Thoughts and Perspectives on Occupy Wall Street

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

1) #OWS is a massive system that cannot and need not be easily understood. I don't agree with everything I see or read. There is no central body of leadership or canon of perspectives. Nor is there a standard code of conduct - I don't agree with violence, vandalism, or the other harmful activities that have occurred.

2) For me, the central message is that there is something very wrong with our democracy and current iteration of capitalism.

3) Wall Street is a symbol of our current iteration of capitalism.

4) Corporations are being targeted because there seems to be an imbalance in power. I don't think all corporations are bad. I don't think corporations should have equal opportunity of personhood under the law. The corporations that hold the majority of capital, those that are too big to fail, gain privileges not afforded to all citizens and all groups. Why do big banks get bailed out for making bad financial choices in a macrocosm when individuals making the same bad choices in the microcosm achieve no recourse.

5) I don't think the police are being targeted beyond protest for wanton abuses of power and unnecessary use of force.

6) I think that government and the corporate structures of capitalism are being held equally responsible. Again, Wall Street and our current iteration of capitalism has become the symbol for the injustices of a system that has failed to support equal opportunity for all.

7) I don't think the majority of protestors are asking for a hand out. I think the majority are asking for equal opportunity and justice towards those that deny this opportunity.

8) The demographics of this movement make this movement a cultural expression of frustration. Equal democrats and republicans. Equal men and women. All brackets of education are represented equally. All income brackets are represented equally. There are business people, veterans, active military personnel, politicians, mothers, blue collar workers, unions, and students.

‎9) This is not a movement of hippies, liberals, and socialists. This is a movement of Americans.

10) Capitalism as symbolized by our market has failed to provide the opportunities capitalism promotes because there is an imbalance in power. Point of case, our traditional remedies and guarantees have failed and this movement is the market in radical reorganization and correction

A Case of the Mondays

Sunday, August 07, 2011
It’s inevitable. Monday morning in the elevator I hear a variety of the following:

“The weekend was too short.”

“I can’t believe it’s Monday.”

“I’d rather be home in bed.”

“This sucks. Do I really have to work already again?”

On Wednesday:

“Thank god it’s hump day”

“Just two days left.”

On Friday:

“It don’t come quick enough.”

And the classic, “Thank god it’s Friday.”

I love the weekend as much as anyone, of course. And, come Monday morning I am truly excited to go to work. I am excited about my projects. I am excited about what I am doing. And, what I’m doing is requiring me stretch and grow - I have to step up. My work is my practice.

I’ll step out on a limb and say, if you’re not excited about your work you’re not living your full potential nor are you living on your evolving edge.

Find out what the world needs from you and what you’re passion about. Do that and the Monday elevator ride is a joy not a problem.

Why Excel Analysts Aren’t Good Analysts

Wednesday, August 03, 2011
I love data. And I love data analysis. I also love spreadsheets. Making a great spreadsheet with complex formulas, multiple workbook links, and fancy macros brings me great joy. The simplicity that rests on rigorous complexity is very satisfying to me. There is nothing more comforting than knowing a function or an object will do exactly the same thing each time, and that the spreadsheet does exactly what you tell it to - the spreadsheet produces exactly what you want.

The predictability and consistency is near perfect.

As much as I appreciate perfect predictability, and as much as I value a solid body of data to make business decisions, I’ve really come to terms lately with the simple truth that life is not a spreadsheet and that the universe rarely functions logically, predictably, and consistently.

Of course there are trends and patterns. And of course making decisions with consideration of bodies of data analyzed and pivot-tabled to pristine perfect is a good idea. We can’t rely on just opinion, which is sadly what most do even in this day and age of pie charts and graphs.

The opportunity is to sense forward. Intuition is becoming an ever greater necessity in this day and age of the unpredictable and uncertain. And, after years in logic and predictability, our excel analysts (coupled with out dependency on them) have a lot of of catching up to do.

How I Raised My Klout Score By 40% In Four Days and What This Has To Do with Anything

Thursday, July 28, 2011
I’ve been a bit obsessed lately with social media metrics. Partially because I’m a bit obsessed with metrics in general and partially because I’m a bit obsessed with the impact I have in the world. Impact is important to me. In certain terms, my life is about impact. And more specifically, intentional impact.

I’ve been playing with social media measurement tools the last few weeks. I have also created a few of my own social media measurement tools (specifically around blog posts, Facebook posts, and Twitter updates). I’ve been in an analytic wonderland which has been fantastic.

There is a key component of this wonderland that I’ve grown fond of - Klout.com. I’ve played with Klout a bit before, but have never spent much time with it. Over the last five days, I’ve checked my Klout rate often - like, six times a day. As I said, obsessive (and probably compulsive).

Checking in with Klout has added a loop into my social media engagement process: it’s inspired me to engage more. And in the last four days, my clout score has gone from 31 to 43. Actually, scratch that, I just checked again and it’s now 44. That’s a 41.935% increase!

Klout also says that I’m influential in yoga, spirituality, moms, and culture. I’m a bit bummed I’m not influential in business and social development. I’m a bit confused about why I’m influential in moms, but assume it’s because @jessicagottlied and I reply sometimes.

Having such a substantial increase in just a few days hasn’t been difficult, challenging or mysterious. The increase in my social media clout, at least on Twitter, came down to a simple thing: engagement.

Specifically:

• I posted more
• I replied more
• And I retweeted more

That’s it. I simply became more engaged with those around me.

This got me thinking more about impact: how active am I with those around in other environments? Am I offering the same engagement, attention and value to those I sit with face-to-face? (My fiancee would probably say no).

