I have developed and delivered two fresh and interesting sessions for Hyper Island, Unilever, Mercer and Pirelli. These sessions were developed as a response the Innovation and Sustainability imperatives faced by most managers. Entitled "What got us here won't get us there!", this sessions teach managers about 1. Language, metaphor and reframing 2. Q-storming - designing powerful questions 3. Systems thinking Managers leave these sessions better equipped to engage a future that is at once digital, mobile, social, green and data rich.

1. What got us here
won’t get us there
Why a brave new world needs brave new words
By Mebs Loghdey
2014

2. In the UK TESCO can pick up on the
content of your TWEETS to friends, your
individual style from PINTEREST, the food
you like from YELP, your level of fitness
from RUNKEEPER, your social life from
EVITE, and tie it in with local weather to
send YOU a customised recipe idea
you might actually appreciate!

3. …meanwhile

4. 9 Planetary Boundaries

5. ender
enerations
eography
Faultlines
(Source: WEF, Davos 2014)
ndividuals
nstitutions
nter-national
G
I

6. 50k years hunter gatherers
Anthroposcene
65m years first primates emerge
400m years vertebrates emerge
475m years plant life emerges
2,8bn years multicellular life emerges
3,8bn years ago life emerges
4,6bn years planet earth formed

7. Futures Approaching 5x Faster

8. 1500 yrs ago
2250
yrs ago
3000 yrs ago
Now
Transport
• 3mins ago – internal combustion engine
• 2 mins ago – motorcar
• 1 min ago – rocket propulsion
• 50 secs ago – space travel
• 10 secs ago – re-usable space shuttle
Communications
• 11 mins ago – printing press
• 3 mins ago – morse code
• 2 mins ago – telephone
• 90 secs ago – radio
• 85 secs ago – TV
• 1 min ago – fax
• 25 sec ago – PC
• 12 secs ago – internet
• 10 secs ago – mobile phone
• Now – google, facebook, twitter etc
3 mins

10. Time
Population
growth
2050 – 9,5 bn people on earth 70% will live in cities
2000 – 6 bn people on earth 50 % lived in cities
1900 – 2 bn people on earth 15% lived in cities
1800– 1 bn people on earth 97% didn’t live
in cities

12. Exponential technologies
meets
Exponential population growth
2
63 = 60,000,000,000,000,000 miles

13. has always changed our
relationships to
• each other
• non-humans
• environment
• time
• space
• values
• culture
• knowledge
• markets
Technology
• Language
• Printing press
• Telescope
• Clock
• Space travel
• Mobile
• Search
• Social
• Cloud

14. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.
Marshall McLuhan

15. Who is
Eugene Goostman?

16. The smartest person
in the room
is the room.

17. Warning
A
SOCIO-TECHNO-ECO
System
is
emerging!

18. AMBIGUITY
COMPLEXITY
VOLATILITY
• new competitive phenomena
• break-up of old structures & categories
• break-up of old connections & causality
• connections between new variables
• patterns of interaction
• limits of classic “prediction” techniques
• the new economics of credibility & trust
• asymmetrical reaction to “weak signals”
• network & reputational effects
+
+

19. Inter-connectedness
+
=
Inter-dependence
New questions!

20. Macro question
1. How can we reduce per capita demands on the
biosphere by over 50%, within 50 years, while
simultaneously increasing the standard of living of the
world’s poor?
Mezzo question
2. How can organisational systems deal with the
interconnectedness of all things?
Micro question
3. How do we draw people into a creative and
collaborative process in the face of such complex
challenges?

