Stefan has the guts to discuss concepts such as fear, courage, tenacity, and resiliency which have a lot more to do with business success than just about anything else, but are unfortunately absent from most business books.  Stefan does a beautiful job of connecting us to the wisdom of the Serengeti.  Life may be very different in our boardrooms, but the wisdom is universal.

• The Enduring Wildebeest teach us to confront our fears and always take the next step – no excuses!
• The Strategic Lion teaches us that the pride’s connection to the strategy is perhaps more important than the strategy itself.
• The Enterprising Crocodile shows us the importance of finding the opportunities is all circumstances, not just the easy ones.
• The Efficient Cheetah teaches us that limited resources can actually be a benefit if you can be innovative.
• The Graceful Giraffe reminds us that dignity, respect, and doing the right thing are keys to success despite what appears to be a cut-through world.
• The Risk-Taking Mongoose shows us that change and exploration of the unknown can bring exciting and even superior alternatives.

I had the opportunity to speak with Stefan recently about Surviving Your Serengeti and asked him how important he thought “differentiation” or exploiting your strengths was to success in this post-recession world.  His response was that in a world that is increasingly confused, digital, and real-time driven, differentiation allows you to stand-out (not in a Charlie Sheen kind of way, but in a good way).  He also rightfully points out that differentiation is not so much about creating something entirely new, but more about packaging concepts and skills that we already know in new and different ways.

If you are a frequent reader of this blog, you know that I am a huge proponent of a US perspective that promotes a new 21^st century American dream that involves moving up the global value chain as opposed to a perspective that tries to re-create the past.  I asked Stefan how he thought Surviving Your Serengeti can help people see a different perspective, one that doesn’t conflict with the global realities of our times.  Stefan is hopeful that his book will help people find the courage to evolve.  By focusing on the life and death situations faced every day in the Serengeti, we can more easily see how “cookie cutter” many of us have become in our thinking and how we often take our every day existence for granted.

Go ahead, read the book and let it re-connect you with your own talents and skills as well as see them in others.  And then find out what animal you are, and the rest of your team, at www.WhatAnimalAmI.com.  Personally, I most closely resemble the Enterprising Crocodile.  Not great for my feminine image, but it is spot on!

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When the mayhem in the financial world let loose in the fall of 2008, I was the COO of an international corporate finance company. It didn’t matter how long you had done business with a counterparty, how much money they had made with you in the past, or if they had introduced you as their best client just last month.

This was war. I saw some of the saddest displays of human behavior that I have witnessed in my entire career.

Relationships became meaningless, literally overnight, and trust was suddenly a word that no longer held any value. Corporations insisted their employees go for the jugular as a bloody grab for what cash remained in the system ensued. I actually heard one CEO claim that they would, “Rape and pillage their way back to profitability.”

That was my catalyst . . . realizing that spending the second half of my career stuffed behind a desk dealing with auditors, accountants, and deal guys with ocean sized egos just wasn’t going to work for me any longer. I picked up my head and began to observe and learn what was happening outside the world of finance and investing.

As a 40-something with 20 years of career behind me—more than half of it working around the globe for conservative Goldman Sachs Companies—the wild west of social media, online networks, web 2.0, friends, fans, and tweets seemed to come out of nowhere.

While learning more about these phenomena, I soon realized they were symptoms of a far larger shift in capitalism that was beginning to shape the 21^st century.  I spent the better part of a year, reading, thinking, writing, and formulating my own conclusions about where things were heading and how the global recession could in fact be a catalyst for capitalism to take a new turn.

Below are some new perspectives on how we can harness the power of connectivity to create growth and prosperity, how we can blow the lid off the box in which we’ve kept capitalism bound, and how the Conceptual Age will bring more meaning, and more joy to our personal and professional lives if we are simply willing to let go of our old ideas and seek out new ones.

If you and your firm are not willing to embrace these changes, you’re likely to miss what are shaping up to be some very large and exciting steps for business and humanity.

The Power of Connection

Hindsight is obviously very far away, and others who are much smarter than I will likely come up with better concepts to explain this massive shift. However, for me it’s all about changing the way we connect to people, organizations, ideas, and personal passions. It’s about learning how to connect the un-connectable dots.

Enhancing existing connections inside and outside of companies is the one thing that most old-school business leaders overlook. Who can blame them?  We were taught in business school to focus on recurring revenues, leveraged buy-outs, IPO’s, and shareholder value. This accepted path to wealth and prosperity worked quite well in the 20^th century, but said nothing about creating meaning, developing connections, unleashing human potential in the workplace, and heading into retirement feeling as though you had created something decent in the world.

