Educational Archives - Co-Creating Mutual Value Collaborative

Radical Participation in the Workplace: A Guest Blog

Bernard Mohr — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 21:27:56 +0000

Donald W. de Guerre

Emeritus Faculty, Concordia University and Member of the CCMV Advisory Council

“Nothing feels better at work than collaborating with others

to find innovative solutions to difficult challenges.”

People not only have the right to be involved in the decisions that affect them at work, they have the psychological need to be involved. The good news is that radical participation processes work, add value and accelerate positive change in health care, education, social services and in business! Partially participative processes (sometimes called consultative participation such as many Design Thinking approaches) just don’t deliver the best results. The difference involves shifting from “You said… we did” to “we said, and we did,” which builds radical participation into the organizational culture as a “way of being.”

Radical participation includes everyone affected by workplace innovations in designing the innovations. Of course, everyone can’t be involved in everything so creative ways to provide opportunity for involvement is part of the process. In small organizations everyone can be involved in all innovation activities and in large organizations, everyone can be involved in some innovation activities. A wide range of evidence-based and well-developed tools exist for engaging hundreds even thousands of people, in both face to face and virtual processes of participation in the co-discovery and design of innovations. These include but are not limited to Search Conferencing, Open Space Technology, Appreciative Inquiry Innovation Studios and Summits, World Café, Social Labs “town halls,” and more.[1]

Think about this for a moment. Without the ability to affect the environment in which one lives and works, one is powerless, and this can result in a deep sense of self-doubt that affects not only the workplace but also our families, our community and our countries. A workplace characterized by people who are not actively engaged, but rather passively doing only what they are told is not productive and innovative. To have the ability to produce intended results, one needs to know “why” and this requires being involved in creating the solutions as well as implementing them. Emotions arising from top down or partially participative workplace innovation and change include contempt, humiliation, guilt, shame and anger.[2] These illicit natural and strong defenses that end in the refusal to work with others, disengagement (the lack of caring about my work) and sometimes, active sabotage.

Consider the radical participation alternative. Nothing feels better at work than collaborating with others to find innovative solutions to difficult challenges. In an environment where one is involved in a fast-moving dialogue searching for new ways to work better, people feel valued for their knowledge and skill, respected and included. They feel involved, engaged and that their contributions are valued and worthwhile. Strengths are recognized, appreciation and positive emotions are generated, and a work climate of high energy is created. Creativity and innovation are at their best and so are productivity and human health. In the face of conflict or tragedy, resilience and agility are demonstrated. Positive human relations develop and lead to high trust, and trust leads to a willingness to engage and take risks that can only result in better solutions. A virtuous cycle of continuous innovation and design develops for the organization. Participation in the process of designing innovations leads to learning how to use participation in the day-to-day functioning of the workplace. The result is a continuously adaptive agile organization.

How might we co-discover and co-create such a positive workplace? Research has shown that intrinsic motivation at work stems from six psychological factors.[3]

Having some area of responsibility that is yours in which you have the autonomy and the accountability to make decisions and to innovate.
The opportunity to learn and get better at your job and to get to do more complex or difficult things.
Not always, repetitively doing the same thing but having some variety in the work that you do.

These first three factors are quite personal. What is energizing for you may be terrifying or far too simple for me. So, we all need to participate together to figure out what is right for us in our workplaces. Radical participation is essential in this working through process.

We all want more of these second group of three factors (below) all the time. They are embedded (or not) in the workplace by the choices that we have made as managers about the design of the organization – the structures, systems, and policies.

4. The trust and respect of others so that when I ask for help, I get it and when I suggest or offer ideas to improve our work together, I am listened to and I feel heard and understood.

5. A meaningful job that provides some sense of contributing to the whole organization and society. A feeling of pride when telling others what you do, and

6. A clear path to a desirable future. A sense that if I participate fully here, I will be able to realize my dreams.

Research also shows that even though this second set of factors is desired by everyone, not many of us experience all six of these critical psychological factors at work. A radically participative organizational culture is necessary, and it can be created with radically, not partially participative processes of workplan redesign and innovation.

