The Search For Honest Men

Posted on by Martin Murphy

Diogenes, the famous ancient Greek philosopher, engaged in a notable quest known as the “search for an honest man.”

Through this pursuit, he aimed to unveil the hypocrisy and superficiality inherent in societal norms and conventions. Diogenes employed a rather unconventional method of shedding light on people’s true nature and their adherence to deceptive practices that hindered authentic living.

In his endeavour, Diogenes would hold up a literal light, such as a lamp, to individuals’ faces during broad daylight.

This action symbolized his intention to illuminate the truth and expose the façade that people often wore in their interactions with others. By subjecting them to this direct scrutiny, he aimed to provoke introspection and self-reflection.

Diogenes believed that many individuals in society indulged in insincere behaviour, adhering to social norms and conventions without truly living in accordance with their own values. Through his actions, he sought to challenge and confront this hypocrisy.

By holding a light up to their faces, he intended to metaphorically expose the shadows and darkness that obscured their genuine selves.

By forcing people to confront their own participation in disingenuous practices, Diogenes aimed to encourage them to live more truthfully. He sought to disrupt the prevalent culture of pretence and reveal the stark contrast between societal expectations and genuine authenticity. #

In doing so, he hoped to inspire individuals to question the conventions that hindered their ability to lead honest lives.

Diogenes’ unconventional approach, marked by his commitment to living in accordance with his own principles, made him a distinctive figure in the philosophical landscape.

Through his search for an honest man and his symbolic act of holding up a light to people’s faces, he challenged the prevailing social order and called for a more genuine and sincere way of living.

  1. #LeadershipMatters
  2. #LeadWithIntegrity
  3. #EmpoweringLeaders
  4. #StoicPilgrimJourney
  5. #FindingInnerStrength
  6. #SustainableLiving
  7. #EnvironmentalResponsibility
  8. #EcoWarrior
  9. #SocialJusticeNow
  10. #EqualityForAll
  11. #InclusiveCommunities
  12. #StandUpForJustice
  13. #JusticeReform
  14. #FairnessMatters

Corporatocracy and Capitalism Aren’t Really Working, and People Are Finally Beginning to Realise…

Posted on by Martin Murphy

Introduction

In recent years, an increasing number of individuals have started questioning the effectiveness of corporatocracy and capitalism as the dominant systems governing our societies. While capitalism has long been hailed as the driving force behind economic growth and innovation, the real driver was human curiosity. We didn’t need capitalism, humans love solving problems but when people start to ‘own stuff’, they revert to primate dominance behaviour. What capitalism had given us is significant social and economic disparities. Entrepreneurs who realise this but want to carry on winning regardless, are often heard remarking:

 “Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game”

But as people become more aware of the negative consequences of uncontrolled corporate power, there is a shifting public opinion taking place. Here are some reasons why corporatocracy and capitalism are facing scrutiny and explores the emerging awareness among people regarding the need for change.

The Illusion of Choice

One of the fundamental principles of capitalism is the idea of free-market competition and consumer choice. However, in reality, the concentration of power in the hands of a few large corporations has led to a lack of genuine competition and limited options for consumers. Many industries have become dominated by a handful of corporations that control prices, stifle innovation, and create barriers to entry for smaller competitors. As people observe this consolidation of power, they are starting to question the notion that capitalism fosters fair and equal opportunities for all.

Income Inequality and Exploitation

Capitalism, in its pursuit of maximizing profits, often results in income inequality and the exploitation of the workforce -see the children digging for cobalt for the EV market. The widening wealth gap between the ultra-rich and the rest of society has reached staggering proportions. CEOs and executives earn exorbitant salaries while workers struggle to make ends meet. Furthermore, globalization has enabled multinational corporations to exploit cheap labour in developing countries, perpetuating a cycle of poverty and inequality. As people witness these injustices, they are beginning to recognise the inherent flaws within the current system.

