The recent heatwave experienced during the first week of the Australian Tennis Open tournament has provided a window of reflection into leadership, cultural memes and of course, risk management. It has been interesting, watching from afar, how the leadership dealt with the unprecedented heatwave conditions, how they were driven by their own cultural memes and how ultimately, they made a series of risk denial decisions and only corrected their actions very late, after player and public outcry.
The role of the leader is to navigate the unknown. Past experiences and procedures can be useful to a point, though ultimately, the leader needs to have the internal strength and fortitude to navigate a new path when conditions or circumstances change. This is the stark way by which leading and managing diverge from each other. It is also a reminder to us that though our current cultural context freely uses the term and label, leadership, is nevertheless a rarer set of qualities possessed by the fewer.
The notion of a cultural meme was on stark display and worth considering here because it clearly drove decision making during that heatwave week at the Australian Open. A cultural meme is a unit of culture which is unspoken yet understood within the culture it presents. In the Australian Open context, the meme is clearly; production (play) takes precedent. It drove the bloody minded decisions of denying the risk of heat exhaustion and threat to the wellbeing of the players, on court support (such as the ball kids) and the viewing public.
Clearly, the combined effect of vacuous leadership and the cultural meme for continued play has driven a series of decisions and actions to deny the risk. Risk denial is the most flawed of decisions made around risk management and organisations need to be constantly vigilant to the signs and be working actively to disengage them. Risk awareness is the desirable space to be and good leadership will get us and keep us there. Ultimately, it is cheaper and easier than repairing the damage to people and brand.