The environment of life is more challenging than the environment of twitter. Twitter is fairly linear and it transcends time to a certain degree - I can look backwards at tweets to catch up. Secondly, here’s not a face-to-face Klout scoring system I can reference.

Given my experience the last few days, I am now more inspired to offer value face-to-face in the same way I do on Twitter. In walking life, this looks like:

• Being present and participating with those around me (no mobile device distraction)
• Responding which requires real listening. A lot of listening, and
• Reflect what others or saying and doing

What’s your impact?

The Yoga of Business (And The Business of Yoga)

Monday, March 28, 2011
In a recent dialogue with Yoga Teacher and Ayurveda Practitioner Cate Stillman we worked with a group of teachers, healers, and visionaries to unravel the challenges of being a visionary sole proprietor, and delved into the opportunity of operating a vision business.

From Cate's Blog:

“Getting over the illusion that business is non-yogic, non-spiritual, I think is one of our next frontiers in the evolution of yoga.” – Kris Nelson

Most yogis don’t have a goal of making a enough money to have a sizable impact. Most yoga teachers I know would be quite pleased with themselves if they can buy organic kale, dark chocolate and travel to study with their chosen teacher. What is the impact of our yoga teaching community investing more in their yoga than in their business planning & business skills? This is one of my favorite conversations. And the person I go to to have this favorite conversation is Kris Nelson, who doesn’t hold back from addressing skills we need to cultivate to make a bigger difference.

To listen to the dialogue:

Your Business is Yoga (with Kris Nelson)

askintegralexperts.com Interview: The Seven Relationships of an Integral Business

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Below I am sharing the written answers from my interview with askintegralexperts.com. Not all of the questions made it into the interview or the final edit, so I have decided to share them here. When you have a moment, check out the interview on askintegralexperts.com. Because of the length of these answers, I have decided to post each separately.

3. One of your key ideas is called The 7 Relationships Of Business. Can you tell us what the 7 relationships are and how Integral theory influenced your thinking?

With the complexity of our world today and the volatility of our current market, it’s now more important than ever for consultants and businesses to have a big picture perspective. The 7 relationships of an integral business provides this perspective.

In the blog post It’s Time for the Bottom Line to Get Bigger I discussed the five major bottom line values of an integral business. This is a transcend-and-include hierarchical model from profits-only, to people-planet-profits, to profits-people-planet-principles-progress. This hierarchical line of development for business once realized creates sustainability, long-term success, and greater impact. This, though, is one measure of an integral business. To have a fuller picture, we must consider the Seven Relationships of an integral business.

The penta bottom line is a path of evolutionary growth that looks something like this:

With this view of evolutionary growth, an integral perspective allows for a whole picture recognizing that reality, life, business and all human disciplines exist in several distinct perspectives. If these perspectives are reduced key elements of consideration are lost.

The crux of integral theory is the four quadrants, which represent the perspective of the individual interior (subjectivity, thoughts, feelings, worldview, development), individual exterior (actions, objectivity, objects), the collective interior (intersubjectivity, culture, shared value), and the collective exterior (systems, society). Coupled with the evolutionary line of business value, from a singular bottom line to a penta bottom line, we begin to get a more clear picture of what makes a sustainable, profitable and impacting business with great meaning and value.

The last key consideration in an integral perspective is time: past and future. I like to view all of these pieces as relationships. When I analyze a business or an individual, I look at their relationship with each of these elements noting their degree of awareness and action creating a healthy or unhealthy relationship.

In a business system, these seven relationships each hold and create value and profit. Instead of a hammer seeking a nail, we need a big toolbox to build a profitable and sustainable business.

• Development
• Worldview
• Awareness

Individual exterior:

• Actions
• Roles
• Assessment
• Customers

Collective interior:

• Culture

Collective exterior:

• Systems
• Organization Structure
• Market

Time:

Past:

• Data Analysis
• Retrospectives

Future:

• Strategy
• Projections

Development:

• Value consideration: The Penta Bottom Line
• Meme Growth

askintegralexperts.com Interview: The Evolution of Business

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Below I am sharing the written answers from my interview with askintegralexperts.com. Not all of the questions made it into the interview or the final edit, so I have decided to share them here. When you have a moment, check out the interview on askintegralexperts.com. Because of the length of these answers, I have decided to post each separately.

2. I read in one of you essays about an idea called the “hierarchical line of business development.” Can you talk a little about what you mean by this?

It’s a confusing term – I need to find another way to talk about this, as most assume it’s about business growth in the traditional sense: finding new clients/customers and creating more revenue. Of course, I am all for new clients, customers and more revenue. And, in this circumstance, I am talking about something much bigger and ultimately, in the long term and high level perspective, something much more important.

I am talking about the way businesses grow through systematic perspectives and expressions of operations. One way we look at development is through outcomes or value measurements. One way we look at human development is through the lens of value measurement: what is an individual expressing in the world? We can do the same with business too.

Traditionally, businesses had a singular focus: profit for the owner (the bottom line). And, traditionally, businesses had just one owner (or a small group of partners), and this owner typically ran the business. As the business system has developed over time (due to human evolution), the measurement of value from and through business has also grown. One significant shift happened in the 1800s to the framing of the bottom line: the bottom line profit share grew as stock markets (buying share in companies) become more common. Instead of just one or a small amount of people sharing in a company’s success, a larger number of people could.

