Airports face complex, interlocking and sometimes paradoxical sets of challenges to which they must be able to demonstrate transparently that they are performing at a high level.
I have heard it said the airport is the ultimate theatre of life. The cast is certainly broad and diverse in the airport industry: passengers, investors, airlines, regulatory authorities, local communities, airport staff, contractors and politicians. Dramas little and big can play out between these different groups and ultimately the airport has to ensure that the show goes on. Airports face complex, interlocking and sometimes paradoxical sets of challenges to which they must be able to demonstrate transparently that they are performing at a high level.
But what exactly does high performance look like? What are the characteristics of a high performing airport organisation? And what should airport leaders be doing to create a high performance environment?
Our understanding of what characterises ‘high performance’ is made more difficult by the uncertain, volatile, and complex environment that airports face. It’s not enough to be a high performing airport at any given moment in time – it’s as important that performance is sustainable in the face of unpredictable change.
Richard Plenty – Managing Director of personnel consultancy This Is.
Great leadership is particularly important in navigating organisations through times of uncertainty. Attention needs to be given to building intangible assets (such as organisation culture) and the human capital base so that organisations develop the resilience, flexibility and capability to cope with changing circumstances. Of particular importance are issues such as:
- The ‘courageous leadership’ needed to bring about change and engage, motivate and inspire people through challenging and difficult times;
- The development of a high performance ethos and culture;
- The design of organisations, processes and infrastructure to enable people to perform at their best;
- The planning, recruitment, selection and development of people to work in a high performance environment; and
- Human capital measurement and assessment.
Given the importance of these topics, it’s timely that ACI EUROPE will be sponsoring the Airport Leadership and Change Management Summit in Munich, Germany, from 1 to 3 December, to examine more closely what’s involved in the High Performing Airport. The focus will be on reviewing how leadership, organisation and people can bring about change and make a real difference to performance.
The event will bring together airport CEOs, and Operations, Commercial and Corporate leaders from Europe and around the world with the airport HR community and experts in leadership, organisation behaviour and change management.
The Summit builds on the success of previous Leadership and Change Management Fora held in Dublin 2011, London 2012 and Bologna 2013, and provides a learning environment a little different from those of most conferences with interactive workshops, best-in-class ‘change stories’, a CEO Master Class and great panel sessions.
For more details, visit www.airport-leadership.com
