CHAPTER 13 THE POWER OF COLLABORATION

In the old days, businesses had to fight for their share of the cake. There was only so much market out there, and everyone wanted in on it. As a result, the whole conversation was about winning. Being number one. Having the biggest market share. Crushing the competition to a pulp. That’s not necessarily true anymore. It’s 2020 and our problem has shifted. We are no longer in short supply of people to market to. The global consumer population is on the rise and their spending power keeps growing. However, this abundance is counterweighted by a shortage of solutions to provide all these people with everything they need, without overshooting and depleting natural supplies at an alarming rate.

Collaboration is a way to fast-track the road from idea to execution, and it is a way to come up with better solutions. This applies to the level of your company, but will be instrumental in making your metasystem work further down the line. Of course, there are kinds of collaborations. Collabs between high-street retailers and catwalk fashion designers make for lots of media attention and long lines leading up to those shops, but they’re not what we’re after here. We need this same sort of creative cross-pollination, but applied to the problems that come with an exploding population and a climate crisis we cannot seem to control. We need to think about how we’ll feed all of these people, save them from rising oceans, make sure their health issues are properly addressed, find housing for them, school them, and basically make sure all humans can live under nothing less than human conditions.

A CASE STUDY

4 YEARS, 26 BOOKS, 0 STRESS:
COLLABORATIVE WRITING ACCORDING TO BEST-SELLING AUTHOR JAMES PATTERSON

James Patterson’s books are the kind you’ll find at the supermarket, next to household names John Grisham or Tom Clancy. Unlike the latter two gentlemen, Patterson publishes about four books per year and branches off into unexpected stylistic directions. Here’s a man that’s part author, part advertiser, part idealist. A half-breed between an entrepreneur and an ecosystem builder. Because next to a deep-rooted knowledge of advertising and marketing, Patterson masters the craft of creative collaboration.

The literary assembly line

Patterson revolutionized the way books are written, producing material at an extremely high pace. While Tom Clancy coughs up one brick a year, Patterson happily puts out four.

“It’s been done a lot. The newspaper business, the movie business – they’re full of teams. A lot of art was done by teams, a lot of cathedrals.”

He saw no reason why he should write every book all by himself. “What did I learn in advertising? I learned that you can collaborate on creative work, and I learned how to supervise creative people. The first rule is do only cool ideas – things that get me turned on. I would never work on a bad idea. Next, give clear direction. ‘Here’s the story, chapter by chapter. Here’s what it is, here’s why it’s going to work, here’s the core of it, here’s why that’s important to the story; boom! Now I want your input. Let’s talk about what can make it even better.’ Then, unlike a book editor, I will take it and rewrite it three or four times or more till it’s done. So it gets to where I want it to get to.”

Like every good plan, Patterson’s is a simple one. He writes an elaborate outline that’s clear and focused. Next, his co-author gets to work and they’ll talk to one another every few weeks. Patterson doesn’t really act like a boss, either. “I think I create an environment that is much easier than the ones most people have to deal with when they write for magazines, newspapers, and publishers.” His best argument? “Nobody leaves.” Colorful detail: Patterson doesn’t even use any sharing application or cloud software. He faxes.

Patterson is a big believer in the power of reading in development and personal growth. He is a strong supporter of universities, teachers, colleges and school libraries. Furthermore, he has donated millions of dollars in grants and scholarships with the purpose of encouraging Americans of all ages to read more books.

When you put collaboration front, center and smack in the middle of what your business is about, it changes things right at the core. You create what MIT Research Fellow Michael Schrage calls a “communal brain”. You add up individual views and the result is a collective creativity that surpasses what any of the partners could have come up with alone.

Collaboration isn’t necessarily the easy way out, though. It’s much harder to get seven solo violinists to play together than it is to have them demonstrate their virtuoso talent by themselves. But when you do manage to coordinate their talent – ah! The result isn’t just music, it’s a symphony. And that’s what you’re aiming for with your metasystem. Sounds pretty simple, you say? Good, because simplicity is the first thing you’ll need when working together.

Simple, not simplistic

We’ve talked a lot about opening up, mingling, bringing in more companies and trusting others. It’s a lot, though. And how will you keep it manageable? A simple answer could be ‘just go wild’; think about the organic growth process in nature and the self-steering murmurations, things will all work out if you just let them happen. Sounds like fun, but let’s avoid becoming overly simplistic.