Environmental Impact

Corporatocracy, characterized by corporate influence over government policies, has also contributed to the environmental crisis we face today. Profit-driven companies often prioritise short-term gains over long-term sustainability. This mindset has led to the overconsumption of natural resources, pollution, and the exacerbation of climate change. With the increasing urgency of environmental issues, people are demanding accountability from corporations and seeking alternatives that prioritise the well-being of the planet.

Social Responsibility and Ethical Concerns

As information becomes more accessible, individuals are gaining insight into the unethical practices employed by most corporations. From labour rights violations and human rights abuses to tax avoidance and irresponsible marketing tactics, these actions have raised ethical concerns among consumers. People are now seeking businesses that align with their values, opting for ethical and socially responsible companies. This growing demand reflects a broader realisation that profit-driven motives must be balanced with ethical considerations for a sustainable and just society just as Adam Smith originally espoused.

The Rise of Alternative Models

The shortcomings of corporatocracy and capitalism have spurred the exploration of alternative economic and governance models. Concepts such as social entrepreneurship, cooperatives, and degrowth are gaining traction. These models prioritise social and environmental impact whilst striving for a more equitable and sustainable future. Moreover, the increasing popularity of movements like the sharing economy and the focus on circular economy principles demonstrate a shift towards alternative economic paradigms that value collaboration, resource efficiency, and social well-being. After all, we collaborated our way to the top of the evolutionary tree.

Conclusion

The realisation that corporatocracy and capitalism are not working for the betterment of society or the bio-sphere upon which all life depends, is gaining momentum. People are becoming increasingly aware of the negative consequences associated with unchecked corporate power, income inequality, environmental degradation, and unethical practices.

As a result, there is a growing demand for economic systems that prioritise fairness, sustainability, and social responsibility. The exploration of alternative models and the re-evaluation of our values are crucial steps towards reshaping our economic and social landscapes. It is through these endeavours that we can envision and create a more equitable and prosperous future for all.

We don’t need more conferences discussing it or reporters flying around the world to inform us, we know already. We need some rebels and mavericks to find and create new pathways for people to follow.

There’s some here: Rebels Chatting

#AlternativeEconomics #SustainableFuture #SocialResponsibility #EthicalBusiness #EnvironmentalCrisis #Sustainability #IncomeInequality #Corporatocracy #Capitalism #SocialInequality

Don’t Be a CAD Leader!

Posted on by Martin Murphy

Unfortunately, the world of work and capitalism is driven by stressful neurotransmitters such as cortisol, adrenaline and dopamine.

Founders and Entrepreneurs have to be driven people when it comes to breaking new ground and competing for their place in the world.

Technology and processed foods need to be addictive and give you a ‘RUSH’ otherwise you’d probably get off your phones and go spend more time in nature and eat fresh local produce.

People who’re very competitive rise to the top of the food chain in hierarchical organisations. They get a rush from crushing the competition. Status and power give them that adrenaline and dopamine rush they crave but it triggers the stress hormone cortisol in those around them.

From a leadership perspective, this feels great for the leader but it can mean that an organisation is reliant on the leader to keep driving. After all, if you can get by as an employee doing the bare minimum so as not to irk the mansplaining chump at the top, then why not?

It just isn’t very satisfying to live under the rule of a CAD driven leader, is it?

I sat in a meeting not long ago with one such white male (there were two females in the room). He asked if he could give me some blunt feedback. “Sure” I replied, realising I shouldn’t have taken this meeting whilst recovering from a dose of flu!

As he pontificated the two females were silent. It was obvious he was getting his dose of CAD at my expense as he continued to ‘no-mark’ me.

After he ran out of steam he asked “So why do you want to work with us?” …. By that time, I didn’t.

Normally I’d have asked to give him back some feedback in return, but I was pretty drained by then and I knew it would have fallen on deaf ears.

Why should I compete with his ego to explain why he and his ‘world-class’ organisation suffered from simplistic thinking, He didn’t realise there was a difference between complicated and complex. He is materially successful selling old world ideas and style over substance because he’s great at competing for business.

We’re experiencing stressful times; we don’t need more trauma inducing leadership.

