If you can’t get enough of these and want more than 5 articles, I have created an extended version of Petervan’s Delicacies in REVUE. If you want more than 5 links, you can subscribe here: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/petervan
This post is part-1 of a series of ten essays on the essence of work. For an introduction, check here.
How many times does it happen to you that you say/think:
“They don’t get it,
they really don’t get it!”
This happens to me when sharing ideas about my work as an event creator, or should I say “créateur d’expériences”, like Renaults famous advertising tag line: “créateur d’automobiles” which is quite different than “car manufacturer”. The elegance of the French language of course helps.
I keep on trying to explain that we are not in the events business, that we are in the business of creating high quality feedback loops to enable immersive learning experiences, and my employer keeps calling what we do “events”. I have come to a point where I stop trying to explain, and just do.
Part of this “not-getting-it” is probably due to a different (therefore not better or worse) vocabulary used by business people and creative people. But most of the non-connection is there because we live in, are inspired by a different belief system.
The subject of belief systems really started resonating with me when I discovered a video of Dave Gray’s presentation “Liminal Thinking: Sense-Making for systems in large organizations”, his closing keynote at Enterprise UX 2015 Conference.
Dave Gray is author of the fantastic “The Connected Company” and many more, and there is a fair chance that his next book will include “Liminal Thinking” in its title. Dave is a good fried, and he shared with me a preview of his next book.
I read it and gave some feedback, so I believe I really have internalized his message. In respect of Dave’s work, nothing in this post is a cut and past from his preview edition, I just distilled it from the public video.
The core message in the video/book is that of the “Self-Sealing Bubble”. The bubble of a belief system, the bubble where one is only receptive to the obvious, the belief system, the DNA that the organization has been trained for, and sometimes like in religions, brainwashed for.
Where it becomes even more interesting is when Dave starts connecting needs, beliefs and actions.
To be more precise:
“Needs create beliefs that create rules for action”
And if my need is not fulfilled, I will create a belief, a story that will give reason for my actions, also called rationalising.
“Why are we here?”
asks Dave, and his answer is the mind-blowing “To meet our needs and to help others meet their needs”. Wow!
Say that again.
“To meet our needs and to help others meet their needs”
The model presented, can also be used for reverse engineering of needs in case of conflict of belief systems: what would I do if I believed in the belief system of the other party? What would happen if I act as if that belief system were true? What if I would adapt, even fake my behaviour to give the other belief system a chance.
To give the other belief system a chance
is sometimes also called
an “experiment”
But giving the other belief system a chance, is very different than changing your needs. Dave does not recommend you change your needs.
On the contrary. And he leads to a very interesting reflection whether security is at all possible at work.
For me security at work would mean to have
“an environment where nothing needs to be protected”
An environment where the quality level of “being a group”, being a team is such that there is no competition between team members, where there are no egos, where there are no posers, losers, clueless and Sociopath pathologies as described in the magic post by Venkatesh Rao “Executive Engagement”.
Where there no classes and hierarchies, and where everybody is respected for the value and insights they bring to the table. And classes is not only about hierarchies. A class could also be associating people with the past, and isolating them deliberately from the future thinking.
An environment without organizational pathologies or self-conforming belief systems.
“Most enterprises are not emotionally safe places”, says Dave Gray, and he is unfortunately so damn right.
In many organizations, people are encouraged to leave their emotions at the door.
“But that is impossible”
It even is more impossible when you get promoted in senior leadership positions, where it really gets schizophrenic, and nobody dares to challenge you. Where most will say yes or whatever latest buzzword to please and charm and schmooze you.
“The more senior, the more difficult it is to leave your emotions at the door, because everybody else will conform to your self sealing logic, and your needs will always get met”
But the key lesson learned from Dave Gray keynote for me is to go and search and discover my deeper needs for a healthy functioning of myself in and outside the organization.
Because needs inform my beliefs. My beliefs inform my actions. My actions result in effects. And the effect confirm or adjust my needs.
That is why in part-3 we will dive deeper into value and needs and how they are the fundamental building blocks of the essence of good work.
Over the last weeks and months, during my sabbatical and during my part-time working regime, I have written so much down in my personal journals, in documenting my dreams, in writing poetry and even fairytales that I probably have enough material to publish one post every day for the next 100 days.
