Independence of Thought

The practical matter of developing independence of thought as young people take each step from childhood development, through adolescence and adulthood is fairly well understood as a process, to my mind roughly parallelling Jean Piaget's preoperational through concrete and formal operational stages of development.

Our education system is largely constructed around the pedagogical concepts of direct instruction and precision teaching derived from B.F. Skinner's ideas on educational philosophy. Skirting the controvery altogether, if at all possible is this ever-sensitive subject, the fabric of our educational institutions at all levels are strongly influenced by his teachings.

Is it contestable that most people learn well and many excel in teaching environments where the material is specifically tailored for the level and outcome?

The digression into philosophy of education in this article is a metaphor, analogy or perhaps allegory for advanced teaching, work place and life-long learning. It is generally accepted that children pass through several stages of congnitive development before achieving the ability to construct abstract thoughts.

It is not widely held that individuals actively choose to learn and accept taught outcomes even if nowadays the teachers themselves readily focus on the student-centred classroom and associated pedagogical methods. The recognition that students are active participants in learning rather than empty vessels to be be filled with knowledge edges upon the existentialist notion that the individual not only can but rather must make his own choices.

In everyday terms, primary school is the opportunity for the young pupil to be taught fundamentals, secondary school provides the maturing student the chance to learn higher-level concepts, tertiary education continues the growth path, capping off the formal educational portion for most people with the chance to collaboratively work with peers and thought leaders on advanced techniques and even the creation of new theories.

The quality of primary and secondary education has come into question in Australia quite recently and seems to have followed earlier trends in the UK and the USA. The current debate centres around two problem areas that has been perceived by politicians and the community as in need of reform. The first issue relates to the quality of teachers, the treatment of teaching as a profession including proper remuneration. The second issue is the controversy over the adoption of Outcomes Based Education (OBE) where achievement levels replace conventional teaching methods and objective assessment based on grades.

Part of the the problem is that many graduates do not have the opportunity, by reason of limited opportunity, to build on this foundational learning, whether the formal learning component extended to secondary or tertiary level at undergraduate or postgraduate levels.

While much can be done to improve the presentation and substance of undergraduate education there is much circumstantial evidence to suggest that the outcomes are positive in some subject areas if not in others. By and large, most tertiary graduates in professional areas such as law, medicine and teaching successfully transition into the workplace.

To the credit of these institutions and the employers of graduates from those institutions, there remains a broad and deep range of nonprofessional subject areas in science and arts, such as physics and anthropology, whose graduates contribute to the well-being of society, albeit many of whom take up professions and whose qualifications are highly regarded.

The undergraduate degree structure in Australian universities is based on the student selecting a range of units in science, arts or a prescribed study course, for example, medicine or law, for which core units are mandatory delections. Postgraduate degrees may follow an honours degree, or equivalent, to four years study inclusive of a research-oriented thesis.

The degree structure varies widely elsewhere but the profound experience of the leading British universities of Oxford and Cambridge where one reads for a degree, and the USA where professional studies are undertaken as postgraduate degrees after an undergraduate degree. I strain to identify advantages of these systems over the Australian one beyond the development of independence but perhaps that is enough.

It serves no purpose to pretend that undergaduate degrees, both those that are general in nature and those oriented towards professional practice, are anything more than they are. Certainly they offer great learning opportunities but the level of discourse and quality of teaching outside of the premier institutions is merely ordinary. The degree is a stepping stone to the work place, a diploma that demonstrates commitment and academic achievement.

The professions are distinguished by their traditions, codes of ethics, professional associations and standards or practice. As a rule, they offer mentoring in the workplace in the form of internships for medical graduates, articled clerk for lawyers, chartered year for accountants, or some other professional year before admission to the ranks of the profession. The lowest rank.

One of the key tenets of professional or chartered membership of professional associations is to make a commitment to continuing professional education. This should not be an onerous obligation on most individuals but rather an extension of their choice to enter the profession and part of this personal commitment to life-long learning.

