Quantum-Evolution.org

The Wholearchy

(book forthcoming)

Summary

Background

Today's Information Age has been the result of tremendous technological advances in the products and processes of all aspects of organizations. These advances have brought about broad-sweeping changes in the manner and form in which we live and do business. And while technology has provided greater opportunities and a general improvement in the overall quality of life, organizations now face daunting challenges that threaten their economic survival.

The Internet has forever changed the quality, quantity, and velocity of business and with it the ways in which businesses interact with internal and external environments. The volatility associated with continual change has found many companies dependent on decades-old, linear hierarchical business models. This remains essentially true, despite the fact that companies have generally flattened structures, subsequently increased direct reporting, cut expenses, and rid themselves of apparently redundant executive positions. The mindset of tradition remains, and many firms are still lacking in the operational maturity and flexibility necessary to adapt.

True globalization of products and services has forced companies to recognize the term "better, faster, cheaper" as a reality for new business competition. Companies come and go, suppliers are changed in the blink of an eye, employees view themselves as free agents, and the liquidity of money has allowed the stock market to switch investments faster than ever. Tremendous pressure on short-term earnings and price expectations has led companies to focus on the activities they do exceptionally well and to outsource much of the rest in an attempt to maximize efficiency and minimize expenses. The result of this emphasis on the short-term is an economic environment of loosely structured chains of contracts between companies and subcontracted alliance partners that include employees, suppliers, and customers.

Simultaneously, organizations must continually innovate or face the threat of extinction, replaced by superior alternatives. This strategy implies investment in the long-term. The upshot is that these conflicting interests create a paradox: Minimize short-term costs yet preserve the core to innovate and stay at the cutting edge of change. So how do organizations reconcile their short and long-term objectives? The trade-off is unquestionably difficult.

One key to success in a complex and blurring environment between home, work and supply chain distinctions is that organizations must act to preserve the whole, emphasizing a strong core employee base to provide the glue that concurrently sustains the unified direction of the organization's mission while encouraging the flexibility and innovation to propel the organization forward.

To sustain their cohesiveness and to enhance the innovative competencies necessary for enduring competitive advantage, organizations must view the totality of the system from a collective consciousness: individuals and organizations, customers, suppliers, competitors, economy, society, and environment as whole entities, each within the context of succeedingly larger wholes. This need for cohesiveness is increasingly compelling given the trends toward decentralized decision-making, a greater reliance on partnering, and the ever- increasing importance of information technology. The implication is that the quantum compression of business planning and decision- making cycles requires immediate response, not reaction. Effective response requires an awareness of the clear implications of specific actions (the part) and the often not so evident yet critical wave-like consequences of particular actions on the collective health of the organization (the whole).

The Wholearchy

As a work in progress, The Wholearchy is an organic, systemic model of such an organization. It unites much of the positive but fragmented literature concerning alternatives to the inorganic, traditional hierarchy where the structure of an organization is imposed from above or from the outside and then set intractably into place. But The Wholearchy is far from another "flavor of the month" business strategy offering. What The Wholearchy provides is a quantum shift in orientation, proposing a radically fresh paradigm with which to examine the products, processes, and people of the organization. This paradigm implies a shift away from traditional problem solving to a focus on the underlying processes that produce seemingly disparate events

The Wholearchy is based on the experience that the world functions as a whole whose parts are inextricably related and interdependent. This view is consistent with the findings of modern science, and it also parallels ancient Eastern philosophy.

Within the organization, these interactions may be viewed as overlapping energy patterns or movements that come together in particular ways at specific times and then fluidly adjust themselves to internal and external market and environmental conditions. The medium for this movement is what we have termed life energy. Life energy may be thought of as the essential force that brings all things into movement. This notion of energy is vitalistic, and the distinction between this definition and a more traditional scientific notion of energy as the capacity to do work is important. Our understanding is that each organization lives in accordance with these movements of life energy as it manifests itself through organizational growth, change, blockage, or decline. The imperative for the organization is to live in harmony and wholeness with these movements to achieve balance and to resonate with these energy movements within and outside the organization to maintain collective evolution.

The harmony and resonance described above is actually a system of energy principles tied to all aspects of life. This Chi or energy is thought to be responsible for all movements in nature, from the actions of the wind to a hostile takeover of one firm by another. This Chi continues its movement through a polarized flow of life energy. The complementary polarities of Yin and Yang are present in relative amounts in any process. Consequently, our wholeness and the universe's balance are an integration of these complementary components. Since everything is in a constant state of change, this change results from the organic movements of Yin and Yang processes in the whole.

Yin and Yang qualities with respect to wholeness may manifest themselves in the organization in the following ways:

Yin		Yang
Effective communication Creativity Enjoyment Responsiveness		Dependability Consistency Accountability Clarity and Directness

The Yin and Yang movements described manifest themselves in varying degrees to effect balance and harmony in a system. Essentially, the wholeness to which we refer speaks to the unity of all elements in a system; in this case we are applying the concept to the organization. The importance lies in the complementary nature of various systemic elements. Wholeness relates to all the people, processes, functions, and products of the organization in their entirety.

All things seek by nature seek a state of wholeness, and so any disturbance that leads a firm to become, in a sense, infirm, is harmful. Left unchecked, this dissonance can lead to a more systemic problem called disease resonance. These phenomena are negative energy movements that are consistent but harmful to the health of the organization, like a cancer that spreads uncontrollably to various organs in an individual.

To simplify the model for the purposes of this summary, a Wholearchy is an organization that is guided by the whole and which operates from the center out instead of from the top down. Information (energy) moves outward on one plane from the central leadership of the organization in widening rings of influence to project leaders and eventually front-line associates. The importance lies in the fact that this movement of information flows both ways directionally in an open exchange of ideas instead of a movement downward only, often on a need to know basis.

