Being future ready in business.

Sarah Godfrey 2020

The new buzz word, ‘disruption’ isn’t just business-speak. It is the way of the future. Looking forward we need to be discord directed. Not in the paranoid, doom and gloom perspective of the world and business. Rather in an optimistic, come and get me, resilient way. Think, readiness for the expected chaos that has a ironic predictability about it.

According to the McKinsey Global Report 2020, disruption to business, be it climate events, theft, cyber attacks or as we experienced biological events, occur with some regularity. Although the sample size is significantly small, the report indicates the following:

Disruption Frequency

We should expect some form of disruption to our businesses;

  • 1 to 2 weeks every couple of years.

  • 2 to 4 weeks every three years

  • 1 to 2 months every four years and

  • Over 2 months disruption every five years.

These suggested frequencies are not set in stone and may not apply to all businesses. In fact the more your business relies on a centralised base, the more likely it will be affected by disruption elements. Safe strategic sourcing can leave your business vulnerable to world events. It can delay rebounding from disruptions to manufacturing, consumer needs and supply chains.

Tips to get discord ready.

The McKinsey report advises to think long term. Where most companies will lose an average of 40% of a years’ profit, every decade, due to disruption and every five to seven years, 100 days of production, a risk diverse policy needs to be incorporated into the culture of every business model. The report suggests we should be incorporating into our strategic planning:

  • Stronger risk management procedures

  • Improve transparency.

  • Build redundancy in our supplier and transport networks.

  • Hold more inventory.

  • Reduce product complexity.

  • Have flexible production across multiple sites.

  • Improve financial and operational costs to respond to and recover from disruption.

It might be time to embed a disruption costing into our balance sheets that allows for the regularity of discord and chaos. Our reactive process as is current that ignites only when the disruption occurs, is a thing of the past. Manifesting the likelihood of disruption into out business models will engage creative and innovative planning, conceptualisation and engagement with source and production chains, employees, management and consumers.

What your business can do.

To expand on this, Mike Ross BDC CEO Excellence Retreat proposes that we should be valuing adaptability and looking towards future disruption instead of the “everything is fine” attitude pre COVID-19. He suggests part of the operational design of a business includes a team to manage a ‘Disruptive Change Matrix-DCM.’ The DCM monitors the impact and probability of disruption, allowing the business to act and prepare for an event. A proactive risk management style instead of reactive.

A team built to manage discord and chaos becomes an early warning system, with the capacity to guide CEO’s and organisations to make changes, adjust and engage in business, climate and scientific events. In this way the knowledge learnt can be used to navigate business through inevitable disruptions and plan for recovery. In smaller businesses, you can create a DCM position and nominate one employee who demonstrates the confidence and interest to perform the role.

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And, you can start now.

Have strategic plans already in place, open enough to be adapted and changed as required. A foundation of resilience and recovery planning, as part of the culture of the business, gives security and transparency to employees and staff.

Have Creative Centres in your business to encourage ideas and brainstorming, engaging your teams in the ‘What if’ scenarios and bonding the belonging of a unified commitment to tackling the disruptive events.

Review your supply chains, flexibility and employee resilience in preparation for whatever disruptions lay ahead. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and challenge the status quo. What can be done, moved, changed and resourced?

So much is out of our control in the business world. We cannot stop disruption.By controlling what we can, gives us a professional and financial edge, speeds up recovery so we are better at taking the hits, makes failure part of an expected business framework and builds resilient and ready teams.

If you want to implement a Creative Centre in your business, contact Sarah directly.

You C.C.C.A.A.N. be amazing.

In my line of work, one of the common requests I get is about how to enhance who we are and how to get to the next level of self-awareness and development. In the next two blogs, I'm going to help you and give you the six superchargers that will speed up your self-development.

C.C.C.A.A.N stands for Courage, Connection, Compassion, Authenticity, Altruism and Neuroplasticity. Let's break it down and do three supercharged self-development skills today and three more next month. Our focus is on Courage, Connection, Compassion as supercharges to lift your awareness and ability to enhance your wellbeing. Of course, the amazing thing is it also benefits those around you, so everyone wins, the more we practice our human skills.

Are you ready? then hang on, because this type of supercharging doesn't come easy and will require a few changes to how you live your life and the way you interact with others.

