Editor's view, Inside Track, November 2010
Making the impossible possible
As a consultancy we have been in a particularly privileged position recently. Asked by a client to help them ‘make the impossible possible’ was a challenge we couldn’t resist! Our forthcoming think piece book will go into the detail of the fascinating work that followed that particular request from Balfour Beatty. As an international infrastructure business, they were determined to achieve Zero Harm in their safety performance, but what is really exciting is just how relevant the link is between the issue of Zero Harm and so many other seemingly impossible challenges. It got us thinking about how leaders go about tackling their toughest challenges, those seemingly impossible, yet mission-critical, issues that hit all of us at some stage of our work. We realised that what was done in order to achieve Zero Harm was directly applicable and relevant to the work we do with many of our other clients.
Recent conversations around worklessness come into my mind; not only unemployed adults but also the rise in the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training. The impact for the individual and business is obvious, but health and crime figures show the consequences are far reaching. We have been working on the underlying psychological drivers, but the issue is still huge and seemingly impossible to crack. From our work on Zero Harm, we have seen that breakthroughs require a different approach; it can’t be solved in a strategy session or by leaders thinking up the answers. Rather, results that no-one could have predicted involve much broader, braver thinking with a strong sense of determination and purpose.
Not all tough business challenges are suitable for this approach and the leadership of organisations involved have to be determined on success and capable of tackling complex change, however, for those who take up the challenge, the prize is immense.
Our think piece book ‘How do I make the impossible possible?’ will be available next month. To reserve your copy register for Inside Track now.
