The End
After 6 grueling and challenging weeks, I came to the end of the road for my current Lab assignment.
(Well it’s not really the end of the road; there is still the work of preparing for the post-Lab cabinet workshop, and other ancillary work, but apart from these necessary final things, most of the work is done).
Labs are a funny thing. Lately there has been a minor craze in government for Labs to be arranged for issues as varied as illegal immigrants, youth development, and what-have-you.
Nothing wrong with this, of course. Labs are indeed a powerful mechanism to discover transformational solutions, create alignment around such ideas, and develop the delivery toolkits to ensure implementation happens. It can be an explosive technique when done well.
But what the politicians may not realise is that Labs are hard work. It can be a challenge to create alignment around ideas, while managing the needs and aspirations of various Lab members with their own individual idiosyncracies. And of course, the magnitude of the challenge multiplies when the Lab attempts to address a difficult topic such as affirmative action, or corruption.
The intensity of the Lab environment, for me, holds its own reward. The challenge of trying to grapple with a difficult and intractable topic, along with the need to manage the expectations of Lab members, creates its own dynamic leadership challenge.
Often, leaders are born in the crucible of great crises. The intensity of real problems, coupled with the urgency, hones leadership instincts and fashions those teachable moments which makes leaders who they are.
The Lab, true to its name, creates an artificial crucible in which problems of great magnitude are tackled within a short space of several weeks. Yes, it is a safe haven for experimentation with ideas, but the urgent timelines and frequent syndications with top-level decision makers creates a perpetual rush of urgency that can make or break potential leaders.
And so, as I reflect upon the six weeks that have just come and gone, I realise more than ever the adage that the best rewards for one’s toil is not what one gets out of it, but what one becomes as a result of it.