ASX Corporate Governance

The nexus between professional integrity and personal ethics is fundamental to the confidence that the general public has in dealing with professionals. For example, the trust that we have in being well treated by the family doctor, solicitor or accountant. Nowhere has that trust been in question more than in the shaken confidence of the the average person in our public companies.

The measure of activity taken in reinforcement of corporate governance principles is justified for reasons of public confidence in our institutions, including the venerable Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), albeit itself a public company. The improvement in performance seen by companies that conscientiously adopt corporate social responsibility (CSR), among other principles, is a more prosaic if pragmatic reason.

On Wednesday 20 November I attended an event hosted by the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) on ASX Corporate Governance. The guest speaker was Eric Mayne, Chair ASX Corporate Governance Council among his roles at the ASX, and formerly Managing Partner at Mallesons Stephen Jaques. The room at the Hyatt Regency, Perth was the same one where I participated in the AICD Company Directors course a year ago, earning my stripes as a professional director with P-plates and a decade of experience.

Steven Cole, partner of Allens Arthur Robinson and State Councillor of AICD (WA Division), introduced the session and speaker by starting with the observation that Australia has a highly regarded system of governance and, notwithstanding a few high-profile failures like HIH, remains a nonprescriptive environment rather than adopting a legislative approach like Sarbanes-Oxley. It if ain't broke then you don't need to regulate it.

The approach is basically to comply with the principles and to disclose the relevant information or not to disclose, taking an if not, why not approach if you are not complying with a full disclosure statement in the annual report. The principles were drafted and adopted in 2003 with the intention of a review being held after three years in 2006. The objectives of the review are to remove regulatory overlap between ASX rules and Companies Act, refinement and consistency of terminology across the rules and removal of ambiguity.

The AICD has provided a blog with information and inviting feedback.

After a brief overview of the issues, the format adopted was as a fireside chat so the audience can be voyeurs of the ensuing discussion. Eric Mayne comes from a background as regulator, consultant and practitioner giving healthy view points. He began with a polite comment about the five hour flight giving him plenty of time to catch up on his reading.

The tension between the small and big ends of town. Steven Cole earlier mentioned from BHP down to West Perth mining companies. The principles have been about 30% redrafted.

Steven Cole noted that the higher level principles are easier to read however the guidance notes rate as more difficult to read and follow. Eric Mayne asked if people are happy with the level of prescription, or should we pull back from current stance. Innocent question, is it a higher workload on monitoring compliance with 10 (or 8) high level principles and 28 (or 27) guidance?

ASX has carried out three levels of review:

1. Listed Companies - From 85% compliance in the first year to 92% in the second year.
   
2. Listed Trusts - Increased level of if not, why not reporting, similar (~2% lower) but less disclosure in spirit of the principle, encouraged to increase compliance.
   
3. Encourage thinking about issues, companies to change culture themselves - not via ASX rules.

Disclosure and transparency are the cornerstones of the ASX as a market and brand. If continuous disclosure is not seen the practice is to pick up the phone and speak to the companies.

A key change is to reorient the focus from best practice to good practice, recognising there is not only one way of doing things and encouraging alternative ways, for example, exception reporting by smaller companies.

Plain English drafting and consistent terminology. P2 definition of independence clarified to relationships that affect independent status. Alignment of committee recommendations for risk and audit, remuneration and nomination committees, with independent chair and directors. Audit committee expertise becomes relevant qualifications and experience not financial experience.

P3 prohibits hedging of unvested options and disclosure to company of hedging of vested options. P7 deals with recognition and management of risk. The establishment of a risk profile, risk management policies to cover material business risks that includes financial and other material business or nonfinancial risks. CEO/CFO signoff on financial statements P7.2 and CEO signoff other material business risks P7.3.

The consultation period closes 9 Feb 2007 with revised principles commencing 1 July 2007. Feedback on regulatory burden and the cost of regulatory burden would be useful data from corporate sector.

They were considering two sets of guidelines for smaller and big ends of town, like main and secondary boards in the past. Survey of small-to-medium listed company sector shows some require assistance eg. audit but no push for separate system of principles of corporate governance.

Q. Smaller companies lots of if not, why not; third-parties do not focus on explanation, ignore adequacy and mark down, tick box mentality.