In a world of ambiguous and novel challenges, we need more self-aware, purpose focussed and supportive leaders who are open-minded and willing to learn collaboratively their way forward.

Leaders who don’t need to be rewarded with the rush of cortisol, adrenaline and dopamine at the expense of those around them.

#business #leadership #work #power #entrepreneurs #leader #complexity #traumainformed #leadership

 

Mentoring is a powerful way of imparting knowledge and developing people within organisations.

Posted on by Martin Murphy

Mentoring is a powerful way of imparting knowledge and developing people within organisations.

Mentoring is a powerful way of imparting knowledge and developing people within organisations.

The word Mentor originates from Homer’s classic poem, ‘The Odyssey’, describing a time around 1200BC when Odyssus was preparing to travel a great distance. He asked ‘Mentor’ to act as a teacher, guide and friend to his son, Telemachus.

Many famous people who have enjoyed success have had the benefit of a mentor relationship. Oprah Winfrey looked on the writer Maya Angelou as a trusted mentor.

The mentor – mentee relationship is also referred to in the Hypocratic Oath: ‘To hold my teacher in this art equal to my own parents; to make him partner in my livelihood;’

Mentor programmes in organisations are beneficial to all parties and increases retention within organisations.

From Mercenaries to Missionaries -Designing, Developing & Leading High Performance Teams

The Book: https://tinyurl.com/BuyTheM2MBook

Website: https://martinmurphy.coach/

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/martinmurphy-coach/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teamcoachmurph/

 

What Hunter Gatherers – ‘The First Affluent – Society’ Can Teach Us About Surviving a Changing World Order!

Posted on by Martin Murphy

Ray Dalio the famous investor said it’s a good idea to look back into history to understand and predict the future. It’s an insightful talk (I’ll leave a link in the comments) in which Ray outlines the various changes to world orders that happen around every 250 years (not 500 as I say in the video) and if we want to stop the downfall of the west as China increases it’s power & influence, then we’d better be nice to each other and not spend as much as we earn!

I think whilst his analysis is excellent and solutions useful, it doesn’t take into account the evolutionary aspect of why the human race is heading towards an ecological collapse. It’s dominance hierarchy.

It seems that as soon as founders, entrepreneurs & managers get positions of status, wealth & power, then they switch-on their ‘Inner Chump’.

Your inner chump is competitive and controlling, harmful to the ecosystem, because it is driven by unconscious bias, motivated by fear & greed and paradigm blind and suffers inertia to change.

The hunter gatherers it appears, have the answer. They don’t stand for greedy indivduals because they understand the damage it does. Damage that’s all too plain to see in our leaders. Have a watch:

Too Many TAPs, Not Enough STOP’s, We Need More LEGO

Posted on by Martin Murphy

When I wrote my Book: ‘From Mercenaries to Missionaries’ I wanted to give entrepreneurs, executives and managers tools around leadership and teamwork that are sublimely simple and easy to implement. Too much of the leadership lexicon has fallen into the realms of academia. Nothing wrong with academic study, but academia is often the activity of proving what’s already known. Academia didn’t invent mindfulness but we have people who can explain the neuroscience of mindfulness but don’t practice mindfulness, teaching mindfulness.

Moreover; we sometimes experience academics developing philosophies from observed behaviour then presenting it as logic. Milton Freidman did this with shareholder greed. Just because it happens doesn’t make it right because an intellectual said it. On a couple of occasions recently, I have found myself talking to some learned people, or rather they were telling me I was wrong, when what I already knew from experience, was true.

TAP’s – Tools To Accumulate Power.

Ever since the agrarian revolution, competitive people have used technology to hoover resources from a wide area and funnel those resources into a place where they can control the supply. Like our water supply, drawn from a wide area and funnelled into a tap. In a household the water is shared freely, but not in business.

When you develop control of a resource in a capitalist system, you are not going to share the resources equally, you’re going to exploit the situation. Hence why trickledown economics has never worked. It was just another BS explanation which is used to perpetuate greed. Old world examples include the Oil Industry and Banks. They’ve been hoovering up local resources whilst holding the world to ransom and passing the costs of pollution and debt slavery onto society for a century.