Today, managers, consultants and academics are learning that full participation by all those involved in implementation in the process of designing innovations really works – but it is still rare enough to be called radical. The next challenge that some are learning is even more radical. That is how to capture and use the learning from radically participative innovation and design as a day-to-day way of being to continuously innovate business and operational models. That is a future blog.

[1] See Mohr, Bernard and Dessers, Ezra , p#284, “Designing Integrated Care Ecosystems: A Socio-Technical Perspective” 2019, Springer Nature, Switzerland

[2] See de Guerre, D. W., Emery, M., Aughton, P., and Trull, Andrew (2008). Structure Underlies Other Organizational Determinants of Mental Health: Recent Results Confirm Early Sociotechnical Systems Research. SPAR, http://www.springerlink.com/content/glq28t156367213n/.

[3] Emery, Merrelyn (2008). The Determinants of Creativity and Innovation at Work. Unpublished Manuscript available from the author.

The post Radical Participation in the Workplace: A Guest Blog appeared first on Co-Creating Mutual Value Collaborative.

Pause, Breathe, and Get Curious: A Short Question Set forLeaders in the Midst of Crisis

Neil Samuels — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 21:17:05 +0000

By Neil Samuels, Partner and Core Faculty, People Powered Innovation Collaborative

I love the phrase often used by my friend and colleague Cheri Torres— “pause, breathe,
and get curious.” We cannot overuse that mantra during these incredibly VUCA times
(Volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous). Precisely when the situation seems to call
for quick decision and action, we are often better served by slowing down just a bit, taking
a slow, deep breath, and getting curious. But about what? I suggest focusing on three
elements–Learning, Strengths, and Possibility.

Learning

What are you learning that might be helpful going forward? Over the next few weeks?
When shelter-in-place restrictions start to lift?
Who has stepped up and demonstrated new competence (talents,
knowledge, or skills)?
Who has displayed great character or shown unexpected leadership and
because of that has helped your organization thrive?
Have there been the new influencers in your organization?
What have you done differently that worked? What have you tried that with
some rapid prototyping and adaptation could prove valuable?
Who else might it be helpful to include in ongoing conversations?
Those most affected by any changes?
Those with different perspectives who could help enlarge the possibility
set?
Customers, clients, or those you serve?

Strengths

What strengths (in competence and/or character) in your people have you tapped into
over the past two months? How could you amplify the impact of those strengths?
What capabilities, resources, knowledge, wisdom, and wonder that give life to your
organization when it’s most alive, and most successful have you tapped into over the
past two months? How could you amplify the impact of those gifts?

Possibility

Given everything you have learned, what might be possible now that would have
been unimaginable two months ago?

In your business model? (How you create, deliver, and capture value.)
In your operating model? (Your organizational structures, processes and
practices.)

You can use these questions first to reflect on the past couple months. Then, incorporate
them into short weekly sessions with diverse groups of people to ensure you stay current. I
think you will find the brief pauses spent in getting curious will generate robust returns for
your people and your organization.

Side note on why strengths matter

University of Wisconsin researchers studying team performance videotaped two bowling
teams. The members of each team then studied their video to improve their skills. But the
two videos had been edited differently. One team received a video identifying only its
mistakes; the other team’s video, by contrast, showed only what was working well; i.e., the
good performances and their strengths-in-use. After studying the videos, both teams
improved their game, but the team that studied its successes improved its score twice
as much as the one that studied its mistakes.

Photo by Ekaterina Bolovtsova from Pexels

The post Pause, Breathe, and Get Curious: A Short Question Set for
Leaders in the Midst of Crisis appeared first on Co-Creating Mutual Value Collaborative.

Searching for (new) Meaning

Bernard Mohr — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 21:05:09 +0000

Three questions were posed in a recent publication by McKinsey & Co. article on “Our future lives and livelihoods: Sustainable and inclusive and growth” <<https://mck.co/3Ghv1bt >>:

Growth – Without growth, how will we achieve prosperity and well-being or pay for the transitions needed for a more sustainable and inclusive economy?

Inclusion – Without inclusion—an opportunity for productive work and life satisfaction for all citizens—how will we ensure the demand that propels growth?

Sustainability – Without sustainability, how can we have a long-term, tenable view on growth for this generation and the next?

The intent clearly was to make the case for linking social prosperity and well-being to the relationship of growth, inclusion, and sustainability – with growth being the cornerstone.