A. Structure of revised principles help - commentary guide. Cosmetic preparation may be of assistance to companies, ticked box for complied might help.

Q. Intelligent and competent directors are more important than independent directors. Crooks will still act like crooks.

A. Training on obligations, availability of legal advice. Gerry Harvey model of governance. Training more important than independence. AICD Company Directors Course.

Risk management in P7 followed by disclosure with respect to corporate social responsibility (CSR) versus future outlook. May be disclosing a competitive advantage that you currently enjoy. It is too early to impose even if 90% of corporate websites discose CSR, so what continues to happen here and internationally. Section 299A obliged to report on prospects and forecasts to enable shareholders to make informed decisions. Rule 10 remuneration - dilution or associated party transactions makes a difference to discolsure.

The relevance to companies of all sizes is fairly obvious when viewed through the prism of professional levels of expectation in practice. There is no obvious reason why the quality of work output, reporting or disclosure should be significantly different between small or large companies.

Our education system is truly lacking if the executive tier of management is incapable of preparing adequate writtern reports. The quantity of disclosure should be shaped and coloured by relevance to the organisation. It is pointless to pretend to disclose on issues of little or no relevance whatsover.

There is a saying among pilots that there are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old, bold pilots. The same kind of filtering process happens in every arena so that it is rare for the executive bad apple to remain in the executive barrel.

Another healthy piece of advice for smaller operators again borrowed from the pilot fraternity is that private pilots should take a professional approach to their flying just as their commercial brethren.

How far to take this analogy that I have stretched already to a tight band. The Companies Act requires that directors have a duty to exercise care and diligence, to act in good faith, honestly and for a proper purpose. The concept of professionalism among pilots is called airmanship.

Every business man, no matter how large or how small is his enterprise, should carry out his duties with the highest levels of integrity and professionalism just as a pilot, whether a humble private pilot or airline transport pilot, should carry out his duties with the highest levels of airmanship. There is no plausible reason to excuse doing otherwise.

Finding Your Voice

The imperative to find your voice and to exercise independence in thinking is demonstrative of mature, adult thinking. While browsing through Steven Covey's excellent The Eighth Habit I was reminded of so much that has happened in my humble career and even more so by that which has not come to pass for others. Since my early childhood education until now I have never understood why some people choose to excel and others not to. To borrow from Covey, some of my peers have found their own voices but others have not. As a result, those who have not done so continue to miss out on the opportunity to achieve their potential.

My wife reminds me that as a teacher it is part of her role, if not her primary task, to help her students each find his or her individual voice in the classroom. Teaching primary school is the place to build the foundation for a lifetime of learning. Every subject demands an understanding of the material and of the student the ability to express the knowledge through demonstration of skills in, for example, reading and writing, spelling and grammar, arithmetic, and algebra, spatial perception and geometry, geography and map reading, and so on.

In any school it is important, perhaps even more so in the multicultural school where she teaches, for the students to be able to speak of and among themselves, to their peers beyond the classroom, to their parents, their teachers and as budding members of the greater community. In other words, to discover themselves and their place in society and to find their voice.

Almost without fail I believe the ultimate reason many individuals fail to capitalise on their opportunities in the workplace is that the organisations where they begin their careers and the managers for whom they work have failed in their duty to mentor their young employees. The very same organisations suffer through lack of initiative and the absence of pervasive and courageous risk taking because the managers have failed to be leaders and their charges within the organisation have not found their voices.

The pedagogical conundrum whereby an approach using direct instruction based on B. F. Skinner may evaporate the curiosity of the young student or an alternative of Maria Montessori, where children are considered competent users of auto-didactic materials, similar to the child-centred constructivism of Jean Piaget, where the failure to offer clear guidance for his little philosophers may be like the absence of a guide stick for a growing plant. It is necessary but not sufficient to provide intellectual nourishment to those who are learning.

Teachers in the classroom and mentors in the workplace are facilitators of learning. The removal of barriers, the provision of resources and opening the eyes of their respective charges to opportunity requires leadership borne of confidence and self knowledge. Half-hearted reticence, ill-considered ideas and knowledge only half known by the teacher or manager is a recipe to dissuade the enjoyment and pursuit of learning, achievement and scholarship.

