Category: Blog

In a time when the world confronts progressively existential challenges, our governments and institutions seem to be letting us down just when their support is most crucial. In order to  address these complex global problems. People need to unite our efforts collaboratively to create a shared approach to tackle these challenges by identifying and developing solutions that benefit the public and common good. 

The Wicked 7 is an open collaboration global project that provides people with knowledge to address the urgent systemic problems of the world. The project was founded in 2019 by Christian Sarkar and Philip Kotler as a spin-off on their work on brand activism concept. A wicked problem is characterized by its complexity and the challenges it poses in terms of finding solutions. These problems are tough to solve due to factors such as incomplete, contradictory, and ever-changing requirements that are often hard to identify. They are called the “Wicked 7” because they are key components of the “ecosystem of wicked problems”, intertwined and not easily solved, and yet, these are the very problems we must solve if we are to have a future.

Firstly, “The Death of Nature” summarizes a profound crisis characterized by the convergence of environmental impacts and weather-related calamities. “Inequality” has many forms such as economic, social, and workplace, where social and gender inequality is being measured. Within the realm of “Hate & Conflict”, the growing intolerance and hate fueled by racism, sexism, and extremism includes identity-based or ideological groups which create social unrest and commit acts of terror. Also, “Power & Corruption” unfurl as the dishonest conduct by those in power or those seeking to influence them using fraud and bribery.  Corruption creates a system that governs not for the many, but for the few.

Additionally, the arena of “Work and Technology”, heralds the dawn of an evolving work landscape, including the use of media to create false narratives for politics and profit. The challenge of Health and Livelihood is globally, encapsulating the pursuit of public well-being in its economic and physical dimensions. Furthermore,  “Population & Migration” unravels through escalating global populations giving way to conflicts over resources like water, energy, food, open spaces, transportation, and education. 

By acknowledging these intertwined challenges and embracing collaborative solutions, we have the potential to form a future that promotes sustainability, justice, and the well-being of all. The good news is that throughout Strategic Doing Networks, we are equipping current and future leaders to address those challenges in collaboration with the communities that are most affected by these challenges. Strategic Doing Networks provides a comprehensive framework that guides participants in leveraging collective intelligence, data-driven decision-making, and helps address interconnected challenges through collaboration. Click on this link to learn more https://community.tiao.world/en/community-group/view/111. 

Introduction

In the workplace context, principles, disciplines, and practices refer to essential elements that promote a positive and productive work culture. Together, they create a framework for effective functioning within the workplace. Principles provide the ethical foundation, disciplines offer specialized knowledge and expertise, and practices translate those principles and disciplines into tangible actions and behaviors. When aligned and integrated successfully, they can create an environment that nurtures better collaboration among team members.

Principles, disciplines and practices for a better collaboration

Principles provide the foundational values and beliefs that guide the behavior and mindset of participants engaged in the collaboration. These principles set the tone for how individuals interact with each other, emphasizing values like integrity, respect, and accountability. Involving specific disciplines that help structure the collaborative efforts and decision-making process, providing a systematic approach to collaboration, ensure that the team stays focused, agile, and aligned with its purpose. Finally, practices are the specific actions and techniques applied during the collaborative process. These practices include design thinking principles, strategic narratives, building trust and relationships, and continuous learning and improvement.

Integrating principles, disciplines and practices in Strategic Doing and Performance-driven change

Strategic Doing is a strategy discipline designed for teams and purpose networks when they need to generate solutions through collaboration. When you have an adaptive problem that’s never been tackled before, you need to learn in order to innovate so that you can come up with a new solution that didn’t exist before, that’s when the principles, disciplines and practices are applicable. Performance-driven change refers to team discipline as one of its principles, , integrating team discipline into the process of real-time integration of multiple skills and perspectives, teams can enhance their collaborative capabilities and achieve higher levels of performance, allowing them to collectively deliver better results.

Conclusion

In conclusion, using performance-driven change and strategic doing can form an integrated system that guides and supports effective collaboration. It combines the focus on measurable outcomes and data-driven decision making from performance-driven change with the collaborative and agile approach of strategic doing to generate innovative solutions and address complex challenges through collaborative efforts.

