Earth4All, an international collective of economic thinkers, scientists, and environmental advocates, has posited that the current dominant economic model and its focus on gross domestic product growth is destabilizing our societies and planet. Earth4All describes two possible scenarios the world is heading towards as “Too Little Too Late” and “Giant Leap.” The former depicts a world where societies continue to fail to counter economic, political, and social polarization, food and energy insecurity, climate change, and ecological collapse. The Giant Leap scenario envisions a fundamental reconfiguration of global economic, energy, power, and food systems. But why does “Too Little Too Late” behaviour continue? According to Earth4All, the prerequisite internal dimension of systemic change has been underestimated or ignored by business leaders. Earth4All proposes that leaders move away from a short-term method of dealing with challenges; see humanity as part of nature and recognize interconnectedness; and embrace the need for five turnarounds related to poverty, inequality, gender equity, the food system, and the energy system. The article concludes with various techniques to help individuals and teams develop their inner dimension, including using embodied/mindfulness techniques; redesigning meeting spaces to encourage people to move around; turning off all phones/devices during meetings; and using the UN Inner Development Goals in 360 evaluations and reward and recognition initiatives.
The disruptive potential of artificial intelligence (AI) has been on the minds of many professionals since the public launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. AI is seen as a potential disruptor in areas such as law, science, education, and training—and of decision making at the middle to upper levels of organizations. This article explores how AI (in this case, ChatGPT) might affect the challenges faced by strategists in leading management teams through a key part of strategic planning exercises: scenario planning. Scenario planning is an essential part of any strategic planning exercise. After all, most strategic plans aim to give a roadmap for success in three to five years’ time. As a “case study,” the author used ChatGPT to help him move quickly through the scenario-planning process in order to explore how environmental issues affecting the Canadian mining industry might change in the near future. He started by asking ChatGPT to identify the 20 forces that would shape the environmental issues of the mining industry in Canada in the next three to five years. From this experience, the author learned various lessons. First, ChatGPT can contribute enhanced data and new ideas and can serve as a powerful reality check and challenge to groupthink. Second, ChatGPT can allow us to do things previously unthinkable, but it can also become “the centre of gravity” as opposed to simply a powerful tool used for specific activities. Finally, the value of having teams work together to generate scenarios in messy, sometimes tense conversations cannot be overstated.
One effective technique that a company can use to encourage innovative thinking is to imagine what it might have to do if its assumptions (e.g. about customer needs, costs and product design) are no longer valid — that is, to use “contrarian assumptions.” This article proposes ten no-cost, contrarian ideas that firms and individuals can apply to improve innovation and productivity. 1) Innovation is something everyone should strive for in their products, services and activities. R&D teams may not be needed if innovation targets and key performance indicators are present. 2) A meeting agenda should not feature a list of topics, but a list of questions. 3) Meetings should be held in spaces that encourage innovation, not just in the boardroom. 4) Meetings should be run in a way that suits the specific problem. 5) Three feasible answers should always be proposed for a problem, rather than one. 6) The prevailing assumptions in an industry are only held dear by the current players. 7) Emotion, far from having no place in business, is the root of loyalty, service and gaining buy-in. 8) Perfect certainty cannot be acquired before taking action; hold only three meetings on a specific problem. 9) Reward not only successful innovations, but also successful efforts. 10) Innovation does not come primarily out of research labs.
It is common in the workplace to hear about the need to have more effective meetings. Yet employees still find themselves in meetings that are poorly organized, too long, and resolve little except when to have the next meeting. In breaking down a meeting into its component parts — including considerations of physical space and primary activities — and applying Michael Porter’s organizational value chain model, this author offers constructive steps that will turn meetings into exercises in value creation.
There is risk management as we know it, and then there is CSRisk, as this author defines it, a triad of Creativity, Strategy and Risk Management. As he writes, the development and merging together of these three capabilities will allow CEOs to build globally competitive businesses and rest secure knowing that their exposure is limited to the absolute minimum. Readers will learn how to build a CSRisk capability in this article.