Evolutionary Provocateur

Challenging the Status Quo-Finding a Better Way

At a time when we appear to be stuck on a trajectory of maintaining, defending and protecting the status quo Seth's argument offers support and encouragement to me.  As I move my own work to the next level of inspiring business to take leadership in connecting decision making to planetary stewardship I reminded to challenge myself, wherever the status quo lies to expand to a higher consistently compassionate view. It is more than time for radical inspired change. What do you say we start a movement? 

 

 

This blog is moving!! Head on over to http://www.FrominsighttoAction.com to hear the global thought leader podcast and blog designed to change the way we use change for planetary stewardship. 

Head on over to http://www.FromInsightToAction.com for the thought leader podcast and blog on managing cultural change in business, raising personal and business consciousness for planetary stewardship and some stories on what leadership skills are required for complexity.
Thanks for coming here and thanks for seeing the new blog!

We Love a Good Story - Changing Business Cultures

Organizations need to change. Business needs to change. Business cultures need to change.

But how?

Peter Senge talked about mental models. The notion that organizational culture change takes a long time is one of them. Granted, it reflects our experience. We've been trying to change organizational culture in business using the same thinking that created them. That doesn't work so well. But when you apply the tools that neuroscience suggests helps bring both sides of the brain together, then the capacity to see the dynamic within the organization, along with what works and what to adjust, expands. 

At the Stoos Stampede in Amsterdam, July 6-7th I had the great pleasure of chatting with Agile coach Erwin van der Koogh who works with storytelling as a tool for culture change in business. We met on the streets at a coffee shop and had this conversation about storytelling, why it works and when to use it as a tool for change. 

Business cultures are no different than people when it comes to personal growth. You need to engage the emotions and there is no better tool for transformation than storytelling as long as it is anchored in a clear sense of purpose. Erwin has put a cheat sheet up on his site to help facilitators of change use this powerful tool.

Brainworld magazine in Issue 4, Vol. 2, Summer, 2011 explained that new research in neuroscience suggests that stories thread neural connection, integrating the two hemispheres, and allow our brains to function in a more complex and unified manner. 

Jeremy Rifkin in The Third Industrial Revolution explained how a new narrative is required; one that threads together the shift away from a pure addiction to petroleum toward a diversified supply source. 

It seems that for real change to take place, we need to see the story behind it. 

 

PS... The story telling and recreating of a collective story (in other words - this blog!!!) is moving to http://www.FromInsightToAction.com This blog wil hang around but don't look for anything new. Head over to From Insight To Action dot com to see what is new and shaking in the world of management innovation and planetary stewardship. See you there!! 

Facilitators of Change - Youth Taking Action

When my daughter graduated from high school she headed straight to France to attend university and play soccer in the lovely city of Montpellier. Six months later, she returned to Canada, spent the next year at University of Victoria and decided that what she was experiencing wasn't aligned with her vision for what she wanted to do in this world. That decision was out of place with the direction most of her friends were on but the decision to follow what inspired her is one that she continues to explore. Others followed the route of higher education; none are employed in the area of their degrees.

In France students stay in school longer. Unemployment there is 22%; in Spain it is 45%. No matter how you look at it, those numbers aren't good. If the societal expectation is that you go to university, you get your degree, then you get a job it isn't working according to plan. And, on the whole, Europe's youth are frustrated. As I travelled in France and other parts of Europe in June & July this summer, I couldn't help but notice a simmering anger. It was a foreboding sign of what might happen if the Euro failed completely and all hopes for a recovered economy went with it. 

There are other signs that something isn't well. In North America, depression rates are ridiculously high. Stats out of the US tell us that 'about 19 precent of young people contemplate or attempt suicide each year. Some succeed. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among people ages 15-24, and the second leading cause of death in college students ages 20-24.' (http://psychcentral.com/blog/.../statistics-about-college-depression) In Canada, aboriginal youth suicide rates are 5-6 times higher than non-aborginal rates. 

That is depressing. 

So what is going on? Why the frustration? 

From a biological point of youth, repressing your creative expression creates depression... or violence. And youth have a lot to offer.

What lies at the heart of the matter? 

For one, the institutions that educate youth are no longer fit their style of learning or their style of working together.  As Professor Kenneth Starkey, Head, Management Division for the Nottingham School of Business stated in a recent Evolutionary Provocateur interview, the MBA and business schools are failing to live up to the challenge of change. Add societal and social judgment toward being different, whether it is youth or someone who is different from mainstream self esteem suffers and creative talent is repressed. Reliance on technology rather than the old fashioned way of person to person socializing undermines development of social skills.

Yet the youth I talk to are well aware of the need for change, for radical innovation and they want to help. They bring much energy, and have a need to be creative that can't be repressed, or depression results. 

