"Warm-up" Blogs

A journey along a spiritual path....

2009

The life coach said: “Set your troubled heart at rest. Trust in my methods and spiritual science. There are many Universal Laws that you can use to create the life you want. If that were not so, I would not have told you so, for I am going to be your guide. And if I go and replenish the secrets of success that worked in my life, I shall come back to you and take you under my wing, so that you may also connect through Universal Consciousness and know the internal processes to apply.

The client said, “Master, I do not understand Universal Consciousness and why the Universal Laws work.”

The life coach replied, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one achieves true Prosperity except by me. Peace, light and love is my parting gift to you, such as you will find nowhere else. Set your troubled heart at rest, and banish your fears.”

Written AD 70 ish, attributed to one called John

“Set your troubled hearts at rest. Trust in God always; trust also in me. There are many dwelling-place in my Father’s house; if it were not so I should not have told you; for I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I shall come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also; and you know the way I am taking.”

Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus replied, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except by me.
“Peace is my parting gift to you, my own peace, such as the world cannot give. Set your troubled hearts at rest, and banish your fears.”

(The Holy Bible, New Testament, John 14:verses1-6 & verse 27)

Exercise in the "Art of Allowing"
(Adapted from the words of the His Grace, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at Lambeth Palace, on 9th April, 2009, at a private funeral service of a friend).

Allow the Grace of God to be with ourselves, so that we can be at home with ourselves and so welcome others. Be at home with our values and vision and at home with God, and relationships will be built up. If we trust in God always, we can believe in being welcome wherever we are, whatever steps we take.

“Be with me,” said Jesus, “be in my company along your way.”

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Questions:

Is there sufficient and adequate evidence for the message from the AD 70 "coach" to supplement or replace the first version offered by many modern day coaches?

What is the nature of authority?

What is the relationship between faith and scientific reality?

Is a win - win combination available in the 21st century? Should one aspire to one?

You are at http://tinyurl.com/5s8n6py

Classical, methods for analysing value networks have been presented by Allee and Schwabe. These incorporate a mix of parameters including many that derive from Social Network Analysis. Resulting reports are packed with metrics, explanations, and charts for more than 50 network indicators including resilience, risk, stability, reciprocity, agility, perceived value. Their subsequent work has extended to a branch of analysis called "Predictive Analytics," and requires a "deep dive" into the underlying theory to explore how it is validated.

However, experience has shown that such comprehensive data collection and analysis can be overwhelming. Accordingly, we now recommend that focusing on a few critical factors at first, closely linked to the problem situation being addressed, to be both quicker in practice and more effective.

An early example of this simplification was given by Dr Laurence Lock Lee and Cai Kjaer in their 2008 paper "The Partnership Scorecard" which addressed just three factors: value, cost / risk, and an algorithm to compute "performance." Later in that year, in an assignment for Rolls Royce Marine, Meggitt selected a set of variables for each transaction comprising perceived: cost/risk to sender; criticality to receiver; value to receiver; value to network as a whole. These are readily assimilated by participants who have had no previous exposure to the approach.

During 2011, Martin Cleaver of Blended Perspectives, collaborated with Meggitt to create for on line use a prototype to support the value network approach. This includes special features that allow users to click on any element of the value network diagram and call up Roles, Deliverables and related transactions. Currently the system is set to allow scoring of each deliverable covering for both sender and receiver: perceived value; criticality; risk factor. The results are  portrayed both graphically and in table form.

Currently (2012), an online system, with a different platform, is being created for release in the civil engineering and built environment sector.

Links to subsequent guidance will be posted here.

You are at http://tinyurl.com/6zlxe79

In the workplace, it is increasingly useful to link "beliefs" to actions. According to Joseph O'Connor in his NLP handbook, beliefs are the principles that guide actions - not what we say we believe, but what we act on. Beliefs give meaning to what we do.

Values are why we do what we do, what is important to us - health, wealth, happiness, love.

