The lens
through which
we see our world
We begin with the quest in life’s continuum, the flow of life’s energy and the lens through which we perceive our world.
The Quest for emotional conviction & action
The Quest for HAPPINESS. SUCCESS. SATISFACTION.
A projection on the SCREEN OF PERCEPTION of what we wish and feel
The Wish Fulfilment IMPULSE
The life’s continuum and the flow of life’s energy
The Unifying ideal of Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance is the perceived relationship
between what one wants from one’s job and
what one perceives it as offering in real life.
In life’s continuum and the flow of life’s energy, there is a mental model – a lens through which we perceive our world – running behind the scenes.
The Model is based on implicit biases, unconscious assumptions and undervalued skills, whose output sells to ourselves how happy, successful and satisfied we perceive we are, and often impede our efforts on a personal level, as a team and for the organisation as a whole to prosper and grow.
It all starts with the perception of Me Now
The Quest of the collaborative sense of “WE”
The power of Shared Purpose
In an organisational context, we often come across situations where proposed solutions are polarised on opposite ends.
How can people in the same organisation have so differing opinions?
The reason is they lack a sense of Shared Purpose.
So. How do we leverage the differing opinions and embrace their fruitful dimensions?
An organisation’s prosperity is based on its values
and its commitment to a sense of shared purpose
by developing capacity around them.
High performing organisations develop a capacity to manage opposing values and understand the inner workings of the Art of Reason and the Privilege of Doubt Paradox; a construct cutting across the whole spectrum of human thought; from physical sciences to economics, politics, religion and philosophy.
To make the shift from the incremental to exponential, you first have to change how you think.
Dr. Mark Bonchek, founder of thinkORBIT and the Shift Thinking™ Framework and Academy
High performing organisations take advantage of the power of Shared Purpose to move away from an either/or situation, and prevent them from passing the point where the one or the other begins to undermine its opposite. And then, by shifting through the circularity of values and the realms of integration and differentiation, calls for actions that value community.
That’s the best way to act.
Integrative thinking
Integrative thinking. Collective intelligence.
That’s the power of Shared Purpose.
Not power to exert a greater influence, or a quick win at the expense of the other, but in a unifying sense.
A Shared Purpose sense that is opening up avenues of possibilities that allow people to appreciate all the values within the company, perceive the differences as diversity that drives innovation, creativity and variety. And above all, feel the desire for movement between the values, move on to new ideas.
A Shared Purpose sense helps determine the new direction by reconciling and fusing in a frictionless way the interdependence of the opposing values.
And the greatest gains and highest leverage for high performing organisations come from the reinforcing of collaborative engagement and the embedding of Shared Purpose in their culture.
The unifying lens for new values, mirrored in happiness, success and satisfaction.
The ‘always on’ mindset
Shared Purpose!
We’re not conscious of it.
It’s unseen and yet it has an ever versatile presence that drives an organisation.
You may ask: How can it be invisible and yet so powerful?
Let’s face it. You manage by habits. Not conscious of the mechanics. Like automata, dictated by interactions – meetings, social and email exchange, presentations.
But the actual thinking and acting patterns are non-conscious, invisible.
The ‘always on’ mindset: An embedded best practice habit, as opposed to managing by habit
As it is often the case, here is the manager who has a solution set in his mind. And there is the employee who has to guess the best practice solution.
What is missing is what we call, Collaborative Engagement and Collective intelligence.
With Shared Purpose driving Collaborative Engagement, a new employment relationship is formed that opens up a corridor for meaningful interaction without guessing. It sparks people’s curiosity, and enables employee development on a daily basis.
That’s what we call, the ‘always on’ mindset
A daily way of creating and reinforcing a shared culture
A collaborative sense of “WE”
A collaborative sense of “WE”
Keeping employees engaged in a collaborative way, calls for a shift from the idea that goal setting, performance management, providing feedback, and career planning is an annual event, to an ‘always on’ mindset that recognises the high impact of everyday practice.
The ‘always on’ mindset, is sharing the community’s vision and purpose, rather than relying on analytically derived key performance indicators.
And with the help of mentoring and coaching of what we need to improve, to solve, soon the ‘always on’ mindset becomes natural. An embedded best practice habit, as opposed to managing by habit.
And the beauty is that you are fully conscious of it.
Pursuing Shared Purpose, develops new mental circuits, and gives rise to a new pattern of thinking and acting. A mindset to excel!
After all, mindset forms the cornerstone of organisational culture. And leading and managing people by Shared Purpose is to achieve things that in our conscious mind we tend to doubt we can achieve, uncertain of how to get there. But mindsets can be changed.
A Billion Brains are Better Than One
MIT Sloan’s Professor Thomas W. Malone, author of The Future of Work, on how the smartest companies will use emerging technology to tap the power of collective intelligence.
Inspiring the quest
to create something better
The Art of Reason and the Privilege of Doubt Paradox
Plato in ‘The Republic,’ portrayed art as a potentially stimulant of disruptive changes that threatens the stability of a society. On the contrary, Aristotle’s view of art was as being a cathartic source of recreation, contentment and stability.
Despite sounding as contradictory views of art, they are actually complementary in the sense that they are two inseparable aspects of the ideal-pursuit of a unifying whole. And this unifying whole, is nothing else than a sense of Shared Purpose.
According to Dr. Russel Ackoff, art is both the product and producer of creative activity. It inspires the quest to create something better, hence fostering continuous development. Art also recreates, rewarding our senses along the way in pursuit of ideals and inspiring visions.
