What type of world are you preparing our children for?Martin Thomas @crowdsurfing
A perspective from the world of business
A world of less & more
A world of ‘less’
Less time
Less certainty
Less deference
Less formality
Less Time
“The trouble with McDonald’s is it’s too bloody slow”
Instant access, instant response, instant gratification“living life through shortcuts” MTV
Real time expectationsmeet institutional time
Less certainty
“Events, threats and opportunities aren’t just coming at us faster or with less predictability; they are converging and influencing each other to create entirely unique situations.’ Samuel J. Palmisano, chairman, president and CEO, IBM
Less deference
“Authority has to battle for legitimacy every day; it can have no expectation of canned applause … The truth as affirmed and broadcast by any institution is intrinsically, contestable. For every fact there is an anti-fact” Jim Murphy, Future Foundation
Less formality
“To thrive in the world of social media, leaders need to acquire a
mind-set of openness and imperfection and they must have the
courage to appear raw and unpolished”
Six Social Media Skills Every Leader Needs: Roland Deiser and Sylvain Newton,
McKinsey Quarterly, Feb 13
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A world of ‘more’
More connected
More open
More disruptive
More subversive
More collaborative
More freedom?
More open … by force
“Companies are learning that they can’t count on information about executive pay,
finances, employee relations or environmental behaviour remaining
private for long. Thanks to social media everyone with an opinion can be heard”
PWC CEO Study, Feb 2013
Embracing ‘Radical openness’
“the more you give away the more you get back” Bruno Giussani, TED European director
No closed doors
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“faith in big businesses is lower than it’s ever been – because people have stopped trusting
what’s going on behind closed doors. So, from today, there is no
‘behind the scenes’ at Asda. Our aim is to be a truly open,
accessible and transparent business so that we can rebuild
trust, and drive customer loyalty.” Andy Bond, (former) CEO
From litigation to ‘civil dialogue’
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“the one thing we’ve changed in recent years is we have been a lot more open about engaging in dialogue with
people so long as they aim to be constructive” Steve Easterbrook, UK CEO, McDonalds
More disruptive
More subversive
More collaborative
“mutualisation” = “getting readers to care about, inform and enhance our coverage” Meg Pickard
Economic altruism
“people like to create & wish to share. A surprising amount of useful, creative or expressive activity is generated without any financial incentive at all”
Collective self-expression
More freedom?
Costly failure of compliance
‘Tyranny of numbers” David Boyle
A generation demands
Flexible working85% of Gen Y want to spend 30-70% of time working from home
Other prioritiesWork/Life balancePersonal developmentExciting jobMotivational management
… not afraid to ask for them & walk away
* TalentSmoothie: Generation Y: What they want from work (2008)
Business responds
o Emphasis on freedom & trusto Encouragement of creativity & individual
responsibility
“We’re giving people the latitude to go off & do their own thing. We trust them to do their regular jobs & to experiment, innovate & have fun” Microsoft Snr Mgr, quoted in Business Strategy Review
SURVIVING & THRIVING INA LOOSE WORLD
A winning mindset
Comfortable with complexity
Learning to let go
Improvisers
Learning through failure
Comfortable with complexity
“The world is non-linear, so the ability to cut through complexity relies on processing a large amount of information quickly and extracting nuggets to make quick decisions. Building advantage will be an outcome of dealing with complexity better than our competitors.”Julian Segal, managing director and CEO, Caltex Australia Limited,
“Wanted. A president with a complex mind” Robert Kegan, USA Today, 2008
“Businesses ‘are operating in what is very much a “let go” world” P&G former chairman and CEO, A. G. Lafley
Celebrating failure
“Remember, we celebrate our failures. This is a company where it’s absolutely OK to try something that’s very hard, have it not be successful, and take the learning from that” Eric Schmidt
Improvisation & the rise of adhocracy
Thank you
Martin Thomas @crowdsurfing