Different Worlds
Leave a comment Posted on intuition, Life Purpose, mindfulness, Neos Delta Retreats, prescience, Spirituality, Transformation, Uncategorized

Intuition, Mindfulness, Prescience – Felt Forces in Daily Life.

 Many refute intuition, mindfulness and prescience as playing a meaningful role in business or life.  Conversations often dry up when I mention I also believe that manifestation, spirituality and strategic intent are part of the same process.

Intuition is defined as when you instinctively know that something you are doing is right or wrong.

The dictionary says it works by drawing on patterns we have collected that lets us make quick decisions. Its a gut feeling, it is immediate, do this or that.  My son told me today that he had an accident on the weekend when the wheels of his Ute locked and he hit a pole. He ignored the intuition he had, that he should not take the Ute. We all experience intuition because it is a felt, recognised force and has been a source of fascination since Ancient Times.(1)  Many famous leaders have relied on intuition to navigate uncertainty and make choices. Albert Einstein famously remarked that ‘The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind a faithful servant’.

Mindfulness is being aware;  of yourself, your context and subtle harbingers calling for your attention.

For example, I lived in Warrandyte in Victoria, a rustic little village outside Melbourne. How I ended up choosing Melbourne is relevant.  I am an entrepreneur and I just setting up my first business in Australia.  Melbourne seemed easier; I had been introduced to a new network of consultants in that city, who seemed keen to work with me.  They offered infrastructure. However, I ignored two emphatic warning signs against settling in Melbourne.  Melbourne later turned out to be a terrible choice.

Firstly, I burnt my leg very badly on the train from Sydney to Melbourne. It was so bad that I cancelled the city tour my future teammates had organized. I could hardly walk.  Secondly, in Sydney, my friend and I were walking down the street of Eastern Valley Way, discussing where to base the company, when we saw carved into the concrete pavement, my name in huge letters.(2]  I remember Sanjeet saying;   “What more do you need?” he pointed, “you should set up base here, in Sydney.”

Big words from a mathematician and atheist, who had no belief in ‘signs”.  But I was neither mindful nor responsive.  I ignored these portents, direct warnings on steroids.  Years later realisation and wisdom came with hindsight.  Energetic forces tried to guide me, but sadly, I was closed. Mindfulness is still superficially understood.  Most health professionals talk up its benefits.  I think it opens up another dimension,  a portal to the Big Networks. (3)

Prescience is sudden insight into what has not happened yet, what may not even yet exist. It is about knowing the future.

It’s future sense. You don’t know why you should feel that way about something; it’s a sense of certainty about an endgame.  Prescience for me ranges from an awareness about a bigger context, to receiving direct information about an event, person, or outcome.

I have many examples but let me share this personal example. – Warrandyte as I said, is a picturesque  little village, about an hour and half commute from the CBD.  Now walking home from the train station my heart was heavy. I had almost nothing to show after three months of frenetic business development activity.   I was working 14-hour days, yet there was no response to my efforts.  Was this going to be another slow, painful startup; like our software company, selling concepts 20 years ahead of their time? Who had heard of a dashboard?

Initially so confident, brimming with energy, buoyed by successes.  I had left on a high, our Southern African company humming, having taken over the client base and functions of our only competitor, the consulting wing of mining giant Anglo American.  A real case of David and Goliath. We now had some 35 consultants and associates, operating across five Southern African countries.

But that energy was not here.  I had zero client prospects.  It was a silent spring, shaping up to be a long hard winter.   I was just not sure I had the energy to do it again.  I sat down on the bank of the big brown Yarra River. After a while I stood up, continuing my homeward plod.  Up ahead, I spied a small wooden alcove nestled among the trees.  I felt a sudden urge to go inside, just to sit quietly, nurse the despondency I was feeling.

Next minute, I was sitting on a hard bench, eyes closed. For some inexplicable reason, I said; “Dear Spirit or God, if you exist, please listen, hear my prayer.  I don’t want to do this start up pain all over again.”  I stopped, feeling silly.  I sat silently, watching the late afternoon sunlight rimming the leaves.

Then I heard a soft, clear, firm voice in my ear, saying; “It will not be the same, it will be new.” I had a prescience that the business would fly, it would be successful, there would be no start up grind again.  This knowledge flooded in.  I just knew. It was a felt force and uncertainty and worry left.

Two days later a senior member of Westpac Banking Corporation phoned.  We never looked back. Two years later, when the income clicked for the first time into healthy seven digits, I remembered with thanks, that moment in the little wooden alcove in Warrandyte, when the prescience was so strong, telling me it’s all OK, let go, this business will fly.

Now three years later I looked back, ruing that I did not more clearly define what I meant, when I had asked so fervently, “Dear Spirit or God, please let this business fly’’. It flew, it flew too high.(3)

Next part of this series deals with manifestation, spirituality and its link to business strategic strategy and intent.

References

(1) Where Does Intuition Comes From According To Ancient Books And Philosophers? – Learning Supernatural

[2] I was never able to find this tag again.  Maybe the concrete walkway had been redone.  Sanjeet was my witness it existed.

(3)  Olivier, A. .So Long We Slept Apart. Unpublished manuscript

4 Comments Posted on Accountability, Boards, Building Communities, Requisite Enterprise, sustainability, Uncategorized

Feet of Cement in a New Corporate Age. PPC – a case of Green wash.

The rural, peaceful villages of Riebeek Kasteel and Riebeek West may soon see heavy duty trucks rumbling through our streets every eight minutes.  We may also experience waves of job hunters descending on the community in the forlorn hope of finding work as this mega new project kicks off.  Do we need a similar experience to the Saldanha Labour Bureau experience, which created a problem that did not exist before?  This unaccountable corporate mining company is  also extracting local limestone deposits, sending profits to distant shareholders without improving the community or the infrastructure within which it is embedded.

