Dutch filmmaker and artist Frans Hofmeester filmed his daughter, Lotte, every day from birth to age 12. They do grow up fast—in under three minutes, in this case.
Following on from our message last year (thanks Michelle for finding Tim Minchin's astounding song 'White Wine in the Sun'!), I wanted to find another good Australian song for your Christmas gift.
The new challenges organisations are facing are not just getting more complicated; they are getting more complex and game changing. The capacity to deal with complexity is critical to assist leaders to make sense of advancing technology, fast changing markets, globalisation, cultural change, shifting power and polticis to survive and thrive into the future.
This is a saying that I have heard many times, but until recently have not
really felt or understood. You see, my Dad died about 7 weeks ago. I thought I
was prepared (as I had the luxury of time to know it was coming), had completed
a course on forgiveness and compassion, but nothing had prepared me for what
has happened since. It feels like having a baby; nothing really prepares you
for the emotional journey of being a parent.
Lima takes us on a rapid scan of the way that we have thought about what we know and how historically we have imposed a particular hierarchical organisation onto our world so we could understand it simply. His recognition of our use of the tree metaphor, highly structured and hierarchical, to make meaning of the world around us for thousands of years is insightful, particularly in that it indicates how ingrained that way of thinking is in our education, language and culture.
The following is an excerpt from an article written by John D. Schmidt for Kosmos in 2007. Rather than adapt his words we are quoting him directly; he writes eloquently and succinctly and Accelerated Evolution's approach to leadership and strategic development of organisations and people is essentially the same.
We thought the brief talk by Eckhart Tolle was a nice adjunct.
Enjoy.
The purpose of life is...to know oneself. We cannot do so unless we learn to identify ourselves with all that lives. Mohandas K. Gandhi
"2011 was a year of global tumult, marked by widespread social and
political uprisings, economic crises, and a great deal more. We saw the
fall of multiple dictators, welcomed a new country (South Sudan),
witnessed our planet's population grow to 7 billion, and watched in
horror as Japan was struck by a devastating earthquake, a tsunami, and a
nuclear disaster.
Most
change efforts fail not because they are ill conceived but because at the
centre of those efforts is an implicit and unrecognised requirement that people
behave in ways associated with higher levels of thinking”[1]
Bob Anderson.
Have a look at this video. While we are not specifically endorsing the politics or views of the authors, they usefully describe several elements people require to productively and creatively respond to changes in their (social, economic and ecological) environment. A business or an organisation is in most ways analogous to a community. While they generally have different political and power structures, both are 'strategic' systems; they exist for a purpose. Most of the elements that are requirements for creating resiliant communities are also required for robust businesses.
