Blog written by Sarah Gillard, CEO of a Blueprint for Better Business (10-15 min read) 

Blueprint’s diagnosis of the context we are in: 

We – the human race living on a fragile, and as far as we know, unique planet – are facing a number of very significant problems. Just to list a few  – climate crisis, biodiversity loss, social inequality, polarisation, lack of trust in institutions, the mental and physical health crisis… and soon the challenges posed by ever more powerful tech and AI….. Our diagnosis, and we are by no means the first or the only ones to reach this conclusion, is that these problems are the symptoms of a paradigm that has designed an economy to be optimised for economic growth.  

This paradigm (which I’ll call paradigm 1) came about under the assumption that economic growth would inevitably lead to an increase in human wellbeing so could be used as an acceptable proxy, and indeed over the last 50 years, in many countries around the world,  there have been enormous improvements –  in average living standards and life expectancy, huge reductions in child mortality, higher crop yields, better access to safe drinking water, fewer people living in extreme poverty… and possibly greater international economic co-operation and interdependence resulting in fewer wars….). Life has got significantly better for the vast majority of people in the world – driven in large part by economic success and financial prosperity.  

Everyone in a leadership position today, particularly in Western economies, has developed their skills and capabilities in this context – largely stable and improving economic and societal conditions and an extraordinary period of growing financial prosperity. 

So paradigm 1 has delivered growth and prosperity for many… but not all. And the context in which paradigm 1 has existed is beginning to shift quite dramatically.  

We all know the future is becoming increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous – (the VUCA world). The global challenges we face, as well as the game-changing potential of AI, are creating destabilizing, interconnected and unpredictable shifts. The only thing we really know about the future is that it’s increasingly unlikely to look like the past. 

No doubt there will be some positive effects of these shifts, however, what is increasingly apparent is that the negative effects or externalities of paradigm 1 from an environmental and societal perspective have now grown to a scale that is existentially threatening to the long term wellbeing of people and planet.  

From climate change and biodiversity loss to extreme inequality, political instability and social unrest – these challenges are too great to be successfully managed by the current way of thinking.  

The system of clearly defined roles that most of us in Western economies have been living in – the one where government sets the rules, business aims to maximise financial returns whilst operating within those rules, and non-profits and NGO’s highlight and address issues of market or government failure – the system that has worked relatively well for decades – is unlikely to work in the future.  

The challenges faced by humanity are too complex, too interconnected, moving too fast with consequences that are too profound to submit to simple answers and the hope that someone, somewhere, has not only a plan but the ability to steer us towards a better future.  

Even the term ‘better future’ is beginning to sound hopelessly idealistic. When you picture the future, in, say 30 years time,  what do you see? If you get your inspiration from watching a film or reading a novel set in the near future, i.e. within our lifetimes, let alone that of the next generation, it is more often than not a future that does not look that attractive for people and the planet – and is often horrifically dystopian.  

Even if images of the future don’t conjure up the worst case scenarios of environmental devastation and mass human misery, there is a growing awareness that the path we are on is unsustainable and that something fundamental needs to change. 

That sounds pretty dire – is it unique? 

It is tempting to believe that this generation is facing unprecedented challenges. So it’s always useful to look back in history at times when others have faced what seemed to be overwhelming difficulties, and then nick an inspiring quote from around that time from some wise person. I chose this one from Abraham Lincoln –  

 “The dogmas of our quiet past are insufficient for our stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.” 

We’ve faced difficult times before, and to get through them we had to think anew, and act anew. Attempts to solve these problems in the existing paradigm are failing, and will inevitably fail, because a focus on short term financial metrics will almost always rule out the fundamental shifts that are needed to not just reduce the worst of the symptoms, but get to the root cause of the problems.  

Our current understanding of how the economic system works and should work is simply not going to be able to produce effective solutions in time to prevent extremely damaging outcomes.   

