Inclusive Leadership That Transforms AEC Teams

Key Concepts

Inclusive Leadership: Leadership that fosters an environment where all individuals feel valued, respected, and empowered to contribute their unique perspectives and skills.
Decision Quality: A framework for making well-informed, confident decisions by systematically quantifying risks, assessing alternatives, and ensuring commitment to action.
Systems Approach: Understanding how different parts of an organization or project interact and influence each other, moving beyond a narrow focus on individual tasks.
Positive Leadership: Creating a climate characterized by positive relationships, communication, meaning, and a sense of purpose, leading to resilient teams.
Participative Decision-Making: Involving individuals in the decision-making process, particularly those who may not have the loudest voice but possess valuable skills.
Windshield Time: Practical, hands-on experience gained by being actively involved in decision-making and leading teams, crucial for skill development.
Psychological Safety: An environment where individuals feel safe to express themselves, take risks, and make mistakes without fear of negative repercussions.
Collision Space: Creating opportunities for serendipitous interactions and brainstorming among team members to foster innovation.

Summary

This episode of the AEC Leadership Podcast features Jose Tromblé, a professional engineer and principal at Strategic Decisions Group (SDG), discussing inclusive leadership, decision quality, and fostering innovation.

Background and Career Path

Jose Tromblé's career began as a mechanical engineer in the energy sector, where she managed large onshore and offshore engineering projects globally. Her experience led her to deeply consider what makes teams effective and how to achieve better collective results. She transitioned to more advisory roles, focusing on board work and strategic advising. Currently, at SDG, she consults with large organizations on making significant decisions under uncertainty, emphasizing "decision quality." This involves quantifying risks, assessing alternatives, and ensuring decisions are made with confidence. Tromblé's passion for decision quality stems from her early career experiences where SDG helped her navigate complex international portfolios, leading to consistent success. She pursued a graduate certificate in decision science at Stanford University to deepen her understanding of integrating strategic decision quality with technical expertise. Her current advisory roles include serving on the boards of engineering-focused companies, such as CC Corp, where she contributes to strategy and investment decisions, particularly in areas like clean energy storage.

Leadership Lessons from Diverse Contexts

Tromblé emphasizes the importance of avoiding preconceived notions when entering new cultural or business environments. She advocates for taking time to observe and understand the strengths of a team or culture before implementing changes. Her philosophy is to "stay with it," drawing an analogy to golf, suggesting a patient approach to leadership. She believes that focusing on nurturing and doubling down on existing strengths is more empowering and effective than solely addressing weaknesses. This approach fosters enthusiasm and passion within teams. While continuous improvement and addressing weaknesses are necessary for resilience and quality, prioritizing positive aspects leads to greater empowerment. Tromblé is a "longer thinker" in leadership, aiming for lasting impact through genuine transformation rather than quick fixes.

Systems Approach and Positive Leadership

Tromblé's progression from technical engineering to executive leadership and board governance has shaped her approach to high-level decision-making, leading her to adopt a systems approach. With experience, she emphasizes the ability to see what's "not on the page" and explore "what if" scenarios. She highlights the success of companies and teams during the recent pandemic, attributing it to adaptability, resilience, and preparedness, which are built on complementary teams that can lean on each other. She defines positive leadership as creating a climate of positive relationships, communication, climate, and meaning, which fosters resilient teams capable of facing unexpected challenges. This involves leveraging team members' knowledge and experience to create a holistic understanding and gain a competitive edge. In her advisory roles, she focuses on identifying what's missing and ensuring the presence of positive leadership to support resilient teams.

Overlooked Elements of Inclusive Leadership

In her book, "Us and Yet and Yet," Tromblé discusses the intersection of technical leadership, inclusive culture, and human connection. She identifies the most overlooked element of inclusive leadership as the underutilization of minority groups and individuals pursuing non-traditional roles, particularly women in engineering. While diversity of thought is recognized, the complimentary skill sets that diverse individuals, like women, bring due to potentially different wiring are often not fully leveraged.

