Final Verdict: Big is Bad

For quite some time I have thought about big vs. small - as in big business vs. small business.

I have now reviewed all the evidence, heard all testimony and have reached a verdict: Big business is bad.  Yip, you heard me - big business is bad.  Before you decide to stop reading and read that other guy's blog about financial derivatives I would like to review the case with you.

I have had the opportunity to work with large businesses and also with small and there is something in the small business with a big heart that is not there in a big business with a small heart.  

What I'm getting at is that big business should not be defined by turnover, profit, number of people, etc.  Big business should rather be defined by the desire of the leaders and owners in the business to build something of great value for the rest of society on a large scale.  The other view is when the owners of a small business see their organisation and purpose through the eyes of social benefit and not for profit primarily - BIG heart!

This point of view is what truly differentiates big from small.  So, it comes down to a paradox: In order to have a big impact you need to think small.  Small not in terms of revenue, market capitalisation or stock price, but small in terms of not missing out on the detail of staying true to purpose.  I have personally been part of organisational growth and corporate buyouts and the obvious pattern is one where there is a desire to become bigger it is ultimately driven by quarterly numbers - "BIG"!

Bottom line: Once the desire to do good is substituted for a desire to have more we all loose.  It is the story behind the shift in the global economic landscape, and perhaps a good time for it to happen.  It is a shift in the dominant global paradigm happening right now.  This is a complex, interesting and challenging world and I am happy to be alive.

So, I am calling to leaders and owners of businesses everywhere - will you simply survive from quarter to quarter or will you truly live.

Go from survive to alive!

Please! Less Rules but More Purpose

Every day I go into the world of work I hope that I will find that elusive something that I am looking for. That something special, intriguing beautiful and liberating. What I however find, all too frequently, is something that is life-sapping and disappointing.

I find a labyrinth of rules, procedure, politics and drama. We are caught in this fantastical illusion of freedom and security whilst we are unknowingly being lulled into a paradigm where we willingly follow rules at the expense of our greatest human expression of creativity and love.

Those who make the rules normally have no incentive to change their ways because they are in control. It will most likely take another generation to see a transformed business horison that catalyses the human spirit to reach heights and depths never seen before. Inside we yearn for this new world that we do not even understand yet. We just know that what we are experiencing now is just not enough.

Especially the newer generation simply do not accept things for what they are. I sometimes feel like I am quite alone in the way that I see the world. I am told fairly frequently that I need to accept the way things are and be more patient. I agree that change will take time but I do not believe that I need to be patient in expressing, motivating, raising awareness and inspiring a world that has much more purpose centered on transcendental truths so that we can reach beyond ourselves to a world that is filled with peaceful purpose. A world that turns us away from our own internal ego-driven obsession and towards a community centered self-actualisation reality.

Yes, I am unrealistic and I live for what is to come. I hope more people will start to open their eyes to a world where we use authority, control and power for their appropriate purposes detached from fear. I work towards a world that inspires trust, openness, learning, growth and beauty. I believe in businesses that not only have a purpose to help transform our society by putting the society before profits but I also believe in a business that puts their own people before profit.

So I ask all of us why are we doing whatever we are doing today?! We need more leaders at all levels to be asking this question and if the answer is not a clear indication that the organisation has the greater good at heart I respectfully request that you reconsider.

Stop giving people rules in order to follow your egotistical vision and rather empower, devolve, decentralise and inspire. Your future and the future of our children depend on the way we organise and lead because business is one of the greatest drivers of change in society.  Please!  Less rules and more purpose.

Connectedness

For 7 years I have been writing this blog - At times it has been more frequent than others.  It started out as a project to connect with friends and family, develop my writing skills and share ideas and insights.

I have also focused much more on intrapersonal issues and related this to broader issues in society.  On a journey where I have refined my understanding and skill relating to change, innovation and leadership that has lasted roughly 14 years so far I have been privileged to learn about myself and the world we all live in.  From the beginning of this blog I have considered the  possibility of it becoming more.  I have a passion for writing but also for instigating change and challenging leaders to take up their role irrespective of position or title.  I dream of a world where more people get rid of the burdens that they take onto themselves due to societal influences, their own beliefs or other references that they might have built up and therefore create unnecessary rules that govern their happiness.

These rules that govern each of us creates a barrier hindering the possibility of true transformation that each of us has on an intrapersonal, inter-personal and organisational level.