The invisible hand of the free market in its current form – even with extraordinary technological advances – will not act at the scale and pace needed. Government and regulation cannot act fast enough either, or anticipate all the unintended consequences of profit-maximising firms acting in their own self-interest at the global scale that many of them now have… just think how the next few years of AI might develop. NGO’s, civil society and civilians also cannot act in isolation at the scale and pace required.  

Under paradigm 1, we simply lack the mechanisms to deal with this many interconnected, complex and rapidly evolving crises.  

So, even as useful efforts to change regulation, shift the focus of investors, measure ESG criteria, discuss the mechanics of a carbon tax and hundreds of other initiatives can incrementally help shift the trajectory of the current paradigm (and by the way, we must do all of these things), we must, at the same time, attempt to imagine an entirely new paradigm – one that can produce the solutions to these massive challenges, because it is designed to do so. 

Imagining a new paradigm, (let’s call it paradigm 2), will require lots of different perspectives and fundamental shifts across a number of systems e.g.  financial, political, legal, social, health, education, transport, built environment, land use, food, energy etc. etc.  Almost all of these will involve the public, private and social sectors,… and if each of those sectors approaches these shifts with the traditional mindsets of paradigm 1, it is unlikely… probably impossible… that new solutions will emerge…– ultimately consigning us to some version of a dystopian future of extreme climate change and human misery. 

Another quote from someone who is often credited with creating paradigm 1, so perhaps can provide inspiration for how to create paradigm 2 – Milton Friedman:  

“Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.” 

Our age of polycrisis demands significant action, so it would probably be useful to make sure there are some good ideas lying around. 

What might be needed?  (or…how on earth do you shift a paradigm?) 

The role that Blueprint plays is to help business leaders and those who support them carve out the time and space to think creatively and courageously about the potential of a new paradigm, the role they want to play as individuals in shaping a different future, the role they imagine their organisation could play, and what it would take to shift the underlying beliefs and assumptions of their organisations so they can play that role and unlock greater potential for individuals, organisations and society as a whole.  

We believe change happens through societal norms shifting, and ‘social contagion’ is the most effective way of shifting norms. The more people think and talk about something that starts as an idea, the more likely it is to become possible.  

As a charity, we work mainly with leaders of large businesses. For almost all leaders in business, the awareness of the need for a fundamental rethink is growing. The demands of stakeholders to do something differently – from employees, from customers, from regulators, investors and NGO’s – are growing louder. The days where a business leader could focus purely on delivering financial results within the law and ignore all the other impacts of the business – positive or negative – are ending. Those that try to do so are increasingly finding it harder to maintain a narrative that attracts talent, investment and loyalty.  

The expectations are higher, and they are plentiful. Leaders are facing, and in many cases genuinely trying to respond to, calls to monitor, measure and improve their impact on people and planet – and are often experiencing ‘initiative overwhelm’ in doing so. This overwhelm is another symptom of trying to create solutions to new challenges in paradigm 1, often in businesses that were created for a different world, where optimizing for efficiency was a good strategy, but a terrible one for a disrupted world where what you really need is a clear purpose, innovation, adaptability and strong, trusted relationships with your stakeholders.  

So leadership in any organisation is an increasingly complex and demanding role, under increasing levels of transparency and scrutiny. The boundaries of the leader’s role are expanding and blurring – just keeping on top of the inbox when your diary is packed with back to back meetings can feel impossible, let alone thinking about the state of the world and how to shift entire paradigms.  Perhaps it seems a bit much to ask.  Can’t we all just focus on doing a good job for ourselves and our organisations, and hope that the future takes care of itself? 

Well… 

A better future may be possible, but it won’t happen without intention and action. As Einstein said – you cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that created it. Humans have the ability to think and act in self-interested, individualistic ways, and community-oriented, collaborative ways. Studies of human behaviour in extreme conditions – from Victor Frankl in Auschwitz to Rutger Bregman’s analysis of groups in all sorts of contexts and cultures, demonstrate that we can respond in radically different ways – choosing competitive self-preservation or collaborative collective flourishing.  Both are possible, neither are inevitable, and, in the long run, the collaborative route tends to have better outcomes for the health of the whole system.  

