Worrying over what will happen in the future is not a proactive use of time or energy. Pat Divilly gives us two tools that can help manage our stress. At a time where we are dealing with unprecedented levels of external uncertainty, it’s essential that we invest in ourselves. Now is the perfect time to cultivate mental fitness through simple, daily practices that develop confidence, clarity and consistency. A fundamental need for us all is the need for certainty; feeling some level of routine and control. Though this has been thrown up in the air with recent changes in our external environment, we do have the opportunity to bring about more structure and certainty from within.  Mediation and journaling are two very simple tools that I have been encouraging for years to help bring calm to the busy mind.  Meditation Simply put, meditation is about bringing awareness to the present moment rather than living in the future or past. In times like these, it’s easy to fall into fear, which is always a future-based experience; a case of misuse of the imagination. None of us know what's coming in the weeks and months ahead, but it is clear that worry is not a proactive use of our time or energy. As a starting point for meditation, consider setting a five-minute timer and performing the ‘box breath’ for five minutes. For this breath, place a hand on your belly and inhale through your nose, breathing deeply and expanding your stomach. Inhale for four seconds and then hold the breath for four seconds. Now exhale through your nose or mouth for four seconds, then hold for four seconds. That is a box breath. Repeat for five minutes and watch how quickly your body and mind settles. Do not have any expectations about clearing your mind or getting rid of all thoughts. Instead, see this as a chance to calm the body through slow, deep breaths. After a number of days of practice, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with how it impacts your feelings day-to-day. For best results, practice for five minutes in the morning and five minutes in the evening. Journaling The second tool worth implementing during this time is the practice of journaling. Most of us have a busy mind. Throw a pandemic and huge amount of change into the mix, and your busy mind can be overwhelmed. Journaling is about taking some of the mental noise from our heads and putting it onto paper to turn mountains into molehills.  Consider spending 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening with pen and paper. Keep it simple. In the morning, write down your top three priorities for the day and three things you are grateful for. These two prompts narrow your focus to what’s working in your life and what’s important for the day ahead. In the evening, write down your mini-wins of the day and what you learned. Confidence comes from seeing our progress but often we move through life so fast we don’t stop to acknowledge what we’ve achieved in the day. Recognising your mini-wins is about shining light on what you’ve done well. Asking the question “what did I learn today” allows us to reflect on what worked and what didn’t work in the day and consider some small changes we could make going forward. The journaling and meditation practices shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening. They are easy to do, but also easy not to do. I do know they will make a great impact in helping you maintain structure, keep you feeling grounded, and provide clarity in unsettling times. Consider giving this game plan a go for two weeks and see what happens!  Daily routine Morning 5 minutes box breathing. List 3 things you are grateful for.  List 3 priorities for the day ahead.  Evening 5 minutes box breathing. Recognise 3 mini-wins from the day. Reflect upon what you learnt from the day.  Pat Divilly is an Executive Performance Coach at PatDivilly.com.

As climate-related threats increasingly dominate our environment, attention is now turning to the impact on global financial stability. Mark Kennedy looks at the effect on the financial services industry and how the regulatory landscape is likely to change. On an almost daily basis, we can see the devastation climate-related events have on our world. Yet as communities battle with the catastrophic impact of storms, floods and bush fires, another threat is emerging: how to manage the risk to the global economy and financial stability. The severity of the threat to financial stability has shifted the agenda from whether central banks and regulators should act on the climate crisis to what measures ought to be put in place. While financial institutions can expect a significant increase in regulatory focus, the complexities supervisory authorities now face in monitoring the physical, liability and transition risks posed by climate-related threats creates several challenges to implementation. A global survey of 33 central banks in six regions by Mazars and the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) highlighted significant hurdles to developing a framework to manage and supervise climate-related risk. They include a lack of climate-risk data at firm level (Figure 1), disagreement over mandate and responsibilities, and a lack of harmonisation on green investment taxonomies.  Financial system exposures For financial firms and investors, the ability to quantify exposure to climate-related risks is vital – particularly as the regulatory dial shifts to a greener investment landscape, where the danger of holding stranded assets is a significant risk for the banking and asset management industry. This shift not only affects their capacity to generate returns, but also their ability to meet capital requirements set by regulators. For insurance companies, climate-related claims or liabilities can be managed to some extent through catastrophe bonds or other financial instruments. However, the growing number and severity of natural catastrophe events also require insurance companies to explore a broader range of tools to manage their natural catastrophe risk exposure more effectively. Failure by financial services firms and regulators to monitor and manage climate risk exposures could result in significant damage to global economies. Also, rising insurance costs and unmanageable claims, asset value destruction, and vastly reduced investment performance could impact the overall stability of the financial system. The question now is: how do we begin to manage these risks? Reaction from regulators As the Mazars report identifies, a consistent approach by regulators to supervise climate risk is still some way off. While central banks are looking to implement models, the sheer scale, speed and complexity of climate risks pose unique challenges for stress-testing and modelling. According to the report, to