One of the proximate causes of the failure to provide leadership is the axiomatic condemnation in some quarters of the socratic method, for example, whereby questions are asked in order to challenge the other. The notion that self-worth is determined not be correctness, self awareness and knowledge but some arbitrary sense of self esteem is the antithesis of learning and itself condemns many students to lifetimes of mediocrity.

Steve Fuller in Kuhn versus Popper: the Struggle for the Soul of Science speaks of the Kierkegaardian concept that Karl Jaspers terms anxiety towards the unknown that a child feels during the learning process of growing up. In my experience this is akin to the uncertainty that young adults feel when moving from their first role or job and onto the next.

The first software package, the first accounting system, the first theory of management sticks as the preferred one even if better alternative are found by later experience, in a strange twist on imprinting, described by Konrad Lorentz to David Attenborough and related in Life on Air, as the attachment that young nestling retain for their parents when fully fledged. Whereas a young fledgling bird could be fooled into imprinting to a cameraman in place of its actual parents it seems that young software engineers can be fooled into tacit acceptance of certain technologies or platforms in place of apparently superior approaches.

This approach-imprinting seems to apply in most fields and is reinforced by the acceptance that to succeed in the workplace it is easier to go with the flow and the accept the status quo rather than to propose alternative, superior view points. It is easier to accede to the extant practices and to do as one is told rather than to intelligently and respectfully question habits that are ingrained. The courage and conviction to speak out and go against the grain takes more than just the knowledge but also the voice to do so.

I have always immersed myself in reading and bookshops provide me with a ready supply of material to support my habit. I was standing in the book shop, browsing, reading of science, mathematics, architecture and other random subjects when I picked up Steven Covey's recent book. In my cursory reading of Covey's The Eighth Habit, I had an epiphany that crystallised my own musings about the path to be traversed personally and professionally in order to step out of a mindset of success and into a reality of excellence. The negative mindset is typified by a story that goes something like this:

When ever she cooks a pot roast the lady of the house always cuts a slice of meat from the end of the piece of meat and throws it away. Eventually my curiosity got the better of me so I asked about the significance of the practice. "I don't know but my mother always did it so I do too." Of course this only piqued my curiosity further so I contacted the lady's mother and asked why she cuts the meat this way. Slightly embarrassed she asked the grandmother to be rewarded with the reply that "It's the only way it fits into my pot."

A colleague recalls a similar story of his one-time workplace. This company works in high technology and has a brace of highly-qualified, experienced and technically competent software engineers. He suggested to the software engineers that they should amend one specific practice and change the design for reasons that he gives clearly and reasonably in technical and common terms they can easily understand.

The others decline with the reason that the process says to do this and that and they proceed to defend the current practice with vigour. He explained to them that the reasons he himself personally introduced the practice, and indeed wrote the long-past dated document, no longer apply. My colleague has found his voice but some of the others only parrot what they hear rather than speak with their own voices.

Find your voice and help others to find theirs.

Philanthropy, Innovation & Higher Education

The title and many of the ideas in this posting are credited to The Hon. Julie Bishop MP, Minister for Education, Science and Training and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues. Julie Bishop is a cabinet minister in the government of John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia and on this occasion was as invited speaker at the AICC(WA)'s Curtin Zernike Dell Innovation Series 2006 with events partner The West Australian.

This being the first AICC event that I had attended I was suitably impressed by the quality of organisation, the introduction and thank you by the various speakers that framed lunch and the main event, Julie Bishop's talk. My reasons for attending are very good ones: I have an interest in technology and innovation from a business perspective, and in higher education from a professional view of giving back to the community that has given me so much more than a career.

The timing of this talk melds with my recent invitation onto the Engineering Industry Advisory Committee (EIAC) of Murdoch University. The discussion about philanthropy in higher education and the importance of lower-school and secondary education also struck deep chords with me. It was also my pleasure to meet up with some old friends and make some new acquaintances.