How is that?

Pretoria Portland Cement ( PPC) plans to build a new R3-billion integrated cement plant in the Western Cape in our valley.  This state-of-the-art plant will replace and increase existing capacity.  The new plant will enable PPC to supply the lowest carbon cement in the country, resulting in substantial improvements in energy efficiency, reduced coal consumption, and lower emissions per ton of cement produced. This PPC say, will contribute to meaningfully lowering production costs, thereby making PPC significantly more competitive and profitable.

That’s great.  For shareholders, no so much for stakeholders.  Despite requests,  there has been no stakeholder consultations with the local ratepayers association, the Riebeek Valley Ratepayers Association.  The Deputy Chairperson, Mr Basil Friedlander, was not even allowed access to their office but had to meet in the car park.

PPC have shown a complete lack of interest and disrespect in meeting with the group.

After pressure they organised a meeting on the start of the long weekend, with an RSVP email that did not work and with no public broadcast systems.  The minutes from that meeting are still outstanding. On inquiry, The Ratepayers Association were told that the person accountable was overseas. On their website PPC say;

We play an active social role in the upliftment of communities in which we operate to create and maximise shared value for all.

 Really ?

The feasibility studies for the plant have reached an advanced stage, with construction rumoured to start next month.    Most alarming is that PPC has not shown ratepayers an approved Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). They had one under the under the previous scope for the plant.  This 2019 EIA was flawed, the transport report was done in in-house, which is a bit like marking your own homework!  It said the roads were sufficient for the traffic, but no comments were made on environmental impacts. Ultimately it was accepted.

This EIA needs to be reviewed and updated to reflect any changes in the project plans and scope.  The construction and operation of the cement plant may lead to environmental concerns, such as air and water pollution. The increased industrial activity could also disrupt the daily lives of residents and impact the infrastructure. PPC will need to address these concerns through a required updated Environmental Impact Assessment, plus ongoing stakeholder consultations, to ensure that the benefits outweigh the downsides. This has not been done.

PPC claim the new R3-billion cement plant is expected to create job opportunities, both during the construction phase and once the plant is operational, but this limited in scope and may at most be 100 -200 menial roles, with many of the skills coming from China. PPC says they are committed to using local suppliers and services which will help circulate money within the community.  THey say this will  boost the local economy, but is this so?  Where are the studies?

Time for the CEO of PPC in South Africa, Matias Cardarelli, and Chairman Linhe Zhu to move into the modern world of accountability, sustainability and stakeholder engagement and not rip out minerals without any thought of the future of the communities. ripping out minerals without thought to the consequences to local communities is not acceptable.

We understand this will go ahead, but let’s use best practices. Operating in good faith, through genuine collaboration is in everyone’s interest.

References

1:  The Saldanha Bay labour bureau experience is often cited as a cautionary tale in labor management and employment services. It highlights the challenges and pitfalls that can arise when systems are not effectively implemented or managed. The bureau faced criticism for inefficiencies in registering work-seekers, matching them with job opportunities, and ensuring compliance with labor regulations. Minister Engages Saldanha Bay Stakeholders in Labour Summit – Labour Guide South Africa

2.PPC to build a new R3-billion integrated cement plant in the Western Cape – Quarrying Africa January 17, 2025.  https://quarryingafrica.com/ppc-to-build-a-new-r3-billion-integrated-cement-plant-in-the-western-cape/

3: MEDIA RELEASE – ppc.co.za https://ppc.co.za/media/z2vp22mw/ppc-announces-new-r3bn-cement-plant.pdf

  1. PPC plans Western Cape mega plant. https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/companies/ppc-plans-western-cape-mega-plant-12190136

5: Local economic development (LED), challenges and solutions – https://www.sun.ac.za/english/faculty/economy/spl/SPL%20Library/BER%202021%20SAs%20Municipal%20Challenges_Final.pdf

Leave a comment Posted on Boards, Building Communities, Ecovillages, Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), Neos Delta Retreats, Organisations with Purpose, Worker Empowerment

Empowerment is the Only Way to Go.

 After thirty five years, I am back, full circle.  I saw this T-Shirt last week, worn by a worker on a  Fair Trade certified Banana Plantation,  employing 700 workers on a permanent full time basis in Ghana.  I was deeply moved by the T-shirt. Here is the story…

Forty year ago when working for De Beers Mines, just before the end of Apartheid, we formed the Limes Acres Discussion group,  a partnership between Mine Management and the National Union of Mine workers to explore post Apartheid South Africa.  It was part of the mine’s Strategic Five Year plan to empower and develop workers. 

 A Five Year Plan which changed so much for so manyThe Lime Acres discussion group were my first steps in discovering the power of people and what is possible through genuine collaboration, inclusion and focused dialogue. Well done Robin Mills, Rudolf De Beer, Godfrey Oliphant, Rupert Besent (deceased), Jeremy Wyeth and Archie Luhlabo.

As part of the Strategic Plan we started looking for leadership potential among workers.  The idea of finding potential in youngsters led to a venture much later in Australia aimed at identifying and developing young high potential individuals at risk youngsters. Thanks Kate Madden.

Looking for young high potentials who are at risk

With the march of time I became deeply involved in the business world.  Many of my clients were high tech financial services such as banks, insurance, ITC communications, and high profile individuals.  As we restructured, right sized, brought in hi-tech solutions and worked with elite talent pools,  I lost sight of worker empowerment.  