This is a world of plenty, not of scarcity; possibility, not impossibility.  I want to connect with individuals that dare to dream in the same way and create a movement where those on the margins of society and on the margins of freedom can be included in an endeavour that helps to bring about a changed paradigm for the 21st century society.  ...A society that revolves around purpose, people and meaning.

I know there are many of you asking critical questions around your family, job, business, environment and the rest of society.  The first step is to start talking the same language and then from collective meaning start to focus efforts on targeted areas by connecting and collaborating.  This is where this blog will play a greater role in the future.  It will become much more of an integrated platform where individuals and organisations can tap into in order to join a discussion as well as coordinate  actions leading to greater positive impact.

I am moving the blog into a more productive and focused mode as part of a greater service offering from my side.  I will continually keep writing but also be exploring other tools and avenues of facilitating movement of hearts and minds towards a greater interdependent force for good.

I will be using the term connectedness to describe this movement, but more on that in following posts...

As I develop this I will be connecting with some of you directly in order to understand the need and perhaps craft the most appropriate approach that will be more targeted and effective.  At times I will be focusing more on the South African situation, but I will also be writing with an international audience in mind.

I hope to see as many of you joining me on this journey going from survive to alive!

Pleasure and Pain (part 2)

I finished my previous post with the promise of continuing the discussion on pleasure and pain as motivators.  I also indicated that I believe that it really is a significant force to reckon with.

I have now been applying it to some of my own habits for example lowering my intake of sugar (sweets, in coffee, etc.).  I am glad to report that it has been approximately 3 weeks and I have never before felt this good about changing a habit.  If I can do this, what's next?!

I need to tell you that I don't have a weight problem, but I want to keep it that way.  If I can look as good as my parents do today when I am their age, I have a worthy goal to attain.

Bottom line: this was my trial run and achieving this is my platform to start changing even greater things.  ...Just keep watching this space.

But back to the impact of utilising the pain and pleasure paradigm for good.  Every time I want to eat something sweet or add sugar to my coffee I simply ask myself: "Can I do without it just this once?".  The answer obviously is a simple YES!  In order to get to my yes I just imagine the joy I will feel to overcome just this once, just this instance and use that as my motivation.  Not only that, I also see that giving in is a slippery slope and before I know it I will be an old fat man that regretted my bad habits when I was younger.  I use both the vision of pleasure as well as the vision of pain to move me in the direction of improvement.

I therefore utilise my imagination in service of a higher standard for myself according to who I know I am.  This certainty propels me to make a choice that moves away from mediocre towards greatness.  From simply surviving towards being fully alive. 

Now it's your turn: Pick just one small habit that you feel you want to stop doing or one thing you want to start.  When faced with the choice of not executing your power of choice in regards to your habit that you want to quit or start simply use your imagination and condition yourself into seeing the pain of not choosing your preferred option and the pleasure of choosing the preferred option.  Give it at least ten days (step by step, instance by instance).  As soon as you reach the ten day mark simply keep going and aim for three weeks.

Once you've reached this point it is perhaps time to inspire everyone else by telling your friends, emailing me or even putting down a post on this blog if you really want to make a bigger impact.

I want to join you on a journey from survive to alive!

Pleasure and Pain

I like to think that I am rather sophisticated and educated and that the reason that I do things is of truly egalitarian motivation...  You know, one of those really 'higher level' individuals that have shed the burden of earthly toil.  I see myself as raising above the squabble of the lower passions and that I am motivated by higher purpose in all that I do.

Yeah right!  Who am I kidding?  On my continual journey from survive to alive I pick up books of new authors on a regular basis.  Some of the stuff I read is really not that useful or I feel that it is nonsense, but I continue to search.  One of the authors that I have been avoiding for many years is Tony Robbins.  Rah, rah, rah!... That is pretty much what I thought of him - a flamboyant charlatan posing as a one-size-fits-all self-help guru.

Yet, I pride myself of being one of those 'higher level' individuals, so let me not judge.  With this thought in mind I picked up Awakening the Giant Within, a book Tony Robbins wrote before the turn of the millennium and before  the world drastically changed.  So perhaps it is all out-dated...

