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Mineral exploration culture & leadership - Sykes & Trench - Mar 2017 - Centre for Exploration Targeting
1. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
Culture, leadership
and other ‘soft
skills’ in minerals
exploration:
the emperor or
the emperor's new
clothes?
John Sykes123 and Allan Trench456*
1. PhD Candidate, Centre for Exploration Targeting, The University of Western Australia
2. Casual Lecturer, Business School, The University of Western Australia
3. Director, Greenfields Research, United Kingdom
4. Professor of Practice, Business School, The University of Western Australia
5. Professor of Risk & Value, Centre for Exploration Targeting, The University of Western Australia
6. Associate Consultant, CRU Group, United Kingdom
* Today’s presenter
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Image: Action Sports Photography / Shutterstock.com Image: Alex Millauer / Shutterstock.com
Slide 1 of 44
2. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
Something we all know
about exploration?
Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration:
The emperor or the emperor’s new clothes ?
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Image: clipartkid.com
Slide 2 of 44
3. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
A salient quote to start
“…the leadership… and management’s
confidence in the multidisciplinary
exploration teams was most critical.
Finally, an economic discovery was
confirmed by hole RDD 10.”
- Roy Woodall (1994), discussing the discovery of Olympic Dam
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Image: ethw.org
Slide 3 of 44
4. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
Now a recent anecdote
• Culture
• Economics
• Innovation
• Media
• Psychology
• Strategy
• Teams
…oh, and geoscience
• A group of young
exploration geologists
set up a Slack* group
to discuss exploration
(@ExplorationTalk).
• What do you think are
the key topics they
want to discuss as
young explorers keen
to make discoveries?
* Don’t know what Slack is? Ask a
millennial! But as a start, it’s a $2
billion dollar tech start-up only 3-
years old that is worth more than the
global junior exploration sector
combined… and it will probably
replace your IT system in the next 5-
years – you’ll never send an email
again!
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC) Slide 4 of 44
5. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
So let’s get to the point
• ‘Everyone’ keeps saying things like ‘culture’,
‘leadership’, ‘management’, ‘teams’, ‘innovation’,
‘strategy’, etc., are important in minerals exploration –
at least since the 1960s (Kruger, 1969);
• Yet, young explorers today (nearly 50 years later),
whilst confident with geoscience and technology are
still struggling with these concepts;
• Why have we not developed a better understanding of
the ‘soft-skills’ required for minerals exploration, if
they are so important?
• Are ‘soft skills’ the all important ‘emperor’ of minerals
exploration, or are soft skills the equivalent of the
‘emperor’s new clothes’ – a transparent luxury?
• In this presentation, we’ll look at how mineral
exploration industry views ‘soft-skills’, then what some
‘actual’ experts say on these issues, and finally ask
some questions of ourselves as minerals explorers.
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Image: Action Sports Photography / Shutterstock.com Image: Alex Millauer / Shutterstock.com
Slide 5 of 44
6. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
What the exploration experts say
Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration:
The emperor or the emperor’s new clothes ?
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Image: mining.com; Northern Miner; gsa.org.au; AFR; ethw.org; S2 Resources; McKinsey & Co.;
AIG.org; Phillips Gold; BCG; CET; UWA; CET; University of Queensland; UWA; MinEx Consulting
Slide 6 of 44
7. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
The ‘prophets’
Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration:
The emperor or the emperor’s new clothes ?
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Image: Kingofwallpapers.com
Slide 7 of 44
8. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
The ‘Woodall Way’
• Key figures: Roy Woodall (WMC)
• Legend and myth – halo affect
• Australia & Canada (though less)
focused
• Base metal-focused
• Achieved exploration success
• Focus on key discoveries and
deposits – Olympic Dam, Broken Hill,
Norseman, Kambalda, Yeelirrie etc.
