Power To The People

The Hydro Tasmania Story

Confronting the need to change, and acting on it, can be as daunting for organisations as it is for individuals - just ask the senior management at the electricity generator Hydro Tasmania. In 2001, they faced an immense challenge: to change the business culture of their organisation, involving hundreds of employees. Their aim: to replace a paternalistic business culture with one that actively encouraged staff leadership and independent thinking. The need for cultural change was pressing because of Hydro Tasmania’s plans to begin competing within the National Electricity Market in 2005.

The company’s first step was an internal assessment survey, that showed that leadership needed improvement. Amanda Vallance, Hydro Tasmania’s general manager of human resources, says: “It was quite evident across the business. Typical comments included: ‘My boss doesn’t delegate anything’; ‘I don’t understand where I fit in’; and ‘I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be achieving’. Many comments reflected on a business that had come from a paternalistic, command and control kind of environment to one that was struggling to become something quite different.”

Hydro Tasmania’s history played a significant role in cultivating this kind of culture. Following World War II, thousands of European immigrants were brought to Tasmania to construct the State’s power schemes. Vallance says: “Those workers made what we have today possible. But it left a legacy of paternalism, particularly in the power generation side of the business. We clothed them, fed them, schooled them, looked after them from cradle to grave. There are still parts of the business where we have employed whole families. So the propensity to have a paternalistic view of your people is quite high.”

Not all parts of the business were like this though. About fifteen years ago, Hydro Tasmania created a consulting arm, which now has more staff than the generation business (387 people) and has become an international consultancy in renewable energy and environmental and water management. The consulting division has knowledge workers, including environmental scientists, surveyors, and water management experts. Being a relatively ‘young’ division by comparison, their culture was not so paternalistic.

Paternalism does not breed self-directed staff. Some Hydro Tasmania employees avoided responsibility for decisions, passing them up the management line. The senior executives found themselves drowning in details and unable to focus on strategic issues.

The Executive Management Team wanted a program that would develop leadership skills throughout the business. After extensive research, emotional intelligence was selected as the foundation of the program, as it was recognised that this was the key to great leadership. But Vallance underestimated the tenacity required: “With something like this, ownership and take-up is not just going to happen on the basis of one paper put forward or a budget submission getting up. It takes many, many arguments over some months.”

One of the tools used within the program is the Enneagram. The Enneagram classifies people into nine personality types, each with its own traits, strengths and weaknesses. Vallance says she is a type six, which is the dominant personality type at Hydro Tasmania. “Sixes have a big focus on safety and security. People want to know where they are going, but they don’t want to be surprised halfway there. They are very loyal but also quite cynical. So don’t put stuff up to them and not be prepared to be challenged because you will be.”

By understanding their organisation’s culture, Hydro Tasmania’s executives can communicate more effectively with staff about key issues such as entry into the national electricity market. Vallance says: “We are trying to shift the message from ‘Oh, it’s terribly hard and we’re going to have to work until we drop’ to ‘Yes, this is a challenge but we can do it. We have lots of previous experience with big projects and we’re confident about getting there’. A quite different sell than the previous one.”

Vallance says: “The Enneagram was a bit of a leap of faith for us to be able to sell to our people. It was not the sort of model that engineers would immediately identify with because it is focused on how we relate to other people. Part of the success was that the first service provider we chose had an approach which was particularly academic, and invited people to consider where they might fit in. This meant they didn’t feel slotted or pigeon-holed.”

The company ran a six-month trial program, which yielded very positive results. After this, Vallance says, everyone in the organisation who had leadership role took part in the first phase of the program, which consisted of three core activities aimed at increasing the level of self awareness of participants. One key benefit of the process, according to Vallance, has been the establishment of a common language and an acceptance about discussing issues such as leadership and staff interaction.

Since introducing its leadership program, Hydro Tasmania has substantially improved team building, customer relations and how staff relate to each other. There has also been a significant increase in social capital across the organisation, as a result of people from all divisions coming together to attend workshops and activities.

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