Setting the flywheel in motion Creating an ambidextrous employee ownership company Part 7 Your (energy) role in a new world, continued

For the last 8 months, we’ve been covering important and emerging ground. We’ve been talking about special kinds of companies known as ESOP’s, employee stock ownership plans, like AVIAN, the company I work for.?And we’ve also been talking about a special type of learning organization known as an ambidextrous organization. Whats an ESOP, it’s a unique company model in which employees are “employee owners” with opportunities to own shares of the company they work for.?Whats a learning organization? In the words of Peter Senge a learning organization is defined as “an organization where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspirations are set free and where people continually learn how to learn together”, that may sound idealistic, but it’s attainable.?????Learning organizations put new learning in action and often experience emergent, temporally unscheduled, spontaneous learning from the ground up instead of the top down. The added value ambidextrous organizations bring to learning is the dual ability to learn in both exploitive (what you do well), and explorative (new learning) ways.?Company founders Kevin Switick and Jeff Sherman put learning organization and even ambidextrous language into the ESOP they founded in their company handbook, giving AVIAN a greater chance for sustainable and strategic success. ?????

If, learning is allowed in an organization along with performance, and it could potentially “bubble up” from the bottom of the organization, emerge from the sides, or be prompted from the top, then everyone needs to have skin in the game, and they must be involved as well as feel allowed to be involved. Reg Revans, father of a powerful method for problem solving used around the world known as Action Learning once said, “doubt ascending speeds wisdom from above”, he was talking about asking questions.?Are you in a company where unexpected questions spur learning or retribution? If it’s the former you’re in a learning organization, they’re rare, but that’s changing.

I mentioned at the beginning of this article we’ve been covering new ground, company models like ESOP’s and learning organizations like ambidextrous organizations are proving to be early adopters on this landscape and poised to be in the forefront of this new era, they both bring comparable energy matching the challenges of tomorrow. Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve noticed the changes, things are being rejiggered, the nature of work is transforming, and relationships between employees, leaders, and business are undergoing significant overhaul.?Everyone, employee and owner alike, have a responsibility to open their mind, lower their defenses, forget what they think they know, and up their participation game if they want to be a contributing part of tomorrow. Here are 4 things you can do, centered around energy, to change the world for the better.?

Manage

Everything in the universe and by virtue of this, on our world, is reducible to energy and vibration, its simple physics, and the undercurrent of life and existence. As we scurry about in our day-to-day business, whatever we do and whatever our choices, create a chain reaction of events and behavior, keep that thought in mind.?Facial expressions, dialogue, thought, action, create a vibration which affect and inform everything else, like plucking a string on a guitar or throwing a rock into a pond, ripples of waves move out from it. Every decision you make is connected to the last and will influence the next.?And this ripple also touches others, affecting them. It’s all due to the exertion of energy in one direction or another, towards one activity and outcome, or another.?

?As discussed last month, Let’s say you decide the universe is a friendly place as opposed to hostile, a good choice in my opinion.?This frees up calories (i.e. energy) you can expend toward other pursuits; creativity, innovation, positive reflection, divergent thinking, helping others, you get the picture. These are all forward-looking, open minded, strategic activities you would not spend time for if you felt the opposite way.?If, on the other hand you decided the universe was a hostile place your energy would be spent much differently, in self-defense, developing tactics to protect what you have vs looking ahead to new things.?Your time would be spent mitigating, neutralizing, and thwarting threats.?It’s a narrow, backward-looking, pre-supposed view for the future.?One could even go as far as to say it robs you of a future as openness to what might be is replaced with an intent to repeat yesterday, instead of a commitment to notice what’s emerging tomorrow. If you believe in a friendly universe your energy isn’t used stacking sandbags around your desk, defending your position. When we’re fortunate enough to have psychological safety, we can begin to think in terms of tomorrow, possibilities, and in supporting others, not merely surviving the today. Where are you investing present and future energy??

There’s a benefit to managing energy well, just ask US Airways pilot Chesley Sullenberger.?For one thing you become a better version of you, not just for yourself but also for others.?Neurologically speaking, once you answer Einstein’s important question of mindset you will also get a better idea about, and be able to change if you wish, who’s in charge of you any given day.??