date, a minority of central banks and regulators surveyed are currently conducting climate-related scenario analyses in their routine stress tests (Figure 2). One barrier to implementation is the growing consensus that conventional macroeconomic models are inadequate. Instead, integrating climate risk scenario analyses into standard stress tests requires drawing from alternative techniques, such as stock-flow consistent and agent-based modelling. There’s a growing appetite for an approach that also factors in the opportunities created as the investment landscape moves from brown to green. Rewarding positive behaviour Initiatives such as the European Green Deal focus on making changes that protect the environment, as well as supporting positive societal and economic change. As investments in clean technology or sustainable projects are given a more prominent platform, there is potential for investment growth and new business opportunities to expand. By rewarding positive behaviour, such initiatives have a significant role to play in reducing the overall risk of climate-related events as societies transition to a greener way of living. Importantly, it also drives positive behaviours at firm level as it encourages the financial services industry to transition business operations towards a more sustainable economic future. Looking ahead, financial firms that embrace green investment taxonomies and promote societal improvements will help to reduce the need for market and regulatory intervention. The impact on reporting As the regulatory landscape reacts and adapts to climate-related threats, CFOs and accountancy firms will need a framework that adopts the right balance of financial and non-financial reporting requirements. While the industry can expect more stringent regulation on stress-testing and modelling specific climate-related scenarios, there is also a need to assess non-financial exposures relating to legislative or practice-led changes on environmental issues. At firm level, this may involve questions on whether a policy change is likely to impact future business strategies and firm sustainability. A standardised approach to categorising different impacts and harmonising definitions is essential. According to the Mazars’ report, “the lack of harmonised definitions is an important deterrent for establishing, in a comparable manner, which activities and sectors should be considered aligned with the goals of environmental sustainability, and therefore to assess institutions’ exposure to climate risk.”  Looking ahead As we move into an era when environmental and societal issues are connected more than ever to the business landscape, it is vital that financial institutions now collaborate and pull together with regulatory authorities and professional bodies to work towards a more sustainable future for all. As a respected global financial hub, Dublin can take the lead on moving the conversation forward and help companies explore approaches to managing climate risk. It is also an opportunity to think about long-term sustainability issues that will help to enhance shareholder value. By asking the right questions, we can begin to implement a framework that not only helps manage the impact of climate-related risk, but also emphasises the opportunities.   Mark Kennedy FCA is Managing Partner at Mazars Ireland.

Caroline McGroary explains how Irish Chartered Accountants can work within the UN sustainable development goals framework to empower women around the world. Recent statistics estimate financial literacy rates of Saudi citizens to be just over 30%, compared with other high-income countries, like Ireland, which have rates in excess of 70%. Within this group, women are at particular risk of financial exclusion, with approximately only 40% of Saudi women holding bank accounts, compared to 93% in other high-income countries. To help address this problem, a number of high-profile campaigns have been launched by the Saudi government in the last year to increase the financial literacy of all citizens, with many framing their campaigns under the umbrella of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In my current role as Lecturer in Accounting at Dublin City University (DCU), I have had the privilege of working in our sister campus at Princess Nourah University, Saudi Arabia for seven years, contributing to the education of nearly 700 Saudi women. Utilising the UN SDGs Both Chartered Accountants Ireland and DCU actively encourage its members and staff to engage with the UN SDGs and, with this in mind, we sought to centre student learning around financial literacy. Using the framework of the UN SDGs, we integrated a financial literacy initiative into a final year module on our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The initiative had three parts. The first required students to engage in up to five financial literacy workshops, including financial planning, savings, investing, credit reports, money and identify theft. The second part required them to demonstrate how financial education (SDG 4 – quality education) of women in Saudi Arabia could contribute towards gender equality (SDG 5 – gender equality). In doing so, students were asked to consider innovative financial education solutions to help improve the financial literacy levels of four groups in Saudi society: children in schools; women in higher education; women in the workplace; and women in the home. The proposed solutions were showcased at a university-wide event attended by faculty, student peer groups and industry partners. The third part was a hackathon, hosted by Deloitte. At this one-day event, students had the opportunity to develop their financial education solutions further under the guidance of a team of Deloitte mentors. The initiative gained the support and active involvement of a number of high profile industry partners, including the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States, Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, the Rockefeller Foundation, Deloitte, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, the Capital Market Authority, financial planning experts UConsulting and Chartered Accountants Worldwide. Not only have the industry partners endorsed this work, but many refer to it as an example of an ‘impact that matters’. The students have also stated that it has improved their financial literacy skills and knowledge of the UN SDGs – knowledge and skills they can now bring to their families and local communities. This initiative serves as a practical example of how Chartered Accountants can create high-impact initiatives that empower women not just within our own community, but throughout the world.  Caroline McGroary ACA is a lecturer in accounting at Dublin City University.