With positive expectation, none-the-less, I started reading and in those first few pages I read something I have possibly considered before.  I mean, c'mon man!  I continuously ask myself: WHAT MOTIVATES US?!  I have a masters degree, completed various business and leadership courses and I have not been able to truly identify the driving force behind our decisions.  And what do I find here in the pages of this book?  ...Our decisions are emotionally driven in order to avoid pain or experience pleasure.  Could it really be that we shape our pain and pleasure paradigm through our experience and accordingly realign our actions in order to either avoid pain or experience pleasure?

With confounded intrigue and curiosity I read on and applied the theory, with reflection, to myself.  Have I been caught in a trap of pain/pleasure confusion that leads to excuses and inaction?  Yes!  Indeed I have experienced some traumatic events, lived through pain and rejection and have allowed that to shape my pain/pleasure paradigm.  I am telling myself, before it will actually happen, that certain activities will lead to pain.  I then complete this wonderful cycle by reinforcing it with mental pictures of how I am going to suffer, but it has not even happened yet!

Anybody out there feel the same?

The question is how is this keeping me from going from being alive?  In my next post I will continue this discussion...

The Dogs That Bark

Have you ever walked down the road in your neighbourhood, especially as a child, and pass a neighbour's house when all of a sudden, GRRRGH!  ...a dog starts growling and barking at you from behind the fence?

I can remember the feeling that came over me:  I felt insecure, afraid and vulnerable.  I experienced anger because how could this animal do this to me - how could my confidence and self-sufficiency be destroyed in such a brief moment?

As I grew older I learned that the barking dog is really not that scary.  I could easily recognise the true level of danger and that, in fact, I am the boss in the situation.  Fear, along with the dog, flees with its tail between its legs in that moment of authority.  I can recognise my capacity to overcome the situation because I know who I am and that I have nothing to fear.

I still have the same emotional reaction in certain circumstances today.  Recently I attended an event where I was one of the younger participants playing a leadership role.  After an evening where I made a valued contribution I was, ever so politely, reminded by an older participant that perhaps I need some more experience before I actually attempt to participate in the way that I have.  WOOF!

Really?!

In an instant I wanted to react and cower because of my perceived inexperience pointed out to me.  ...Perceived; perception; reality.  What was the reality in the situation?  The reality was that even though I did not have the grey hair or funny glasses perched on my nose I was more than sufficiently qualified to contribute.  DOWN BOY!

I can therefore choose to respond, not react: I know who I am and I know how I got here.  As I grow I will have even more to contribute - I know where I am going.  I am not punching above my weight.  It is about stepping up and recognising my own potential.  It is about giving, authenticity and strength.  It is about living.

I challenge you to recognise the opportunities that life gives you today to choose living and not surviving.  Take authority in the moment and lead.  They are hidden and it takes practice to recognise them and use them.  They come in many different shapes and sizes, people and circumstances.  It is when someone in the office makes another remark about your work; it is that family member that breaks you down; it is when you are ignored or bullied.  The dogs keep barking, don't run away. Recognise your strength and do what is right today.

Awareness Economics

A few times on this blog I have written about the importance of knowing yourself.  Sometimes I feel like I have even been a bit of a stuck record.  

The last few weeks I have however been picking up books, reading highlights from my professional networks and talking with people who have all indicated the same thing: the biggest change that is happening is that we will have to develop the relationship with ourselves if we want to change the world.

This, in other words, is indeed a delicious paradox.  It is juicy and rich in substance: Stop trying to change the world, change yourself if you want to change the world.  ...It is hard enough anyway!

In my previous post I clarified the purpose of the blog and also clarified the two core terms of survive and alive.  I therefore see this blog as a place where the new challenge of the 21st century economic environment, i.e. how much you pay for the food in your grocery store, how expensive your house is and how to take of yourself when you retire or provide for your children in the future, is directly connected with the internal life that we lead.  It becomes economics based on how aware I am.

From personal experience I can attest to the challenges of deep inner change that results in peace.  I believe it is only from this place of peace where the correct desires can be cultivated which results in the kind of behaviour that impacts our economic choices on a global level.

This is hard!  It is hard because of noise.  It is the clacking of keyboards, tweeting, liking, chirping, snapping cacophony that is designed to make us buy, buy, buy that keeps us from facing our fears.  Stop rushing, running speeding and fleeing.  Start sitting, focusing, re-centring and realigning to what is really important.  Do you know what is really important to you?

Do you survive or are you alive?

Do You Leap?