On an organizational level, businesses have principles they act on and values they hold. They are part of the culture of the business. Beliefs and values direct our lives, acting both as permissions and prohibitors on how we act.

Incorporating other factors that affect our capacity for learning and coping with change is the "model" below developed by Robert Dilts from the work of Gregory Bateson. The factors should be viewed as interconnected levels, not a hierarchy.

It is useful, although considered by some not to be entirely consistent, exhaustive or even logical, but has been widely adopted in NLP thinking.

We will be looking at other models in future blogs.

I am grateful to Jennifer J Stenhouse, a Master Practitioner in NLP and also a participant in the only course with Robert and John Dilts to date on modelling effective entrepreneurship, for introducing me to this approach.

Great minds gave developed the organisation chart that can be seen on the attachment here.

House-Democrats-Health-Plan.pdf

A common reaction is: "God help us!"

Interestingly, He seems to take an even smaller role than the poor customers! You can see THEM tucked away in the bottom left hand side of the chart!

But, is this way of communicating and generating engagement with stakeholders really good enough? Value network techniques are now well known for discovering what really is happening in a system. They effortlessly lead to helping contributors negotiate win-win agreements between themselves, knowing the effect on the whole?

OK! It will take time and a subtle change in mind sets, but start small, with the customer centre stage and gradually add other key contributors. That way it is easy ...here's the start...

Useful links::

Here is an encouraging approach to applying value networks in Singapore to a single hospital.
This is how to visualise, using value networks, how viagra was discovered.
Finally, here's another example in health care. Refer to York Hospital Business Case for Family Care

Above all keep it simple to start with: keep to the essentials and seek help in doing so.

This page is at http://tinyurl.com/m2r2c8

The epitaph read - "She empowered the co-creativity of millions."

Sounds good! Why? Because I, for one, believe that, as co-creators with a Divine entity in the world (a Christian would say "co-creators with God in the world;" a Muslim, "creators under Allah on earth;" and in Buddhism, "consider Manjushri, the Buddha of wisdom and creativity")  we have an obligation to utilise our capabilities to leave the world in a state that is fit for purpose for future generations.  

Some may align with that purpose. Yet, no endeavour that is hard to achieve can be accomplished in isolation. Consider, instead, creating with trusted colleagues a purposeful business ecosystem that meets both collective goals and aspirations and individual ones. Use the value network approach. Not only will it help to get to the crux of a situation, It will also help engage with and empower your collaborators. Details of the method and its enthusiastic followers can be found here.

The suggested roles that can be played in the ecosystem are shown in orange below and consist of:

• Prospect / client and cluster in which it resides
• Promoter / service formulator
• Alliance partners / participants
• Discipline expert
• Information product developer
• Standards maintainer
• Behaviour guiders
• Competitors

We use the roles to co-develop a value network view of the business ecosystem. My own first pass is sketched out below. It illustrates the mix of deliverables that could be exchanged, either directly or indirectly, between participants playing one or more of the above roles.

Having co-evolved a sense of the possible, decide a mix of strategic thrusts that address market opportunities and work up the detail. It will become clear, in so doing, that you will be able to answer the following questions:

• Where are your innovative contributions hampered by lack of wider co-operation, co-investment, and adoption of your ideas?

• What innovative idea could you take to customers if you could orchestrate a wider community of players to endorse it that would be profoundly more effective than what you can currently offer?

(Source of the above questions: "The death of competition - leadership and strategies in the age of business ecosystems," James E Moore, 1996, Harper Business.) 

I look forward to the journey ahead. ...

My development action plan within the CPD process developed by the Institution of Civil Engineers is here... ICE_Form%203190_DMeggitt.pdf

David Meggitt

You are at http://tinyurl.com/4lxynxr

I have been a member of the Institute of Business Ethics (IBE) for two years and enjoyed the dialogue at the meetings immensely.

Invariably held under the gracious chairmanship of the IBE Director, Philippa Foster-Back under the Chatham House Rule, and underpinned by the excellent research unit led by Simon Webley, my own insights and views have been enriched.

