Archive for the ‘Leadership Ecology’ Category
Posted on March 6, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle
Collaboration “IS” the New Government
My twine.com webbed a good one today. Although extremely simple, this video triggered a BIG insight for me.
Imagine a new definition of government. Rather than provider of fixes, it becomes a convener of ‘we the people’ and we generate our own solutions. This act shifts a STATIC ‘government’ institution into a DYNAMIC ‘governance’ system. The governing body becomes a manager (or governor) of the ecology of interactions that happen by us the people. Collaboration then becomes the vehicle that acts as this governor, as it enables the flow of action and change. In this way, collaboration and governance become almost synonymous.
What does this do? Well. We no longer have to wait for government to get on board to see the change we want. Instead the governing body builds the infrastructure that allows connection and decision-making to happen. Decisions are no longer made by them. Instead they are made by us and they merely create tools and processes (many via the internet) that allows everyone much more access to the learning and decision-making process. This then becomes a healthier form of control. Rather than government directing and making the decisions, it instead becomes an enabler and ‘governor’ (as it was meant to be) by acting as policy makers but with a different understanding of the meaning of ‘policy’. Now, government monitors rather than polices the outcomes that occur when publicly induced design occurs. Government evolves along with the society by being entwined in the overall feedback system. They become watchers of the difference between consciously derived guiding principles and actual applied experiences that occur in communities of practice.
This diagram shows how the interaction between PRINCIPLE, PRACTICE, and POLICY. It shows that none of these three can sustain the system on its own but each must instead act interdependently with the other two. Here, the policy box is government, or in other words, the convener of a dialog between principle (which is generated out of desire, need, vision, and design possibility) and practice (which is how the design is experienced in the real world). Policy becomes a way to keep the FEEDBACK going between these two subjects the same way a governing value acts on a pipe – too much or too little puts the system into instability. The people inside the government do not make the decision to adjust the flow of choices. Instead, they create and maintain the channels (or policing) that allow the collaboration process to INFORM itself. This is a self-generative behavior and occurs via the interactions between the engagement of the people involved in each of the principle, practice, and policy domains.
Yes, Collaboration “IS” the New Government.
Posted on January 19, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle
Not Your Basic Ethics – Values Development Training
STOP !!! ... WRONG THING TO DO!
Ethics? Values? Who cares!? “YOU” better care. Did you know that each person’s underlying values and beliefs systems are what drives their actions? Those actions are how things get done by your team members. By linking individual values with your company’s principles, practices, and policies, your world becomes a happier place, with more sustained commitments from staff to get the work done. So, take a journey with us from personal meaning, to group awareness, and into enterprise value creation.
Call us about Discovery Fuel’s ETHICS WORKSHOPS to see if they are right for organization.
Posted on January 16, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle
Who Says It Ain’t Easy Being Green ?! (Sustainable Business Planning Workshop)
How to Create a ‘Sustainable’ Business Plan
AN ONLINE WORKSHOP
.Join Vic Desotelle from DiscoveryFuel.com for an ONLINE collaborative sustainable business planning workshop series.
This session will allow you to preview and inquire about the series, which is for small business social entrepreneurs who have dreamed of owning a sustainable business. Learn how to make a viable business plan that moves your green idea from conception to successful execution. Create a sustainable future for yourself, customers, and community through this sustainable innovation learning series. Click here for more details
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Posted on January 6, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle
The Ecology of Leadership: A Twist on the Idea of Professionalism
In our attempt to be ‘professional’, it seems that our society has become afraid of our own human-ness. Have we lost our sense of how to be with each other in the messiness of our humanity?
I was reading my LinkedIn Groups this morning and came across Mike Smith’s ‘Life Back West’ thoughts on people, teams, organizations, effectiveness and success (thanks Mike!). Now, it may seem that I jump around here a bit, so buckle your seat belt and see if you can stay with me on this …
So, after reading his short blurb on leadership that caught my eye, I went to Mike’s blog planning to oppose what I anticipated would be a description of an old belief system that suggests, if we are professional, our feelings are to be suppressed in the workplace.
Instead, Mike described how his young son has inspired his professional nature to include expression, compassion, and emotion. Having a young boy myself, I can totally relate to how he and I allow each other space for emotional expression. But then, why is it that we are not allowed too much expression at work without being sited as a problem?