So when a friend of mine alerted me to the competition that business intelligence global SAP was sponsoring through Changemakers called The Power of Small, I was excited about the possibility of expanding a program run out of the Netherlands called SquibS. SquibS was started up in response to youth who, for one reason or another, were disenfranchised by the system. Lars Wuestmand explains. 

 

The SquibS way of interacting follows organizing principles that emerged out of the action and activities. Fifteen years of events organized by youth for youth reveal what comes naturally.

Organizing Principles

These have emerged out of fifteen years of experience with youth organized events.

1. A plan is no more than a suggestion. Everything can be a reason to improvise. To change or to skip something or to add something else.
2. Things can work out differently than expected. Everyone is prepared to be flexible and expect the unexpected.
3. Everyone is sharp, open and adjusting to the situation.
4. Everyone can experiment as long as everyone is safe, no one gets harmed or treated disrespectfully. We all have to trust one another and we do.
5. No one is judged.
6. Everyone is welcome. Everyone is appreciated and valued for who they are.
7. We value diversity. The more extraordinary, quiet, shy, noisy, busy, musical, big, small, nerdy, beautiful or not you are, the bigger the variety, the better it gets.
8. Boys and girls of all ages, interest groups and attitudes are mixed all the time by choice and in line with their stage of social development.
9. If you need help, mentors and coaches are nearby and observing. They help you to do it yourself, to recognise your own barriers and overcome them.
10. In the diversity there are always role models. They shift over time as You become one yourself.

To support youth to take action in charting the course of their careers, hope and self-esteem need to be restored. The easiest way to do that is to get out of their way. 

 

PS. THIS BLOG IS MOVING!! Thanks for your loyal readership. To give this global thought leader podcast and this blog a more personal touch it is moving over to my website: http://www.FromInsightToAction.com

Come on over!!! Look forward to seeing you there!  

The Guardian newspaper is sponsoring a contest for using social media in sustainability. All you brilliant social media wizards who've had success tweet your tip to possibly win a seat. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/top-tip-using-social-media-sustainability-competition?newsfeed=true

How We Can Tackle Climate Change

Small actions create big results and the TED talk here by Pam Warhurst shows how as one community in the UK decided to grow on every level. Their example is an inspiration setting a challenge to all communities who are concerned about global climate change and its effects on food and food security. The link to how we can tackle climate change has been best made by my colleague Philip Be'er in his document on his site: http://www.homeharvestfarms.com 

  Urban organic gardening is a movement; one that can change how we impact the world one plant and powerful person at a time.

Replacing Short Term Thinking with Business Sustainability

If there is one thing that business loves it is the certainly of the next quarter. Old habits die hard it seems. In times when choosing the right habits makes the difference between being able to see the big picture or to be agile enough for the complexity and diversity of the business environment, old habits must die. 

I had the chance to explore business's addiction to short term thinking with Professor Kenneth Starkey, Head of the Managment Division for Nottingham Business School. I recorded the interview on Skype so it has a few sound distortions but the conversation doesn't. 

Listen by tuning into Management-Issues.com. 

Amongst other things we talk about the role of business schools in changing the mindset of MBA students who learn only about the metrics of money as a measure while the rest of the world is turning its head beyond business sustainability to include human survival. All of that is predicated on being able to instill a higher consciousness in business. 

Basically, what do we care about? What does business care about? If it is only money, it isn't sustainable on any level. Once you've heard the interview tell me how do you think the role of business schools or, bumping it up a notch, the role of business in society is changing?  What should we expect from business? 

Changing Deep Values to Achieve Innovation

I am just about to board the hi-speed train from Brussels to Montpellier. Apparently it reaches speeds of over 300 km per hour. That is fast. According to the ticket agent it is the same speed that planes reach before take off.

Traveling in Europe reminds me of the very different cultural world views and how they impact our ability to adapt to change and to reconnect ourselves to Nature. In North America, we don't move people with trains; we use cars (tire companies prefer that) and planes. In Europe, though each country has its own system, there is a degree of similarity in that the trains move people very effectively.

But there is another layer that directly impacts the ability of each culture to adapt to the speed of change or to lead it for that matter. For example, the French love hierarchy. Power is positional, not intrinsic. It will take an unexpected event to break the patterns creating an opening for innovation to merge. The impeding crisis and pressure being place on the old systems is not enough to instigate radical innovation of the degree required. The Netherlands and Scandanavia both have a disdain for hierarchy. They are well positioned to drive the evolution of how we do work, and to support business to embed care and create shared value through environmental and social responsibility

Change We Must

Over one hundred and twenty organizational change catalysts migrated to Amsterdam July 6 & 7 with that realization in mind. Two days of un-structured Open Space style conversation. Held in De Roed we met, we talked and we participated in the way we each felt drawn to. The risk of running any kind of event is to over structure it and discourage spontaneity. Stoos Stampede did not fall into that temptation. Full credit to the organizing team lead by Jurgen Appelo.

