The Dodo Club: The Countdown Begins

Before we dive into this week’s newsletter, I’m delighted to announce that The Dodo Club community will be going live in 2 weeks, on Wednesday 24th of April!

This community is the result of months of hard work, and a lot of time and effort, so I’m so excited to be able to share it with you.

Thanks to your feedback, I’m certain that this community will be a valuable resource and I look forward to sharing some insightful conversations and productive discussions with all of you future Dodo Clubbers.

Further details and the link to join the community are at the bottom of this newsletter.

See you there!

A note from me

Do you ever get a feeling that you are involved in quite a lot of things but you are not quite sure where they are all going or whether they will come to fruition?

I’ve just had a couple of weeks that have felt a little like that.  

On request, I’ve been commenting on the Sustainability Report of one of the world’s largest companies, but I don’t know to what extent my advice will be taken on board or whether it will ultimately guide the company into more effective and environmentally-protective business operations. Sometimes you just have to hope that your efforts, along with those of others, will make a difference. My wife used to describe me as a barnacle on the rudder of the powerful company where I spent most of my career, slowly but steadily affecting the direction it took. Perhaps the Barnacle, along with the Dodo, will be another good symbol for our Club and Newsletter!

Speaking of The Dodo Club, in two weeks we will see the next step in its formation as we introduce a weekly webinar and a full website for full members of the community. So this is, at least, one development that is coming to fruition! The foundation course on Scenario/Strategic Thinking and Energy Transitions will also be available from the website, as will be the opportunity to participate in Roundtable discussions. I hope this will be of interest to many of you and, of course, early members will have a particular impact on the direction the club takes and the topics covered. To keep the Club sustainable, there will be modest membership fees to cover costs but people who sign up early will be able to benefit from discounts.  

This will continue to be a community for those wishing to learn from the experience of others, and to share their own experiences, in ensuring that neither they, nor their organisations or teams, go the way of the unfortunate dodo bird. With this in mind, I thought a valuable topic for this Newsletter would be Developing Community, which can also be one of the topics for discussion at our first webinar on Friday. 

My Bi-Weekly Guide

Develop Community: 5 Considerations

We have been considering the attributes of strategic character over the past series of Newsletters. Although I am not a historian, in some future editions of the Newsletter, I intend to select a few leaders from history and consider them through the lens of strategic character we have developed. I hope those of you who have more historical knowledge than I do will contribute to this!

While the notion of character is usually applied to an individual, I believe it can also be applied to a group. It is my hope that the Dodo Club will develop a strong strategic character, demonstrating scenario/strategic thinking, humility, curiosity, creativity, collaboration, courage, commitment, patience, persistence and a sense of purpose.  

We will be trying to build a community, which implies a common interest and even, I hope, an interest in pursuing the common good. No doubt, this will begin somewhat unevenly as we begin to get used to our IT platform and build our relationships, but I am confident that, with persistence, we will build something all members will appreciate. 

Good relationships are at the heart of any developing community. The five key factors found to be present in all strong relationships, either personal or institutional, have been well highlighted by the Relationships Foundation  (https://relationshipsfoundation.org/). With some reference to developing the Dodo Club community, these are: 

1. Directness or Intensity:

   We develop stronger relationships with people we interact with intensely rather than with those with whom we have only a fleeting or distant transaction. The relationship we develop with a midwife preparing us for parenthood or a doctor treating us for a serious chronic condition will generally feel deeper than our relationship with someone at the supermarket check-out counter.

   For the Dodo Club, I hope that our treatment of serious issues, and our authenticity in sharing experiences, will fairly quickly strengthen this dimension of our community relationships.

2. Continuity:
   There is an important time dimension in relationships. This is as much about continuity or regularity of contact as it is about the duration of the relationship.  I lived in a different country to my elderly parents, but the knowledge that I would give them a telephone call every Sunday evening was an important factor in maintaining good, deep relationships even if there was nothing much to report every week.

   For the Dodo Club, we will now supplement the fortnightly Newsletter with a weekly webinar when all full members are encouraged to contribute, and eventually with ongoing discussion channels.  

3. Multiplexity:
   One-dimensional relationships will always struggle to be as strong as multi-dimensional ones built on several types of connections. This is one of the reasons why companies have often encouraged the development of recreational facilities, sports clubs, and even collective vacation arrangements. These were intended to help build multi-dimensional relationships among staff and boost loyalty to each other, thereby also boosting loyalty to the company.

   In the Dodo Club, there will be opportunities for multiple levels of interaction with other members and myself, on a whole range of topics.

4. Parity:
   Disparities in power between parties always makes healthy relationships difficult.  We all know how frustrating it can be to deal with a large organisation as an individual making a complaint or even simply trying to get something done that is non-standard. There is a reason why “big business” is generally disliked or why relationships with autocratic supervisors or team-leaders are often difficult or unhealthy, and that is because there is a large difference in power between the parties involved. Smart large companies try to overcome this by enabling and empowering their client-facing staff to act as if part of a small local company when appropriate,  while also being able to demonstrate the greater power of the whole company when dealing with equally powerful counter-parties.

   In the Dodo Club, I will continue to play an anchor role, but the contributions, authority and energies of others will be both celebrated and encouraged, and the directions taken by the club will be shaped collectively.

5. Commonality:
   A broad alignment in expectations, hopes or purpose is a feature of strong relationships, and hence strong communities.

   I believe that everybody who joins the Dodo Club will have some alignment around ensuring that neither they, nor their organisations or teams, go the way of the unfortunate dodo bird. Members will be interested in grappling with radical uncertainties, developing stronger strategic character, making wise decisions, and promoting common goods that are in their own broader self-interests.

Question of The Fortnight

Every fortnight I’ll be asking a thought-provoking question in hopes of sparking interesting and enlightening discussion.

I’d love to hear your response! You can do so by simply responding to this email.

Today’s question is:

What would you like the Dodo Club to be like and what suggestions do you have for its development from here?

Join The Dodo Club

I’ve finally built The Dodo Club.

Why? Because we all want to avoid the fate of that unfortunate bird. And by sharing some of the insights I’ve picked up over my four decade long career - including as Head of the Shell Scenarios team - I’m going to help you do exactly that.

We have built a space where we can have interesting and enlightening discussions on relevant topics that can have genuine impact.

I will be hosting live, interactive seminars, run forums on relevant topics, and create a bank of materials that can be drawn from in times of uncertainty.

Our first weekly members’ seminar takes place this Friday, April 26th, at 2PM GMT.

I will be sharing more details and specifics over the coming weeks so stay tuned!

Thank you all so much for your constructive feedback and kind words so far, I can’t wait to share what I’ve been working on with you all.

See you at the Dodo Club!