I used to think of myself as a Change Agent - I was wrong!

Twenty two years ago, back in 1991, I left the Bank of New Zealand and went consulting. One of the first things I did was to get a new business card. It read: "Change Agent." Back then, I really believed that change was what mattered. I saw it as necessary for growing and progressing. I now think I was wrong. Part of it was young man's arrogance and ego. As I've got older and wiser I've come to realise that far more important than change is to understand what is constant. The real power lies in what is unchanging, what is always the same, what is the essence of the thing - it nearly always comes down to human values of love, truth and beauty.

What Really Matters Today I think of myself as a "Dis-coverer". When thinking about business this means understanding, rediscovering and honouring the underlying original purpose and dreams of the founders. For example when we started Virtual Group in 1992, we launched it in a pinstriped tent as a symbol of pinstriped quality, canvas-thin overheads, openness and total flexibility; we called it 'Wisdom Without Walls.' It is interesting that 22 years later, even though many of the people are different and the technology looks antiquated, the basic dream remains the same. Creating organisations where people want to work is still what drives us 22 years later. However, for periods over that time, as we struggled with the daily challenges of making the company work, we complicated our dream, sometimes even forgetting it. Instead of trying to invent a new way, I have found it's often more productive to "dis-cover" the original dream by getting rid of all the complications and cleverness that diverted us along the way. In my strategy work I've found it's important to remember 'why we exist', 'what's our purpose' and 'what truly matters to us.' To me, it's about liberating the human spirit at work. What is it for you? When thinking about personal growth (and leadership), "dis-covering" means understanding, remembering and honouring the child you were, perfect with all your hopes and dreams. There is no doubt that we were all born with a core of greatness, but over the years the people we trusted most, like parents, teachers and managers, have flicked mud at us until our core of greatness is almost totally covered and largely forgotten. Worse still, we flick mud at ourselves when we think: "I'm not good enough" or "I can't do it." We've become some small fraction of the potential we were born to be. I think this is so important I've written a book about it called: "Buddha Hunter Leaders" and I've made "dis-covering" our Golden Buddha or Core of Greatness a major part of my Leadership Development Program. It takes time for people to accept and remember the greatness that exists inside, but when they do it is truly humbling work to be involved in.

Advice to someone aspiring to leadership from Rob Forlong, CEO of the Environmental Protection Authority

Rob Forlong is the CEO of the Environmental Protection Authority. His advice to someone aspiring to his position is to be very honest with themselves and self aware. He constantly questions his own biases and ways of thinking; and is open to others questioning them too. Over the years he has learnt things about himself that can cause issues with other people. For more: http://www.virtual.co.nz/index.php?n=Insights.RobForlong

I FEEL REALLY STUPID

I feel really stupid. For the last 40 years I've worked to help organisations grow. Now, after all this time, I've come to realise that growth cannot be sustained. We need a new business model that creates other things that are more sustainable: like love, truth and beauty.

We have built nearly everything we believe in business on the story that growth can continue ad infinitum. Earth scientists and mathematicians know that this is nonsense.

I love the story told by Dr. Albert A. Bartlett in “The Most IMPORTANT Video You’ll Ever See.” He asks us to imagine bacteria growing steadily in a bottle. They double in number every minute. At 11.00 AM there is one bacterium in the bottle. At 12.00 noon the bottle is full. The question he asks is: “If you were an average bacterium in the bottle, at what time would you first realise that you were running out of space?”  The answer is as follows:

• At 11:54 AM the bottle is 1.6% full and 98.4% empty (tons of room, no problem)
• At 11.55AM the bottle is 3.1% full and 96.9% empty (tons of room, no problem)
• At 11.56AM the bottle is 6.3% full and 93.7% empty (tons of room, no problem)
• At 11.57AM the bottle is 12.6% full and 87.4% empty (still tons of room, no problem)
• At 11.58AM the bottle is 25% full and 75% empty
• At 11.59AM the bottle is 50% full and 50% empty (a little more crowded than it used to be, but we still have half the bottle to go)
• At 12.00 noon the bottle is 100% full.

Now remember that the best research from Earth scientists shows, at the rate we are currently extracting resources, we are already past 12.00 noon! They calculate we currently extract 1.4 planets to sustain our living standards. If the Earth was a company it would be bankrupt. Even if miraculously we found a whole new planet of resources it would also be empty by 12.01 PM. See why the growth story is nonsense?

I'm not sure when the crunch comes. We may have a year, or a decade or even a generation. But whenever it is, we are so close it make no sense to rush any faster towards it.

People accuse me of being pessimistic. I am not pessimistic, I'm an optimist who sees a much brighter future. In the future I see, organisations stop aiming for things people don't want or need (like out-of-control consumerism) and produces things that people do want and need (like more depth, connection and meaning).

BRUCE HOLLAND

IMAGINE IF MANAGERS BELIEVED THEIR ROLE WAS TO DRAW OUT THE GREATNESS IN EVERYONE

The stories managers tell create their reality. Wouldn't it be great if they changed their story from: “We need to change the people” to “We need to draw out the greatness in everyone”?

