Getting unstuck

This lecture by MIT professor Rebecca Henderson is one of the coolest on organisational behaviour and performance management I've seen. Enjoy it!

My posts in other (more visited) sites

As the importance of the internet increases for bridging sons and parents, consumers and organisations, research and the public, I’ve naturally started to contribute to other sites and blogs – especially because the number of visitors of those sites are often many times bigger :-)

Two of my favourite follow (unfortunately only in Portuguese).

Peter Senge and social well being: published in my post grad class blog, talks about the amazing experience of bringing Peter Senge to Brazil, leading the working team according to self mastery and shared leadership principles, and hearing what he has to say about the direction we should take as a global society.

If you want to watch the full lecture in English, click here.


End of Slavery and Sustainability: published on Grupo Santander’s sustainability portal on the End of Slavery week in Brazil, draws a parallel between how we treated slaves 2 centuries ago and how we see the environment nowadays. The reflection came up while going to the countryside with friends for a trekking and rappelling long weekend. Good stuff!

Yunus' wish list

Towards the end of his book Creating a World without Poverty, Yunus shares his 2050 wish list. Amongst the items, there are a few which called my attention:

- There will be no poor, no beggars and no homeless

- There will be no passports or visas – everybody will be a world citizen

- There will be no war, no war simulation, no military institutions and no mass destruction weapons

- The economic system will encourage people, enterprises and institutions to share their prosperity

- There will be no discrimination of any kind

- Basic connectivity will be wireless and practically free

- People will enjoy an atmosphere of continuous innovation

- Everybody will be committed to maintaining a sustainable lifestyle

- All peoples will live in peace, harmony and friendship, searching for expansion of humankind’s potential


And he finishes: “If we consider human history, it’s clear that we always accomplish what we want – or what we refuse to accept.”

Interviewing Jacqueline Novogratz

Jacqueline Novogratz began her career as an international banker but soon, aspiring to change the world, joined a nonprofit women’s microfinance group that dispatched her to Africa.

Currently, she is the CEO of Acumen Fund, a nonprofit venture capital firm she founded in 2001 to invest in sustainable businesses that bring health care, safe water, alternative energy, and housing to the developing world’s low-income people.

She is at the moment launching the book The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.

On an interview for the McKinsey Quarterly, she said:

"The next ten years are about developing talent, developing the stories that inspire and influence a generation, that we could do things differently in the world and that we don't need just to be sitting within the market place or just within traditional philanthropy or charity, but that there's real room for reinventing an economy that is global but is also more imaginative, creative and most importantly inclusive."

A Letter to Mr. Obama from China

Author: Peter Senge
Published on Jan 20th, 2009
http://blogs.solonline.org/users/psenge/blog/

January 12, 2009

On the eve of your inauguration, the world, not just the US is attending to this historic day, perhaps unlike any before in history.

The expectations awaiting you are daunting.

Just last week I received a letter from Andre Beukes, recently retired Commissioner of the South African Police Service. Having lived through another historic transition, he saw powerful parallels between your inauguration and Mr. Mandela coming to office 14 years ago - except that now, “When President Obama moves into the Oval office, he will have to address the incredible task of giving hope to the whole world.”

In a world of unprecedented interdependence, we may continue the conceit that we elect a president of a country. But, in fact, for the U.S. or China or India or Russia, the impacts of our leadership choices reach far beyond our borders. I am sure I do not have to remind you of The Economist magazine’s global internet poll that showed that, although you captured 53% of the US popular vote, you captured over 80 % of their global vote. At no time in history has one country’s presidential election held such meaning for so many.

This seems to me to have one clear implication.

You do not need take on the burden of fixing America’s problems in isolation. Indeed the U.S.’ problems are the world’s problems. The U.S. did not weave the global financial web that shapes investment, and speculation, alone. It did not shape the rules that govern international trade, and massive misallocation of resources toward the wealthy, alone. It did not mold the norms of global consumerism alone. In each of these, U.S. institutions and culture have played a major hand, but hardly left the only handprint. We are not destroying the world’s tropical forests by ourselves, nor species and ecosystems, nor operating unilaterally to steadily worsen the gap between rich and poor. These are the side effects of global industrial expansion driven by systems of investment and commerce that transcend national borders and policies, and these systems will only change through levels of cooperative effort that will be unprecedented.
If ever there was a time for such cooperation it is at hand, not because it is a lofty ideal but an inescapable necessity.

Case in point: climate change, perhaps the archetypal global challenge, also offers a unique opportunity to do just this. Though there are obviously more pressing issues, there are no more important ones. Climate change and the host of related ‘sustainability challenges’ will shape the context for viable economic policies. In countries around the world, people’s views are shifting to no longer passively accept environmental destruction as the inevitable by-product of economic progress. Instead, people are seeing social and environmental damage as the consequences of the wrong products, powered by the wrong energy system, guided by the wrong economic policies. With the Copenhagen climate negotiations looming in December 2009, this year will likely be seen by our children as a turning point in cooperation and collaborative innovation, or a tragically missed opportunity to foster both.

