Hi 

 

Thank you for being a reader of Transition Edge. Please feel free to forward it to friends who you think might enjoy it too.

 

I’m Grant Symons. I convene Transition Edge to help us understand how we can transition to a low carbon sustainable world using leading thinking and practices.

 

A few years ago every other business magazine or online article referred to automation being a huge threat to the average workers job. Whether you were flipping burgers, driving a truck or doing basic journalism or legal research, you were going to be moved on by automation, artificial intelligence or the miracle of spectacular productivity gains, usually delivered via brutal job cuts and restructuring. Boards of directors and shareholders don't care how - they just expect more.

 

The reality at the moment is that people are leaving traditional jobs in droves and of their own choice. They are either retiring or they have had enough of the conditions they are working in. There are many great employers and bosses out there, but across the globe millions of people are changing careers, where they work, or dropping out of the workforce altogether. 

 

It seems there are a variety of factors at play. The working population is now shrinking naturally, in the developed world, as the baby boomer population retires, and there are those that are checking out for reasons like:

• They are over the boss or culture
• They get paid poorly for long hours
• Stress affects their health
• The organisation tells lies about being sustainable
• The organisation is destroying the environment or making peoples lives miserable
• Discrimination relating to gender, race, age
• Customers are troubled, stressed and volatile
• The boss and shareholders are squeezing the system to death

 

The bad news for the kind of organisations that are being found out and cannot change to the changing world, is that their show is coming to an end (and good riddance!).

 

We hope that what is their loss is a wonderful new opportunity for a new cast, a new production, a new type of show.

 

So, what would a future A-Team performance look like and who would feature? If we had to create new teams that thrived in the emerging future, what abilities and strengths would be needed?

 

Our thoughts...

 

 

There is no substitute for proper problem formulation and problem solvers are lost in this domain, sometimes found solving the wrong problem. The artistic soul can naturally express what could or should be and the gap to be reconciled or the awfulness to be exposed. They might struggle over and over to create the picture, the story and the new object that breaks ingrained thinking or ideology. Sometimes it comes freely as if it had be waiting to be born for years and when it is done they become bored and restless. At this moment, enter the problem solver, engineer, pragmatist - the stage is yours to deliver the solution!

 

Those that are deeply sensitive, struggling or traumatised by the absurdity of the current system - have a role to play in shaping the story. Handicapped physically or mentally, or forced by everyday life to struggle and battle a way forward, they are the ones that understand the changes needed. There is no-one else who can know how hard it is. They feel and sense a reality that most of us cannot or ever will, and we are better for having their wisdom woven in to the plot and our practices. They teach us what to appreciate. 

 

Onstage - Backstage  

There is always leadership and apprenticeship. Sometimes it needs to be felt and sometimes it is better left to the imagination or out of sight. The show can't happen without individual moments of brilliance, grinding teamwork and mistakes that deepen understanding and wisdom. You might be a leading light out front or you might be content with knowing that the show couldn't have happened without the support crew. No one gets to the top of Everest without base-camp. Everyone who gets there knows that.

 

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Here at Transition-HQ we think a lot about the future, what will matter next year, the year after and beyond.  How will people organise themselves, transform their ways of working or even transform themselves along the way? Our passion and journey is uncovering and working with these truths and we are making progress. We hope you join us.

 

One of our course students had this to say recently:

 

 

More kind words here

 

 

This weeks quote