CONSCIOUS LEADERSHIP IN VUCA TIMES

Political instability, unstable sales trends, shifting business strategies, digital revolution, technological disruptive innovations, environmental changes and worrying scenarios about global warming and changes in human consciousness are just some of the events that are shaking the markets, our organizations and our lives at a whole.

All of them have a tremendous impact on us as human beings and, hence, on how we lead organizations and manage teams.

The VUCA term was first introduced in the early 90s by the US Army War College to refer to the multilateral world that emerged after the end of the Cold War and was characterised as being more Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous than ever before.

In the business world the VUCA concept took off after the global financial crisis started in 2008. Nowadays we live in VUCA times and that is increasingly defining the challenges and opportunities of our immediate future and, specially, the development of leadership skills.

The concept describes a business environment featured by:

·    * Volatile. Change happens unpredictably, especially for the worse. Some times in a very intense manner and without prior advice.

·      * Uncertain. Absence of information that can be taken as definitive, even if it is currently true. Lack of clarity about present and future situation, and difficulty to rely upon.

·      * Complex: Confusion all over. No clear connection between cause and effect. All organizations are affected, further than sectors or areas.

·      * Ambiguous: Not a single or unique interpretation. Even objective facts are interpreted in different ways.

VUCA environment has to do mainly with two aspects of Leadership: the set of capacities and skills we develop and the way we interpret and react to the environment (the conditions under which we manage and take decisions such as planning and manage eventualities).

From the observation and close work with a large number of leaders and managers we can say that there is a short number of attitudes and skills that are common to those who seem to be more successful:

·      * Focus on your Mission and Values. Stick to robust values and a power generating Mission for your company, department, unit or even for yourself.

·      * Generate a Vision with the capacity to engage others around it. Create a compelling image of your preferred future that may work as a focal point for your team and for you.

·     *  Build a broader understanding (systemic vision) of your company and its environment looking at the whole picture, including the unseen relations and patterns.

·      * Develop your Versatile and Agile Leadership skills and tools, specially towards:

o   Emotional Intelligence and self control in stressful situations.

o   Self energy renewal, positivism and enthusiasm.

o   Change Management skills, tolerance to error and frustration.

o   Fast learning (flexibility, self criticism and feedback)

Usually VUCA times come along with an increasingly high number of changes at all levels of the organizations (business, processes, tools, etc.) that personnel has to cope with.  A fragmented vision over management tends to separate things and disregard the huge impact that change has on persons, especially on leaders. Organizations that do not pay enough attention at developing the conditions and skills that their leaders need usually suffer severe negative effects on the achievement of their goals and, finally, on their bottom line.

 About the author: Joan Cos Codina is a Managing Partner at the international consulting firm in leadership development , strategy and cultural transformation TAGA – (www.taga.net) and co-Founder and Partner at the center Pinea3 Living Organizations. He has a broad experience in managing change in organizations.

Cuando "Dr. No" da lo mejor - Colaboración Apreciativa

A menudo me preguntan qué es Colaboración Apreciativa…

* Cuando Pepe, Manel, Núria, el Doctor No y Mr. Horrible  se ponen en su mejor estado personal para entregar lo mejor que tienen.

* Cuando juntos, como si fueran uno solo,  sienten que están en el mismo barco.

* Cuando se ponen por delante un objetivo común compartido, como una intención positiva de todos.

* Cuando lo hacen por encima de las diferencias, rencillas, intereses y todo lo que todos sabemos que siempre hay en los grupos.

* Cuando todas las circunstancias, por contrarias que nos parezcan, son apreciadas: reconocidas, aceptadas y bienvenidas.

* Cuando de esta manera se ponen a trabajar con la mayor creatividad para resolver un problema o inventar algo nuevo.

Y cuando finalmente esto lo llevan a una solución concreta, racional, equilibrada, ordenada y ejecutable en un plan.

Y de esta forma consiguen generar algo nuevo y han ido mucho más allá de donde podrían llegar sólo sumando lo mejor de cada uno.

Y cuando al hacerlo, Pepe, Manel, Núria, el Doctor No y Mr. Horrible  y quiensea   se sienten orgullosos y están bien.

Todo esto es  www.colaboracionapreciativa.com

 Y SIRVE para que las empresas y otras organizaciones encuentren fuentes de competitividad y a la vez bienestar de las personas.