I forgot its critical importance for humanity’s development.  I fell into the trap of thinking trickle down economics worked, that the modern workplace had any other real interest then profits (market driven profit and short termism) and that technology would help solve the big problems of overpopulation, and climate change. 

However, let me give credit to some visionary CEOs and Chair who took the risk of shareholder displeasure with the bigger picture view.  It is a pleasure to have worked with Gareth Ackerman, Mike Hawker, Guy Winship and Prof Muhammed Yunus

Now as the debate shifts to AI, billionaire and fascist autocracy, climate change, plus conspiracy theories, workers become increasingly lost in the noise.

Time as a board trustee for the Global Eco village Network (GEN), helped restore reality.  I helped pioneer and market first world European eco-villages (Narara Ecovillage, Tasman Ecovillage) and made regular visits to Findhorn and Damanhur. I recall Kosha Joubert, then CEO of GEN saying there are millions of villages in the global South and North who are not first world, who needed help to reinvigorate their village and the rural landscape.  So sad all her work at the COPs to make Eco-villages center to rural generation failed due to leadership at the wrong level of complexity.

Full Circle

Protecting People at Work – 35 years ago this message was as relevant as today.

In 2022 the then Chair of Fairtrade International,  asked me to work with the board. This opportunity gave me a chance to visit workers in farms ranging from small producers to plantations.  Thank you Lynette Thorstenson and current Chair, Laurence Tainty.

I have just returned from a board meeting in Ghana and was privileged to visit farm workers near Accra and Kumasi.  It was here I saw the ‘Empowered Worker, Productive Worker‘ T shirt.  I heard from the workers first hand how Fairtrade’s certification has made a difference to their lives. I experienced this in Sri Lanka, Mexico and Kenya.

I do urge you to consider buying Fairtrade products, its direct action that helps workers. If your retail outlet doesn’t stock them. ask them to do so.  It gives workers dignity, opportunity and the ladder for self development, both for themselves and their communities.

In 2024 I formed Neos Delta with a circle of influential and caring friends.  Our aim is to foster long term thinking, empowerment and accountability to living our best lives.    That’s why we are run interesting and eclectic workshops for Boards who see different visions of the future,  Leaders who want to work with a Long View and for all of us, Living your Best Life.

Conclusion

If you are in the position of leverage, be it an organisation or a board, consider how you can make a difference to people’s lives and planet health.  If you are working for an organisation, choose one with a purpose for greater good.  It is not only rewarding, its empowering and provides a sense of greater purpose, both for you and workers.  Remember doing good is good business.

2 Comments Posted on Boards, Org Design, Requisite Enterprise, Systems Leadership

Time Span and Time Horizon? Logical Extensions – Elliott Jaques revisited.

Just to keep this simple,  the original concept of Levels (then called Strata) came from the work of Dr Elliott Jaques (EJ),  originally conceived  in the heyday of the factory and mass production.  This meta model has continued evolving over more then 70 years and now, it is more relevant than ever. Why?

Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity is the answer, plus climate change.  Not only corporate and governments MUST be accountable for long term planning and decision making, but all enterprises.  That means all prosumers (consumers and producers. (1)  It is not a luxury.  The 2.5 degree temperature rise is now the best scenario. As Harari says(2), ‘yet with all this information circulating at breathtaking speed, humanity is closer than ever to annihilating itself.’  Despoliation is unchecked.

Work Themes or Levels of Work (LoW), deals with increasing world in decision making.  It uses Time and Unique Value Adding as a differentiator between levels;.  This natural hierarchy is not about rigidity, power, control or prestige, the normal associated bullsh*t. 

Hand in hand with the Themes/Levels of Work, EJ used Time Span to sharpen the mind in order to estimate the work complexity involved.  He defined this to be the time to completion of the most complex task in a role… or the time that elapses before the Managerial Leader at the level above can see the completion of the task.  Thus work with similar time spans to completion belong in the same work theme/level of work complexity.

Very few people are able to think in long time –  we find making long term decisions really challenging and secondly, the market rewards short termism, measured by growth. Assistance is useful. Time span is a tool to help one think longer term.  It is  still a relevant measure as it’s about the complexity of work being undertaken in specific tasks. Consider it takes a few years to build a bridge, or to transform an enterprise using a new platform, or build an aircraft; yet it takes only a few months to sell real estate or half an hour for a dentist to fill a tooth. Yet it does not address consequences or impact.

What must be addressed for all goal directed work systems, is the issue of consequence or accountability for decision making. 

Not only internally, but to the broader community with which the enterprise impacts – directly or indirectly. That is tough.  How?  Returning to structure,  Time Span is a serious tool for gauging work complexity, but it is no dashboard of consequence once the task is complete. Technology has definitely impacted the relevance of Time Span in the first three operational work themes, while those at executive levels argue that it is impossible to plan longer term.  The best one can do is to build  organisational resilience.  This is a leadership fail, equivalent to fence sitting. 

While challenging, the impact of technology or short term market demands does not release us from accountability for thinking long term of consequences. 

 Time Span needs to be made more relevant to the current discourse of accountability. In practice, Time Span works well for operational roles, but becomes less relevant at the work themes of Corporate Citizenship (Level VI) and Corporate Prescience (Level VII).  In  Organisation Design (3)  I argued then that Time Span is no longer a fitting measure for work at the executive levels of enterprises or for state functions. 

Time Span is not about trying to envision the future.

Envisioning the impacts is referred to as the Time Horizon(4).

 A more suitable measure for these work themes is that of impact, namely Time Horizon.  I defined this in 2013 as;

“the amount of elapsed time before the outcome(s)  of the most complex decision can be confirmed.”

