The current system will go the way of the dodo

From a Facebook feed :- Yanni Konstantinopolus....

 

There will be a time, hopefully soon, when we will have a social revolution and the whole political system will go the way of the Dodo. 

What will rise in its place? I think it's time for the obvious - a humanitarian system, because, lo and behold, we are all humans, and, as such, we need a system that is relevant to us, engages us and looks after us - all of us.

The political systems seems only to take care of the politicians, anybody else that benefits seems to do so by an off chance that doesn't often last.

My comment:- 

Progress starts with desire!

We need a system that is relevant to us, engages us and looks after all of us! - Luvit - is the current mode of 9-5 jobs doing it for us? Are jobs for pay necessary to live a fulfilling life ?  #i4j #burningman

What do you think?

Why does gender Equality Exist in Leadership

Great insights by Kala Philip - General Manager BSI Learning 

Since organisations in the top tier of financial performance have more women in leadership roles, why does gender inequality still exist in leadership?

After reading the research undertaken by DDI Worldwide regarding diversity and gender inequality I was very keen to learn more about why this underrepresentation exists. Therefore I decided, with one of our directors, to sponsor the American Chamber of Commerce Women in Leadership Executive Tutorial to learn more about gender inequality in leadership.

My colleague Kerry Metcalfe-Smith, Director Organisational Development, BSI Learning opened the tutorial with the Current Situation of Women in Leadership. Following Kerry was Tanya Gilerman, Partner, Financial Services, Audit, KPMG who discussed how KPMG Create an Environment to Support, Mentor, Retain and Grow Women in Leadership Roles.

Kerry had undertaken substantive research into gender inequality in leadership roles and presented to us the Leaky Pipeline. Her research uncovered that organisations lose 50% of women at each hierarchical level of management, and this was supported by the AICD findings in 2012 that men are nine times more likely to be promoted into senior executive roles than women.

The question is, why does a leaky pipeline exist?

 Kerry presented two interesting findings:

• Workforce participation affects leadership roles - more women work part time and casual hours than men (DDI Worldwide)

• Midcareer confidence - aspiration and confidence is low to move into top management (DDI Worldwide)

However, is it fair to ask women to take on leadership roles whilst they are working part time?

And is it also realistic for companies to provide their leaders with flexible working hours when they need them to lead and develop high performing teams?

 Kerry listed a number of solutions for organisations including:

• Providing sponsorship and development opportunities for women
• Removing the barriers to appointing more women into leadership roles
• Focusing on the middle talent pipeline - to avoid the Leaky Pipeline
• Promoting flexible working practices
• Making every manager accountable for building an inclusive culture.

Kerry’s solutions explicitly suggest that part time work/flexible hours should not be creating gender inequality in leaders.

OK Kerry, that’s all well and good in theory but how does it work in real life?

Enter Tanya Gilerman of KPMG. Tanya presented to us the ways in which a global consulting firm has increased their number of women leaders due to the vision of KPMGs CEO regarding gender equality in leadership. In June 2015, of the 51 new partners appointed, 56% of internal partner promotions were women, and some of them were on maternity leave

"Leadership", Tanya announced, "is about the job, not the gender." KPMGs goal is to not lose talent. They want to invest in their people and provide all team members equal opportunities for promotion regardless of their personal situation and need for flexible hours. The consequence of not doing so is the loss of productivity, innovation and talent.

 So as Tanya spoke it became increasingly evident that Kerry’s solutions were indeed realistic. Below are a number of points Tanya shared regarding supporting women in leadership: 

• Provide flexible return to work arrangements to include: 
  • Working from home
  • Reduced work load after returning to work
  • Access to phone and computer to keep in touch with the team during leave

• Future Leaders Program - which fast tracks high performers with access to senior leaders as mentors. If the gender ratio is not equal for this group, the company has to rethink its choices.
• Challenge the organisational culture. Just because somebody is working three days a week, male or female, why can they not be promoted?

KPMG, like any other organisation, they want to promote the best person for the job. But the real difference I saw, and Tanya demonstrated was that KPMG want to give women and men the same opportunity to develop into the best person for the job, regardless of their personal needs.