Garvan Callan explains why digital transformation is both necessary and defining for companies and their leaders. If the Olympic Games handed out medals for buzzwords, ‘digital transformation’ would surely bring home the gold. However, the ubiquitous overuse of the term has also removed all clarity from the concept. It doesn’t matter who is to blame, though software vendors and marketing overlords selling digital transformation as the stairway to heaven do look a little guilty. What is important is that we reclaim digital transformation from its superficial buzzword status and fully understand why and, most importantly, how. Full contact – not a spectator sport One of the first pre-conceptions about digital transformation is that it arrives in the cloud, in a box, through an app or in lines of code. While technology solutions play a part, they don’t deliver digital transformation on their own (far from it) but are critical enablers in conveying a modern strategy and ambition. Nor does digital transformation arrive on a PowerPoint deck from a strategy guru or a social media article. One must imagine it, develop it, and make it happen – for your customers, your market and your context. Digital transformation involves a fundamental rethink of how organisations make use of people, processes and technology to improve performance. It is a complete change in how your organisation develops and delivers value to your customers, colleagues and investors. Organisations that truly want to embark on a digital transformation strategy start and end with the customer, creating a working environment that nurtures creativity, drives growth and delivers new arcs of value. The 360° approach Figure 1 depicts a 360° approach to digital transformation, split across five layers. At the core are the processes, which enable the revenue-creating propositions (features, products and services) that are brought to market through the engagement layer. The workplace is the people, tools and environment harnessed to create those propositions, with underpinning technology making it all possible. Processes are at the epicentre of transformation. This is where what is required to deliver your products and services is hard-coded. Therefore, this is also where the costs lie and risks exist. Taking out unnecessary steps (simplification), automating steps through low-cost, mature technologies such as robotics and then digitising value chains end-to-end is a great place to start the transformation. Does this mean it’s not about the customer? Of course not. Listening to what your customers and colleagues say about where the friction lies should drive the change. The most successful transformations start by reducing unnecessary ‘effort’ anchored in processes, and retiring whole products and services that don’t add, or even destroy, value. This not only improves the customer and employee experience (assuming you hold everyone’s hand through the change curve), but also reduces risk and releases capacity for the innovation of new propositions – constellations of products and services that fulfil customers’ desires, developed from customer insights leveraged from process-transformation analysis, and informed by techniques such as design thinking and the value proposition canvas. Digitising value chains also facilitates the capture of data, the fuel that powers continuous improvement programmes and the application of artificial intelligence (AI). Combining new data with AI can support a step-change in the personalisation of marketing and improve sales-funnel conversion, automate back-office processing, and support channels in becoming faster and more efficient for the customer. Executing process transformation also offers brands a range of points with which they can tell the story of change, of building a better business, of listening to customers and responding to needs – message opportunities often overlooked in the transformation trenches. The workplace and technology Empowering colleagues with the right tools and environment, and enough time to manage the complexities across the transformation layers, is fundamental to the optimum workplace. Harnessing the team’s insights and motivation, and liberating them to make customer-oriented improvements, is the defining prerequisite. Creating the enabling conditions for such a journey requires strong foundations, and here’s where technology fits in – not last on the list by any means. Technologists and leaders who immerse themselves in the process, proposition, engagement and workplace layers can then determine the technology required, and the operating model needed, to deliver successful transformation and a thriving organisation. The customer is the touchstone Knowing that you need to implement a digital transformation on this scale is one thing, but where to begin is quite another. Embarking on such a monumental organisational shift can be extremely challenging for even the most experienced leaders. To find a good starting point, become deeply knowledgeable about what your customers want to achieve when they engage with you, about their ‘jobs to be done’. It is not only the marketeers who should have such insight into the customer experience; everyone involved in digital transformation needs to have a forensic understanding of the customer and how your business does (or does