The Frontier Team also codeveloped their own Terms of Reference, which was achieved in consultation with all ABCPA staff: • Act as an advocate for the interests of all staff within the firm. • Work to represent and uphold the values and standards of the firm. • Shape a firm culture that embraces unity, integration and collaboration. • Actively contribute to the development of firm strategy and operational policy, systems, processes and tools. • Communicate with clarity the team’s aims and objectives to the wider firm. • Ensure that all opinions, both inside and outside the team, are heard and valued. • Actively seek out opportunities to engage with all team members within the firm. • Nurture trust in the Clarity Project through openness. • Bring forward new ideas, encourage innovation and challenge the ‘norm.’ • Foster a ‘safe to fail’ environment, where all team members feel that decisions can be taken in an environment where failure can be tolerated. • Work to ensure that new ideas are introduced in such a way that failure can be tolerated. • Champion continuous learning and development. • Inspire and lead for the future (actions define you, not words).
The Frontier Team received situational and values-based leadership development; training in the use of tools for
Diagram 1: The Clarity decision-making framework This framework has been adopted as a ‘Clarity Cube’ that is visible on every desk and meeting space within ABCPA (Figure 1 overleaf).
internal/external environment analysis; methods for planning, monitoring and evaluating progress; critical thinking and decision-making development; and practical tools for time management and the hosting of efficient and effective meetings. This was complimented by the creation of a new decision making framework, designed by the lead author (Diagram 1), informed by decision science (e.g. Snowden, 2007), values-based leadership principles (e.g. O’Toole, 1996) and decision-making processes from the British Army (courtesy of a collaboration with Major Peter Francis).
The Clarity framework was conceived to assist distributed decision-making. All ABCPA staff were sponsored to take decisions by the partner group on the understanding that they could evidence their engagement with six decision gates:
1. Purpose: does the decision align with the vision, mission and goals of the firm? (Yes, safe to proceed. No, stop and seek guidance). 2. Values: does the decision align with our values? 3. Standards: does the decision align with our standards, including the code of professional conduct (is it legally compliant)? 4. Credible: is the decision based on credible evidence and how do you know? 5. Coherent: is the decision logical; does it feel like stepping across a stream or jumping the Grand Canyon? 6. Risk balanced: Have you considered risk? What are the short/long term consequences; have you tested your decision? Imagine you own a shop that sells apples. One day a customer asks for an orange. Would you stop selling apples and start selling oranges? Or would you experiment by stocking a limited number of oranges to gauge response and proceed based on feedback?