The question on how to keep things manageable was triggered by a Special Forces operator in the Belgian Army whom we interviewed. “If you have to operate in a complex environment, your plan needs to be simple, ” he told us. We think he’s right. He pointed us towards one of the most essential ingredients of a successful metasystem company: simplicity.

Making things complex is easy. You give a fuzzy explanation with a lot of big words, a nearly impossible to follow train of thought, and people might mistake all this complexity for intelligence. But if you want to generate a deep understanding between parties, this is definitely not the way to go. Making things simple requires mastery of the subject, empathy with your listeners, and time. The headlines need to be distinguished from the details and you have to ‘level’ with each other.

But beware, simple is no synonym for simplistic. Simple means you use exactly what you need to achieve your goal. No more, no less. Remember the famous words of Winston Churchill: “I don’t have time to write you a short letter, so I’m writing you a long one.” If you underestimate either the complexity of the question or your interlocutors’ intelligence, your efforts will be of no added value.

The purpose, the process and the participants

We’ve already discussed the criteria for a strongly defined purpose. Maybe we should add simplicity. You need a simple and inspiring idea for all parties to identify with, to strive for. One that is not easily forgotten, one that is not split in too many components, isn’t prone to differing interpretations or dubious recuperations. And by all means, one that isn’t a source of confusion, because if your purpose is so fuzzy that it causes conflict, you might as well close the books on it. If you want a good example, take Nike, they are still the king of saying it simple and solid: Just do it! Yes, we’re talking to you.

Making many different parties work together requires simple processes, rules and governance too. If organizations or metasystems fail to keep their governance simple, they risk overshadowing their purpose. Which in turn puts pressure on the trust level in your company. A lack of trust increases the demand for control and will turn your governance structure into one big pile of inertia. Looking at the complex and slow decision-making processes of institutions like the European Union or the United Nations, we are surprised they can produce any consensus or solutions at all. Certainly, these cannot be seen as good examples for running a metasystem. The early idea of peace and prosperity for all countries that was formed after WWII and inspired the creation of the EU was simple and unifying. Sadly, the new complexity of our messy world and the lack of trust between the countries, is holding back the EU. Time again for a simple plan, an inspiring ambition.

Finally, the mindset of the leaders of a metasystem company is key. After all, the main foundations of your metasystem are the people in it. How they are wired and how they relate and react to complexity will have an immense impact. Do they always complicate things? Are they the kind to keep on hammering on the same old details, draining energy by splitting hairs? Or do they create clarity in complexity, order in chaos? Make sure you evacuate the ones who are still clinging to the old paradigm. Invest in those who inspire through simplicity and are driven by humility.

The wild garden

In partnerships, openness dictates the quality of the end result. While honesty is a prerequisite and trust should follow it like a shadow, the openness you are looking for plays on ma levels. Rather than make you a checklist of things you should be open about, we’d like you to adopt an attitude. The point is your company needs to be open about everything up front, not afterwards. You need to be open by design. Like a lush and wild garden, not a symmetric sad lawn with a fence around it.

Blurred lines

Internet browser builders Mozilla’s origins are in the open source movement. As they state in a Medium article describing their view on being open by design, the concept of ‘working in the open’ has always been key to their identity. Openness, as they put it, is “the blurring of an organization’s boundaries to take advantage of the knowledge, diversity, perspectives and ideas that exist beyond its borders”. In other words: it isn’t just about letting the other party look into your books. That should be a given. What openness means is that you tear down the walls of your garden and let it bloom any way it will. Have bees, welcome the butterflies, go all out with cross-pollination. And while this may seem haphazard, it is exactly this sort of setting, this ‘sure, let’s see what happens’ mindset that breeds new and grand ideas.

Because while you shouldn’t be blind to opportunities arising at the core of your company, you should be well aware that the world outside your company is much larger. Go for a much broader scope and invite in some views that differ from yours – as long as their end goal is compatible with yours. Work with professionals and hobbyists, talk to lovers and haters of your product or service, work out collaborations with people and companies with a universe that’s very far from your own. Differentiate by joining forces, and capitalize on the collective intelligence that exists out there.

A PERSONAL CASE STUDY

ANDY WARHOL’S FACTORY,
A METASYSTEM IN 1960S NEW YORK

Dado’s parents were art lovers. As a kid, he’d roll his eyes at all the gallery visits he was dragged to. But the older he became, the more the arts inspired him – the pop art scene in particular. Of all the characters populating that scene, Andy Warhol was probably the most compelling one. His works are now iconic and his thinking and way of living has influenced people all over the world. But above all, Warhol was also a remarkable connector and ecosystem builder.

