A note from me

Hi Folks,

What has interested you in the past couple of weeks? I have been continuing to recover from the U.S. election and considering plausible alternative pathways from here. I’ve also been disappointed by the recent decision by President Biden to give an unconditional pardon to his son who was set to face sentencing this month on gun and tax convictions. While there may well have been political influence in pursuing the convictions in the first place, this action simply reinforces the suspicion that the powerful are above the law and this further undermines confidence in the legal processes and institutions that underpin our democracies. In this way, our societies risk slipping further down the slippery slope towards disorder.

I also contributed to an online conference, Energy2024, which brought together fascinating insights and experience on energy-related matters from around the world. I gave a keynote in which I covered “Why Scenarios?”, lessons from looking over the wide range of available energy scenarios, and what people should really be doing now. For those interested, here is a link to the recording.

YouTube - Scenarios and Wise Decisions

Mary and I went to see the film “Conclave” which entered my list of top 3 films of the year, alongside “All of Us Strangers” and “Emila Perez”. The Film is directed by Edward Berger and features fine, subtle and moving  performances from Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, Isabella Rosselini and others. It centres on the election of a new Pope, and is a fascinating piece dealing with human nature, doubt, theology, politics, ethics and ambiguity. My only criticism is that the musical score was a little too intrusive for my taste although I know some critics have raved about it.  

The Catholic Church is a fascinating institution with a very long history, and it has proven to be remarkably resilient over centuries. It has actually reinvented itself several times in the face of many external and internal pressures, though it may currently seem on the surface to be locked into some sort of medieval time warp. We will see if it succeeds in evolving further to remain an influential force in the 21^st century.  

Resilience and Transformation are, in fact, the topics for this edition of the Newsletter, which is part of a series of editions on the subject of resilience.

I hope you find these materials enjoyable and that they help you build your own personal or organisational resilience!

My Bi-Weekly Guide

Transformative Resilience (and Art)

On our recent trip to Venice, I found a new artist to fall in love with. I had heard of Veronese, but I didn’t know his works and was only familiar with Titian and Tintoretto from the Venetian Renaissance period. While it wasn’t supposed to be on our tour, a few of us broke away from our group to slip into the Church of San Sebastiano. The interior is almost completely covered in works by Veronese, and I found it breathtaking. So I thought I’d choose a painting by Veronese to highlight today.

Given the “transformation” theme for this edition, I initially thought of his “Wedding at Cana” which portrays Christ transforming water into wine. This is, however, now in The Louvre in Paris so I decided on “The Feast in the House of Levi” which is still in Venice, now at the Gallerie dell’ Accademia.  

While the story of Levi covers his transformation from tax collector to disciple, the history of this painting, itself, reflects a significant transformation. Originally it was commissioned to portray the Last Supper as a replacement for a painting by Titian of the same subject that perished in a fire.  Times changed politically, however, between its commissioning and completion. 

At the outset, the taste for such a huge canvas was to fill the space with colourful characters around the central focus. However, with the coming of the Inquisition, a Tribunal declared it to be a blasphemous portrayal of that sacred biblical scene given the addition of “buffoons, drunken Germans, dwarfs and other such scurrilities”.

Veronese was ordered by the Holy Tribunal to change his painting within a three-month period. Instead, he simply changed the title to “The Feast in the House of Levi”, another episode from the Gospels, but one which specifies that "sinners" were present. He also added an inscription on the painting linking the location to the house of Levi.   

Through this smart transformation in just the title, the rich and wonderful original work of the artist was preserved for everyone to enjoy. Hence, indeed, this painting could also be considered an illustration of transformative resilience!  

More generally, and seriously, I believe it is useful to reflect on the following 5 features of transformative resilience for organisations:

1. Room to Manoeuvre: 

   In Edition 30 of the Dodo Club Newsletter, two archetypal alternative pathways from disruption or crisis were introduced – “Trapped Transition” and “Room to Manoeuvre”.  By definition, transformation involves avoiding becoming trapped. Having room to manoeuvre depends on having sufficient access to reserves of key resources. Depending on the circumstances, these may be financial, material, intellectual or social resources, and frequently all of these are called for.
   

2. Distributed Governance:
   The ability to adapt and transform as external circumstances shift requires distributed signals and actions from across organisations, with individual elements acting coherently but also being able to act independently as necessary. Rigid hierarchies often bring organisational rigidity, with leadership separated from where key actions may be required. Polycentric governance is much more suitable for complex and ambiguous tasks and decisions, enabling dynamic reorganisation.
   

3. Foresight Orientation:
   Engaging with the time dimension is critical to transformation. There is a need to grapple in advance with potential future events and emerging threats, and to embrace uncertainty. Scenario and systems thinking are hugely valuable in this, as introduced in Edition 2 of the Dodo Club Newsletter. Lessons from such explorations should feed into wise decision-making and spur transformative development when necessary.
   

4. Innovation & Experimentation:
   Transformation means creating something “new”. Sustainably generating new possibilities requires a culture of self-renewal, learning from difficulties and actively seeking opportunities. This increases the stock of future options and decision points available to an organisation, and adds to the resources an organisation can draw on under stress. 
   

5. Resistance to Status-quo Biases:
   A huge array of human biases trap people, and hence also organisations, in a status-quo mindset. For example, biases towards aversion to loss over potential gain, towards anchoring, and towards present saliency. In addition, our comfortable, default mode of thinking can be described as reacting quickly to patterns and templates generated from past experiences rather than reflecting in depth on new and unfamiliar possibilities. In the language of behavioural economist Dan Kahneman, we prefer “thinking fast” over “thinking slow”. 

Conscious efforts and intentional investments are required to move beyond these biases and drive transformation when changes in external circumstances make this necessary. The difficulty in this should not be underestimated. The company Kodak once dominated global photography, and had the scale, finance, brand domination and even the foresight and its own internal digital camera development to be able to respond to the digital photography era. However, it underestimated the pace of change and could not free itself from its organisational biases and self-identification as a chemicals company. It quickly slipped into insignificance as the era unfolded. 

An opportunity for you do some more learning:

If you would like to learn more about the kinds of topics covered in these newsletters, then consider signing up to the introductory Dodo Club Online Course. This covers scenario/systems thinking for grappling with uncertainty, an introduction to energy transitions, and the development of strategic character in leadership.

A series of follow-up courses that treat the main topics in increasing detail will be provided if there is sufficient interest.

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:

Once more, is resilience a characteristic of your personal life or your organisation that you think about and, if so, how do you approach enhancing it and the trade-offs this involves?

Join The Dodo Club

The Dodo Club is Waiting!

The Dodo Club is my FREE online community, built for collaboration, learning and mutual support.

In the interest of avoiding the fate of that unfortunate bird, the dodo, this community aims to help us secure our own personal legacies and to leave a healthier planet for future generations.

You can have access to monthly LinkedIn webinars, Q&A sessions and weekly posts discussing some of the most pressing issues of today. You will also be given the opportunity to access original learning material, and 1 on 1 coaching sessions with myself.

To be a part of the discussion and to have your voice heard, please do follow along below!