Find Your Voice. Create Culture.
Over the last 16 years or so I have worked with various CEO’s in various industries. Some of them were at the helm of large corporates and others were pioneers of disruptive technology. I have helped them understand the leadership imperative far beyond execution. Our Newtonian world tells us that stuff is more important than being.
But we forget, we are human beings, not human doings. Continue reading “CEO’s Have Only Three Things they Need to Do”
Many people see capitalism and business as evil. …Understandably so. Many leaders in business today are missing the point. Business is there to serve society. The future leader of business needs to be a fulfilled individual if he or she wants to truly lead for good and not greed.
True leaders cannot desire to have Continue reading “The Battle of the Egos”
Earlier this week I spoke to someone that works in a division of a large multi-national company. Things have become rather challenging for them as the corporate culture has taken over. They used to be a smaller family owned operation but was bought as part of a global expansion by the large corporate.
Just this week another measure of control was instituted and everybody expected to comply. After this happened I had a chat with my friend and he said that “we must just wait because when a good company like this makes changes things will improve.”
I asked him to reflect for a moment and indicate whether the changes thus far have brought improvement – a resounding no! Continue reading “Change Brings Improvement. …Not quite!”
Earlier this week I spoke to someone that works in a division of a large multi-national company. Things have become rather challenging for them as the corporate culture has taken over. They used to be a smaller family owned operation but was bought as part of a global expansion by the large corporate.
Just this week another measure of control was instituted and everybody expected to comply. After this happened I had a chat with my friend and he said that “we must just wait because when a good company like this makes changes things will improve.”
I asked him to reflect for a moment and indicate whether the changes thus far have brought improvement – a resounding no! Continue reading “Change Brings Improvement. …Not quite!”
I’d like to pause for a moment and refocus your attention on the focus of Survive to Alive. The main purpose behind the blog is to serve you, the reader, that is interested to learn and grow on a personal level and therefore move from just surviving to living. Perhaps you are already living the life you intend but need some insights into the changing world and the opportunities for sustaining the life you have created – read on!
If you feel you do not need insights, paradigm shifts or growth, you won’t find much value here. But if you are looking for wisdom and a better life in general please read as much as you like and PLEASE give me feedback by either commenting on the post you read or using the contact form.
If you are interested in understanding and learning from the emerging 21st century (or contemporary) economy and business environment you will also find value in what I write. I aim to contextualise the current changes occurring in the world of work, business and the economy specifically. Within this context I focus on the consciousness, motivation, purpose, identity and fear of leaders at all levels. The focus is on assisting leaders at all levels to develop their spiritual intelligence in order to connect themselves, team members and organisations to a higher purpose and accordingly be able to align action to this purpose.
I love working with and writing for individuals, entrepreneurs, startups and small to medium sized businesses because there tends to be more creativity, energy and freedom. I do however have experience in the corporate environment and there are companies out there that are doing some amazing work. In short: Although I prefer to align with entrepreneurs, startups and medium size companies I look for like-minded individuals and groups who seek a deeper life and how this translates into awesome businesses!
What’s your focus? Maybe you need some help with that. …I can help. So, give me shout if you need to have a real conversation (also called coaching) or maybe you need someone to help your team or organisation focus on what really matters – I’m your guy. It’s what I have been doing for the last decade on a personal and professional level.
Go from survive to alive today!
I would bet that you, the reader, is very much aware of all the amazing things happening around us. Things are becoming both more challenging and more beautiful and the most important thing is that we can choose on which side of the divide we want to be.
I speak to various business owners, entrepreneurs and managers on a frequent basis and many of them look at the changing world in disbelief. Either with misplaced self-confidence or perhaps some disdain they look at what the ‘young’ people are trying to do and simply laugh it off. Many times they are concerned about a lack of work ethic and perhaps they do have some ground to stand on. But…
In the face of dramatic disruptive forces such as quantum computing, new media ecology and jobless growth we need to consider a new way of living and breathing that unites timeless wisdom and timeous innovation.