This by definition implies applying the mind systemically to envision all possible outcomes of the decision.  Time horizon may also be defined as: that distance into the future to which a decision-maker looks when evaluating the consequences of a proposed action.(4) This extends the functionality of the Time Span concept.  It allows for risk assessment by multiple stakeholders.  We should not do is confuse the terms. (5)  Jaques used Time Horizon to describe the individual future thinking capability. I have co-opted the term to use in planning and future envisaging, as a necessary extension to Time Span, as the onus now shifts to people, going beyond task completion.

 

What I struggle with is accountability.  How do you hold a board and CEO accountable for outcomes in a ten, twenty or thirty of forty year or more Time Horizon?  As we know, boards, CEOs and executive teams of large companies are not built for the long haul. How can they be accountable when we know with a 100% certainty they will not be there to answer for their decisions in as short a time as five to seven years?(5)

It is widely acknowledged that complexity of board work has grown.  A recent survey by Mckinsey & Company (6) of board members reported board members felt strategic activities require more active and regular board involvement. Examples were in the fields of linking strategy to purpose, assessing managements understanding of the drivers of value creation. The article was silent on long term consequences.

Accountability should be to stakeholders on the quality of thinking that made up the Time Horizon analysis.  Problem is of course, rewards are thin for long term thinking or planning.  So that leaves us in an uncomfortable place. Damned if we do, and damned if we don’t.

A practical answer is we need to assume responsibility for longer term thinking in our own Life;  how we work, how we consume, how we influence, our activism, how we vote. Secondly, if you are leader think longer, work in longer time, its a duty of human care. Its not a luxury any longer.  Governance needs to evolve to a point where Time Horizons become part of the boards compliance duty and requires stakeholder approval and shared accountability for the future.

Time Horizons are part of board governance.

 

Reference.

1. Tofler, Alvin., (1999).,  Third Wave.  refers to producers/consumers.

2 Harari, YN (2024)  Nexus.  page xx.  Prologue.

3. Olivier, Andrew.  Organisational Design. What your University Forgot to Teach You.  (2013)

4. I could not find this specific quote as the site was updated 21/07/24.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_horizon

5.  Confusing Time Horizons and  Time Span is fairly common, see Elliot Jaques’ Concept of Time-Horizon | xraydelta 

5. Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.  Average C suite tenure is 4.9 years and CEO 5- 7.2 years   August 4, 2023.

6.  Huber, C., Lund, Fritjhof., Spielman, N.,  Better together; Three ways to boost board-CEO collaboration.  Sept 25, 2024. Survey.

 

 

Leave a comment Posted on Life Purpose, Uncategorized

Spiritual Insights on the Camino

My vison

Spain.  June 2024. I had just walked the Camino and was sitting alone as a chill wind howled through the soaring, empty, sombre space of St James Cathedral in Santiago. Although I find religious spaces lack spiritual energy and are dark relics of a distant, unpleasant past, outside the buzz of the Camino De Santiago continued, the joy, tears, laughter of the three thousand pilgrims who arrive daily.

I sat there for over an hour, bum on that stony bench and thought about all the roads that had led me to this cold, dark place.  A strong spiritual awareness had pervaded my entire life journey: white magic, dark magic, manifestation and revelations, all have been present, but no, organised religion was not for me thank you. I decided to meditate.

While in that land of meditation limbo, I had a profound experience. It began with the Franciscan Cross, which represented the custodians of Christian sites in the Holy Land. It glowed golden yet dripping red.  A single word came to me. Discipline. Followed by other jumbled words which became clearer as I later sketched out my vision.

But the thing that was most clear was that my life was about to change.

Since stepping out of the MD role and becoming divorced, I had lurched from one thing to another.  Starting this, starting that, wanting to do this, oh no, rather that.  I had become undecided, vacillating, unable to commit, unable to follow through.  Now here, in the most unexpected place came the answer.  You know what to do. You have known for twenty-three years.

Act now. Be disciplined.

I also understood the why, the purpose of life.  The answer is surprisingly simple – it’s to actualise ourselves. Fully. That’s it.  Our work with people and their potential substantiates the view that we are all born with a desire to achieve our highest potential. We have a Sacred Pull, the deepest of deep needs.

I wrote to a group of special people I had come to know through my Working Journey. I asked a simple question, would you like to join me in a circle committed to making a difference?  A birthing circle for transformation, a midwife to the new. The answer was a resounding YES.

And so Néos Delta came to be, a global circle of talented people; authors, poets, CEOs, Chairs, entrepreneurs and healers, dedicated to assisting people to live their fullest lives and organisations to a resilient, people and planet friendly future..

I told my friend Graham about this experience.  He commented that once we clean our portals, so to speak, one never knows who or what may wonder in. The daily walking for a month was a spiritual practice and it did indeed clean my ‘spiritual portal’.  So, a piece of advice. I suggest doing a Camino if you are stuck or needing change in your life. Or join us at a Neos Delta retreat in 2025.

 

3 Comments Posted on Life Purpose

The Purpose of Life is deceptively simple…

Most struggle to answer the question what is the purpose of our life. The answer is actually simple – it’s to actualise ourselves. Fully. That is it. Deceptively simple. Our work with capability and that of the writings of many others, substantiate the view we are all born with a desire to fulfill our highest potential. Some call it a Sacred Contract, but lets leave that alone.

In order to do fulfill this simple directive, we have to consciously develop our WILL (to fulfill it). This is important. When we are off track, usually because of fear, disadvantage or ‘comfort’, we become out of sorts, restless, disappointed (Out of flow).