In this dynamic, energetic model, organizational fields lead to processes that are allowed to organically lead to self-organized forms, and forms eventually lead to structure. These interactions are unique to each organization. And since the nature of change is continual, the influx flow, processing, and outflow phases of energy influences relative to each firm also imply appropriate adjustments to form and structure internally. This is why attempts to emulate the exact movements and strategy of other firms (benchmarking) generally fail. Moreover, energy is a process that cannot be fully explained as content, no matter how hard we try. Nonetheless, wholeness in an organization is conspicuous, regardless of its form and structure. It is felt and seen, as a ray of sunshine, though it may not be trapped in our fingertips.

Characteristics

For an organization to become more whole, it requires several major factors:

1. A Field of Wholeness - a well-functioning and life-positive atmosphere in which each person feels respected for who they are and for the contribution they make to the organization's efforts. Each member of the company is both a sample and a symbol of the organization as a whole. Thus, it is critical that the organization have a core set of beliefs that guide it, providing inner ethical or spiritual beliefs that are resolute, regardless of the economic climate.

2. Systemic Integrity - acceptance of all that defines the firm, for better or worse. Wholeness may not always be pretty, but it is clear, honest, respectful, and direct. Wholeness must come from inside the individual and from the firm by extension. Whole organizations manifest their integrity by encouraging their individuals to become, in sense, their own businesspeople by taking ownership in the fortunes of the firm.

3. Organizational Resonance - the process and state of "in-tune-ness" when two or more systems, e.g. people and processes send and receive information in a vibratory similarity such that communication is effective. When resonance is present, there is a sense of cooperation, clarity, and meaningfulness as communication (energy) flows in both directions. For success to occur, the timing must be right, the context clear, the place appropriate, and the right people involved. Consistency of communication is critical to success, including the indirect communication an organization makes through its hiring and firing practices, bonus policy, promotions, sales and the coordination of Information Technology processes.

4. Part/Whole (Phole) Referring - focusing on a specific (personal) project while maintaining contact with the overall objectives and potential of the overall organization. A whole organization is consecrated to the awareness and consciousness of the totality of its internal and external surroundings.

5. Virtual Learning - implies that individuals become increasingly essential. In a Wholearchy, decision-making should come from an integration of the mind or intellect with the hara, or center of the body, where individuals allow sensing, feeling, and responding to replace assumptions, preconceived notions, and reactions. This approach requires a constant training or learning to see the simple in the complex while seeing the broader possibilities of simple successes or ideas. This reduces the amount of micro managing of specific problems that keeps professionals busy but reduces their effectiveness. Similarly, professionals become more than "part-takers" in the organization. Seeing the potential for broader applicability of specific successes, they are now valuable as "part-givers" with insight for change.

How Relevant Is The Paradigm Suggested by The Wholearchy?

To test the feasibility of an organization such as a Wholearchy, we have gone into the marketplace to search for companies that exemplify characteristics similar to those proposed in the model. We are looking for evidence of firms that act in holistic ways to maximize the long-term welfare of the organization, including the shareholders, employees, principals, and the larger whole of the community. The methodology for the study is to perform a longitudinal diagnosis of firms that have appeared in each of the seven years for which the study has existed on Fortune Magazine's annual list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For as a proxy for organizational wholeness. While this list includes only American firms, we have included in our diagnosis Fortune's 10 Best European Companies included in the study. We are searching for commonalities present in each of the firms to form a collective group of characteristics that could then be compared for likeness to our theoretical model.

One last, yet crucial element to the diagnosis of whole organizations in the marketplace is the correlation between wholeness and long-term sustainability and profitability. Absent results that substantiate the economic value of the model, why should firms be interested?

We have been extremely encouraged by our results to date.

For example, take the case of this year's No.1 firm, J.M. Smucker(*). Smucker's was founded in 1897, and it is still family controlled. Fresh off an acquisition of the brands Jif and Crisco from P&G, the company nearly doubled revenues in 2003 to $1.3B.
Affectionately known as the boys, Tim and Richard Smucker are at the center of Smucker's gimmick-free leadership. No razzle-dazzle perks, no subsidized feng-shui consulting. They insist that Smucker's adheres to a simple code of conduct set forth by their father and CEO No. 3, Paul Smucker: Listen with your full attention, look for the good in others, have a sense of humor, and say thank you for a job well done. Specifically, Smucker's family feel bears out the following basic beliefs:

Quality - applies to products, manufacturing methods, marketing efforts, people, and interpersonal relationships. They continuously look for ways to achieve daily improvements that will over time result in superior products, performance, well-being and quality of life. Sales growth and earnings will take care of themselves.
People - believes in treating employees fairly and maintains an environment that encourages personal responsibility to the company and to the community. In return, employees are expected to be responsible not only for their jobs but for the company as a whole. Smucker's seeks employees who will be committed to preserving and enhancing the values of the company.
Ethics - accepts nothing less than the maintenance of the highest business ethical standards with customers, employees, shareholders, and communities in which the company operates.
Growth - concerned with reaching company potential, whether in the development of new products or markets. The company pursues the development of new manufacturing and leadership techniques, and it is committed to the personal development and professional growth of its employees.
Independence - strong commitment to the stewardship of the Smucker's heritage and name.

Smucker's stock has provided a total return of 100% over the past five years. In a recession year of 2003, Smucker's added to its workforce by 3%. It has a voluntary turnover rate of only 3%, and it provides an average of seventy hours worth of training to its employees per year.

Article courtesy Dr. Stèphano Sabetti

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