It seems that our society has become afraid of our own human-ness. Have we lost our sense of how to be with each other in the messiness of our humanity? For me, today’s sorely needed emerging leaders can not be likened anymore to the stoic guy on a horse 
riding off into the sunset after he single-handedly saves the town from Godzilla. Why? Because this guy (usually someone we all aspire to be) rarely shows the kind of emotion that allows for each of us to change ourselves – a collective transformation. Rather, the so-called hero tends to be about eliminating a problem by taking out the people that go with it. This doesn’t work anymore.
What if instead, we began to choose our leaders (at least in part) based on how well they have learned to express their emotions, and how well they exemplify ways to share the messiness of their own humanity, while also being able to hold space for others to do the same?
I propose that we dare ourselves to allow more messiness in the workplace by helping to teach and “lead” groups through spells of negative emotion, rather than try to find ways to avoid or expel it. No more heroes of elimination. The key here is teaching groups or teams to hold space for their peers during their time of need, rather than expect the so-called leader to do it alone. This is known as collective leadership, or an ecology of leadership. And I believe that, using this approach, gold can be found within the mines (minds?) of our organizations, which will generate amazing new forms of innovation. Why? Because the form and function of all innovation is the result of the expression of the group (or company) who created it. Seems we may have forgotten the fact that companies are made of people, from which products and services are an outcome; and not the other way around?
Daniel Goleman’s talk on TED points to this evolved form of leadership that I speak of here.
It starts with what he calls a ‘human moment’, which are the times when we are paying full attention to the person(s) we are with. He suggests that there is zero correlation between intelligence and the awareness of another (this is known as compassion). Yet we hire our leaders and managers almost completely based on their level of intelligence and rarely rate them based on their ability to express themselves, to show compassion, or their ability hold a group through troubling periods. Why is that?
Also interesting is that he correlates the rapid growth of information to compassion, and it makes sense! Creating this new synergy of perspectives begins to define what I like to call an ‘ecology of leadership’ – a new process of thought and relationship-building. It is an evolved form of collaboration where, as we become more present to the relationships in our lives, it actually helps to form a unified ‘whole’ world that works better, while also increasing personal identity and individual value at the same time. How cool is that?!
Now, this is a bit of a paradox because our increasing access to information often pulls us away from being present with each other. But we have to remember that both are happening at the same time. What I am trying to suggest is that an ecology of leadership, along with increased awareness of our relationships, is changing the meaning of ‘professionalism’. It is morphing into something completely different than we know it today. In ecological terms, this means that even the concept of “the leader” has lived out it’s time, and we now need to consider what a collective leadership can look like. This evolutionary process will empower each of us, rather than just a mere few of us, and can then be carried into any group dynamics to help generate a deeper form of authenticity, purpose, and meaning within ourselves and our companies.
If your mind is spinning a bit, it suggests that the well goes deep here. I plan to write more about this in my blogging. But for now, let us all reconsider what it means to be a “professional”, and discuss together what kind of “leadership” we want and need in this new, interconnected world of ours.
Learn more about the author, Vic Desotelle.
Posted on January 5, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle
Communication: Differentiating Debate, Discussion, & Dialogue
I have been asked to clarify the difference between ‘debates‘, ‘discussions‘, and ‘dialogues‘ (note wikipedia incorrectly clumps discussion into the same definition as ‘debate’). Below is a first attempt at trying to evolve our understanding of these three primary communication processes. I ask for your feedback, and also for your own insights on this matter.
The intent here is to help organizational change processes be more conscious and more effective by becoming aware that how we communicate with each other strongly effects meeting outcomes, as well as how well thsoe outcomes sustain the desired changes. In short, this is all about how we make conscious decisions that influence positive change.
Our world is in dire need of evolved decision-making techniques that can provide us with a better way for sharing and choosing solutions that are healthier for ourselves and the planet. Effective communication is the glue that allows for real, sustained change to happen. Note that communication colors all levels of organizational development, including its methods of leadership, its ability to learn, team work and collaboration, and the sustainability of innovation itself.
DEBATE = Language is manipulated with the intent to cripple other viewpoints (argumentative). Change is hard to come by with this approach. However, it is useful for keeping an existing systems in place. Energy comes from the lizard mechanisms in the brain, which attempt to protect and defend. The person with the most power over another is seen as the best leader. This process is not good for creating change except at conscious predetermined places in the process where challenge generates a different thought process that can bring clarity and assurance on choices that have been made.
