A note from me

Sorry to say, I’m still struggling at the moment with this healing process. The first area tackled is now pretty well healed, but the healing has just begun for the second major area. People say that patience is a virtue and, if that is the case, I need to be blessed with more of it!  

Hence, there will again be no video to accompany this edition of the Newsletter but, perhaps, I’ll be able to start this practice up again for the next one. I’m not sure whether that is a good prospect for you, or not!

I’m not traveling far at the moment so I don’t risk picking up an infection, so much of my life is currently spent in front of a screen or a book. Not surprisingly, there are regular online meetings, including participating in a full-day Board meeting where I was the only person not physically present on site. It was astonishing how well that worked, so much better than I’ve previously experienced for large meetings held in older offices. The audio-visual set-up in the modern office room where this meeting was held was excellent so I could follow everything going on among the dozen or so people present and participate effectively in the discussions.

Alongside the dry business and current affairs-related reading I do regularly, I am currently relaxing with a series of murder mystery books set in Venice. This is the Commissario Brunetti series written by Donna Leon, with each book combining engaging characters; a sense of the life, traditions and decaying beauty of the city; an absorbing mystery; and thoughtful themes of broader importance. My wife and I read chapters out loud to each other so we have a joint enterprise, can deliberate themes and possibilities and can try out our, frankly unconvincing, pseudo-Venetian accents!

I’ve actually watched three very different recent films in the last two weeks. None of them reach the heights of the films I highlighted in Edition 35 of the Newsletter, but I give each of them a 7 out of 10 on the “Jeremy scale”. They are, indeed, very different. The new “Bridget Jones” film is a rom-com with an underlying reflection on grief; “A Complete Unknown” is a biopic on the early career of Bob Dylan with good performances from Timothy Chalamet and Edward Norton and an outstanding performance from Elle Fanning; and “The Substance” is a body-horror film highlighting the absurdities, ugliness and commercial generation of our modern-day obsession with youthful bodies.

As I noted in the last Newsletter, I guess the collective enterprise of producing a film, distributing it widely, and viewing it in a public space reflects the interplay of private enterprise with a range of different common goods in society. I hope you continue to find these Newsletters currently focused on common goods to be enjoyable and that they help you enrich your own personal or organisational perspectives on building ‘The Common Good’!

My Bi-Weekly Guide

The Common Good – Part 5 (and Art)

In the last Newsletter, 5 specific insights into common good development were highlighted. These included the fact that there are significantly different priorities in different social contexts and that inequality among parties has a significant impact. These challenges need to be addressed in trying to develop common goods. Hence this Newsletter focuses on the mindsets helpful in initiating the type of transformative, cross-boundary collaborations that can generate common goods.

Championing is required to move things forward, but the style of championing needs to be humble in nature if it is to maintain the support, contributions and ongoing efforts of others. The champion needs to get things moving sufficiently and then be willing to fade into the background.

These characteristics remind me of some of the stories of Solon, the Athenian statesman and lawmaker who is credited with laying the foundations for Athenian democracy. On the grounds that Athenian citizens agreed he could help sort out their differences in a peaceful and equitable manner, he seems to have been temporarily awarded autocratic powers as magistrate. He was their champion for establishing laws reflecting and protecting the common good.  

After completing his work of reform, however, Solon surrendered his extraordinary authority to elected officials and traveled abroad for ten years, so that there would be no temptation to drift towards tyranny and the Athenians could not induce him to repeal any of the laws.

During his travels, he met with Croesus, the immensely wealthy Lydian king, and gave him advice, which Croesus failed to appreciate until it was too late. Croesus displayed his wealth and considered himself to be the happiest man alive. However, Solon advised him that no man could be called happy until his life was judged at its end and that humble people were often more content than the wealthiest kings. It was only after Croesus had lost his kingdom to the Persian king, Cyrus, while awaiting execution, that he acknowledged the wisdom of Solon's advice.