• Science and ‘geology’ focused
• More conceptual, systems and model
focused (though still an empiricist)
• Industry-focused
• ‘Visionary’ and ‘confident’
• Follows in the earlier path of Haddon
King (CRA)
Based on: Woodall, 1984a,b,c, 1985, 1994
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC) Slide 8 of 44
9. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
‘Boots on the ground’
• Key figure: David Lowell
• Legend & ‘Hall of Famer’
• Americas focused
• Copper porphyry-focused
• Achieved exploration success
• Focus on key deposits such as
Escondida
• Focus on size, production and eventual
mining
• Adventurer-explorer, individualistic,
libertarian
• Science and ‘geology’ focused
• Practical ‘boots on the ground’ approach
• Anti-technology
• Industry-focused
• Profit and finance focused (though with
scepticism)
“They are not
overspecialized or
overeducated. They work
in small teams with small
budgets. They are
concerned with
hammers, sample bags
and drill rigs. They are
not much concerned with
computers and black
boxes.”
- Lowell (2000)
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC) Slide 9 of 44
10. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
The ‘management consultants’
Key figure: McKinsey & Co.
• Corporate focus
• Interested in ‘success’
• Australian focus
• First to focus on leadership,
culture, strategy, organization
management, people, teams, etc.
• Focus on economics – spend,
costs etc.,
• More qualitative in approach
• Keen on hypothesis testing –
drilling, targets etc.
• ‘Lean’ organisation focus
• ‘People’ and ‘talent’ focused
Based on: McKInsey, 1975
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC) Slide 10 of 44
11. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
The ‘early exploration economists’
Key figure: Brian Mackenzie
• Interested in economics, strategy, decision-
making
• Amongst the first post-WWII people to tackle
these issues
• Corporate & academic focus
• Focus on economics – spend, costs etc.,
• Applied quantitative techniques to analyse
profits, probabilities etc.,
• South African focus
Based on: Mackenzie, 1973,
Robinson & Mackenzie, 1987
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC) Slide 11 of 44
12. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
The ‘disciples’
Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration:
The emperor or the emperor’s new clothes ?
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Image: Hollywood.com
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13. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
The ‘empirical positivists’
Key figures: Neil Phillips &
Julian Vearncombe
• Australia & Africa focused
• Gold-focused
• Believe explorers are
currently successful
• Geologists
• Data and observation focused
• Practical, applied, scientific
• Industry-focused
• Disciples of David Lowell?
• But more technological and
conceptual
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC) Slide 13 of 44
14. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
The ‘never-say-die libertarians’
Key figures: Robert Friedland, Mark Creasy
& Mark Bennett
• Australia & globally-focused
• Nickel, copper & gold-focused
• Successful explorers
• Believe in people, science, culture, and
independence
• Entrepreneurial mindset, anti-bureaucracy
• Frontier, libertarian, often anti-government
attitude
• Disciples of Lowell (libertarian attitude)
and McKinsey (small company mindset)
• But more technology-focused and
conceptual in attitude
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC) Slide 14 of 44
15. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
The ‘conceptual geoscientists’
• Key figures: David Groves, Jon Hronsky, Cam
McCuaig (CET) & Dan Wood
• Australia & Africa focused
• Gold and nickel focused
• Concerned about declining exploration performance
• Geoscientists – keen on interdisciplinary work with
geochemistry, geophysics, etc.,
• Keen on new technologies
• Theoretical, conceptual, scientific
• Advocates of mineral systems theory, search space
theory, and targeting theory
• Academia-focused
• Disciples of Roy Woodall?
Based on: McCuaig,
2013a,b,c; McCuaig et al.,
2000, 2010, 2013, 2014;
McCuaig and Trench, 2015;
McCuaig and Hronsky, 2014;
Sykes et al., 2016
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC) Slide 15 of 44
16. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
The ‘new’ exploration economists
Key figures: Pietro Guj & Richard Schodde
• New crop of industry technical professions
interested in applying economics to mineral
exploration;
• Guj has focused on probabilistic decision
making in exploration and quantitative
assessment of resource endowments;
• Schodde continues the provision of data on
exploration trends and analysis;
• Analysis reveals a somewhat pessimistic
perspective on the success of minerals
exploration – low discovery rates, fewer big
discoveries, rising costs, increased barriers;
• Both provide research to governments
encouraging minerals and exploration
investment
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC) Slide 16 of 44
17. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
The ‘management consultants’ (again)
Key figures: BCG
• Corporate focus
• Interested in ‘success’
• Australian focus
• Most recent to focus on
leadership, culture, strategy,
organization management,
people, teams, etc.