Here are the first three essential skills to supercharge your self-development. Let's see how many you can tick off your list and how many could be a new focus for you.

Courage

We need courage to add to our supercharging self-development. We all understand physical courage. That amazing ability to be brave and strong in the face of threats, hardship, in disasters, emergencies or pain. This kind of courage is a very human and often an instinctual skill. We show physical courage when we work to recover from injury or when we push our bodies to be fitter, healthier or stronger.

Across the world, we have so many examples that demonstrate physical courage. Just think about all those courageous people pushing their limits in sports, dance or disability. How about the physical courage those who sign up to protect us, show on a daily basis, in the face of enormous danger, (shout out and gratitude to all the police, fire brigade, ambulance, army, navy, air force etc.).

Physical courage is pushing our bodies and mental aptitude father than we thought possible, often to better ourselves. Often to help and protect others. Yet do we value moral courage as much?

It is curious how physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare." - Mark Twain

Moral courage is equally as brave and challenging and is often seen as a 'higher and a rarer virtue than physical courage'. When we stand up for the rights of others or act in an opposing way in the face of disagreement, we are demonstrating moral courage. In this way, we are brave, as others deny or condemn our values and worth. Moral courage is where we protect and stand up for those under attack, verbally or otherwise. It can be seen as we speak out against unfairness, corruption and deceit. Moral courage stands proud and strong even if it may cause shame or personal loss or rallies against those around you who would prefer compliance and silence.

A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live." - Anonymous

Connection

Our connections and how we develop and cherish them, are another power that can supercharge our self-development. Being connected links us with others and creates a sense of belonging.

Research has continued to show that being with others, family and friends increases your happiness. The EFA article on connectivity reports that 'for over 50 years the impact on social behaviour and longevity conclude that humans are social creatures who require connections with other humans in order to thrive, [and] a lack of social connection is a greater overall health risk than smoking. Being lonely impacts your immune system as well as your susceptibility to anxiety, depression and antisocial behaviours. A review of 148 studies found that people with strong social relationships have a 50% lower risk of mortality.

Being connected, having a sense of belonging is an important part of our human existence. It improves our physical and emotional well-being and positively affects those around us. How we like, love and link with each other is a vital part of supercharging our self-development. It makes us altruistic, capable of supporting and loving others, being selfless and it brings great personal and psychological benefits back to us. Benefits such as acceptance, value, self-esteem, gratitude and a social meaning and role in our lives that can give us purpose, in times when we struggle or feel lost.

Whether your connections are deep and sustaining, by distance or social media, casual connections at work or with your local businesses that you see regularly, being part of the social world, groups and having relationships with other people improves your wellbeing, enhances those around you and develops our resilience learning how to interact and interrelate with each other.

Compassion

The third C in C.C.C.A.A.N is compassion. Compassion is a strong motivator that drives us to help people, offer and seek to assist those around us suffering from emotional, physical, spiritual or financial pain. When we develop compassion, we learn how to be sympathetic towards those less fortunate. It triggers pity for suffering and kindness for the misfortunes of others.

We should not confuse compassion with empathy as the definition of compassion means "to suffer with," meaning we lean into their distress or need rather than acknowledge it. When we sleep out with the homeless to raise awareness, that is a compassionate act. An easier way to recognise your own level of compassion is in your acts of kindness. You can hold open a door, offer assistance, help someone trying to get a stroller down the steps, donate your unwanted items instead of selling them. Compassion is when we offer sympathy to those who have lost and ask how we can help. Business is becoming increasingly aware of how the relationship economy contains compassion as an integral part of brand loyalty and respect.

Let's not forget self-compassion either. This is where we show ourselves kindness for our own circumstances, misfortunes, losses and pitfalls. Where we offer compassion, we must also allow ourselves to receive it with grace and gratitude. Our self-development needs compassion as it keeps us humble and supercharges our humanity.

So, there are the first three human skills of how you C.C.C.A.A.N supercharge your self-development. Next time the focus is going to be on Authenticity, Altruism and Neuroplasticity. If you don't want to miss out on it subscribe and you'll get a reminder when I'm about to post it.

For now, enjoy putting your awareness to the test and work on your courage, connectivity and compassion.