ICWES15 - Keynote Address - The Allure of Confomity. Presented by Prof Elizabeth Taylor, Qld, AUST

ICWES 2011 Leadership Innovation Sustainability

The Allure of
Conformity
Women &Leadership,
Innovation and
Sustainability
Em Professor Elizabeth Taylor AO

1

I would like to acknowledge
Leadership Innovation Sustainability

the traditional owners and
custodians of the land on
which we meet today, the
Kaurna people, and pay my http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kaurnaland.png

respects to their Elders, men
and women, past and present.

2

Women in engineering and science have
achieved much and can be justly proud.

As we have experienced in this

conference the formal leadership of
industry and the professions now
has a (fragile) sprinkling of women
where once there were none.

Engineering and science are richer for
the diversity of experiences and insights
that are entering, and gradually seeping
up the ranks of, the profession.
3

Sustainability

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Socotra_dragon_tree.JPG

4

“Any
examination
of

mainstream,
malestream
leadership will show that it
theory is predicated on
the model of
Businessman p16Financial Review Aug 26 2005
leader-followers”
p220 Limerick

5

The next challenge for women is to decide
whether our entry into professional leadership
does lead change …..
– positive change

Even as leaders, challenges continue:

 Struggling with the allure of conformity
 Having the courage to ask difficult
questions
 Continuing to ask why (and why not)
 Does our leadership make the world a
better place for all? 6

Sustainability

Open to diverse ways of thinking and being
http://www.wayfaring.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/banyan-tree.jpg

7

Struggling with the Allure of Conformity

http://www.trendspotting.com.au/uploads/Image/trees.jpg

8

What’s a girl
to wear?

The Allure
of
Conformity

9


http://ilikesocks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/img250.png

10


http://www.redcarpet-fashionawards.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Salvatore-Ferragamo-
Fall-2011.jpg

http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/imageBank/cache/g/Grace-Jones-10-best-
80s.jpg_e_b531446b815d841fa57ff7ac29559923.jpg
11


http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/02/22/article-0-039F858C000005DC-230_468x457.jpg
12

Having the courage to ask difficult questions

http://www.blog.thefortuneinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/tree_life.jpg

13


Are we
assuming
that the future
will be a linear
extension of the
present? © Taylor 2001

14


What if it isn’t?
15

A metaphor for our times?
In 1845 Sir John Franklin set out on an expedition to find the
fabled Northwest Passage.
The ships were equipped as replicas of English Royal Navy
officers’ clubs.
Each ship had

• A 1200 volume library
• Copious amounts of china place settings,
• Cut glass wine goblets
• Sterling silver table ware and cutlery.

They took no special
clothing for the Artic
conditions, just the rather Unfortunately, items such
splendid naval uniforms, as these took up so much
and equipment was space that room could be
standard: there were .. no found for only twelve days
sleds. supply of coal for the
auxiliary steam engines.
16

It took twenty years to find the remnants of the expedition:

 the ships had been destroyed by the pack ice,

 frozen bodies were found in groups, many
kilometres from where their ships disappeared.

 some members of these parties were still dressed
in their fine blue uniforms, edged with silk braid and
gold buttons

 Surprisingly, in the improvised sleds and the ships’
boats they had dragged for tortuous kilometres were
large quantities of ornate table silver!
17

and that, if the
problems
change, we
must actively
seek new

solutions to
survive and
reach our
goals.

Dunphy&Stace, Under New Management: Australian Organisations
articwebsite.com/FranklinBodies in Transition, 1992, McGraw Hill
18

Are our social institutions and company
structures appropriate for our times?

Are there other possibilities?
19

Continuing to ask why

http://zigaurre.posterous.com/excavadora-de-rueda-de-cangilones
20

We engineers construct
ourselves in the community
in terms
of grand and noble
narratives
for the greater common good.

21

George Morrison,
Presidential Address to
the American Society of
Engineers, 1895.