I’ll leave you with a takeaway from KPMG, the “If not, then why not?” question leaders must ask themselves. For instance:

 If there aren’t part time leaders in your organisation, then why not?

If there aren’t flexible working arrangements in your organisation, then why not?

 When you have great talent you need to hold onto, why let traditional definitions of a workweek let them slip through your fingers?

What can we learn from the Japanese

From thought Leader Curtis Carlson

See the text below.  This is a remarkable book.  Only a Japanese could write those words but, as is typical, they have great meaning.  No wonder the head of Toyota is having everyone read it.  

I always thought that our employees at SRI were the most important.  In a very real way I loved them.  I had enormous respect for them and they inspired me every day.   Management’s major responsibility is to grow the company and make sure that no one is unfairly threatened by the company’s poor performance.  I didn’t always succeeded and it broke my heart every time I failed.   If we helped our staff to do the right things I also knew that they would put our customers first.  Paradoxical for some I know — but true.  I wanted them to do important things that would give their professional life meaning — a powerful form of “happiness" for technical professionals.  I also wanted to make sure they had essential value-creation skills so that they could be successful and control their careers, not someone else.  I was sure that if we helped them do these two things SRI would do well.  

From the book.

"My sole focus in managing the company has been to ensure that it endures, because I believe a company' s greatest virtue is endurance. To be perfectly honest, for the first 20 years, I had no spare time to think about such things. I was simply desperate to survive and keep the company going. I think it was about 25 years after joining the company, when the pressure finally began to ease a bit, that I started thinking about why companies exist and what corporate growth really means. The conclusion I reached after pondering such questions for years is that a good company exists to make its employees happy, thereby contributing to its local community and society at large. I realized that endurance was the most important part of making this happen, because if the company fails to endure, the happiness of its employees will come to an abrupt end. 

Seek Not to Be a Successful Company, But a Good Company 

Having decided that a company exists to make its employees happy and that a company' s greatest virtue is endurance, I began to entertain doubts about the conventional wisdom of what defines successful management. Doctrines emphasizing sales above all, the expansion of profits, or market capitalization seem all too often to come at the expense of employee happiness. It is impossible to manage a company whose sales do not grow, and in the absence of profits, a company' s very survival may be in doubt. Yet, once you make increased sales and profits your sole objective, employee happiness becomes secondary. In short, you start to think about how profits could be effectively raised by reducing labor costs and welfare expenditures, or by cutting back on activities that give back to the community and support culture and the arts. This seems completely backward to me. Management is all about finding a balance between the company' s numbers and the happiness of its employees. "

Hiroshi Tsukakoshi;  Hart Larrabee. Tree-Ring Management (JAPAN LIBRARY).  Kindle Edition. 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/to-whom-do-japans-most-powerful-turn-for-advice-the-sensei-of-seaweed-1441069219

http://www.amazon.com/Tree-Ring-Management-Take-Business-Slowly/dp/4916055462

Venture Capital in Australia: NICTA NAD CSIRO merge to create one of the largest...

Venture Capital in Australia: NICTA NAD CSIRO merge to create one of the largest.innovation companies in the world : NICTA ( Australia’s chief IT research facility)  has merged with CSIRO’s Digital Productivity flagship creating   a new organisation, Data6...

Leaders need to change from commanders to communicators

Posted by:-

Katz Kiely

Founder and CEO 

Kiely & Co

Skype:  katzkiely

Twitter: @katzy

It’s true many (most) C suiters are alpha types. They have spilled blood sweat and tears to scramble to the top. The idea of leader in the old world was all about being the best, the expert i.e. knowing better than anyone else in the organisation. Shifting to models based on crowdsourced knowledge and co - creation is hard and for some (of the less flexible) impossible.

They, like everyone else find it hard to let go of deeply embedded behaviours and attitudes …but they can be persuaded to try new more collaborative ways of working if they understand the commercial benefits- and by showing the positive effect of ring fenced networked experiments they can over time start to adopt new behaviours more appropriate to the networked organisation. 

