Like it or not, roadblocks are part of life. You will have come across this at some point at work, in your early life at school, or even at home. So, when roadblocks come up and you aren’t sure how to approach them, how should you handle it?
In the workplace the easiest course of action a may be to take the issue immediately to your colleague or senior and ask for support. However, increasing their workload with concerns you could personally provide approaches for can cause them to become overburdened, creating a snowball effect which can lead to frustration, missed deadlines and burnout.
One of the eight core values of GRS is Tenacity. The quality of being very determined; to meet strain or difficulty with fortitude and resilience. The most obvious associations with tenacity are the long-term scenarios that require your time, effort and a strong helping of resilience: starting your own business, winning a basketball championship, conquering a mountain. This longer-term approach however, is only one way to display tenacity.
If we aim to exemplify tenacity in all areas of our lives, we must also demonstrate it in day to day opportunities in our approach to roadblocks. Tenacity in these moments can mean releasing our colleagues to perform their roles by engaging a capability to shift our own language from “I have this issue, what should I do about it?” to “I have this issue, here is what I am doing to tackle, here are the steps I am taking to find a resolution.”
Taking it to a colleague or senior can of course be the best course of action when it is a decision only your superior can make, or you need additional insight. However, discerning when you can take the initiative to find a solution alongside the problem can release your colleagues to perform work that reflects their purpose.
To practice tenacity, our first step must be to take initiative; informing our peers of issues, whilst ensuring we ourselves remain tenacious resolution seekers.
Sometimes it’s worth it to go back and re-read an old notebook.
I happened across the notes I took at a session of our Greenroom Strategic Vision Strategy and Tactics retreat in early 2022. Yes, I was procrastinating a little when I picked up my old notebook – but it yielded something rather good.
Our team ‘Statesman’ opened his session with this:
Question: You have one minute in an elevator with a very senior ‘decision maker’ – how do you explain what we mean by GRS being a problem-solving company?
Hmm. Tough question to articulate succinctly.
How about this as a response (from the Statesman): “that GRS is a carefully cultivated, carefully curated collection of people who can help the client make their way through complex problems.” Read in between the lines – our collective is the answer.
Some of our previous blogs have touched on things like workplace culture, what’s worth celebrating, being wise and resilient in the face of threats, among other topics – but I keep coming back to our collective and how we make a difference wherever we are placed.
So please indulge me whilst I read over my notes and highlight some for you.
Decency, honesty, and integrity still count for something.
The Client’s interests are my interests.
Positively build on the work of my predecessor, don’t speak ill of those who have been there before me.
Stay on target, even when the challenge is hard, and the vultures are circling.
One fight. One team (see second bullet point).
We are motivated by the outcome for the client, utilising people of skill and integrity (again, see second bullet point).
Step one of being a complex problem solver is understanding that relationships with humans are inherently complex.
When operating in the dynamic nature of specialist consultancy, we must be agile and flexible to meet the needs to the client. But some things should never change. There should be a foundation upon which a company that provides complex problem-solving services is built. I’ve not listed all of them here, and we certainly don’t get it right all the time, but the notes that I took at our retreat last year show that a key foundation for GRS is our people, and the binding purpose with which we approach each task, challenge or complex problem.
Well, procrastination over, it is a busy time of year, approaching the end of the 2023 Financial Year and it’s time to get back to it.
I hope the words of our legendary ‘Statesman’ have given you a bit of a spring in your step to help you finish this Financial Year well.
It is a beautiful Autumn day outside as I look out the window and sip my coffee. I look back at my screen and scroll through the news headlines to find an article that catches my attention. Data breach class action launched against one of Australia's major Telcos, with up to ten million Australians impacted somehow. Considering the magnitude of the breach six months earlier, it is incredible that 38.92% of the Australian population had personal information leaked in this single cyber event. Thinking about the cyber breach further, I asked myself, "How can we protect ourselves better?"
Of course, it is impossible to make yourself, your family, or your organisation 100% protected against a cyber-attack, breach, or compromise. No one is "hacker-proof". Even the most secure people can fall victim to cybercrime. For example, when a trusted third party, like a Telco, gets hacked and leaks personal information, the victim has no control and entirely depends on the third party's ability to secure their data. Living under a rock with no internet will not help either, with a lack of online presence allowing someone else to assume your identity and commit fraud. The latest Annual Cyber Threat Report from the Australian Cyber Security Centre paints a bleak picture, with a cybercrime reported every 7 minutes.
So, what is the answer to this complex problem, and how can we protect ourselves better? Cyber resilience is the key and measures our ability to anticipate, withstand and recover quickly from an adverse cyber event. Making simple changes to how we do things online can significantly increase our cyber resilience while reducing our exposure to cyber threats as we become harder targets for cybercrime. At Greenroom Strategic, we encourage everyone to work towards a mature level of cyber resilience, helping to protect ourselves, our families, and our organisations. The Australian Cyber Security Centre has excellent resources for increasing cyber resilience, and we encourage you to check them out.
The IT guy.