'We are the
priests of
material
development or
the work which
www.ehs.org.u
k

enables men to enjoy the fruits of the
great resources of power in nature,
and the power of mind over matter
22

We are the
priests of a
new epoch,
without
superstitions

www.paper-dragon.com

23

We tend to construct the future using the same
grand visions – always bigger and better!

http://travel.smart-guide.net/the-highest-building-in-the-
world
24


Engineering culture
Engineers without Borders

25

……and why not?

http://nicolemariella.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/singing_ringing_tree470_470x353.jpg

26

In the Australian classic Kings in Grass Castles,
Mary Durack describes her grandfather’s
pioneering trip into Queensland in search of rich
pasture for cattle. He was one of the first white
people to explore Queensland.

During the trip he ran out of water, was
forced to shoot all his stock and was on
the brink of disaster. Salvation lay in a
party of blacks who led his party to a
waterhole. Mary Durack describes the
scene:

27

“One of the (white) party, about to move on, dipped his leather
water bag into the well. Instantly there were lowered brows and
upraised spears, for the blacks were masters still in this timeless
country where life was sustained by a stern discipline of mind and
body uncomprehended by the white.
These little reservoirs in an

arid land had succoured the
traveller from time beyond
memory and were a sacred
tribal trust, not to be camped
on for unnecessary time, their
contents never to be carried
away. The water was tipped
back and following the
example of the blacks, the
white men placed pebbles
under their tongues ….
28

And already (white) people
were saying of a people whose
lives had been pared and

restrained to a system of
survival remarkable among all
races on earth – „The blacks
have no thought for
tomorrow‟.”
(Durack, 1973, 90-91)

29

Engineers Australia Sept 2001 cover

Engineering World Jan 1999 p10
Engineers Australia Sept 2001
p29
30

I would like to acknowledge

the traditional owners and
custodians of the land on
which we meet today, the
Kaurna people, and pay my http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kaurnaland.png

respects to their Elders, men
and women, past and present.

31

Does our leadership make the world a better
place for all?

http://mosaicafrica.webs.com/mosaic-course.jpg 32

Within Australia and other developed countries
there are still major cultural, social and
organisational hurdles for women to address.

However these are insignificant
compared to the reality of most
women in the world. It is important
that we explicitly acknowledge that
participation in leadership, innovation
and sustainability, is still, for most
women throughout the world, an
unrealistic dream.

33

Pakistan floods 2010
34


35

Moving forward

http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/18/8826/1024/P1110735.jpg

36

"There are huge numbers of
people specifically trained
to think about this stuff -
because it's complicated! So

how do we expect to have
anything to contribute?"

I think many of us feel that we are
unqualified on these subjects, and
so hand them off.
http://www.bizstorytellers.org/Images/Sustainability.jpg

37

The practice of engineering and technology
development increasingly requires practitioners
who can incorporate their understanding of the
complex relationship between technology and the
natural and human ecosystems into the artefacts
and processes they design, construct and

maintain. It is also recognised that engineers have
a role beyond the physical development of
artefacts.

Your technical literacy enables you to
provide valuable knowledge, not just
data or information, to the decision
making process.
Taylor in Technology Assessment resources UTS as at July 2000

38

Open to diverse ways of thinking and being

Linear processes are terminal

ConceptDesignConstruct

Circular are ongoing

Life
Cycle

39

"We must
be the
change
we wish
to see in
the
world."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Markiewicz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sojourner_Truth_1864_npg_2
002_90.jpg

40
http://avaaz_images.s3.amazonaws.com/1396_aung-san-suu-kyi-1_1_460x230.png


http://www.minostone.com/upload/(IMG)1209561239.jpg

42

ICWES15 - Keynote Address - The Allure of Confomity. Presented by Prof Elizabeth Taylor, Qld, AUST

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ICWES15 - Keynote Address - The Allure of Confomity. Presented by Prof Elizabeth Taylor, Qld, AUST