If you are in business, want to have fulfilling work or you are an entrepreneur you cannot ignore what is happening all around you – besides, the best way to predict the future is to create it. So, today I want to give you a bit of a heads-up and introduce you to some of the most exciting developments in society and business in the last 100 years or so. I think you will appreciate this…
Have you heard?! Capitalism is still cool despite all the movements in anger because of what it has done to society. Guys like Said Dawalabani are re-imaging how we can go about the business of economics. Mr Dawalabani is taking on a bold project in the form of Memenomics which is rooted in Spiral Dynamics which has been spearheaded (among others) by Don Beck. The big idea is that we have overlapping levels of development that any society goes through in order to realise their full potential and that as we progress we have the ability to integrate each level in order to create a society that knows how to ebb and flow with challenges according to various groups and levels of development. You will have to explore more for yourself…
If you are interested to know how this could potentially impact your business then you will need to read the work of Frederic Laloux that focus on purpose, holism and self-management. Oh! And he has included various case studies that shows it works.
I’m gonna stop there for now but there are quite a few more groups and individuals that are either doing similar or related work. The point is there is definitely a wave of change upon us. Surf’s up!
For 7 years I have been writing this blog – At times it has been more frequent than others. It started out as a project to connect with friends and family, develop my writing skills and share ideas and insights.
I have also focused much more on intrapersonal issues and related this to broader issues in society. On a journey where I have refined my understanding and skill relating to change, innovation and leadership that has lasted roughly 14 years so far I have been privileged to learn about myself and the world we all live in. From the beginning of this blog I have considered the possibility of it becoming more. I have a passion for writing but also for instigating change and challenging leaders to take up their role irrespective of position or title. I dream of a world where more people get rid of the burdens that they take onto themselves due to societal influences, their own beliefs or other references that they might have built up and therefore create unnecessary rules that govern their happiness.
These rules that govern each of us creates a barrier hindering the possibility of true transformation that each of us has on an intrapersonal, inter-personal and organisational level.
This is a world of plenty, not of scarcity; possibility, not impossibility. I want to connect with individuals that dare to dream in the same way and create a movement where those on the margins of society and on the margins of freedom can be included in an endeavour that helps to bring about a changed paradigm for the 21st century society. …A society that revolves around purpose, people and meaning.
I know there are many of you asking critical questions around your family, job, business, environment and the rest of society. The first step is to start talking the same language and then from collective meaning start to focus efforts on targeted areas by connecting and collaborating. This is where this blog will play a greater role in the future. It will become much more of an integrated platform where individuals and organisations can tap into in order to join a discussion as well as coordinate actions leading to greater positive impact.
I am moving the blog into a more productive and focused mode as part of a greater service offering from my side. I will continually keep writing but also be exploring other tools and avenues of facilitating movement of hearts and minds towards a greater interdependent force for good.
I will be using the term connectedness to describe this movement, but more on that in following posts…
As I develop this I will be connecting with some of you directly in order to understand the need and perhaps craft the most appropriate approach that will be more targeted and effective. At times I will be focusing more on the South African situation, but I will also be writing with an international audience in mind.
I hope to see as many of you joining me on this journey going from survive to alive!
A few times on this blog I have written about the importance of knowing yourself. Sometimes I feel like I have even been a bit of a stuck record.
The last few weeks I have however been picking up books, reading highlights from my professional networks and talking with people who have all indicated the same thing: the biggest change that is happening is that we will have to develop the relationship with ourselves if we want to change the world.
This, in other words, is indeed a delicious paradox. It is juicy and rich in substance: Stop trying to change the world, change yourself if you want to change the world. …It is hard enough anyway!
In my previous post I clarified the purpose of the blog and also clarified the two core terms of survive and alive. I therefore see this blog as a place where the new challenge of the 21st century economic environment, i.e. how much you pay for the food in your grocery store, how expensive your house is and how to take of yourself when you retire or provide for your children in the future, is directly connected with the internal life that we lead. It becomes economics based on how aware I am.
From personal experience I can attest to the challenges of deep inner change that results in peace. I believe it is only from this place of peace where the correct desires can be cultivated which results in the kind of behaviour that impacts our economic choices on a global level.
This is hard! It is hard because of noise. It is the clacking of keyboards, tweeting, liking, chirping, snapping cacophony that is designed to make us buy, buy, buy that keeps us from facing our fears. Stop rushing, running speeding and fleeing. Start sitting, focusing, re-centering and realigning to what is really important. Do you know what is really important to you?
Do you survive or are you alive?