We saw both ends of this behaviour spectrum during the pandemic, and we will see both in future challenges. We are both self-interested individuals and meaning-seeking members of communities. Which behaviours will predominate as we face an uncertain future?  

It depends on what our leaders call to in us. It depends on who we choose to follow. It depends on what we choose to call to in ourselves.  

It is not binary. We all have choices, and we make different choices at different times, depending on circumstances. And no doubt there will always be free-loaders who will always act selfishly and benefit at the expense of others, just as there will always be people who go beyond what seems possible to serve the wider community.  Knowing this, it is unlikely we will ever get to either total utopia or total dystopia.  

However, right now, where we are on the spectrum between one and the other, for generations to come, will to a large extent depend upon the choices made by leaders today. Because of the advances in technology, transparency, real-time data collection and our interconnected world, this generation of leaders will be able to see the consequences of their decisions on people and planet in a way no other generation of leaders has experienced. They won’t be able to not see it. 

So, as a leader, it’s worth spending some time thinking about how you want to reflect on the role you played in shaping our collective future. 

A reimagining of leadership 

That’s why we believe a reimagining of leadership is needed. A different way of being, thinking and acting that can shape a future that supports the wellbeing of all people and planet.  

And now is the time to find a new way. We’re in the last months of 2024, which means we have 5 years left of the ‘decisive decade’. 5 years before the 2030 target for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. And, by some estimates, perhaps 5 years of exponential growth in AI before we reach the point where humans are no longer actively making the majority of decisions about our lives – because we will have delegated those decisions to a higher intelligence than ours.  

We are in a liminal period – the old is dying and the new is trying to emerge. It’s an enormous responsibility to be a leader at this time, and an enormous opportunity. Every generation of leaders faces some form of existential reckoning – this is ours. The decisions made in the next 5 years – by us as citizens and leaders across the public, private and social spheres, are likely to shape the lives of generations to come.  

And leaders of large organisations have a particularly significant opportunity and responsibility. Large organisations are the most effective way of organizing resources, catalysing innovation and collaborating to achieve solutions to problems or generate extraordinary breakthroughs. The scale and power of large organisations shapes our lives and shapes the world we live in, for better or worse, whether they actively intend to or not. 

In this way, there is no neutral option, no neutral decision. Every decision will have an impact.   

We could try and stick with the old model – relying on regulation to limit harmful impacts and encouraging business to maximise profits within the law – and hope that will create a world with clean air, a healthy, biodiverse planet, and lives of dignity and flourishing for all humanity, supported by useful and safe artificial intelligence. It seems like a big gamble.  

Or we could imagine a new way – one where the collective power of business, government and civil society is directed at solving our greatest challenges in pursuit of the common good and human dignity, generating financial prosperity and other forms of value as a result. In this new paradigm, organisations are built on trust and collaboration, working with each other and adapting to disruption to find new ways to better serve society. 

What will it take? 

We are not there yet. Not by a long way. There are huge challenges in the transition – how do leaders build the legitimacy, the accountability and the levels of transparency needed to earn the trust to act in this way? How do they navigate a highly politicized world that is increasingly polarized and febrile? How do they overcome the inertia of those who want to stick to the old paradigm, hoping it will continue to work in a very different future? How do they do all this whilst keeping an organization financially viable in increasingly turbulent conditions? 

These are enormous questions – for individual leaders, for organisations, and at a systemic level. No-one has all the answers, but there are many people who are working to find them. People who believe that a better way is possible, and see their role is to explore, with others, what it might look like. People who are engaging with the complexity – who don’t ignore it, but aren’t paralysed by it either. People who recognize that simply responding to the challenges thrown at them – keeping the lights on and coping with the turmoil- is a necessary response but not a sufficient one – they must also work to shape the future and address the conditions or root causes that are creating the challenges, or those that are keeping the status quo in place.  

These are enormous questions, and for many in leadership positions today, perhaps no-one will ask them those questions directly. They could probably excel in their job, be rewarded with promotions and titles and money and status, be seen to be a leader by many, many people… and not address any of these questions. 