Hard to argue with. Unless we ask “what kind of growth?”.

Surely we don’t need more of the cornucopia of consumer goods we already have in much of the industrialized world. And yet consumerism is deeply engrained in our way of life.

Can we engage our moral imagination[i], using a business lens, by asking these questions?

What does society need if we are to live in a world that works for all – “where people, businesses, and economies, all thrive, now and for future generations”?

What if we seek new corporate growth opportunities that generate mutual value for both the company and the communities within which it resides – value that goes beyond greater consumption by the few; value that has a net-positive impact on inclusion and sustainability?

Might it be that forging a world with new systems of prosperity, justice, equality, opportunity, participation, environmental health, and human experience could open vast new routes to corporate prosperity – not by minimizing damaging impact but by elevating positive contribution?

We long for our institutions, not just in government, education or healthcare, but also in the corporate sector to embrace this needed role of forging a world that works for all. However, despite dramatic innovations in technology and the world of material objects, our results in designing healthy, effective, and flourishing human systems, have been highly inconsistent. History shows that such work is difficult but not impossible. The goal is to do more of it.

One solution is to increase corporate capacity for identifying, seizing and acting upon new business opportunities at the intersection of real value for both the corporation and the communities within which they operate. Many articles have been written about this idea, but it appears we do not yet have the widespread capacity in our corporate ecosystem to undertake this work, for many reasons. This profit-through-purpose strategy is easier to talk about than do, but not impossible.

But, imagine for a moment that we succeed in developing the tools, methods and business practices needed by corporations to apply their strengths in innovation and execution to this new profit-through-purpose strategy.

This is the challenge that we have set for ourselves – to make such transformation easier, faster, and less risky. To take the best of what works now, leverage and innovate it, try it and improve it. To give corporations and their partners in this work (be it value chain members, community organizations, government agencies or other civil society entities) the means to successfully collaborate in what we are calling Co-Creating Mutual Value.*

A Starting Point

As Porter and Kramer[ii] in their work on Creating Shared Value (https://bit.ly/3I6tyq1) have said:

“The starting point for creating this kind of shared value is to identify all the societal needs, benefits, and harms that are or could be embodied in the firm’s products. The opportunities are not static; they change constantly as technology evolves, economies develop, and societal priorities shift. An ongoing exploration of societal needs will lead companies to discover new opportunities for differentiation and repositioning in traditional markets, and to recognize the potential of new markets they previously overlooked.”

Yes, but how? How to engage and work productively with diverse voices – let alone align enough of them for forward movement?

The Journey’s Human Side

The decision to undertake and stick with a journey that may not generate immediate financial returns requires more than an edict from the CEO. What’s needed is:

oxygen for the fresh ways of thinking so often already in alive in the corporation

growing the partnership possibilities already within the corporation’s ecosystems, just waiting to be energized

better ways of moving forward that accelerate the pace, minimize risk while maximizing learning and generate benefits in the process

the understanding and active support of multiple constituencies, including but not limited to Board members, investors, employees, regulators and so on

brilliance in reconceiving products and markets, redefining value chain productivity and building supportive industry clusters*

additional innovation not only in creating new value through new products and services but also innovation in new ways of delivering value or new ways of capturing value.

As the McKinsey article concluded:

“No stakeholder can solve all these problems on their own. A clear road map, with buy-in from others, is paramount, as is a framework of incentives that balance short- and long-term horizons and interests across value-chain.”

“Tackling these challenges successfully will require multiple experiments, unprecedented speed in scaling successful ones, and broad participation across actors.”

The Practical “HOW” – the Co-Creating Mutual Value idea

The idea is simple. Most of the corporate contributions to society have come in the form of CSR (corporate social responsibility) work – primarily philanthropic efforts and efforts to do less harm. Many of these CSR efforts are costly to the bottom line or at best in the category of “cost reduction”.

Few such efforts have been conceptualized at the intersection of creating profit for the corporation and meaningful value for society – let alone the idea of doing this with ecosystem stakeholders vs for stakeholders. These two shifts are simple in concept and can be tectonic in execution.

At the core we need new conversations – conversations between people who don’t normally talk with each other; conversations that don’t repeat old patterns but bring new ideas, commitments and relationships to life; conversations that are rich in both substance and ways of talking that open rather than close possibilities.