This economic shift created a shift in the way business was viewed. In the late 1800s, the Supreme Court decided that corporations were actual entities with the same rights of individuals (an early awareness that corporations is something unto itself affecting and being affected by the world around it – more on this later). In 1932 Adolf A. Berle and Gardiner C. Means published their treaty The Modern Corporation instigating the idea that business should not be run by owners but by professional managers creating a shift from owner operators to professional managers. These shifts paved the way for business evolution that we have seen through the 1900s and early 2000s.

In 1976, Michael C. Jensen and William H. Meckling published “Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs, and Owner Structure” in the Journal of Financial Economics which built a case that a business’ sole purpose was maximizing shareholder value. Many then (and now) saw this as a mistake, and in certain terms it was. Companies that have focused on and made decisions to maximize shareholder have underperformed companies that have focused on other things, for example, maximizing customer experience. This shift, however, created an important definition, which spurred both push back and evolution.

We saw inklings of the next major stage of business evolution during the cultural revolution of the 1960s but did not really see the full expression of the next major stage development until the late 1990s. This next stage was primarily expressed through triple bottom and LOHAS oriented businesses. With this, businesses began to open and expand the way value was measured. The impact of business created in the world was clear and the impact of a single bottom line profit driven company was clear – other things are affect and other things are at stake that affect both revenue and the world. This awareness also considered great spans of time (something we see in personal development too); a good single bottom line decision is not always a good triple bottom line decision and is not always a good revenue decision for long-term sustainability.

I believe the next stage in business evolution will be integral businesses that measure value through a penta bottom line lens: Profit, People, Planet, Principles and Progress. I won’t go into detail about this post, but you can read about it here.

askintegralexperts.com Interview: What is an Integral Business?

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Below I am sharing the written answers from my interview with askintegralexperts.com. Not all of the questions made it into the interview or the final edit, so I have decided to share them here. When you have a moment, check out the interview on askintegralexperts.com. Because of the length of these answers, I have decided to post each separately.

1. I know one of your passions is Integral business. Can you talk a little bit about what Integral business is, what it looks like, and how it functions?

Integral Business is what I am most passionate about right now. I feel business more than anything else currently has the capacity to generate more impact in world and galvanize human change. Almost every single person on this planet is engaged in business (commerce) and everyone is affected by it. It’s no longer a matter of chaos theory: Literally, deforestation in Brazil affects the weather in Texas.

And, in more concrete terms, most people will spend most of their lives working. In a recent Conference Board poll 53% of Americans are dissatisfied with their Jobs, 47% don’t like their immediate supervisor, 48% don’t like their work environment. That’s a lot of unhappiness. And yet that doesn’t cover all that business affects: government, policy, stakeholders, the environment, research, science… the list is huge.

Currently, I think, business is more powerful than any other system on the planet. Business crosses geographic and political boundaries, and business greatly influences and innovates cyber-space. Simply, business is everywhere, and wonderfully it’s changeable.

I have pursued for essentially the entirety of my life how to instigate positive change for others and myself. I began to get really interested in business about five years ago. It was an awakening with universal impact. It was of L.A. Story billboard portions screaming: If you want to create change, look here. And the here is business.

After a lot of consideration, and all ready being a student and member of the integral community, I naturally began looking at what an integral business might look like. And, one thing that I constantly come back to is that the most exciting thing about this work is that no one knows what an integral business really looks like.

I’m not sure a successful integral business exists yet, outside of perhaps a few sole-proprietorships, intellectual property firms, and training and consulting firms – essentially those few consultancy, coaching, training and development firms, and a few very small revenue minimally staffed regional business. We don’t yet have a business that is not in the business of change operating with an integral perspective as an integral organization. We’re a long ways from this.

That said, I am currently building a few businesses with others that are interested in the same. And excitingly, I think we are well on the way to creating this. One of our operations is on track to gross over $1,000,000 in revenue this year. This is a huge and exciting step.

Right now, the majority of work on integral business is academic (Leo Burke, John Forman, Brett Thomas, and Michael Putz’s 2005 paper titled Integral Business), literary (Fred Kofman’s book Conscious Business), and theoretical .

As I said, I am not sure a large-scale, successful integral business exists yet, and I am really passionate about creating them - at least none that I have found. Of course there are inklings and aspects here and there – the work Pacific Integral is doing in leadership, personal development, and organization development and the work Holacracy One is doing in organization design, for example, and I know there are some great people out there exploring progressive business models, like Kevin Clark at Content Evolution. And I don’t feel we have the whole package. Not yet, anyway.

And this is why: In order for anything to be integral, it has to be completely novel – it has to include all that has come before and also be something completely new integrating each component that makes something, well, something (in this case, a business) and this is no easy feat.

Most of what I see coming out of the integral world these days in regards to business is mostly related to leadership development. For example, Kofman says, on the second page of his book, Conscious Business, “My effort is to unlock the black box of leadership” – Conscious Business is really about leadership. Kofman’s Conscious Business is really about conscious people consciously leading. This is great. And it does not fully address business as a whole.

I sense that an integral business will create value in five areas (instead of just profit), and that’s profit, people, planet, progress and principles, and will consider equally, in all it does, the development and motivation of individuals, the actions and outcomes of individuals, the culture of the organization, the effectiveness of the organization’s systems, and the organization’s unique purpose backward and forewords through space and time. When you bring these things together, something novel begins to emerge. An integral business begins to emerge.

The business that I mentioned earlier is an outsource sales and distribution company. We are applying the above principles and awarenesses, and already some amazing things have happened – the organization has a culture like none I have ever experienced in a business context, we are already cash positive after just six months of operating, and, as I mentioned, we’re on track to gross a million dollars in revenue this year. That’s cool!

