An Imperative Paradigm Shift for Performance.
Our current paradigm of business profit above all, individual gain and authoritarian command has hit the wall in what it can achieve. The global cost has been astronomical and it’s getting worse.
The natural world is suffering catastrophic degradation at a demoralising human cost. A recent Gallup poll suggests a massive 85% of employees are actively disengaged from work. A polite way to say that a vast majority of work colleagues are anxious, frustrated and in a state of continual stress that is leading to a pandemic of burnout and ruined lives.
When in a continual stressed state our sympathetic nervous system – fight, flight or freeze response – is activated1. In this state we only have access to 5% of our brain’s available capacity. The quality of our decision-making deteriorates and our work takes a lot longer. The cost to our state of mind and quality of life is plainly unacceptable yet continues. For organisations, we simply underperform and this hidden cost is enormous.
There is an urgent need for a transformative shift in the way we work and manage society towards a living systems or regenerative paradigm. A world where leaders dare to lead with compassion for people and planet and understand that this is the foundation for flourishing business and society. A world where products, services and organizations create more value than they take2.
Our planet is a living system and when left alone it regenerates and becomes vibrant. Nature works through collaborative networks and partnerships, sensing and responds to what is happening in its environment. No leader is required. Regenerative organisations apply these lessons from nature. They re-examine the internal way of working and outer relationships from an understanding that the organisation and its stakeholders are a complex living system and builds in flexible, people-positive ways of working where employees bring their whole selves to work and discover their natural creativity and motivation.
It seems to be complete and utter common sense that if employees have more well-being, energy and are happier, performance will improve. For each of us this comes from self-reflection and reconnecting our overly rational thinking with our emotional, intuitive, and somatic intelligence.3
We need to reconnect our left hemisphere brain of analysis with the right hemisphere of creativity; our inner heart and gut with our outer head of policy and finance; and our masculine side driving results with our feminine side of relationship building. We need to reconnect and be in awe and curious about what we can learn from nature. A guide that can also help us to reconnect is the recently released Inner Development Goals4 (IDG’s) of BEING, THINKING, RELATING, COLLABORATING and ACTING. There are 23 underlying inner skills and competencies that will help us be more in tune with our true inner nature. When we reconnect in this way our parasympathetic nervous system kicks in more often, we relax, life becomes more in flow and we connect with others more effectively. Leaders of regenerative organisations, when reconnected to themselves and others, work differently. They are bold enough to scrap outdated models and lead from care and compassion for people and nature. They create adaptability and resilience without the need for top-down authority and excessive control mechanisms. They trust and encourage colleagues’ wisdom to take appropriate decisions. A happy, engaged workforce improves performance for the individual and their organisation. We have the technology, understanding and funds to move to a living systems/regenerative paradigm. It has become imperative to transform our mindset to know this operating mode will help business, nature and society to flourish and to take action towards achieving it. To find out more, please contact Chris via his website www.intandem.ch or LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/consciousleadershipspecialist/ ________________________________________________________ 1. Guy-Evans, O. (2021, May 11). Sympathetic nervous system functions. Simply Psychology. www.simplypsychology.org/sympathetic-nervous-system.html 2. www.regenerators.co 3. Regenerative Leadership by Giles Hutchins and Laura Storm. 4. www.innerdevelopmentgoals.org
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