As long as they deliver their individual and organisational objectives within the letter of the law, it’s all good. And a purely rational person might stop there. Many do. Others recognize that change is required but ask “what is the minimum I or we need to do to maintain a reasonable sense of security for me and my organization over the next few years – i.e. within my tenure here.” 

But, hopefully, more and more leaders feel there may be more to it than that. That they want to lead not just for their own success or even that of their organization, but in service of us all, and our collective future. We call people like that system leaders, and we are learning some things about them:  

  • They see the larger system and all its complexity, and are driven by a profound commitment to the health of that whole system (not by a narrow self interest) 
  • They listen to perspectives with an open mind, heart and will to genuinely understand – they are open to having assumptions challenged, truly hearing others and letting go of pre-set goals to see what is really needed and possible. They build networks of relationships built on trust and collaboration 
  • They are able to face difficult truths about the present reality from many different perspectives, and they call to courage and collaboration rather than fear and division. They focus on building bridges and valuing diversity, reaching across boundaries to bring people together.
  • They create space for reflection and generative conversations – building trust and collective creativity.
  • They are action-oriented, they notice and build windows of opportunity, initiate action, are able to adapt and follow the energy, creating the conditions that produce change and eventually cause change to be self-sustaining.
  • They have a sort of clear-eyed optimism to collectively imagine a better future and build aspiration, (noting that it’s much, much easier to be a pessimistic cynic). 
  • They recognize that we are all meaning-seeking beings, wanting to contribute to something bigger than ourselves, find connection and belonging. They are personally convinced that something can be done, and recognize that we haven’t got time to wait for a generational change or even a fully developed plan – they recognize the wisdom of the quote by Arthur Ashe – “Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can” – which frees others to experiment and learn by doing.
  • They build collective wisdom and new ways of thinking, acting and being – exploring what it means to be human in a fast-changing world.  

What we are also learning is there are no silver bullets, no simple stories, no easy answers or quick wins… which is annoying. There are no short cuts.  

Becoming a systems leader requires deep reflection… which requires time and space. It requires you to ask challenging questions of yourself, to be curious about the perspectives of others, and to accept that, even if you become extraordinarily effective at achieving meaningful change, there might be absolutely zero external recognition or reward for your role in it, and the context is constantly changing so the job is never done. Remember that new ideas are first ridiculed, then resisted, then eventually accepted as common sense (so there’s not a huge opportunity in that process for medals or glory, in fact, often the opposite).    

So, to recap, choosing to be a leader who is trying to accelerate the shift to paradigm 2 means accepting that it takes time, there are no easy answers, it will be really difficult and with possibly no extrinsic reward or recognition. But it might also be extraordinarily fulfilling, occasionally joyful and, hopefully,  a very good use of your life. If you’re still up for it, (who wouldn’t be with that kind of enticing description?) here are some questions to keep coming back to: 

  • What’s going on, and how do you know? Who are you listening to, where are you getting your information? Whose voices are not being heard?
  • What do you care about, what is important to you, what are you trying to achieve, what are you going to do? Think big
  • Be curious – what matters to others, what drives them? Find the dreamers, find your allies. Think together, act together.
  • What will you need? Above all else – this takes time and space for the deep reflection that is required to build the capacity for wise judgement  – how will you carve out the time and space? 
  • There will be resistance – what will it take from you to keep going? Even under pressure? Especially when the easiest path would be to just stop or do the minimum. Who will you need around you to help you carry on? 

It’s important to finish with a couple of inspiring quotes. The first one comes from the Barbie film, from the mouth of a previously cynical teenager trying to mobilise a load of overwhelmed adults who are looking around at the mess, destruction, chaos and misery in absolute despair that they can’t fix it all. She says: 

“You have to try. Even if you can’t make it perfect, you can make it better.”  

 The second one is from the renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead:  

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world – indeed it is the only thing that ever has”. 

There is a growing movement of thoughtful, committed citizens who have decided to try to make the world better through their leadership at every level – individual, organizational and systemic. Our collective future depends upon it.