In the early sixties, Warhol launched The Factory in the center of New York, a playground, meeting place and party venue for artists, musicians, writers, fashion designers and all sorts of non-conformists. It became a melting pot of underground people and bred superstars like Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Basquiat, Dalí, The Rolling Stones, Alan Ginsberg, Patti Smith and many more.

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”

ANDY WARHOL

The place doubled as a studio for The Velvet Underground. The Factory wasn’t just a place to hang out, though, it was also a place where creative ideas were brought to execution, a place where collaboration was the norm. Movies were shot, music was taped, paintings were created and stories were written. As John Cale put it: “It wasn’t called The Factory for nothing. It was where the assembly line for the silkscreens happened. While one person was making a silkscreen, somebody else would be filming a screen test. Every day something new.”

The Factory embodies a metasystem avant la lettre. It brought unusual suspects with very different perspectives together in a free environment, so that their being together could ignite a collaborative imagination. And they had a clear purpose too: fighting America’s conservative social views. We need hubs like this today as well. Wild gardens for innovation and progress, as we like to call them.

The wilder, the better

Looking at brands that are built to withstand the future, it’s often the same names that are being thrown around. Major platforms like Amazon or Apple dictate the rules of the game. However, look more closely and you’ll see that these are structured like a walled garden: very closed off, protective of their technology, and turned inwards. As a consequence of their high level of control, there is very limited biodiversity in their imaginary garden. This means it is hard for anything unexpected to ever grow within their walls – there just isn’t much cross-pollination happening. Weird, we thought mingling was supposed to be the fun part of the party.

This doesn’t mean Apple and Amazon are doing it all wrong, but it does show a weakness in their otherwise very successful strategy. Because it doesn’t take a biologist to know that if you let nature have its way, it will grow lush, sustainable and balanced. If you try to micromanage every species and seed, though, you will lose your flora’s resilience and talent for innovation.

While the walled garden is an antitrust model that’s very hierarchical and, well, just plain old school, the wild garden is based on trust. Yes, that old adage again: trust is the essence for businesses to engage in organic, fruitful collaborations. Because of the same powers that drive the next wave of change, the speed of technology, the increasing complexity, the new customer… businesses tend to close off, just like individuals do when they’re scared of what’s to come. To retreat might be a smart reflex in the short term, but in the long run, closing off all entries is a sure-fire way to kill creativity.

The plan is to improvise

Building a wild garden has the benefit of leaving enough room for chance encounters. Serendipity, remember? As a company that’s ready to take on whatever is to come, you’ll need to be open to whatever crosses your path. And if that sounds philosophical, that’s because it is. This openness will keep you from becoming too rigid. Look at it this way: practicing curiosity acts as a workout. It keeps your company healthy, in good shape, and ready to sprint whenever the opportunity should arise. From 0 to 100 in a split second.

We’ve looked at nature and how it can serve as an inspiration for companies. In many ways, we can learn from the way nature leaves room for serendipity, too. Nature doesn’t have a five-year strategy, it works things out as it goes and improvises along the way. While this may sound amateurish when translated to a business context, it proves to be a sound method for resilience.

So set a direction and define your purpose, but be flexible in how you achieve it. Remember the murmurations of the starlings. They’ve taught us that while each partner in a system may have a different approach, together, you can make it all the way to your goal, so long as you share the same intentions and values. This allows for a more natural evolution than mapping out a route and considering it the only possible way, feeling anxious about each and every detour. Yes, planning can be helpful, but it can kill creativity and innovation when it is too rigidly applied. So make the plan, and then toss it. Hold on to the destination and remember to embrace the detours. Find your 45° that matters. And for the love of God, break down those walls. History has proven them to be a nasty hindrance plenty of times.

INTERVIEW

WORKING TOGETHER TO CHANGE
OUR FOOD SYSTEM

AN INTERVIEW WITH CARLA HILHORST, EVP R&D FOODS & REFRESHMENT AT UNILEVER

Wanting to be part of Wageningen’s pole position in food research and innovation, Unilever decided to build its Foods Innovation Centrum there, right on the Dutch university campus. Here, Carla Hilhorst believes Unilever can help build and work with this world-leading ecosystem in foods and agriculture to actively contribute to the global challenge of transforming the food system. This can only be achieved if we work in collaboration and partnership with others.

