On the way to something greater

Trigger points

In Germany, you can buy a bratwurst and a beer for less than 9 Euro at literally thousands of places, from street stalls to football stadiums. And, this (European) summer, you can also buy an entire month of unlimited public rail transport for that price.

All rail travel is covered for just 9 EUR — including within cities (a monthly pass in Berlin is normally about 90 EUR). But why?

“Climate-friendly mobility” is the aim, in the words of Katharina Dr?ge, leader of Germany’s Green Party. But Transport Minister Volker Wissing has also described the passes as a trigger point: getting drivers out of cars, over the long term, not just over summer.

Will it work? Or will Germany just have a single summer of overcrowded trains?

Question: What can you offer your customers to stimulate a long-term shift in behaviour?

Neutral zones

A consulting colleague last week introduced me to?William Bridges’ work on transitions. His big insight is that change is rarely a binary switch from A to B. Rather, it’s an evolution from an ‘ending’ to a ‘new beginning’?via a ‘neutral zone’.

Think about Philips, the Dutch company that started making lightbulbs in 1891. They still do, but realised the limits of this business (the ‘ending’), so branched out into a variety of home appliance innovations (remember the Philishave?). They invented the combined radio-cassette (we had one, a precursor to the boombox of the 80s), and they were pioneers in colour TV (we had one of those too), and even brought the first video-cassette recorder and CD-player to market. This prolific mid-century period proved to be their neutral zone, which was gradually encroached upon by Asian companies and led to their ‘new beginning’ as a medical device manufacturer, which is what they are, exclusively, today.

The neutral zone is important, as it’s the stage in which creativity and innovation combine with resistance and anxiety to forge new ways. This zone works best when people feel comfort with discomfort, and accept 'not knowing’ as normal.

I consult widely on strategy and I see this concept as vital to many organisations’ evolutions. Right now, I’m working with two clients who are involved in serious ‘repair’ phases (an ‘ending’), before they begin a ‘rebuild’ (a neutral zone) and then identify growth options (their ‘new beginnings’).

Question: What ‘neutral zones’ can you identify as productive phases in their own right?

The wrong things

“If we measure the wrong thing, we will do the wrong thing. If our measures tell us everything is fine when they really aren’t, we won’t make the right decisions”?Joseph Stiglitz.

At a strategy retreat recently I gave a board of directors the following instructions: “You have 20 minutes. Form groups of four: two directors and two executives. I want you to come up with the Top 4 assurances you want to have. No more than 4. Start now”.

They were astonished that, within an hour they had a coherent and defensible suite of seven things that they agreed constitute success. In case you’re interested, this is what they were:

1. We have made a 10% dent on the major societal issue that represents 50% of our business;
2. Each individual with whom we work has demonstrable positive outcomes;
3. Every person is deeply satisfied with the work we do with them;
4. Our staff report engagement in the top 20% of all organisations;
5. Our staff’s diversity of background matches that of our clients;
6. We grow our service offerings sustainably (percentage growth x percentage margin);
7. We diversify our sources of funding.

In this case, they’ve identified?the right things.

But I’ve quoted Joseph Stiglitz above, as he’s a?Nobel laureate?in economics who believes that our accepted measures of prosperity (like GDP and household income) are entirely measuring?the wrong things.

It’s ironic that, as an economist, Stiglitz proposes measuring not economic output, but wellbeing. He and his colleagues suggest 11 variables that advanced economic societies (like Australia) should use as signals of shared prosperity. Only three are material (income & wealth, jobs and earnings, housing), while eight are quality of life related (health, work-life balance, education and skills, social connectedness, civic engagement, environment, personal security, and subjective wellbeing).?

Question: What do you measure that is “the wrong thing”?

As always, thanks for reading, thanks for thinking about the questions above, and if you use these as discussion points with your teams and colleagues, even better.

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Spend the week seeking out your own ‘neutral zones’ and see you next Friday.

Andrew