This is the contribution of what we describe as Co-Creating Mutual Value:

the practical “HOW” of collaboratively identifying shared purpose and opportunities for mutual value creation and then taking action together … to fulfill each partner’s expectations while forging a world that works for all, and

a “HOW” of customizable stages, ideas, conversations-that-matter, and actions – designed to successfully engage diverse stakeholders in innovation at this scale and produce results.

PS: In our experience, journeys of this nature rarely succeed if driven ONLY by the desire for financial gain. Prosperity is a sine qua non but so is the recognition that this is the right thing to do.

We invite you to find out more, join us, work with us and support us.

https://co-creatingmutualvalue.org– a not for profit dedicated to Accelerating the ability of businesses and their ecosystems to prosper BY building a better world.

1A fuller description of what is meant by “moral imagination” can be found in the article “Examining the Impact of Moral Imagination on Organizational Decision Making” Lindsey N. Godwin July 11, 2012 in Business and Society

² As part of our belief that the fastest way forward is not to reinvent the wheel but to build on ideas that offer promise, we want to acknowledge the works of Michael Porter and Mark Kramer on what they call Creating Shared Value; the work of Bruno Roche and Jay Jakub and their work on what they call the Economics of Mutuality; as well as the work of Paul Polman and Andrew Winston on what they call Net Positive. These authors have all contributed substantially to our journey of developing and openly sharing a practical “HOW” for this work.

The post Searching for (new) Meaning appeared first on Co-Creating Mutual Value Collaborative.

What Does Co-Creating Mutual Value Look Like?

Bernard Mohr — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 19:07:41 +0000

What does Co-Creating Mutual Value Look Like?

Bernard Mohr

Vasant (Vas) Narasimhan, MD, CEO, Novartis writes…

“When it comes to health, low-and middle-income countries often have the most to gain from technology and data science innovations. They can spur leap-frog advances in health outcomes and patient care for entire populations.”

But the aim must not be to duplicate what works in other parts of the world—we need to realize solutions that are right for specific communities.

I visited Rwanda earlier this year and once again witnessed the ways tech in health can accelerate health system strengthening, which is critical to broadening access to medicine. I got to launch drones with Zipline, an innovative supply chain catalyst that delivers medicines, vaccines, and health supplies across rural areas with minimal road infrastructure. I toured the Rwanda Military Hospital, where I met partners who work tirelessly on our clinical trials for novel malaria medicines. I visited Norrsken House, which hosts Africa’s largest health tech hub for entrepreneurs, which is sponsored by the Novartis Foundation and brings together local leaders and innovators collectively working to realize a healthier future for their communities and countries.

I’m proud that for decades, Novartis has invested in community efforts and promising projects like these—important contributions to helping secure a healthier Africa. Building on that commitment, we recently endorsed the Kigali Declaration and pledged $250 million to advance R&D of new treatments against neglected tropical diseases and malaria over five years.

#careforothers #communitysupport #payitforward #payingitforward #UNSDG #givebacktothecommunity #helpingothers #socialgood #sustainability #innovation #netpositive #sustainabilityn #stakeholdercapitalism #inclusivecapitalism #worldeconomicforum #inclusivestakeholdercapitalism #orgdesign #SharedValueInitiative #BusinessRoundtable #EconomicsofMutuality #LarryFink #environmentaljustice #socialjustice #esg #esgInvesting #Imagineone

The post What Does Co-Creating Mutual Value Look Like? appeared first on Co-Creating Mutual Value Collaborative.

The CCMV Collaborative Vision for 2030

Bernard Mohr — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 15:02:58 +0000

Ten thousand businesses actively building a better world for all of us and achieving unparalleled prosperity BY creating value at the sweet spot of:

🔹 What the world NEEDS to become a place that can work for all,

🔹 What the business WANTS to do to build a better world, and

🔹 What the business and its ecosystem partners CAN do to thrive

Not sure about this vision?

Take this 2 min quiz developed by our colleague David Cooperrider at Case Western Reserve University.

Do you…

Want to be part of the solution revolution and believe that we have an incredible opportunity to reimagine and create entirely new and net positive industries, products, services, and supply chains while in parallel helping to transition existing systems to a generative and regenerative economy in the service of life, now and across the generations?