Values are changing along with the vision for what is possible when we work together.

Three take-always:

1) there is a lot of experience available that informs what it takes for organizations to change.

2) The big picture provides insights into what must shift at the practical level.

3) there are many levels to assist, contribute or support. None of them are the 'right way'. Together they point to A way depending on the context.

For more information on Stoos head to www.stoosnetwork.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Societal Change, Economic Change and Energy Security

I have attended a lot of panels, forums, and networking events where there has been much talk about food, water or energy security wrapped around the vision of sustainability. Yet governments, as Rio 2012 has reminded us, are slow to catch on to the need for a diversification of energy supply. Perhaps the concept is overwhelming?

No need for that according to author, Jeremy Rifkin whose latest book "The Third Industrial Revolution" profiles how countries can develop a national energy strategy. To serve national energy strategy or global for that matter, in five steps here are the pillars of the TIR:

(Excerpt from page 37)

"1. shifting to renewable energy;

2. transforming the building sotck of every ocntinent into mircor-power planst to collect renewable energies on site;

3. deploying hydrogen and other storage technologies in every building & throughout the infrastructure to store intermittent energies;

4. using Internet technology to transform the power grid of every continent into an energy-sharing intergrid that acts just like the Internet (when millions of buildings are generating a small amount of energy locally on site, they can sell surplus back to teh grid and share electricity with their continental neighbors);

5. transitioning the transport fleet to electric plug-in and fuel cell vehicles that can buy and sell electricity on a smart, continental, interactive power grid. "

When I mention the idea of demand exceeding supply to small business owners there is some rolling of the eyes and comment around being grateful someone else is thinking about these issues. But when the price of fuel costs soar and their businesss is suffering the cost of short term thinking it will be a bit late to make the adjustment. There is real value in thinking long term while focusing in the present simultaneously. That means a change in thinking; a shift in mindset.

A recent article in Fast Company magazine profiled the work of Matthew Schmidt, Assistant Professor, Political Science, School of Advance Military Studies who notes: "The tendency in any organization is to look for the fives steps to do anything andmake it a system. But that's not how to look at a complex world. What does it take to develop a strategic thinker?" 

Strategic thinkers are needed in government and business. There are many who would claim to be in that category but what strategic thinking means in a complex and uncertain world is completely different to what it mean five or ten years ago. Now, as Rifkin points out, it is the need for a compelling narrative that successfully strings the pieces into a meaningful strand that entrepreneurs and small business owners, as well as big business, can see as opportunity. 

Investors spot places where energy costs are low, amongst other factors, yet local governments fail to capitalize on the cost savings of energy  and waste management efficiencies.There is no reason why homeowners cannot jump in and lead the way to citizen lead change by working with pillar number one and then setting themselves up to sell back into the grid. 

There is a lot of opportunity being left on the table... and not just at Rio 2012. 

Energy Security and Rio 2012

Got this link in my inbox today. It asks us to help push for the obvious need to eliminate subsidies to the fossil fuel addiction so that we have some small hope of energy security. Jeremy Rifkin's book: The Third Industrial Revolution explains the strategy governments can take to ensure energy security. It starts with realizing that diversity of supply source is a basic principle to create resiliency. After all, nature has incorporated this principle through species diversity for the last 3.8 billion years. But first, it is important to recognize that a strategy is required. I haven't had much hope for governments in a leadership role but Ido believe that they have a role and it is an important one if they are prepared to step up to the plate. Failing that, it is citizen lead action at home, installation of solar panels, diversifying energy supply and removing reliance on a single source, that will make the difference locally. 

In fact, as Bernard Lietaer explains, the stabilization of the monetary system depends on understanding the role diversity has in creating resilience. He also explains why the Swiss WIR and innovations such as the ones Uruguay have implemented put them in a better position to withstand monetary crisises. 

Energy resilience is essential as Dr.John Macdonald of http://day4energy.com explains in this interview. 

Take a few moments to vote. 

 

Reading Fast Company's latest on the 100 most creative people in Business. At a time when business is running scared, most relentlessly focusing on the bottom line rather than what creates that line in the first place, it is refreshing to see a change-maker who has tackled the bigger issues in a clever and strategic way. Take a look at Ma Jun who is tackling the clean up of China's environment by working with how global companies manage their suppliers. Simple. Effective accountability. http://www.fastcompany.com/most-creative-people/2012/ma-jun#video