Richard Hodge
50. Count Value

Do you count value or account for value? The difference is more than semantics…

Richard Hodge
48. Value Leadership Behaviour

A great quote from Dr Margaret Wheatley helps us tie together the strands of value we’ve been discussing so far. Dr Wheatley says this:

“Leadership is a series of behaviours not a role for heroes.”

…and we’ve all met a few heroes, haven’t we?

56. Growth vs. Degrowth - Part 3 - Insights from Systems Practice

Are we caught in the endless chase for growth at the expense of our planet?

We face tough choices. “Degrowth” is meant to shake us and challenge the assumptions driving our current economic systems.

In this week's article, I draw on insights from global leaders* in systems thinking and practice to offer some perspectives on how we can act – based on lessons learned from other major programs and from expanding our understanding and use of multi-perspectival approaches.

Every aspect of their advice will enable us to shift in some way from pursuing unsustainable goals to fostering genuine progress on a finite planet. If you’re curious about how we can sustain an integrated diversity on Earth, let’s explore more together. 

55. Growth vs. Degrowth - Part 2 - Leadership

In an era where we possess the knowledge and technology to tackle global challenges, why does progress seem elusive?

My second article on 'Growth vs Degrowth' delves into the real barriers—politics, fear, and leadership inaction.

I explore the critical role of leadership in navigating the intricate balance between growth and sustainability, drawing on insights from leaders in complexity sciences and systems engineering, particularly from my last month's attendance at INCOSE International Symposium in Dublin.

I invite you to explore insights into how complexity sciences and systems thinking can open doors for you to reshape leadership and drive meaningful change. There's a few hints in here...

54. Growth vs. Degrowth - Part 1 - Probing Complexity

Are you grappling with the tension between economic growth and the urgent need for sustainability?

Do you find yourself at a crossroads?

Is growth, as we know it, a relic of a bygone era?

Is degrowth an ideal too far for business and government?

In this article, I begin a dive into the complexity at play between growth and degrowth, drawing on wisdom gained from others at the International Council of Systems Engineering International Symposium held in Dublin from 2-6 July 2024.

It's invigorating when the synthesis of diverse minds challenges conventional wisdom, and explores the potential for a paradigm shift that could reshape our approach to business, governance, and life on Earth.

53: Your Leadership Covenant

Are you hesitant about letting your people know your value framework, in full, in writing as your Leadership Covenant?

If you’re not explicit about how you conceive, contribute and count value, will people mistake interest for intent, discussion for direction, and then infer their version of you and your direction? ...when you could remove that ambiguity.

Make no mistake - there’s no right answer, but...

52: Value Your Leadership Covenant

The idea of a Leadership Covenant brings leadership back to basics. Too often leadership comes from a negativity bias – expectation, comparison, gap filling and incentives. It’s draining and won’t go away.

I reckon leaders have more to gain by setting a different basis for engaging people.

The Leadership Covenant becomes part of your governance framework – setting an identity and framework for you and your people to adapt constantly.

51. Value Benefits - By the Bus Load

In ‘Good to Great’ Jim Collins said:

“…at the outset, to be clear, it's not just about assembling the right team, that's nothing new. The main point is first to get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus – before you figure out where to drive it.”

…yet in all of this wonderful book, he never actually describes the ‘bus’. And that's what this conversation on value is about.

43: Value Transparency

What makes you most cross about how things work or done within your organization?

In my 40 years of working in large organizations that thing that bugged me most was the lack of transparency.

TL;DR  Lack of transparency in organizations leads to power struggles and destroys collaboration efforts.

42. Value Honesty

To me honesty is the first step in helping people see that no problem's too big for us to act and leave the world better for what we've done.

 But it ain't easy. (Right?)

I feel a huge loss of trust politically, corporately, and even an individual level whereby it's harder to speak your truth. Or at least, we perceive that it's harder to speak our truth.

41. Framing Value in 3 Parts

So, value. When I say value what do you think?

Do you think financial value? Or, think more about that set of values on the wall, or not? Do you feel somewhat disconnected with the whole notion of value?

 Because it's become so meaningless in a corporate sense. (Right?) Something that often is being directed from the top. You're told what is of financial value. You're told what behavioural value is. (Yeah?)

40. A New Conversation on Value

I'd like to start a new conversation on value.  

 

G’day, Richard here. 

 

Value is quite an old concept, but it's really become quite tarnished over these last two or three or more decades. Increasingly, we see wars, cruelty, hate, poverty, hunger …you name it. Wherever you look, we find politicians telling us one thing doing another.  

 

And one can wonder, as individuals in the world, what on Earth can we do? 

 

Some feel quite powerless. Powerless to the point of giving up, perhaps lost almost to the point of depression. Or a bit like me last year, getting on my social media and shouting out in a bit of anger from time to time. 

 

But that ain't gonna make things better. 

 

If we want better, we've got to *create* better. To be better, we need to work from our own sense of value. (Right?)  

39. Life in motion

Sunday dinner. A weekly ritual connecting our family in three locations. The conversation moves to privilege of birth, statesmanship and expected behaviours of those in high position. I’m at once engaged and soon detached, hearing myself fall into arguing with my grandson, Cameron.

My detachment sparks a realisation: Liminal states are common. Whenever we let go of a state of being that no longer serves us and evolve to a new state of being, we move through a liminality in time, space and mind.

We all live two lives. The second one begins when we realise we have only one life.