Is Economy’s invisible hand,same as that of our Creator’s hand,w/a motto,collaboration w/o coercion?

Looks like our “debate style post” last week, has taken our readers by storm, and sure enough, we received quite a few comments from them – the most notable one being a question, regarding the compelling case, we had made for our creator’s role as an economist -- and I paraphrase -

• Does that mean Economy’s invisible hand is the same as that of our creator’s hand, with a mantra of “collaboration without coercion”?

As overstretching as it sounds, let’s see, if we can answer it, by overstretching Milton Friedman’s similar sounding mantra. According to Friedman, the invisible hand is nothing but a  “cooperation mechanism without coercion”, and sure enough, he expanded it as follows -

• Individual people, guided by their own self-interest, are guided to promote the general welfare of the society at large, that was not part of their intention.

With cooperation being a concept that is very closer to collaboration and collaboration being one of the foundational enablers of our firm’s PtC framework, we decided to compare and contrast Friedman's five part "cooperation without coercion" mantra with our "collaboration without coercion" mantra, as follows:.

1. Individual people => Creation, including individual people
2. Guided by their own self-interest => Guided by universe’s first principles driven freewill called self-interest
3. Are guided to promote => Are guided to produce value
4. The general welfare of society at large => For the general welfare of the society, including the universe at large
5. That was not part of their intention => That was not part of their original self-interest

Now, as we choreograph the phrases in the right hand side, we see the following definition evolving:

• Creation, including individual people, guided by universe’s first principles driven free will called self-interest, are guided to create value, for the general welfare of the society, including the universe at large, that was not part of their original self interest.

Sure enough, it is our hypothesis that our creator asked the same type of a question, while evaluating options to run this universe, as explained in our post last week. In other words,

• How do I ensure that creation, including individual people, to be guided by universe’s first principle driven freewill (that is manifested as a self-interest in this context) to create value, for the general welfare of the society (including the universe at large), that was not part of their original self-interest?

Simply put, our creator was looking for a smart mechanism of striking two birds with one stone! Put otherwise, our creator was looking for a mechanism, to voluntarily engage mankind on certain set of value creation/multiplication activities, that not only, meet their immediate self interest driven needs, but also simultaneously meeting the larger interest of the society.

This is where; we believe that our creator struck an “invisible handshake deal” with mankind, with a motto of, collaboration without coercion, as explained with a help of the Apple test story within our “debate style post” last week. Please refer to the economist section of the post for more details behind the collaborative deal, that was struck between our creator and mankind.

Sure enough, it brings up an interesting follow-up question,

• If the motto of our creator’s invisible handshake deal was, "collaboration without coercion", what does collaboration really mean, in this context?

Well, collaboration in this context is a composite trait with two individual traits i.e. motivational heartbeat energy trait called cooperation and a beliefs/mindset energy trait called coordination. In other words, collaboration is a, virtuous sweet spot of, how our heartbeat energy trait called cooperation converges with the mindset energy trait called coordination, by releasing the right dosage for the right moment.

While cooperation and coordination sometimes are used interchangeably, they are indeed distinct, especially, when we look at them with a quantum physics/linguistics/spirituality lenses, as we have attempted within our firm's VOS work. In other words, cooperation is a heartbeat energy that manifests with a degree of consistency within collaboration, whereas, coordination, on the other hand, is a mindset energy, that manifests as a degree of predictability within the same. Not to mention, coordination that manifest as a mindset, by and large, is a left brain based energy, whereas, cooperation that manifests as a heartbeat is a right brain based energy, and so, balancing them makes all the more important, within the context of this composite trait called collaboration. To learn more of these energy trait subtleties, please refer the sidebar below, at the end of the post.

Now, coming back to our invisible handshake question, let us summarize our findings so far,

• The invisible hand of our economy is same as that of our creator.
• Both of their motto is collaboration without coercion.
• Collaboration,in this context, is a virtuous sweet spot of, how cooperation and coordination energies converge, by releasing right dose for the right value creation moment.