The building, nicknamed Hive, is symbolic for the spirit of openness, collaboration and partnerships Unilever wants to create and signal here. The entry, the atrium and several meeting rooms are open to the public. The coffee is free, and so is the WiFi. “We wanted to open the Unilever world to students, startups, the university and the general public, ” Carla says. “We have visitors every day and all employees are allowed and able to give a guided tour.”

In that same spirit of transparency, the pilot plant is visible through a big glass wall. The only time the view is shielded from the public eye is when confidential experiments are planned. “To create openness and trust, we had to flip the model. In the past, everything was closed and shielded from the outside world by default. Now the opposite is happening: we start with transparency. And if it has to be confidential, it is only for a limited period of time, and with good reason.”

“In the past, everything was closed and shielded from the outside world by default. Now the opposite is happening: we start with transparency.”

The unique location enables Unilever to work in partnerships with leading academic research centers, startups and external partners. An example of how this can lead to more innovation, is sharing research facilities. The company has donated some of its equipment to a shared service, open to all students and startups at the Wageningen campus. This way, costs go down and occupation goes up, but more importantly it enables interactions and making use of each other’s expertise.

Asked why building ecosystems is important for Unilever, Carla talks about the broken global food system. “Alone, even as a big company, we cannot solve the problems we encounter in attempting to feed the whole planet in a sustainable way. Cooperation between companies – small and big, NGOs and governments – is needed across the whole chain. Climate change, food waste, obesity and malnutrition: the problems are too big, too interconnected. It would take too long for every single company to build the knowledge needed to act in all these different domains. The key issue is to keep up with the speed of change and to find solutions that keep accelerating at the same pace.”

“Be open and transparent. Share by default.”

Carla’s led her fair share of partnerships over the years and is happy to share some advice. “Being open is number one. We’ve translated that right into our architecture. I’d recommend investing in an informal network building like ours, which is very symbolic.” Apart from the infrastructure, of course, partnerships are about human connection. Carla: “Strong company values and principles are an important enabler. They help you make difficult decisions, especially when it hurts. But at the end of the day, people trust people, not companies or their principles. Keep in mind you need to be human at all times.”

CARLA’S TIPS:

•Be open and transparent. Share by default.

•Have a strong purpose. It will help you energize your team and align all partners behind a bigger cause.

•Partnerships are not based on a single person, but on a team. Beware of rotation, though. It’s always a risk, even more so at the highest level.

Broker of trust

You’ve understood that trust is a major ingredient to building a metasystem, or any type or size of partnership for that matter. You’ve also understood that, should you choose to accept your mission, you will soon be seated around a table with people you don’t know very well. Yet. The unusual suspects. To bridge this gap between the need for trust between all future partners and the fact that you’ll need to partner with organizations as of yet unknown to you, we would recommend appointing a go-between.

Let’s call him or her a broker of trust: a neutral party who will act as your personal matchmaker, a cupid-come-headhunter who introduces you to potential partners he has in mind for you, checking that they have the same goals at heart and that you might complement one another. The role of this broker of trust will be of utter importance to the success of your partnerships, especially in the early days of sniffing out potential alliances. He is so important, in fact, that we’ve devoted a whole chapter to defining this broker’s role and delineating his playing field. Fast forward to Chapter 16 to dig into the depths of brokerage, but allow us to elaborate on this broker’s larger responsibilities first.

His task is much more elaborate than the pure carnalities of matchmaking. What you need at this stage is not just someone who is well connected, you need a thoroughbred storyteller. Someone who understands that what brings people together isn’t just putting them in one and the same room, making sure there are cigars to seal the after-dinner deal. Handskes are what you are after, yes, but they are not your end game. The moonshot is to pull off something grand and novel, yes? Well, to pull off that big plan of yours, you’ll need those partners. And to reel in the partners, you’ll need a story. Not an elevator pitch, but something heartfelt and real. Something you believe in, so that others will, too.

From monkeys to stories

The real difference between us and chimpanzees is the mysterious glue that enables millions of humans to cooperate effectively. This mysterious glue is made of stories, not genes. That’s not us talking, it’s Yuval Noah Harari in his book “Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind”, right before he launches into a chapter-long description of the rise of the human species.

At first, Harari explains, language developed because humans needed a way to exchange information. Using a lot of gesturing and some primal, guttural sounds, we told one another about a herd’s potential for being made into dinner, we shared intel on interesting spots in the forest to forage blueberries or tipped others off when a wildcat roved in the neighborhood. On top of sharing practical information, communicating this way had the benefit of creating a common understanding between groups, tightening their bond.

