Week 5 Tutorial [Read the following document and summarise it in 250300 words] An Innovative Organisation Aurecon Group receives dozens of awards each year for its innovative engineering designs and practices, For example, the Australian-South African engineering and infrastructure advisory firm is recognized as one of the world's top five "Best Partners" in service and structural engineering. It has received awards as one of the best three consulting firms in the Middle East and as one of Australia's most innovative companies. Aurecon Global Chief Executive Giam Swiegers says these awards reflect the company"s efforts to get its 7,500 employees across 28 countries "future ready" by becoming better and more creative at decisjon making. "With the pace of disruption increasingly challenging businesses, it is essential that companies ready themselves to thrive in a future that is as yet unwritten," Swiegers advises. "Innovation is grounded on deep techaical expertise, but it's not enough to invest in being 'smart'-we need to foster creativity, challenge the status quo, explore and experiment to eavision what's possible." To support employee creativity, Aurecon nurtures a leaming orientation culture. "Ideas don't happen in a vacuum. They need some inception," says Owen Fair, Aurecon's technical director in South Africa. "They need organizations that foster spaces Page 24 where questions are imperative, risks are welcomed, and mistakes are empowering:" Aurecon has also introduced design thinking as its guiding approach to solving client needs. "I think what will really differentiate all professionals.... is their ability to problem-solve and innovate," says Liam Hayes, Aurecon's chief people officer. "One thing we're doing as a business and in our people team at Aurecon is building this capability by applying and developing concepts around design thinking." Design thinking is a holistic process that involves multiple stakeholders, embraces ambiguity rather than quick solutions, and relies on low-cost prototypes to test ideas. This process recognizes that one of the critical elements of effective decision making is problem finding-searching for the real problem rather than treating the client's initial problem statement as a given truth. "If engineering is going to solve the problems of tomorrow, there's a desperate need to practice problem finding today," says Hayes. "Engineers are trained to be good problemsolvers, but too often they wait for people to tell them about the problem that needs to be solved. "1 Aurecon Group and every other organization depend on effective decision makingfrom problem finding to developing creative solutions. Indeed, the ability of any organization to effectively allocate resources, improve products and services, and more generally maintain a good fit with the external environment is to have people who make decisions well. Decision making is not only a critical management skill; it is also Pafe244 a core activity for all staff members directly in their jobs and through employee involvement
