For a refreshingly different view on the biggest problems facing us in business, listen to Newton Talks

This is an exciting time at Newton as our new podcast, Newton Talks - The Management and Consultancy Podcast for Curious Minds, has launched!

Tapping into the Newton spirit of intellectual curiosity and looking at things in refreshingly different ways, each episode sees me hand the microphone to one of my colleagues who stepped out of their day job and into conversation with an author, innovator or thinker that’s piqued their interest. They meet the people behind the big ideas inspiring us at Newton and then we come together to discuss what particularly resonated and challenged us.

Why we should seek more conflict

First up on the podcast is Newton consultant and Change Management specialist Brad Jennings who speaks to acclaimed author Matthew Syed, author of six-best selling books on high performance, including the celebrated Black Box Thinking, and more recent Rebel Ideas - both of which are some of the best-thumbed books on the Newton bookshelf.

Brad and Matthew discuss cognitive diversity, how it works in practice and what parts people get wrong. In the discussion Matthew argues that the sooner we start to see how conflict and disagreement actually contribute to the dynamism of a team, the sooner we can break free from group echo chambers and feel the benefits of cognitive diversity in solving complex problems. For my part my biggest takeaway from the discussion was something Matthew said about the importance and the value of cracking a problem together, with people from all backgrounds and walks of life. We’re used to having people around us that make our ideas feel safe and bold but until you consider your ideas from a number of different perspectives you can’t understand all the nuances.

One idea I’ve carried from the podcast into my working life is to write out ideas in full prose (not just bullets on a slide deck) so that people reading interpret the detail in the same way. It's been very powerful in terms of getting me to stop and think differently about how a message will land, resulting in more constructive feedback and engagement.

Getting what you want by saying what you mean

Sounds like a simple concept! Well Kim Scott, the guest on the second episode of Newton Talks explains why and how people rarely say what they mean at work, and how to change that in a compassionate but effective way. Kim is the author of Radical Candour: How to get what you want by saying what you mean and has been a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics and Twitter and has led AdSense, YouTube, and DoubleClick teams at Google.

Newton Director, Rosanne Furniss, sat down with Kim to discuss Radical Candour as a guiding framework when providing feedback, in particular how to hit the sweet spot in terms of challenging directly and caring personally. Kim really brought the concept to life with some examples of experiences where she might have missed the chance to help someone out of fear of coming across like “a jerk”, as well as times she has really benefited from radical candour, particularly when she was working under Sheryl Sandberg at Google. What resonated for me is that when we treat someone only with kindness and avoid challenging them with constructive feedback then we’re not actually helping them be successful, and it's something I’m working on now when I give feedback.

After hearing this podcast I have already started talking to my team about guidance rather than feedback. The change of word really demonstrates that you are yourself invested in them doing well and makes your advice sound less like you are just giving someone something to do rather than guiding them from a place of good intent. It's a small, positive thing, but it's already making a difference. Kim also gave me a lot of food for thought when she challenged celebrating promotions publicly. It's something we love to shout about at Newton as a way to recognise the great work that got a person there, and it creates a real buzz. But Rosanne and myself agreed that, following Kim’s explanation, it's definitely just as important to recognise success publicly for people who are feeling comfortable and happy in their role.

Why unconscious bias training doesn’t work (and what does)

Finally, for the series finale Newton Director Camilla Wigmore engaged with Sara Sandford, founder of GEN (Gender Equity Now), whose TED Talk “Designing gender bias out of the workplace” has been watched over 2 million times. Sara’s research at GEN has identified hundreds of cultural levers within an organisation that can foster or counter bias in the workplace. Understanding and pulling these levers impacts business results. By integrating the top five set of inclusive behaviours, tech companies, for example, have ended up creating 18% more patents per year.

Sara and Camilla discussed how companies need to do more than make pledges, or invest in unconscious bias training, to address gender inequality in the workplace, and how that in turn creates a positive commercial impact. They also dig into what ‘designing gender bias out of the workplace’ means in practice and why treating gender equity like a business critical function is the only way forward. One thing that really struck me is when Sara said we need to “go beyond intent and take action”. Something else that was really useful was the idea of giving people allotted reaction time in meetings, so instead of the loudest and fastest speaker being allowed to respond to an idea first, it actually gives everyone time to reflect and then make a meaningful contribution, naturally leading to more diversity in the voices being heard.

While I do agree that D&I training can be seen all too often as a tick box exercise within businesses I think in Newton there is space for it, alongside using many other levers, to create awareness and discussion of these issues. Lots to think about in terms of how we view women in leadership and address the pressures and the downsides of being female role models.

If you’re intrigued by any of the topics discussed above give it a listen yourself here: https://apple.co/3eSlJb6, or wherever you get your podcasts. I’d also love to hear your thoughts and questions in the comments, or join in the conversation with #NewtonTalks

Kate Mills TL - Newton Talks