The latest example is the ‘platform economy’. This is just another TAP and code for the ‘monopoly economy’. Recent platform examples include: Amazon- hoovering up the local economy, Facebook – hoovering up our attention, Google- Hoovering up information and ad revenue. Most tech ideas have the potential to make our lives and the world a better place. But the challenge comes when people don’t understand why in our present culture they soon become weapons of subjugation.

Platforms combine network effect and first-mover advantage to gain enough users which then makes them immune to competition. With monopoly comes monopoly behaviours and as other large organisations identify the benefits of using the platform effect, you can guarantee that there’ll be more bad behaviour on the horizon.

We need to understand that given an opportunity people will revert to an earlier evolutionary psychological state which is dominance hierarchy. Basically, our inner-monkey will not let go of the ‘Apple’ once they’ve a firm grasp, even if it is detrimental in the long term. Once a person or small group have achieved dominance, they begin to believe their own nonsense and develop a sense of entitlement. They delete, distort, generalise and convolute whatever information is available to argue their point, even to the point of calling in divine powers to back their case. Kings, Queens and Presidents have been at this for centuries, aided and abetted by Bureaucrats. No matter how much media exposure reveals them to be ordinary and somewhat quirky people who managed to gain an advantage, they still sit in castles and big white houses. Tech moguls are the new royalty.

Research of contemporary hunter-gatherer communities revealed them to be rather egalitarian. They were able to live in a less stressful social existance because they employ STOPs- Strategies To Overcome Power. If a hunter returned with a prize, the rest of the community would, in a good-naturedly way, mock him because they wouldn’t want the hunter to become too big for his boots. They understood arrogance, entitlement and hierarchy was not good for their communties well-being.

STOPs range from satire to assassination, rock throwing to revolution. It’s a way to redress the balance when hierarchical leaders exploit their position too much. Unfortunately, there is little appetite for making the world a fairer place, everyone in tech wants to become the next Larry Page or Jeff Bezos. As these tech giants rise in power, their ability to externalise costs onto society and the environment increases. If Facebook and Amazon had to pay for the damage they’ve inflicted on democracy, the environment and the public’s mental health, to name a few dmaging examples, they’d be bankrupt pretty quickly. They operate under a façade of delusion just as the tobacco industry did.

What we really need is more LEGO – Local Economic Generating Opportunities. TAPs focus power into small areas, we call them cities and of course if you are not part of the tech digital world, there shortly be very little for you to do unless you find opportunities to generate local economic opportunities. Brexit and the pandemic have revealed how reliant we are on extended distribution lines which are fragile and polluting.

What if we followed the doughnut, circular economic and employee ownership philosophies?

I believe these aforementioned ideas are just a return to a more natural evolutionary advantage we’ve forgotten in the pursuit of the capitalistic delusion. If tech people focussed on building local resilience with platforms then it wouldn’t have to be doom and gloom, they could probably be a force for good. Then tech entrepreneurs could shift from being Mercenaries to Inspirational Leaders on a Mission to make the world a better place.

Using friendly competition to boost performance in your business…

Posted on by Martin Murphy

Competition is seen as a natural part of life and work. There is always a creation stage when an idea must compete for its place in the world. You have to compete for a new job. The entrepreneurial stage in business is when the start-up must prove it’s worth and activity is primarily about winning customers without which the product or service will not survive.

But not everybody enjoys competition whilst some people thrive on it. Leaders have to be careful that when they frame competition that it doesn’t create anxiety and negative impacts on people’s wellbeing.

Competition increases psychological and physiological activation and exercised correctly leads to creativity and supportive behaviours. Done incorrectly, competition leads to cheating and sabotage as we’ve witnessed by banks leading to long term pain for the organisation, employees and clients.

Competition needs to lead to happiness not humiliation if you want to get positive outcomes.

Here are some key points to consider.

