Episode 23: Anonymous Series – Part One – Real Stories & Real Consequences

Posted On May 31, 2022
Podcasts

As the title suggests, this podcast is all about unearthing a new perspective on risk.

My guests are experts in their fields where they impact risk either directly or indirectly. My interviews aim to lift the lid on risk and rip it apart to give you a whole new perspective on it.

My name’s Lisa Sisson and I am founder of risk consultancy, Unearth. I’m also becoming known somewhat as a “Risk Rebel”.

At Unearth we believe that risk starts and ends with people. Equally, we believe that opportunity starts and ends with people. So if you’re not looking at risk with, through and by your people, then you are not only leaving your organisation exposed to risk, you are also not opening up the opportunities that a people-centred risk strategy will deliver.

The Anonymous Series are real stories and real consequences, shared directly from the person.

Meet Anon, our first anonymous guest in our ‘Anonymous Series’, who is bravely sharing their experience, their story as a senior executive within technology of a large Australian organisation and how the behaviour, decisions, and actions of a few had consequences on a whole team.

Anon is an experienced technology executive that was attracted to this particular role for the organisation to address their challenges in terms of how the technology function performed, how it engaged with the rest of the organisation, and how well prepared the technology function was to support major transformational activities within the organisation.

Anon’s experience is an eye opener, though so many aspects of their story are all far too common.

No, this is not a finger-pointing exercise. The purpose of the anonymous series is to share real stories directly from the person, while protecting the anonymous guest and the other people and the organisation within the story by only sharing the experiences to learn from.

And to help with those learning opportunities, we have a guest panel, who listened to the events that have been shared by Anon, and who asked questions of Anon in this episode. Then in our next episode (episode 24, which will be part two), you will hear from our guest panel on their insights and thoughts of Anon’s experience, looking at both sides of the coin, risk and opportunity.

Our guest panel comprises of Carolyn Butler-Madden, author, speaker, Founder and “Chief Purpose Activist” at her Purpose Consultancy, The Cause Effect. Carolyn helps business leaders define their Purpose and embed it into their business and brand to deliver meaningful social impact and competitive advantage.

And Dr Mark Crosweller AFSM, the Founder and Director of Ethical Intelligence, where Mark works with organisations and leaders to inspire their confidence and their competence in aspects of ethics which are inherently existent in their people.

The experience Anon shares, highlights a number of challenges, risks, missed opportunities, and the importance of people, at all levels of the business. Some of the points highlighted were:

Senior executive’s hearing what they wanted to hear.
Are you setting people up for success when moving them into roles where they have demonstrated they a lack of skills?
Perceived questionable decisions by senior executives on promotions and the implications and consequences of the decision on the many.
Who is listening, when human risks are raised to the most senior levels within the organisation on concerns of relating to decisions?
When internal processes fail to allow executives and employees to raise legitimate concerns and only option is the ‘Whistle-blower’ line to raise concerns for Board visibility and investigation.
Leadership through fear verses leadership through a shared vision.
The difference in approach, creating a safe zone for people being able to perform, verses the reality of this story where employees became ill as a result of the stress.

What would you do if you found yourself in a human risk situation where you felt like no one listened or acknowledged your concerns? Wait until you hear the thoughts and insights of our guest panellists in the next episode, so make sure you tune in, it is not one you want to miss.