Start with China. I have the good fortune of spending some part of every year in China, and I firmly believe that now is the time for working together on key global challenges like accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels.

Last year, China passed the US as the number one emitter of carbon dioxide. But China’s (gross) manufacturing export flow is over thirty percent of its GDP, almost half of which go to the U.S. So, a large share of China’s greenhouse gas emissions are really contributions to greenhouse gases driven by U.S. businesses and consumer demand. That the emissions are generated outside our boundaries hardly absolves us of responsibility in the matter. Who should be accountable for reducing these emissions when it comes time to commit to global emissions reductions targets in December? Is it the producers alone or the producers and their customers together? (Obviously, a similar argument applies to many other countries who purchase products produced in China, or who purchase services produced India)

So it is disingenuous at the least to point the finger at China and not recognize the three other fingers pointing back at ourselves.

If we approach climate change as a problem created by us all, very different approaches could be devised that would drive collaborative innovation – such as an agreed upon system of carbon labeling that would inform all regarding the embedded carbon in all products. Combined with effective mechanisms for pricing carbon emissions (such as in emerging cap and trade schemes), this could create consistent economic signals linking carbon producers and customers in reducing emissions.

Similarly, both our countries face powerful entrenched political interests aligned behind keeping fossil fuel energy prices artificially low. But businesses and customers alike are awakening to the foolhardiness of these policies. Just as the price of cigarettes hardly reflect their true cost, no one today can think that the low Chinese or US prices of gasoline at the pump or electricity at the socket reflect true cost – neither the costs of US troops in the Middle East nor those, current or prospective, of climate change, which the UK’s Stern report predicted could be comparable to the costs of WWII in the coming decades. Committing to higher fossil energy prices would take immense political courage, but it would create the consistent signals needed to drive innovation in alternatives. (This could be done, for example, by setting a floor under effective prices and taxing the difference if global market prices for fossil fuel energy fall below that floor, using revenues so generated to support investment in energy efficiency, alternative energy, and assisting the poor in adjusting to higher costs.)

And it is the pace and scale of this innovation that will tell the tale – and it is hard to imagine two countries better positioned to co-create this innovation. Together, the markets of these two countries combined for both energy efficiency and alternative energy dwarf the rest of the world. Rising environmentalism is one of the most powerful political forces in China. Rising green entrepreneurialism is one of the most powerful economic forces in the US. (“Cleantech” investment in green energy is already among the largest venture capital flows in the US - some say the largest). No country is better positioned than China to ramp up manufacture of alternative energy, and come down the corresponding cost curves - because of the enormous scale of future energy demand and its equally enormous need for distributed energy production that can slow the tide of mass urbanization (and Westernization) in favor of more balanced and distributed economic development. Just as the U.S. will need to create millions of Greentech jobs to reduce the carbon footprint of our urban and suburban population, almost three quarters of China’s population is still rural and will never be efficiently well served by centralized coal fired power plants.

In a nutshell, there is immense potential for partnerships between our two countries to accelerate the inevitable transition to a regenerative economy. This is what the Chinese call the “circular economy,” one modeled on the principles of the larger living world, versus the linear “take-make-waste” industrial-age paradigm.

It is understandable at times like this for a new President to call upon Americans to step forward and contribute to solving the problems we face. But, I also believe it is a time to reach out to other nations and say that now is the time when we must all step forward to solve the problems that we have all created.

The world has gotten used to an arrogant America. Rather than a sign of weakness, asking for help and partnership might just be the signal of hope that the world is looking for.

Peter Senge is a faculty member at MIT, the founding chair of SoL, Society for Organizational Learning and Chair of SoL China.

He is the author of The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization and co-author of The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World

Ramblings on flow

Author: Brodie Boland
Published on Sep 24th, 2008
http://brodie.nomadlife.org/

Almost all of us have experienced the state of flow at one point in our lives. It's the feeling of being so immersed in a book that when you put it down and look at the clock, hours have passed in what seemed like minutes. It's being 'in the zone' in a basketball game, when it seems as if one is almost able to intuitively sense the position of other players on the court. It's that sense of ease, of effortlessness and energy in the last leg of a long run, when the pace, the hearbeat, the sounds are all in rhythym and one feels as if floating. Csikszentmihalyi, a rather famous psychologist, has studied this state and identified a number of effects, as well as preconditions of flow.

The most immediate effect is the feeling of enjoyment. Csikszentmihalyi found that many of the moments we enjoy most in our lives are those in which we experience flow. And not only are we enjoying ourselves, but we perform best, we feel most empowered afterwards, we leave the activity with a sense of energy, and we develop psychologically through repeated experiences of the flow state. It is, perhaps, one of the most precious of human states.