Though complex, integral business is fairly simple to think and theorize about – the maps aren’t hard – compared to its application, which is very challenging. Consider how hard it is to create a conventional and profitable business. Now take the many essential things that make an integral business and require really developed people to implement while keeping ensuring the organization profitable. This is why I’m so passionate about assisting businesses and people in growth, and creating integral businesses myself – it’s what has to happen.

Follow up: What is the impact that Integral business is having now and what will the impact be once enough businesses awaken to such a thing?

Right now, I think the fully developed impact of integral business has yet to be realized – right now it’s still a vision and a dream for the most part, shared by many people. However, we have been seeing the impact that some of the components have produced. For example, the impact triple bottom line thinking and practice (a value development) has had on both the marketplace and the environment, and the impact social media (a systems development) has had on a company’s orientation to consumers. And, though post-conventional, these shifts in business are not yet integral; they’re birthed from Green Meme consciousness.

I believe that in the future, integral business will be responsible for birthing integral government (Steve McIntosh’s passion), it will integrate spirituality in people’s everyday lives in meaningful and practical ways (what if doing your job was your spiritual practice?), it will care for and protect the environment and the world’s people, and it will become the main force of human development.

Could you imagine going to work to generate your income, engage in your spiritual practice in an explicit way, develop as an individual, care for the environment and for others, while creating and experiencing the life you want to live? That’s an integral business!

Telecourse: Integral Strategic Planning

Friday, March 19, 2010

Integral Strategic Planning is essential for both individuals and leaders that are committed to achieving their very best and the best in their respective organizations in 2010.

Integral Strategic Planning is an integrated process of creating dynamic change and reaching defined goals for both individuals and organizations. This process considers the goals and intentions of the future and establishes a clear, measured and simple path towards achievement, with considered regard for the complexities of our world today.

In this 75-minute course, you will:

• Learn to perceive the present from the future
• Gain tools for perceiving the future from the present
• Discover how to listen to what the future wants
• Create strategic stepping stones that incorporate the complexities of our current time
• Refine your capacity to anticipate resistance and challenge, and plan to avoid these challenges

To register please email kris@kramaconsulting.com

Telecourse: The Seven Relationships of an Integral Business

Friday, March 19, 2010

In the post The Seven Relationships of an Integral Business I discussed the seven essential relationships that an integral business continuously cultivates in order to achieve the Penta Bottom Line. I am now offering a complimentary 1 hour and fifteen minute telecourse discussing The Seven Relationships in detail while offering micro practices and contemplations in each area.

In this course you will gain:

• A greater understanding of what an integral business is
• The key measures of an integral business
• How these measures lead to growth
• Practices and reflections to relate these measures to your life and business

To register, please email kris@kramaconsulting.com.

Patterns of Success

Friday, March 19, 2010

The Seven Relationships of an Integral Business

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

With the complexity of our world today and the volatility of our current market, it’s now more important than ever for consultants and businesses to have a big picture perspective. The 7 relationships of an integral business provides this perspective.

In the blog post It’s Time for the Bottom Line to Get Bigger I discussed the five major bottom line values of an integral business. This is a transcend-and-include hierarchical model from profits-only, to people-planet-profits, to profits-people-planet-principles-progress. This hierarchical line of development for business once realized creates sustainability, long-term success, and greater impact. This, though, is one measure of an integral business. To have a fuller picture, we must consider the Seven Relationships of an integral business.

The penta bottom line is a path of evolutionary growth that looks something like this:


With this view of evolutionary growth, an integral perspective allows for a whole picture recognizing that reality, life, business and all human disciplines exist in several distinct perspectives. If these perspectives are reduced key elements of consideration are lost. The crux of integral theory is the four quadrants, which represent the perspective of the individual interior (subjectivity, thoughts, feelings, worldview, development), individual exterior (actions, objectivity, objects), the collective interior (intersubjectivity, culture, shared value), and the collective exterior (systems, society). Coupled with the evolutionary line of business value, from a singular bottom line to a penta bottom line, we begin to get a more clear picture of what makes a sustainable, profitable and impacting business with great meaning and value.

The last key consideration in an integral perspective is time: past and future. I like to view all of these pieces as relationships. When I analyze a business or an individual, I look at their relationship with each of these elements noting their degree of awareness and action creating a healthy or unhealthy relationship.

In a business system, these seven relationships each hold and create value and profit. Instead of a hammer seeking a nail, we need a big toolbox to build a profitable and sustainable business.


Quadrants:

Individual interior: Development, Worldview, Awareness

Individual exterior: Actions, Roles, Assessment, Customers

Collective interior: Culture

Collective exterior: Systems, Organization Structure, Market

Time:

Past: Data Analysis, Retrospectives

Future: Strategy, Projections

Development:

Value consideration: The Penta Bottom Line


Individual Interior:

This considers individual motivation, perspective, development, and worldview, all which create an individual’s actions making effective and efficient employees, skillful managers, and game-change leaders. Most coaching and development processes focus on individual interior development to improve exterior action and interaction.

Individual Exterior:

The individual exterior perspective views the actions and objective measures of individuals as they engage in their specific role in business. This also considers all of the individual roles (and the people in these roles) that make up a business, and their impact of the business as a whole. The individual exterior also considers a business’ customers.

Collective Interior:

This considers the collective culture created and sustained by each individual of the organization, and is typically steeped from the top down. Though, new and emergent organization models like Holacracy http://www.holacracy.org/ (Collective Exterior) are changing this.

Collective Exterior:

The collective exterior is the key perspective of organization structure, the work environment, and interacting systems (finance, human resources, teams, IT, etc.). This also considers the greater regional, national and world market (depending on the reach of the organization).