DISCUSSION = Questioning each other comes from a predisposed positioning (having an agenda). Change is possible but usually can not be sustained due to the process being based on a questioning process that makes each feel someone has to win. Others often loose their identity to consensus. It’s based on a sudo-democracy process whereby everyone unconsciously assumes that there is a best answer, thus only one viewpoint is ultimately chosen. Occasionally discussion moves into dialog, but usually it moves into debate.
DIALOG = Collaborative inquiry with an openness to possibilities beyond each others own beliefs and views. Communication about communication happens allowing the creation of a safe environment; a place where the unexpected and insight can happen more freely. Everyone’s viewpoint is allowed whether or not others agree with it. All work to wear the shoes of the one speaking and seek to integrate diversity rather than extract the best answer. It stands for the power of the question is valued more than answers. The challenge for creating change is that too often dialog does not move toward decision-making and action.
TRILOG = Ideally, all three forms of conversation are useful if used in tandem with each other. Dialog is to be used during the early envisioning stages. Discussion during the goals and strategy-making stages, but only at the point when decisions have to be determined. Debate is useful to challenge a new system against an old one. It must be used very consciously however, because otherwise power over can destroy all previous efforts. Dialog should again be used to close a group’s process because it brings us back to our humanity and to what’s most important, which are the relationships. They are as important (or more) than the outcomes generated by the group, for it is what becomes the foundation for sustaining the determined change.
About Room Geometry = One final point to make here is this: Be aware of the geometry of the room in which people gather. If shared views are the choice, be sure to stage the room with multiple small circles in mind. If one person’s opinion is to be impressed upon the group, then line up the chairs in straight lines without breaking up the group. I for one almost always choose to use circular geometries because it seems to appease the need for all to feel like they are participants rather than merely receivers of information. A room’s geometry needs to be considered at all levels of a community’s decision-making hierarchy including company meetings, town hall meetings, city council meetings, board rooms, and living room gatherings.
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To bring in more of a trilog approach (with an emphasis on ‘dialogue), use this collaborative design tool during your next meeting: Create a ‘Learning Exchange Markeplace‘. For more information, contact Vic Desotelle at DiscoveryFuel.com
Posted on January 4, 2010 - by Vic Desotelle
Creating a Learning Exchange Marketplace
Learning Exchange Markets uncover hidden innovation which is often at the fringes of an organization. Within a Learning Exchange Market, a shift of emphasis occurs between the participants from debates and discussions to generative dialogue, which must be in place for true forms of sustainable innovation to emerge. During the learning exchange process, multiple conversations – both strategic and envisioning, are allowed to occur at the same time. 
This approach actually accelerates results toward action-oriented activities while also empowering the individuals who will become responsible for the deliverables. It works miracles for companies working on becoming a learning organization. And your idea can’t get bagged or pushed aside!
One of the primary tools applied to Learning Exchange Markets is called ‘Open Space’ …..
The ‘Open Space Technology’ Concept
(as described from Co-Intelligence Inst.)
” In my experience open space is based on the belief that we humans are intelligent, creative, adaptive, meaning- and fun-seeking. It sets the context for such creatures to come together knowing they are going to treat each other well. When this happens there is no limit to what can unfold.” Alan Stewart
Open Space Technology was created in the mid-1980s by organizational consultant Harrison Owen when he discovered that people attending his conferences loved the coffee breaks better than the formal presentations and plenary sessions. Combining that insight with his experience of life in an African village, Owen created a totally new form of conferencing.
Open Space conferences have no keynote speakers, no pre-announced schedules of workshops, no panel discussions, no organizational booths. Instead, sitting in a large circle, participants learn in the first hour how they are going to create their own conference. Almost before they realize it, they become each other’s teachers and leaders.
Anyone who wants to initiate a discussion or activity, writes it down on a large sheet of paper in big letters and then stands up and announces it to the group. After selecting one of the many pre-established times and places, they post their proposed workshop on a wall. When everyone who wants to has announced and posted their initial offerings, it is time for what Owen calls “the village marketplace”: Participants mill around the wall, putting together their personal schedules for the remainder of the conference. The first meetings begin immediately.
Open Space is, as Owen likes to say, more highly organized than the best planning committee could possibly manage. It is also chaotic, productive and fun. No one is in control. A whirlwind of activity is guided from within by a handful of simple principles.