Inspiring visions are works of logic. And doubt is complementary in the sense that they are two inseparable aspects of the ideal-pursuit of a unifying whole.
Visions may consist of either positive or negative images. Positive images incorporate something that we do not have but want. Negative images incorporate something that we have, but do not want. Doubt contributes to the idealised design of positive visions, by challenging the constraints.
Doubt is what transforms the idealised design to an ideal system, and therefore, positive visions are subject to continuous improvement.
To get better in a future vision revision.
But what kind of compensatory projections play behind the scenes?
The Coordinator of Life’s Continuum – A Change Navigator
Take account of the 4 key compensatory equilibrium projections that play behind the scenes:
Repetitive rationalisation, conscious thinking and reasoning versus the mechanisms of reasonable doubt, framed by the conscious and unconscious mechanisms of the Art of Reason and the Privilege of Doubt paradox.
Purposive behaviour directed towards the fulfilment of a wish; the central nucleus through which life’s energy flows versus the transient nature of the derived satisfaction and pleasure that accompanies wish fulfilment
Our desire for variety Optimal Stimulation Level (OSL) that frames the positive creative urge of the wish and the reward of the feeling associated with it, versus the negative motivational state of psychological reactance.
The power of Shared Purpose, the unifying lens that takes us beyond what we can see, inspiring the quest to create something better.
The power of Shared Purpose, opening up a new perspective of the psychological horizon, even if the absence of adequate logical ground for its acceptance, its meaning is not apparently being perceived.
The power of Shared Purpose that drives our imagination, wishes and emotion; the elusive idea of moving into the uncharted territory that contains all possibilities, that have not actually been experienced yet, moving towards the unifying ideal of happiness, success, and satisfaction.
Thus, new wishes are born.
But equally other wishes – proposed solutions polarised on opposite ends – die under their own weight of fictitious fulfilment.
The thing is that conscious thinking and reasoning is not possessed of energy.
Is the means by which we measure our motives.
And reason provides the framework of ratios and calculations.
It may well be, that conscious thinking and reasoning is the selector of wishes.
But the motivator and activator is a deeper source.
So where are we?
A NEW FUTURE INTO BEING
Shared Purpose takes us beyond what we can see
It takes a leader to pursue a vision, irrespective of not being ideal and requiring short-term sacrifices in its implementation subject to constraints. After all, doubt is challenging the constraints, not abolishing them. This is the job of the transformational leader in action. Creative action to produce solutions that are not expected.
Things that we perceive beyond the horizon, beyond what we can see.
Shared Purpose will help you fit your own purpose within the organisational purpose
Shared Purpose is a powerful context within which your existing tools and practices can be embedded to achieve challenging objectives and goals and shift the entire culture. Shared Purpose rewires employee connections with teams and customers, alike.
Shared Purpose is the common ground to develop, maintain, and strengthen relationships inside or outside of the organisation. It is about initiating development and performance management conversations focused on continuous coaching and feedback for employees’ growth and move them toward their next career goal.
Shared Purpose is about creating an environment that is enriching and satisfying, and in which employees are engaged and inspired to work together to deliver winning results bigger than doing it alone.
The good feel factor
Shared Purpose is humane in its nature, fostering a healthy working culture. Pursuing the good feel factor, finding ways to reward and celebrate success for the work they do. Honoring diversity of thought, life experience and professional experience.
Shared Purpose is about developing initiatives to show that you care for your people. That you value, appreciate and respect them for their contributions to deliver exceptional client service. That you value cultural differences and the importance of sharing a common vision.
Shared purpose means helping people to reach their best
When we think of this in the context of human potential development in the workplace, if a person has capacity (innate ability), culture fit (purpose, values and norms) and capability (learned skills, behaviours and experience), with the right caring environment that keeps work and personal life goals in balance, that offers training and development opportunities for career growth, as well as indispensable mentoring and coaching support, this person will grow his / her potential and thrive, now and in the future.
It’s about pushing the limits to spot the next big thing that will transform the organisation.
This in turn calls for nurturing, attention, support and protection.
Shared purpose: A New Future into Being!
A higher sense of purpose that serves as a beacon to help navigate through change and uncertainty; it lends focus and clarity. It is about not being afraid to say that we don’t have all the answers.
Put your people at the heart of your Shared Purpose
A new way of thinking plays out on loop…
A NEW FUTURE INTO BEING!
It is about what the company can be tomorrow. To make a difference for your people and society at large.
The discipline of Philosophy in Business
Expand the horizons of future business leaders to move beyond the confinements of prevailing knowledge
The concept of ‘business as usual’ in management education is gradually becoming defunct.
Philosophy pursues questions rather than answers them. It teaches not what to think, but how to challenge our traditional beliefs and perceptions, our business management strategies, conceptual frameworks and models.
It examines the perpetual questions concerning human life, society, ethics and knowledge, to help manage complexity and make valid decisions.
It enhances analytical and interpretive capacities and for dealing with problems for which there are no immediate answers.
It contributes to one’s capacity to synthesise ideas and extract what is essential and merge perspectives into a unified whole. It helps appreciate competing positions and discover fertile common ground between opposing positions. And it helps one to a variety of views or.
Philosophy also enhances the development of expressive and communicative skills, and helps eliminate ambiguities.
Dominic Barton, Global Managing Director of McKinsey & Company