Actualizing (finding, staying in flow) requires dedication, commitment, determination, mindfulness and taking risk. Its being called to do what intuitively beckons us. That means action words of risking, loving, serving, growing, challenging, forgiving, blessing, caring, experimenting…….

The stronger you are, the more determined you are to follow your path, the better your quality of decisions become in the big picture. Don’t sweat the failures. Its part of the journey, a wonderful emergent journey, revealing itself through intuitions, hunches, opportunities, grace, synchronicity. If we consistently block these markers we lose direction, become stuck – unhappy/ frustrated/out of flow.

We develop our inner strength by having the WILL to consistently seek growth and actualisation of our highest potential. By doing this consistently, we become empowered. Some become ‘enlightened’ Follow your purpose. Live Life.

Wondering about next step ? Strengthen your WILL to actualise. Support someone else to do the same.

Leave a comment Posted on Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), Requisite Enterprise, Systems Leadership, UN SDGs

Scaled Systems Leadership

Gaia Asleep. Gouache on Paper. 30×27. 2020. Andrew Olivier

Network and Ecosystem Leadership

Is it possible to organise complex ecosystems to achieve a shared purpose?  Indeed is it possible to organise something which by nature is emergent, uncertain and comprised up of autonomous and semi-autonomous parts? Often with powerful agents? Are there clear guidelines that might help?

The questions this chapter seeks to answer.

  • What are the general principles of large systems design? For example – does a shared sense of purpose exist or is latent and requires articulation? What are the  activities taking place in the system and are they broadly understood?  
  • What are the characteristics of large systems leadership?  Achieving progress among diverse,  often conflicting part of a large scale systems requires different skills from those running an enterprise.

This chapter focuses on answering these questions using two specific examples; the global response to COVID 19, the other, an emergent, thriving global ecosystem of volunteers, committed to sustainable living.

Networks operate at different scales of complexity serving all manner of purpose.   For example, businesses operate a range of commercial networks serving diverse needs.  Behind networks sit organisational structures. Evolutionary trends now see  Agile, Platform and the multi dimensional enterprises emulating the principles of Systems Leadership.

Other networks exist for special interests, we know about terrorist networks and hear of the dark net.  Social media connect relationship networks, promote and organise specific causes (e.g #MeTo, Extinction Rebellion, BLM, Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street).  The internet has enabled the mushrooming of this online phenomena, while COVID 19 has enforced dependency. 

As networks scale in size, stakeholders, functionality and diverse purpose, ecosystems emerge around shared interests.  Accompanying scale, comes complexity, uncertainty, disruption, ambiguity, surprise and hyper-connectivity.  

Complexity. pencil on paper. A Olivier. 2020

Before addressing the two case studies of a pandemic and a voluntary global movement, the following observations are pertinent to the analysis;  

  • Shared purpose – the need to identify key players / stakeholders, activities, and nodes of development within the associated networks or larger ecosystem. Engaging stakeholders in creating common ground, shared purposes and domains of authority and accountability is necessary. This is a first step, accomplished through a helicopter view of mapping and collective learning. 
  • Leadership of scaled, social networks and ecosystems is different to leading an accountable goal directed business. Large scale systems leadership requires a different set of meta competencies to galvanize and orchestrate diverse stakeholders. 
  • Different tools for building collaborative leadership are required to build trust, advocacy and communication flows.  Top down command and control is not optimal because of systems complexities.   Tools which connect, engage and empower are critical. Understanding there is no master neuron, no one is in control or has complete authority is a fundamental mindset. Therefore leadership maturity and wisdom is fundamental.
  • Leveraging complimentary capacities to advance progress is essential and that is done by having clarity of vision and understanding it’s all up to us.
  • What’s going on in the System – Understanding the activities and developments within the ecosystem’s different networks is important.  By understanding stakeholder’s involvement and contributions, one can create empowering and autonomous conditions.  It is important for leadership to know what is going on rather than giving instructions. This is the requisite leadership at scale.
  • Leadership can cluster ‘what is going on or needs to be going on’ into one or more existing or emergent domains of work. This  allows the ‘chunking’ of activities into semi-autonomous parts. Through understanding the semi-autonomous nature of the parts, empowerment of local decision making, relevant information flows and distributed accountability and authority takes place.
  • Complex adaptive systems operate at different speeds and scales of complexity and thus have different design requirements. Activities (work) within the parts of the whole ecosystem can be grouped into Domains, regardless of purpose.
  • Understanding the nature of existing or emergent Domains of activities within large complex systems (think COVID 19, UNSDGS, global emergencies) allows for recognizing relevant accountabilities and authorities, information requirements and flow, empowerment and decision-making rights at all the different network levels, from local to strategic.

We call this Scaled Systems Leadership. This chapter seeks to explore network activation, activity chunking and systems leadership competencies.

Let us now turn to COVID19 and The Global Ecovillage Network…

Notes to this Extract

1. An ecosystem refers to multiple networks within an umbrella of shared interests.  Networks are regarded  as bilateral cooperation while ecosystems are multilateral – ie will work with anyone in the ecosystem. 

2. Andrew will be presenting a series of Masterclass sessions with the Singapore Institute of Management in 2021 and Requisite (as required by the nature of things) Leadership of Scaled Systems will be on the topics.

3. My thanks to Reos Partners for the invitation to their workshop in Geneva at the UN Innovation Lab in 2018, to David Nabarro and Peter Atkinson, for their input at the 4SD lab in France in 2018. Thanks to the GEN ecosystem (fellow trustees and network members), for gently showing me the real complexities/ challenges of consensus leadership. Also thanks to Gillian Stamp for taking EJ’s work from hard physics of design into the nuanced and messy world, now just being discovered in OD. All this has really formative in thinking about fractals of work activity at scale.

