BRIEFING A platform for reducing the environmental impact of single-use products in the health and humanitarian sectors and the benefits of women-only start‑up incubators feature among our updates from BGA member schools across the world. Complied by Tim Banerjee Dhoul , Ellen Buchan and Colette Doyle THE LATEST NEWS FROM ACROSS BGA’S NETWORK Business
WHY CORPORATE CULTURES MUST ENABLE PEOPLE TO QUESTION AND CHALLENGE IDEAS
being unwilling to have challenging discussions was a chief reason for Credit Suisse’s 2021 loss of $5.5 billion, following the collapse of Archegos Capital. “The consequences of a corporate culture where teams are hesitant to challenge leaders can be dire. This can include financial damage and service failure,” explained lead author and academic director of Imperial’s Centre for Responsible Leadership Celia Moore. The paper offers guidance for fostering an organisational culture where issues can be broached and ideas challenged. For example, it suggests putting forward questions that specifically seek disagreement from employees and stakeholders, rather than open-ended questions and general queries.
However, the white paper says that leaders must go further and ensure they acknowledge challenges as legitimate, giving alternative ideas appropriate time. Only offering a platform to such ideas in short meetings, for example, is said to increase the risk of them being shut down before they can develop. The importance of enabling inclusive conversations and an open environment conducive to the participation of all stakeholders is also highlighted. In outlining the paper’s aims, Moore pointed to a lack of “concrete guidance on what leaders can do”, adding that “we wrote this paper to offer business leaders evidence- based strategies that can make a real difference in preventing failure within their organisations.” EB
SCHOOL Imperial College Business School COUNTRY UK
mperial College Business School’s Centre for Responsible Leadership has published
I
a new white paper exploring the organisational benefits of having people who are willing to say “no” and challenge the ideas put before them. The paper also underlines the dangers of surrounding yourself with ‘yes people’. In so doing, it references a report that found a culture of
6 Business Impact • ISSUE 4 • 2024
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online