So we conclude this video series with 2 videos that sum up with how to use this idea to get what I think we all want – which is – to find out very quickly where we are now and then to see what we can do to affect our culture to start to get us on the path to the outcomes that we seek.

Of course the choice to do this is ours but all will be able to see it and the choices.

In this video we look at why would we care.

We have seen that we understand by seeing patterns. Until now we have focused on tangibles. Stuarts premise is that there is more value at looking at the pattern of the intangibles.

The key intangible is culture. So if we can see this pattern, we can map our way to the future.

Key to this pattern is our role.

We know what this is for parenting.

If we follow this we can have a quick look at any organization and see where it is and then make some valid decisions about what is going on and what to do.

It is as simple as seeing your role clearly.

All the gaps stem from this.

In this video we look at how we can use this new tool to “See” a new view of reality just as Galileo or Pasteur offered a new insight.

Start with “What is our role and then how can we be more effective”

Then is the culture and leadership aligned

Then is the org aligned

Then is the service/product aligned

The there must be a “face” can be an icon or a story.

We have relationships with a “face/icon”

Not with an institution. Icons and Symbols are best.

All must be aligned.

Without this you can all be very very hard creating entropy.

When you do this it will not be hard. With all aligned – there is very little friction. Flow – which is also a reward in itself.

Time to get off the train

Posted on November 17th, 2009 by Harold Jarche

In Alvin & Heidi Toffler’s book, Revolutionary Wealth, they discuss the “clash of speeds” of our various societal structures, using a train analogy.

Speeding along at 100 mph is the enlightened business train; adapting and using new technologies (exploiting change).

Still fast at 90 mph is the civil society train; NGO’s, professional groups, activists, religious groups (demanding change).

Keeping up at 60 mph is the family train; working, shopping, trading & selling from home (adapting to change).

A distance back, at 30 mph is the union train, still focused on a mass-production mindset (denying change).

A bit further back at 25 mph is the large government bureaucracy train; slowing everybody else down (fighting change).

Limping along at 10 mph is the education train; protected by monopoly, bureaucracy & unions (blind to change).

Way back is at 5 mph is the international agency train: comprising organizations like WIPO, WTO, IMF (immune to change).

Even slower, at 3 mph is the political system train; discussing, debating but not accomplishing much (too busy to change).

Pulling up the rear at 1 mph is the legal train; so far behind that it hasn’t noticed the beginning of the financial bubble, let alone its collapse (rigor mortis).

Reflecting on the organizations I have worked in and worked with, I think these speed comparisons make a lot sense. Given that certain businesses can change so much quicker than education, it’s obvious that educational reform will come from without, not within, the system.

When we significantly change how we work, our education systems should follow suit, but due to its design constraints, the Edu-train cannot keep up with the Ent 2.0 train. Perhaps the only option for the passengers is to get off and find another train.

Harold makes so much sense with this post. I was having breakfast with another Free Lancer today - we talked a lot about time as well. Of course Free Lancers freed of all those meetings, commutes, IT and HR departments - go at about 400 miles an hour - very hard to stay in touch with even business and GOVERNMENT!!!!!

For folks who can't help thinking about the new - picking the right client becomes ever more crucial.

In the Power Up Project we look at the 3 Values sets that are part of this "speed" issue.

Nurturers - include Unions, Goverment and Education - hate all change - it is who they are

Providers - most business - will go for it if they can see how they can "Win"

Pioneers - Who "See" the future and can feel the past - Are all about Change

The challenge is clear - the hardest group to reach are Nurturers - They need lots of examples to think of shifting. Likely to start with Pioneers who have a nurturing side or with Providers with a Nurturing side.

But a direct approach merely based on evidence will get the same response as Galileo did from that epitome of Nuturing organizations - the Catholic Church. I am not making a snide joke. The Church responded to Galileo as all nurturers do when faced with the threat of real change - an Inquisition.

All those trying 2.0 in Ed will feel the power of the Inquisition I fear

Each part of the triad cannot make progress on their own.

The optimal path for natural and healthy growth demands all three.

In our bodies, we have a regulatory system. In DNA there is P53 that keeps the harmony of the system. The planet has a regulatory system that keeps the system in a range of limits for life – most of the time that is.

Ideally government can do this – though this seems to have been captured by the provider archetype and by the providers.

We speculate that a new model for “managing” organizations may be what we need. A facilitating structure?

But the early work that we can all do without finding the answer to this thorny question is to align your organization to the values demanded by the role.

Values are not Cherry Picked out in a meeting on Values – but are core to the real essence of what you do.

So for instance Health Care is at its core a Nurturing Value – but in the US is is Primarily a Provider role – so there are 40 million “losers” and this can never be fixed in this value set.

