



Nassim Taleb writes about one aspect of the human brain that contributes to such poor decisions. In 'Black Swan' he notes the preference for narrative as a way of organising data and retaining it. We find it easy to recall a story than a series of facts in a long list. 'He was hanging around because he was obsessed with the deceased' is easier to grasp and remember than 'He was in the area at the time; he collected photos and material about the deceased...' may look similar, but the latter statement doesn't point to a single conclusion.

One way to prevent our brain from steering us down a cul de sac is to focus on techniques that help us diverge and gather as much information as possible before we converge and start to draw conclusions. Taleb favours approaches that ask us to look for information that contradicts any tentative early theories we might construct. Police routinely look for an alibi for suspects and witnesses to confirm that they were not at the scene of the crime. I like to encourage clients to look at ways they might mess up the process, so that they remain vigilant about their own practice. They're less likely to continue blundering down a blind alley when they've identified this as a risk and considered how to prevent it.

I don't envy the police their job when they are subject to intense media pressure and constant comment on the internet. Pressure may be one of the triggers that leads clients to rush to judgement, whether it be from stakeholders, bosses, or the finance department. One of the elements of robust creative problem solving is how to manage pressure and expectations effectively so that good decisions can be made.

UPDATE

Newspapers have been fined for contempt of court in articles about Christopher Jefferies, referred to at the start of this post. He was later released without charge and was found innocent of any involvement in the murder.

Premature evaluation by newspapers may well have damaged this man's reputation and hampered the investigation.