This worked fine as long as humans roamed the land in small bands of up to 150 people. But as language evolved and could be used to share more complex trains of thought, it became a pathway for humans to organize themselves into bigger groups. Over time, settlements grew into villages, towns became cities and nations arose. What made this possible was the language that voiced a group’s shared beliefs. Language became a gateway to articulating an identity for a group as a whole. Over the course of millennia, it gave rise to religion, philosophy, and politics, thus making it possible for millions of people around the globe to both create and share a common world view.

Tell me a tale

They are mankind’s way to bond and belong. So, if you want to create change, crafting this story – the right story – will be paramount. And it all starts with your broker of trust. He will be the first person who will have to hear your story, believe it, and then use it to find like-minded people, ready to hear the gospel.

That last notion is an important one: you are looking for people who already believe in your way of thinking. Ask any advertiser: changing people’s mind is hard work. You’d be much better off scouting for potential partners whose ears have been primed to your story. And that’s exactly where your broker of trust comes in.

He will need to be the right person at the right time, telling the right story to the right person. And he’ll need to use arguments that ring true with his conversation partners, so that his message is heard and he can build upon what his audience already believes to be true.

It’s the chemistry, really

Stories are what you need to bring people together, and to keep them together. Before you think us naive to go on about the power of narration like this, hear us out on the biology behind it all. Being empowered 21st-century citizens, we may like the idea of free will, of us choosing how to live our lives. Science, however, has long ago decided that human bodies are run by neurochemicals. The emotional center of our brain, the amygdala, constantly analyzes what happens around us before deciding how to respond in a split second. If it’s bad, adrenaline will kick in and you’ll be prompted to fight or flight.

On the other side of the specter, oxytocin is the hormone that’s pumped into the system when we’re reacting to something our amygdala categorizes as good news. According to Professor Paul Zak, who published many articles on the neurobiology of trust, oxytocin is linked to empathy and narrative transportation. He and his team discovered that oxytocin “is synthesized in the human brain when one is trusted and that the molecule motivates reciprocation.” In other words: stories create chemistry which links our heads to our hearts. Stories don’t work because we are gullible, stories work because we are hardwired to believe others and connect with them.

“As social creatures who regularly affiliate with strangers, ” Zak writes in another article published by Berkeley University, “stories are an effective way to transmit important information and values from one individual or community to the next.” However, building a story by merely throwing around some numbers and arguing point after point isn’t likely to hit home. Building trust is a matter of the heart. “Stories that are personal and emotionally compelling engage more of the brain, and thus are better remembered, than simply stating a set of facts.”

The story you will have to pass on to your broker of trust, so that he can go out and find the right partners for you to work with, will serve as a way to connect to these partners. They will be the starting point of any change you set out to make. In concreto, the story your broker tells should help future metasystem members to imagine a possible future. It will have to be a relatable tale of how to do things better, as well as a reinforcement of these partners’ pre-existing belief that something can be done, and that the direction you propose is one in which they will gladly follow.

This story you’re out to spread isn’t just words. It’s a way to invite people along for the ride. In “The Right Story”, strategic storytelling authority Bernadette Jiwa writes that “Stories are powerful catalysts for change. Stories are the cornerstones of human connection and collaboration, drivers of our thoughts and actions.” She proves her point by reminding us that Neil Armstrong planting a flag on the moon started with a story, too. That iconic journey to venture into space, to take the ultimate leap into the unknown, was prompted by a speech John F. Kennedy had once made in congress. “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth, ” he spoke. Eight years later, his words materialized into reality.

A story as a gentle crowbar

If it’s change you want, it’s a story you need. This story will be your crowbar. Not the cool metal kind, more of a fluffy pink one, designed to pry your way into people’s hearts, but gently. Using this story, your broker of trust won’t need a business plan or a neat folder full of pie charts and scribbly lines going endlessly upwards. At least not in the beginning. In these early stages, all he needs is a tool to create a spark, so that later on he and your whole metasystem can push progress. For now, the story serves as something for potential partners to adhere to – or to reject. This way, it helps you to separate the wheat from the chaff in deciding who to build your metasystem with, or whose to join.

This story will contain the core of your convictions. Your “why”, as Simon Sinek would say. It will be indispensable in the early days of courtship between you and your potential partners. In parallel, choosing the right broker will be vital for its delivery.

