We’re most impressed by Carol Sanford’s work which is described in her book The Responsible Business. Rather than carrying the sustainability flag around the world, Carol has been doing the work for more than three decades without talking about it so much, until recently. Here’s a video clip of a presentation she did at MIT a while back:

There are three parts to this video, YouTube should present you with the next parts as you finish each one.

or Part II and Part III.

Sanford gives a wonderful explanation of the difference between working from a problem solving perspective versus an evolutionary perspective. The problem solving mind is focused on arresting disorder; stopping the bleeding. The evolutionary perspective focuses on higher order potential – on regeneration, seeing essence and then setting the stage for that essence to be supported.

If this sounds a little abstract, a simpler way to think of it is “working on solving the problem versus working to on the positives”.

The problem solving mind focuses on fixing the parts. That there is a mechanism that is broken and that this can be solved by identifying the faulty part, the missing fluid or the incompetent operator. You’ll probably recognize this as the normal way with which we approach work on a daily basis.

The evolutionary mind is what we should aspire to and it’s a combination of protecting or taking care of one another because we’re all interconnected and regenerating – taking the places and people around us to the next level.

Imagine the impact business could have with a slight adjustment in thinking along these lines.

Power & Love?

Are you still listening?

It’s funny how a word can awaken so many of our preprogramming. Adam Kahane wrote an interesting book on Power and Love that is extremely relevant to Leadership. He has found a generative and degenerative side of both of these dimensions and does a nice job of explaining how whole, mature leadership is a combination and/or cooperation between the two drives. Both and again it seems.

Here’s a video of a speech he gave at the RSA a while back:

In the weeks since this tragedy the news papers have been in overdrive, sometimes investigating and other times sensationalizing the events of 22 July. I’ve been struck by the lack of openness coming from the government throughout this process – most specifically the police and secret police.

This would be possible to debate if the statements made by the leaders of these organizations held true over time. That’s not what’s happened. Initial claims that everything was done as it should have been done have been disproven over and over again.

Just days ago the newspapers reported that the police had never used their helicopters as sharpshooter platforms. Today the papers report multiple examples of them being used for exactly that.

I’m not writing this post to criticize the police or talk about helicopters. I have a tremendous amount of empathy for what many individuals must be going through as they process the things they did and saw on that horrible day in July.

What I’m writing about is Leadership and vulnerability and truth. In today’s day and age, the truth often comes out and the press & public jump on situations that smell fishy or not authentic. This is exactly what has happened here. Leaders who are unable to admit mistakes may have been made in the heat of the moment during the course of an event no one could have imagined are like divers throwing chum in the water around them. The sharks will come.

I hope that leaders in the police and elsewhere will learn from this experience and choose to be more authentic and maybe even more vulnerable in the future. That might make things easier on all of us.

One of the topics that struck me was the idea of starting a corporate strategy process by investigating the “global imperative” which is defined as:

Global imperative: What is it that the world needs the most that the company is best able to provide

Yes, companies are in business to make money for their stakeholders – that’s important. But what if we could extend company purpose to something like it’s global imperative? Would this allow us to develop meaningful purposes that employees, owners and customers could relate to? And then as they say – maybe even do well by doing good?

I’ve become rather intensely interested in these topics lately, mostly due to the fact that most of the companies I’ve worked with over the last several years have not had these issues on the agenda at all. When I ask my peers what they think I often hear different variations of the same answer. It goes something like this:

“When I was a teenager and college student I was super interested and even involved in social and environmental issues. Then I started to work, maybe had a family and daily life took over. I still think it’s very important but I recognize that I never managed to do anything about it.”

It often comes back to the same old topic: “I’m too busy.” But if we’re too busy to look our after ourselves (think big, not little) and our earth, who else will?

Referenced in this blog post:

Seventh Generation, Burlington, Vermont, USA

Jeffrey Hollender

As of today, we’ve done two interviews and we have three more scheduled for July in the US. We’re on track to launch a new website (at 2le.ad) that showcases these leaders; specifically where they found their inspiration, learned to lead and made a positive impact on the world.

Here’s the trailer – we hope you like it!

When we thought more about experienced leaders, we discovered that we were most interested in those that really practice Leadership, build great cultures where employees thrive, give back to the community (#CSR) and create results.

We conducted our first interview on May 9th with Ingar Skaug, the former CEO of Wilh. Wilhelmsen (a shipping company based in Norway that has a global reach and has a history of innovation on a variety of fronts). Ingar is a visionary leader when it comes to Corporate Culture and Strategy among other things. He also serves as the Chairman of Petroleum Geological Services (PGS) and the US based Center for Creative Leadership (CCL).