Compete originates from the Latin Competere meaning to strive together to achieve a common purpose. Chances are that competition was a key driver of human progress along with the peak performance flow states that competition can engender. It is important to remember that humans collaborated their way to the top of the evolutionary tree, probably in friendly competition.

Constraints

Introduce constraints and be clear about boundaries and ethical values that you are all agreed to upholding. Research has shown that saying the Lord’s Prayer before a competition decreased the cheating that took place by a group of students in a test when the answers were easily obtainable.

Open to Feedback

As a leader encourage the right behaviours and attitude by modelling them such as being open to feedback. Also, introduce the concept of ‘After Action Reviews’ so that the focus is on improving the behaviours and processes not just achieving the results. Keep it non-threatening and friendly.

Mutual accountability

Measure team results more than individual results so that the team members are mutually accountable to each other not a manager. Peer pressure is more effective than dominant pressure. We feel more compelled to help our own people more than a person who is not ‘one of us’.

Purpose vs Material

Make competition success about improvement and personal growth, don’t design rewards purely based on money or status. If you introduce monetary and status rewards then it can lead to jealousy and resentment. Peer-to-peer recognition is useful as we do enjoy basking in the limelight sometimes, even the quieter team members.

Excellence

Regularly emphasise that the aim of competition is to encourage the pursuit of team excellence. If an individual achieves great results, that process should be modelled and shared with the other team members.

Team Building

Brain storming sessions, quizzes around work, shared social experiences are all excellent ways to bring people together and build esprit de corps.

Egalitarian

In military special forces units, hierarchy is shunned and people are recognised for their indivdual expertise. They’re not encouraged to be clones but have individual skills. If you promote egalitarianism and appreciation of individual strengths in your organisation, then it will encourage creative teamwork but harnessing that creativity is a skill.

Collective intelligence from a diverse group is just as effective as having a lone genius- and there aren’t many lone geniuses around- so work on boosting team engagement.

With everything that has happened this year and how that will impact us all going forward, when would now be a good time to make facilitating effective meetings, decision-making and learning to use collaboration tools for effective communication and coaching, a core competency in your business?

Interested in learning more? Mission Power meeting Facilitation Online Course

The 4 Responses to Big Shifts

Posted on by Martin Murphy

About every decade or so there are shifts. Big impacts land which affect personal and business domains. For some people its good news and for others not so.

I personally think this is part of a universal life cycle which encourages evolution. I also think that big changes are happening more often due to advances in technology and because of environmental and ecological challenges which are reaching critical threshold points.
I would suggest that the current situation – in the middle of a pandemic – is only a small wave within bigger ones to come , unless we dramatically transform our intentions, modus-operandi and social systems.
I’ve observed these responses in clients and often a mix of all four and this is how I explain it.
We have four basic operating systems, thinking, doing, feeling and sensing/communicating. Individually we have preferences for some over the others. But we are able to use all four with self awareness and training and need a blend. This is our evolutionary advantage to work as collaborative groups.
Our basic intelligences become archetypes. In paleolithic times it was probably Hunter/Gatherer- Shaman/Scout. Nowadays in business leadership we call them Entrepreneurs/Coaches- Managers/Founders. But again, we can utilise all these operating systems if we’re situationally and self-aware enough to realise what operating system is required and when.
So when we experience change, it’s a good idea as a leader to understand the paradigm you’re in and where the next paradigm will take you and what you need to do to thrive.
Before COVID we all operated within particular societal and personal paradigms. Now we’re not. We’re having to respond to what’s happening. Here are the four responses that we’ll see.

Collapse

Some sectors like hospitality are experiencing a collapse. With the best will in the world, the pandemic is going to be here for the rest of 2021. It’s not likely that some industries will ever come back the same, if at all. When that happens all is not lost, there is potential within the people which can be re-directed. Firstly, it needs acceptance of reality and as Buckminster Fuller advised:

Don’t Fight the Existing Reality,

Create a New One Which Makes the Old One Obsolete

It then needs a Founder mentality to create new ideas and bring together people with renewed purpose. People can re-organise, make new connections and create something new. Much like the mythically Phoenix, rising from the ashes they’re often a lot more resilient after experiencing post-traumatic growth.

