Leadership effectiveness is strongly connected with the ability and capability to learn and change and by thus challenge our own mental models. We can change and create our future different than the past after discovering our internal assumptions. If we want to create something new, we have to invert our thinking towards learning.
"Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement." ? Peter Drucker, Austrian-born American management consultant, educator.
Managing mental models involves identifying, clarifying, and changing one's mental model and its component assumptions. Mental models are the frameworks for the interpretation of ideas and activities, assist in restructuring existing information and aid in the inculcation of new information. In today's globalized world, economic and socio-political climate needs a new approach that demands leaders to think differently and strategically about how change occurs and how professionals develop themselves and work with each other to gain efficient results. Effective leaders, being a change agent, are challenging their own mental models to bring modification in oraginsations' assumptions and strategies.
Organisations today are frequently facing challenges and opportunities that cannot be adequately addressed by reflecting on the past. Organisations require altering their own mental models to establish a new understanding that will ensure the development of innovative, but possible strategies to deal with an unfolding reality. Today forward thinking organisations as well as professionals are shifting their management strategies to focus on sustaining their competitive advantage in businesses by promoting and facilitating learning for employees to continually expand their capabilities to understand complexity, clarify vision, and improve shared mental models.
Our fragmented worldview needs to be replaced with an integrated whole systems mental model. The only irreplaceable capital an organisation owns is the ability and knowledge of its individuals. The productivity of that capital depends on how effectively individuals share their competence with those who can use it.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan is an active and important member of International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and IFAC Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee. The Institute also formed ICAP PAIB Committee to bring the professional accountants in business and industry closer. The PAIB committee aims to provide avenues to professionals to grow, learn and evolve largely through conferences, and other activities. The PAIB Committee initiated the CFO conference as a measure to bring together the business professionals in 2010 and the encouragement and appreciation from the members and business professionals made it a regular feature in ICAP.
The CFO Conference, on Evolving Mental Models - Sustaining Competitive Edge, aims to provide a forum to better understand the changing business approaches and dynamism of accountants' roles and their responsibilities. I feel in the emerging global world, an ideal avenue is the exporting of services by our professionals in view of the international recognition of our professional's expertise. We should not be confined to the traditional role rather embrace the change and seize the opportunities ahead.
Your presence will help us to make this event a great success. I hope that our members will find the conference informative and worthwhile.
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