What I'm Reading - Victoria Spackman

“The places where creativity, technology and business intersect” is how Wellington-based full time director Victoria Spackman ONZM describes her area of specialty – in particular, when it comes to exporting services. 

With a background in the arts, film and television industries her board roles are varied and include Gibson International (immersive exhibition experiences), Ackama Group (software delivery consultancy), Acumen (brand marketing, PR and communications), NZTE, Thankyou Payroll, MetService, CDC Pharmaceuticals, Katherine Mansfield House and Garden, and Copyright New Zealand. 

Victoria recently featured as a guest speaker at the 2024 Leadership Conference in a breakout session - Co-chairing: lessons from the for-purpose sector. 

This week her recommended reading explores what it means to rethink our assumptions and how to develop the flexibility to unlearn old beliefs. 

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What is the name of the governance/business book you’re reading or can recommend? 

Think Again – The power of knowing what you don’t know, by Adam Grant.

Grant describes himself as a person who strives to design meaningful jobs, build creative teams and shape collaborative cultures. He’s also a professor at The Wharton (Business) School.

How would you describe the style of writing?

It’s an excellent combination of storytelling – reflecting on real-life stories from areas such as firefighting, business, politics and confronting the KKK – and formal psychology experiments. 

There are chatty and sometimes fun anecdotes with a serious point, as well as personal “confessions”. The book also contains tables, charts, and graphs – from earnest ones that reflect the results of Italian research into the impact of scientific and flexible thinking on start-up success, to what to not attach your identity to (being a Pinto driver or a Blockbuster shareholder). 

What drew you to the book? 

I am a fan of one of Grant’s previous books named- Originals, which is all about how the creative brain and creative process can improve so much in our lives – including business and professional success outside the creative industries. I first read it on Kindle and then bought a hard copy so that I could underline parts and copy bits to share. 

Did you know that Nobel Prize-winning scientists are 22 times more likely to be amateur actors, dancers or magicians than non-Nobel Prize winning scientists?

So, when this new book came out a few years ago, I was very keen to get my hands on it. I think that a key skill of a successful governor is to constantly hone your thinking and reasoning skills. This book, while it’s not strictly a governance or business book, focuses on how ‘rethinking’, keeping an open mind and mental flexibility are strong indicators of success. It’s about the mental fitness required to make great decisions.

What resonated with you the most?

Grant wants us to abandon our mental fossils and habitually form our own second opinions, which is vital as our world changes at an accelerating pace. Our old beliefs and ‘knowledge’ don’t serve us anymore. It’s not about changing your mind, necessarily, but the ability to consider whether you should. As he notes “our old ways of thinking become habits that can weigh us down”. I like the idea of anchoring our sense of self in flexibility rather than in our strongly held opinions. 

He’s an advocate of embracing the joy of being wrong to find new solutions to old problems. He describes how the curse of knowledge is that it closes our minds to what we don’t know.

What is something you’ve taken away from reading that now follows you into your board roles?

I ask myself what I believe that might nevertheless be wrong? How flexible can I be in my thinking? What do I need to rethink in order to make the most of this problem or opportunity? Reminding myself that humility, doubt and curiosity lead to discovery and great decisions.

How does reading feed into your continued governance practice/learning?

I am a very curious person and read, listen and watch widely. I listen to 15-20 hours of podcasts a week on subjects including film, history, psychiatry, creating better workplaces, media and business. I also read on subjects like negotiation, leadership, building the future and business successes and failures. I take ideas that I collect into my daily governance practice and into other parts of my life.

I love my local library and often request books from around the Wellington region to be delivered to my local library for pick up. I also use the Libby app to read books that are difficult to get in hard copy.

Who should read this book and at what stage in their governance career?

This book is suitable for anyone who is curious about how to improve their decision making, and what it means to create a culture of learning and exploration. It is full of both academic research and practical advice about how to rethink your assumptions – and why you might need to. I would say it builds on the work of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky – if you enjoyed Thinking, Fast and Slow, then I think you will like this.

When you’re not reading books on business or governance, what kind of books are you likely to pick up? 

I always have at least three books on the go at any one time – novels, thrillers, non-fiction. I loved Pet and The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (two incredible novels in a very short space of time, amazing!) and Lioness by Emily Perkins. I am currently reading The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese, a long read, but one I’m happily wading into. I recently finished Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen, which is about how the arts impact our bodies and minds. I enjoy the Orphan X series by Gregg Hurwitz, in part because I can see their filmic possibilities. I also read a few screenplays and theatre scripts from time to time.

What are some of the most pertinent governance issues at the top of mind for you, and why?

How do we improve our decision making for this fast-changing and uncertain world? What experiments and pilots can we run to test our ideas and choose between options? How do we look after our people, planet and shareholders? How do we make sure that new directors can bring their new insights to a board to help us think anew and not waste the opportunity of fresh thinking at the table? What new business structures can emerge to respond to the challenges of all of that?

What has been the most surprising thing you’ve discovered about yourself and others while being on a board?

I recently (re)learned the value of board members getting to know each other well and developing a culture of trust and robustness – before it’s needed. A couple of my organisations are going through quite significant change at the moment and the quality of the relationships around the table is impacting the quality of the decisions being made and implemented. 

Building up that vault of trust and understanding has been crucial in the recent challenges we have faced. It’s a difficult thing to create because we meet so infrequently, and these days, often online. 

When boards are merely transactional, the people don’t always know each other well, so when the rubber hits the road the deep personal and professional relationships needed to trust each other’s values and processes can be lacking.

If there was anything you want to see more of at the board table, what would it be, and why?

Conscious discussions about how to build the right culture in the boardroom and in the businesses we serve. Genuinely supporting new and emerging directors to contribute as much as they can to their board roles. Age/experience diversity is something I am very supportive of in addition to other kinds of diversity as we seek to tackle modern and compounding challenges.