INTHEBLACK November 2026 - Magazine - Page 18
MEMBER PROFILE
ONE PIECE OF ADVICE
“In a job interview,
it is not about them
interviewing you.
You need to interview
them to understand
what kind of culture
you are walking into,
because early
in your career,
that culture
is going to
shape you.”
That broad view also shapes how
Ding thinks about mistakes. He separates
mistakes into two categories.
Type 1 mistakes are the things the
organisation must never do. “This includes
anything that could hurt anyone,” he says.
“Never cause any permanent environmental
damage and never bankrupt the organisation.
Never, ever cross those lines.”
Type 2 mistakes are different. As opposed
to being disastrous, they are sometimes
a positive. They might even be encouraged,
perhaps in the name of innovation,
advancement or learning.
For Ding, this is about highly disciplined
risk management. When team members
are confident and they can make and
report Type 2 mistakes without blame
or other negative blowback, it helps
the organisation innovate quickly
and identify risks earlier.
Openness to the reporting
of such risk becomes a control
mechanism. If people feel safe
to admit when something goes
wrong, the business can learn,
act to mitigate the risk and
innovate around it.
“We define and
communicate what we have
learned, so next time we will
not do it again,” he says.
“We figure out how to fix
it but also communicate
what we can all learn from it,
so we can use that knowledge
to develop new processes
and solutions.”
A COMPLEX SECTOR
The complexity of the waste management
sector is both a challenge and a benefit.
Ding says he was attracted to the industry
because of its many sides.
Although waste can look deceptively
simple, WM New Zealand contains
18 INTHEBLACK November 2026