Prof. Jeanette Hackett, Vice Chancellor, Curtin University of Technology made the introductory remarks and painted the picture of an extraordinarily successful local university, of particular interest to myself, having five streams of engineering and having strong Information and Communications Technology (ICT) that is closely associated with Technology Park. Tellingly, Prof. Hackett notes that at $10B per annum higher education is Australia's fourth largest export industry and is fundamentally important as a contributor to the social and cultural capital of society.

The Hon. Julie Bishop opened with a little joke about a recent presentation to cabinet that felt a bit like having 17 education ministers in this country. She identified several critical capabilities to compete:

• Global engagement. International collaboration, partnerships with India, China and France are in place and identified US, UK, Israel and Singapore as others where attention should be paid.
• Quality of research. The Research Quality Framework (RQF) has been proposed as a world leading initiative in international benchmarking of the quality and impact of research.
• Leading edge, high calibre infrastructure. National Infrastructure Strategy.
• Astronomy is an area of Australian excellence. $20M has been earmarked on new tech demonstrator. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) needs open space, no noise and Western Australia is ideal (shortlisted with South Africa). $2B international, collaborative project.
• Diversity in higher education. 37 public, comprehensive universities need to change as standing still is no longer good enough. End of Dawkins mediocrity.
• Primary and secondary education standards. Teaching as a profession needs teachers to be highly regarded and valued, paid on performance and great teachers should be treasured.
• Connections and pathways between universities and industry, eg. CRC (Cooperative Research Centres) or mingling, estimated to have contributed over $1B to the economy.
• Backing Australia's Ability has an extra $8.3B towards science and innovation over eight years (about $1B this financial year).
• Development and retention of skills.
• OECD cash not accrual basis distorts real government spending increase if 25% over 10 years.

Business and education funding, one way through philanthropy towards revenue of higher education.

• Alumni networks where, for example, USA about $100B contributes about 20% of total funding compared to 2% in Australia.
• Contribute to excellence not to core funding.
• Almost 1M people at university.
• David Murray, Chair of Future Fund, encourages culture of philanthropy.
• Ian Thorpe Foundation is a charitable trust funding schools in remote locations, eg. south of Katherine, Northern Territory, run by Jeff McMullan formerly of 60 Minutes.
• Honoured to award Certificates of Attendance to students between the ages of 5 and 13 years old for attending school for the first time.

Julie Bishop closed the formal speech with the words that education is the building block how a cohesive and productive society is founded.

Several questions from the audience elicited replies that are gems and memorable in themselves:

• Changes in university funding in 1974 as part of the Whitlam reforms made one mistake, among many, to provide university funding but not for the states to cede control, a historical quirk that leads, for instance, to state audit of federal funding.
• Small research projects are poorly supported under current regime, answering a question about possibly missing funding an innovative and successful tinnitus project she confidently spoke of Helicobacter Pylori and our local Nobel prize winners unconventional research.
• Noted that NH&MRC and ARC grants are exempted from RQF.
• Disastrous implementation of OBE is one reason to reform education system.
• Need a strong public education system.
• Reward teachers working in disadvantaged areas.

The highly regarded founder and Executive Chairman of Azure Capital John Poynton, who has held appointments to the ASX and Reserve Bank of Australia, in formerly thanking Julie Bishop remarked on her passion for the gig, having embraced public service at the highest level after Harvard Business School. In reference to our universities, he exhorts us that as alumni or as individuals to give back to those institutions.

I enjoyed the coverage and depth of Julie Bishop's considered words as invited speaker about what are effectively impediments in our education system that detract from innovation and economic performance. The closing words ring true that there are issues in education of concern to all of us that need leadership and our active participation to set right.

TransformaITonal Management

In my experience working with management of several organisation to institute change in IT processes they usually get it backwards. Hence my deliberate misspelling of transformational to clumsily insert IT into the word.

For instance, the first step usually taken when an unacceptable number of failures are reported in production software is to institute an increasingly onerous bug fixing and tracking system. The second step is to mandate a tougher testing and acceptance regime. The third step, if they haven't yet given up on the idea of writing higher quality software, is to examine the software development process in toto. If there is one at all.

