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Thursday 09 of September, 2010

The 21st Century Organization

Articles By John Caswell Articles written around the Critical Context we find ourselves in in the 21st Century. New thinking about how to create sustainable change A series of short articles that describe the context within which we need to work if we are to make a difference to the way we operate and survive in the 21st Century - Our Leader Article on 2010 - A Decade Of Change? There Is No We Becoming WE Adjudicating Over A Fools Death 21st Century Manifesto The Burning Platform The Arena For Change Changing The Way The 21st Century Organization Thinks & Works Sustainability Dimension Associative Democracy Chasing Tornado's Articles On 21st Century Tools The 21st Century demands different thinking and ideas to cope with the complex context we have now created. These short articles begin to describe how we are thinking about these areas and starting the debate about what we might do to resolve them. Heuristics & Becoming A 21st Century Organization Pull And Semantics Approaching Brand Performance The 'Pixar' Of Consulting To The Power Of 24 Not Solving The Wrong Problem Really Well Weiqi - Integrative Thinking The Power of Tools - The Tools of Power Unreasonable Reason It's All About Me. iThink Articles On Thinking One of the main agenda items for success and survival in the 21st Century. These articles explain a lot of the technical and strategic ideas that inform our work - Integrative Thinking Systems Thinking Thinking Design Living Systems Critical Thinking Biomimicry Value Networks Design Thinking Principles Of Thinking Articles On Meaning At the heart of the inertia we observe in transformation and change is the way in which humans attach words and stories to their experiences while this is a natural human condition it needs to be understood if we are to create the tools that overcome conflict and lack of improvement in complex systems. Meaning Making What Do We Mean? Meaning Making Words Conditioning Articles About Ethics Increasingly organizations are determined to really make a difference and not just debate how and what. These articles debate the importance or really getting to grips with the issues that are affecting the entire planet. The Ethical-Commercial Continuum' Sustainability Hard Rain - Observation From Aarrgh to Aha!... Articles About Being On The Road It's a great privilege working and being able to travel. Ever so slightly tongue in cheek and yet ever so slightly true. The following are notes made to humor myself. Observations that inspire or annoy. Ibadan & Perfect Living Systems The Art of The Swiss Miami By GPS Miami By GPS 2 Miami By GPS 3 2010 - Uxbridge - South Africa 2010 - Johannesburg - South Africa 2 2010 - Football - South Africa 3 2010 - Sarah Palin - South Africa 4 2010 - Anger Management - South Africa 5 2010 - Cape Town. Timing, Type, Systemic Stupidity. 2010 - London. Ducks & The New Heuristics of Patternism

The ‘So Called’ Road Trip – 2010 – Drugs & Good Donkeys. 15th January - ?? - 2010

Saturday Morning 16th January. BA 0057 Safely Lands in Johannesburg.

Straight through. All my bags! Betty. Nick. Dave. None damaged. Zips intact. Car. Sat Nav. Straight to hotel. Sunshine. It all works. We must be in Switzerland. Light - Dark. From the night to day. From lone wolf to bustling horde. From England to South Africa. I could do it in my sleep. I did. Whoosh!

Reflecting on these journeys I feel mixed emotions. I can feel myself physically growing cynical as I go through the systems. I hate that. I feel massive elation when I can leave my socks on. I've tried smiling optimism in the face of these bloody airport systems. It doesn’t work. I need sun. That’s all I ask for. Its not much is it? - Vitamin D and all the rest of the vitamins that remove grey skies. The sun should be freely available - compulsory. Outside, on a daily basis as a human right, every day.

To fly from the dark grey cold of London to the sunshine of Johannesburg is to be born. I worked out that I've passed through well over 500 airport systems in 5 continents, 30 of them first world, primary hubs - and that means over 2000 opportunities to feel degraded, lose bags and all my possessions. I've succeeded in that nearly 20 times.

Betty & The Case for Stimulants.

Johannesburg was still a bit of a shock.

OK, I knew the huge alien spaceship marooned over the city had recently gone - but I for one was still bitterly disappointed. Each morning so far I have looked out to see if returns over the city. It must have looked amazing in this landscape. I doubt the rain would have landed in some parts of town it was so huge. If you haven’t seen it check out what is a very disturbing documentary - District 9 - the facts get people very divided, especially on its moral issues but all the same it speaks the truth and has stimulated much needed debate about citizenship, cultural diversity, incredible weaponry and the species.

We've become addicted to stimulus. Huge artwork. Large prints that stick to the clients walls - created ahead of sessions - it has a real and highly hallucinatory effect - very powerful and like most heavy groups, quite a regular on the road.