Given the moral theme of this story, it became a popular topic for Dutch painters in the 17^th century. The painting below is by Nikolaus Knüpfer and can now be found in the Getty Center in greater Los Angeles. 

This well-composed painting emphasises the wealth and the sumptuous clothing of the king and queen in contrast to the simple garment of Solon. Light is used to highlight both the king and queen on their raised dais and Solon at floor level with servants and functionaries. While the king is pointing to some of his gold belongings, Solon points towards heaven. 

How we would benefit today from leaders with the characteristics attributed to Solon!

As we look at the world around us, it is clear that there is a huge need to defend, maintain and extend the common goods we have already established, and to generate additional ones such as the effective reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.  

As noted in a recent Newsletter, for the framers of the US Constitution, “the only meaningful definition of the common good would be the agreements that emerged from an inclusive political and legislative process to resolve competing interests. They boiled their experience down to a Constitution.” The constitution and accompanying bill of rights both emerged from challenging, tense and contested collaborations among delegates from the different states. They are examples of achieving common goods through transformative, cross-boundary collaborations.

Three previous Newsletters (Newsletter 7 , Newsletter 8  and Newsletter 9) focused on the nature and management of collaborations. This Newsletter adds to this theme by considering the mindsets needed to initiate the types of transformative collaborations that can successfully generate common goods.  

The “building blocks” identified in Newsletter 9 can guide established collaborations, but specific action is needed to get the ball rolling in the first place. Collaborations towards the more challenging end of the spectrum do not emerge naturally from nowhere – attention is required from some initial party. How this is done has a huge impact on the likelihood of the collaboration proving fruitful.

The default approach of most organisations is unhelpful. They place their own agenda and view of the situation at the centre of attention and relate to other parties as a series of stakeholders who can contribute transactionally to that agenda.  This mindset of primary and secondary parties is unhelpful in stimulating rich cooperation and joint learning.

To initiate an effective transformative, cross-boundary collaboration, it is valuable to embrace the following 5 mindsets:

1. Initiator as Champion, Catalyst and Anchor
   An initiator that recognises the potential value of a collaboration among a range of parties needs to take the initial lead in catalysing that awareness more broadly and be prepared to invest resources to do this. At the outset, the initiator is a champion and an anchor party.  

2. The centrality of Learning/Understanding
   For a collaboration to drive transformative change, much learning will be required about both the situation being addressed and the needs/perspectives of all the other parties. An open learning mindset is required for this. This is particularly significant during the initial three stages of the collaboration pipeline highlighted previously, but should continue all the way along. 

3. Pluralism in Convening
   Activity that is truly transformative crosses multiple organisational and societal boundaries. Engaging with the perspectives of multiple parties, and involving them early in the collaboration, will be necessary to understand the full landscape, to build coherent action and to address competing interests.  

4. Topic at the Centre of Attention
   Rather than placing the agenda of the initial champion, or any other party, at the centre of attention, the focus has to remain on the broad topic that has drawn all participants to the collaboration.

5. Initiator as Humble Equal Party, not Superior Leader
   There is a temptation for the initiator to assume the position of lead party in the collaboration and to drive their own agenda. This is toxic to the transformative success of the collaboration which needs to generate joint learning and engage joint action. Instead, an intentionally humble mindset is required from the initiator/champion even if they have expended considerable resources to get the ball rolling. From an early stage, the initiator/champion needs to act, and be seen as, just an equal party among all the participants, with all participants contributing expertise where they are able and resources as necessary. It is a difficult transition for the initiator/champion to move into the background and let others take the lead, but it can be essential to the effective dynamics of the collaboration.

This approach amounts to a paradigm shift in organisational stakeholder management. Instead of putting your own organisation at the centre of attention with bilateral stakeholder engagement, the key topic is explicitly made the centre of attention for all stakeholders and your organisation participates as an equal contributor among others.

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 please 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:

Have you ever seen effective championing of an issue combined with a willingness to move into the background to enable richer collaboration and progress?  How successful was this approach?

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