Digital Transformation projects are never successful unless they have the full buy in (not just lip service) of senior leadership. Leaders have to display the behaviours and attitudes they expect their organisations to adopt.  The shift is from leader as Commander (which perfectly suited to mechanistic view of the organisation) to Communicator (who works with her teams to set the vision and inspires people to travel with her towards that goal) Collaborator or/ and Co- creator (who harnesses the full power of a connected, empowered workforce.) 

Networked organisations who understand the power of co-creation are the most valuable and profitable. Boards are already realising that new style (digital) leaders drive success - so C- suiters will have to adapt to survive

Are music festivals and doofs - a social experiment - solving the need for jobs? A precursor to the new kibbutz?

My daughters (22 and 25) love going to music festivals, (what they call "doofs" ) 

Are these festivals / communities , a social experiment that will be a base for a "new way" of connecting / adding value / living - creating for their community , a sense of self worth / finding ways to spend your day in a positive motivating way. Is this a better way than the "establishment - 9-5 work week - (for most) doing a job to survive, so they can feed and educate their family, and take 4 weeks a year annual leave - ( they say that job stands for "just over the breadline").

Is this a precursor to the revival of the "kibbutz" ?

Bellow, Katz Kiely talks about a potential new way of a connected community - finding meaning by taking out "the establishment" . 

From katz kiely

Katz Kiely

Founder and CEO 

Kiely & Co

Skype:  katzkiely

Twitter: @katzy

I was lucky enough to be invited by the founders a couple of years ago. I may not have accepted (“I’ve got work to do”) but Dan Ariely explained that I, with my passion for organisational transformation and behaviour change, should experience it.   

I now see Burning Man as a social experiment, exploring what happens when money and brands are taken out of the equation and volunteerism, creativity, collaboration and empowerment are put centre stage.

Participants come from all sorts of sectors: arts, media, finance - you name it. While there are elements of “pagan” festival, many of the activities are less widely understood. 

Contrary to the popular conception, I see the playa as a prototyping engine: with a wide variety of workshops, innovation camps, conferences, unconferences. The level of conversation and debate at Burning Man are, from my experience, exceptional. 

A couple of take aways to share a couple of experiences relevant to this discussion:

I had to visit the onsite hospital last year. The hospital, like everything else on the playa, is managed and manned by volunteers: professional nurses and doctors. I asked why they had given up their precious holiday time to volunteer. Each and every one said the same thing. At Burning Man the paperwork is taken out of the equation. They get to do what they signed up for : help people get better.  The service was impressive, and efficient, but human. The relationship between professional and patient is very different than in your typical hospital. The patients are genuinely grateful. The endless bureaucracy and paperwork is taken out of the equation. Most said they come back to volunteer year after year.

Impressed, and Infected by the volunteer spirit, I did a morning shift at the coffee centre the next morning. I brewed coffee for 4 hours. We served thousands of people. It could not have been a more menial job - but is one of my favourite memories of Burning Man. Why? Because of the work environment. We were working  together to support a connected community. Our efforts were respected and celebrated by those we served. Our playfulness did not get in the way of our work, but made the team more empowered and efficient. Empowerment leads to productivity.

In some ways the playa may have been an appropriate platform for Tuesdays meeting. Maybe next year :) 

Katz Kiely

Digital Strategist & Transformation Agent

Twitter: @katzy

How Institutions can change into an Innovation Entity

John Hagel - on how institutions can  change and disrupt themselves into an innovation institution

Jordan - You're absolutely right - the transition is going to be the challenge.  I suspect the bulk of the transition will come from new entrants who pioneer and innovate around the scalable learning model and use this as a basis for unseating the incumbents who hold on to the scalable efficiency model.  This will likely lead to a painful and tumultuous transition with great potential for backlash as incumbents mobilize to use regulation and other weapons to try to block the new entrants from undermining their position. 

On the other hand, as an optimist, I believe it is possible for existing institutions to transform themselves, but not through the classic top down, "big bang" approach to transformation that has proven to have a very high failure rate.  Instead, I have been a proponent of a different approach to large scale organizational change that I call "scaling edges" - http://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/center-for-the-edge/articles/scaling-edges-methodology-to-create-growth.html  A few of our existing institutions will be able to navigate through the changes using this approach.