Past:

Resting on analysis the perspective of the past includes data analysis (sales, performance, budget, etc.), and specific industry history, and business history as a whole.

Future:

Strategy and projections light the way into the unknown, taking valuable information from the past.

Value Consideration:

A huge leap from traditional business’ singular value consideration of profit-only, the penta bottom line creates a bigger and necessary consideration of value.


A complex world requires complex perspectives. Take time to consider each of these relationships in your life and business. Which are healthy? Which are unhealthy? Have any been reduced or unconsidered? Opening up to a larger bigger and adding more tools to your tool box will build a more profitable and more sustainable business.

Dissonance and Innovation: The Careful Art of Disagreement

Monday, December 28, 2009
There is a lot of focus in businesses and organizations on creating and maintaining “healthy” teams. Healthy in this sense generally means the team efficiently completes its tasks and meets or exceeds its’ goals while everyone gets along. Individuals that challenge the process, question assumptions, or disagree with popular ideas are generally thought of as problems that need solving.

As a consultant working from the outside of organizations I have the pleasure of viewing things from a larger picture, a less entangled place. I’m not in the system so I can see the value of those challenging the system (which is my job as a consultant).

Typically when I work on organization development projects teasing out deep vision, building strategy from the wisdom of the masses, while developing teams and leaders, I often work to support the wisdom of descent. In my and many others experience, indeed overarching in development theory and practice, the wisdom, innovation, and refinement (ultimately: greater success) that dissonance brings is invaluable.

Considering this, it’s interesting that while running a project this fall I became very frustrated with a member on my team for ironically doing what I typically support and praise: questions and challenge. As the project continued and I continued working with this person I noticed a myriad of feelings and thoughts towards team dissonance and challenge.

Sometimes I appreciated it greatly, for his insights we helpful in refining the process and practice we were building. Other times, when his ideas didn’t seem to add value, I successfully (and sometimes unsuccessfully) redirected the disagreement with ease, gained consensus and moved forward. Other times I felt completely frustrated with the disagreement and wanted to say what I never thought I would as a manager, “because I said so and I’m in charge.”

Through the experience I thought a lot about my assumptions around dissonance, disagreement, challenge, and the skillful act of “perturbing the system,” as we say in the development world. It is true that disagreement is essential to any healthy system or relationship (note Lincoln’s Team of Rivals); however, all challenge and no agreement causes the system to fall apart and the process breaks down.

Dissonance, disagreement and challenge, in an organizational context requires great skill and awareness. If the individual is unconscious of the impact and is unskillful in their action, things fall apart fast. Considering my experience on this project, the amount of times this individual’s disagreements caused refinement compared to the times when his disagreements caused breakdown were unbalanced and frustrating for me and the rest of the team – the conversation most often ended in standstill.

A few essential things are necessary for healthy, strategic dissent: a well developed, emotionally aware leader that appreciates the fruit of challenge, a well developed team steeped in refined communication practice, and a well developed dissenter. It takes great awareness in the leader, team, and dissenter to know when the balance between dissonance and resonance tips too far towards dissonance.

As much as I appreciated the refinement that the dissenter in my team created, and the personal challenge and learning of managing this person, I ultimately choose not to bring him on forward on another phase of the project – it was simply too much challenge: dissonance to breakdown.

Each moment is different, each team is different, and each leader and manager is different. It takes great skill and awareness to know where the line rests and moves beyond dissonance towards breakdown and momentary failure. The line between essential challenge leading to innovation and breakdown is very thin.

An essential practice for every team and leader is to engage in challenging conversations and practice skillful moments of dissent. One simple question I like to ask after proposing a new practice or idea to a team I am managing is “who disagrees and what can we do better here?” Practices like these and many others opens the system allowing the disagreement to become a conscious and valued part of the conversation ensuring greater innovation and success for everyone.

Telecourse: Becoming Change - January 20th

Monday, December 28, 2009

Ever feel like you can do better? Do you find yourself in the same action and thinking patterns? Are you on the edge of change and growth but unable to move forward? Do you feel you're being pulled towards something new but are unsure what's next? Are you ready to again step forward into a more conscious, effective, and actionable life?

The world needs your service, vision and hope, and you need the capacities and awareness to offer.

If you have recently found yourself:

• inspired to create change and support others,
• moving through job and career transition and want a new direction,
• seeing a new potential but are unsure how to create it,
• tired of helplessness and are looking for a new empowered conversation,
• interested in shifting the way you feel about our current culture and economy,
• seeking new solutions with hope and vision,

Then Becoming Change - Awareness and Capacities for our Changing World was created for you!

Becoming Change is a course designed to empower effective transition. Through a month and a half, 6 conference calls, and 2 coaching sessions you will be guided through a process of transformation. Stepping into new perspectives, strategies, and a community of support you will create the life that you desire and the world needs.

Through your participation in this course you will get:

• tools to alleviate stress, fear, confusion, and anxiety.
• practices to create a clear picture and open to a broad view.
• empowering experiences of vision and purpose.
• methods to stop knee-jerk reactions and make powerful choices.
• practical processes and support for creating and implementing strategy.
• a community of support and guided, hands-on help.

Join us for a complimentary introductory session on January 20th at 5:00 PM PT (8:00 PM ET). Start your journey of transition, vision, and purpose, and experience an interactive conversation with Kris. You will be given practical tools, a course experience, followed by a question and answer session.