Ingar Skaug during our first interview

Our second interview will be shot on June 7th with Pår Larshans, Chief Sustainability Officer for the Stockholm based MAX Hamburgers. MAX has been recognized globally as an innovator in sustainability and employment practice. They have made great strides in reducing the environmental impact of their business and also focused on employing individuals with disabilities.

This summer we hope to conduct to interviews in the US and then increase our pace through the fall until we are able to launch a website where we showcase the insights offered by these Visionary Leaders. We intend to create a place where the world’s up and coming leaders can come for inspiration and input as they choose how they would like to develop during the course of their careers!

When Ronald Reagan demanded that the Gorbachev tear down the wall dividing Germany it was easier to have a grand vision. Freedom, democracy. progress.

The world has gotten more complicated since then. Democracy has been tried using different approaches with varying results in many places. Some have gotten unimaginably wealthy at the cost of the stability of the world’s economy. Only some of them have been punished for their irresponsibility and selfishness.

As a father of three young children, it’s hard not to wonder what kind of world they will live in. Richard Barrett, a leading values guru, wrote an interesting post on the state of leadership in 2011. It was pretty bleak and resulted in one comment (from me, after more than two months). Are we asleep at the wheel merely working to “get ours?”

Have we given up our capacity for healthy values and  vision, and instead settled into a sort of drugged apathy fueled by consumerism? Is this a gap between generation shifts?

For me, these are important questions and they need to be addressed. What will you do?

Will you be one of the leaders we need?

Over the seven years I’ve living in Norway (Oslo), I’ve seen “progress” on many fronts.

• Selection has improved.
• Customer service has improved.
• Follow-up has not improved.

While watching a Fast Company video from the South By Southwest (SXSW) conference in the US, I felt compelled to write this post. The video showed an interaction between a Groupon.com client and Groupon.com’s VP of Sales. The Summary goes like this (my paraphrasing):

Groupon has perfected their editorial voice, they are absolutely killing it in terms of marketing and brand. The problem is operations and to a degree the handoff from marketing, brand and sales to operations. The brilliance shown in the branding and marketing is by no means matched on the operations side. Promises are made by sales that are then broken by ops. The ops folks don’t always understand what was sold, etc.

I predict that one of the next revolutions in Norway will have to do with the quality of the whole experience a customer has with a vendor. Here are two examples of how it is today:

1. I want to buy a pair of jeans so I visit a fancy shmancy jeans store on Bogstadveien in Oslo. The salesman is interested in his job, he does a great job helping me and finds jeans that match how I describe my taste. Great job! Here’s the rub – they didn’t have the right size in on of the colors. He writes my name, number and order in a weathered little notebook that is then stashed in a drawer under the register. I know then and there that I will never hear from them again (unless I ask). I shouldn’t have to ask. (I never hear from them.)
2. I call one of Norway’s largest telecom’s to talk about my business service. The girl is nice on the phone but can’t answer my question and asks if she can call back. I say yes. She never calls back.

This is typical of today’s customer experience in Norway (if you ask me). If your need can be satisfied on the spot, you’ll be pleased with the service you receive. If you need anything that requires follow-up, more often than not it will fall through the cracks.

The next revolution will have to do with the total customer experience. Not long ago the major challenge here in Norway was availability. As selection of goods and services rapidly improves, consumers will be pleased with how they see they market developing and be more impressed with the selection than anything else. When this activity levels off, they will expect other things like better customer service (this is where we are now). After a period of time the total experience will be how a company is evaluated.

This is what the Fast Company video eluded to – it’s not enough to have world class branding, marketing and sales. You have to have a production apparatus that lives up to and delivers on the promises made by the first. And I’m not talking about a better notebook here…

Things have been developing quickly in my short time here, I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next!

Exclusive interview with Seth Godin from GiANT Impact on Vimeo.

Seth Godin sat down with us to talk about his leadership philosophies. Be sure to check out www.chick-fil-aleadercast.com to learn from Seth Godin LIVE on May 6, 2011.

In many companies the status quo is like an imaginary box that leaders and employees operate within. Sir Ken Robinson (more on him below) firmly believes that school kills creativity. We’re born with it, yet most adults don’t see themselves as creative.

Little kids don’t understand that there is a box – breakthrough thinking in business is the same – be a heretic that ignores the status quo and goes out and creates something new.

My job is to help people find their way out of the box. Sometimes it takes years, sometimes a person is just teetering on the edge of seeing it themselves. Either way, witnessing this process and the potential it unleashes is what I find most meaningful about my work.

That’s why I do what I do.

Rick Wheatley

Here’s Ken Robinson talking about schools and creativity – how do you think this thinking can be related to business?