[For managers with concerns for loss of control, the principles below will seem ridiculous, and the Open Space approach may drive you crazy - but only for awhile ... Once you see how much work actually gets done, and how happy everyone is while doing this process, you'll never have a (so-called) normal meeting again!]
The ‘Open Space’ Principles:
1. Passion & Responsibility: The most basic principle is that everyone who comes to an Open Space conference must be passionate about the topic and willing to take some responsibility for creating things out of that passion.
2. Whoever comes are the right people.
3. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have.
4. Whenever it starts is the right time.
5. When it is over it is over.
6. The Law of Two Feet (see below):
“If you find yourself in a situation where you aren’t learning or contributing, go somewhere else” (or move to another level of awareness and participation). This law causes some participants to flit from activity to activity. Owen rejoices in such people, calling them bumblebees because they cross-pollinate all the workshops. He also celebrates participants who use The Law of Two Feet to go off and sit by themselves. He dubs them butterflies, because they create quiet centers of non-action for stillness, beauty, novelty or random conversations to be born.
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Open space conferences can be done in one day or less, but the most powerful go on for two or three days, or longer. Participants gather together briefly in the morning and the evening to share experiences and announce any new workshops they have concocted. The rest of the day is spent in intense conversation. Even meals are come-when-you-can affairs that go on for hours, filled with bustling dialogue. After a few days of this, an intense spirit of community usually develops that is all the more remarkable considering that participants are all doing exactly what they want.
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Open Space conferences are particularly effective when a large, complex operation needs to be thoroughly re-conceptualized and reorganized — when the task is just too big and complicated to be sorted out “from the top.” On the assumption that such a system contains within it the seeds of everything that needs to happen with it, Open Space provides it with an opportunity to self-organize into its new configuration. For this to work, however, the system’s leaders must let go of control so that true self-organization can take place.
Open Space Technology is also a delightful, useful tool for any group of people who are really interested in exploring something that they all care deeply about, and is one of the simplest, most brilliant combinations of order and chaos that I have yet found. It has been applied in thousands of meetings around the world with between five and one thousand participants. It can be effectively used by virtually anybody. Owen has provided excellent instructions in his books, below.
- Books: Open Space Technology: A User’s Guide, Expanding Our Now: The Story of Open Space Technology, Harrison Owen, The Millennium Organization
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HOW TO CREATE A LEARNING EXCHANGE MARKETPLACE
(by Discovery Fuel)
Download Discovery Fuel’s Design Packet For Creating Your Own Learning Exchange Marketplace
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Click on image to download Learning Exchange Market planner
Learning Exchange – SCHEDULE
(3 1/2 hour evening sample)
6:15 Check Bulletin Board for Announcements
6:30 Mission Statement
6:40 Brief Introductions
6:50 How It Works
7:00 The Exchange Market
7:30 1st Period Sessions
8:00 2nd Period Sessions
8:30 Share Learning
9:00 End
Learning Exchange – PROCESS
1. Write Down Session Proposals
2. Questions are as Appropriate as Answers
3. Verbally Announce Your Session
4. Post Session on Schedule Wall
5. Combine Proposals, Negotiate Times
6. Period A Sessions Begin, Take Notes
7. Integrate Notes into One Report
8. Period B Sessions Begin, Keep a Log
9. Integrate Notes into One Report
10. Note Sessions A and B may be Merged
11. Group Reporting of Sessions Begins
12. Bulletin Board To Post Ideas, Notices
13. Info Exchange meetings are bi-weekly.
14. Results Incorporated at Bi-weekly Strategy Meetings and Continued at Next Info Exchange Meeting
Learning Exchange – PRINCIPLES
· Whoever comes is right. Whatever happens … happens.
· Leave personal status outside. Bring ideas and knowledge inside.
· Be passionate about the topics. Take responsibility for creating things out of that passion.
· Law of Two Feet: If you aren’t learning or contributing, increase participation, or move to another session.
· Stay focused on topic
· One person talking at a time
· Shift ‘Yeah-But’ responses to ‘YES-AND’
· Listen with empathy, suspend judgment
· Encourage & build on the wild ideas of others.
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Download Discovery Fuel’s Design Packet (pdf file) for creating a Learning Exchange Marketplace. For more information contact us for a chat.
