Whilst the Institute retains a pragmatic-action, evidence-based and performance measurement mindset, the scale of impact of the work is transformational.
It has been said that the Institute’s work is as boring, detailed and IMPACTFUL as accounting. It heralds not only more effective companies, investors, governments and societies, but a new tempo of human development able to keep pace with a new era of self-generated opportunities and threats.
Philosophy; pure and applied
Through action and inaction, effectiveness and incompetence, human society is made, not found. Everything we see about us is the result of the organisation of human labour. Thus the human condition is increasingly defined by what we as a species, are able to achieve.
The sky is no longer the limit. Advancing technological capacity leaves our ability to act collectively as the limiting factor on the expression of our ethics, intellect and humanity into the creation of our future path.
One could mount a pure philosophy critique of the obsolete machinery of collective decision-making, of the ageing of our living-systems’ intangible-value-creation-machinery, and of the need to upgrade societal and economic infrastructure. This may be true, but it fails to engage the broader imagination.
As an applied philosophy however, the work of the Institute is activating and inspiring leaders across levels, disciplines and sectors towards joint work on enhancing our economic and social organisation. As a blueprint for organising effective collaborative value-creation, it is proving sufficient to secure system-wide participation.
The most powerful impact of this work is through its expression as an enhanced fit-for-purpose governance framework. In this form it is engaging global capital, top10 company chairs, and their peers in administrative and executive government, regulators, and across the agencies working on upgrading the sustainability of global financial systems. It is providing new perspectives of integrated thinking, timeframe-based prioritisation, and decision-making in uncertainty that spans across integrity, community, sustainable development, environment, cybersecurity, the knowledge economy and the creation of intangible value.
PhD research (more a Doctorate of Philosophy than many) identified the necessary components and integration of the organisational machinery required to harness the contribution of knowledge to value-creation within our operational context. This research showed us how to measure this practice, and how that measure links to sustained out-performance in mature-cultured organisations. It measures effective regenerative capacity as a core capability for a world of continual change
But more, this work explains the leadership process for continually optimising the assignment of resource towards future prospects, and how this increases not only value-creation performance, but transparency, trust and participation when applied in the public sector.
This work has shown us how to harness experimentation and learning to successfully embrace the real-world’s complexity and uncertainty. And, it shows us how humans can overcome the temptation of simplified ideology and soundbites to achieve effective collaboration towards tangible future visions.
The Institute’s breakthrough work provides:
- A blueprint for upgrading humanity’s organisational effectiveness
- A unifying call for a grand collaboration towards more effective futures
- A way for leaders to embrace the complex reality of modern existence
- A framework for rising to meet heightening citizen expectations
- A harnessing and maturing of the rising tide of technology opportunity
- A step-change in what we can achieve with the resources we have
- An enhancement of our ability to express our personal ethics and ingenuity in deliberative construction of shared social and economic futures
- A heralding of a new era in the collaborative expression of our humanity
THE OLD IS DEAD. WE NEED SYSTEMS FOR THE NEW.
Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) has been used to describe the new baseline of human existence. This is understated.
To realise humanity’s potential, we will need to harness experimentation, virtual digital solutions and a higher rate of change.
Traditional systems of collective human behaviour fail in this context. They need to be modernised to keep pace.
“Personal effectiveness is insufficient in the knowledge economy. The challenges and complexity we face are of a higher order of magnitude” STEPHEN COVEY
“We are using 20th Century reporting and decision-making to address 21st Century challenges” INTEGRATED REPORTING
REAL–WORLD QUESTIONS:
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- Why do our highly competent, highly educated, well-intentioned, motivated, committed and professional leaders captain organisations to consistently bad decisions?
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- Why are our large companies, with vast capital, the best staff, great brands, great reach, and a huge number of innovative ideas so frustrated, frustrating, and lacklustre performers?
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- Why do our well-resourced, altruistically populated countries fail to look after marginalised citizens, geographic neighbours and future generations?
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- Why are individualistically motivated citizens attracted to ‘strong-man’ leadership in volatile times?
REAL-WORLD CHALLENGES:
As directors in a manufacturing company we would know the throughput of our machines, the cost of an upgrade, and the market conditions – and we would make a sound decision.
As corporate and government leaders we are captains of intangible value creation machines: We have no measure of the rate of value-creation in our organisations. We cannot assure outputs. We are unable to consider or assure upgrades. We are blind.
We lack even the most basic tools to manage in the current context. We fail to even engage with the future oriented thinking that might prompt their use.
Governance of Value-Creation enables leaders to engage and assure the core Future Fiduciary question “Are we optimally invested in our own future?”.
New perspective.
New pathways for action.
New organisation of labour.
New human potential.
Click below to share an in-depth discussion with Danny Davis, Executive Director of the Institute on this philosophical approach, and how it applies.