The MBET Experience

Yesterday we had a leadership training day with Angela Mondou, the founder of ICE Leadership. Angela has an interesting career, beginning with 9 years as a Logistics Officer with the Canadian Air Force, followed by a number of years in the high-tech sector at Nortel and most recently, Research in Motion. In addition to her training sessions, she has also written a book, Hit The Ground Leading (of which I have a copy, but have yet to read – so no book report from me).

The leadership day was interesting, but seemed focused more on giving us some project management tools than leadership. The day was a mix of lecturing and class discussion, as well as a number of scenarios we had to work through in teams. These scenarios were modelled after real-world problems, such as a cruise ship fire or new product launch. Our teams had to come up with solutions to the problems given to us in a fast-paced manner. This simulated many of the problems faced by businesses, where decisions must be made quickly and on-the-fly, without necessarily having all the facts.

The key takeaway was the ICE framework: Integrate, Communicate, Execute. Integration involves understanding the problem, the team, and what each person’s role is. Communication ensures that the people who “need to know” are informed of new information. Execution is where you finally get around to doing everything!

Overall, it was a worthwhile session. Here’s a couple of my key takeaways:

• Plan for the unplanned.
• Clear roles are essential, and create clarity in the organization.
• Use a 2nd-In-Command.
• Develop an “execution mindset”.

Now back to my regularly scheduled homework assignments…