News flash…seismic shift…game changer! Social media, email, cell-phones, blogging, reality TV, and interactive marketing, are all signals that people are craving stronger and more meaningful connections in their lives.  And the younger generation is demanding it both at work as well as in their personal lives.

New companies and young leaders are gaining competitive traction, not just through adept financial practices or differentiated products, but simply because they posses a mindset pre-wired to embrace connections. Connections that allow them to more easily and effectively drive innovation, productivity, and success.

Connectivity is about a new perspective that can bring many great and wonderful changes, including dramatic increases in productivity, differentiated competitive advantages, continued long-term prosperity and happiness in the workplace. It’s about how business doesn’t really have to be boring and antagonistic. It’s about lightening up and bringing a bit of fun into the office.

Capitalism

It is also about taking a hard look at where capitalism and our economic system have come from and where they could be heading – if we have the courage to be more innovative with our underlying systems. It is about questioning some of the things we thought were true, but maybe weren’t, or aren’t any longer. It is about remembering how to push the envelope and seize the joy of creating something new and meaningful.

This is particularly true for America, which is at great risk of loosing its position as the great innovator. We’ve become complacent with mediocrity, and unless we are willing to make some serious changes, we will pay a high price (or at least our children will).  We now fight wars without regard to borders, which in the cold war days was unconscionable.  Likewise, economic systems are loosing borders as well and the very best entrepreneurs and innovators will move to the places where they can most easily create.

When we realize that not using known medical technology to vaccinate children in third world countries against life threatening diseases is actually a choice, and not a permanent side effect of capitalism, then we are free to make a different choice.  When governments realize that their highest and best use in most cases is simply to promote alignment for growth and not be the growth, solutions will come with greater ease.

What will drive the next big movement in the world of capitalism? What seems awkward today but will be a no-brainer 20 years from now? What will make going to work an adventure instead of a chore?  What will create the next wave of competitive advantage in the market place? What will the next Microsoft do better than everyone else?  What will expand capitalism such that its benefits are more than we can currently contemplate? My answer is simply connectivity.

The capitalistic continuum has always adapted to society, and continues to become more esoteric and less concrete over time. The primary resource of modern capitalism has morphed over the centuries from capital to labor to knowledge and now to connectivity.

The next wave of capitalism will focus on alignment and the inherent values and desires of human beings not only to be economically successful, but also compassionately responsible. It is through such alignment that we will actually become better capitalists as we learn to exploit its full potential.

The Conceptual Age

The Conceptual Age is about asking smarter questions? Broadening horizons, embracing new perspectives, and establishing new mindsets always begins with new questions; never new answers to the same old questions.

What do we want? What kind of legacy do we want to leave the generations to come? What do we want our lives to be about?  In what kind of world do we want to live?  How can we better connect to the bottom of the pyramid? It’s also about realizing that we have the power to not only answer these questions, but also to bring those answers to life.

Daniel Pink (A Whole New Mind) walks us through the ages from the 18^th century Agricultural Age (farmers), to the Industrial Age (factory workers), to the Information Age (knowledge workers), and finally to the 21^st century and the Conceptual Age (creators and empathizers) all transpiring as we increase affluence, technology, and globalization and the world becomes more connected.  Pink describes success in the Conceptual Age as requiring high concepts (ability to detect patterns and opportunities and combine seemingly unrelated ideas) and high touch (ability to empathize, and understand human subtleties in the search for purpose and meaning).

The very best ideas generally reside in those overlapping slivers between disciplines and the Conceptual Age will show us more of those opportunities and more importantly how to better recognize them.  It moves us from an era of scarcity, opposition, and secrets, to one of abundance, collaboration, and transparency.  It allows us to remember that we are all on the same team and generally want the same things out of life.

Check back for future posts where we will explore each of these three areas in more detail.