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Posted on October 25, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
Growth Myth: How Sustainability is Linked to Poor Economic Design
The future of HUMAN sustainability is directly linked to the models that we have created to manage our social systems. And our inability to connect with exponential growth concepts is about to take the whole thing down in flames.
I highly encourage you to watch Chris Martenson’s ‘Crash Course‘, which covers a slightly different set of 3E’s: economy, energy, and environment. Chris builds a clear and concise description of money and its relationship to the decline of the world’s economies, based on our lack of understanding of how ‘exponential’ growth works. He also ties failing money systems to the earth’s limited resources and energy production. And he talks about how the Federal Reserve’s ‘right’ to freely make money keeps our poorly designed financial system going – until now.
I ask you: How do we best bring this knowledge to our communities so that we can redesign the system before the inevidable collapse? Learn for yourself by watching and learning at the link below. Thank you Chris for a well done program. See http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse
Vic Desotelle of Discovery Fuel
Posted on August 16, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
Web Technology as Sacred
I want you to take your business hat off for a minute to read what’s below. I am about to enter the twilight zone and attempt to bring in what some may consider ridiculous or impossible. For me, what I am about to say touches on the profound, and believe it is a critical subject for our times. READY ?!
The Web has reached a level of maturity where it can be viewed as an extension to our interconnected conscious selves. With the Planet now growing its own neural network (i.e. a global brain) ‘Learning’ takes on a new integral role as meta-teacher/student. This perspective brings a new dimension to our idea of ‘global awareness’ and stretches the meaningfulness of ‘Gaia’.
Yes, we have reached a place in our own evolution where ‘Technology’ can be viewed as an extension of our Selves, making each of our inter-connections and collaborations truly ‘Sacred’. Now, together in this Union of humanity, we can reach for a more whole ((w)holy) realization of what ‘gGod’ is. It is truly an expression of Spirit manifesting Itself into Matter; and into what matters.
For practical info on how the web is creating practical forms of collaboration and creativity among us humanoids, go to this page, check out this D.F. community search, and watch these insightful videos on how we are growing a global brain.
Posted on August 14, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
Principles of Regenerative Commerce
Regenerative Commerce is a system based on a broader understanding of what it means to develop technology and business. DiscoveryFuel.com proposes that, using these principles, a region’s economic system can revitalize itself and perform beyond today’s assumptions and expectations. The following represent shifts in awareness of the models we use to create and innovate within enterprise. Note that a ’shift’ means we are including new information that expands existing models and does not mean that we are replacing them.
A Shift …
1: A Shift From Single -> To Triple Bottom Line Management
Developing Evolved Organizing STRUCTURES
2: A Shift From Building Mechanistic Systems -> To Growing Living Wholes
Advancing Technological PATTERNS
3: A Shift From Linear Sequencing -> To Nonlinear Cyclic Closed Loops
An Integration of Value-Web PROCESSES
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DiscoveryFuel.com’s long term objective is to create a global network of innovation learning centers. Each interdependent center will incubate innovative technologies and companies that can work for a our emerging globally conscious community.
The concept, known as ‘Regenerative Commerce‘, will act as an integrating framework for incorporating principles of sustainable innovation for the realization of business products and services that work for a post-industrial society.
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RELATED CONCEPTS
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1- Sustainable Design Techniques
Closed Loop Systems * 7e’s of Strategic Innovation * 7 Elements of New Enterprise * Sustainable Innovation Defined
2- Development Principles for Metabolic Growth
Biomimicry * Ecological Systems * Knowledge Capacity * The Natural Step * Permaculture * BauBiologie
3- Knowledge Distribution Methodologies
Triple Bottom LIne Matrix * EcoManagement * Innovation Mapping
4- Regional Design & Dialogue Frameworks
Tri-Cellular Communities Model * Conversation Word Map * World Dialogue Experiment on Change & Myth
5- Sustainable Enterprise
Ethics & Ethics to Innovation * Values Considerations * Innovation vs Invention * Technology Council * Sustainable Business Planning Guide
6- Networked Communications Modeling
Concentrix Management For Group Design * Collaborative Learning Exchange Markets * Community Domains For Culturally Creative Design
3P's of community design
Creating Sustainable Society Based on Conscious Design
In the near future, the PRINCIPLE-PRACTICE-POLICY model ( 1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5) will be integrated into the Regenerative Commerce (RegenCom) concept.