Gain insights from experts in the field and share your own experiences and knowledge to contribute to the collective learning of the community. Join us on the Open Community to know more about the Strategic Doing Networks Practitioners Training.

What is cognitive diversity?

Cognitive diversity is a concept that recognizes and values the different ways individuals think, process information, and approach problem-solving. It includes a range of diverse perspectives, insights, and thinking styles that individuals bring to a group or organization. Cognitive diversity involves differences in knowledge, experiences, beliefs, values, and problem-solving approaches. Embracing it is essential for encouraging innovation, creativity, and effective decision-making within teams and institutions.

Why use cognitive diversity in the workplace?

In today’s complex and interconnected world, cognitive diversity is increasingly recognized as a valuable asset for organizations. It leads to a broader range of ideas and solutions. When individuals with varied backgrounds and ways of thinking come together, they bring unique perspectives to the table. This diversity of thought enhances problem-solving by offering multiple approaches to challenges, encouraging critical thinking, and facilitating the exploration of unconventional solutions.

The role of cognitive diversity in decision-making

Additionally, cognitive diversity promotes better decision-making. Different viewpoints put biased notions to the test and reduce the probability of missing crucial details. It encourages people to take into account other points of view, resulting in more well-rounded conclusions, which leads to increasing innovation and creativity.

Cognitive diversity and employee engagement

Lastly, cognitive diversity stimulates inclusivity and enhances employee engagement. Individuals are more likely to be actively involved and driven when they feel valued and respected for their distinctive ideas and contributions. A sense of belonging is cultivated in inclusive settings that value cognitive variety, and this in turn fosters teamwork, collaboration, and increased employee happiness. Companies that prioritize cognitive diversity will find it simpler to recruit and keep a varied workforce, which will help them benefit from the various perspectives and ideas.

Conclusion

In conclusion, cognitive diversity is a crucial asset for organizations and teams. By actively incorporating cognitive diversity, Strategic Doing ensures that diverse perspectives, thinking patterns, and cognitive abilities are utilized to enhance problem-solving, decision-making, and innovation. As it involves the capacity to analyze and comprehend relevant information, evaluate different options and strategies, identify opportunities and risks, and adapt as the situation evolves, cognitive intelligence is essential to the Strategic Doing process.

Gain insights from experts in the field and share your own experiences and knowledge to contribute to the collective learning of the community. Join us on the Open Community to know more about Strategic Doing

In an increasingly interconnected and complex world, the need to address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively has become essential. The goal is to discover how to build sustainable and resilient ecosystems that drive innovation and sustainable development. 

An ecosystem in the business world of today encompasses working with a group formed for the purposes of addressing specific needs. It is a network of organisations including suppliers, distributors, customers, competitors and government agencies, among others, that are involved in the delivery of a specific product or service. In this ecosystem, each entity has an impact on the others and is also affected by them. This creates a constantly evolving relationship where each entity must be flexible and adaptable to survive, similar to how a biological ecosystem functions.

This requires defining a compelling vision to help inspire stakeholders to build an approach, then identifying each stakeholder in the ecosystem and matching available resources to clearly defined goals and creating an action plan with defined roles. 

With this in mind, each participant in the ecosystem, whether they are governments, companies and organisations or other associations will have to collaborate with each other, creating safe spaces for dialogue and networking to generate ideas. The use of monitoring, follow-up and evaluation tools will follow, an important step in using this learning and adapting according to the results. 

Strategic Doing is a methodology designed to address complex problems and foster collaboration between different actors. It focuses on rapid, iterative, results-based action to achieve shared goals in uncertain environments.

By combining the ecosystem approach with the Strategic Doing vision, we can build collaborative, flexible and action-focused approaches to address social, economic and environmental challenges. Through effective collaboration and a focus on a shared vision, we can develop sustainable ecosystems to the benefit of all stakeholders.

Introduction

Sustainable leadership is an approach to leadership that seeks to promote the long-term well-being and sustainability of both organisations and society as a whole. This approach is based on the idea that leaders should make decisions that take into account not only the short-term interests of the organisation, but also its impact on the environment, the community and future generations

Their role

Sustainable leaders make decisions considering social and environmental as well as financial impact. To achieve this, they adopt responsible business practices such as reducing energy and material consumption, promoting diversity and inclusion, and investing in the development of their employees.