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Sunday mornings with Fareed Zakaria on CNN are sacred in my house.  Which basically means that my kids and husband abandon me for that hour.  More often than not, I’m highly tempted to blog about one or two of the topics Fareed covers.  I typically resist, because I rarely disagree with Fareed and over time I’m afraid I might come across as a “Fareed Groupie”, which could tarnish my image of a self-thinking, intelligent, strategic, modern woman.  That said, this week, I am giving into temptation. I simply must blog about this new British government and the 39-year old George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer – Secretary of the Treasury to Americans) whom I found to be slightly pompous (expected), highly intelligent (expected), but unexpectedly refreshing and on-point in his ideas around what people really want from their governments.  I personally, think the US Republican party could take a lot of cues from the new conservative sheriffs at Downing Street.  As an Independent, I actually prefer it when both the Democrats and Republicans are acting wisely as it makes for better candidate options and more solution oriented action.

If you missed the show, it’s easy to watch or listen on demand.  Just click here.

Just to add my own touch to the conversation, and keep up my image, here are the four primary reasons why I like what I heard from Osborne and feel strongly that this is the direction that successful politicians will have to take (regardless of party) to be successful in the future.

Not Afraid to Act

Osborne has pledged to the British people that he will not hide hard choices from them and he will make them.  He has clearly lived up to this campaign promise with his austere budget that is getting a lot of press. He feels strongly that the public wants a government who can admit when there is a real problem, and work quickly to get it fixed.

Proper Leadership

The kicker here is their assumption that the public can and should act as an intelligent deputy to a sheriff who is willing to make and stand behind decisions regardless of which direction the political winds are blowing. This new conservative party clearly recognizes that the British public clearly understands there is a debt problem, and that the country has been living beyond its means for some time, and so they are willing to take it on as their first priority.  They also realize that not only Great Britain, but Europe, requires proper leadership to bolster their image and regain the world’s confidence in their ability to pay their own way.

Collaboration is Not a Death Sentence

Osborne speaks of forming a proper coalition government where the other party holds seats in the cabinet and how the real benefits of diversity in Parliament are less about looking different and more about being different and thinking different.  One of the best statements Osborne makes in Fareed’s interview is, “We can’t abandon whole areas of policy to the Left in British politics.  There is no reason why the Conservative Party should not have a progressive policy on climate change or be interested in issues of poverty and equity in our society and have answers to those issues.”

Open, Open, Open

They are open to new ideas, new views and anyone who can come up with a better way to reach a common goal.  Osborne indicated that he constantly seeks out second opinions and alternative views.  He encourages large numbers of people to come into meetings and say what they want to say, and understands that listening is a large part of the job.  His office recently asked the broader group of public servants for their ideas on how to reduce budgets in a way that doesn’t damage the frontline services people receive.  They received over 65,000 responses in a couple of weeks, and had some of them around to Number 11 Downing Street for a chat recently.  Interactive governement . . . what a concept!

I’ve been saying for years (just ask my friends) that the politicians in the US are simply making things worse and what most people really want is an entirely new breed of politician that is much more suited for the 21^st century.  We need politicians who care less about party line and more about solving problems. We need politicians who can explain both sides of an issue, without bias, and why they believe their decision is the best option.  We need politicians who can work with other politicians to get the job done and stop wasting the public’s time and money on petty politics.

As much as I love they way in which this new and refreshing British government is behaving, I would certainly caution them that the best solution in today’s environment is likely a combination of austerity in some areas and stimulus in others.  Because western politicians failed to play the austerity card when times were good, we are all now stuck in a precarious position.  The equation is really quite simple and it works for government, companies, and at home.  When times are good you pay off your debts, make smart investments, and put a little under the mattress for a rainy day.  When times are hard you dig out your mattress money and stretch on credit a little if necessary.  If used responsibly, credit can be a very stabilizing element in an economy.  When abused, as we all now know, credit can backfire as surely as a 1970’s MG.

One of the things I love the most about this new government is the fact that they aren’t letting fear run the show.  They are taking a stance, creating a strategy, and they are willing to listen to other ideas.  The longer we let fear run our households, our businesses, and our politics, the longer this era of uncertainty will linger.  It really is that simple.

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There have been a couple of news spots recently on healthcare providers starting to do things differently and experiencing huge success.  In one doctor’s office in Seattle, patient emails are answered daily by a physician, and appointments last twice a long as the average doctor’s visit.  The result is a much higher level of connection between patient and doctor and a much greater chance that “health-care” is being provided as opposed to “disease management” services.  The other story I saw involved a hospital here in Dallas that last year experienced the death of a patient while he waited in the ER for hours.  They completely revamped their ER process creating a number of different pods or mini ERs that take in multiple patients at one time so they can keep a closer eye on everyone.  Again, huge success in dropping their wait times and even more impressive, a dramatic drop in the percentage of patients that left before they were seen by a professional care giver.