Want to experience a new change equation, one that reverses and erases the common and continuing 70-80% failure rate of major change initiatives while showing how people will thrive and unite in bold change, and that resistance to change is largely a myth? People don’t resist change; they resist being changed.

Want to learn about the remarkable power of the rapidly growing field of large group methods — something that’s not top down or bottom up and represents a third kind of leadership — the kind that can turn any significant change opportunity into something that’s intrinsically motivating instead of externally depleting, strengths-focused instead of deficit focused, and innovation-inspired instead of defensive or divisive?

Want your planning methods to strengthen the best in your culture and to leave behind a more flourishing enterprise? Just like Olympic champions and teams have dedicated practice fields, these large group planning “fields” are designed to mold and model a flourishing way of working. They make us better for the future. Large group methods, when well-designed are places of natural flourishing: they are about people inspired every day and bringing their whole selves into the enterprise; they are about innovation arising from everywhere; and they are about realizing remarkable regenerative and net positive value with stakeholders, including customers, communities, societies, and ultimately, with a healthy and thriving nature.”

Click here to watch David’s webinar on Building a Better World:

Click here to get your copy of the Playbook for the Business of Buidling a Better World

The post The CCMV Collaborative Vision for 2030 appeared first on Co-Creating Mutual Value Collaborative.

Deep Learning: Achieving Revolutionary Goals with Evolutionary Steps.

Neil Samuels — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 20:02:42 +0000

The switch to prospering BY forging a better world can be complicated. Toward that end we approach our work with the spirit of low cost, safe, and rapid experimentation. Engaging in regular structured reflection with our client partners, we jointly adapt and quickly improve our work together, and build internal capability for future work of this kind. Revolutionary goals, evolutionary steps.

The big plan, big design, big change project—these strategies, though seductive, are seldom effective in the real world. Because all innovation decisions are simply best bets about what will work in a given environment, learning your way into the future through iteration is better than jumping off a cliff with a “grand plan”. Iteration involves a series of relatively simple, low risk, and quick cycles of trying things out (acting), followed by reflecting on results (learning) and creating the next version (adapting) to deepen the understanding of what is working (or not) and evolve the best solution. This approach of “learning our way into the future,” combined with openness to surprise and a sense of spontaneity in responding, are key to designing business and operating models that co-create mutual value in your ecosystem

Most businesses are good at “acting” and even “adapting”, but often key step of “learning” is skipped. And if we do remember to spend time in reflection, we minimize it by excluding external ecosystem members who could offer different perspectives. It is these other viewpoints which, if valued, often provide the insights leading to breakthrough innovation.

What can you do to build capability in “learning” this way?

We have found one tool particularly useful in learning to do so, the Ladder of Inference developed by Chris Argyris, a professor at Harvard University.

At its essence, the Ladder is a simple model of how we think; how we process our experiences, create inferences about them, and take action; all at lightning speed without noticing we are doing so.

How can we use the ladder to improve “learning?” First, we become aware that we are always “jumping up our ladder” (and know that others are as well). Second, with that awareness comes a choice to be genuinely curious about the other person’s conclusions, meaning and data—to explore their story and walk down their ladder with them. Most often we will discover that we have two very different, and equally valid data sets that have led up to two very different, and equally valid conclusions. By using the ladder we can now jointly develop new meaning and new conclusions and thus arrive at a new action based on our expanded data set. Thus, creating the possibility for innovative solutions.

At the CCMV Collaborative, we apply this same approach with our organizational learning partners, as we continue to evolve the practice of Co-Creating Mutual Value. Throughout every phase of the CCMV journey, we engage members of the ecosystem in dialogues about their experiences with our overall approach, our tools, and our support. Using our process of generative evaluation, we understand what worked well (and why) and what would make it even better in the future.

One added benefit of such an approach to learning is how it facilitates building capability within the business ecosystem for self-guiding the future work of Co-Creating Mutual Value.

The post Deep Learning: Achieving Revolutionary Goals with Evolutionary Steps. appeared first on Co-Creating Mutual Value Collaborative.

Should We Ask Corporations to do More?

Bernard Mohr — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 01:41:42 +0000

Corporations generate and deliver solutions to almost every need in modern life.