As managers, the story we tell ourselves is that our people are frail, weak and imperfect. It follows that our job is to change them and improve them. This is a total waste because it can’t be done. A more useful story is that we all have a bit of God in us and a bit of the Devil. Managers with this story spend their time looking for the “God,” reminding people of the best of who they are, drawing out the greatness that already exists inside and putting this to work within the organisation.


I think his is so important I wrote a book about it, it's called "Buddha Hunters - Secrets of how Irresistible Leaders Liberate the Human Spirit at Work."

Four hundred years ago a group of Thai monks hid their Golden Buddha from marauding tribes by covering it with clay. Soon afterwards the temple was attacked and everyone was killed. For the next 400 years everyone thought this Buddha was a clay Buddha. Recently, when they tried to move it, the clay broke off and the Golden Buddha inside was revealed.

Irresistible Leaders are Buddha Hunters. They know that everyone has a Golden Buddha inside, however, it’s mostly covered with mud that people have flicked at them over the years; often by those they trust most, like parents, teachers and managers. Pathetically, they also flick mud at themselves.

As a result, many people are a tiny fraction of their potential, an unexplored world of possibilities waiting to be released and channelled towards great good.

Irresistible Leaders are Buddha Hunters. They help their people find their Golden Buddhas by breaking off the mud so their brightness can shine through again and liberate the human spirit at work.


Bruce Holland

TO FUTURE-PROOF YOUR BUSINESS CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL TO GO FULL MASLOW

Business is entering a period of fundemental change. Very few organisations will survive. Those that do will have a different mindset.

As you know Abraham Maslow wrote about the eight needs of all humans:

1. Physiological needs include air, water, food, shelter, warmth, sleep, sex, and so on.
2. Security needs include protection from the elements, social order, law, and so on.
3. Social needs include love, family, relationships, work group, and so on.
4. Ego needs include achievement, reputation, responsibility, independence, prestige, status, and so on.
5. Cognitive needs include knowledge, meaning, and self-awareness.
6. Aesthetic needs include beauty, balance, and form.
7. Self-actualisation needs include to 'become what we are capable of becoming' and being our greatest achievement.
8. Spiritual needs include achieved through transcendence and helping others to achieve self-actualisation.

Here is the challenge, to create an organisation where everyone:

• Feels good about how they are spending their life
• Is aware of the choices they have made
• Nourishes something that is important to them
• Understands their purpose in life
• Understands their unique skill, or as I like to call it, find your genius
• Uses their unique skill to further their purpose.

Can you imagine the success that would come to an organisation that became "full Maslow" and met all five Maslow needs for their stakeholders? Just imagine the energy within an organisation where everyone gave their greatest achievement and had become what they were capable of becoming. This organisation would definitely be rewarded with profit and longevity well beyond 50 years.


Bruce Holland

TO FUTURE-PROOF YOUR BUSINESS YOU'LL NEED ALL SYSTEMS SELF-EVOLVING

Business is entering a period of fundamental change. Very few organisations will survive. Those that do will have a different mindset.

Many managers believe their organisations are 'mechanical' and can be driven and controlled like a machine; therefore they 'restructure', 'downsize' and 'reengineer' them. For the most important things in an organisation (culture, relationships, teamwork and customer service) it's more accurate and helpful to see them as 'organic'; more like a garden or a forest that evolves by itself. They are not things you can build from a blueprint, like a house, by specifying and assembling a series of materials and actions. It is far more subtle than that. Like all emergent properties they can be encouraged, led and given visibility; but they can't be commanded or pushed into being.

It's more accurate and useful to see culture, relationships, teamwork and customer service as natural byproducts of a high-performing organisation. Systems thinking and complexity science shows that like all emergent properties, good culture, relationships, teamwork and customer service are the natural way of being and they will emerge automatically at the level of the whole system once it achieves the required level of interconnectivity, increased communication, deeper relationships and improved trust.

The old (current) mechanical image is unbelievably wasteful. By focusing topdown on structure, rules, constitutions and legislation they drain the life from their organisation; and by constantly structuring and restructuring managers keep themselves so busy and important they fail to work on the garden. They don't prepare the soil (build trust, connection, relationships, communication); sow the best seeds; develop green fingers (develop leadership skills that are both magic and logic); tend the plants (listening more than telling, questions more than answers, and encouraging more than criticizing); thin and prune (allow space and time by removing barriers and bottlenecks); tend and nurture (tell stories, amplify wins and prune the unsuccessful); or harvest properly (celebrate wins).

Can you imagine the success and longevity of an organisation where culture, relationships, teamwork and customer service were allowed to self-evolve naturally in a well-tended garden? This organisation would definitely be rewarded with profit and longevity well beyond 50 years.


Bruce Holland

TO FUTURE-PROOF YOUR BUSINESS CREATE FULFILLING WORK FOR EVERYONE

Business is entering a period of fundemental change. Very few organisations will survive. Those that do will have a different mindset INCLUDING Fulfilling work for everyone.