In my opinion, the US healthcare industry needs a new business model far more than it needs new legislation.  We seem to be in this mode in America where we think that the best solution to all problems begins with massive new legislation.  Sometimes a tweak here and there can be very helpful, but solving all problems with more rules just runs counter to everything I’ve experienced on how to create change and lasting success.

At its most basic level, it is relatively easy to see that the healthcare system in our country is a bit backward.  We pay physicians when patients have something wrong with them as opposed to when they remain healthy.  To get paid for anything, the physician must start with a diagnosis and a diagnosis code.  Any time or energy a physician spends on prevention or educating patients on how to stay healthier longer is a bottom line deduction from their profits.  It is a simple case of rewarding the wrong behaviors.  There are no fingers to be pointed or people to blame, it’s simply a model that is ineffective at creating what is needed, which is healthier and happier people at a lower cost.  Perhaps 100 years ago, when there was far less knowledge about and focus on prevention, the currently model was relatively effective.  Healthcare is no different than so many other industries (like energy, automobile, finance, and telecommunications to name only a few) that need to change with the times in order to remain effective.  What is sneaking up on most of us is that the rate of change has skyrocketed and is now at a pace that is uncomfortable to most industries and businesses.  There is hope though; we just have to be willing to change the way with think about things and be willing to do it in dramatic ways.

During the thrust of the healthcare debate, I only saw one article that touched on the real issues.  The article discussed how organizations such as The Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic appear to run at a much lower cost structure and simultaneously have reputations for the best service available in the industry.  The article attributed this in large part to the fact that doctors from different disciplines collaborated very effectively on all kinds of cases on a daily basis, which tends to cut out tests and procedures that ultimately end up being unnecessary.  Unfortunately, most of the healthcare industry is built on an “every doc for himself” model that actually dissuades doctors from taking the time to collaborate as much as they would probably like to.  It is much easier to collaborate when people are co-located and when the concept is built into the care model.

Because the “every doc for himself” model is so pervasive, it has been difficult for the industry to take advantage of technology to the extent that it could, which would ultimately benefit the patients and reduce costs.  For example, if a doctor sees a new patient and diagnosis him/her with diabetes, there schedule probably only allows for them to spend 15 or 20 minutes explaining everything.  The patient is in such a state of shock they likely are only taking in a portion of the information that is radically changing their life.  What if you could also send the patient home with a computer login that accesses their own health web page customized to their personal care needs?  It could contain a longer video, of their very own doctor, explaining everything again that they could watch as many times as they wanted and could share with family members who might be participating in their long-term care.  A private chat board could be available that is manned by an RN or Physician’s Assistant answering questions in real time.  The possibilities are endless in this area.  How many relapses could be avoided if patients watched daily videos that indicate how things should be progressing after surgery discharge or an outpatient procedure.

The point is, we need to start thinking in terms of radical changes, and honestly considering if the business model is working toward our goals or working away from them.  Imagine a time when doctors get paid for keeping people healthy.  Imagine if your healthcare facility was a place where you could workout, ask a quick question, learn about nutrition, pick up some new recipes, and get motivated to live a healthier life?  The reality is the current business model is stifling progress, innovation, and advancement in how we think about and deliver healthcare.  Our healthcare system has been narrowed down to a transaction system.  It feels like progress is being made because there have been great advancements in understanding diseases and innovating new treatments, however, very little has been done around the delivery of healthcare.  We have State of the art medical knowledge delivered, in many cases, through an outdated and archaic system.  If you are looking for ways to cut costs and increase the quality of service, this is where the opportunities lie.  Unfortunately, until we correct the structure of the system, those efficiencies will likely continue to lie dormant.

In the business world we call this a classic case of structure taking over the strategy.  You always want your strategy to dictate the best structure, not the other way around.  Unlike a single business transaction or a single company, where you change the structure relatively easily, this is an entire industry in one of the world’s largest countries.  It is likely impossible for a single healthcare provider, a single hospital, or even a single hospital system to make a change to the structure on their own.  Maybe it will require a grass roots movement that strives for a total do-over in the way our healthcare system works.  Once the structure is changed to create the alignments and incentives necessary to meet the goals then, and only then, will we see meaningful change.