To register please email Kris at kris@kramaconsulting.com

Course Outline:

January 20th, Week One: Complimentary Introduction

January 21st - 26th: Orientation and Intention Coaching Session with Kris

January 27th, Week Two: Becoming Change

February 3rd, Week Three: Transition

February 10th, Week Four: Vision

February 17th, Week Five: Strategy

February 24th, Week Six: Being the Change

February 25th+ Continued Support Coaching Session with Kris


Detailed Information:

Investment: $295 (credit cards accepted)

To register now contact Kris at kris@kramaconsulting.com or call 310.779.8587

Telecourse: Integral Strategic Planning - January 13

Monday, December 28, 2009

Integral Strategic Planning is essential for both individuals and leaders that are committed to achieving their very best and the best in their respective organizations in 2010.

Integral Strategic Planning is an integrated process of creating dynamic change and reaching defined goals for both individuals and organizations. This process considers the goals and intentions of the future and establishes a clear, measured and simple path towards achievement, with considered regard for the complexities of our world today.

In this 75-minute course, you will:

• Learn to perceive the present from the future
• Gain tools for perceiving the future from the present
• Discover how to listen to what the future wants
• Create strategic stepping stones that incorporate the complexities of our current time
• Refine your capacity to anticipate resistance and challenge, and plan to avoid these challenges

To register please email Kris at kris@kramaconsulting.com

Integral Leadership Review Article: It's Time for the Bottom Line to Get Bigger

Monday, November 30, 2009
Check out my latest article in the Integral Leadership Review:

As I’ve discussed recently in my blog Integral Business, the future of sustainable, profitable and socially responsible companies rest well beyond what is now commonly referred to as “triple bottom line” organizations. Indeed an evolutionary step, achieving a triple bottom line status is a great challenge that inspires great merit—it’s a huge accomplishment. And, we need more.

There is a lot of talk in the business world, especially the post-modern business world of value and vision, about the triple bottom line: profit, people and planet, which I think is a great start towards building businesses that are sustainable in the long-term and meaningfully impacting in the short term.

For more...

Mapping the World and the Future

Friday, October 02, 2009

The Inside and Outside (Integral Business III)

Friday, October 02, 2009
Most organizations these days focus the direction of attention and the measurement of value in one direction: outward towards creating profit for shareholders. Profit is good and creating revenue for people that invest in the company is good. However, a much more careful, considerate direction (multidirection) of attention is required for a busy to be an integral organization, and in my opinion adaptable and thus sustainable in the long term. Equal attention to the inside and outside of the organization is essential.

When I talk about the inside of an organization I am talking about:

• Culture
• Organization Norms and Practices
• Management and Leadership
• Process
• Organization Structure
• Strategic Organization Development
• Development of Individuals
• Lines of Communication
• Cultural Brand, Vision, Mission, & Values (the soul of an organization)
  

When I talk about the outside of an organization I am talking about:

• The Product(s) or Service(s)
• Customers (and everything that is necessary to reach them)
  
• Stakeholders
• Shareholders
• Revenue & Profit
• Competition

Most organizations in my experience focus solely on the outside. The rare case of introspection arises when something on the outside is being challenged by something on the inside or when something on the outside is not going well.

An integral business needs to have a multi-attentive-awareness focusing equally on the inside and the outside for the sake of both equally. The inside and outside are symbiotic - they can't really get along well without the other. Sadly, attention is oriented to the outside while the inside is left to sweep the basement. In rich and abundant markets, this is generally okay. Enough capital is pumping through the organization to keep things alive and in many circumstances successful. But when things don't go well, when markets crash, if the interior isn't healthy the pressure and weight of the outside collapses the inside.

The transition to an equal view is not hard. It starts with a few simple questions: do we pay as much attention to the interior of our company as the exterior? Do we have the same rigorous measurements, considerations, and watchers aimed towards the inside as much as the outside? Is there a strategic plan of interior development? Is value and success measured equally by the amount of market share and profit as the flow of communication, quality of leadership and the feel of the culture?

Creating balanced attention is an essential step for creating an integral business, and it starts where it ends: by turning inside.

There Is No Time Like Now

Wednesday, July 29, 2009
"This is a moment in history when the average person has more power than any other time." - Katherine Fulton

We are all rooted in striking and potent processes of social and personal change. Change is happening and change is needed. Freedom is being conscious and empowered in your own process and our shared experience of change. How free are you?

In this video Katherine Fulton looks at five philanthropic innovations and explores the assumptions these innovations challenged. We all walk around with assumptions about ourselves, others, and the world. These assumptions are generally unconscious and tend to go unchallenged. These assumptions guide our lives and inhibit empowered change and growth.




While looking at this video, consider the assumptions you have about yourself keeping you from doing what life is asking from you. What holds you back? Why? Are you sure it's absolutely true? What would you do if it wasn't?

Now Is The Time To Start A New Business

Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Some of our biggest companies today began as a start-up during a recession. There truly is no better time to birth a vision and create a new business.

A recession is one of the best markets to start a new business. A recent study conducted by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation found that more than half, or 51%, of the companies on the Fortune 500 list this year began during a recession or bear market or both. Proctor & Gamble, IBM and GE are just a few of these companies.

With lower start-up costs, a lack of interest in investing in traditional markets, the liquidation of equipment and talent, and a radio active pop corn burst of ideas, visions and intentions explode during a recession. Gaps in services and products become apparent, and the intuitive, willful, and visionary step into these gaps sometimes changing the market and world forever.

There truly is no better time to birth a vision and create a new business.

