Giulia Merlo, lead proposition manager, CRUK Technology Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk

1. Giulia Merlo, 21 November 2018
Digital leadership

2. 2
• Service Design Lead at Cancer Research UK
• Italian (becoming British)
• Love digital transformation, coffee and
Beyonce
• I’m on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/giuliavmerlo
• And on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/giuliamerlo/
• I’m the co-chair of the BIMA Charities Council

3. 3
Over the last 2 years…

4. Let’s set the scene

5. 5
How people work: their thought and action habits
(the culture)
How information
flows
The preoccupations and
behaviours of the leaders

6. 6
Pathological Bureaucratic Generative
Power oriented Rule oriented Performance oriented
Low cooperation Modest cooperation High cooperation
Messengers shot Messengers neglected Messengers trained
Responsibilities shirked Narrow responsibilities Risks are shared
Bridging discouraged Bridging tolerated Bridging encouraged
Failure→scapegoating Failure→ justice Failure→ inquiry
Novelty crushed Novelty→ problems Novelty implemented
Professor R Westrum, ‘A typology of organisational cultures’, BMJ Quality & Safety 2004

7. 7
WHERE IS YOUR
ORGANISATION?

8. What is digital leadership?

9. 9
Digital transformation is not:
- [only] about technology
- [only] about learning tech skills
- [only] about learning Scrum
Digital transformation is:
- Re-designing our services
- Re-designing our user experiences
- Re-designing the way we work
- Re-designing our business models

10. 10
Values and behaviours:
• Humility
• Permission to fail
• Self-direction
• Transparency
• A bias towards action
• Empathy
• Collaboration
(Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden, Sense & Respond, 2016)

11. 11
‘It’s better to learn to ask good questions than
give good answers.’
(Alex Mecklenburg, doteveryone)
• Support your team in thinking critically and finding the answers
• Create psychological safety
• Be comfortable with ambiguity
• Create the environment
• Measure outcomes, not outputs
• Always value the learning

12. 12
From Command
and Control…

13. 13
… to Mission Command

14. Let’s make this a bit more
tangible

15. 15
WHAT SHOULD YOU SAY
(OR NOT?)

16. 16
‘Here’s my idea. Please make it
happen.’
‘Here’s the desired outcome. How
could we get there?’
‘You need to deliver these 10
projects over the next year.’
‘These are the problems we need
to work on in the next 3 months.’
‘I know your team made a decision
on this, but you need to change it
because I have more experience.’
‘I disagree with you on this but
let’s give it a go!’
‘Let’s not test this, we already
know the answer.’
‘What could we learn from testing
this assumption?’

17. Let’s talk about you

18. 18
PERSONAL RETRO:
START, STOP, CONTINUE

19. 19
MAKE A PROMISE

20. Thank you!
https://twitter.com/giuliavmerlo
https://www.linkedin.com/in/giuliamerlo/

21. Sponsored by
Charity digital
conference
21 November 2018
London
#charitydigital

22. Visit the CharityComms website to view
slides from past events, see what events
we have coming up and to check out
what else we do:
www.charitycomms.org.uk