As much as I dislike the behaviors that the medical insurance industry sometimes displays, it is a complete waste of time to try and fight them.  Everyone has responsibility for things getting to the point that they have, and these bad behaviors are just another symptom of a system that is governed by an outdated and ineffective model.  The insurance companies will have to be a part of the solution.  Insurance is a numbers game.  When the youngest and healthiest people opt-out because the cost is too high it simply continues a vicious cycle where the insurance companies feel they have to remove the other end of the spectrum as well in order to balance out their risk.  I am actually a fan of having a minimum insurance requirement with the government picking up the tab if someone can’t afford it.  We have this requirement in the auto industry and I believe it is one of the reasons that auto insurance seems to work so well.

If you look at healthcare as an entire business system and start to dissect its “operating statement” you quickly realize that revenues are generated by one party (insurance companies) and expenses are created by another (providers), though for the providers those expenses are viewed as revenue.  The profits from the system are shared but not anywhere near equal to the value that each party contributes or in a way that promotes the desired outcomes.  The real value that an insurance company provides is an administrative function, yet in many cases, they take an outsized portion of the profits from a value perspective and often have the most control.  The insurance companies will say they also take on the risk, but I would argue that it is the purchasers of insurance that take the risk.  When profits start to go down the insurance companies simply start denying claims, dropping high-risk people, and jacking up rates for everyone else.  They have become experts at deriving ways of mitigating their risks by passing them on to their customers, and we have let them get away with it for so long that it is now seen as standard practice.  In fairness, nothing has been done to ensure that the young and healthy remain part of the pool, which I believe could solve a lot of the insurance issues.  This would be one of those areas where some legislative changes could be good.

The real question is not, could we come up with creative and inventive ideas to cut costs and increase quality, but do we have the courage to make the necessary changes to the underlying structure?  Do we have the courage to design a model that provides the incentives to promote the investments necessary to increase service quality and bring down costs?  I hope the answer is YES.  I believe the answer is YES.  We can have all the intelligence and innovation imaginable, but without the courage to make system wide structural changes we will likely only create an updated and over compromised version of what we already have, spend a lot of money getting there, and leave an even more complex mess for our children and grandchildren to clean-up.

We must find the courage to critically examine the current system and understand how the alignments and incentives are simply miss-directed to accomplish the goals of the medical community and our society.

We must find the courage to recognize that the failures are not born of malice from any party, but are born of a system that is simply out-dated and broken.

We must find the courage to work together and commit to create the world’s finest healthcare system and be a leader for the rest of the world.

WE MUST FIND THE COURAGE TO CHANGE THE GAME!

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As an executive in two finance companies during the bubble years I became very familiar with the hiring process.  What I generally saw was that hiring managers were not interested in taking any risk on people and generally liked to hire people that were just like themselves.  I suppose they felt as though they were taking enough risk on their deals, that they wanted to avoid any in the hiring process (too much market risk, not enough people risk).  Or maybe, they were simply taking the easy way out.  Just find the person who is doing what you want somewhere else and offer him/her more money to leave.  This is unfortunately what the recruiting business had come to during those years.  The reality is, most hiring managers (especially in the finance arena) are great at deals, but relatively poor at managing people.  Therefore, it was much easier to hire people who have previously done the exact job that you are hiring for so that you can spend as little time as possible with them and have little risk that they are not good at the job you are hiring them for.  It’s relatively sound logic as long as you are not interested in adding any creativity, ingenuity, or loyalty to your business.  How loyal do you think employees are that go from job to job chasing money?

Hiring for what people have done and not who they are, gets you people who have the ability to do certain tasks, but does nothing for adding to the moral, innovative, and energy building aspects of a business.  As with most things I write about, this was fine and worked well enough in the 20^th century, but will be far less effective in the 21^st century where the world, and particularly business, is beginning to work differently.  Employees, especially the younger ones, want their careers to be about something, they want to feel as though they are making the world a better place, and they want to work on something that is exciting.  People of my age and older, we never thought those goals were possible or even plausible to attain, so we simply gave in and focused on the money convincing ourselves that it is the ultimate measure of success.  I personally, am rooting for the kids of today and tomorrow, hoping they have the courage to get what they want.

When you hire people for who they are, what innate traits they bring to the table, and how they think, then you can maximize their potential in ways that maximize your business success.  Earlier this year, at the Front End Innovation Conference in Europe, there was a graduate student presenting some fantastic research on the traits of an innovative person.  She did a great job on the research and a great job at presenting, and I found it fascinating that the discussion it sparked really showed what a novel concept this was for so many people.  Sure, there have been personality tests that have been used in hiring practices for some time, but they really only tell you a few things like can you manage people, and will you get along with the others in your group.  I don’t dismiss those questions by any measure, but I sure would love to start hearing questions like, “What do you want to create? What are your passions? How connected are you to your own internal wisdom?” used somewhere in the equation.