This is important because it helps them to be more responsible and sustainable in their operations, which can have long-term financial and reputational benefits. It is also necessary to address global challenges, such as climate change and social inequality, and to ensure a sustainable future for future generations.

Some examples

Several organisations follow this philosophy, for example: 

Patagonia: An outdoor clothing company that has adopted a sustainability strategy in all aspects of their business. They have implemented responsible practices to reduce their environmental impact and have supported social and environmental causes through their “1% for the planet” programme.

Unilever: A consumer goods company that has adopted a sustainability approach to their business, encouraging sustainable development and innovation. They have implemented responsible business practices throughout their operations and have set ambitious sustainability target

Conclussions

In summary, sustainable leadership focuses on leading responsibly, with the aim of creating sustainable value for organisations and society. At CONNECTS we support this philosophy by promoting sustainable leadership styles for all types of companies, in our Strategic Doing and ESG Countdown and ESG for SMEs communities you can find out more.

Inroduction

Increasingly, people shop in second-hand clothing shops or through sustainable brands because of the lower ecological impact, affordable prices, unique designs and social awareness. The production and transportation of new clothes generates waste and pollution, while second-hand clothes shops offer quality clothes at more affordable prices. Sustainable brands have higher prices but attract people who value quality and environmental protection. In addition, second-hand clothes shops and sustainable brands often offer exclusive designs and companies that care about ethics and social responsibility in their production attract people who have these values.

Context of fashion sector

Fashion is a very important sector in Europe and provides employment for more than 1.7 million people, generating a gross value added of more than 166 billion euros. Italy, France, the UK and Spain stand out for their high quality fashion production, but competition from emerging markets such as China, India and Bangladesh has challenged the European fashion industry.

Many companies in this sector produce in these countries for a number of reasons, including low costs and availability of labour. They have much lower wages than Western countries, which allows companies in the sector to reduce production costs and increase their profit margins. In addition, these countries have a large population willing to work in the sector, which means that there is a large pool of available workers. On the other hand, Western countries have higher costs and a lower availability of labour, which makes production more expensive.

The fashion sector outside of Europe

Moreover, in recent years incidents such as those in Bangladesh, the Tazreen Fashions factory fire or the Rana Plaza collapse, have alarmed society as a whole, leading to massive reforms aimed at improving safety conditions. Some local suppliers are also building eco-friendly garment factories to improve the sector’s image after Western buyers rejected Bangladesh due to non-compliance with labour and environmental standards.

How to reduce his impact

However, more and more brands are recognising the ethical importance of the sector and are taking steps to reduce their social impact, with some brands opting to try to develop their own second-hand shops, such as H&M, Levi’s and NA-KD.
In conclusion, we could say that fashion in Europe is a key sector in the economy, generating employment and significant value. It is important that this area continues to work on sustainability and improving working conditions for employees to ensure its long-term success.

Why CONNECTS?

At CONNECTS we are trying to collaborate with SMEs to create communities that collaborate in the sustainable development of the textile sector. In addition we count with the ESG community to help companies gain social awareness in areas of great importance to their environmental and social performance in the community. The ESG Countdown community aims to achieve the EU’s ambitious green transition goals, this is just possible with the collaboration of SMEs. Join our community: https://community.tiao.world/en/community/join/91

Introduction

In recent years there has been an increase in environmental regulations and consumer labels due to several important factors, in particular due to increased awareness of the importance of sustainability: Around the world, more and more people are becoming aware of the importance of sustainability and the negative effects of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. This has led to an increased demand for more sustainable and responsible products.

Reporting frameworks and consumer labels

To adapt, reporting frameworks, a structured methodology for collecting, analysing, and presenting data in a way that is meaningful and useful, have been implemented, a well-designed reporting framework provides relevant information for appropriate decision-making. There are important tools for measuring and communicating an organisation’s performance that have clear objectives that will be measured through key performance indicators (KPIs).