So what enables flow? There are a number of preconditions, including:
- Clear goals and ongoing feedback
- The ability to concentrate on the task at hand (continuous email checking is, I suspect, one of the greatest barriers to flow for many)
- The ability to immerse oneself in the task, such that one can lose self-consciousness (this is both a cause and effect of flow)
- A balance between one's ability and the challenge at hand, such that one is challenged but not frustrated
- A sense of control over the result
- The activity is intrinsically rewarding (again, both cause and effect)

Along with flow and positive emotions, a third pillar of postive psychology is that of meaning. I interpret meaning to indicate the feelings of importance one has as to their own narrative. In other words, can they tell a story about their life that gives it some significance. In my view, meaning can be seen as flow scaled up from the level of one activity to one's whole life. My sense of meaning in my life is dependent upon whether I am able to enter a more macro state of flow. Do I have clear goals that are in some way tied to a broader narrative I tell about life and the world? Can I immerse myself in my life, or do I feel as if I am never really making contact with the substance of my existence? Am I fit to meet the challenges that life throws my way?

And not only does flow matter at the levels of enjoyment and performance in a moment and of one's sense of meaning in life, but I think that flow also connects us with the most fundamental essence of our existence. As in the state of flow one becomes immersed in a task or experience and loses the sense of self, these flow moments are those in which we most directly participate in the flow of existence itself. We have, even for a moment, released our self-contraction and taken joy in this convergence of a creative process and our own satisfaction.

It is no surprise then, that in these deepest moments of flow a fortunate few members of humanity experience that falling away of self that characterises the mystical revelation. For what is the state of samadhi if not a much deeper form of flow? It is an absorption in the object of concentration such that there is oneness with that object, and, in Buddhism and Hinduism, it is often seen as the staging ground of enlightenment.

And so flow is not only what we enjoy most, when we perform best, and (in extended form), how we derive meaning from life, but it is also a first step on a much more profound journey.

Probably worth turning off the crackberry for ;-)

Great speeches from people who have a lot to say

On this first video, Al Gore, ex vice president of the US, says:
"We are borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Golf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that needs to change!"
Really worth it!




On the second, Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, who never graduated from college himself, tells 3 interesting stories on the graduation ceremony of Stanford University students. Good stuff!

A teenager's journey to end child slavery

My action plan to end child slavery was both rewarding and challenging. There were many pros and cons and many forks in the road and dead ends.

Photographer : henri ismail at flickr


My vision: To end child slavery so every child has access to education. Child slavery and poverty form a classic ‘egg chicken’ relationship; what came first the poverty or the slavery? Ending child slavery will help eradicate poverty; closing the gap between rich and poor nations.

The plan: Through a social awareness campaign and government lobbying I planned to get people excited about ending child slavery and creating change. I wrote letters to MPs and local councils and to the Victorian Governor Mr David de Kretser.

What I realised: Governments will not change their policies unless the public demands it. The government is the economic guarantor of a nation and will not implement policies that will be against the national interest of economic growth. A policy to end trade with a nation who uses child slavery would weaken Australia’s economy. The strongest action a nation’s government would be willing to take is to apply diplomatic pressure to a country that uses slavery.

My solution: In the globalised world that we live in, nations don’t have absolute power. The key to ending child slavery is through consumer awareness and action. Companies will produce what people want. If people don’t want goods made by a child’s hand they won’t buy it. The obvious answer is to name and shame the companies who use child slavery (there are clear examples on the net; search for child labour under images).

The problem: defamation and corporate confidentiality. Corporations can sue you for defamation. This is happening in Tasmania at the moment with the Gunns logging company suing 20 environmentalists for defamation. The act for Breach of Confidence protects commercial and private communication above freedom of expression.

The solution: promote products and services who don’t use child slavery. Although this is not as effective and emotionally appealing; by supporting services and products who don’t use child slavery you can start a trend which, other consumers may follow forcing companies to change their ways. However this also brings problems of innuendos; if a company releases a line of clothing that is ‘child free’ does that imply all other clothes are made by child slaves?

The pros of my action plan: developing a deep understanding of the complexities of child slavery and the mechanics behind it was rewarding and forced me to think outside the square. I became very passionate about the issue and determined that I could contribute to the movement to help end child slavery.

The cons of the action plan: the complexities involved in child slavery and the greed attached to the continuation of slavery was at times daunting and unnerving. Sometimes I felt that it was too much of a challenge and I wouldn’t make a difference. The project was time consuming but at the same time I was being rewarded for my hard work.

My advice: Take on the big challenges in life; someone has to do it why can’t it be you!
This work is licenced under a Attribution licence.

© Jenelle 2006. First published on actnow.com.au. See original post here.