Culture of Innovation/Vibrancy

While many people associate innovation with special people who come up with creative ideas, it is more accurately nurtured by building a company that embraces innovation as part of its core DNA. The real question is what does that look like, and how do you make it happen?

Guru shares real-life experiences of leading this transformation across several application development and maintenance efforts, while highlighting the integration of Agile and Lean practices and the importance of lean leadership. During this conversation, Maureen and Guru explore the implications of using the Dev Ops methodology, in conjunction with others to accelerate the rate of change and how the organization must respond. It means people’s jobs will change – including IT people who are doing their work differently. They explore how Nationwide is preparing people for significant changes in their work yet at the same time focusing on sustaining jobs for those committed to personal growth.

June, 2017

Christoph Hinske discusses his findings from the experience based research exploring the patterns and specifics of societal-scale transformations in different culture. This research was commissioned by the German government and focused on global transformations outside of Germany. Christoph interviewed 22 thought leaders about their personal experience in running large scale transformation processes. Specifically he looked at the global implications of transformation exploring the patterns and specifics of societal scale transformations in different cultures. This work is now being leveraged by sustainability and transitions people around the world. During the interview, he shares common themes across cultures and transformation focus and recommendations that increase the probability of transformation success. The following quote summarizes how individuals and organizations view resources: “they are often perceived to be limited, but never scarce”

Christoph Hinske, Jim Ritchie-Dunham, Annabel Membrillo Jimenez, Ana Cláudia Gonçalves. Experience Based Research Exploring the Patterns and Specifics of Societal-Scale Transformations in Different Cultures, Institute for Strategic Clarity, 2017

Maureen Metcalf, Forbes.com, December 2016

Maureen Metcalf, Forbes.com, August 2016

Jim Ritchie-Dunham & Maureen Metcalf. Co-hosting: Integral Leadership Review, November 2016

Jim Ritchie Dunham. For people working in groups, we have often seen the group perform to the level of the lowest common denominator. This conversation provides a high-level framework for leaders to refine their approach to increasing team effectiveness by leveraging the concept of “room to roam.” Room to roam looks at five key variables we believe are the foundation when looking at leadership successful performance in groups. The five perspectives are: 1. Leadership maturity 2. State development 3. Years of experience 4. Mindfulness 5. Ability to identify and “co-host” or build on the perspectives in the room This conversation explores the five perspectives in greater detail as well as the idea of “co-hosting” as a tool to change the way the group works. Another critical element of group functioning is the agreements they have with one another on how they operate.

Revitaliza is a woman owned green building company in Mexico committed to improving the world and the lives of their employees and clients based on their services and the company culture they have created. Also embedded in their culture is empowerment of women. Revitaliza and its owner are truly “positive deviants” and a shining example of a company making a positive impact and making money. During the interview they talk about how they are shifting agreements within their company and the impact this has on their employees, their process efficiency and their external stakeholders. • How do you use the focus on agreements to build your culture and drive successful performance? • What are some of the agreements you have put into place? • Talk about how you are shifting agreements within the company and the impact this has on their employees, their process efficiency and their external stakeholders.

Jim Ritchie-Dunham, Annabel Membrillo and Ana Claudia Goncalves discuss Organizational Vibrancy. This body of work is making a great impact in entire organizations and in pockets of organizations around the world.  It has helped them identify where they excel and what gets in the way of their teams bringing about the innovative solutions they say they want and need to have a thriving organization. Questions to be discussed: 1. What is vibrancy? 2. How do agreements fit into this equation? 3. As the CEO of an international organization – what question were you looking to answer when you starting considering assessments? 4. Why the vibrancy assessment? 5. What value did you get? 6. What were the leadership qualities required to successfully implement the changes recommended to create a highly vibrant organization?

Vibrancy and Ecosynomics are important topics for organizations that want to create engaged employees and drive strong business results. One of the vibrancy community’s goals is to identify the highest vibrancy organization and highlight what they are doing so others can benefit from the success of the highest vibrancy organizations. This interview with Jim Ritchie-Dunham and Dan Mushalko looks at WCBE public radio station in Columbus, Ohio. WCBE is an organization that has tested high on the vibrancy scale while the parent organization scored as less vibrant. Much of the difference in scores can be attributed to the deliberate actions taken by the General Manager, Dan Mushalko to address issues that are a “drag” on the stations vibrancy. A key focus of this discussion will be creating vibrant departments or units within a large organization even when the parent is not focused on vibrancy. Dan and Jim discusses his success factors driving vibrancy.

Jim Ritchie-Dunham and team developed a quantitative framework based on extensive data collected across 93 countries to identify the factors that make an organization vibrant. Jim Ritchie-Dunham, Christoph Hinske and James Drinkwater discuss how this framework drives organizational abundance by improving an organization’s ability to innovate out of key problems and create strategic advantage. The agreements (often unconscious) serve as the differentiator between organizations that consistently transcend the constraints of our daily organizational lives and those who don’t. By creating conscious agreements that enable participants to identify creative solutions, they can determine how to implement innovation and execute for results. Organizations that can’t do these three tasks will be outpaced by those who can. We will discuss: 1. What is vibrancy and ecosynomics? 2. How has the framework been used in the World Green Building Council? 3. What early results are you seeing? 3. How can you learn more?

Christoph Hinske gave a keynote speech to the World Green Building Council in Venice focused on retrofitting all buildings in Europe. The gathering was part of the EU funded BUILD UPON project, the world’s largest collaborative effort on building renovation – bringing together over 1,000 organizations, across 13 countries, at over 80 events in 2016-17. As leaders focusing on implementing multiple concurrent changes – it is imperative that we understand what drives change and what inhibits it or just drains our energy. He discusses the following: 1. Tell us more about the World GBC project. 2. How does your work with agreements increase the probability of successful transformation? 3. What is an agreements map and the cost of scarcity calculation? 4. How does mapping and calculating the cost of agreements drive change? 5. What concrete steps can I take to evaluate my agreements?

Mark Palmer TEDxOhio State