In Plain English...What is it You're Doing?

Inspired by Steve Easterbrook and the the wonderful XKCD's recent attempt to explain the parts of a Saturn V rocket (the "Up Goer Five”) using only the most common one thousand words of English...

Now there is  a web-based editor that let’s everyone try their hand at this, and a tumblr of scientists trying to explain their work this way.  So I thought I'd also try to explain my work... and here it is... a little awkward in places...but hey... it's not so easy when you can only use the most common 1000 words!

I've just added a few links in case you want to know more specifics... and used the word science once (its unfortunately not one of the top 1000 commonly used words)

Our one amazing world is full: of people, the stuff we've made and of the things we've done!  Some of all this is good but much of it is bad: for us and our children.  So now in the well-off places people are not happier than they were 5, 10 or 30 years ago. People may have more money but they are not happier. 

Business is a very big part of both the good and the bad.  So what can business change so that they only do good for people, our towns, and all other life in our world while still doing well?  This is the question my work starts to answer.

But most businesses go out of business very quickly!  This is bad for the people in the business and the people with the money that started the business.  So nearly 10 years ago a student and his teacher figured out the 9 big questions that needed to be answered to make it more possible for a business to stay in business and make money. Then 4 years ago they worked with 470 very bright people to make a book that a lot of people like a lot.

Now I am taking these questions and adding 5 more questions, using what we know from science about people, our world and how it all works. If a business figures out good answers to all the questions, new and old, it makes it more possible for them to make money, do good for everyone and everything on our world, and to keep doing this for a long time.

In my studies, that are almost finished, I have built and checked an easy-to-use way for all kinds of people to make plans for businesses that can do good and do well for a long time.

The next step is to get another group of very bright people to make a book so everyone can use these ideas to make more of these businesses so the world can be a better happier place for everyone.

 Will you join us?  Contact us here

P.S. Part of the reason for doing this is that I'm entering the International "Three Minute Thesis" competition (flyer) and needed to write a 300 character summary of my research that previously looked like this!  

Here is the 300 character version that uses scientific, future, tool and an ampersand!

Our world is full. Some of this is good but much is bad. Business is a big part of both. How can we use scientific knowledge to help business make things better?

I have designed & tested an easy to use tool to reliably plan businesses that do good and do well for a long time into the future.

The EcoSystem Creating the Future of Strongly Sustainable Business

It's been an inspiring week... talking to smart folks* about their dedicated work to design and bring into being strongly sustainable businesses.  But it left me with some questions...

First what do we call the collective systems that all these folks and all their organizations are helping to create?  I'm going to suggest we call them the "ecosystem creating the future of strongly sustainable business".  Perhaps this is an example of a value-constellation? (Thanks to Peter Jones for this idea).

Second.  This got me thinking about ways to explain and describe all this work...and perhaps this might help all these folks and their organizations collaborate with each other towards what I think they would all see as a common ideal goal.

One Ideal Goal

There is a growing consensus that we need to act quickly and at scale to help business move to adopt strongly sustainable business models, i.e an ideal goal of:

All business proactively enabling strongly sustainable outcomes

To, as John Ehrenfeld puts it:

Create possibility that humans and other life will flourish on Earth forever

(You can read more about this in my post Strongly Sustainable Business Models - Defining the Field)

 One Approach

Acting on Einstein's observation that you don't solve problems using the approaches that created them: there also seems to be a growing consensus that we need to move forward by using what we know works, but at the same time approaches we didn't use to create the current "mess".  In practice this would appear to  mean:

Collaborative Design + Systems Thinking

Together perhaps the ideal goal and the approach could be illustrated as follows:

Six Foci

Many people and organizations are working towards this ideal goal using this approach: but each has a number of foci - depending on their skills, knowledge and where they believe they can best contribute.

I'm suggesting it might be helpful to think about these foci in the following six groups (if you have suggestions for more or different please respond in the comments)

1. “Gold Standard”  
• What is organizational strong sustainability and how is it measured? (Based on the science of strong sustainability) 
2. Skills, Competencies & Knowledge  
• What do people need to know to be effective at creating and improving strongly sustainable organizations (and a certification to demonstrate competence)? 
3. Education 
• How to ensure people know what they need to know (facts and methods)? 
4.  Method & Tools 
• How do you efficiently design and implement businesses with high probability’s of achieving the “gold-standard” What tools can help? (Strongly Sustainable Business Model Canvas) 
5. Community 
• How can businesses making the journey to strong sustainability work together and support each other? 
6. Services 
• Provide services to businesses to accelerate the journey to strong sustainability 

Toronto Centric Example

So what does this look like in and around Toronto and the people I work with... rather an alphabet soup... but see the list below for the acronyms* ...

Is this perspective helpful?  Confusing?  What's missing?

Leave me a comment and let me know.