Making quick decisions where the impact was small and making calculated and well-debated decisions where the stakes are high is a crucial balance that the innovator has to strike.Īnother of the trade-offs was which brand direction to take. This debate went on for quite some time as it was a major design decision that was hard to reverse once decided. Unsecured loan lines were granted at a customer level, and hence there was an obligation to show them in totality. Not doing it meant much greater simplicity in the design, but not doing it also meant that if you had products that were UOB and TMRW, a customer couldn’t see all of them which was problematic. There were many views for and against it. Whilst this may appear to be a very mundane issue, it was one of the most critical design decisions as it affected every single feature that would be rolled out. One particularly thorny one was whether we should support all existing products that UOB already had.
The healthy debates that ensued allowed us to properly flesh out the issues at hand and come up with more rigorous ideas. This simple rule broke down the hierarchy barrier. To overcome this at TMRW, I encouraged everyone to always ask “Why?” and made it a rule that if the most junior person in the room asked “Why?”, it was the responsibility of the most senior staff present to answer the question if he didn’t have the answer, he would find out if the question revealed an important line of inquiry that could lead to a positive outcome.
#FOSTERING FINANCES FREE#
Hierarchies are a major obstacle to the free exchange of opinions. Creating such a culture is much harder than it sounds, however, because staff will always feel it is risky to challenge the thinking of their boss. What you end up with instead are mediocre results. Without sufficient challenge, the best thinking doesn’t happen.
/do0bihdskp9dy.cloudfront.net/07-15-2022/t_89327f002f1d4dbe95e6cf649fb2a65e_name_file_1280x720_2000_v3_1_.jpg "fostering finances")
Innovation can only take place when there is an organisational culture where members feel safe to challenge ideas and decisions. We explore some of these manifestations and how they are inculcated in this article. These small innovations could manifest in the way decisions are made, or in small shifts in thinking that could lead to a very different design downstream. When working at UOB in Singapore, I was challenged to create the first digital bank in the ASEAN region called TMRW, it taught me about creating a work environment where there is sufficient challenge, as well as support so that staff regardless of rank can contribute and there is sufficient robustness in debate and discussion. By Dr Dennis Khoo, Managing Partner at allDigitalfuture LLPĭesigning and building a digital bank requires the fostering of an innovative culture that is crucial to success.
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