Well, like everyone else has been saying, and as no surprise to anyone, the Medinge event was once again a great step forward for the group. I am determined to get to the next one!!

I've been otherwise engaged in some very pertinent conversations and sessions recently which has kept me out of touch but in many ways i'm seeing some signs that should be very encouraging to us all.

People are actually taking all of this stuff very much more seriously!!!...

Without breaching any client confidences and genuinely for the first time for some, certain clients body language is actually changing and very positively towards our thinking. I'm sure i'm not the only one but i'm noticing something slightly subtle yet highly important.

They are not smiling quite so patronisingly about values... they are very interested to know how to make them real. They are not looking to the ceiling when I mention trust... they actually seem to snap into the vein of the fact they need to deliver them and they are beginning to understand that this is important.

They are not nodding furiously hoping I will move on to something tangible and asset related- something countable when we question the well being of their employees.

They are not balking at rolling up their sleeves to make the effort to get closer to the employees and find out what irks them, they now want to know how to get real belief systems into the organisation.

And very interestingly...

For the first time in a very long time budgets are starting to get allocated for open spaces, group sessions, more transparent integration of the missions and strategy- more time for quality appreciation of intangibles.

The body language is definitely altering.

There is no doubt that the economy shows signs of improvement. The difference this time round though is that painful lessons would seem to have been learned... or? ... this generation of new leaders has succumbed to the bombardment of people like us telling them that values are not types of paint for covering over past misdemeanours.

We should take a lot of heart from all of this and continue our efforts as I feel there is a real opportunity and just at this time to play our hand and demonstrate the power of our thinking.

Because we can 'deep-dive' the system, articulate it as a collective group, we can visualise the systems, point to high profile cases where corrosion of value has been the downfall ...and... we can prove our work in countless cases, we demonstrate for perhaps the first time a coherent set of tools, expertise and thinking that can be used by corporations and individuals alike to truly value the relationships between real people and the system, the business and the planet.

I'm so glad the body language is changing and with our combined support we may make it permanent.
posted by John Caswell, 7:25 AM  permalink