When I asked on twitter whether you should hire people for what they have done or who they are, I got some great responses.  My favorite from @KrisSchindler and one that I agree completely with is to look for “intellectual curiosity”.  This concept has largely vanished from large institutions, and in my opinion, is not focused on nearly enough in our education system.  It’s a skill all of us are born with, and some of us choose to use it and others do not.  Who do you want working for you?

People Risk is not only about taking risk that someone with a different background who can think from new and creative positions is going to be good for your company.  People Risk is also about allowing yourself as a manager or executive to find the unconditional value in each person as individuals and as they interact within the company.  This takes time, and even more importantly, this takes being vulnerable enough to make those really strong connections that inspire people to work at their full potential.  When people are working at their full potential in an environment where they are respected, they have no desire to go somewhere else.

Alex Pattakos, PhD, writes in his book, Prisoners of Our Thoughts:

“The transformation of work in the twenty-first century is, in many respects, a call for humanity—a new consciousness that suggests more than simply trying to strike a balance between our work and our personal life.  It is a call to honor our own individuality and fully engage our human spirit at work—wherever that may be.”

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Overtime, many businesses end up evolving through the lens of problem solving and not through the lens of what they want to create.  When you take the time to focus on what differentiates a company from its competition, what value it brings to its clients and the world, and what it really wants to become, the problems will automatically solve themselves.  If you are driven as an organization to create a shared vision and something is standing in your way, you will quickly find a way to remove it.   All the while, still focused on a unified vision.

To be successful in the 21^st century, companies must learn to get out of problem solving mode and into the mode of passionate creation.  When solving problems, you are by definition looking to the past and limiting the upside of your answer resulting in a real lack of creativity, innovation, and initiative, which are all forward looking characteristics.  Focusing on questions that matter, questions that lead to ideas and initiatives that create value, brings Courage, Collaboration, and Creativity to the table.  With those three ingredients, the sky is the limit in terms of success.

People ask me all the time HOW to bring more Courage, Collaboration, and Creativity into their organizations.  They completely understand the need, but are unsure how to make it happen in a meaningful way.  These are not the things they teach in Business School.  I tell them there is one key element.  If they can passionately embrace this one key element, the rest will fall into place.  The key is the leadership team being willing and able to ensure that the underlying business model (the core from which the company extends) is courageous, collaborative, and creative itself.  Because the majority of companies today are based on business models that date back to the 1800’s, this can feel like a daunting task.  In reality, it may require a lot of change, but it is also the ticket to phenomenal results.

The challenge of bringing real innovation into companies that are large and set in their traditional ways, is also what can give new companies a real competitive advantage.  Young companies can very easily and very quickly create environments where employees soar, that attract the best clients, and that ultimately enjoy greater success.  This gives a whole new twist to the question of, barriers to entry.  We may also need to ask, what are the advantages to entry.

Courage

If a company is willing to show the courage necessary to break out of a traditional models, try something new and more appealing and show its desire for collaboration through its core actions, then the employees will be much more likely to do what is necessary to engage the best clients, discover the best new product ideas, and work to their fullest potential.  Leaders must model the kinds of behaviors they are seeking.

Successful 21^st Century Businesses will be those that are always searching for something new and rely less and less on the status quo.  Always searching for what has changed, what new questions have emerged, and how it all interconnects.   They will use change as the fuel for their business model because they understand that they pace of change will only continue to increase overtime and at greater and greater rates.  They will also have the courage not to follow the herd and not to allow fear to dictate business decisions.

Collaboration

So many companies fail to harvest the energy and creativity already available inside their firms because their business models are designed to promote internal competition and silos.  If you want to promote cross-pollination and tap into the additional intelligence that exists only at the intersections of knowledge bases, then the internal business model must specifically promote those behaviors.

Creating teams that cross departments, functions, and even regions to work on organization wide projects is a simple way to begin working toward promoting a true culture of collaboration.  Promoting relationships and interaction between people who wouldn’t normally interact is critical.  Collaboration also promotes trust which will is quickly becoming one of the non-negotiables of success.