21. Organisational thinking
• Event-driven
• Left brain
• Rational
• Reductionist
• Sequential
• Analytical
• Symptomatic
Ecological thinking
• Process over time
• Holistic
• Systemic
• Non-measurable forces
• Unexpected outcomes
• Silent evidence

22. HERE
FRAMES
VALUES
PROCESSES COMMITTMENTS
STABILITY
THERE
CHANGE
CLICHÉS
DOGMAS
ROUTINES MILLSTONES
INERTIA

25. Our fixed frames
• Democracy
• Market-based solutions
• Consumption-based economics
• 1st world and 3rd world
• Fixed pie
• Zero sum
• Growth is good
• Whole is the sum of the parts
• Income vs capital
• Intrinsic vs extrinsic value
• Quantity vs quality
• Marriage
• Gay Marriage

26. US political frames
Conservatives
• Strong Defense
• Free Markets
• Lower Taxes
• Smaller Government
• Family Values
Progessives
• Stronger America
• Broad Prosperity
• Better Future
• Effective Government
• Mutual Responsibility

27. Arm-wrestle for 30 seconds.
The winner will be the one that
manages t o push t h e i r
opponent’s hand down most
times in the 30 seconds.

28. Inter-connectedness and Inter-dependence
Web of
Words
New frames
Web of
Everything
Information flows
Web of
life
Matter and emergy flows

29. • New Business Logic?
• New Organisational Logic?
• New Issue focus?
• New Skills/Knowledge?
• New Actions?
• New Standards?
• New Principles?
• New Measures/Rewards?
• New Disciplines/Protocols?
INTELLECTUAL
FRAMES
BEHAVIOURAL
FRAMES
EMOTIONAL
FRAMES
• New Atmosphere?
• New Passions?
• New Focus?
• New Energy?

30. Part 2:

32. Pirelli leaders as
• Language designers
• Aware of their own frames
• Frames of others
• Able to activate new frames
• Remove existing frames from play

33. The stories we tell.
• We construct problems via the stories we tell.
• Stories are built on deep metaphors, frames,
facts and values.
• Complex problems are usually dilemmas.
• Dilemmas are deep metaphor conflicts.

34. Story version 1
The experts concluded that if the community were to be healthy, if it
were not to revert again to a blighted or slum area, as though
possessed of a congenital disease, the area must be planned as
a whole. It was not enough they believed to remove existing
buildings, that were unsanitary or unsightly. It was important to
redesign the whole area so as to eliminate the conditions that
caused slums – the overcrowding of dwellings, the lack of parks,
the lack of adequate streets and alleys, the absence of
recreational areas, the lack of light and air, the presence of
outmoded street patterns. It was believed that the piecemeal
approach, the removal of individual structures that were
offensive, would only be palliative. The entire area needed
redesigning so that a balanced, integrated plan could be
developed for the region including not only new homes but also
new schools, churches. Parks streets and shopping centres. In this
way it was hoped that the cycle of decay of the area could be
controlled and the birth of future slums prevented.

35. Story version: 2
In summary, then we observe that a number of factors contribute to
the special importance that the west end seemed to bear for the
large majority of its inhabitants. Residence in the west end was
highly stable, with relatively little movement from one dwelling
unit to another and with minimum transience into and out of the
area. Although residential stability is a fact of importance in itself,
it does not wholly account for commitment to the areas for the
great majority of people, the local area was a focus for strongly
positive sentiments and was perceived probably in its multiple
leanings as home. The critical significance of belonging in or to
an area has been one of he most consistent findings in working
class communities in the US and in England. Patterns of social
interaction were of great importance in the west end. Certainly
for a great number of people, local space served as a focus for
social relationships. In this respect the urban slum community has
much in common with communities so frequently involved in folk
cultures.

36. systems Time is Money

37. Don’t waste my time
It cost me an hour
I have invested time
Budget your time
Living on borrowed time
Use your time profitably
I”ll spend my time with you
“Time is money”
Modern life

38. Work-life balance
Ecological balance
Balanced diet
Balanced flavour
Balanced car
“Balance”
Scientific research
Lifestyles
Winemaking
Automotive engineering
Sustainability

39. Virgin territory
Mother earth
Sister company
Mother nature
Mother ship
“Womanhood”
Land use
Ecology
Environment
Sustainability
Agriculture