• Focus on economics – spend,
costs etc.,
• More qualitative in approach
• Keen on hypothesis testing –
drilling, targets etc.
• ‘Lean’ organisation focus
• ‘People’ and ‘talent’ focused
Based on: McKInsey, 1975
Based on: Koch
et al., 2015
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC) Slide 17 of 44
18. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
The ‘reformationists’
Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration:
The emperor or the emperor’s new clothes ?
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Image: Ryan Reeves (Youtube)
Slide 18 of 44
19. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
The ‘reformationists’ (some!)
The ‘systems thinkers’
(e.g. McCuaig & Hronsky, 2014; Craske, 2017)
The ‘psychologists’
(e.g. Hronsky et al., 2013)
The ‘neuroscientists’
(e.g. Sivarajah et al., 2014; Beresford, 2016)
The ‘social scientists’
(e.g. Sykes et al., 2016)
The ‘creatives’
(e.g. Wood, 2010)
The (supply chain) ‘integrators’
(e.g. McCuaig et al., 2000)
The ‘collaborators’
(e.g. McCuaig et al., 2014)
The ‘philosophers’
(e.g. Vann & Stewart, 2011)
The ‘futurists’
(e.g. Sykes & Trench, 2016; Sykes, 2017; Sykes et al., 2017)
The ‘technologists’
(e.g. Deep Exploration Technologies CRC)
The ‘hackers’
(e.g. Goldcorp & Integra Gold competitions)
The ‘business school’
(e.g. Trench, 2013; Trench & Sykes, 2016)
The ‘communicators’
(e.g. Exploration Radio)
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
The ‘UNCOVERs’
(i.e. UNCOVER programme)
The ‘diversifiers’
(e.g. Trench, 2013; Trench & Sykes, 2016)
Images:Shutterstock;UNCOVER;ExplorationRadio;DETCRC;Goldcorp&IntegraGold
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20. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
A quick survey…
Hands up if you’re a geoscientist: But where are the outside voices?
…and the women?
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Clearly, geoscientists are needed
for exploration…
Images: Shutterstock
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21. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
What ‘other’ exploration
experts say
Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration:
The emperor or the emperor’s new clothes ?
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Image: Shutterstock
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22. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
Our experience may not lead to expertise
• Kahneman (2011) shows that the validity of an
environment defines whether it is possible to become
expert in that environment;
• High validity environments have a strong link between
professional input and resultant outputs;
• Thus, in high validity environments experience leads to
learning & expertise – your ‘System 1’ learns;
• However, this requires time, focus and direction (a.k.a.
professionalism);
• Low validity environments have a weak link between
professional input and resultant outputs;
• Thus, in low validity environments experience does not
lead to learning & expertise.
• In low validity environments algorithms and analysis
works better than experience – so use your ‘System 2’.
Firefighting:
A high validity environment
(experience & intuition
matters)
Stock picking:
A low validity environment
(experience & intuition
doesn’t matter – just use an
algorithm)
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Images: Shutterstock
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23. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
The next stage of thinking
• What about leadership, culture & ‘soft skills’?
• None of us likely have a broad enough
experience base, so our ‘knowledge’ is likely
very biased…
• Some aspects of leadership, culture & ‘soft skills’
may be ‘low validity’ anyway, meaning our
experience is not teaching us anything and we
need to consider more formal modes of learning;
• So where else can we learn about exploration to
broaden and build our experience and
knowledge base?
Source: Stanborough, 2017
“We cannot become what we need to
be by remaining what we are.”