3 Comments Posted on Uncategorized

Doing Good is Good Business

The Bridge to the Future.. heaven or hell?

Doing Good is good business

How often do you hear these words?

I had an interesting meeting with the sustainability team at Pick n Pay in  Rondebosch, Cape Town.  I listened intently to what they were doing across a broad range of fronts; from making the company compliant with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), to applying sustainability principles, bringing young entrepreneurs and small suppliers into their huge value chains.  And integrating it all together under the new brand, People n Planet.   Like Coles, or Woolworths, or Tesco in the UK, Pick n Pay is a household home name to millions; and they do amazing work, assisting the communities they support.  Pick n Pay employs 52,000 across many African countries. 

The business conditions are tough. In South Africa the unemployment rate has recently hit 27%, an all-time high, with youth most at risk.  The same corrupt political party has, unbelievably,  been returned to power. Mind you, after seeing our own Australian elections, nothing surprises me.  So, President Ramaphosa, the country has high hope for you, after Zumagate and his gangster state. 

Raymond Ackerman, the PnP founder, has a philosophy of ‘Doing Good is good business’. It is a family run business and I have known their current chairman, Gareth Ackerman since 1995. Gareth is as passionate about ‘Doing good is good business’. He suggested I have the meeting with their Sustainability team.

At that meeting, I discussed the work of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) and many of its recent initiatives, stressing that the GEN culture is actually opposed to mass consumerism and market capitalism. So what are we doing NOW collaborating with business?  Simple, we have no other option to make changes quickly, other than collaborative effort.  And the maxim of doing good, is good business,. comes into play here.   Many forward thinking businesses are actively concerned about aligning with the SDGs to assure their futures.

New or more of the same harder?

I spoke about ecotourism and that at the UN conference in PNG in June where as part of a panel on sustainable tourism, I would talk about how we want to develop a value chain that is not build around the top brands. In fact the opposite.  GEN Oceania and Asia (GENOA) is putting together a unique value proposition; an ecotourism project,  that so far spans nine countries in Asia and Oceania.

GENOA is united in its desire to give people a beautiful, unforgettable and defining life experience.  We want to expose them to a different way of living, loving and learning. GEN has a beautiful culture that values individuals, the group and the community. It offers deeply memorable ceremonies and experiences, just waiting to be shared and learnt.  It values life experiences over material possession, and understanding of the journeys we all are required to make.

We want to take our guests into these exciting communities. Off the normal tourist path, the big name brands and the tight ecosystems that support them. Like Pick n Pay, we want to develop alternative value chains. Value chains or networks all working towards a resilient and exciting future.  Those who have joined our learning experiences, report it as being transformative.

Our social business model in turn help communities upgrade their own villages (meeting spaces, infrastructure, kitchens, accommodation, gardens), stimulate economic activity (local goods, education, tourism, cultural celebrations) and bring resources to regenerate. (environmental regeneration, food, energy, water security, social networking and cohesion).

But the ecotourism forms part of our larger Ecovillage Transition Programme.  This programme transitions traditional villages towards a sustainable future.  Most of the world still lives in small villages and communities.  We have signed a JV with Tower Insurance in New Zealand to work with communities in Fiji .  Doing good is good for business. 

With climate change, population growth and diminishing global capacity, sustainability is no longer a nice to have.  And that is why forward thinkers, like the insurance industry and some retailers understand the risks in the future. And take action.

GEN is present in South Africa, I explained.   With so many living in poverty and so many drawn to the city looking for work and a better life,  the call to action is HUGE.  I was gratified by the Pick N Pay team seeing the benefits of stepping into the future together on a different path. But as much as business needs to respond,  GEN who has so much to offer, also needs to organise for  a bigger future. It needs business and business needs it.

Some of the documented and positive outcomes of the Ecovillage Transition Programme is;

  • Eradication of poverty
  • Increased well-being
  • Food, water, energy security
  • Restoration of ecosystems
  • Strengthen social cohesion, systems of governance and management of conflict
  • Building accountable institutions
  • Gender equality
  • Improved education
  • Strengthen local economies and create employment
  • Cross sharing of principals and ideas to enrich both GEN and local communities
  • Sustainable living practices
  • Mitigation and preparation for impacts of climate change 
  • Awareness of and active supporters of the UN SDGs, their importance and relevance  and how these impact and are supported by the communities

Doing good is good business.

Gareth Ackerman
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Observations for High Potentials from Career Path Feedback

Read the article below first, then watch this abbreviated Career Path Appreciation feedback given to a high potential. You may want to watch as a refresher (if you have done a MCPA or CPA with me over the years) or are interested in how a practical example of the generic insights shared in this article.

During my career I have been privileged to listen to over one thousand people talk to me in depth about their Working Journey. I have heard how their journeys have unfolded; the wonderful times of flow and those times of stress and hardship. And of course, their hopes for the future.

My interviews have been over a diverse range of individuals, from the illiterate to those in high profile public leadership roles (even a Nobel Prize Winner). Here are some of my observations;

People GROW their Working Journey to fit their LEVEL of comfort.