40. Re-engineering
Driving change
Manufacturing consent
Performance
management
“Machine”
Management
Organisational design
Environment
Sustainability

41. The environments of human thinking are artificial
through and through. Humans create their powers
by creating the frames within which they exercise
their powers.
Edward Hutchins
Talking differently rather than arguing well is the
chief instrument of cultural change.
Richard Rorty
The world we live in are the words we use.
Ludwig Wittgenstein

42. Rinsing the Brain

43. Barriers to change
Role, skills, knowledge,
socio-demographics, relationship set
Limiting personal beliefs, values,
frames and assumptions
Individual subjective Individual objective
Collective subjective Collective objective
Group culture and shared norms
Mental models, Unwritten rules
Political, Economic, Social, Technological,
Legal, Environmental

45. New language is the key to transformation.
• New concepts and metaphor – new frames
• New frames - new language
• New language - new reality
• New reality - new dimensions
• New dimensions - new discourse
• New discourse - new system design
• New system design – new system behaviour

46. 1. Fold your arms the opposite way
2. Sign your name with you other hand
3. Draw your neighbour without looking at paper, without lifting
your pen off paper and at the same time ask them a question
about themselves
4. Arm wrestle for 30 seconds…

48. Antony and Cleopatra are lying dead on
the floor in an Egyptian villa. Nearby is a
broken bowl. There are no marks on the
bodies and they were not poisoned. No
person was in the villa when they died.
How did they die?

49. Meet….
Anthony…. and Cleopatra!

50. Can you think of a word?
__ ANY

51. Can you think of a word?
MANY

52. Can you think of a word?
MANY
__ENY

53. Mental models
Mental Models
• We all have them
• They develop over time and are shaped by our
background and experience
• They process information for us and determine what we
DO and DON’T see and hear and what we DO

54. Mental Models
• Paradigms
• The way we think
• Professional Lenses
• Organisational Orthodoxies
• Values, biases, assumptions, beliefs

55. Mental Models
They are strongest when…
• They have worked well over time
• The environment has been stable
• Their use has been rewarding in practice
• Help us decide and act quickly
But
• They make us think passively
• They make us reject new information that does not fit
what we already believe in

56. what you
do
How you
frame
the situation
determines determines
what you
see, think
and hear
who
you “see” as
your
stakeholders,
How you define
your business
what
you do
(your strategy)
Mental models
Observed behaviour
Consequences
Information about
the environment
determines determines

57. systems
Don’t think of an elephant

59. How to Escape your Mental Models
(1) Introduce variety and
diversity in people
(2) Questioning
(3) Re-framing

60. You have a cake and a knife. You
can cut the cake 4 times in straight
lines. What is the maximum number of
pieces that you can cut the cake
into?

61. Eight Times
A

62. Eleven Times
1
2
3
4
5
9 7
6
8
10
11

63. Twelve Times

64. 2
1
3
4
6
5
7

65. Sixteen Times
Cut the cake into two pieces. Put one piece on top
of the other and cut in two again. Put all pieces on top
of each other and cut in two again. Put all pieces
on top of each other and cut in two again.

66. QUESTIONING: How did they frame this?

68. Question existing mental models through
RE-FRAMING
Re – framing creates a new language.

69. Re-framing Tool
Opposite beliefs
1a 2a
Supporting beliefs
Core belief
1
3
2
4
3a 4a

70. Re-framing Example
Opposite beliefs
1a 2a
Supporting beliefs
Core belief
FMCG
1
3
2
4
3a 4a

71. Opposite beliefs
1a 2a
Supporting beliefs
Taxes are a burden on
society
1
3
2
4
3a 4a

72. Opposite beliefs
1a 2a
Supporting beliefs
Tyres
as performance
1
3
2
4
3a 4a

73. Bounded
exploration
Co-evolve
Exploit Re-framing
Radical
Established frames New frames
Increasing complexity
Incremental
Innovation
Pathways to Innovation

74. Thank you!
Mebs Loghdey
+44 7806875794
mebsloghdey@outlook.com