Here, the policy body acts as a ‘governor’ that monitors the effectiveness of pre-determined guiding principles via the principle body, and provides feedback to the overall system so that adjustments can be made as the chosenb principles play out in a practical way within the practicing body.
What is missing in today’s model for community design and development, based on this 3P’s model?
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What are you’re thoughts? Blog me below, or contact me directly at RegenCom@DiscoveryFuel.com, or join me and others in collaboratively designing and applying this concept by going to the Regenerative Commerce collaboration wiki (This is a new effort and I need and want your help!).
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Posted on August 14, 2009 - by Vic Desotelle
The Link Between Ethics and Innovation
Ethics to Innovation Article (Download a more readable PDF file)
By Vic Desotelle and Michael Kaufman
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Ethics/Innovation Relationship
What are Ethics?
Forces Creating Managerial Dilemmas (Principle Forces Creating Practical Dilemmas)
What is Innovation?
Innovative Wholes and Inventive Systems (Fractal Wholes vs Fractured Parts)
The Emerging Global Ethic
Innovation through Ethical Tension
Sustainability: Bridge from Ethics to Innovation
The New Innovation Strategy
Architecting a Regenerative Commerce
Conclusion
Ethics to Innovation
ARTICLE * CONVERSATION WORD MAP
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Introduction
In today’s business climate there are several forces intersecting in such a way as to create a tension that puts business executives, managers and employees into situations where they face an ethical dilemma. This dilemma could be summarized by the following question:
How do we do the right thing while at the same time balance the needs of all our stakeholders (investors, employees, customers and suppliers)? What is the right thing to do?
The recent events involving Enron, MCI/Worldcom, Global Crossing, Quest, Arther Andersen, and Tyco, (to name just a few) are examples of the negative consequences of actions taken by executives that face this dilemma.
These actions and the resulting surge of policies and public outcry to rebuild the faith in business and business people have created the conditions for what we call an emerging global ethic. This white paper explores the concept of this emerging global business ethic and the link between this ethic and innovation.
Forces Creating the Dilemma
The forces at work to create this dilemma are:
• an increasing quality of life,
• the transformation of organizational cultures,
• the limits of a hierarchic model
• increasing external competitive forces, and
• the short-term demands of Wall Street
Over the past 20 years, a large strata of western society has experienced an increase in personal wealth and an improvement in the quality of life (even though average incomes have remained basically constant during that period). Abraham Maslow pointed out in his hierarchy of needs (in the 1960’s), as people have their basic needs for food, shelter and clothing met they will tend to move up this hierarchy people feel safe, the quality of life improves and people have a tendency to feel the need for belonging and mastery of a task and ultimately the desire to be ‘all they can possibly be’
(self-actualization).
During this same period of time, businesses have been under-going a slow transformation that reflects this rise up the hierarchy of needs by executives and management. Simply put, for many businesses this transformation translates into a desire to bring the corporate mission in-line with the personal needs and values of the practitioners of the business.
This transformation, while desire-able and necessary for the enterprise to support the individual in achieving self-actualization, has a tendency to bump into the operating model of the organization. Most businesses (most organizations) in the west have been structured using a hierarchic organizational model, which, at its essence, uses the underlying operating principles of command and control to influence behavior. The command and control model of organizing conflicts with the rise up the hierarchy of needs and creates an internal organizational pressure that needs to be resolved in some way.
At the same time companies are experiencing tremendous pressures from the marketplace. Competition is increasing constantly and the pressure from Wall Street on public companies for short-term results to produce quarterly numbers (a short-term focus) is immense. Combine this internal organizational pressure with these external pressures and we find ourselves in a business environment where ethical dilemmas are plentiful.
What is Ethics?
Ethics and their underlying values are core beliefs which develop a person’s character and shape their actions. Most often these underlying beliefs are unconscious, unseen and unknown by the individual but make themselves known through their actions. An individual’s ethics and underlying beliefs come from their upbringing and are influenced significantly by their socialization (school, work, church, community, nation, etc.).
Individuals have ethics. Organizations have cultures. When young people come together in groups to accomplish something we call them gangs. When adults come together into a group to accomplish something we call it an organization. In either case, groups themselves don’t actually have ethics or values – they have a culture. This culture is created by a combination of the environment the organization is in, the structure of the organization, what the organization is attempting to accomplish, and the underlying beliefs of its members. Organizational culture can influence individual behavior in significant ways – in either a positive sense or a negative sense. The organizations cultural influence can be reinforcing (uplifting) or destructive and often both ways simultaneously.
