Chapter 1
Challenging the fear and fatigue of change

ACCORDING TO LEWIS E PLATT, CHAMPION of innovation culture and Hewlett-Packard chairman and CEO, 'You must anticipate that whatever made you successful in the past won't in the future.' Platt's 1994 speech gave business leaders everywhere inspiration for guiding their organisations in uncertain times. Such basic advice could have been interpreted as flippant were it not for the potent industrial context of HP's major competitors at the time undermining their own competitive vitality by clinging to outmoded strategies long past their use-by date.

Change was once a cyclical process that occurred inside organisa-tions every one to two years, based on a top-down directive from leadership in response to social and economic evolution. It was then rolled out by change professionals tasked with overseeing carefully crafted linear plans with clearly defined entry points, middles and conclusions. 'Successful change' was measured as adherence to and fulfilment of a particular set of benchmarks, often with the intent of improving operational efficiencies and people function. Change was rigid, highly controlled, and 'done' to people - a process that lacked transparency and vital human connection.

Despite encouragement from leaders to 'embrace change' as a 'for the best' solution, this change process was often met with fear and resistance. Not surprisingly, according to Deloitte's Global Human Capital Trends 2015: Leading in the new world of work report, 87 per cent of managers agree that culture and engagement is 'critical or urgent' - a sign of prevalent fatigue and the growing realisation that even the most carefully planned change agenda will become a shipwreck without radical intervention and a new approach.

Sounds exhausting, right? However, as noted by world-class gymnast Dan Millman in his fictionalised memoir Way of the Peaceful Warrior, 'The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.'

Today, change is a continuous, non-linear and complex reality - no longer a 'thing organisations do' but rather a 'way of being'. This means the notion that we can confine change to a pre-determined set of ideals or outcomes in a cultural context where the lines increasingly blur between work and life is naïve and avoidant of our responsibility to embrace a co-designed and inclusive business model. Survival demands that we adopt an outside-in view, and invest in new and accelerated leadership and learning models that prioritise engagement with employees and stakeholders above shareholder returns.

Meanwhile, a quietly influential conscious paradigm is rising - a vibrant and emergent collective that challenges the ruthless pursuit of profit and strategies to maximise shareholder returns, and mobilises as an empathic interdependent force for social consciousness, authenticity and mutual benefit. I call this collective groundswell the 'Emergent', and it highlights that the future of enterprise innovation will be largely dependent on organisations learning to co-design solutions to complex problems. The Emergent comprises conscious leaders, innovators, provocateurs and disruptors who exist to create every form of value and alignment possible - social, emotional and financial. They are a force for positive social impact, and they have put the status quo on notice.

The Emergent comprises conscious leaders, innovators, provocateurs and disruptors who exist to create every form of value and alignment possible - social, emotional and financial.

Changing capitalism

A great example of the Emergent is the B Corp movement, which brings together a community of incredible people doing extraordinary work. B Corp groups for-profit companies certified by the non-profit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, legal accountability and public transparency. At the time of writing, more than 2000 certified B Corps from 42 countries and over 120 industries were working together toward a single unifying goal: to drive systemic change and redefine success in business. They want to mobilise as a force for good.

At the 2016 Net Impact Conference in Philadelphia, Jay Coen Gilbert, co-founder of B Lab, presented a potent exposé about the evolution of capital, saying:

If we can harness the latent power of markets . of business, of capitalism - to a higher purpose than maximising shareholder value, we can unleash one of the most powerful manmade forces ever created . jobs with dignity and purpose, restore the environment, create pathways out of poverty, and reduce inequality.

Along with the approximately 2000 B Corp certified companies worldwide with higher purpose at their core, an additional 50,000 have used the B Impact Assessment - a free tool provided by B Lab to measure the company's impact and offer help with making improvements. With only 900 registered B Corps in 2014, what's certain is an exponential shift is occurring.

Gilbert went on to suggest that shifts are occurring beneath the surface, and that sometimes these are so incremental you can hardly feel them. And yet they are powerful enough to disrupt the status quo and change the world as we know it. As more companies seek to create value and benefit across the vast spectrum of stakeholders - spanning customers, employees and the communities in which they do business - Gilbert argues we are starting to see a change in capitalism's form.

Learning how to accelerate change and mobilise as a positive force in society has become an essential prerequisite in business. It demands extraordinary agility and acumen, along with an organisational shift from delivering shareholder value to embracing the co-creation of stakeholder value.

Learning how to accelerate change and mobilise as a positive force in society has become an essential prerequisite in business.

The paradox of protectionism

Our future practitioners, in every conceivable discipline, are striving to maintain their relevance, while venturing outside of their comfort zones to adopt experimental strategies that they hope will protect their interests. But this approach is idealist and in the long run won't ensure survival.

Across industries a clear imperative exists to transform, and yet the paradox of protecting intellectual assets and the bottom line for fear of letting go of control (of product, etc.) results in paralysing inertia.

Right now, innovation is anybody's game. My observation is that while everyone is talking innovation, few companies in Australia actually possess the critical acumen and capacity to co-create with stakeholders.

Right now, innovation is anybody's game.

In the face of rapid change, organisations react and defend, or they adapt and thrive. There is no middle ground. It is a volatile context, yes, but it simultaneously presents us with an extraordinary opportunity to be innovative in how we create value.

In a 'take no prisoners' environment, those who ignore the signs will progressively decline into obsolescence, unable to escape the gravity of a dying institutional model that can no longer sustain innovation because it is devoid of the vital tenets of conscious leadership and co-ownership.

A commitment to community engenders trust and mutual benefit. Abandoning kneejerk, reactive, quick-fix and protectionist strategies in place of a holistic worldview and interdependent way of working is a crucial step in an organisation's conscious evolution towards a co-created business model.

A commitment to community engenders trust and mutual benefit.

Committing to change and community

In 2012 British politician and former diplomat Paddy Ashdown gave a spellbinding TED Talk in Brussels entitled 'The global power shift'. In it, he stated, 'We are all now deeply, deeply, deeply interconnected. And what that means is the idea of a nation state acting alone, not connected with others, not working with others, is no longer a viable proposition.'

In the current climate of social and economic disruption, Emergent leadership starts with an openness to embrace new ways of working and, ultimately, a willingness to transform the corporate environment.

My experience and analysis after working with global institutions also tells me that those companies that succeed work from the following agenda. They:

• build cross-functional teams who drive creativity and innovation forward
• commit to authenticity, empathy and diversity in the workplace
• engage customers in the design of new products and services (a co-created business model)
• become proficient in social media and enterprise community management
• create transparent dialogue between employees and influential stakeholders.

This is the prerequisite agenda to truly embrace change and transform culture and it is these ideas that will be explored throughout this book.

The top leadership challenges today

1. Customers and employees are demanding greater values alignment, autonomy and individual empowerment, fuelled by...