LEADING AS
IF
LIFE
MATTERS AN INVITATION TO ATTEND A FUTURE OF OUR OWN MAKING
Mary Mc Bride | Maren Maier | Xue Bai
Copyright © 2021 by Mary Mc Bride, Maren Maier, Xue Bai All rights reserved First ebook edition January 21, 2021 www.leadasiflifematters.com Cover design: Xue Bai Illustration: Xue Bai
AN INVITATION TO ATTEND A FUTURE OF OUR OWN MAKING
CONTENTS
2 s s e n t a e r G o t A Call
5 Mission: Leading As If Life Matters
13
23
Mores Matter
Models Can Muddle
33
Mindsets Need Resets
41 Methods: Designing Life-Centered Innovation
49
59
Material Choices: Designing Material Well-Being Measures Must and Can Be Meaningful
73 Future Forward: Pivoting For Purpose
79 Future Forward: An Invitation
CAN & MUST
1
THE BRIEF
A CALL TO GREATNESS
A CALL TO GREATNESS “Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation.” Nelson Mandela
We are a generation that can and must be great. A generation challenged by changes that continue to destabilize and disrupt our lives, our economies and the social and biosystems upon which we depend. Life matters. We matter. How we make our living in a living world matters. And, time matters.
We are an enterprising and innovative species. How we design our enterprise activity and focus our innovation will shape our shared future. This book is about that. It is written for emerging and existing leaders willing to be great. And, it is intended as a call to action for the mission we must undertake — leading as if life matters. If we do not lead as if our world and our lives matter, we will put our future at risk. It is important to secure a future for our separate enterprise. But, if we want to secure a shared future, we will need to align the aims of all of human enterprise. Our enterprise, the work we do, across all boundaries of sector and geography has helped to create the conditions which threaten to destabilize our climate and our lives. We now need to align our aims to restabilize those conditions. We have one decade to align the aims of human enterprise with the aims of life. Ten years to design livable futures. There is work to be done. And much to be examined about the way we work.
2
THE BRIEF
We have organized human enterprise in ways that put us at war with the living world and each other. And, “invented an economic system that doesn't just kill life, it depends on killing life.” 1 Not our best idea. Time to invent an economic system based upon caring for life and each other. Most of human progress has been achieved at great cost to living systems and human communities. We have waged a war of man against man and man against nature. Peace has eluded us even in times of plenty. It is time to shift our story and sort out our relationship to life and to each other. To do that we will need to excavate some assumptions, innovate our practice and work in ways that enable us to survive and thrive — together. If we do not do that, the wars on poverty will not be won. And what we like to call nature will seem to be at war against us. Peace is possible. Prosperity and profit can be won. Possibility abounds. But, we must orient toward it.
This work can help with that. It is designed to stimulate thinking. To catalyze conversations and cultivate caring. And to focus existing and emerging leaders on the work that must and can be done in a century challenged by unprecedented risk. We already know how to do most of what we need to do. We just need to do it — together. Re-stabilizing the conditions critical to a viable future will require that we act to align our aims to achieve the Global Goals — the 17 sustainable development goals ratified by the 193 member states of the United Nations. 2
3
A CALL TO GREATNESS
We are designed to survive and to thrive. That is our collective calling — our shared vocation. Our individual genetic programs, ideally, support and sustain our wellbeing. When they do not, we need an intervention to put us right. Our cultures also, ideally, support our shared well-being. When they do not, we are collectively at risk. We are now collectively at risk. Our climate is collapsing. Our societies unstable. Consider this an intervention. Spread the word. The work has begun.
Leaders from around the world are aligning aims to achieve the Global Goals. Tackling our climate crisis and our equity crisis. Using technology to learn and connect. Partnering with life. Innovating to secure a shared future.