But what if, as a society, we asked them to push a bit further? What if we asked them to develop and deliver solutions in areas of need such as racial injustice, economic inequality, or the ever more contaminated biosphere not just within their supply chains, but at ecosystem scale?

____________________________________________________________________________

Forging A Better World: The (Corporate) Times May Be Changing

Bernard Mohr

Reneé gets up most mornings to an alarm on her phone. She checks the news headlines using her NYT subscription and then the weather app that she is trialing for 30 days. Once she has brushed her teeth using her new sonic toothbrush that was recommended to her by a dentist who practices with a dental chain, she showers under a rainfall shower head that was a birthday gift she bought with a “money card” purchased by her brother and serviced through a major financial institution, which is also financing her recent purchase of a used car. Her clothes come from a popular discounter of contemporary fashions, her shoes, which she ordered over the internet and were delivered a day after she ordered them. are a splurge purchase from a top-line manufacturer, Before she has even had time to respond to the text from her health care provider asking her to use their portal so she can verify the medications she is on, Reneé has relied on easily more than a dozen products and services from corporations large and small. And she has barely begun her day.

Corporations have always prospered when successfully delivering products or services that met a need someone was willing to pay for. As a result we rely on corporations to provide almost everything – from birthing centers in hospitals; to the devices that fit in the palms of our hands through which we connect with the world, pay our bills, get our news, and find our way to new destinations; to sophisticated specialty hospitals (full of neurologists, surgeons, internists, radiologists, oncologists, cardiologists etc.) that care for us and our pets; to funeral services that help us to deal with life’s end.

We invented corporations to generate and deliver solutions to almost every need in modern life. But what if, as a society, we asked them to push a bit further?

What if we asked them to develop and deliver solutions in areas of need such as racial injustice, or economic inequality, or the ever more contaminated biosphere– not just within the walls of the corporation, not just within their supply chains, but at ecosystem scale?

The good news is that this call is emerging from a variety of places – both expected and unexpected. Take for example the Edelman Trust Barometer global consumer surveys showing that

“80% agree that organizations must play a role in addressing societal issues”.
- “86 expect CEOs to publicly speak out about one or more of these societal challenges (pandemic, societal issues, job automation, local community issues”
- “68% say CEO’s should step in when government does not fix societal issues”

And perhaps from unexpected sources such as:

Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock (a $8 trillion financial asset management firm),

“Society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a socialpurpose …..Companies must benefit all their stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, and the communities within which they operate”

And..

The US Business Roundtable statement to members

“Each of our stakeholders is essential. We commit to deliver value to all of them, for the future success of our companies, our communities and our country.”

And…

The Davos World Economic Forum 2020 Manifesto

“The purpose of a company is to engage all its stakeholders in shared and sustained value creation. In creating such value, a company serves not only its shareholders, but all its stakeholders – employees, customers, suppliers, local communities and society at large”.

Add to this expanding interest in movements and organizations such as B-Corporations, Conscious Capitalism, the RSA, Stakeholder Capitalism, Capitalism 2.0, the Shared Value Initiative and the plethora of research being conducted on new investment metrics (building on ESG concepts) at places like Harvard, Princeton and Yale’s schools of business – and one begins to sense the development of a sea change in the role business can and should play in society.

Clearly, the times may be changing. Will businesses change with them?

The post Should We Ask Corporations to do More? appeared first on Co-Creating Mutual Value Collaborative.

Leverage Your Strengths

Neil Samuels — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 01:16:56 +0000

Why Focus On The Strengths In Your Ecosystem?

Neil Samuels

The strategy of prospering BY forging a better world can be full of white water. A high performing, adaptive set of paddlers is needed. One key to this is everyone knowing each other’s strengths and everyone using their strengths.

With that in mind, which raft better reflects the working relationships you have with stakeholders in your business ecosystem raft today? Is it the one on the top, thriving in the water, in which everyone is fully absorbed in the task, and working in sync to enable a safe smooth journey no matter what challenges the river throws up? If so, count yourself fortunate. AGILITY in the face of turbulence of turbulence is a huge asset to any organization

Like the river, your business environment is full of unexpected rapids. And when all the people in your raft (both your organization and the organizations of your stakeholders) are bringing the best of their strengths to bear on “running the river” successfully, then chances of adapting effectively to every new rapid are substantially increased.