Picture: "The Key in The Hand” installation by Chiharu Shiota 2015 Venice Biennale
I started seeing several themes, file-rouges and keys in what I was writing, and one of the main reflections was about work. About he nature of work. What constitutes “good” work. About the joy of work. About the frustrations of work. About meaningful work and fulfilment. In essence about the essence of work.
I have now bundled several of my musings about work in ten chapters/essays that I am going to release one by one in the coming days and weeks under the title “The Essence of Work”.
Most of the essays are basically written, some of them still mature as I reflect, as I lie down and let the world come to me. But at a certain time, I can’t withhold it anymore, and it is time to share my thoughts, doubts, inspirations and aspirations with my audience. And as usually – when you share – something magically happens that is called a high quality feedback loop. You get challenged, encouraged, there is a conversation starting. Like in The Cluetrain Manifesto: “Markets are conversations”.
The courage to publish – to release, to let go, to put out something into the world – is usually triggered by an event, something somebody says, a touch, a tear in an eye, somebody coming into your world, a resonance, a frequency, a signal.
Image: Cyrus Kabiru - Kenyan-artist
In this case it was the story of a manager telling her “subordinate” that she should look at her work “as a job”, where the job is a means to an end, and that end is getting a salary. I am paraphrasing, there was probably a little more subtlety to it all, but that was the essence of the message.
That story makes me sad and angry, and that’s why I want to get to the essence about what’s so wrong in that message and share with you what I feel is the essence of work.
This post is just the introduction to that blog series. To give you a feel of what’s coming, hereunder the titles of the 10 chapters or essays that I am going to release soon:
These are not my own thoughts. Many are evolutions of deep insights by people much smarter than me. In every post, I will obviously reveal that source of the inspiration that keeps challenging me in my work. I am just re-chewing the source, sensing it, and trying to make sense out of it.
Hope you join me on this journey. Looking forward to your feedback, suggestions, challenges, conversations, and encouragements, if any.
If you can’t get enough of these and want more than 5 articles, I have created an extended version of Petervan’s Delicacies in REVUE. If you want more than 5 links, you can subscribe here: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/petervan
If you can’t get enough of these and want more than 5 articles, I have created an extended version of Petervan’s Delicacies in REVUE. If you want more than 5 links, you can subscribe here: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/petervan
UPDATE 28 August 2015: This event has been cancelled.
Please join me for a new kind of event. One, where we won’t be glued to chairs in a ballroom or walking exhibits in a convention center. We’ll be part of an open innovation campus in Sacramento, CA and truly enjoying the culture, music and arts of the city.
The event is INNOVATE @ TBD FEST and it will be held September 17-22, 2015 in Sacramento, California.
Think of it as a business playground to instigate new ideas, inspire new thinking, solve problems, develop creative leadership capacities, new ventures and quantifiable outcomes by interconnecting activists, business innovators and disruptors from around the world. Plus, we’ll also get access to TBD Music, Arts and Culture FEST. It will be a blast.
We have curated, along with some of the most brilliant minds, a Festival for YOU. It’s designed to be a social learning environment that is content-inspired, people–driven, results-oriented and perhaps, most importantly, a capabilities and new business accelerator.
Corporate Rebels United is a movement and a culture grounded in empowering a tribe of enthusiastic protagonists hungry for positive change. Not an anarchist tribe, but a tribe of people who care for the companies they work for and want to activate change.
We celebrate the Corporate Rebels who went the extra-mile: in helping our movement, in completing a hack, in pulling together a value practice, or doing something really awesome in their organization. Sacramento will bring to life the in-person recognition for a Corporate Rebel exposing the sort of behaviors needed to encourage and advance the movement.
Since 2012, Corporate Rebels United organizes a “Rebel Jam”, a 24h online event via WebEx. The last one was held on June 26th. The recordings of all the sessions are now available here (*). Rebel Jam 2015 was a co-production by Corporate Rebels United, Rebels at Work, and Change Agents Worldwide.
And now, for the first time ever, REBELJAM GOES LIVE. On Friday September 18th, we have created a dedicated Pavilion, bringing together our sharpest minds.
This is our call for partipation!
Are you ready to do what hasn’t been done before? Do you have the guts to go on stage, and share your corporate change story with the rest of the world?