- Masters (1991)
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC) Slide 23 of 44
24. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
What the oil industry says
• Some ideas borrowed from petroleum exploration:
Search space or
“invisible frontiers”
(e.g. Masters, 1991)
Petroleum systems
(e.g. Magoon & Beaumont,
1991)
Probabilistic economic
evaluation
(e.g. Rose, 1987)
Libertarian culture
(e.g. Masters, 1991)
Creative exploration
(e.g. Foster & Beaumont,
1992)
Philosophy of exploration
(e.g. Foster & Beaumont, 1992)
“There exist more formidable barriers to
success in oil-finding than the lack of
perfected methods and techniques of
exploration: the ultra-conservatism of
the trained scientist and engineer, the
tendency of the human mind to discount
or to ignore the significance of what
remains unknown to it, the restriction of
free enterprise, these have been greater
handicaps to success in the search for
oil fields over the world. Where oil fields
are really found, in the final analysis, is
in the minds of men…”
- Pratt (1952)
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Images:Shutterstock;Wikipedia
Slide 24 of 44
25. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
…and a few other industries
Industrial R&D
(e.g. Wood, 2010)
High technology
(e.g. McKinsey, 1975)
Pharmaceutical R&D
(e.g. Hronsky, 2009)
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Images: Shutterstock
Slide 25 of 44
26. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
What do the actual experts say?
Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration:
The emperor or the emperor’s new clothes ?
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC) Slide 26 of 44
27. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
Business has looked at this before…
Economics (1770s) Leadership (1840s) Management (1910s) Human Relations (1920s)
Motivation (1940s) Innovation (1940s) Organisations (1950s) Culture (1980s) Teamwork (1980s)
…and so have we!
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC) Slide 27 of 44
28. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
On to transformational change…
Two broad options:
• Consult the business literature on core
issues of leadership, culture,
management etc.,
• However, as the business literature is
broadly applicable to all aspects of
business (including mineral exploration)
this is not really entering ‘new’ thought
space – it’s on the ‘boundary’
• The other option is to investigate what
other industries and disciplines may have
to say that is relevant to exploration
• This is where the truly transformational
changes are likely to come from
Source: Stanborough, 2017
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC) Slide 28 of 44
29. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
Some transformational ‘reformationists’
Self-organising critical systems and mineral systems
(Hronsky & McCuaig, 2014)
Biases and heuristics in exploration decision making
(Hronsky et al., 2013)
Ecological systems and mineral systems
(Craske, 2017)
Neuroscience and exploration
(Beresford, 2016)
Neuroscience and exploration image processing
(Sivarajah et al., 2014)
Social licence as an exploration advantage
(Sykes et al., 2016)
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Images:Shutterstock&Sivarajahetal.,2014
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30. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
Where could we see transformation?
• Futurist Jon Turney (2010) highlights four transformational
areas of science (sorry, geology isn’t one):
Genetics & biotechnology Computer science & IT
Nanotechnology Brain science
From the perspective
of ‘soft skills’,
leadership & culture
this looks interesting?
What’s going on in
brain science nowadays?
Answer: a lot of
‘positive’ stuff (literally)
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Images: Shutterstock
Slide 30 of 44
31. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
Positivity leads to creative exploration
• Kahneman (2011) highlights a
‘System 1’ bias known as
‘cognitive ease’;
• It occurs when we are in a
good mood;
• It makes us more intuitive &
open-minded;
• In ‘dangerous’ situations this
leaves us vulnerable to deceit
when we do not take time for
consideration (‘System 2’);
• But in ‘safe’ situations it leads
to creativity.
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC) Slide 31 of 44
32. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
Positivity aids exploration long-termism
• Barbara Fredrickson in her
book ‘Positivity’ (2009) outlines
the ‘Build & Grow’ theory:
• Pessimistic & critical thinking
protects us from short-term
risks (survival instinct);
• Positive, creative & optimistic
thinking allows us the ‘build’ for
the long-term.
• Exploration-thinking which is
inherently long-term, and
somewhat creative therefore
requires a positive culture to
thrive?
