An interesting news item made me ponder on the how optimum the current market is for creating and acting on new ideas.

The news item was about Canadian research on obesity and how the researcher was regarding obesity as an auto-immune disease which impacts T-cell production by reducing the so-called “Good” T-cells and increasing the “Bad” T-cells. The researcher indicated that already they had found ways of normalizing T-cell production in mice and that potential treatments for humans are on the horizon, the implication of which would be a potential for reducing obesity, type 2-diabetes, and the plethora of diseases associated with obesity.

From a health perspective, such a discovery has amazing potential for reducing the costs of health-care, especially in developed countries where obesity is prevalent. But that same discovery could be devastating for the long term and potentially even short term profits of drug companies that have invested billions in research for treating symptoms.

At this point, it is a hypothetical problem but leads to the old question: Do drug companies hide cures, do oil companies buy up technologies up like cold fusion, do auto companies crush electric cars to protect current investments? Do large multinationals buy up threatening new technologies in order to protect their original investments in outdated technologies at the peril of greater human interests?  What does or should a top executive pay the most attention to when they make decisions: personal reward, company profits, shareholder dividends, their own sense of power to make decisions, building a legacy or ethics?

Asked the opposite way: Can we make a better system of economics for propagating new ideas which uses profit potential in different ways? Can we create incentives in our economic system that would consistantly encourage executives to make decisions based on any one of the above motivations and still come up with the same decision, ideally the one that benefits human society the most?

» Continue reading “Thoughts on Creating a Sustainable Capitalism”

An on-going theme in the world is how countries tend to argue about land claims, especially when resources are involved. Businesses have similar disputes over intellectual property, defense of minerals rights, and other competitive matters. Individuals have disputes over ideas, who is right and who is wrong. Whenever one person or one institution violates the claim or values of another, disputes arise. 

Conflict, by it’s nature, signals a need for change. But underlying the existance of conflict is a deeper and more distressing issue. The fact that we accept conflict as a tool and allow conflicts to flourish signals a lack of maturity in human creativity and development. If not handled with extreme care, conflicts are destructive, either physically, spiritually, emotionally, financially, socially or environmentally. The larger the dispute, the more destructive.

What’s worse is that conflicts tend to be destructive long after the disputing parties find a way to stop the dispute. They continue to cause challenges as long as bad feelings linger, until learning occurs, mindsets change and reparations are completed. Some disputes unfortunately last centuries.

But there are better and more creative solutions that using conflict to find solutions. Let’s look at a few impacts of conflict and consider alternatives. » Continue reading “Reaching the future together (Leadership, Conflict, Sovereignty and Organizational Culture)”

As we watch the news of enormous red dust clouds over Arizona and Australia due to record drought, the discovery of the record melting of Icebergs in Greenland at a rate that the IPCC models failed to predict, record temperatures being set in northern and western Canada, record flooding in Atlanta which is sweeping people and vehicles away and  record wild-fires in California all at the same time, in addition to the recent first time ever passage of a commercial German vessel through the north east passage without an icebreaker, along with record flooding this year in Taiwan, Burma, and Vietnam, if there was any doubt left that we are experiencing climate change, there certainly isn’t anymore. And anyone who believes that it’s not caused by human activities simply isn’t accepting reality.

The question now is, how will the world be impacted and how will businesses respond? Although there is still far too much rhetoric, even the world leaders at the UN Summit on Climate Change preceding the Copenhagen meeting, most notably Obama noting that “the old habits, the old arguments are irrelevant”, are beginning to speak seriously about the issue. Even China, which understandably refuses hard targets in the light of excessive energy usage and emissions from developed countries, is taking a leadership role in developing solar, wind and other renewable energy sources.

 The question is not about whether changes in business will occur: the question is, what will drive business the most? Will there be sufficient agreement on policy and limits at the global or national government levels or will the change in the earth’s environment itself be the greatest imputus for business to adapt and what will that mean for business? » Continue reading “Climate Change impact on Business Leadership and Planning”

One of my favourite quotes is one that speaks to the value of education in bringing out the most in people:

“Regard man as a mine, rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can alone cause it to reveal its treasures.” – Baha’u'llah

Whenever we look at an individual with the view of helping them to become leaders, education is a key. Why? Because, while someone may have natural talent in influencing others, or specialized skills that they can share, they still need to learn and understand concepts of leading. Among other thing, they need to learn empathy, they need to be guided by ethics, they need to learn how to lead people in a direction that will do long term good for the organization, and they need to learn that while having a short term outlook has its place in leaderhip, that it must be balanced with integrity and long term perspectives.

Forging leadership skills is a process, not an event. This process requires continuous education, nurturing, practice and learning from successes and failures. And because newly promoted leaders are also dealing with the lives of others, they need to learn how to be sensitive to the results that they create in the lives of others and how those impacts may be signaling problems with their own skills. Being defensive won’t solve their issues.

For example, while it is reasonable that a leader may periodically call upon certain staff members to work overtime on occasion, habitually calling upon them to do so generally is likely a signal that certian skills are lacking. They may lack planning and estimating skills or the skills necessary to communicate to their own superiors that their teams are over-loaded. They may also may have resources who are undertrained or they may lack stragic planning skills which will help them to periodically stop their own work to look at the situation from a broader perspective. Look at the larger perspective will help them to eliminate unnecessary tasks or process steps.

Education is a key in learning and advancing leadership skills, attitudes, concepts and habits, and knowing that a candidate is likely to continuously strive to advance themselves is an important criteria in the selection process.