Rebels selected to speak will gain a complimentary entry to Innovate @ TBD FEST.
Why should you trust RELEVENTS to produce this event?
RELEVENTS’ founders are rebels with a common cause. They left jobs in established and successful conference, media, and consulting firms and started RELEVENTS because, collectively they believe that there is a better way to produce, engage, and truly activate outcomes from industry events. They blur the lines and solve problems by changing the people in the room. They curate from a collective lens – connecting leaders, generations, brands and markets by keeping them relevant for the future. They create authentic interaction around real issues and prepare leaders for the competition that’s coming.
Their success is measured by what YOU GET OUT not what they put in.
You won’t read about the number of sessions or speakers or brand names. We built our experience on principle and purpose. We invited the world’s foremost change makers to facilitate an open innovation lab in the heart of Sacramento. The focus is on YOU. Not them.
Our At-A-Glance Program is now available to see. We’d love for you to check it out and let us know what you think!
What happens when you work side-by-side with people already changing the world?
You move the needle.
You are forever inspired.
You appreciate constraints.
You learn to overcome obstacles.
You strive for more.
You think differently.
You create new partnerships.
You co-create with early adopters.
You leave with a commitment to do and the network with whom to do it.
Join Us – Rogue Thinkers Welcome!
Early Bird – Save $1,000 when you register before August 6th.
Confirmed Rebel speakers get a free pass for the week.
Any of our rebels signing up as a participant get a Rebel VIP Discount code of 25%. Use my Festival Code VIPVanderAuwera to receive 25% off the published rate. Look forward to seeing you in Sacramento!
If you can’t get enough of these and want more than 5 articles, I have created an extended version of Petervan’s Delicacies in REVUE. If you want more than 5 links, you can subscribe here: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/petervan
If you can’t get enough of these and want more than 5 articles, I have created an extended version of Petervan’s Delicacies in REVUE. If you want more than 5 links, you can subscribe here: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/petervan
For its seventh year, Innotribe at Sibos goes center stage! This translates into two components: first, some our most successful sessions of previous years go to the main stage: the Future of Money session and the Innotribe Startup Challenge Finale. Second, we are building an awesome innovation hub on the exhibition floor, next to the SWIFT stand.
On the outside, the stand is designed as a vibrant networking area, with exhibition demo stations for the Innotribe Startup Alumni and the late stage semi-finalists of the 2015 Innotribe Startup Challenge. And we’ll have the best coffee corner in town with real baristas.
Inside, the stand will host our circular workshop room. It’s already nicknamed as “The Blender” and has a magical 360° projection wall. This is where the majority of our sessions will take place.
As always, we will introduce the latest innovation trends, whilst delivering thought-provoking content designed to challenge perceptions. Together with global professionals from across the field of innovation, Innotribe will explore topics at the center of the financial services industry agenda in payments, market infrastructures, and the corporate landscape.
In a play of words on Kevin Kelly’s book “What Technology Wants”, we have four major themes this year, one theme per day:
Day-1: What Platforms Want
Day-2: What Society Wants
Day-3: What Innovation Wants
Day-4: What Machine Intelligence Wants
Across the four days, we have two big design principles: Millennials and Power Women in Finance who will be an integral part of all sessions in this year’s programme. We just launched two whitepapers to prepare us for Innotribe Sibos:
As you may notice, we put a lot of efforts in ensuring diversity by having different thought leaders joining us in every session: men, women, millennials, investors, accelerators and contrarians. Whirling around the room with the different protagonists like in a real blender, we will create the right mix of topics and speakers and create an interactive environment for our audience. This year we also do special effort to integrate art and music in the overall design of all our sessions.
Next to this, the Finale of this year’s Innotribe Startup Challenge will see the 12 early-stage startups selected during the regional showcases pitching their pioneering products and services.
Innotribe is open to all Sibos delegates willing to drive change and embrace innovation for the benefit of the financial industry, by understanding its trends, opportunities, and challenges: business analysts, product managers, strategists, marketing/branding/innovation managers, transaction bankers, securities managers, corporates, standards experts, payment professionals, investment managers, regulators, policy makers.
If you can’t get enough of these and want more than 5 articles, I have created an extended version of Petervan’s Delicacies in REVUE. If you want more than 5 links, you can subscribe here: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/petervan
Petervan Studios 