That's Real Life

Hallowe'en at the Ministry: Deni, a policy analyst on my team, is the late, great, Ontario Hydro, the Crown corporation privatized into Hydro One in 1999.

Twice this past week I pretended I was something I'm not. Hallowe'en had nothing to do with it. I went to work dressed up as a bureaucrat that day.

On Tuesday I was the Innovation Manager at the WestEnergy coal-fired power facility situated in the fictional land of Newtonia. In that role, I failed to persuade my CEO to invest in renewable energy early enough and, by our third year, our company was getting crushed by the competition. 

On Thursday, I was a 35-year-old, freshly minted Senior Vice-President of a pharmaceutical and cosmetics company. In that role, I had to let my star performer, Jamie, know that she was not going to get that promotion she had her eye on. 

These roles were in safe-to-fail simulations. So I embraced the learning and failed in each.

My first "year" as Innovation Manager went well enough. I brokered a four-way partnership to install Newtonia's first section of smart grid. But, then, real life got in the way and I had to step away from the simulation to brief the Premier's Office.

By the time I got back, it was year three, the plant was still burning coal and the competition had gobbled up the scarce supply of renewable power. Worse, my corporate colleagues had gotten used to my not being there and I had no real role.

I went rogue and cooked up a deal with the federal government and a local steel company to build a carbon sequestration plant, clean up the power that we had and sell it to fussy, climate-conscious customers.  

While I was doing that the CEO made a deal to buy fusion power from another energy utility, rendering both the coal plant and carbon sequestration deal obsolete. Since this wasn't real life, I easily shouldered the broken deal and sold the coal plant back to the market.

Thursday's simulation was part of a day-long training session put on by the Ivey business school. The 35-year-old Senior Vice President was a featured player in a case study. 

The class bashed around the case study for about a half an hour. The senior VP needed to choose between two candidates, Jamie, the star, and Michael. 

I held firm to the position that Jamie was the best candidate. Others in the class switched over to Michael because he seemed less risky. The class did finally agree that Jamie, even if she was the better choice, had room to develop.

Then the trainer asked the question, "who would like to coach Jamie?" 

I said I would, because I thought the question was rhetorical.

Turns out not. After about a minute to prepare, I was seated at the front of the room and the trainer brought Jamie in.

Jamie was smartly dressed, in her mid-to-late thirties and looked every inch like the person in the case study. 

After some animated small talk, I started with what felt to me like neutral questions about where she thought she needed to develop.

Things went badly after that.

I can't disclose the details without edging onto Ivey's intellectual property, but, leadership skills other than coaching got tested that day.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen

Hallowe'en at the Ministry:
Emma's a Spice Girl.