Betty, is becoming something else though. Crazily difficult to juggle, high risk of ‘no-show’ - non-arrival, certain to be the cause of extra attention by Police and Security. Great weaponry for getting through crowds of prawns. Although it’s true their weaponry is way beyond anything we have. (Betty has recently taken on the form of a big black round tube to hide our stimulants)

The policeman at J'Burg Airport, who asked me if I had drugs in there, was clearly stimulated. He wasn't joking in his searching and subtle questioning. "Have you got drugs in there?" In a split second I had said “No!” What an idiot. What on earth would have happened had he opened it.

He also asked me - "Are there any drugs left in England?" I said “No.”

Buy A Good Donkey

That means ‘very good thanks’ in Afrikaans. I found this out in the session this week. Marvelous. It’s spelt like this - Baie goed, dankie.

40-50 people in a session is a little on the high side but when they are engaged it has its own momentum. True to say some people are more reserved, others always on the air - others not fully focused and miss the debate, some on BlackBerry’s and others still not really suitable candidates for this in the first place.

Interesting to follow the rhythms though and always a fine balance between needing to get a valid frame in the time and creating a shared ownership. What did the trick on this occasion was the threatening 800lb AK47 wielding Gorilla in the room. That one with the sign that said - "If we don't step up this time and change we will be In a hand basket on our way to the fiery place" and in Afrikaans - "Indien ons nie stap op hierdie keer en verander ons sal wees in 'n hand mandjie op ons manier tot die vurig plek"

Once out of his cage, and the dawning reality that this time it’s serious, it was fine. This is of course always the way to go. Find the root cause, define the burning platform. Pour oil on it.

Buy A Good Gorilla. I know what that means.

Wrestling with Lizards

Nope, everything is not going to be okay. I read Seth Godin's blog recently and this next ramble resonated hugely.

Some of us are not going to make it. We may reassure them, we may just say it’s all going to work out fine - but is that the right thing to do? It's natural for humans to seek reassurance. Most of us want to believe that the choices we make will work out, that everything will be okay. We seek decision quality. Brand managers, marketers, artists, craftsmen, engineers, architects and all those that launch the untested - the new and the emotional - wrestle with this need all the time. How can we proceed knowing that there's a good chance that our actions will fail, that things might get worse, that everything won't end up okay? In search of solace, we seek reassurance.

“So people lie to us. So we lie to ourselves...”

No, everything is not going to be okay. It never is. It isn't okay now. Change, by definition, changes things. It makes some things better and some things worse. But everything is never okay. Finding the bravery to shun faux reassurance is a critical step in producing important change. Once you free yourself from the need for perfect acceptance, it's a lot easier to launch work that matters.

The Lizard Brain.

This is about subconscious resistance. Think about this. There is resistance is the voice in the back of our heads telling us to back off, be careful, go slow, compromise. This resistance shows up by putting the jitters into your mind. You feel nervous. Something isn’t quite right. The lizard brain is behind every project that ever shipped late because people couldn't stay on the same page long off to get something out the door.

The resistance grows in strength as we get closer to shipping, as we get closer to an insight, as we get closer to the truth of what we really want. That's because the lizard hates change and achievement and risk.

The ‘lizard’ is a physical part of our brains – it’s the pre-historic lump near the brain stem that is responsible for fear and rage and reproductive drive. Why did the chicken cross the road? Because her lizard brain told her to.

Want to know why so many companies can't keep up with Apple?

It's because they compromise, have meetings, work to fit in, fear the critics and generally work to appease the lizard. Meetings are just one symptom of an organization run by the lizard brain. Late launches, bad time keeping, blaming others for one’s own slowness, middle of the road products and the rationalization that goes along with them.

The Amygdala isn't going away.

Your lizard brain is here to stay, and your job is to figure out how to quieten it and ignore it. What are you going to do about it?

Master the Lizard and overcome the 6 Big Mistakes that deny change.

• Cautious Management Culture. Compel executives to confront reality. Agree new rules. Know the lizard.
• Business As Usual Management Process. Run a parallel track with quick wins.
• Initiative Gridlock. Limit to 3 to 4 key initiatives and watch for the lizard.
• Recalcitrant Executives. Identify. Deal with them. Help them tame the lizard.
• Disengaged Employees. Rapid cascade and extensive and appropriate support is the only way.
• Loss of focus during execution. Anticipate, plan, keep the faith. Have patience. The lizard will always be there but our ability will overcome.

Over and out!