By and large most people strive to actualise their potential as best they can. That is, until they reach a place where they become ‘comfortable’; a position that is then defended. Being ‘comfortable’ represents the known; where uncertainty becomes ‘manageable’; the known knowns and the known unknowns. ‘Comfortable’ is a complex idea, maybe its when we find balance and harmony in our different Journeys(1), or as Gillian Stamp says, ‘we become whole’. I also suspect it is when someone reaches their point of mature value adding (no further cognitive transitions) or they are adding value in a particular work theme over a long period of time. Balance, mastery and growth of knowledge, skills and experience become important, as is defending that ‘wholeness’ or sense of ‘comfort’

This ‘comfort’, or acceptance of a status quo is part of what I think defines a mid-life crises, although what constitutes mid-life in chronological age can vary considerably, but for most, its between 35 and 55 years of age. Trade-offs across the different Journeys is of course a pre-requisite for ‘comfort’.

For high potentials(2) the situation is usually very different, because they are driven by a deep need to add value (however defined) in increasingly complex ecosystems. This accelerates as they mature. Their level of comfort (and flow) is in almost continual flux for the bulk of their Working Journey. Stability quickly becomes stifling. Many follow unconventional and uncertain career paths, with rapid promotions, successes and sometimes crushing failures in the process.

Almost always, individuals with high capability (potential) find the feedback from this process really meaningful, because it provides a navigational aid to Life.

Why? It gives us predictive dates with destiny, it gives us symptoms of change to be on the alert for, it offers solutions or pathways to consider in our planing, it provides hope for the future and importantly, a light into the darkness of the future.

The process provides a rare insight into the Order that exists beneath everyone’s Journeys and specifically our unique Journey of the Self (1), (i.e. how our capability will unfold) that in turn, dictates the broad pathway of our Working Journey and the challenges we will need to actualise, to find flow. For high potentials, this is gold.

Don’t underestimate the power of your subconscious desires, they can often manifest, in real time, so spend the time being clear on what you actually want. Its a great investment.

The emergence of next steps during a transition period for many have direct connections to their background, experiences and what they value, passionately. Ideas and thoughts acts as attractors for desired opportunities. What was wished for strongly enough, often manifested. People reported clarity, consistency of thoughts and actions did manifested their hopes.

Conversely, if you have no vision, no passion, then what we manifest is a jumble, a confusion and increased uncertainty. The greater the clarity and hunger to achieve it, the clearer and more certain the outcomes.

We are in charge of our own Journeys. Mentors, a good HR function and an effective board can add immense value, but the truth of the matter is; your Working Journey is in your hands. High potentials realise this early on and embrace the fact.

A very useful tool is a journal. Those who adopt the use of making personal notes regularly say it allows for reflection, reminders and in hindsight, come to realise that putting thoughts into words, clarifies thinking. Some talked about defining moments, when they decided to take on risk to follow their passion(3).

Remember risk is the first step, without risk, nothing happens.

risk the ride…

Another observation is options are thin at the top end…life is challenging, especially for truly high potential individuals.

A significant percentage of those with capability to work in the Values Domain(4) tend to end up with work portfolios. For corporate individuals this may translate as finishing stints as CEOs (5) or as executive teams members. The next step is joining boards, as well as lending their support to one or more causes, campaigns and sometimes deferred pursuits (e.g academia, hobbies).

For others who have chosen different paths, the road for the majority seems more rocky and underutilisation becomes a real issue. Like those from the corporate world they manage a patchy portfolio of activities, but finding flow may be more of a struggle then those with a more conventional career ladder.

The evidence is actualisation depends on one’s desire to embrace Life. You MUST live your best life. Below is a summary I put together some years ago based on these interviews.(6)

In closing remember the words of Abraham Lincoln, “It is not the years of your life, but the life in your years” that counts. Remember and harken those words from Dylan Thomas poem“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’

————————————————————

Notes:

(1)Gillian Stamp. The Four Journeys.

(2) Definition of High Potential; ‘People with capability to grow cognitively and be in flow with the complexity of the work theme of Strategic Intent and beyond.’

(3) See Adizes, I. (1996) In Search of Prime, especially the sections on infants and go-go for understanding this Risk of setting up your own venture.

(4) Values Domain – Work themes of Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Prescience – work levels VI and VII.

(5) By CEO I refer to entrepreneurs, corporate leaders of profit and for purpose. They may be state based, national, multinationals or international.

(6) Sadly , I think this wonderful tool is in danger of vanishing.Why? Models not understood and complex, HR professionals unaware, not quick fix or bling, victim of high priests and poor management over decades; rigorous, expensive and time-consuming training.

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Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the APRA report – a Requisite Failing

APRA, Australia’s prudential regulator, recently released a scathing report on the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.  Coming in the midst of a Royal Commission into the Financial Sector, that has seen many in the financial services industry stumble, after the spotlight has been shone into their internal workings. The Australian Financial Review commenting on this report, said:

“The senior management were highly intelligent and collaborative (1) while the institution itself delivered financial success. By most measures, from return on equity to customer satisfaction it outscored its peers. Yet somehow this complex, but high-performing institution, has found itself the subject of one of the most scathing assessments of a corporation ever compiled.”

I want to dwell on the CBA and this report, as there are some important lessons to be learnt from an organisational design, operating model and leadership perspective. In the mid nineties CBA introduced Requisite Organisation – a meta model for structuring, organising and leading goal directed enterprises.  Requisite (as required by the nature of things) is the name given by Dr Elliott Jaques to a powerful set of models, constructs and practices for creating sustainable, transparent, goal directed (and felt fair) organisations.  This body of work has been supported by sound research and the work of many eminent scholars and public and private leaders.

Requisite has evolved over more then a half century, developing through theoretical changes and best practices usage globally.   That said, application is a different matter, and one needs to consider the culture into which it is being applied. If the principles become perceived as inflexible rules, and the practices and principles the domain of select specialists (when it is aimed at empowering managerial leaders),  the basics of felt fair and transparent leadership quickly become subverted into power politics and personal goals.  This has led to a poor image and damaged reputation, noticeable by publicized failures.  CBA was one of them(2).