The first question that we can answer is “what is our core role?” and how do we then balance other values and their roles below this.

I  hope that this short video will help you see how this works

We look at Public Transit and Health Care.

What you will see is that there are layers of values that you can see as being best for what you do – that is the essence of the “Map”

You will see that “seeing” this Map is very easy – you can look at any organization and in minutes see the fit or the gaps.

What does the conflict between Nurturers and Providers mean for us right now? I think that it means that we are stuck.

But if we can “see” the underlying system, then we can find out where we are and have plans to make things better.

In this video we look at the challenge of bringing the 3 parts together. We start with the challenge of our time – an over emphasis on the Provider role.

Stuart shows us how all 3 see each other.

Our tendency is to find others like us and attack.

We end this section with more detail on the Innovator/Pioneer role – their best outcomes is the “See” to “See” the new.

Some claim that human organizations are not "systems". But all humans live inside a "System" It is our culture. All humans interact in the context of their culture and the values that they hold inside that culture.

Today the West is heavily biased to one of the 3 parts of this cultural mix - The Provider Archetype - The push back is coming from the Nurturers and the Pioneers are almost absent having been co-opted by the Provider view of "If I cannot make money from this new thing right away - I don't even want to hear about it - Mt Murdoch and Media and the Web?

We can reduce the entire spectrum of the core values of culture into 3 types. Nurturers, Providers and Pioneers. Here is a link to the entire idea – so you can see more context.

In this video we look more at the Nurturer and then discuss Provider.

The key is that there is a combination of the 3 values like the 3 primary colors.

So lets assign Green to Nurturer. Everyone will have a dominant and then have a mix. There is not an ethical issue here. No one area is “better” than the other. A mix is essential.

As a Nurturer you will lean to helping others.

They will never survive on their own nor will it grow. It will not create wealth or things that we need. They don’t create material things.

The values that create the world of wealth conflict with nurturing. So lets look next at Red – the Providers

In this video we look at the role of the Provider – the Red Zone.

Providers in a zero sum universe – I win or you do! They are very focused. They are very competitive. Winners and Losers. Tiger Woods is a good example. So focused on being all focused on that shot.

There is no good or bad – this attribute is essential for the larger whole.

Any for profit organization must have this first – transactional first.

Have to give the least to get more. So I don’t ask any big picture questions. Risk is that trend to efficiency versus effectiveness. So like Big Ag – in the end I deplete over time and then fail – same with the financial system.

Like Nurturers need other roles too.
For a good provider will screen all else out.

We are stuck right now because we take a moral view of what is right or wrong.

Better to see the issue as one of balance.

We seem to be stuck between those who see the world only in terms of business and transactions and others who see a wider context. Both see the other as being at best stupid and misguided. Many see the other as evil.

Here Stuart reveals what is being this split - the two main values sets or world views. We can understand where the "other" is coming from.

We finish this post with a sense of where to go.

This is not a moral problem it is one of understanding a system.

Is one of our problems today that when we talk of Growth – we get Cancer – a type of growth that feeds on the host rather than allows the host to grow?

Here Stuart shows us the difference and how to set up the pathway for “True” Growth. He sets us up to see that the ideal conditions for True Growth is a balance of values – that an over focus on one value leads to the Cancer type.

It is the environment that affects the kind of growth we have. For most things that means an optimal physical environment. But for humans it means an optimal Cultural environment.

Let’s see the difference.

An acorn, in its ideal environment, will grow into not only a tree but over time into a huge forest that offers a home for a huge ecosystem. Inside this system is a vast network of intangibles and unseen connections. As the system grows it get more complex and the intangibles interact in ever more complex ways. As a real growth happens, the “effort” is less and less and the ROI gets higher.

But we as humans tend to think that we can ignore the environment and use force and physical leverage to get nature to work harder for us. For a while this works but then it fails.

So in farming we strip out nearly element and add ever more outside energy. There is a huge early return but over time the ROI goes down. Finally there is collapse. We choose not to work with nature and so make our work hard and in the end futile.

In organizations the model is the same as it is for farming and in the end so are the results. We tend to try and use force and physical leverage to get results.

This leads to a type of Cancer Growth that destroys the host. This POV is a values construct. It is not because we are stupid or evil. We have been captured by a meme of dominance and of “Winning” – the word “Win” will mean more to you as we reveal more of the patterns that make up culture.

If we can see the natural model for growth as a starting point, then we can then move onto seeing how we can make it easier to use this better way. This will imply a balance between the 3 main sets of values that make up the system of human values.

In the next video we will introduce you to the whole picture/map.