INTERVIEW

YOU NEED TO OPEN A LINE
TO SEE A LINE

AN INTERVIEW WITH OLAF HERMANS, COGNITIVE SCIENTIST (PHD PENN STATE UNIVERSITY)

Metasystems are built on trust and require the right mindset, so we were happy to discuss the topic with Dr. Olaf Hermans, cognitive scientist (PhD Penn State University). Olaf is an academic authority in the domain of relationship cognition: mapping and improving the relative position of internal and external actors in processes and organizations. He is a partner in SiR Meta Intelligence LLP based in the US, an organization that advises profit and non-profit organizations on relational processes that activate and move people in business environments.

“Look for the people with Meta DNA”

“In metasystems things happen beyond the here-and-now performance. They require a specific organizational mindset and DNA to get to the right level. You need actors in your organization who can elevate their activities beyond their day-to-day tasks, and they need to be stimulated to do so. It is important to find those who can transcend their traditional roles to elevate the organization to the next level.

However, people who think differently and out-of-the-box are often regarded as black sheep by their colleagues because thinking in ‘meta’ terms is not always appreciated. Leaders must create an environment that allows for people to be and act “meta” and generate goodwill as a KPI: how can you get people to go beyond their “here-and-now” roles and out of their comfort zones? That’s where the magic happens.”

“Think small and directional”

“Your family is the smallest metasystem there is. It’s a relationship with people you know very well: there is trust, you know how to communicate with each other, and the relationship has strong foundations. There is efficiency in the relationship and size matters in this context.

The bigger the organizations are that want to collaborate, the more difficult it often becomes to creates meta systems. The goal of metasystems therefore should be to be small, not large. You need relational capabilities among a group (“clusters”) of like-minded people that is just the right size. You can’t create a metasystem by pre-design or by contract; it should be designed by shared direction in combination with a capability to move small groups of people forward in that direction, or the one that a majority esteems to be the better new direction at some point.”

“Open a line to see a line”

“People see ‘lines’ for collaboration but to access those lines you need to first build trust and that’s the most vulnerable element of an organization. People are trust-vigilant by nature and many of us have different definitions and assumptions of trust.”

“Meta-communication is the glue of the metasystem”

“Timing is crucial and goes hand in hand with trust. The best moment to engage is when people are happy and in a positive mindset. Imagine you are in a bar in Barcelona and you have no stress or concerns, that is when the best ideas occur; you are open to exploration and your mind is free. That is the same mindset you need with your partners in a metasystem. You therefore need an ongoing check-in with them: “Are we still doing well? Where do you stand? How are you feeling? Are we ready for it? ” We call this meta communication, and this is the “by the way” moment you are looking for; the moment when you feel your partners are really open for “meta” thinking and creative collaborations.”

“Metasystems often happen at the micro level”

Example: bartenders are great “brokers of trust”

“Don’t be mistaken, building metasystems is not only the responsibility and role of the leadership team. Think about a great bartender who outperforms his colleagues and acts in a meta-way. A “meta-bartender” doesn’t just serve drinks to people, he also connects people with each other, puts the right characters together and at the end of the night everybody is talking to each other. He acts as a “broker of trust” and as a result the bar is making more money. In fact, he might be the biggest strategist of the organization, and more than just an executor. People can handle meta-activities; you only have to allow and enable them to do so.”

“The leadership team needs to operate the hatches”

“The leadership team however needs to determine when and where to open the hatches to the outside world. Where does the organization connect with the outside world? It’s like architecture from Japan, where buildings really connect with their environments; they are openly connected with their surroundings. The garden runs through the building and trees grow inside the building rather than outside. For companies, it is not just about being agile anymore nowadays (quickly solving problems and adapting to new realities). Their leaders need to have a liquid strategy: how can we stay in constant proactive contact with our surroundings and act upon it. That’s the next frontier of leadership.”

“Position psychology by people is the key strategic resource that metasystems must use to shape their future”

Position psychology studies the way people orientate themselves in and towards their environment, and how they select people and organizations around them to advance and move forward together. When positions are close to each other, they lead to helping behaviors and to providing access to the lines of improvement, innovation, change and transformation that people see at any moment in time. These imaginary lines thus provide a critical resource for metasystem advancement and progress.

OLAF’S TIPS:

•Create the environment for the black sheep in your organization who can think “meta”.

•Allow everyone in the organization to deploy the meta-system mindset because “meta thinking” often happens at the micro-level.

•Think about adopting a liquid strategy that is based on constant connections and interactions with the world around you.