Is there evidence for this? Yes! Let’s start with the numbers. According to the Gallup Organization’s State of the American Workplace report, teams leveraging their strengths every day generates a 17% improvement in productivity, a 21% increase in profitability.

What underpins the numbers?

Research by Marcus Buckingham indicates that while corporate cultures vary by country and industry, our most powerful human need at work is to discover our strengths and to use them frequently. Trying to take advantage of new business opportunities with a mindset of reasons why we cant generates fatigue, blame, and resistance. Identifying, magnifying, and connecting the strengths and capabilities of your organization and its ecosystem partners moves us to a “how might we” mindset. This creates performance that resembles the raft on the right.

If your “ecosystem raft” resembles the one on the left—in which paddlers are not combining their strengths in smart ways. then of the ten people in your raft, three are pulling with all their might, six are paddling gently while admiring the canyon walls, and two are poking holes in the sides creating unresponsiveness. Can your ecosystem raft really afford that in today’s world?

The strategy of Co-Creating Mutual Value is a way to prosper. It is rooted in our practice of approaching any challenge by asking questions like:

What are we good at, what resources do we have?
What are others good at and what resources do they have?
If we combined our strengths and resources, what might we accomplish?

We leave you with this thought: The ageless task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths in ways that make the system’s weaknesses irrelevant. —Peter Drucker, Father of Modern Management

========

The post Leverage Your Strengths appeared first on Co-Creating Mutual Value Collaborative.

Mirror Flourishing

Neil Samuels — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 01:10:02 +0000

What does it mean for an organization’s ecosystem to thrive? It’s about an orchestrated system of stakeholders consistently delivering remarkable products and services that leave customers (or clients, or patients) feeling valued and respected, and doing so in economically, environmentally, and socially beneficial ways. And it’s more than that! It’s about how the Mirror Flourishing phenomenon creates workplaces where people experience personal well-being, have trust in their colleagues, and take pride in their work. Places that bring out their best to achieve organizational and societal goals.

_________________________________________________________________________

Mirror Flourishing and What It Means When An Organization’s Ecosystem Thrives?

Neil Samuels

A thriving business ecosystem consistently delivers remarkable products and services that leave customers (or clients, or patients) feeling valued and respected, – in economically, environmentally, and socially beneficial ways. And it’s more than that! It’s about high performing workplaces where people experience personal well-being, have trust in their colleagues, and take pride in their work. Places that bring out their best to achieve organizational and societal goals.

Of course, in a world with increasingly complex socio-economic and environmental challenges, attaining unprecedented, enduring business advantage is just one side of the coin. Producing positive social, economic, and environmental impact—the total positive effect of your organization on the well-being of the individuals, families, and social fabric of the communities in which you operate– is the other side. Fortunately, doing well and good are inextricably intertwined. As Paul Polman (recent CEO of Unilever) shares in his book Net Positive, this idea that organizations thrive when society thrives is increasingly accepted in the C-suite. In their book, Firms of Endearment, Rajendra S. Sisodia, David B. Wolfe, and Jagdish N. Sheth also provide a mountain of evidence. They show that organizations aligning the strengths of their ecosystem partners create not only organizations that other companies love partnering with, and people love working for, but also organizations that the market loves investing in and that produce economic results blowing away the S&P 500 averages.

Innovation, both of your products or services, AND your organizational architecture (i.e. your practices, processes, and structures) is key. As David Cooperrider, co-originator of Appreciative Inquiry, and Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University) says, “it’s about people being inspired every day and bringing their whole selves to work; it’s about innovation arising from everywhere; and it’s about realizing remarkable relationship value with stakeholders”.

The thriving of your ecosystem and the thriving of your business are inextricably connected.

We have always known that flourishing workplaces drive flourishing in our ecosystems, Now we are learning that a thriving ecosystem is mirrored by a flourishing workplace. We invite you to learn more about how Co-Creating Mutual Value with your ecosystem stakeholders initiates this natural phenomenon we are just now beginning to recognize – called Mirror Flourishing.

The post Mirror Flourishing appeared first on Co-Creating Mutual Value Collaborative.