Transforming Work with Sophie Wade 46: Dom Price — Tackling Underlying Issues: Straight Forward, but Not Simple Solutions
Dominic Price, Work Futurist at Atlassian, first explains unlearning. He discusses the excitement and challenges of his work ensuring his company keeps adapting to stay ahead of competitors as it grows rapidly year on year. Focused on anticipating, exploring, and improving ways of working, Dom offers suggestions to specific questions that we are all currently trying to answer such as about hybrid work models, burnout, transformation challenges, and more, sharing his lived experiences, experiments and refined solutions.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
[03:10] Starting as a chartered accountant, Dom found a “job for life” wasn’t his vocation.
[03:54] Not wanting to fit into a box, Dom had to accept uncertainty and unlearn structure.
[05:34] How to be happy with career progress when “learning” is the key measurement.
[07:47] When Dom joined Atlassian it was one of the “best places to work”, but he hated it.
[08:31] Applying his skills very differently, Dom was confronted reframing his “firefighting” role.
[11:58] Dom’s boss challenges him to adapt and grow 40% each year to stay in his current role.
[14:10] We go back to old thinking because it was certain, not because it was valuable.
[15:22] Dom’s fascination with technology ends up with him focused on people.
[17:48] Question 1 – How to tackle the complexity of hybrid models?
[19:24] Underlying question – How do we become place agnostic?
[20:24] When we are place agnostic, how can we find effective ways of working?
[22:18] Question 2 – How does work “work” now?
[23;15] Underlying question – What more can we understand about what it is to be human?
[21:45] You can offer flexibility to your on-site workers. Dom explains how.
[24:23] The importance of psychological safety.
[26:14] Dom experiments and gives an asynchronous workshop.
[28:12] We have to experiment and explore our way forward in the Future of Work.
[29:11] Question 3 – How do you learn a growth mindset?
[30:14] Dom’s Five Ls exercise that he practices regularly.
[32:55] The importance of role modeling behavior as leaders now.
[36:03] Question 4 – How to embrace change and stop people resisting change?
[37:50] Breaking down transformation into “what’s one thing we can do today?”
[39:40] Celebrating “the good old days” in a positive way to be able to move forward.
[42:41] Question 5 – How to get rid of so many meetings?
[46:19] Questions 6 - How do we reduce burnout?
[47:15] Question 7 – Should I leave my employer?
[48:55] Be the change you seek. Feedback is a gift, but only if you give it!
[51:28] Question 8 & 9 – How can you help employees think through how to live their lives differently? How can their boss support this process?
[52:00] Why Dom thinks we are obsessed with perfection and we should focus on progress.
[52:45] Systems thinking—we can block progress if we only see the boundaries of the system.
[53:51] Learning organizations don’t exist, but learning loops do.
[55:42] Dom believes the organization chart is damaging—hindering progress in organizations.
[57:33] Leadership is based on competence, not level.
[59:37] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: If you’ve been taking mental or written notes listening to this episode, don’t sign up for more knowledge obesity, find ONE thing you are willing to try, and put a date on it.
RESOURCES
Dom Price on LinkedIn
Dom Price on Twitter
QUOTES
“I need to unlearn all these things I got taught early on in my career, about “you must have a career plan”.”
“If you wanna be great, you're gonna have to evolve how you work, how your teams work, how you influence. You're gonna have to adapt to everything constantly.”
“How do we get those teams in a distributed fashion to work effectively together? Once we solve that everything else is done, right? Everything else is gravy.”
“How can we work human to human? How do we amplify that with technology? Technology isn’t the answer, it’s the amplifier.”
“How do I build a balanced life and where does work fit into that?”
“If you've got an hour, spend five minutes reminiscing on the good old days, spend the other 55 building better days tomorrow.”
“Leadership is based on competence, not level.”