emergent - stephen scott johnson€¦ · emergent the future of culture ... in powerful innovation,...

EMERGENTTHE FUTURE OF CULTURE

STEPHEN SCOTT JOHNSON

EMERGENT THE FUTURE OF CULTURE - STEPHEN SCOTT JOHNSON

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This whitepaper is general in nature and not meant to replace any specific advice. Please be sure to take specialist advice before taking on any of the ideas. Altitud3 Pty Ltd, its employees and contractors disclaim all and any liability to any persons whatsoever in respect of anything done by any person in reliance, whether in whole or in part, on this e-book.

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DISCLAIMER


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen Scott Johnson is an innovation and culture transformation expert with 20 years experience in global business. He has worked with hundreds of people and organisations to transform their impact.

Stephen’s forthcoming book EMERGENT - The Future of Culture consolidates two decades of research to equipping leaders and managers with the essential skills, toolset and techniques to co-create and sustain thriving cultures of innovation. He is a leading authority on crowdsourcing principles to fuel business productivity and performance and the strategist behind some of the world’s most influential social movements and enterprise communities.

A dynamic speaker and workshop facilitator with an A-list of events to his name, Stephen’s profile includes London Festival, AdTech, Creative Innovation Global and South by South West Festival. His work is critically acclaimed with accolades including Cannes Cyber Lion, AIMIA and webby.

This whitepaper is a blueprint to mitigate enterprise risk and fuel engagement, innovation and growth.

Find out more at www.stephenscottjohnson.com


05.The Legend Of The Phoenix

14.Personas of Culture [Operational Mode and Energy]

07.Top Leadership Challenges

09.Conscious Innovation & Evolution08.From Institutional Power to Collective Power

11.Emergent - The New Leadership Imperative

16.The Sacred Geometry of the Catalyst Blueprint™

12.Agile & Curious - Emergent X-Factor

17.Putting It All Together

13.Culture Quadrant™ - Mitigating Enterprise Change Risk

21.What Comes Next?


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The Legend of The Phoenix is a centuries-old tale about a mythical, sacred, firebird with a 500-1000 year life cycle. At the end of its life the Phoenix builds a funeral pyre, which it then ignites. Both pyre and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes from which a new, young Phoenix emerges, reborn to live again. The new Phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self and its ability to be reborn from its own ashes implies that it is immortal.

Like the Phoenix, people and organisations are in a constant state of transformation. On a daily basis we are challenged to adjust, modify, and reinvent in the face of continuous innovation. Change is either derived from knee-jerk reaction, or considered and adaptive evolution.

This whitepaper introduces Stephen’s Catalyst Blueprint™ - an essential framework to ignite purpose and co-create a culture of innovation. It explores the difference between ad hoc and panic-driven, superficial change that provides a limited measure of success, and considered and adaptive transformation; one is a reaction to external forces and the other is a conscious and sustainable evolution that results in powerful innovation, transformation and emergence.

Catalyst™ enables the most conformist and risk-averse organisations to transform their impact and growth.

Understanding the nature of change and our relationship to it is key to establishing a culture of innovation.

THE LEGEND OF THEPH ENIX


EVERY BUSINESS HAS A STORY. AS A LEADER YOUR GREATEST CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY IS TO CHANGE THE STORY OF YOUR BUSINESS.

Conscious Capitalism Australia


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Demand for greater values alignment, autonomy and individual empowerment, fuelled by technology and greater interdependencies.

A paradigm shift from hierarchies to lean networks and ‘flatter’ organisations exposes skills and leadership deficit in agile innovation and co-creation.

Social media shines a spotlight on ethics and lack of transparency of politics and power, forcing companies to engage with customers in more meaningful ways.

Can’t adapt fast enough to keep up with the rapid pace of change.

Culture is dying and retention is tougher than ever. Companies lack the essential skills and resources to transform engagement and impact.