Creativity

When people are fearful of the consequences of any type of failure, they automatically go into a safety zone where the chances of failure are as small as possible.  This is a place where creativity cannot thrive, because creativity requires a certain amount of risk.  When people are not afraid of failure and know that it comes with a lot of great knowledge for success, they will be bring their full arsenal of creative tools.

Creating is a very natural state for human beings and one that fulfills our hearts and passions.  Thus when employees are free to create, try new things and receive critical feedback, their productivity will naturally increase.  Based on my two decades in the corporate world, working all around the globe, I estimate that most companies are operating at about half the productivity that is possible when employees are engaged and operating at their full potential.  This is not something that anyone really wants to admit, but we all know it is true.

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This time, as I read Lencioni’s latest book, Getting Naked, I had a different reaction.  I knew this book would be a fantastic tool, not only to fall back on as a reminder to never give up on what I believe in (which we all need on occasion), but also to give to clients as a way to help them achieve more.  It’s possible that I also did a small happy dance for my own little consulting company as I saw many parallels to the way we already do things here at YURU.

Getting Naked presents the business world with a new kind of 21^st century risk that can provide the taker with a competitive advantage that will leave heads spinning in disbelief.  The ability to harness what Patrick is sharing is what will separate the good, and yes even the great, companies from those that dare to be extraordinary.

Understanding Lencioni’s three fears that hinder client relationships can provide the insight necessary to take such risks.  If you can find the courage to be honest, authentic, and buck-naked vulnerable with yourself, your teammates, and your clients, the sky is the limit for anyone or any business.  There are plenty of brilliant nuggets of wisdom in Getting Naked no matter if you are a consultant, manage a department, a business student, run a multi-national company, or are part of the small business backbone of our economy.  There is something for anyone who has clients, which at the end of the day is pretty much all of us.  I have seen first hand, with myself, and my own clients, how these concepts can literally transform people and companies.

The story-telling style of Lencioni’s books, gives the reader that sense of “what happens next” that good fiction employs and shows us how his theories would look in real life as opposed to simply preaching them.  That one extra step really allows the information to sink in at a different level.  Plus, it’s just more fun to read.

I highly recommend Getting Naked with its high quotient of nuggets of wisdom to words read.   In other words, lots of great stuff packed into an easy to read book that will fit into your busy schedule.  Plus, it can be a great conversation starter if you simply carry it around for a couple of days.

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“Individually and Together” — three words I heard this weekend from Will.i.am being interviewed as he fondly remembered the journey of success for his group The Black Eyed Peas.  Yes, I am over 40 and a fan of the Black Eyed Peas!  As a writer, sometimes you hear a group of words in one context and your mind instantly relays them to another and you know that somehow you must capture that connection on the page.  For me, these three words hold the keys to success in the 21^st Century for any business, large or small, local or multi-national.  When I was growing up, if a member of a band did something on his or her own, it was basically viewed as defecting.  Today, the Black Eyed Peas show us that band members doing their own thing and great stuff with the group is actually great for business.  Maybe the Cold War really is over.

How does one reconcile the dichotomy between a world increasingly focused on the individual and simultaneously asking its citizens to work in greater collaboration for the greater good?  The problem lies in seeing the two forces as a mutually exclusive.  The minute we begin to see them as more alike than unalike we begin to tap into their power.  By individually pronouncing ones passions and desires and focusing on what really drives you forward, you are more able to contribute to joint tasks in a selfless manner.  It is difficult for many of us to see this because society dictated for much of the last century that you are either out for yourself or you are for the good of others, and never the two shall meet.  The missing link is the belief that somehow left to our own devices, we are pre-programmed for choices and behaviors that are unsuitable and against what is good in this world.  Based on my experience, this could not be further from the truth.

Leaders today are challenged with how to allow maximum individualism while maintaining a strong thread of common vision between every person in an organization.  It’s a bit like the challenge that search engine companies are facing today: how to put a context around what any individual is searching for (based on their individual profile) such that they find exactly what they are seeking and perhaps something even better that they didn’t know existed . . . all the while maintaining some semblance of privacy.  When the figure it out, it will be a game changer.

It’s about giving employees back their power of creativity, permission to fail in search of excellence, and the respect that every person on the planet deserves regardless of their role.  It’s about leadership with less ego and more personal confidence creating the skills necessary to embrace and lead any group of individuals to their highest potential.  It’s about tapping into the personal energy of every member of an organization such that the energy of the group expands beyond the sum of its parts.