Reporting frameworks and labels are related in the sense that both are used to provide information on sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Consumer labels can be seen as a form of simplified reporting, using a stamp to communicate key information about the product or company, while reporting frameworks are more detailed tools that allow companies to report on a wide range of issues related to their social and environmental performance.

Main Reporting frameworks

The most common reporting frameworks are the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the Integrated Reporting Framework (IRF). These provide guidelines for companies to report on their performance in areas such as governance, environment, human rights and labour practices, among other topics.

Main Consumer labels

Consumer labels can be seen as a complementary tool to reporting against these frameworks, as they provide an easy and quick way for consumers to identify products and companies that meet certain environmental or social standards. Some of them can also be linked to specific reporting requirements, which can help ensure that companies report on their performance in more detail using one of the reporting frameworks mentioned above.

Labels may be regulated by different entities depending on the country or region in question. Even so, they are not always subject to regulation and, in some cases, may simply be an industry or organisational initiative. It is therefore important to research the source and meaning of a consumer label before relying on it as an indicator of quality or social responsibility. Some of the main ones are:

• Rainforest Alliance Certified: This seal certifies that the product comes from a company that has adopted sustainable practices in its production, including the protection of the environment and the promotion of workers’ rights.

• Fairtrade: This label certifies that products have been produced and traded under fair trade conditions for producers and workers.

• Organic: Certifies that products have been produced without the use of pesticides and other chemicals harmful to human health and the environment.

• LEED: Certifies that buildings have been constructed and designed according to sustainability standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Conclusions

These are just a few examples of the consumer labels that we can now relate to Environmental, Social and Governance. Each label has its own criteria and standards, but all have in common the promotion of sustainable and responsible practices in the production and promotion of products and services. CONNECTS invites you to join us in our efforts to improve the assessment of the social impact and sustainability of each company. To do so, if you would like to learn more, we encourage you to join our ESG Countdown community and our events, hosted by expert speakers in the field.

In today’s world, collaboration is essential to meet the complex challenges we face. This requires collaboration of multiple stakeholders and experts at different levels and in different configurations. Successful collaboration needs enabling technologies such as the CONNECTS platform and collaborative capabilities such as Strategic Doing.

Strategic Doing teaches people how to form collaborations quickly, move them toward measurable outcomes and make adjustments along the way. Strategic Doing has developed over more than two decades of work with people trying to strengthen their organizations, communities, and regions. The Strategic Doing Institute, based in the University of North Alabama, USA has trained more than 2000 practitioners from around the world.

In October 2022, the Strategic Doing Practitioners Learners Community was launched on CONNECTS. Inside the community we run weekly Strategic Doing Talks, hosted by Ed Morrison – founder and director of the Strategic Doing Institute. Each week Ed has a conversation with one of the current Strategic Doing Practitioners, workshop leaders and fellows about their experiences in applying Strategic Doing in their organisations and communities. For upcoming talks click on the link.

Starting on the 31St of January Ed Morrison will be delivering a series of Strategic Doing Masterclasses on CONNECTS to provide participants with practical skills for designing and guiding ecosystems. In each Masterclass Ed will be focussing on a particular type of complex challenge in a particular type of organisation, industry, or community. To participate click on the link.

Watch the space for upcoming masterclass topics:

• First steps with deploying Strategic Doing: The role of core teams
• Understanding collaboration: A process of recombinant innovation
• Developing your skills as an agile leader: A new career pathway
• Ecosystems for regions: Designing and guiding regional innovation ecosystems
• Entrepreneurial ecosystems: How to design launch, and guide them
• Solving complex corporate challenges with an ecosystem: The case of Lockheed and condition-based maintenance
• Powering Open Innovation with Strategic Doing: Framing the innovation challenge with a question
• Deploying Strategic Doing at a large scale: Conducting strategy workshops with hundreds of people
• Pathfinder Projects: Understanding the engine of Strategic Doing
• How to develop trust, the fuel of collaboration: Where to start
• A short course in why Strategic Doing works: The key scholarly research
• Bringing Strategic Doing into your HR function: Where to start, how to scale
• Understanding our civic economy: Collaborations to support the market economy