‘Covenant for This Century - Why Sustainable Progress Depends on Leaders Connecting with Care and Courage’ is a book for leaders and managers wishing to engage with complexity and, this time, make a sustainable difference.
A book in five parts, summarised here and in my video.
Part 1. Incite. The world faces existential challenges born of growing population, inequality, poverty and extreme wealth and power in the hands of a few. Profit and greed leave the planet, its habitats and life - not just human life at risk. Leadership has become a license to kill, exercised politically, commercially and privately. Culture has passed a tipping point*. We need more than a few hacks and tips for leaders to regenerate social structures as sustainable, adaptive entities.
Part 2. Opportunity. Richard regenerates an old idea of covenant as a mechanism for giving people “the freedom of a tightly defined brief**.” We have an opportunity, now, to regenerate communities around shared value - in how value is conceived, contributed and counted, locally and nationally, in commerce and public service, publicly and privately.
Part 3. Frame. Quietly in the background, we’re experiencing growth in systems approaches in science and engineering but these are little known and less practiced in management and leadership. With a covenant anchoring a community in who it is, what it does, how it works and the consequences of its actions, Richard draws on two pairs of concepts to create a framework adaptive to our volatile and complex world.
Part 4. Tools. Richard presents four tools as windows to systems approaches to assure agility and viability, structure and systemic thoroughness. The tools amplify the connectivity across the framework, to understand those things which are structural and divisible and those things which are functional and indivisible. All the while enabling leaders to create their own brand and value as their community has conceived of it in their covenant.
Part 5. Result. The composite covenant and systemic framework is designed to inspire leaders to connect people with care, and hold courage in creating new paradigms fit for a sustainable future in This Century and beyond. The result is a basis for rebuilding belief in the value of covenants, inspiring leaders to hold faith in their people and, through them, regenerate trust in our institutions.
*Dr Larry Kennedy, Chair Quality Systems Working Group, International Council of Systems Engineering**David Ogilvy, the Father of Advertising (1911-1999)
Available on Amazon
What The Hell Do We Do Now?
- An Enterprise Guide to COVID-19 And Beyond
I have the honour of working with 17 other Thought Leaders to create the book “What The Hell Do We Do Now?” an enterprise guide to living and working in a world changed by COVID-19, edited by Mary Butler, Alex Hagan and Brent Hodgson.
My contribution “Imagine” proposes anchoring a future of human activities on working with the planet, to seek first to do no harm. How simple changes can have a profound impact.
What others have said…
“I absolutely loved it. It was an absolute joy to read. My husband, Bill (who is a voracious reader) said “that chapter was a privilege to read, I loved it”.
Mary Butler, Co-editor WTHDWDN, Business transition mentor, Executive coach
“it’s exceptional. An absolutely gripping opening metaphor, some phenomenal challenges for the reader, and some powerful statements.”
Alex Hagan, Co-editor WTHDWDN, Futurist, Workforce Strategist
In WTHDWDN, each author speaks to one topic in the ‘wheel’ pictured, covering the questions:
- What important aspects of [your topic] changed when COVID-19 struck?
- Why are these changes significant?
- Moving forward, what should we do to adapt to these changes?
- What outcomes will this result in?
Because this book is a collection of insights from thought leaders on a broad range of topics, what holds the book together is its tone:
- The world has changed, and we need to adapt
- The present may be difficult, but the future is bright
- The decisions you make today will ripple through the decades to come
- This is achievable
... through the lens of someone *emerging* from these changes and wondering what to do about them.
You can purchase a copy on Amazon
AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/What-Hell-Do-Now-enterprise-ebook/dp/B08JCFY1KH
US: https://www.amazon.com/What-Hell-Do-Now-enterprise-ebook/dp/B08JCFY1KH
CA: https://www.amazon.ca/What-Hell-Do-Now-enterprise-ebook/dp/B08JCFY1KH
UK/IE: https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Hell-Do-Now-enterprise-ebook/dp/B08JCFY1KH/
Request a Copy below
A Systems Approach to Strategy and Execution in National Security Enterprises
- Accepted for PhD. 2010.
The gap between strategy and execution is a perennial issue. When uncertainty is present strategy formation moves from finding the one best strategy to creating the most skilful process (van der Heijden, 1996).
In this work, Richard explores the intersection between strategy and systems engineering to help strategists manage complexity by designing their own skilful strategy process working dynamically with day-to-day execution. He conceived a systems approach to process design and tested it in national security and health contexts - where the enterprises span multiple independent and autonomous agencies in the public and private sectors.
It’s not the whole answer. Yet, it offers fresh insights to problem definition, methodology selection, process design, test and evaluation to keep the dynamics of the process matched to changes in execution and in the wider strategic environment.