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Images: Shutterstock
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33. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
Positive people aid exploration ‘culture’
• Fredrickson (2009) observed:
• If you are trying to build a
creative, long-term thinking,
positive-minded team, certain
people are more positive than
others, and thus more likely to
be fruitful team members.
• Including east Asians,
especially Buddhists (who are
brought up in this style of long-
term, positive thinking)
• And ‘older’ people, often
retired, who have acquired this
wisdom over time.
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Images: Shutterstock
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34. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
Positivity makes better exploration teams
• Adam Grant (2013) advocates
for an open and collaborative
team culture;
• People are either: ‘givers’,
‘takers’, or ‘matchers’;
• ‘Givers’ perform either
spectacularly well or
spectacularly badly;
• It depends on how many
‘takers’ they meet;
• You need to protecting your
‘givers’ with a positive,
communicative, and
transparent work-environment,
policed by the ‘matchers’;
• This forces ‘takers’ to reform
into ‘givers’, or at least into
‘matchers’
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Images: Shutterstock
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35. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
We can choose our culture?
“One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson
about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, ‘My son, the battle is between two wolves
inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow,
regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment,
inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope,
serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy,
generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.’
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then
asked his grandfather, ‘Which wolf wins?’
The old Cherokee simply replied, ‘The one you
feed.’”
‘Anonymous’ in Fredrickson (2009)
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Image: onsizzle.com
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36. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
Where now?
Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration:
The emperor or the emperor’s new clothes ?
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Images: Shutterstock
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37. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
Beyond philosopher-kings…
“Unless… leaders are indeed
Platonic philosopher-kings,
endowed with extraordinary
wisdom, they will surely fail
sooner or later, and then the
whole circus will start again,
probably with the same result.”
- Grint (2010)
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Images: Shutterstock
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38. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
The key questions and proposals
1. Do you really believe culture and
leadership matters in exploration?
• Yes – Go to question 3
• No – Go question 2
2. Can you prove that it doesn’t matter?
• Yes – Send us the data!
• No – Go to proposal
3. Can you prove that it does matter?
• Yes – Send the data & go to question 4
• No – Go to proposal
4. Can you demonstrate which leadership
styles and cultures are most effective?
• Yes – Send us the data & go to question 5
• No – Go to the proposal
5. Have you considered the literature on
leadership styles and culture beyond the
exploration industry?
• Yes – Send us the data!
• No – Go to the proposal
The Proposal
We as a minerals exploration profession should design a project to collate data on different exploration
leadership styles, cultures, and soft skills, incorporating genuinely radical, external expertise, then
empirically determine which do and do not work, in what context, and then seek to make the relevant inter-
disciplinary contacts to implement these new approaches.
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC) Slide 38 of 44
39. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
So, are you
wearing any
clothes?
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Image: Action Sports Photography / Shutterstock.com Image: Alex Millauer / Shutterstock.com
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40. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
Thank you
28-31 March 2017 AMIRA International’s 11th Biennial Exploration Managers Conference (EMC)
Image: Action Sports Photography / Shutterstock.com Image: Alex Millauer / Shutterstock.com
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41. Culture, leadership and other ‘soft skills’ in minerals exploration: the emperor or the emperor's new clothes?
References [1]
Batten, K., 2013, Culture leads to discovery: Friedland, MiningNews.net, 22 March
Batten, K., 2016, Culture more important than strategy: Bennett, MiningNews.net, 8 April
Beresford, S., 2016, Neuroscience and thinking, in, Thinking Skills for Resource Industry Professionals Workshop (ed. T. Craske), Geowisdom & Centre for Exploration Targeting, The University of Western
Australia & Curtin University, Perth, WA, 20-21 April
Bright, S., Connor, G., Turner, A., & Vearncombe, J., 2014, Drill core, structure and digital technologies, Applied Earth Science, 123:1, p47-68
Brown, L., & Vearncombe, J., 2014, Critical analysis of successful gold exploration methods, Applied Earth Science, 123:1, p18-24
Carlyle, T., 1841, On heroes, hero-worship, and the heroic in history, James Fraser: London, UK
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