Krama Consulting is in the business of business and in the business of change. We instigate greater success in businesses and organizations through creating intelligent strategy and communication, while developing business' greatest asset: people. A few of our services are essential for every business start-up:

• Vision & Mission: Your vision is your inspiration, guiding light, and one of your biggest tools in inspiring your employees and customers. Your mission is the way you go about realizing your vision. Sadly most have a vague idea about what they're going for, but few have sat down with the guiding help of another to really become clear and refine their offering to the world. This is essential for every decision you make and directs each turn on your path. We at Krama Consulting offer a very refined and tested process for creating and defining your vision. One recent client said, "Everything in my business is now based on the vision work we did. This is the most important thing I have done for my business ever."

• Business & Strategic Planning:Vision and mission work always leads to business and strategic planning - it becomes the practical vehicle for which you strive towards your vision through your mission. If you already have done serious work around developing your idea and vision, business and strategic planning are the next essential steps.

• Branding, Marketing Plan & Social Media: Your brand is the face of your presence and vision in the world. And your marketing plan is figuratively your brands social calendar - it is the medium through which you share your vision, product and value. Social media is an extension of your marketing plan and customer service, and is a low cost practice for reaching your customers. Establishing a brand that reflects your vision and values and a marketing plan the reaches the people that care is one of the most important things you can do for your business.

• Coaching for New Business Leaders: Running a business is hard. Leading a team is hard. It is essential to have someone that you trust in your corner to listen and advise. We offer both short term and long term coaching paths helping you deal with the business, leadership and relational elements of your business.

Rates for these services depend on the size of your business and the scope and range of the project. Please feel free to call 310.779.8587 or email kris@kramaconsulting.com for a complimentary evaluation and quote.


Krama Consulting is in the business of business and in the business of change. We instigate greater success in businesses and organizations through creating intelligent strategy and communication, while developing business' greatest asset: people.

Our work in the world is to support your work in the world - whether professional or visionary. We want to change the world through making your work, passion projects, and world change initiatives successful, while believing that world change should be a highly profitable endeavor.

You Will

Tuesday, July 21, 2009
In 1993 AT&T released a massive ad campaign called “You will.” How many of them came true? EZ-Pass, books online, video conferencing, and voice recognition technology. How many of them didn’t? Faxing from the beach (touch technology did though), or public phones with Skype built in - who uses a public phone now? I don't even know how they work anymore.

The great thing about this ad campaign is that I take most of these technologies for granted now. They're a part of my every day life. However, not to long ago, they were simply dreams in people's minds and hearts - dreams that were birthed through vision, strategy, and process.

Krama Consulting and Development is about a lot of things (I'm ambitious). But it's mainly about one thing - assisting people in realizing their dreams through vision, strategy and process.

As you watch this video with these commercials, think about your dreams and how they might come.

Best wishes and happy dreaming:

Leading From the Heart II: The Nature of Being

Friday, July 10, 2009
As leaders, coaches, and change agents each of us have so much to give and offer. It seems from the desire to give, the fear of not knowing, and the push for a result we can so easily loose ourselves in the process. I’ve certainly found myself so lost in trying to solve someone’s problem or decide what technique to employ I have completely lost touch becoming removed from myself and the person in front of me.

The large majority of our leadership development and coach training programs focus on technique, tool gathering and process. It's about the processes, metaphors, theory, tools, skills, and such all leading to clear results and understanding, with little attention given, except for perhaps a morning meditation, to yourself and your presence. I like tools, skills, theory, and technique. They are helpful and essential, and we couldn’t do our jobs without them. I wouldn’t be where I am today had I not engaged them. However, what gets lost in this is the most important thing: who the leader coach is will impact people, space and time more than anything else.

Did you see Kung Fu Panda? It’s brilliant, simple and funny, and Jack Black is always jovial. In the film, the secret of Kung Fu is contained in a hidden scroll and much of the film’s journey involves finding the scroll. Upon discovering the scroll we learn that it’s blank except for a simple reflective surface. Perplexed the Panda wanders away to only later discover that the secret to Kung Fu is the reflection, himself – it’s in him and it’s who he is.

Transformation happens because of who you are - it's about you. Change occurs as a result of your presence, listening, attention, and seeing. Insight and development happens because you show up in each moment. Tools and techniques are expressions and extensions of your rich and present interior. Metaphors are good, detached questioning is good, and other techniques, both hands off and on, are good too. But they’re really only as good as your attention and only as big as your heart.

In developing your leadership and impact, work as much on yourself as you do on your technique. Cultivate your being presence, what ever your unique expression of that is. Bring yourself to your coaching sessions trusting that this is enough. Bring your watchful presence to your leadership experiences trusting this is enough. Don’t show up to use shiny tools, though important, and achieve results, which will happen; show up to be fully you and trust that this is enough always. Spend less time in the moment trying to figure out what technique or method is going to get the results, and trust that you, just you, will create the impact that is necessary.

Trusting that you're enough is where leadership and change begins and ends. All of the amazing tools and techniques we have created to instigate change and growth are expressions of the transformative you.

Telecourse: Becoming Change – Essential Awareness and Capacities for our Changing World

Monday, July 06, 2009

Ever feel like you can do better? Do you find yourself in the same action and thinking patterns? Are you on the edge of change and growth but unable to move forward? Do you feel you're being pulled towards something new but are unsure what's next? Are you ready to again step forward into a more conscious, effective, and actionable life?


If you have recently found yourself:

* inspired to create change and support others,
* moving through job and career transition and want a new direction,
* seeing a new potential but are unsure how to create it,
* tired of helplessness and are looking for a new empowered conversation,
* interested in shifting the way you feel about our current culture and economy,
* seeking new solutions with hope and vision,


Then Becoming Change - Awareness and Capacities for our Changing World was created for you!