not) facilitate them. Now that you know what you want digital transformation to achieve for your customers, you need to roll up your sleeves and ask: Are large organisational changes necessary? Do our teams require re-skilling and re-orientating? Do hard re-prioritisation decisions need to be made? You will most likely answer ‘yes’, but beware of procrastination; the time to start is now. Mobilise the effort by making the desire for better customer outcomes the focus. The customer guiding you on ‘what to do and why’ must be the unequivocal and undeniable touchstone to motivate, guide and, if required in the transformation haze, reset the mission at hand. Getting digital transformation right Since successful digital transformation is a 360° endeavour that spans the breadth and depth of the business, each organisation’s roadmap will be different. That said, there are some common principles to abide by: 1. Gain consensus from the whole team: whether your project/programme involves building the new or enhancing the existing, it’s imperative to have buy-in from everyone involved, leveraging the customer as the touchstone and data as the tinder. 2. Embrace the unknown with adaptive design: embracing an adaptive design and project management approach allows for tweaks to be made to the transformation strategy as needs arise – and they will arise. Remember, you’re building your transformation strategy around humans (customers, colleagues and investors) and humans don’t act in linear and predictable ways. 3. De-risk: delivering transformation and building a customer-centric organisation involves taking more than a few risks. Communicate the ambition and the stretch outcomes you’re working towards. Then de-risk by managing the change activity in sprints of two to three weeks. This supports decision-making, seeing progress or calling failure early and learning quickly. Leaders should allow teams to ‘learn as they do’ and build an environment of self-sufficient innovation. In the long-term, this is a great de-risker: smaller projects equate to smaller risks. 4. Initiate and react: Amazon’s game-changing ‘one-click economy’ has put just about every other industry into reaction mode, attempting to catch up with customers’ expectations. But that doesn’t mean that your whole transformation strategy should be a reactive response to the wider e-commerce forces at play. Get ahead of the game with pre-emptive or first-strike moves to truly future-proof your organisation. Larger, well-resourced organisations that are good at this often use game theory exercises; for smaller organisations, less elaborate scenario planning activities can be equally effective. Is it that easy? If it were that easy, everyone would have done it. Most organisations are trying and a few are thriving; some are just embarking and starting to grind it out, while only a few have yet to begin. But let’s be honest, it isn’t easy. It takes years. It takes vision. It takes resilience and it takes persistence. But it is necessary, and it is defining. As Albert Einstein said, “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”.   Garvan Callan is a strategist, innovator and transformation advisor.

To create a culture free of groupthink, leaders must first make themselves vulnerable, writes Dr Annette Clancy. Have you ever wanted to speak up in a group, but decided that it was better not to? Or have you ever been sure that your co-workers were making a huge mistake, but felt that you couldn’t intervene to voice a dissenting view? If either scenario sounds familiar, you may have been affected by groupthink. The term was coined in 1971 by the psychologist, Irving Janis, who wanted to understand the systematic errors made by teams involved in collective decision-making. Groupthink occurs when people’s desire for cohesiveness and harmony results in faulty decision-making. Two well-known examples of groupthink are the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in 1986. In the Bay of Pigs example, Janis describes the men surrounding John F. Kennedy as “one of the greatest arrays of intellectual talent in the history of American government”. There were individual dissenting voices among those men when President Kennedy gave the order for the invasion. Yet, when brought together, the group dynamic prevented them from disagreeing. The formal investigation into the Challenger Space Shuttle identified a technical fault in the o-ring, which led to the disaster. However, it also referenced “a serious flaw in the decision-making process leading up to the launch”. Concerns about the o-ring had been circulating in NASA months before the accident, but nobody took action. So, how can you spot groupthink in organisations? Janis outlined the following symptoms: 1. Invulnerability Members of the decision-making group share the illusion that they are invulnerable. This leads them to become overly optimistic and to make risky decisions. They don’t pay attention to warning signs. In the case of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Kennedy was under the illusion that he could keep secret the fact that Cuba had been invaded by the United States – even after the news leaked to the media. 2. Rationalisations Victims of groupthink ignore warnings and begin to create a rationale to defend why they ignored the warning in the first place. This entrenched position reinforces the group’s illusion of invulnerability. 