Friday, September 13, 2013

Organisational Values Under Threat


TIPPING POINTS


 
Natural disasters, war, food and water shortages, rank poverty, protesting communities, jittery markets.  Volatile events that can quickly escalate into crisis mode.  We are living on the edge in a fragile (even broken) world of increasing tensions – political, ecological, religious fundamentalism, social , financial and economic – which all feed off each other.
 We’re surrounded by accidents waiting to happen – within businesses and in the outside world we operate in.  Malcolm Gladwell  eloquently showed how positive and negatives are subject to a process which may well lead to a critical mass which then suddenly take off, erupt, ‘go viral’.  What he termed ‘tipping points’.
 GAPS BETWEEN STATED AND LIVED VALUES
 Organisations espouse values, but often fail to live them. The profit-motive rules. We see fraud, corruption, tax evasion, excessive executive pay. When things go wrong there is denial, avoidance, cover-up, deception.  Credibility, confidence, trust, values are eroded.  Organisational life for many becomes dysfunctional.
 UKULINGISA CHALLENGE
 Ukulungisa is an African concept, essentially meaning a chance to put things right, restore order, aspire to higher things.
The time has never been more right for businesses to become virtues-led. Arguably this is our greatest challenge. Business needs to move beyond responsible capitalism, beyond the triple- bottom- line, and set the tone for society at large. Shift from a vicious to a virtuous cycle.
If values do not become lived virtues, then what’s the point?
 THE VIRTUOSA ORGANISATION
Our eBook sets out a detailed, practical process for achieving the dazzling, virtuoso performance that is required. There are stories, illustrations, reflections (looking without and within in with clarity), practical exercises and checklists. Application leads to a reframed story, reputation, cultural dynamics, performance.
 How to arrive at the right values, and the right way of implementing and inculcating them – so that they become habitual virtues, is explained.  Leonardo da Vinci’s life and virtues are used as an illustrative, non-threatening set of virtues that resonate at the individual and organisational levels.
 
 
For an outline and to place an advance order go to:  
 


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