An interesting implication of the these three findings is, collaboration is nothing but the invisible hand, that manifests as a divinely orchestrated value creating mechanism of the economy - which, sure enough brings up an intriguing follow-up question, which by the way, happens to be the crux of our post today -

• How does collaboration manifest itself as a value creating mechanism within 21st century businesses?

Turns out, collaboration manifests itself as five value creating business models, depending upon the dosage level of cooperation and coordination, as synthesized on the top of the page. In other words, when cooperation and coordination are plotted in X/Y axis respectively, we see five value creating collaboration business models emerging, as a virtuous sweet-spot of, how cooperation and coordination energies converge, by releasing the right dose for the right value creation moment.

Simply put,

• When “cooperation” and “coordination” energies are released as LOW-LOW, VOS’ value creating collaboration business model manifests within Smart Shepherds value station (VS) in the lower left quadrant as “MOU alliances”. The leadership style within this value station is service leadership, nurturing the Customer capital driven jobs to be done strategy, using elegant innovations, as summarized in the exhibit above. Refer to one of our earlier posts for innovation style definitions.
• When “cooperation” and “coordination” energies are released as HIGH-LOW, VOS’ value creating collaboration business model manifests within Savvy Servants value station (VS) in the lower right quadrant as “Strategic partnerships”. The leadership style in this quadrant is servant leadership, nurturing the human capital driven growth strategy, using effective innovations.
• When “cooperation” and “coordination” energies are released as LOW-HIGH, VOS’ value creating collaboration business model manifests within Analytical Managers value station (VS) in the upper left quadrant as “Strategic alliances”. The leadership style in this quadrant is transactional leadership, nurturing the financial capital driven resource allocation strategy, using efficiency innovations.
• When “cooperation” and “coordination” energies are released as HIGH-HIGH, VOS’ value creating collaboration business model manifests within Product Pioneers value station (VS) in the upper right quadrant as “Joint ventures”. The leadership style in this quadrant is transformational leadership, nurturing the Product and Services capital driven execution strategy, using purpose innovations.
• When “cooperation” and “coordination” energies are released in a balanced manner, VOS’ value creating collaboration business model manifests within Mended CXO's purpose value station (VS) in the middle quadrant as “Cloud joint ventures”. The leadership style in this quadrant is situational leadership, nurturing the Purpose capital driven value multiplication strategy, using resource innovations.

Conclusion

Like other VOS styles, VOS' five value creating collaboration business models are just the outcomes (i.e. END) of, how our "cooperation" type heartbeat energies and "coordination" type mindset energies (i.e. MEANS), get amalgamated, by releasing the right dosage for the right moment, as summarized in the exhibit above.

That said, here are our five takeaways today.

1. When value creation opportunity falls under the smart shepherd’s value station and its partner companies look for service synergies, with a loosely coupled alliance design along with an informal post alliance operating model, the best collaboration business model is "Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) type of an alliance".
2. When value creation opportunity falls under the savvy servant’s value station and its partner companies look for horizontal synergies within the same industry, with a tightly coupled alliance design along with a formal post alliance operating model, the best collaboration business model is "strategic partnership".
3. When value creation opportunity falls under the analytical mangers value station and its partner companies look for vertical synergies within the client/server industries (e.g. Retail/CPG), along with a tightly coupled alliance design, along with a formal post alliance operating model, the best collaboration business model is "strategic alliances".
4. When value creation opportunity falls under the product pioneers value station and its partner companies look for value creation synergies among related industries with a tightly coupled alliance design, along with a formal post alliance operating model, the best collaboration business model is "joint ventures".
5. When value creation opportunity falls under the mended CXO's purpose value station and its partner companies aspire for the value multiplication synergies among both related and unrelated industries, with a situational coupling along with a situational post alliance operating model, the best collaboration business model is "cloud Joint ventures".

Granted, four of these collaboration business models, have been used by companies for quite some time (although not in the way, we have structured them), however, the fifth collaboration business model called cloud JV, is a first of its kind in the industry, that has been pioneered by our firm, for the last couple of years, based on the learning’s from our Virtual Ocean Strategy (VOS) driven VizPlanet platform design. Should any of our readers want to learn more, we would be glad to have an offline conversation.

