In the people business

By MARK STORY

The art of understanding what makes people tick is as relevant today for Alison Thom, inaugural chief executive with Ngapuhi Runanga (the country's largest iwi), as it was when she followed her mother into the community-care field - as a community affairs trainee with Maori Affairs - more than 25 years ago.

Thom is one of a growing band of chief executives and senior managers who claim their unique experiences in social work have equipped them with management skills they wouldn't have acquired elsewhere.

She believes her many years of front-line experience with the Department of Social Welfare (and other government-funded welfare agencies) dealing with families at high-risk has made her a pretty tough cookie who's not easily discouraged.

It also gave her the courage needed to handle the bullying she encountered shortly after taking up the mantle at the Kaikohe-based iwi three years ago.

Having quickly concluded that the iwi's fishing interests couldn't go on making a loss, Thom started writing papers to the board on how the fishing company - which over the previous 10 years had returned only $600,000 - could be restructured.

The personal attacks that followed left Thom afraid for her safety. But she says her social work experience gave her the ability to diffuse confrontation while vigorously pursuing unpopular changes.

Despite considerable intimidation and pressure to back down, she continued giving the board options to support needed restructuring. In vindication of the restructuring that followed, the iwi's fishing assets have returned $1.5 million annually over the past two years.

"To be effective in social work you have to be passionate about improving the circumstances of families at risk. I've simply continued that passion into this job."

Social work may seem an unlikely road to management, but Thom's convinced the deeper insight social workers acquire into people's behaviour can provide a link that's often lacking in business leaders.

"The tendency of today's management to technically manage their staff means they can easily understate the importance of developing good working relationships," says Thom.

So what specific skills does social work provide that give a head start in management roles? The enduring qualities that any good social worker will inevitably acquire, says Thom all stem from the ability to be analytical and dig deep. That's because much of what social workers do stems from making good assessments.

"In social work this means going into a family environment and really understanding the dynamics of the situations at hand," she says. "The high-risk pressures, especially where families are concerned, forces you to think quickly.

"Within a management context that adds to the confidence needed to make decisions."

Wellington-based consultant Meredith Osmond's entree into social work was as accidental as her eventual exit.

She joined the Department of Social Welfare partly due to an interest cultivated during student holiday work, and partly out of panic over what else she could do with a social science degree.

A decision by the Department of Social Welfare to down-size its middle management ranks triggered Osmond's split from social work 17 years later. When a former social worker asked Osmond and fellow casualty of the department's restructuring Lynn Blake-Palmer to work for her training and consulting firm Tall Poppies, neither of them could figure out what they could possibly offer. For the first six months they both felt underskilled and out of their comfort zone.

"I used to think, what can I, a little old social worker, teach the big boys in corporate New Zealand?" recalls Blake-Palmer.

"But I finally realised what was being asked of me as a consultant wasn't very different from what I was doing as a social worker for the past 25 years."

Ironically, Osmond believes the gravitation of many companies towards the "warm fuzzies" by more closely aligning with their stakeholders is increasingly linking her to her social worker background.

What they're doing, she says, is transposing key social worker mantras - like working with groups on issues, exploring issues thoroughly, reaching agreements and looking for options - from a family setting into an organisational sense.

Former social worker Dr Cindy Kiro says the "digging deep" Thom talks about means the ability to understand how an individual's personal environment, and the world around them, affect their behaviour.

"Having been a social worker, I think I'm adept at understanding the subtleties of people's behaviour and better attuned to understanding people's responses," says Kiro, now the Children's Commissioner.

If social work provides any strong metaphor for business, Thom says it's the idea of developing a lasting network of relationships. Beyond analytical skills, she claims the second-biggest talent social workers acquire is in communicating with individuals as well as key stakeholders. In fact, much of her work today is about sending strong messages about her community's development.

Because social work involves a lot of teamwork, Thom says individuals learn a lot about collegiality and the importance of mentoring and coaching with staff.

"This often isn't done within big organisations because the benefits of closer understandings with staff aren't well understood."

Another interesting parallel between social work and business, says Liz Beddoe applied sciences dean at the Auckland College of Education is in the importance of ongoing training. As a former social worker she witnessed first hand how people's lives could be changed through education.

As with families at risk, she says management would do well to remember it's hard for staff to be future-oriented if they don't have a plan to get beyond their daily grind.

Due to their strong focus on families and society's big-picture issues, Kiro's not surprised many social workers gravitate to organisations strongly allied to social policy and people development.

But she suspects there are three key reasons why social workers move to other occupations: they are burned out by the stress of social work; they want jobs offering greater career potential; or they want to use their change management skills to bring about change elsewhere.


Mark Flowers, a former physicist who retrained as a social worker in Britain before migrating to New Zealand in the late 1970s, believes his social work background has been invaluable.

"Social work principles continue to fashion my whole approach to management," says Flowers CEO with the Waikato Institute of Technology. "What's stood me in good stead is understanding the interplay between individuals and society."

The key to better alignment between individuals and organisations, Flowers adds, is being open without being too touchy-feely. While the upside is better people management, he says the downside is an intellectual arrogance that can come from getting too close to ideology.

"From my experience, organisations have got to start with where an individual is right now, not where they should be."

For Blake-Palmer, the common denominator of social work and management is the art of good questioning. She draws on her social work background daily, especially when mediating workplace conflicts.

Staff members should be able to resolve differences, but all too often, she says it requires intervention.

"The value in giving and receiving feedback to solve problems, and finding out what's wrong with the organisation is underutilised [within the business sector]," she says.

Blake-Palmer believes social work experience is an expanding career choice.

"I would definitely put someone with a social work background on any job shortlist."