An academic in business school, and being a better dad

I’d never had formal management or leadership training, never been schooled in negotiation or influencing, and never run a business. I have now — and consequently have more ability and confidence to lead teams, to navigate them through uncertain times, and, perhaps most importantly, to be a better dad.

During spring 2016 I took part in the Fast Track Advanced Management Programme at Ashridge Executive Education. The programme has two modules, each a one-week residential course at Ashridge, near Berkhamsted, just outside London.

Wicked problems in a VUCA world

The industrial revolution led to an era characterised by relative predictability: design a television, make TVs, sell TVs, redesign TVs, make TVs, sell TVs. Manage the business to do that. That worked for at least half a century.

A foundation of leadership education at Ashridge is that we now live in a VUCA world of wicked problems — volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. Things will change, and we can’t predict how or when. Wicked problems have no single solution; even the challenges we can foresee will escape any single, simple fix.

In such a world, leaders must draw on and nurture creativity. Team members need the high intrinsic motivation that comes from autonomy, purpose, and the pursuit of mastery. Extrinsic motivation (e.g. performance-related pay) and command-and-control leadership tend to extinguish intrinsic motivation, and the creativity that comes with it.

The research team I lead tackles wicked problems — in particular, how we can more accurately forecast ecological dynamics, such as fish stocks ten years from now. So while I was familiar with the territory, I hadn’t connected it to leadership before. Ashridge helped make that connection, and in doing so helped crystallise a personal leadership style that resonates with my research, that will bring out the best in team members, and that I understand and can keep developing.

Running a business

The programme included a business simulation, run at the rate of one simulated year per real hour. My small team of classmates competed against four other teams, designing, marketing, advertising, and selling retail products. The presence of the other teams created real uncertainty about the outcome of our actions — we didn’t know what products they’d produce, how hard they’d advertise, or the state of their finances. It’s a testament to the programme that our small company won the competition (there were only four of us, so we all played a key role).

While I’m happy we won, I think more often about the mistakes we made, how we succeeded anyway, and what the other teams did differently. As it turned out, we’d been making a fairly serious mistake for the entire simulation — had it continued longer, we probably wouldn’t have won.

The most significant lesson I took from the simulation was about what actually drives me. After we won, a classmate suggested I was probably highly competitive. I realised I don’t much care whether that’s true, because it’s not the important part. What I care about is learning new things so I can perform better than I could before, being creative, and seeing others (and myself) take on the hardest problems we can find. It’s nice, but for me relatively unimportant, that this kind of behaviour often also creates the best chance of winning.

Collaborating and challenging

Perhaps my greatest concern going in was how I’d get on with my classmates. Almost all were from the business world — managing director, development director, strategy director, vice president, financial controller — from a wide range of sectors. How would I compare, would I make a fool of myself, what would they think of me? I was stepping well outside my familiar ivory tower.

I was challenged again and again, and had to ask what P&L, KPIs, and B2B/B2C meant. I probably said some naive things. But I never felt judged, by instructors or classmates — quite the opposite. They were enthusiastic, supportive, open, observant, creative, and fun. The learning experience the instructors created was highly collaborative, and challenged all of us; we learned at least as much from each other as from the instructors. It’s given me real optimism that many leaders in the business world build success through supportive, safe, and authentic relationships.

That might sound a bit warm and fluffy for “business folk.” None of my classmates were bankers, though one was a lawyer — but joking aside, all were highly driven, ambitious, and at times challenging. My optimism comes from seeing so many people show, believe in, and demonstrate that giving is a powerful, probably necessary partner to drive, ambition, and disruption.

Being a better dad

Before kids, life was relatively predictable and controllable: up at 7am, make breakfast, eat breakfast, read the paper, walk to work, work, go home, sleep, repeat. None of that is certain any more — the arrival of my kids brought volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, with no simple or single solution to the challenges they create. And they themselves will grow up, live, and — with whatever leadership I can offer — thrive in their own VUCA world of wicked problems.

— Owen Petchey, April 2016