It is also amazing what one unearths in the well stocked library. One find was a Papal encyclical with a fascinating critique of socialism tending to mould people into a state machine.

At heart, the thrust of IBE is to cultivate the practice of behaving with integrity, and a current preoccupation is to “embed” public corporate codes of ethics into actual operations.

My own niggle has been to probe an area that has largely been neglected. Whilst much is known about the formal processes and procedures in organisations, scant analysis has so far been directed on the conduct of informal (or social) networks that interweave most healthy organisations.

More research is needed in this key area, which IBE acknowledges. The value networks approach provides a convenient one stop shop for discovering what really goes on in organisations, and for modelling the interaction of both formal and informal activity. Further involvement (and this may need further facilitation to be most effective) can probe the roles people play and value of what they contribute as felt by others as well as identifying the associated costs and risks in doing so.

One of my favourite meetings was addressed by Dr Georgette Bennett, the Director of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding. She described the challenges and opportunities arising from religious diversity in the workforce.

In answer to my question: “How does behaviour in an organisation contribute to its long term sustainability (i.e. support its growth and adaptation over time), Dr Bennett replied “Reciprocity is key, it goes straight to the bottom line!”

I’m sure that Chatham House won’t mind my sharing that!

My first introduction to value networks was through the ground breaking book "Digital capital - harnessing the power of business webs" by Don Tapscott, David Ticoll and Alex Lowy, HBS Press, 2000 which I acquired after meeting Don at an event organised by Thomas Power in London, through the business oriented social networking community called Ecademy.

Don is from Toronto in Canada.

The diagrams and approach were the brainchild of Verna Allee who lives on the west coast of USA.

Calgary, between the two locations, is in Canada.

Therefore, in honour of both I am seen sporting below my Calgary Stampede vest and wearing my favourite summer hat bought at the Stampede. I gather my wife's "first cousins removed" were involved with the early Calgary Stampede founders (Graves).

Apart from the sporting events they put on one of the most spectacular open air evening shows available.

Today, with value networks by your side, you can co-create some of the most spectacular shows on earth as well!

There is an intriguing article on Cloud Computing and the Promise of On-Demand Business Innovation in Intelligent Enterprise here

The central message is that the wow is not just about technology; it is about process flexibility and reuse that will enable enterprises to quickly serve new customers and launch new lines of business. It is envisaged that Internet enabled components can be linked together to provide the flexibility needed by businesses in the 21st century, particularly within the current economic crisis.

The author implies that cloud computing is needed to deliver now the “End to end Situational Business Process (SBPs) Supporting Multiple, Simultaneous Value Chains.“

This may send shivers down the spines of enterprise architects or IT professionals and business leaders who want flexibility but fear a lack of accountability and auditability.

Fortunately, there is a more secure and controllable route. For example, consider:

1) using value networks to discover how best to meet customer needs and the interaction with the whole business

2) connecting those findings to systems that currently exist for creating the appropriate workflow, incorporating agility, compliance and performance management with rapid prototyping - see, for example Procession

It may seem complicated but start off simply. After all, it's the people that count and it needs to be intelligible. Here is a first cut business model covering a slice of your ecosystem.

You can read more about value networks and business models here

You are at http://tinyurl.com/kwofc4

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said in an address in St Paul's Catheral, London on Tuesday, 31st March:-

"Markets need morals.

The reason I have been long fascinated by Adam Smith, who came from my home town of Kirkcaldy, is that he recognised that the invisible hand of the market had to be accompanied by the helping hand of society, that he argued the flourishing of moral sentiments comes before and is the foundation of the wealth of nations.

So the challenge for our generation is now clear: whether or not we can formulate global rules for our global financial and economic systems; global rules that are grounded in our shared values."

Adam Smith also referred to the "stupidity of mind" induced by being over mechanistic. We should be careful not to over regulate.

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