Worldwide, leaders young and not so young, are rejecting the idea of “leading as usual.” They want more — and less. More opportunity to make their difference and less catastrophizing about a future they will actually inhabit and shape. They are rejecting apocalypse. Making new choices and choosing life. They are on a mission to lead as if life matters. This work is an invitation to choose life and join the journey. Click to watch the video below.
VIDEO: E F I L E S O CHO
4
3
MISSION A mission is a calling to act toward shared purpose.
MISSION: LEADING AS IF LIFE MATTERS
“The most successful leader of all is the one who can see another picture not yet actualized.” Mary Parker Follett
7
MISSION
LEADING AS IF LIFE MATTERS
The good ship Greta has already set sail. In full public view with much media attention, one very young woman with a sign and a heart shattering sadness signaled for all to see “how serious the situation is and how little is actually being done.” 4 Successful leaders in our 21st century will need to actualize another picture of the possible. Greta has made it her work to actualize collaborative action. To begin to gather partners in purpose. And to demonstrate that change has arrived. She pivoted passion toward the possible! Took aim at the climate crisis and gave voice to the voiceless disadvantaged by the reckless pursuit of more — our living systems and human communities.
She was applauded and then ignored. Innovators usually are. But, not always. Not when the idea meets the moment and action is actually possible.
8
MISSION
That moment is now, and there are millions of people worldwide ready to meet the moment. All of them are customers, constituents, investors, tax payers and donors. Time to make friends with the future. It has been trying to communicate with us for a long time. We don’t need tea leaves or prophesies. We have the facts. Facts the young have easily grasped and are acting on. A cautionary note. Our current systems are designed as if human need and biosystem vitality does not matter. Leaders lead only in the interests of their particular “stakeholders.” But we are all stakeholders in an emerging future.
The most significant stakeholders being those not yet born and without voice or market power. It is expecting the unlikely to imagine that all current leaders will pivot quickly enough to make a difference.
9
LEADING AS IF LIFE MATTERS
Salaries and bonuses are designed to tether us all to quarterly growth goals. It can be far too seductive to ignore the real conditions of a world unaligned to growth targets. Of course, there is a very simple solution to this. We can lead as if life matters. But that will require that we align leadership development and leadership compensation with the real work of real leaders in a real world — a world at risk. We will need to recruit, recognize and reward leaders able to align enterprise aims with the aims of human need and the reality of biosystems on the brink. Leaders willing to do the job that must and can be done, the job of creating economic well-being and a viable future. The job of leading as if life matters. This work is for leaders who want to do that. Leaders who want to pivot practice toward, as yet, uncharted territory. Leaders willing to move past fashionable ideas about disruption rarely put forward by those who would actually be disrupted. Leaders focused on restabilizing our living systems and human communities. Leaders who will use technology, not as a weapon, but as a tool for designing life-centered innovation. Innovation that can provide solutions critical to shared survival. Innovation that serves human need, sustains living systems and enriches our human community and our enterprise.
10
MISSION
Transformative leaders are always with us and they are at every level in every enterprise. Leaders willing to navigate our enterprise, our work, and livelihood, through the rough seas of change. Leaders willing to befriend a future, ever out of reach, but never beyond imagining. Leaders with courage. Willing to cycle through the very predictable pattern experienced by leaders who are truly innovative.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
The future will win. It always does. The question for leaders has always been what future are we leading to? We do have a choice. We will co-create that future with our decisions. We offer this work to weight that choice toward life-affirming decisions. The world is watching. And the clock is ticking. For the first time in human history we run the risk of disrupting all of life on earth. There is no reward in that. We need shared strategies that can sustain and support survival. Innovation that is life-centered. And leadership that will transform the way we “make our living.” Click to watch the video below
VIDEO: JOHAN ROCKSTRÖM: 10 YEARS TO TRANSFORM THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY— 5 OR DESTABILIZE THE PLANET
11
LEADING AS IF LIFE MATTERS
IDEAS, REFLECTIONS, EXPERIMENTS SPACE
12