Y TU TAMBIÉN PUEDES CONSEGUIRLO EN TU EMPRESA y yo estoy a tu disposición para orientarte, resolver dudas, etc. Escríbeme a mi mail joan.cos de pinea3.com.

ORGANIZATIONAL ENERGY FOR BUSINESS EXCELLENCE. A powerful framework in management.

WE JUST PUBLISHED OUR BOOK in English "Organizational Energy: 7 pillars of business excellence" (2014) from the original in Spanish ("Energía Organizacional: 7 pilares de excelencia empresarial", Ed. Profit, 2012).

“This book is a major contribution to the evolution of our views of organization and leadership moving us towards understanding them as Living Organizations. Boldly setting a new framework, the Organizational Energy System (OES)® modeled on the human energy system, the authors provide us with practical approaches to diagnose root causes and release blocked energy to open new pathways for innovation and business excellence. This is a must read book!"

Norman Wolfe, Chairman/CEO Quantum Leaders (USA), author of "The Living Organization: Transforming Business To Create Extraordinary Results"

 Coming soon to bookstores but NOW AVAILABLE in AMAZON kindle version. Click HERE

WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL ENERGY?

The term '''Organizational Chakras''' refers to the set of energy centres within an organization or company (public or private). It can also refer to the Organizational Energy System (OES) of an organization.  It is based on the assumption that an organization is a living organism and therefore has its own energies.  The concept of “organizational chakras” is an attempt to classify and organize such energies.

Content

The parallel between the human body and the body of an organization (as both are living entities) gives meaning and content to the concept of Organizational Chakras. Just as human bodies have energy centres (those human chakras that are a long established tradition within Eastern wisdom systems), organizational bodies also have energy centres (organizational chakras).

As proposed by Bernal, Cos and Tarré, the organizational chakras that form the Organizational Energy System (OES) are:

1.- Grounding.

            2.- Wellbeing

            3.- Willpower

            4.- Cooperation

            5.- Communication

            6.- Wisdom

            7.- Community

The authors hold that examining an organization through the lens of its OES provides many useful and insightful opportunities for diagnosis, intervention and transformation.  Their approach deliberately starts from a different perspective than more traditional business models (such as departments, products, processes, etc.). They also hold that the OES is a broad and effective management tool that can be used in all types of organizations, such as private companies, public administrations, not-for-profit, associations, etc.

Academic background

Several authors developed the concept of organic and living organizations before Cos, Tarré and Bernal.  Prominent examples are Arie de Geus (The Living Company,  1997), Norman Wolfe (The Living Organization, 2011) and William A Guillory (The Living Organization: Spirituality in the Workplace, 2000.). While all three explored the concept of an organization as a living entity, Wolfe also introduced the idea of energy as an organizational parameter that can be evaluated and managed.

Although Fon Trompenaars and Peter Ten Hoopen wrote on what they called the chakras of leadership (The Enlightened Leader: An introduction to the chakras of leadership, 2009), it is the authors Enric Bernal, Joan Cos and Xavier Tarré that first published on the concept of organizational chakras.  They explored this concept in depth in their 2012 book, “Organizational Energy: 7 pillars of business excellence”. In the book they proposed a way to classify and quantify the energies of an organization through a system of energy centres (chakras).  They also developed a business methodology for working with those energy centers that they claim has proven to be transformational and highly effective. Cos and Tarré had previously written about the energy of teams and methods to manage it (Gestionar un equipo a través de su energía - Team Energy), in the book Team Beat, 2011, EADA Centro de Innovación: Barcelona.).

Others authors have taken a non-traditional approach to understanding and improving aspects of organizations, such as its soul (Richard Barret) and its energy (Schwartz and McCarthy).  Peter Senge popularized the notion of organizations as systems in his seminal book "The Fifth Discipline"

The premise behind many of these non-traditional approaches is the need for an evolution  of management thinking and methods beyond viewing an organization simply a machine for translating inputs into outputs for an economic return. Current mainstream management methods have their origins rooted in the Industrial Revolution and Taylorism, with a narrow focus on economic efficiency through process improvement. The newer approaches look to develop management methods and techniques that are more inclusive of the central role of human nature and behaviors; even spirituality. Gary Hamel has written extensively on the need for newly rooted business management concepts and techniques (The Future of Management, 2007).