Consolidate

Some people and industries will find themselves in the enviable position of being able to consolidate their position. This time around, the circumstances have suited the incumbent and they’re able to reap a fine harvest, push ahead of their competitors and even aquire some of them.
For them, they were in the right time at the right place. They’ll probably carry on their modus-operandi by managing the basics well. It would be prudent to remember that whilst they’ve been fortunate this time around, next time, and there will be a next time, the paradigm shift might not be so accomodating and smaller competitors may leapfrog ahead of them. It would be useful to remember:

All Glory is Fleeting

Change

When shifts occur, some people will find themselves not in collapse or consolidate but in a fight for their lives. This is when the manager will make changes and prune the organisation looking to cut costs. The entrepreneur also comes back into their own and motivates the team to tackle the challenges head on. Of course:

Lessons are Repeated

and it will often need more than change to survive in the long term. There maybe a need for some radical transformation and creativity.

Create

Whenever there is a crisis there will also be equal and new opportunities. But it will take a Founders mindset to spot the:

Diamonds in the Dirt & the Gold in the Grit

Then it will take a collaborative and highly engaged team to bring the new ideas, products and services into existance. They will become the foundation for a new paradigm and may even become the next dominant players, utilising all the latest technology and achieving more with less.
We’ll probably find that we’re implementing more than one of the four responses mentioned. This is when leadership skills are important. Leaders must rise above the storm and get clarity on the situation, then leverage the potential of the situation and people.
If you need a sounding board to help you get clarity, get in touch
Martin Murphy – Catalyst

Ownership or Leadership?

Posted on by Martin Murphy
Why is ownership so important in team and individual engagement?

With ownership one could argue, the owner’s worldview is to extract value from people working on ‘their’ projects where as, a leader is leveraging the potential of a group of people to co-create value for the community.

Ownership is one of the greatest cons of all time which began around 10,000 years ago. Somehow, somebody, (probably a man) got their hands on some agricultural tech and gained an advantage over others, then leveraged that advantage. This has led to hierarchies, the exploitation of people and the destructive extraction of wealth from the planet with disastrous consequences.

Don’t believe me? Just look around you…

Before that period, as evidenced by observing contemporary hunter gatherer cultures that are still around today, we can see that our Palaeolithic ancestors were primarily egalitarian. Moreover, they were egalitarian for 150,000 years and living in balance with nature. They’ve outlasted supposedly more sophisticated, war-like civilisations such as the Roman, Mongolian and several Chinese dynasties.

Anthropologists have studied dozens of hunter-gatherer societies in remote areas around the world such as Africa, Asia and South America. These tribes lived in small bands of about 20 to 50 people and have many common cultural values. They also maintain peaceful relationships with friends and relatives in neighbouring bands. Warfare was relatively unknown and the dominant cultural ethos emphasised autonomy, non-directive childrearing, communal cooperation and decision-making. It appears we collaborated our way to the top of the evolutionary tree.

On the flip-side, modern history has been the ongoing conquest by dominant warring parties of other smaller bands to form more complex political structures. These societies focus on higher levels of power, wealth and control passing to an elite group at the top and like a Ponzi scheme is unsustainable. Every so often they fail and collapse back down to more sustainable levels. Then when the dust has settled and memories faded they begin the same journey again.

We’re heading towards a global economic and cultural community but that’s a work in progress. In the meantime we’re wrecking the planet with our conquering and exploitative mindset and people’s mental health and wellbeing are suffering as a result. Two decades of war in the middle east to protect the American petro-dollar is a classic example. All those humanitarian and ecological costs to protect the oil industry and American’s hegemony, are externalised onto communities and the planet.

So back to teamwork and leadership.

How does behaviour compare with egalitarian communities and modern workgroups?

Just as we have modern archetypes in the workplace, one could argue they match those of ancient egalitarian people. There are hunters, gatherers, shaman (mostly women originally) and scouts.