3. Morality Victims believe that they are behaving morally and doing the right thing. This allows the group members to ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions. They create, therefore, a new morality out of their groupthink position. 4. Stereotypes The group splinters and the victims of groupthink stereotype those who are not in their group by denigrating them as stupid or not as good as them. In doing so, they reinforce their own identity. 5. Pressure Victims apply direct and indirect pressure to any member who expresses doubt about the group’s illusions. Uncertainty, individuality and questioning are extinguished. 6. Censorship Members censor their views to conform. 7. The illusion of unanimity Because nobody speaks out, everybody believes that there is unanimous agreement. How to avoid groupthink Janis’s optimal solution was that members of senior teams should rotate the role of critical evaluator. He also added that the director should accept the frank exchange of views. The best way to avoid groupthink is to welcome healthy dissent and disagreement. Conflict isn’t always a bad thing. Assigning somebody to be devil’s advocate can often introduce a welcome alternative perspective. Leaders who want to change a groupthink culture must lead from the front. Nobody is going to make themselves vulnerable or step out on a ledge because a leader has decided that “we’re not doing groupthink from now on”. Changing a culture of groupthink requires deft and sophisticated leadership that is tuned into the emotional tone of the organisation. A leader who makes themselves vulnerable first, who is willing to hear criticism and act upon it, and who makes it safe for others to do so without retribution or punishment will go a long way towards making their organisation groupthink-free.   Dr Annette Clancy is Assistant Professor at UCD School of Art, History and Cultural Policy. Annette’s research focuses on emotions in organisations.

How can organisations keep the passion going for D&I? Dawn Leane explores how businesses can do more to successfully deliver their D&I programmes.   Diversity and inclusion (D&I) seems like a simple concept: while we are all different, we are all equal. So why has D&I become such a headache for some businesses? Organisations invest significant resources into D&I programmes, such as creating specialist roles, publishing results and setting up employee groups. However, these often fail to deliver the expected return on investment. Without results, organisations can begin to experience diversity fatigue. People become tired of ideas that don’t gain traction and employees can become sceptical that D&I is little more than a PR exercise.   Creating meaningful change To create meaningful change in an organisation, there are a few things you can do: Diagnose the specific D&I challenges the organisation is facing instead of just rolling out a standard set of programmes or initiatives. Find out what issues need to be addressed and how to measure them successfully. Are the organisation’s D&I programmes and initiatives authentic? Unconscious bias training and inclusion workshops can sometimes be implemented in order to mitigate complaints or, when poorly designed, can treat participants as if they are intolerant, which is ultimately counterproductive. Resist the temptation to tag everything as D&I. Most employees don’t want to be labelled as ‘diverse’ even in a positive way as it can create a sense of ‘otherness’. Make D&I relevant to everyone in the organisation. D&I initiatives often focus exclusively on diverse groups and fail to engage a wider audience of people. This can mean that functional and business unit leaders do not know how to support D&I within their individual areas. Embedding diversity, inclusion and belonging requires an organisational culture change – D&I values and associated behaviours must become part of the organisation’s DNA. This can only happen, however, when there is a sustained focus over a long period of time. Often, small changes have the biggest impact. Developing successful D&I programmes is not a one-size-fits-all approach, it is much more nuanced; organisations and the people who work for them are complex and dynamic. Individualised training An individualised D&I training, which involves a combination of coaching and mentoring, can be hugely beneficial to organisations. These sessions create the space for individuals to talk openly about their challenges and ask questions which they may not feel comfortable doing in a group setting.  A coaching conversation elicits, without judgement, the individual’s attitudes, beliefs and any of the issues or questions they may have. A mentoring conversation then takes this further to identify specific actions and behaviours that will make a difference. In my experience, forcing the D&I agenda in an inauthentic manner only serves to make people know which boxes to tick to be compliant. It doesn’t change attitudes or lead to sustainable change, which is essential for D&I to be successful in any organisation. Dawn Leane is Principal Consultant at Leane Leaders, Developing Inclusive Leadership. She will deliver a workshop on Leadership for Professional Women as part of Chartered Accountants Ireland's CPD programme on 25 March.