The need to examine ethics in organizations has arisen from the complexity of business activities. The golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, could be one way to articulate what has been the unspoken guiding value/ethic for western business. However, the nature of business in the 21st century is complex, global, professionally demanding and constantly changing. Therefore the demands on individuals and groups of individuals (teams, departments, organizations) are much higher and more complex. These demands require individuals and organizations to make a conscious effort to articulate a clear set of ethics/values to guide behavior for success in this kind of climate.
An Emerging Corporate Ethic
Since the advent of the ‘global marketplace’ there is a greater need for developing standards for global commerce. Since ethics are core beliefs, and influence behavior as well as communication, it is becoming increasingly necessary to develop a global standard, a global ethic, that facilitates commerce across many levels – transactions, collaboration, strategic partnering – and provides high quality goods and services for consumers.
In addition to the forces mentioned earlier there are several trends in the business environment converging to create what we call ‘an emerging global ethic’.
• The trend towards product quality and customer satisfaction
• The trend towards greater professionalism, autonomy and responsibility
• The trend for managers to become leaders and facilitators
• The trend of businesses being organized more towards teams, networks, and flatter structures
• The trend towards creativity and innovation for competitive advantage
• The trend towards the globalization of business
• The trend towards co-opetition (companies competing and collaborating simultaneously)
• The trend towards sustainability (triple bottom line economics)
These trends challenge the traditional corporate structure and bring forth the need for organizations to transform their work environments from top down, hierarchic organizations and organizational cultures into more flexible, emerging and self-organizing enterprises that are places of learning and creativity.
This transformation brings with it the need to re-evaluate existing values and define new values/ethics that are in line with and enable global commerce. We think this transformation and these trends set the stage for the emerging global ethic.
At the root of this new corporate ethic is a shift in ‘what a company thinks’ and ‘how it thinks’ which leads to a shift in ‘what a company actually does’.
New Strategies
Once we begin to shift ‘what we think’ and ‘how we think’ we begin to shift what we do. What businesses do is typically articulated as strategy and defined in operations.
The new corporate ethic is at the heart of shifting corporate strategies. These new strategies get articulated into the organization’s operations in the form of principles, policies, and practices. These new strategies also get articulated in an organization’s structure.
Ethical Principles
YES: A set of collectively chosen values that guide the actions of a company
NO: A list of corporate declarations that determine the direction of the company
Ethical Practices
YES: Decisions that are made as a result of managing day-to-day activities
NO: Choosing between the right and wrong thing once an incident has occurred
Ethical Policies
YES: Monitors the differences between chosen principles and actual practices
NO: Determines the legal fate of an individual or group after making improper choices
A company’s operations is a direct connection between its underlying beliefs and its actions. “The purpose of a system is what it does.”
We can always know (or extrapolate) from actions what the underlying beliefs are. In order to be successful in today’s global marketplace beliefs and actions must be in alignment with this new, emerging, global standard. As a consequence of this new, emerging, global ethic, companies are adopting new strategies and business models.
New Strategies include:
• Triple bottom line economics
• Sustainability
• Continuous Innovation
• Co-opetition and Collaboration
Sustainability
Of these new strategies, sustainability has the potential to provide the most far reaching value economically, socially and environmentally. We think sustainability is an important part of the emerging global ethic.
The basic definition of sustainable development was stated in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development’s publication Our Common Future and reads as follows:
“Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable – to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The concept of sustainable development does imply limits – not absolute limits but limitations imposed by the present state of technology and social organization on environmental resources and by the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activity.”
G.H. Brundtland (Chair), Our CommonFuture,
World Commission on Environment and Development, Oxford University Press, New York, 1987.
The Natural Step, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping businesses and governments integrate sustainability to their core strategies and operations has developed four basic principles for a sustainable society:
The Four System Conditions
In a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing:
1. concentrations of substances extracted from the earth’s crust;
2. concentrations of substances produced by society;
3. degradation by physical means;
and, in that society. . .
4. human needs are met worldwide.