Hunters periodically acquired meat as a source of protein, Shamans were the keepers of the wisdom e.g. which berries were edible and which would kill you. Gatherers nurtured others in the community and foraged for edible vegetation and the Scouts would look for new hunting grounds and connect with other communities for marriages and trading.

Today we have Founders who are similar to Scouts as in they challenge old ideas, create new products and champion new ideas.

We have Entrepreneurs who tend to be more risk tolerant, focussed and can drive new ideas into existence similar to the hunter personality.

We have the Gathers who are the supporters and coaches within the organisations.

And the Managers, like the Shamans, are generally the keepers of the wisdom and strive for operational excellence and like to organise for certainty.

But what’s different from the workplace is traditional egalitarian communities maintain social norms that prevent any of the personalities from trying to exploit their position. These are called:

S.T.O.P’s – Strategies to Overcome Power

Hunters didn’t bring home meat then boast about their good fortune and hold the rest of the group to ransom. They didn’t promote silly ideas of greed as some ordained right. Material wealth was shared. Egalitarian communities focus on what George Monbiot calls ‘private sufficiency and public luxury’ the total opposite of what neo-liberal capitalists promote today.

In our evolutionary history we began to resist hierarchy, an ancestral primate social modus-operandi, when we developed the ability to speak. This allowed weaker members to collaborate more effectively, band together and throw rocks at any tyrannical member of the group that tried to dominate them. However, all previous evolutionary and developmental versions of us, are encapsulated within us and if the right conditions occur, people will revert back to being monkeys basically.

They will try to dominate others to get a bigger share of the bananas, and once they’ve got their hands on the bananas, they don’t like letting go.

For business owners and managers this means they have to deal with the psychological effects of the dominance and involuntary defeat systems. These are behavioural operating systems which arise as soon as you introduce hierarchy.

Those with authority and status begin to focus on their position and keeping it rather than doing what’s best for the community. It also increases the likelihood of psychopathology such as Machiavellianism and narcissism (a good example is politics).

Being dominated, triggers our involuntary defeat behaviours which leads us to doing as little as possible for our meagre share of the bananas…Well you would wouldn’t you?

As society has become more polarised between the have’s and the have nots, resentment builds. We’ve seen this with the rise of populism as smart people have tapped into the powerlessness felt by those left behind and motivated them to act in ways which actually don’t serve them but serve the elite…yet again.

Archimedes said:

‘Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can lift the world’

Well leadership is the lever and humility is the place to stand. If we strive to see leadership as a lever of potential not a badge of office and promote those leadership behaviours throughout the organisation in self managing teams and communities we would probably see engagement increase tremendously. Of course it is not easy to wrestle back control from the baboons so perhaps it would be better to follow Buckminster Fuller’s idea:

‘Don’t fight the existing reality, create a new one which makes the old one obsolete’

So in summary, if you’re prepared to treat people like wage slaves, then by all means carry on, but don’t be surprised if it feels like you’re dealing with monkeys at times. Also accept that people are fed up of being left behind which is how Trump and Brexit happened. They’re also realising that their is an alternative and it’s on the rise.

Employee ownership is attracting tax incentives as it has been seen as beneficial for business and society for many years. When you have this level of ownership then the teams have skin in the game. It’s a great way for entrepreneurs to have a succession plan, because when things are steady, they like to move onto their next challenge whilst leaving a legacy.

Whenever an organisation needs to adapt quickly to overcome greater challenges, they’ve always diminished the influence of hiearchy and moved power to information. I call this the Elite Team Concept, as used by the military and organisations.

Special project teams have been hiding in plain site and showing the way for centuries. The irony is that they’re not elite, they’re egalitarian in nature and focus on doing the basics well. It’s our evolutionary advantage. Imagine if you empowered your whole orgniasation with the elite team concept?

Want to know more?

Check out: The Elite Team Concept Seminar with Complimentary Digital Book

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-elite-team-concept-seminar-with-complimentary-digital-book-tickets-98264771577?aff=ebdssbeac

The next one is Online on February 4th 2021

OODA Loop vs EDUCE a comparison

Posted on by Martin Murphy