In the mid 1990’s CBA introduced Requisite and this was used for a number of years, before being discarded.  I recall being on a plane to New Zealand with a senior executive from CBA who spoke about the autocratic, hierarchical style of management Requisite had created in the bank, while another person, could not bring themselves to mention the name because of the pain it has caused.  In contrast another employee at the time complained how the good work they had been doing had been curtailed, because it was seen as dismantling power fiefdoms.  Whatever the reasons, Requisite was dropped and its legacy was sadly tarnished.

Back to the APRA report and its findings; key issues identified at the CBA were the very issues that Requisite is designed to address. Requisite (or what we in WJ refer to as Requisite Enterprise) is about designing effective structure.  Firstly it needs the working spine – a vertical hierarchy of unique value adding work themes (or levels).  Consider this from APRA –

“Within CBA, the vertical lines of accountability that travel down business lines are generally well understood.”

Understanding a vertical reporting structure is very different from one that adds value in a unique way. Most vertical structure do not do this and this is validated by APRA’s comments re;

” a federated organisational structure that required but did not have clear roles and responsibilities for issues that spanned business units and a lack of collective and end- to-end accountability (Senior Leadership Oversight chapter)”

In Requisite, intent informs strategy which leads to structure. The complexity of the intent determines the number of work themes.  A quick glance at the graphic on proportion of staff in seniority in the AFR report, shows immediately one level too many.  This increases risk, blurs accountability, creates confusion, builds bureaucracy and results in a non value adding hierarchy.
Once structure and function is clear, role clarity becomes paramount; its what makes work fun, challenging, allows for ‘flow’ and delivers the intent. Coupled with role clarity is the commensurate authority to deliver on accountability and to make decisions.  This is where Requisite excels, it has the tools to do it well, individually or collaboratively. Consider the following from the APRA report:
“In the panel’s view, the focus on empowerment of individuals was not balanced with a corresponding focus on collective accountability”

If the vertical spine represents the skeleton, then the muscles, tendons and organs represent the functions, projects, teams and the systems of work.  They provide the ability to operate cross functionality, allowing coordinated goal directed actions, thus enabling value chains to work effectively.  Understanding how to make cross functionality work is well understood in the Requisite tool-set. Nowadays all organisation’s work cross functionally in flat agile structures, which require more then ever, for clear decision making authority and accountability to be spelt out. This is clearly a major fault at CBA as the APRA report makes clear;

“The Panel’s assessment, however, is that collective accountability across business lines has been poor. As a result, accountability in CBA has been, at best, opaque….The desire to move away from a past combative culture has led to some over-compensation in pursuit of collaboration. The result has been pockets of excessive consultation or consensus- driven activity, leading to slower decision making, lengthier processes and slippage of focus on outcomes. Referred to multiple times particularly by risk function staff, this type of behaviour has been at the expense of constructive challenge and cross-examination across the three lines of defence.”

Doing cross functional work correctly means risk management is build into the process.

Pendulums don’t stop midpoint.  Collaboration is necessary, as is the funding of purpose (via profit in private institutions) and these social memes of culture need to be understood and balanced.  Financial institutions appear by and large according to the Royal Commission of having done an appalling job in this regard.  CBA jumped from the blue and orange memes of culture(3) to those of internal green, (no one want to make a decision, everyone has to be consulted, collaboration on everything, trust in good intentions) while other parts of the business were low orange (unscrupulous profit drive). Healthy blue memes are needed for risk management (clarity around process, decision making rights, structure, accountability etc), while the yellow meme allows for discernment, balance and selecting what works with integrity.

” a cultural ‘mentality of trust’ and ‘over- consulting’, manifested in a lack of constructive challenge throughout the senior management levels and at the Board, and in bureaucracy diluting accountability” (highlighted in the Culture and Leadership chapter – a perfect example of the green meme);

Finally I see that leadership represents both the neural network and the brain, activating structure and function. It creates the culture and drives goal directed work.  Requisite offers an effective language to give meaning, leadership tools and practices that ensure a structure is fit for purpose and inhabited by people in flow. In other words, a healthy organisation.

In conclusion, I would like to leave you with the question, what might have been the outcome of this review if CBA had remained requisite? Perhaps by now it would be evolved into Requisite 3.0?  Evidence shows that once embedded, this operating model has supported companies for four or more decades, with regular refreshers and updates.  Like any sustainable operating system.(4)

Notes

(1) Requisite has three integrated strands; structure, leadership and people. Being highly intelligent and collaborative  is no recipe for success, but certainly an essential building block. What is also needed is understanding how to be an effective leader, being competent in the tools of the trade and  clear on what works needs to be done.

(2) Recently, when an executive team in an ASX top 100 was considering introducing Requisite for its 15,000 strong workforce, some of the team members cited the CBA failure as a reason not to do so.  Luckily this view did not prevail and this organisation, three years later, has hit many records, including employee engagement, market perception and share price performance.

(3) Memes are packets of culture, like genes. Memes represent dominant societal values and these are reflected in organisational cultures.  First articulated by Dr Clare Graves and called Spiral Dynamics by Dr Don Beck, they have recently been made popular by Frederick Laloux in this book ‘Teal Organisations’

(4) The fact that the CBA had a Group CEO leadership change during implementation may also have been problematic. Research has shown that for Requisite to deliver long term benefits, it needs to survive the first CEO transition successfully. This happens through culture, systems of work and daily practices.