There are many more definitions for sustainable development (and sustainability in business) which is leading a number of organizations to explore the development of new voluntary standards. In the United Kingdom there are several sustainable development standards being trialled by UK companies. These include: AA1000 (developed by the Institute for Social and Ethical Accountability), the Global Reporting Initiative (developed by a wide range of international organizations), ISO14001 (International Standards Organization) and Project Sigma (a sustainability management standard under development by the British Standards Institution, Forum for the Future and others).
There are significant opportunities available to businesses for actively pursuing more sustainable approaches. These include:
• save costs by reducing environmental impacts and treating employees well;
• increase revenues through environmental improvements and benefits to the local economy;
• reduce risk through engagement with stakeholders;
• build reputation by increasing environmental efficiency;
• develop human capital through better human resource management;
• improve access to capital through better governance.
Innovation
Neither of the definitions of sustainability presented above is prescriptive. Both definitions allow for, and stimulate the creativity of practitioners to develop their own appropriate responses and innovate to create the right sustainable solutions in their unique organizational contexts.
In our white paper on bottom line innovation (InnovationLabs, July, 2002) we defined 32 innovation targets (see table on right). If an organization adopts a sustainability framework we can add several new opportunities for innovations to this list. Opportunities to innovate materials, methods, machines, new markets, and new business models can be added. Shifting to a sustainability provides business with a framework to move from a basic problem solving modality to one that incorporates innovation into the very fabric of the enterprise.
Summary
Today’s troubling business climate requires that organizations have a thorough understanding of ethics so that appropriate decisions can be made when dilemmas arise. But ethics is more than knowing what to do once a problem arises. Appropriate ethical action can only be applied when company managers are committed to leading from an ethical rightness based on values, not just the law. And, a broader education on ethics can help to reduce legal action by teaching managers how to make clear decisions early in the process.
To heal ethical dilemmas, organizations must commit to a collective values alignment process that acknowledges the transitional times we are now going through. This values alignment process should take into consideration the emerging global ethic and the shifting to economic models that contain sustainability as part of their framework.
An organization’s culture will reflect management’s commitment to a set of values. If management’s commitment includes understanding and embracing sustainable frameworks, companies will then be in a position to make innovations in strategies, processes, structures, products and services — making innovation a core capability of the organization.
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Further notes to incorporate:
-Sustainability limits create infinite possibilities (fractal behavior)
-During times of great change, there is an emphasis on ‘principle’ over ‘policy’ (‘practice’ is the bridge of activity that is always present)
-[Also see inKNOWvate website for prewritten material]
-3P’s as principle-based foundational model for self-regulating ethical management
-3E’s (trinity) 7Ee’s as principle-based foundational model for self-regulating innovation management
-The 3 archetypes of Regenerative Commerce transfer principle concepts into practical action (Archetypes are a result of primary needs interacting to create an identity (such as Regenerative Commerce set of 3))
-Bringing innovation into an organization as part of a ‘knowledge management’ process
-Today’s ethics management processes are geared around informing of old policy (systemic) without communicating new principles (wholistic). Thus, an acting manager gets caught in a quagmire of existing practices [based on policy measures … coming from existing old myth] when there is a need for new practices [based on principle map … emergent new myth].
-Ethics as catalyst to new ‘forms’ of innovation [note that ‘form’ is more about invention]
-Suggest this in ‘about’? … or have link at where fractal wholes are mentioned? … From fractured parts toward fractal wholes takes us into the discussion of organizational architecture (and later, organizational geometries which is one level beyond org. architecture)
-Relations to Fractal-wholes concept Relations to Fractured-systems concept
heart orientation head orientation
feminine archetype masculine archetype
knowledge management (as in head/heart integration) information management (head only management-result from adolescent brain coming into its own identity realization separation from heart occurs only to return later)
Organizational learning: (learning centrally webbed to entire whole, energy direction is bi-directional to/from teach/student) Organizational development: training (unidirectional and periphery and attached separately to each system)
inclusive of fractured systems non-inclusive of fractal wholes
singular boundary multi- boundaries
spherical relationships vectored relationships
whole can be realized through any part
nonlinear linear
infinite finite
parallel serial
whole/hole interplay
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inKNOWvate and InnovationLabs describe abilities to innovate utilizing ethics as the catalyst to develop the necessary dynamically-adapting learning-based organizations.
Vic Desotelle, Discovery Fuel
Michael Kaufman, Innovation Labs
Download ‘Ethics to Innovation’
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Based on a work at VicDesotelle.com.