If your regularly deprived of a psychologically safe workplace your world probably feels hostile.?Because of this we easily relinquish control out of desperation.?To others, to circumstances, or to a default way of thinking to survive which may feel useful but ultimately doesn’t serve us, its tantamount to perpetually running from a burning building. ?In such a case your 300-million-year-old amygdala (the oldest part of your brain) is likely running the show and suppressing the newer parts (the limbic and pre-frontal cortex) from having a say, normally all three would be helping you through the day.?And while your amygdala is busy protecting you it’s running very old and rigid scripts to keep you safe, remember, to the amygdala everything is survival.?Checklists like the “fight or flight checklist”, “acquire and horde resources” or “be careful what you say and do” are in use. Your days are spent searching for anything which would give you an advantage over adversaries and keep you safe, oh, and everyone’s an adversary. With better energy use and management comes greater awareness, freedom, and a better you. ?

While we’re on the subject of energy, is it affected and influenced by our workplace and coworkers? Yes, that’s called culture and daily, climate (the mood in the office). Considering that adults spend upwards of 30% of their lives at work that adds up to a lot of influence.?Now, imagine you work for a company where everyone is supportive of one another, you feel a satisfying amount of agency and power, you’re listened to, respected, feel safe, and that you can make decisions and work with a certain level of autonomy.?Would that affect your mood and energy and the mood of others? Of course, the answer is yes.

?Find where you are?

And where you want to be. The chart above is from famous researcher David Hawkins book Power vs Force and is best described as a?consciousness maturity model?calibrated to attributes relating to either power or force, think of it like an “energy gage.”?Hawkins attends that many people calibrate to attributes around 250 or lower on the chart, with fewer and fewer people calibrating the higher you go up the scale.?Hawkins compelling chart is a way to see where people are in terms of how they think about things and suggests something significant about world view and personal energy use, with self-interest being the lowest and enlightenment and spiritual pursuits being the highest levels.?This maturity model forces one to admit where they are on the scale regarding maturity and where they might need to go to improve.?Below 200 represents life draining energy, and above, life supporting.?Along the left column,?power?and?force?represent that people on lower levels are more apt to use?force?to get their way, i.e. bully and push people around to get results.?Power?on the other hand is more about inspiring, enlightening, and connecting so people go along willingly, they’re not coerced. Today Hawkins says society in general hovers around 250 plus or minus 100 points.?At 175 and below there is no courage to stand up and do the right thing and there’s too much pride to admit when you’ve done something wrong.?There’s also anger, insecurity, and fear of those who are different.?

?Transform climate

How can this affect culture and climate? People at lower levels on the Hawkins scale tend to default to basic human desires and blame others for problems, never accepting responsibility.?As humanity evolves, we will naturally increase the numbers of people who occupy the upper levels of the chart and start to see more harmony in humanity and life, but for now we are forced to live, and work in tumultuous climates. Hawkins says today we currently don’t do much to raise our levels of consciousness though there are some that dedicate their lives to it and see the world quite differently.?Are organizations evolving along with humanity? Applying Hawkins scale to organizations, where might ones with strong learning cultures and happy empowered employees calibrate??Ask yourself honestly, where would your organization and its members be? Do they operate with force or power? If we’re being frank, we’ll admit that every organization has people that register in the 100’s, yours included. These employees may be skilled and of value in specific ways, but how good are they for the company overall? Is one of those people you? Are you doing anything to move up Hawkins scale??

Bring cookies

Here’s some final thoughts.?Positively contribute to and enhance every situation and experience you walk into or are part of, or don’t be part of them to begin with.?Next, realize we all have good days and bad, periods of high and low energy, and this calculates into the equation creating the product of our daily efforts, and that includes you.?Why do these things??One reason is because you matter, you have agency, power, and influence over others and over situations whether you know it or not, and this contributes to and creates outcomes.?Mirror neurons in the brain cause us to mimic other’s moods and behaviors, biases, and opinions just like catching a cold.?So the next time you’re in the presence of others, called upon to contribute, or being observed (which is all of the time), if you can’t bring anything positive to the activity or challenge, at least bring a box of cookies! Thanks for reading and see you next time. Dr Z.

Dr. Zabiegalski is available to talk to your organization or venue about ambidexterity research or speak informatively and eloquently about organizational culture, leadership, strategy, learning, complexity, business neuroscience, creativity, mindfulness, talent management, personal success, emotional intelligence, Action Learning, and storytelling. Contact Eric about a talk, keynote presentation, or workshop today!

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