Many years ago we used to hike to a place called Chrystal pools.  It was a beautiful winding path up a valley near the coast not too far from where I grew up.  At the pool there was a spot where, those who dared would climb up and then leap of the 10 meter high rocky platform into the icy mountain pool.  A few times I would reach the top, quickly get a footing and then leap...  Heart in mouth and wind in my hair I would then plunge into the icy depths feeling invigorated and invincible.

Many times I also saw other people get to the top and start to hesitate - 10 minutes, 15, half an hour, an hour... Some people would eventually turn back and perhaps others would eventually take the leap feeling somewhat diminished as they did not do it as quickly or with as much flair as others.  I believe life is much the same.  Do you leap?

I challenge myself everyday (as far as possible) to keep on leaping.  I now also understand that leaping means discomfort - the discomfort is where the growth lies.  I challenge myself to keep asking if this is the best I can be?  I try and do the difficult things first and get it out of the way so that I can focus more energy on creating.  It is the boldness that shapes the next move; it is the game that becomes important; not winning as much.  It is about doing a quick check to see if it is OK and then jump into the great unknown.

Take the painting above (by Jackson Pollock) - when I look at it I see a history of leaping.  How can I use colour differently? - leap.  What is real? - leap.  Perhaps what I can do is as good, or better, than what is out there - leap.  What if what is acceptable is limiting? - Leap

As you perhaps know much of my time (when I am not listening to a good tune and typing this blog) is taken up by lecturing undergraduate students in the field of business.  As I sit here tonight I am reflecting on a day that I think will be the start of a significant next chapter in my life:  The greatest tragedy that I am currently encountering working with students is the realisation of how they have been robbed of the opportunity to think and learn for themselves.  For at least 12 years they have been told when to wake up, eat breakfast, go to class, take a break and go home.  In this also lies the greatest opportunity.  The opportunity to work with students to help them reshape their future based on a deeper understanding of what learning actually is.  Learning is not in books (although they help) but in the world filled with opportunities to make mistakes.  In other words, opportunities to gain experience.

For about 12 years of schooling they have been programmed to wait to be told what to do, what is important, what to learn and what the correct answer is.  I understand that to get on in this world you need to be able to understand and apply 1+1=2, but much of our knowledge has to be questioned.  The 'correct' answer is as helpful in a changed and continuously changing world as a inflatable submarine.

There are an immense number of quotes by many renowned authors, which I won't quote here, that help us understand that ultimately we learn by experimentation.  Go and have a look at these talks by Daniel Pink and Tom Wujec to understand the value of risking, exploration, fun... LEAPING!  Ultimately we are in a new world and new economy

We live in a society that tells us that we need insurance for our house, car, health, life, cat, dog...  We are not taught that you need to get into life, take leaps, experience the thrill of the cold water and even if you leap and it is not graceful, leap again.  I need to confront my fears because that is where true learning lies.  It is not in working harder and working the system with more intent.  This is not acceptable any more.  If I want to to truly live I need to step up, step out, and LEAP!  I ask again, do you leap?

4 Months as the Crow Flies

And when I blinked the year was 4 months old (and counting).  It has been a while since my last post... I have been thinking; restoring; reflecting and reviewing.  I have been thinking of fears and desires, passion and purpose, complexity and transcendence.  If there is one lesson that I have learned over the last year it has been patience.  I now see my haste and propensity to haste much clearer in the light of  the tension between desire and fear.  In other words, in the past I used to attack the present in order to get to the future because I was afraid of missing the opportunity to prove that I am competent and useful.  The reality is  that I am competent and useful; here; today.

I know that repetitive work frustrates me... A lot!  I know that I  can't hide in the corner world of ideas.  Music, ideas and dancing energise me.  Too much of my day does not incorporate creativity - I need more; I think we all do.  I believe this is the key to being more and being more to others.
It seems like it has been a mad dash in the last four months to where I am now.  A good dash however because it has been at home.  Our life is richer because of family, friends and nature.  The improvement in quality of life is invaluable.

After years in Johannesburg we have been living in Stellenbosch for the last 9 months and working as a lecturer for the last 4.  It has been an awesome time so far and I know that it has been a time of restoration.  It will probably continue on the same path for a while but I am tilling the soil.  I am removing the old thinking that was embedded during the past 7 years.  I am throwing off all the old labels and returning my competent roots.  I am removing what is not important an focusing on who I am (yip, that old theme again).

