Edelman trust barometer results align with Open Business approach

Edelman's 2014 Trust barometer survey is out and with it vindication of a key trend we've been observing in Open Business.
The clear majority of respondents to the annual survey (84 percent) believe that business can pursue its self-interest while doing good work for society.

This very much aligns with what we explore in The 10 Principles of Open Business - particularly in the chapters on Purpose and Open Capital. Indeed - The 10 Principles argues that doing good for society offers a competitive advantage in our connected world.

More evidence that 2014 really could be the year of Open Business, perhaps?

From the chapter on Purpose:

There have never been greater drivers for businesses to become Purpose-led.

Apart from anything else, it will reconnect you with the world, re-tying those strands cut loose when CEOs first decided that shareholders mattered more than anyone or anything else.

“It’s a reversal back to the old days,” says Mark (Earls), “when corporations felt part of the world and felt a responsibility to it."

And from the chapter on Open Capital:

Peer-funded partnerships also offer the opportunity to create value beyond the back slap in the boardroom and the bottom line on the balance sheet; value creation which acknowledges resources are finite, that people, communities, societies and ecologies are connected and matter to each other.

And this in itself provides a genuine competitive advantage that the wisest global entrepreneurs are quick to identify. As Sir Richard Branson puts it: “…the boundaries between work and higher purpose are merging into one – where doing good really is good for business.”

In a connected world, where to win is to work together with ever greater numbers of people who care about the same things you do, few are going to sign up to support businesses which are damaging the ecosystem in which they exist – let alone support those organisations with their own money. Open Capital will therefore be a key driver of ‘doing good is good for business’.

• Pre-order The 10 Principles of Open Business now for delivery on launch day - January 28 UK/February 28 US.

My appearance on CrossTalk on Jan 17, 2014

Today the CrossTalk show I'm on is being broadcast four times on the RT channel.
But if you don't catch it, here's a YouTube version you can watch at your leisure.
All comments very welcome.
Glad to be intro'd as the author of The 10 Principles of Open Business - naturally.

CrossTalk: Join the debate on social media and the news

I'm taking part in the latest recording of CrossTalk today - Russia Today's flarogram.
For those unfamiliar, RT (as it's now know) is an English language rolling news channel. In fact its the third most viewed rolling news channel in the UK (after the BBC and Sky) with around 2.5m viewers in the second half of last year.

The show I'm joining brings together "politicians, journalists, scientists and decision-makers of all sorts – anyone who influences the decisions changing our world or plays a key role in forming public opinion" for American journalist Peter Lavelle to challenge with the days hard questions.

The theme (I'm told) is social media and the news agenda - and is likely to look at the challenge of validation in a world in which we all get to publish.
It's a challenge we also consider in The 10 Principles of Open Business in an interview with the editor of the Guardian Alan Rusbridger.

So this should prove timely since the book is due out in just a few days now (January 28, 2014).
If you're interested in watching, you'll find RT on Freeview, Sky and BT Vision (in the UK).

It is currently due for broadcast on FRIDAY 17 January 2014 at UK times) 7:30am, 1:30pm, 7:30pm and 10:30pm .

This link will tell you where to watch where-ever you are in the world: http://rt.com/where-to-watch/
I'll also have video links to share once its been broadcast. Hope you'll try to catch it and join in the discussion after either here or by commenting on the RT.com site.

The role of Open Business in emerging holacracies

How Holacracy works - image from http://holacracy.org/how-it-works

With Ev Williams’ Medium and now Zappos going the Holacracy route, it’s no surprise this ‘new’ management model is getting attention from the likes of mashable

Its Flattened/No job titles/Goal-rather-than-management-led approach is an enviable fit with the more open business philosophy companies of this kind are comfortable and familiar with.

In many ways it’s simply putting a name to and combining many of the learnings those pursuing the 10 Principles of Open Business have already acquired. - but it may also provide a useful additional toolkit for the internal development of some Open Businesses.

The following brief extracts from my new book (out on January 28) The 10 Principles of Open Business, illustrate the point:

South African entrepreneur Arthur Attwell – found similar effectiveness from following the principle of Transparency:

“... you get a productivity boost from people who properly understand their importance to the company and the role they play. So many people – even unconsciously – think that they are just a tiny cog in a big machine.”

 “They feel an alienation from the products of their work,” says Arthur.

Without transparency it’s difficult for people to find meaning in their work. And without meaning there is little ambition and even less joy.

The job descriptions he offers people are just three lines long. There is no task-by-task list of things to do every day.

Everyone must have the ambition to own their space in his company.

“That’s why we don’t have job descriptions in the conventional sense. We have a maximum three bullet-points of functional responsibility. Some people have just one or two,” says Arthur.

“What that means is the things in those bullet points are your problem. It means people have to engage with more than just a narrow task list defined by key performance indicators,” adds Arthur.

“Make your people the boss of what they do.”

This will sound familiar to those trialling holocracy.

As will the impact of Principle 4: Shareability:

Definition: Packaging knowledge for easy and open sharing both internally and externally

Sharing is the cultural key to collaboration. It is where the organisational design principles of collaboration reside.

It is a principle which has the powerful benefit of flattening hierarchies, distributing responsibility and making the organisation more strategy and goal-led than management and task directed.

Shareability provides the tools for a radical re-organisation of resource. Deployed effectively it means people gravitate to what they care most about and can do most about. It can allocate people to work with their passions – generating a giant leap in effectiveness and productivity – not to mention morale.

And from the chapter on Principle 1: Purpose...

“If every employee is clear about the Purpose of the org, if they express this in what they do and it is expressed in what they see of the behaviours of the business and of their colleagues, then they will be better able to make decisions which are truly aligned to the Purpose...

The decisions your people make are what drives the success of your business. Ensuring those decisions are made towards your shared goal (Purpose) is... more critical than ever.

Since we have seen that telling teams is not enough (and even less likely to succeed in distributed structures), ensuring they know the Purpose, through belief and behaviours, becomes even more essential.

10 Principles of Open Business half price until December 31

In the last few weeks I've been putting the final touches to The 10 Principles of Open Business - re-reading for final changes, selecting back cover quotes etc. 

I'm pleased to say it should be going to print any day now - ready for its launch date: Jan 28, 2014. (Feb 28 in the US. 

I've heard from a number of bloggers  offering to review - which is very kind and copies will go out to a handful in the New Year. 

In the meantime you can, until December 31, 2013, order your copy at 50% off*.
UPDATE: This offer is NOT meant to be available on books which are not yet published but in the case of The 10 Principles the publishers have agreed to offer the discount in advance of publication.

• To get yours email palgravemacmillan@palgrave.com 

• Mark your email for the attention of Vince. 
• Make sure you tell him its The 10 Principles of Open Business you'd like to buy.
• Vince will email you back offering the option of a form for you to complete or a phone call (during office hours) to take your order.
• You must quote FESTIVE 13 for the 50% discount to be applied.
• If you email before December 31 Palgrave Macmillan will honour the deal - even if your call to place the order happens in the first week of January.

My apologies to those of you who have tried to purchase this from the PM website and found the discount code did not work - we now know why.

*The discounted price is available to individuals only. This offer is not available to trade and library customers. Orders must be placed direct with Palgrave Macmillan