Key points discussed include:

Leveraging Complimentary Skill Sets: Recognizing that individuals from minority groups or non-traditional backgrounds bring unique strengths that can complement those of the majority.
Starting at Recruitment: Inclusive practices should begin at the hiring stage.
Integration and Amplification: Ensuring individuals are integrated into conversations, have a place at the table, are not distorted, and their voices are amplified, especially if they are shy or have different ideas.
Yin and Yang Archetypes: Combining different perspectives, such as the "women archetype" and "male archetype," to create a more robust team dynamic.
Superpowers of the Minority: Recognizing that individuals in minority positions often possess "superpowers" due to their unique experiences and perspectives, even if they communicate differently or have a quieter voice.
Delicate Management: Inclusive leaders and team members must pay attention to these more delicate elements to leverage the skills and powers of all individuals.
Hiring the Best: The goal is to hire the best talent, not based on similarity, but on skill, and then to nurture that diversity.
Sustaining Diversity: Beyond hiring, creating positive environments where diverse individuals can thrive and potentially become leaders is crucial.

Participative Decision-Making and "Windshield Time"

Tromblé introduces the concept of participative decision-making, noting that leaders often gravitate towards influencing those who resemble them. She challenges leaders to identify individuals who may not have the strongest voice but possess the skills to advance the team. She highlights that minority individuals often face significant barriers to entering these participative decision-making roles, leading to their underrepresentation in senior leadership.

Barriers to Entry: Minority groups often face obstacles in accessing roles with influence.
Providing Opportunities: Young workers, especially from minority groups, need opportunities to gain skills and experience.
"Windshield Time": This term refers to the practical, hands-on experience gained by being actively involved in decision-making and leading teams. Tromblé emphasizes that this "windshield time" is crucial for developing the skills needed for leadership roles.
Personal Anecdote: Tromblé shares a personal story where, as a minority woman in engineering, she was offered a support role instead of a participative decision-making role, despite her predecessors having P&L accountability. She advocated for a role with more influence, which was granted, providing her with critical "windshield time" that enabled her subsequent leadership progression. This highlights the importance of giving individuals the opportunity to gain experience, even if they don't fit the traditional mold.

Fostering Innovation

Tromblé addresses how technical professionals can balance the rigor of their work with the agility required for innovation.

Comfort Zone for Innovation: Innovation thrives when individuals are in a comfort zone, not under stress, which can narrow vision.
Psychological Safety: Creating an environment where people feel comfortable, can be themselves, are allowed to make mistakes, and learn from them is essential. However, she cautions that psychological safety can fall flat without authentic support.
Expanding Vision: Leaders should focus on expanding their team members' vision to foster innovation.
Collision Space: Creating opportunities for people to interact and brainstorm serendipitously is vital. This can happen through informal "chitchatting" where ideas can connect and lead to breakthroughs.
Brainstorming: This is an expansion activity that requires individuals to be mentally prepared and have the necessary resources.
Organized Serendipity: While serendipity is valuable, it can be organized through virtual connections and interactions with thinkers worldwide.
Deep Work and Collaboration: Innovation requires both deep individual technical work and collaborative "collision space" with other thinkers to evolve and expand beyond focused work.

Advice for Technical Professionals Aspiring to Leadership

Tromblé offers final advice for architects, engineers, and technical professionals looking to develop their leadership skills.

Look to the Horizon: The transition from an applied scientist to a leader involves integrating the whole system and looking beyond immediate tasks to what's "not on the page."
Integrate Knowledge and Understand Strengths/Gaps: Leaders need to integrate knowledge, understand the strengths of their team (or culture), and identify gaps.
Combine Deep Research with Leadership: Both deep researchers and great leaders are needed, with leaders bringing the researchers' work to fruition.
Positive Leadership Components: Combine a systems approach with positive leadership, including good communication, strong team relationships, and a positive climate.

Conclusion

Jose Tromblé emphasizes that true leadership, especially in technical fields, goes beyond technical expertise. It requires a deep understanding of human connection, fostering inclusive cultures, and making high-quality decisions. By embracing a systems approach, prioritizing positive leadership, actively seeking out and amplifying diverse voices, and creating environments conducive to innovation, organizations and individuals can achieve greater resilience and long-term success. The key takeaway is that investing in people, understanding their unique contributions, and providing them with the right opportunities and support are fundamental to effective leadership and organizational growth.