Still competing or already co-creating the future?

Re-unite Mind and Heart!

Dear friends, colleagues and anyone who may feel interested.

“All good with your purpose – but we have to run a company” was a quote I had to deal with a lot during my last years of bringing purpose to management teams, integrating purpose as ONE of some goals for the companies. I was asked to bring this into the boards – whereas the wish was oftenly just to put some make up on the everyday’s work. I very often was confronted with a “this OR that”.

Being driven by my own purpose since nearly 20 years now, I always have been an advocate for purposeful leadership. Being a woman of course I wanted (and still want) to empower women. And I stick to these points – nothing wrong around them – so much research in the last years has shown the evidence of successful growth whilst applying the concept of purpose for companies as well as female in boards – I do not want to bother you with it.

And – we see that not enough has happened. Still many industries are lacking their purpose and not growing in a healthy way. Still (particularly) in the DACH regions we do not see the ratio of women in boards increasing quickly enough – moving forward with the same velocity we will have a 30% ratio in 30 years from now.

Why not?

Thinking of this question and revisiting my own beliefs and restrictions I found at least one answer to this:

Pushing on the purpose in so many ways we’ve lost at least half of our societies – those, who are socialized in a world of ratio, where intellectual discussions were key to manage companies, grow profits, find solutions. Those who are coming out of the world of the last decades – in which we found ordered systems.??I already wrote about the cynefin model before – deeply believing in that concept of Dave Snowden . For decision frameworks he distinguishes in ordered systems, complicated and chaotic ones. Each of these systems has a preferred way to find a or the solution. An ordered situation is one in which we have clear cause and effect relation. Whether this happened to be in simple or complicated environments. In a world where we can explain everything that happens with logic. A world which is seen as a very mechanistic one.

Corona and the just existing war in Ukraine are giving us evidence that these concepts are not true for the present and even less for the future any longer. Here we are more and more in the world of complexity or chaos. And what is needed there to get to good solutions? You should go for creating safe environments to fail in and/or to go with very small steps forward, being aware and very sensitive of the consequences of your action.

We have to accept that mechanical solution, as sophisticated they may be, will not support us any longer in guiding us into a future where we want to live in a “good” way – whatever this will mean to any individual.

So – what can we do?

As long as we are pushing on something without embracing the existing models and beliefs we will not grow.?

Pushing for purpose – without embracing the “hard facts” as well we will not benefit from any other system. I see female empowerment everywhere -same stuff.? Pushing on women in leadership without integrating the view on masculine leadership has no future – we then will discuss about “ratios” and “mediocre women” and get into a small fight or a huge war wherever we are.

Start to see what competences we all have to be well prepared for the challenges we have to face – right now. Let’s define where we are strong – and where we can learn from each other to get to faster, more conscious and healthy decisions for all of us – to create systems of prosperity AND sustainability for our planet. It is time to start. To overcome the old habits of only one right direction and to embrace the ambiguity of mind AND heart – ratio AND purpose. Making sure that we have boards in which we have an equal ratio between IQ and EQ.?

Let’s define a new leadership guide beyond agility – a guide to embrace trust as a core value. Let’s create a new language (thanks to you Thomas Mansfield with #CardsforLife)– with which we are very carefully playing around old habits, for example not “building societies” but growing them or empowering them or…?

A language beyond the old mechanical systems, which are not the only way of shaping the new future – to establish a new awareness of the consequences of our decisions.

Competition mode off – co-creation mode on!

In case you want support for this – happy to serve together with RegenerateX – with mind and heart!