+++++ Sidebar starts here: Collaboration unleashed with an energy management/spirituality/linguistic lenses

After all, collaboration (or for that matter any other composite trait or concept), in their rudimentary form, are nothing but energies that have been named as characteristics or traits, by linguists. In other words, a composite trait like collaboration, in our opinion, is made up of two traits i.e. the linguistic representation of energies, that originate, from the hearts (motivational heartbeats driven cooperation) and minds (beliefs/mindsets driven coordination) and they manifest as their best, when they confluence at the right inflection point, by releasing the right dosage for the right moment. In other words, the dosages, might vary from situation to situation, and rightfully so, collaboration, like leadership is always situational.

Sure enough, coordination happen to originate from our souls (minds) and when they confluence in right dosage, with corresponding heartbeat called cooperation, the magical collaborative business models, happens, as an impactful engagement as synthesized in the schematic above - and they are governed by the following 10 principles.

1. The dichotomous confluence of motivation(heartbeat) and belief(mindsets), usually results as an impactful engagement/action, only when, a heart originated energy (which is pull) is converged with a mind originated energy(push)
2. Regardless of the fact, whether they are heart originated or mind originated, both energies do flow as a  continuous continuum.
3. By and large, linguistic representation (say a word like cooperation), just happens to depict a point or energy zone (collection of points) within that energy continuum only.
4. Heart originated energies, usually follow a steady state growth trajectory, whereas, mind originated energies follow a seasonal sinusoidal pattern.
5. In other words, when energies get subjected in SPACE dimension, they become a forceful (F=E/S) heart originated energy, and so, follow a straight line trajectory, whereas, when they are subjected in TIME dimension, they become a powerful (P=E/T) mind related energy, and so, follow a sinusoidal pattern.
6. If I have to depict the opposing end points of the heart originated energies, then one end  perhaps will be called as “glory driven agape love” and the other end “insecurity/hatred/evil”, and the rest of the heart originated energies like competence, integrity, perseverance etc fall in between.
7. If I have to depict the opposing end points of the mind originated energies, then, one end perhaps can be called as  “wisdom driven faith” and  the other end “doubt/fear” etc - and rest of the mind originated energies like confidence, commitment, trust, loyalty, patience, humility et al, fall in between.
8. If we go with this framing, when heart originated energy is converged with a mind originated energy, at an optimal inflection point, the dichotomous confluence results in as an ACTION, in alignment with our firm’s Motivation, Belief, Action (MBA) framework within VOS.
9. On the other hand, when a mind originated energy is converged with a mind originated energy flow, and gets manifested simultaneously, the dichotomy confluence results in a cumulative composite trait (e.g. Confidence converging with humility and manifesting  as maturity, as often quoted by Jack Welch)
10. Similarly, when a heart originated energy is converged with a heart originated energy flow, and gets manifested simultaneously the dichotomy confluence results in an aggregate composite trait (e.g. ability aggregating as capability and capability aggregating as competency)

The question is, how do we differentiate a trait, whether it is a heart originated or mind originated energy?

One acid test we have used is –

If a trait is subjected in TIME dimension (over a period of time), and if surges and trips like a sinusoidal wave, then it is a mind originated energy. Rightfully so, we are supposed to renew our mind periodically.

On the other hand, if a trait is subjected in SPACE dimension (in different context/locations), if they maintain a steady state (or grow at a steady rate), then it is a heart originated energy. Rightfully so, we are supposed to be transformed in our heart/spirit and go from glory to glory, once it reaches a state, it is usually irrevocable.

Applying this acid test, let us take an example of cooperation and coordination

Cooperation, by and large is heart originated energy, and so, if we can further augment it with integrity (values/codes/moral/ethics), it becomes irrevocable, whereas coordination, is a mind originated energy and so, it will go through its ups and downs, and so, to reduce its variance, we must augment it with another mind originated energy called trust.

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