TOPLEADERSHIPCHALLENGES

TODAY


FROM INSTITUTIONAL POWERTO COLLECTIVE POWER

Lean networks, collaboration and good intent are not enough. Organisations must learn how to co-create with stakeholders.

The destabilisation of institutional power and emergence of collective power has become the conversation of our time. Open-source knowledge networks, self-publishers, autonomous producers and micro-entrepreneurs challenge the institutional status quo in a context where value creation is fast, fluid and persistently disruptive.

As organisations evolve from traditional command-and-control hiearchies to agile and co-created ‘ecosystems’, corporate culture is becoming increasingly interdependent and ‘unscripted’, presenting new challenges and opportunities for business leaders. For example, in an ecosystem where everybody participates, everybody contributes and everyone belongs, how can organisations orchestrate the right set of people and circumstances for innovation to flourish? What is its design? Is it static or continuum? What technological and human skills are required to co-create and sustain a continuous cycle of engagement, impact and growth?

These questions and more are just a few of the challenges facing business leaders across every major industry in the world.

Not suprisingly, practitioners from a wide range of disciplines find themselves well outside of their comfort zones. Their challenge is to navigate a context where collective identity, community and federated leadership are re-writing the rules of corporate engagement, innovation and stakeholder value.


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CONSCIOUS INNOVATION AND EVOLUTION

Embracing change in today’s complex workplace demands extraordinary agility, acumen and intuition. Rapid change fuelled by technology, global influences and greater interdependencies and leaner organisations, converge in a persistently disruptive and volatile context.

Well-meaning change programmes fail when they lack clear purpose and vital human connection. When people have change done to them engagement fails and culture turns toxic, amplifying risk due to apathy, inertia and lack of engagement.

Understanding operational mode and higher purpose enables an enterprise to align its people to a common goal that serves the betterment of its community. In other words, by learning to innovate with and not merely for stakeholders the tension of change can be diffused, staff can be engaged and a culture of innovation that everyone believes in can be co-created.

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HERE

WHAT DOES ITMEAN TO BEEMERGENT?


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‘Emergents’ are people and organisations that enhance corporate performance whilst simultaneously improving the lives of millions of people around the world. They are conscious leaders and innovators galvanised through a higher purpose that acts as a compass for innovation and growth.

Companies seeking new competitive advantages are recognising co-creation as an effective strategy to forge long-term sustainability. However, they are rarely equipped or even fully aware of how to develop the necessary skills and acumen.

The invitation to all organisations is to evolve to a place of conscious innovation and value creation by identifying ways to authentically shift the focus of culture from the traditional command-and-control, independent metaphor for business that gains power at the expense of community, to a co-created and interdependent model.

If you’re just getting started on the journey and exploring ways to create stronger and more authentic alignment with stakeholders, an excellent place to start is the tenets of Conscious Capitalism. The tenets include Higher Purpose; Stakeholder Orientation; Conscious Leadership; and Conscious Culture; which form the foundation of emergent companies like Tesla, Zappos and Ecostore who possess a holistic worldview and generate every form of value that matters: emotional, social, and financial.

If you’re further along the journey and actively engaged in purpose-led business then your challenge is likely one of a more practical nature that requires an essential toolset and techniques to catalyse the innovation already happening in your organisation. I have designed the Culture Quadrant™ and Catalyst Blueprint™ to help with this, so read on. Additionally, take a look at the B-Corp movement for inspiration. B-Corp is for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. There is currently more than 1,400 Certified B Corps from 42 countries and over 120 industries working together toward a single unifying goal: to redefine success in business.

Emergents are interdependent and rise above the social pressure inherent in traditional corporate responsibility and shared value models.

THE NEW LEADERSHIP IMPERATIVE EMERGENT=


Two vital attributes every business needs is AGILITY and CURIOSITY. Research shows the immense benefit and potential associated with nurturing curiosity in the workplace, spanning emotional wellbeing and love of learning, to social inclusion and mitigation of negativity and despondency amongst employees. Curiosity is the secret weapon of thriving and resilient cultures that gives rise to experimentation, innovation and co-creation.

