Skill 3: Empower to solve
Initially only 15 cm in diameter, to enable faster progress whilst being wide enough to get comms, food, water and medical supplies to the miners if they reached them.
Trap: Overly directive leadership
The team he assembled included engineers from 5 countries, NASA
scientists, a 3D mapping software expert from Australia and a psychologist from his own company to help him create effective collaboration. Two of the most important contributors just walked up to the gate. The first was a Chilean Geologist who had been working on a gyroscope tool that could be attached to drills to improve directional accuracy. The team tested his equipment, and once Sougarret saw the improvement it made, he put him in charge of tracking accuracy on all drilling efforts. The second was a 24-year-old field engineer who recommend they try a cluster hammer his US employer had been developing to speed up the drilling. This innovation enabled them to cut 8 days off the time it took them to reach the miners. Assembling the best experts was only the first step. Sougarret continually told everyone ‘ no matter how expert you are, no one can solve this alone ’. He saw his primary role as creating a culture where everyone would engage in open discussion around ideas, rapidly test these ideas, share learning, and implement that learning.
Picture Credit : Hugo Infante/Government of Chile. The last of the trapped miners returns to the surface.
When André Sougarret was asked to lead the Chilean Mining Rescue in 2010, he immediately put word out for anyone with expertise that might be helpful to get in touch. Setting up a team to sort through and test these ideas. Despite his 22 years of experience, including previous mining rescues, he realised they were facing a challenge no- one had solved before. Not only did they have to drill through 700 metres of some of the hardest rock on the planet faster than had ever been done before. Because the maps of the mine were so inaccurate, they couldn’t be sure where the underground refuge was. To maximise their chance of locating the miners if they were still alive, they drilled 10 holes at once.
12
Adaptive Leadership : Building your capacity to thrive in a disruptive environment
Made with FlippingBook Digital Proposal Creator