It is literally easier said than done, but I am doing it.  It is a constant journey going from survive to alive.  I fight negativity, look for meaning, acknowledge that I am part of a great tapestry and that I have a part to play.  My part is the one that helps people, and specifically people in business, realise why business is important, why they are doing business, how this adds value an finally how they run their business, or do business, because of this.  I translate my competence into their competence.

Change Is Not Really Happening That Fast

The buzz in the business world is all about how complex things are and, specifically, how fast everything is changing.  If you are a leader in business you need to be so smart and adapt so quickly...  That is such a load of bull.  Yes, things are changing quickly, or at least there are greater possibilities, choices and options available right now.

What I find in businesses is that in general business leaders aren't really changing.  Right now I can think of at least six leaders and business models that are based on old thinking.  I understand that actual change really takes time.  Media and the status-quo would lead us to believe that everything is changing so fast.  In reality I see these powers that be as the ones changing the slowest.  It is in their best interest to keep things as it is.  Take the latest Robin Hood film starring Russell Crowe:  Just when it looks like true change will come after generations of hierarchical, unjustified, autocratic exploitation by a leader over the people things simply remain the same - the leader has seen how beneficial a system of dominance is in his favour.  "Why change it, it works for me?"

The same thing is happening in organisations globally.  Truly transformational models of business have emerged in the early 1980's in South America (here I refer to Semco) as well as earlier than that on other continents (the Tata group of companies come to mind) but it has been isolated.  My question is why hasn't it happened more?  Why hasn't this truly transformational business models been occurring much more.  It is a model where the business is about people first and how they come together to create a better world through what they do - real meaning!

Instead of the direction of the organisation being set by a bunch of people that only want to see a financial return; how about the direction set by the people on the ground and who have a daily relationship with the business - they are the business.

So here is my current thesis on why this does not happen more: Leaders with big egos.  Of the greatest leader when he is gone they will say we did it ourselves.  The greatest leader is one that is not a leader.  There is no such thing as leadership.  I am convinced there is only love, dedication, vision and action.  A person that can use love, dedication, vision and action to enable others to do the same is needed.  It is not about them - they know that.  It is about using their abilities to help others do whatever is needed to get the job done and do it in excellence!

As soon as we start talking about leadership people clamor for position, title and money.  Ask people to help others achieve their wildly important goals and help the organisation succeed while these people get all the recognition and reward and I don't think you will have many people left that can do the job.  It is a job that requires people to see them selves as enablers, facilitators and connectors so that things can start unfolding on their own.  You have to be secure in your identity so that you don't have to fight for it publicly and embrace complexity so that things can unfold organically.

My aim is to spread the message and work with people to unleash potential and release creativity and let it go where it needs to go.  What are you up to?

Moment of Truth

I just had a moment of truth ...A grand realisation that perhaps I really am that different and special.  Perhaps I truly should be challenging the status quo, not by creating my own status quo but by tearing down captivity and building foundations of freedom.  I continue to have conversations with people that seem truly open minded but with some more investigation I realise that they might have adopted language that 'keeps them on the edge' but that their approach and expectation of life still very much resembles the industrial revolution - top down, hierarchical, unilateral, etc.  It will work for a little longer but the world is a different place today...

What I have come to realise is that the tool of control has served us (modern society in general) rather well over the last century or so.  The challenge now is that control is no longer as useful as it once was.  The scientific approach to business management was all about that.  The leader was the one who controlled, knew everything and was infallible.  That kind of leadership will pass soon and only businesses and leaders that embrace connection, trust and complexity will last.

This is the next step.  Leaders must become facilitators in order to trust the organisation's future to everyone involved.  Yet few people are willing to push for this kind of change.  What is much more likely is that people stick to their old ways, ways that are not so threatening, in order to keep their position of power.  I have seen this very often in the business environment.  Due to different influences people don't want to change and most of the time right at the centre of it all sits some kind of fear.

I don't think that my mind or abilities are that special or different but I do believe that they are geared towards a specific purpose to which I need to pay more attention.  I know that through my efforts on this blog, academic talents and abilities to write, facilitate and teach I can devote my life to a great passion for change.  It is a gift-set, passion and awareness that few other people share and because of that I am excited.  Within that lies my unique contribution and realising it has really been a moment of truth for me; a little like when the winemaker gets to taste the grapes of the season for the first time. In that instance everything that has led up to that moment, every element comes together to reveal the special character of that season.  It helps me to go from survive to alive.