In another part of the same interview, Will.i.am spoke of inspiration, indicating that when it calls, you don’t hang up . . . you give it directions to your house.  Unfortunately, most of us hang up on inspirational thoughts and chalk it up to another wrong number from Mr. Impossible Dream. When, in reality such inspiration can at any moment become a pivotal point in our lives leading us to create a life full of impossible dreams that come true every day.    It’s a mindset that I have been aware of in my own life for sometime now and have slowly been shifting toward, and I will tell you that its power is immeasurable.

So, what does it really take to be a successful 21^st century leader that can relate to each individual and then relate them all to each other?  It takes courage to love who you are, to love who everyone else is (regardless of where they are in life), to believe your team can connect the un-connectible dots, and the sincerity and vision to bring everyone together.  It takes the courage to know when to go for it and when to do more research.  It requires a willingness to take personal risk by really putting yourself out there.

Be the energy . . .

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This post is dedicated to the tens of thousands of Haitians who have lost their lives; to those who will undoubtedly loose their struggle in the coming weeks; to my friends and colleagues at Aimer Haiti and to the wonderful creative economic development ideas we were working on that now mean more than ever before.  See previous posts for more information on Aimer Haiti.

Globalization is no longer optional for any nation, company, or person in the world, regardless of their beliefs.  The realities of our globally interconnected world are more evident now than ever before given the failures in our global financial systems that are far more intertwined than many realized.  This coupled with the shrinking populations in many developed nations ensures that disasters such as Haiti and other atrocities happening in under-developed countries are everyone’s challenges and everyone’s potential.  It is now in the self-interest of the developed world that these tragedies are tended to and we band together to allow capitalism and democracy to bring people out of poverty creating new and sustainable consumers and markets for everyone to access. It’s no longer optional; and for me that brings hope.

In order for economies to grow, they require something to create an increase . . . more consumers, cheaper inputs, faster production, more products . . . you get the idea.  Until this century, the developed world has been able to primarily rely on their own increases in population, growing middle class, advances in technology, and fierce consumerism to feed the ever-increasing wheel of economic activity.  Take a look around today . . .

• Populations in many developed countries are decreasing or slowing
• Consumerism has taken a big hit as many realize debt gone wild is bad and things don’t bring happiness
• The environment is feeling the effects of careless growth increasing production costs around the world
• Non-renewable commodities/resources continue on a trajectory of ever growing costs because, well, they are non-renewable
• Finding cheaper inputs is a strategy of the past, including labor, as the world is realizing its better to pay a decent wage and create a consumer

What does all that mean?  It means that the primary resource of capitalism has moved from capital, to labor, and to knowledge over the past 150 years and is now moving toward Connectivity . . . Stronger, deeper, more trusting, compassionate, and creative connections in every direction imaginable will drive the future.  You can’t touch connectivity.  You can’t buy it.  You can’t even learn it from a textbook, but it can be cultivated and societies are increasingly hungry for it.  Those who can connect the seemingly un-connectable dots in new and inventive ways will win.  Businesses that connect to what their customers and employees value the most will win.  Capitalists that figure out how to connect to and serve the Bottom of the Pyramid will win.  Those who can embrace the connection between failure and success will win.  Those who have the courage to connect to their passion and not to the herd will win. Those who figure out that hording no longer works but collaboration does will win.  Those who learn how to tap into the innate energy that exists in every person to do good in the world will win.  Those who can disconnect from fear and connect to the creativity in courage will win.

The US, Europe, and the rest of the developed world must realize that in order to continue our own standard of living and our own comforts in life we must begin to help other countries build middle classes and become the productive citizens they desire to be.  My hope is that perhaps this tragedy in Haiti can bring light and education to the need for global citizenship and the prosperity it can bring to so many (rich and poor).  We have an opportunity to help Haiti rebuild itself and become a model to be used by other struggling nations.

Changing our outlook and expectations from the short-term to the long-term is key.  Today, liquidity does exist; it just exists with a short-term expectation of return and is invisible to most of us.  So we have what is referred to by some economists as a “wall of liquidity” that is searching the world for immediate arbitrage situations and completely ignoring the long-term opportunities that exist today in many industries and places around the world.  That “wall of liquidity” brings a risk of continued global financial instability as it preys on unlikely places such as Russia where the currency will likely normalize in relation to the USD and EUR and monetary policy has allegedly been mismanaged.  It is critical that we recognize the many unintended consequences of the past and vow not to repeat them in the future.

“The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.”  ~  Theodore Roosevelt

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