Work is defined as activity involving mental or physical effort done to achieve a purpose or result. It's not necessarily paid work or work in an organisation; however, since this piece is about future-proofing your organisation, one of the more succinct statements of a fulfilling week comes from Doc Searl's acronym: TBIF - Too Bad It's Friday. If people could get to Friday and say "TBIF", would this organisation be rewarded with profit and longevity well beyond 50 years? We think so.

Unfortunately, TBIF is not all that common. Gallup research of New Zealand workplaces shows 15% are 'actively disengaged' and 68% are 'disengaged.' Only 17% are 'engaged' and this is down from 23% in 2002. Gallup estimates the annual cost of this is NZ$3.67 billion. Liberating the human spirit at work has been my quest for over 20 years.

Unfulfilling work results from constraining Stories and Structures. Most attempts to make work fulfilling have focused on changing constraining structures like technology structures, organisational structure and process structures, mostly because they are concrete and easy to change.

While these are important it is easier, far cheaper and more effective to start by changing the constraining stories:

Current Constraining Stories

1. People are human resources or hands
2. Change processes need to be controlled top-down
3. The world is like a machine
4. We are all separate
5. Competition is the natural order.

New Liberating Stories

1. Together people are can do anything. We need to tap into body, head, heart and soul
2. Change processes need to be top-down and bottom-up
3. The world is a living self-evolving system
4. We are far more closely connected than most people realise
5. Collaboration is the natural order.

Can you imagine the success and longevity of an organisation that was truly successful in creating fulfilling work for everyone? This organisation would definitely be rewarded with profit and longevity well beyond 50 years.

BRUCE HOLLAND

TO FUTURE-PROOF YOUR BUSINESS - MEASURE YOUR SUCCESS AS ITS CONTRIBUTION TO THE WELL-BEING OF LIFE

Business is entering a period of fundamental change. Very few organisations will survive. Those that do will have a different mindset including redefining their success as contribution to well-being of life.

Today most organisations define success by measuring profit and return on assets which are the result (not the cause) of yesterday's success. Given that what you measure is what you get, organisations need to redefine success by measuring things that will cause tomorrow's success. Things like health, knowledge, skills, wisdom, attitudes, hope in the future, absence of fear, relationships, respect, awareness, sense of purpose, beauty, self-control, freedom and happiness and environmental affects.


Can you imagine the success and longevity of an organisation that was truly successful in contributing to the well-being of life? This organisation would definitely be rewarded with profit and longevity well beyond 50 years.

Bruce Holland

TO FUTURE-PROOF YOUR BUSINESS - BUILD CO-CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS WITH THE REST OF NATURE

Business is entering a period of fundamental change. Very few organisations will survive. Those that do will have a different mindsets including building co-creative partnership with the rest of nature.

There is no doubt that the rest of nature is in trouble. This is reflected in all major indicators like the ozone layer, climate change, water quality, air quality and species extinction.

Business has begun to be quite proactive in this. We see progress in triple-bottom line and the sustainability movement, and many organisations are already on-board and see green dollars as a major contribution to their profits. Despite this success, business has a long way to go.

Our resource base, planet earth, is shrinking while our population continues to expand; increasingly, cracks are appearing in the capacity of our communities, ecosystems, and landscapes to provide the goods and services that sustain our well-being. These intertwined systems are like a boat at sea, constantly confronted with surprise events such as storms. The degradation of these slow variables is reducing our "freeboard," our ability to survive these storms.

Can you imagine the success and longevity of an organisation that was truly successful in helping to solve these life-threatening issues? This organisation would definitely be rewarded with profit and longevity well beyond 50 years.


BRUCE HOLLAND.

IMAGINE IF MANAGERS BELIEVED THEY WERE MANAGING A NETWORK

Managers need to change the story they tell from: “We are managing an organisational tree” to “We are managing a series of interconnected networks.”

If you tell a story about managing an organisational tree, it makes sense to be on top, hierarchical and dominating. However if you tell a story about managing a network it makes no sense to manage in this way; either inside or outside the organisation.

Networks demand a completely different way of managing , based on network science and the laws of networks.

Bruce Holland

IMAGINE IF MANAGERS KNEW WE WERE DEEPLY CONNECTED RATHER THAN SEPARATE

The stories we tell create our reality. 

Imagine if our managers knew the story that physicists have known for 50 years. Previously their story had been to see their science as the study of physical materials like solids, liquids and gases. Their new story is to see it as the study of how things are organised and relate to each other.

In business, we need to learn this story. Most managers spend most of their time focused on the individuals within their organisation (Peter, John and Mary). In the first chart they would be looking at separation and seeing the two faces


If our story was about connectedness, as managers we would know that it is the space in between people that makes the most difference. Instead of seeing emptiness between people, we’d see the vase. We‘d see emotions, heat, vibrations, energy, trust, information, communication, synergy and love. Our job under this story is to fill the vase to the top with these things. In essence it is a move from product-centric to relationship-centric thinking. It’s from win-lose to win-win.

Regards
Bruce Holland