On the other hand, agility is all about grace-under-fire and having a capacity to move quickly and decisively in anticipating and taking advantage of opportunity, whilst collaborating to avoid negative and even catastrophic consequences of change.

When agility and curiosity combine something extraordinary happens - culture becomes synergistic in nature and continuously innovates and evolves.

AGILE & CURIOUSTHE EMERGENT X-FACTOR

agility

adjective ag·ile \ˈa-jəl, -ˌjī(-ə)l\ a : quick, smart, and clever b : having a resourceful and adaptable character c : marked by ready ability to move with quick easy grace

curiosity

noun cu·ri·os·i·ty \ˌkyu̇r-ē-ˈä-s(ə-)tē\ a : the desire to learn or know more about something or someoneb : something that is interesting because it is unusualc : interest leading to inquiry <intellectual curiosity>

They say curiosity killed the cat but it’s actually going to save it.


The Culture Quadrant™ helps organisations mitigate change risk and identify an optimal transformation path

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The Culture Quadrant™ is a powerful diagnostic assessment that equips organisations to co-create a culture of innovation. Consisting of four distinct operational modes, Culture Quadrant™ reveals a diagnostic picture of overall culture, potential risks of change, and optimal transformation path. From the radically transparent and agile approaches at leading startups, to the notoriously secretive practices of Apple, modes of culture vary from innately collaborative to ‘scripted’ regulatory siloes (and everything else in-between).

The Culture Quadrant™ provides a starting point for change and measurement of culture across four modes; Controller, Pioneer, Mimic, and Synergist. Using this foundation we can identify culture ‘blind spots’ and any leadership or departmental issues that might exist. This iterative approach creates self-sufficiency in people and teams, enabling organisations to transform their culture towards a Synergist model, whilst maintaining day-to-day service delivery.

CULTURE QUADRANTMITIGATING ENTERPRISE CHANGE RISK

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00-25 50-75

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MODEL KEY | IMPACT 00-25


CONTROLLER

CONTROLLER is a hierarchical and scripted mode of operation that is highly reactive to change. With a dominant energy in isolation, CONTROLLER gains power through compliance and by taking advantage of changing dynamics in its environment, often at the expense of community and collaboration. Lack of cohesion is synonymous with this mode, the result of its scripted and regulatory nature. CONTROLLER lacks agility and capacity to transform due to limited transparency of politics and power.

MIMIC

MIMIC is an extremely agile mode of operation with an extraordinary ability to identify, replicate and assimilate trends. It is a ‘copycat’ by nature with exceptional mastery in replication and optimisation. MIMIC effortlessly adapts to the needs of its environment and is often misidentified as an artisan and innovator. Yet, MIMIC relies on external forces to imitate and lacks innate capacity to conceive and transform of itself.

PIONEER

PIONEER is an innately curious and experimental mode of operation that is easily recognised in the many and varied entrepreneurs and makers at the bleeding edge of social and technological advancement. This mode defines culture and context through invention, reacting and transforming in congruence with its environment. PIONEER commands exceptional utility and presence but it is often secretive and not typically known for collaboration.

SYNERGIST

SYNERGIST is the agile and curious poster child of the Emergent Future. SYNERGIST’s are innately conscious and community-centric, empowering autonomy and interdependence by continuously enhancing the impact and effectiveness of their environment. In many ways SYNERGIST is writing the future and representative of conscious leaders and innovators in business and society. Unlike its quadrant cousins, SYNERGIST co-creates in a perpertual cycle of innovation, transformation and realignment.

