This week I read the book The System and Revolution by V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai. In my head I made a link with a previous post I wrote about The Leadership Gap. What Shiva clearly outlines in his book is that there are two sets of goals and what I realized is that these two sets of goals match two types of leadership.
The first set of goals Shiva describes is Power, Control and Profit. These goals clearly match the Dominance Paradigm and specifically the Red Power culture. Current leadership is very much in the Spiral Dynamics Purple Clan like culture and the Red Power like culture.
The second set of goals that Shiva describes is Truth, Freedom and Health. In my mind that matches the Symbiotic Paradigm with a very Turquoise Holistic culture.
As shown in the image above you can see that these two sets of goals represent a huge cultural gap.
How to Bridge the Gap?
Bob Emiliani wrote extensively about Classical Management and Progressive Management. I think that there is a sequence in cultural development steps that Progressive management pursues to bridge the Goal Gap towards Truth, Freedom and Health.
I think the first step is to learn how to base actions on facts and how to create a rigor (Order) in the use of facts. The second phase is learning how to think scientifically. To see the cause and effect relations at work and learn from experiments. This builds an Orange Succes culture. The third fase is to use these skills at scale by extending collaboration and building a Green Community culture. The fourth phase then is to see how everything is connected and influences each other. The need for Systems Thinking will arise to build a true Yellow Synergy culture.
How to Keep the Gap
I think that Classical Management, in their pursuit to defend the goals of Power, Control and Profit, has a whole arsenal of tactics to prevent people to progress in the cultural development steps towards Truth, Freedom and Health.
To prevent Systems Thinking the focus needs to stay on Reductionism and Sub-Optimization. To prevent Collaboration at Scale, Politics is deployed and Greed and Vanity is triggered in individuals. To prevent Scientific Thinking, Censorship and Propaganda is deployed to dull the mind. Asset control will further limit peoples ability to do proper research and get closer to the Truth. To secure Power, Control and Profit, Systemic Control is deployed and Dependency is created.
The Struggle
I think there is a natural tendency for people to pursue Truth, Freedom and Health. To defend the Status Quo, to keep Power, Control and Profit, curve balls need to be thrown. There are dark forces at play to prevent us from knowing the Truth, being Free and being Healthy.
The Truth will set you Free
Question everything and keep looking for the Truth!
Bob Emiliani says
You make an excellent connection and a wonderful analysis! A clearly illustrated and concisely written description of the goals and how the status quo goal of Power-Control-Profit prevents advancement.
Pat boutier says
I like the thinking, and the dynamics, but I sense a flaw within the goal gap. The goal of truth, freedom, health is great, but that alone cannot sustain. Profit, has to be there also, otherwise the others cannot be maintained. That lack will always create friction. So how can your structure be rethought, so one doesn’t have to chose a lack of profit to obtain or pursue the rest?
Emiel van Est says
Hi Pat, Thanks for your input!
Profit is a human construct. Nowhere else in nature you find “businesses” that need to make a “profit”.
I also think that Profit vs Health is at the hearth of the”friction”. Profit accumulates. Health cannot accumulate, but it can disperse.
We are so entrenched in the “for profit” paradigm that it is hard to imagine another way…
Pat Boutier says
Emiel, I find your thought very limiting. For instance in ‘Nature’ the profit motive, is to stay alive! In order to do that, the animals need to proactively find nourishment, sometimes at the expense of others. They seek the continued existence of their species, etc. All of these can be viewed as part of profit seeking within nature. I would add in that natural view, they often do not seek profit in excess, though given certain circumstances they do, at their own peril.
Business desires to continue existence, profit is one way of accomplishing that. Excess in those areas will also eventually fail.
Finally if we want business leaders, owners to embrace concepts we have to include the profit motive. If not, then we lose the majority. If you want your ideas to flourish in business then it has to be connected. Otherwise, its just another flash, that doesn’t last. The managers and workers have seen that over and over.
Emiel van Est says
In nature the motive is to stay alive. It does not seek profit. It seeks enough. There is a seeking of balance. This is obviously in constant flux. There may be an excess in one place and a shortage in another. But these unbalances are quickly corrected.
The main objective of most of the current businesses is to “create shareholder value”. The more profit the better for the shareholders. It is and has been the main objective for business and it is destructive. The wealth distribution is currently soo skewed. The top 1% owns more than the bottom 50%. That is not natural. That is pure greed. See also
Your final point IS the problem. As long as you try to sell to business leaders you are trapped. Lean has long tried to appeal to business leaders. Lean has long tried to include the profit motive. Bob Emiliani’s research clearly shows that this has not worked and will not work. And you are right: “managers and workers have seen that over and over.”
I think we need to explore different approaches. Approaches that benefit the other 99%. Approaches that restore a natural balance.