Becoming Change is a course designed to empower effective transition. Through a month, 4 conference calls, and 2 coaching sessions you will be guided through a process of transformation. Stepping into new perspectives, strategies, and a community of support you will create the life that you desire and the world needs.

Through your participation in this course you will get:

* tools to alleviate stress, fear, confusion, and anxiety.
* practices to create a clear picture and open to a broad view.
* empowering experiences of vision and purpose.
* methods to stop knee-jerk reactions and make powerful choices.
* practical processes and support for creating and implementing strategy.
* a community of support and guided, hands-on help.


Join us for a complimentary introductory session on August 5th at 5:00 PM PDT (8:00 PM EDT). Start your journey of transition, vision, and purpose, and experience an interactive conversation with Kris. You will be given practical tools, a course experience, followed by a question and answer session.

To register please email Kris at kris@kramaconsulting.com



August 5th, Week One: Complimentary Introduction

August 5th - 11th: Orientation and Intention Coaching Session with Kris

August 12th, Week Two: Becoming Change

August 19th, Week Three: Transition

August 26th, Week Four: Vision

September 2nd, Week Five: Strategy

September 3rd+ Continued Support Coaching Session with Kris



Investment: $295

To Register Now:

Contact Kris at kris@kramaconsulting.com or 310.779.8587

Beyond The Triple Bottom Line (Integral Business II)

Friday, July 03, 2009
There is a lot of talk in the business world, especially the post-modern new business world of value and vision, about the Triple Bottom Line: profit, people, and planet. I like this approach. I think it's a great start towards building businesses that are sustainable in the long-term and impacting, meaningful in the short term. However, an integral business needs to go beyond this.

I know some of us are just getting our feet wet to the idea and practice of the Triple Bottom Line. For some of us, it's not even yet on the radar. An integral business of profit and impact needs a Penta Bottom Line. I was going to add just one more to the mix (quadruple bottom line), but we, as a business community, need to take a huge leap. Now.

The Penta Bottom Line: Profit, People, Planet, Principles, and Progress.

Most when talking about the Triple Bottom Line put profit last, as in: planet, people, profit. I think this is wonderfully visionary, and yet it fails to acknowledge that a business exists, in my perspective, to primarily create capital. Certainly, not at the harm of the other points on the bottom line, but it's primary reason for being a business, is again, making money. Otherwise, it would be a non-profit or something different.

I assume most of you understand profit, people, and planet, so I will explain principles and progress.

Principles: Rules are out. Principles are in. Principles act as guides and measures in vision, strategy, process, operations, and out-reach. Principles are interactive, directive voices in the process of decision making. Rules are rigid, limit creativity, and exist to create measured and tested results. Principles, on the other hand, acknowledge that our world is complex, changing, and unstable. No longer will rigid rules work to guide organizations that need dynamic and responsive action in a rapidly changing market and business landscape - we need interactive principles. What are the known and unknown principles that guide the decisions in your organization? Do you like them? Are they effectively guiding the outcomes you desire? Do you need a guiding principles tune-up?

Progress: I forced myself to stick with P's, but by progress I really mean development. Integral businesses consider the development of their people, culture, organizations, and the systems they interact with as important as profit. A direct investment in the development of each employee in your organization is a direct investment in your organization. Development programs are generally geared towards management (which is great and certainly needed) and those that are really screwing up, but what would your organization look like if it valued the development of each person, group, and the world around you? How can you create systems where each person is given the chance to build capacities and self?

By operating with a Penta Bottom Line, your organization opens up the sphere and valuation of success to areas that directly relate to your organization's success in the short-term and long-term.

As always, more on this soon.

Integral Business I: Short-Term and Long-Term

Thursday, July 02, 2009
For the purpose of this blog and post, business is defined as any operation creating capital increase. The hub of a business is making money. This, of course, doesn’t mean that businesses can’t do other things, as they both do and need to – look for a future post: Penta Bottom Line. This simply means that the creation of new capital is the generalizing principle for all things defined as business.

The core intention of this blog is to illustrate what an integral business is, how it operates, and how it is created. My assumption is an integrally framed business will ultimately be more profitable and sustainable (meaning: existing for a longer period of time) than a business that is not.

Businesses typically focus on capital and profit. This makes sense given that business’ organizing and general principle is generation of new capital; however, in our contemporary world with stockholders and stakeholders operating at multiple levels, this has come to mean consistent quarterly increases with solid strategy reaching generally about three quarters out.
An integral business considers many different things as essential to both its existence and profitability. Short-term profit growth is important, as is long term. There are many examples of individuals and organizations that have made decisions that boosted short-term increases, but were ultimately detrimental in the long-term (both to profit and sometimes the viability of the organization).

I recommend that organizations visionize and strategize ten years forward. I understand that ten years is a very long time. Things change rapidly in this world: the market, technology, governments and law, generational preferences in the workforce, social values, and the environment. However, with the assistance of forecasting, intuition, and highly developed leaders and strategists, a ten-year vision and strategy is not simply possibly, but functional and necessary.

Visions and strategies are not fixed, concrete things. They are meant to be dynamic, adjustable, and molded with the feedback of the market and further insight. Though they adjust over time, vision and strategy becomes the guide for every decision made in the present moment. Each decision for profit in the present is measured against a ten-year vision and strategy, and the evaluation considers both short-term and long-term impact (imagine if Enron did this).

An integral business works dynamically in the present while always keeping its sight ten years forward. The relationship and tension between the present and the future (while considering the past) more greatly enables a business for present and future profitability.