PERSONAS OF CULTUREIDENTIFYING OPERATIONAL MODE AND ENERGY

noun mim·ic \ˈmi-mik\ noun syn·er·gist \-jist\verb con·trol \kən-ˈtrōl\ noun pi·o·neer \pī-ə-ˈnir\


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Companies with higher purpose and strong cultures outperform their peer group financially in the long run. Tony Hsieh, CEO Zappos


Co-creation is a lot like sacred geometry. It is a seamless cycle of innovation that fuels impact and growth. The model represented here is the CATALYST BLUEPRINT™, a dynamic replication system for culture innovation and transformation.

Combining the keystone elements of conscious leadership with a governing cycle that aligns stakeholders to higher purpose and fuels the system, CATALYST™ helps organisations sustain engagement, innovation and impact.

CATALYST ™ is the co-creation framework behind some of the world’s most influential social movements and enterprise communities. It is a potent alternative to traditional culture transformation methodologies.

CATALYST™ is a blueprint to co-create and sustain a thriving culture of innovation. It will give you the edge in todays complex workplace.

CATALYST BLUEPRINT™THE SACRED GEOMETRY OF THE

INITIATE

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Identification and alignment of values and initiation of stakeholders with higher purpose. This stage illuminates vision and creates cohesion to strategy through the development of a potent story and manifesto for change.

Is there a social problem that intersects with your organisation? How can you create measurable business value by simultaneously addressing this problem? What is the story to energise and inspire engagement, advocacy and impact?

POSITIONINGnoun po·si·tion \pə-ˈzi-shən\

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Providing deeper meaning for stakeholder participation and contribution in a way that empowers people with the essential toolset, skills and techniques to continuously innovate and transform.

PERFORMANCEnoun per·for·mance \pə(r)-ˈfr-mən(t)s\

What essential systems, tools and techniques are required to create synergy around your higher purpose? What is its design? And what technological and human skills are necessary to make innovation a daily way of doing things?

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Catalysing productivity and performance in an autonomous yet highly organised and self-sustaining way. Its your movement that inspires advocacy and engagement to impact more lives in more places, more completely.

PARTNERSHIPnoun part·ner·ship \-ˌship\

What does your ecosystem look like? Who are the key players, influencers, and community of stakeholders that lead and represent it? How do you co-create and sustain engagement, innovation and impact?

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“What made you successful in the past, won’t in the future.”

Lewis E. Platt, CEO hewlett-packard


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WHAT COMES NEXT?

If you could have anything in the world right now what would that be? Success? More time? Less pain? More meaning? Do you know what lights you up?

A widespread yearning for a more ‘complete’ workplace experience is challenging companies to recognise demands for autonomy and greater individual empowerment. As consciousness increases in the world - so does the divide between organisations and their stakeholders. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Acquiring the essential toolset, skills and techniques to co-create and sustain a thriving culture of innovation will transform impact. It’s time to consider what you are going to do differently to ignite higher purpose and increase connection in your people and culture.

At the heart of every extraordinary business are conscious and courageous EMERGENTS who lead with a level of intuition and vitality that appears supernatural. In reality, they are people like you and I who share one thing in common - they co-create with higher purpose.

To arrange a meeting to discuss the Culture Clinic™ and Co-Create Academy™ leadership programmes or to schedule a keynote presentation for your next event, please contact Gaya at Stephen Scott Johnson:

[email protected] +61 497 078 889


1. Chesley, Dennis “Creating a culture of resilience: What really enables organisations to survive and thrive? PWC Risk Study (Aug 2015).2. Mackey, John. Sisodia, Raj “Conscious Capitalism - Liberating The Heroic Spirit of Business”. Harvard Business Review Press (Jan 2013).3. Havas Media “Meaningful Brands Index” (2013).4. Brown. Cheng. Melian. Parker. Solow. “The Naked Organisation. Culture and Engagement” Deloitte University Press (Feb 2015)5. Castells, Manuel “Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age”. John Wiley & Sons (Jun 2015)

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emergent - stephen scott johnson€¦ · emergent the future of culture ... in powerful innovation,...

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