Even among those who accept the commonly held truth that most bugs are introduced early in the development cycle it is rare for managers to put their best efforts into the area where they have the highest chance of success. Rather than fix the problem at its source, easy enough to identify by a simple Pareto or root-cause analysis, they will persevere with the option perceived to be the lowest-cost path with the quickest return.

The last place they look is the most obvious. Usually the barriers origin is at the boundary of the project development centre of the organisation. Poor leadership and lack of accountability leads to placement of blame with those least able to ameliorate the situation.

The steps in any project development are well understood. The strategic outlook dictates feasibility and sustainability issues relevant to projects. For each project, can it be funded and can the project outcome be sustained? By definition, projects are fixed-term endeavours with fixed resources that aim to deliver a product.

Short-term thinking easily leads project management to focus on their own risk management to the detriment of the organisation. It is easy for a project to lack focus on its requirements, to skimp on design, cobble together an implementation and deliver an inferior product on time and under budget to testing and production.

Leaving testing and support to wear the incremental cost of rectifying errors that should not have occurred in the first place. Imposing a long-tail liability on the organisation to maintain a substandard product where the project should have delivered an outcome requiring little or no recurring support and maintenance.

The solution partly involves formal processes and quality standards. I propose a quality tax. Maybe call it VVT for the Verification Validation Tax payable out of the project budget for failing to meet it obligations to verify against build process and to satisfy the users' needs.

Like a carbon tax for users of fossil fuels the goal is to encourage behavioural change.

People, People

The most important resource in any organisation is its people. Everywhere we find people we find social and professional politics. Achieving the appropriate balance is a great challenge.

Recognise that high achievers may choose to participate in these interactions or ignore them. The rest of the staff may be a victim of these machinations but almost certainly they will not be able to control it.

William Edwards Deming, best known for his association with post-war quality management and improvement in Japan, says that the worker is not the problem, rather it is management that is the problem. It is up to management to enable and empower his staff.

Ricardo Semler says something similar in Maverick insofar as managers should build processes that make their own jobs redundant while empowering staff within their circles of responsibility.

Remember that the most important resource in your organisation is your people. Nurture your staff and prosper. Ignore staff or treat them with less than the respect they deserve and expect underperformance or organisation failure.

Sustainability of your organisation depends on retaining existing staff, encouraging and supporting their professional development, and attracting high-calibre people.

The Profession of Software Engineering

There is a titanic shift underway, unnoticed by most participants and observers in the field, where software development is rapidly moving from a trade to a profession.

Whereas in the past it has been acceptable for anybody who can put together a rudimentary program to call themselves a programmer the days where the whole community can accept this have almost passed. For most of the history of the computing field the only way to join the club of programmers was to be initiated in a sort-of apprenticeship (*) or to be almost-entirely self taught.

Today such an approach is no longer acceptable in some jurisdictions and it is to be expected the standards and registration will be required to undertake unsupervised, professional practice in the same way as the other professions are organised.

Witness accounting and the legal profession, for example, where there are several paths to entry however each culminates in a professional registration and has the requirement for continuing professsional development in order to retain this registration and hence right to practice. The Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge has some discussion as to the rationale for this approach, as do professional bodies like the IEEE Computing Society.

(*) More in another post about my own apprenticeship into software engineering and where my professional standing and ethics lies in this debate.

The Art of Writing

The Art of Writing is not something that comes naturally to me but over the years I have come to enjoying writing more and more. All sorts of writing. From writing creatively in school, technical writing during my undergraduate and postgraduate years, and during my years of working. More often I find that I need to express myself in the written word for formal documentation, preparation for oral and written presentation to a variety of audiences. And on a variety of subjects.

My background is in science and engineering. A decade and a half of working on software and systems engineering has led me towards strategy and leadership. Today I am more involved in team building, strategy development and change management. As well as software architecture. Business development. Coaching and mentoring in software design. Strategic alignment. Professional ethics. Intellectual Integrity. The consideration of facts, what-ifs and beyond all else the people involved in every organisation. I think I have something to say and having procrastinated to this point, now is the time for me to get started.