All the best,

Garth Schmalenberg
web:  http://www.hbi-leadership.com
e-mail: garth@hbi-leadership.com
Phone: 416-919-6598
twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gschmalenberg

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Groupthink is the concept of having many people go along in agreement with a decision essentially because, either someone of authority has spoken and others are afraid to contradict their idea, or because in the silence of a discussion, each individual believes that others agree with the “apparent” consensus and don’t want to stir the pot. One other cause of groupthink is that everyone in the room has the same frame of reference for the discussion. In other words, they actually do think alike and make a decision in agreement, even though that decision may be uninformed.

The consequences on a larger scale may be what we experience as a society. We all begin to think alike because no one has challenged our assumptions. Environmentally, this has led to things like Climate Change because we jointly assumed that it was OK to keep going in the direction that we were going. Thankfully, mother nature eventually speak ups and shares her opinions through the impacts that we start seeing on the health of the earth. So the image of our earlier consensus is now, at least, being challenged and other voices are starting to be heard.

Establishing a Consultative Environment that Leads to Better Decisions » Continue reading “Groupthink and it’s impact on Business, Sustainability and Decisions”

Change of Culture is something that only happens over a period of time, with a desire to make an environment that is different than the current environment. But there are some tips that will make the process easier.

» Continue reading “Tips on Changes in Organizational Culture”

This article in the Star about Ontario’s Green Energy Act makes some valuable points about the Act. Click on the link below to read the article if you haven’t already. (Note the article was printed Feb 24, 2009 and came up in my research on the Green Energy Act which has now passed. It did generate some thoughts.)

Can Green Energy Act clean up Ontario’s electricity supply?

My own thoughts: Let’s look at current and future solutions with the goal of learning from our mistakes. Limiting our time-frame is unfair to future generations who are equally entitled to resources we are consuming. Any act which promotes 100% renewable energy is consistent with justice for future generations. Any act inconsistant with that goal denies future generations of their rights.

» Continue reading “Commentary on Star Article related to Green Energy Act”

For many in our society, the Green shift is still something that we recognize only through TV programs by David Suzuki or presentations by Al Gore in his program “An Inconvenient Truth”. Of course, most of us are also beginning to see many of the practical sides of being Green. After all, if we can change a light bulb and get the same light with a compact florescent, get the same heat with high efficiency furnace or the same distance with a hybrid car, save money and the planet at the same time, why not?

Although there is definitely a movement is in place to change the way the world works, most people don’t take a very serious plunge into environmental action unless there are financial rewards for doing so which, at very least, match the effort required to make that change. » Continue reading “The Power of Local Initiatives, Green T”

Following a meeting of the CBBF (Canadian Baha’i Business Forum, Dec 2008) where Dr. Blair W. Feltmate, Director, Sustainable Development, OPG, spoke passionately about the move toward SD (Sustainable Development) as a philosophy for future governance and business management, I knew that as an Executive coach and leadership trainer, I couldn’t ignore the subject of Sustainability with any of my future clients.

As Executive Coaches, we go to our clients with their agenda in mind to help them focus on what’s working for them, what’s not working for them and what they consider to be important development factors for leading their organization forward. But as former executives we also know something about running a business. The senior coaches I work with including my Associates go into organizations with much more than just life coaching skills. They have practical business leadership experience. We do all the standard coaching activities; working with assessment tools, workshop facilitation, assisting in goal setting, helping clear limiting beliefs, assisting in team development, improving relationship skills and developing leadership’s consultation and communication skills. But we also have our own business experience to share and are capable mentors as well as coaches. We utilize the skill of questioning, but we can also provide in-sight and mentoring when it is necessary.

After hearing Dr. Feltmate’s presentation, I realized that not incorporating SD into my skill set and business model would be a disservice to my clients. » Continue reading “Sustainable Development (SD), Value Creation and the Capital Markets”

(Re-published from April 17, 2008)

My recent ventures took be the the annual meeting of the CBBF (Canadian Baha’i Business Forum) where I was previously honoured with the opportunity to serve as a member of the board. The CBBF is an organization which promotes the principles of:

• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Sustainable Development
• Gender Equality in the work place
• Value Based Leadership
• Ethical business practices
• Consultative Decision making
• A New paradigm of work

One of our invited speakers for the CBBF Annual conference was David Patterson, CEO of Northwater Capital Management, an asset management organization with $8.5 Billion under management which specializes in handling large investments such as pensions and utilizes it’s “market neutral fund of hedge funds”.

The conference theme was “Doing Well by Doing Good: an application of Values Based Leadership”.

David was understated and yet inspirational in his presentation and shared a number of concepts that were divergent from standard organizational theory.

He shared the notion that doing good for the whole system (world, community, organization and family) rather than self focus was strongly encouraged in his organization. The fundamentals of his approach – what’s good for the system is good for the individuals in the system and not necessarily the other way around. While it is difficult to accurately articulate his presentation, as much of it was supported by images of the Northwater working environment and it’s employees participating in world supporting and family events, he also based his assumption and methods on the success that his organization has acheived by using this approach.

In addition to the support of world and community, the company encourages open consultation through the elimantion of status based work spaces, even David has the same desk as other employees, and they frequently call random members into consultations to get alternate points of view.

David’s talk should be one of those talks presented at the TED conference where new and inspirational ideas are presented in many fields of endeavor. There are many companies that could benefit from his leadership model.

Garth Schmalenberg
Executive / Relationship Coach