Growth and Employment Models

The policy prescriptions, industry models and performance incentives that emerged from an era of consumption and debt-driven growth must be transformed to deliver quality growth. Growth that is sustainable, entrepreneur-driven and employment-creating should be the outcome of the rebalancing and deleveraging of the global economy.

Leadership and Innovation Models

The leading countries and global governance institutions of the Cold War era must create space for major emerging economies, private sector institutions and multi-stakeholder partnerships. These new actors should have the responsibility not only to address important global and regional challenges but also to introduce innovative solutions.

Sustainability and Resource Models

The realization that human activities have a major impact on Earth’s ecosystem must drive future changes in behaviour and policies. Our ecological footprint will have to be fully internalized in business models.

Social and Technological Models

The next wave of technological innovation, particularly in life sciences, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence, will not just deliver productivity gains but will also transform us by adding new dimensions to our lives. As the “Internet of things” that connects billions of sensors and devices becomes a reality, stakeholders should work together to safeguard the knowledge, data and networks that are critical resources for our future development.

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…and I say all of these are laudable.

AND, let’s add one more – one that perhaps could become an umbrella “model” for all the others because it is a condition for the success of them all:

A Spiritual Model

The world needs a reinvention of current thinking in order to move us away from a competitive model based on separateness, to a new one based on collaboration and the recognition of oneness. Economic, climate, religious, technological and intellectual events are no longer local – everything is global. We are our brother’s keepers. This new model can simply be described as one where we first consider the impact our decisions, conversations, laws and actions before we introduce or implement them.  “Will this inspire others?” is a prerequisite condition that, if asked, can help us to build the world we are all seeking. We can begin here.

World leaders have a responsibility, along with all of the rest of us, to assume responsibility for setting the tone and the pace of this change of thinking.  We need it today more than ever.

For a long time we have known that having a dream is an integral part of greatness – in sports, in politics, in business, in religion – in life. Yet we are still married to the boring old vanilla methods of “mission, vision and values statements”. We take the tired old way, because it is familiar and “everyone does it”.

Knowing that you wish to be the “best, most customer-focused and successful [name your industry] organization in the land”, will cause eyes to roll, and smart-phones to be activated to relieve the boredom. Anyway, we are not interested in you – we want to know how you will serve, make a difference and make the world a better place – not how you are going to be big and rich. A mission statement may be about you, but a dream is about how you will serve others.

Leadership is about inspiring people, and they are inspired by dreams – in the Arab spring, the Olympics, the Stanley Cup finals, in great democracies, in cities and states, at home, in our marriages, in art and sports, and in great organizations.

Start your own revolution – a revolution of excitement, passion, renewal and uniqueness – create a dream – for you in your own life, and for your organization. Then lead your team to the dream. Marvel at the inspiration and passion that you arouse.

In celebration of the release of The Power of Your Past, John will be leading a complimentary teleseminar on Thursday, April 21^st at 5:30 PM Pacific time (8:30 PM Eastern). Whether your top priorities right now are personal or professional in nature, join John for what will be a thought-provoking and inspiring conversation.

Special Note: If you buy the book on April 13th, all the proceeds go to Whole Child International. To sign up for the free teleseminar and to learn more about John Schuster and Whole Child International, simply click right here.

Today, she launches her new book The MAP: Finding the Magic and Meaning in the Story of Your Life.† In this excellent work, she points out that we all†have a powerful personal map that reveals our lifeís journey and she shows us how to†plot points on this map to discover all the archetypal landscapes we have been throughóthe plains of pain, mountains of joy, mirages, beautiful oases, wastelands, and moreóthe reader becomes the mapmaker with the ultimate capacity to shape their own destiny.

When Colette first began working as an intuitive counselor some 22 years ago, she help my wife and I make dramatic shifts by encouraging us to envision our lives as a Map and look at the details of our inner landscapes. Since that time, Colette has worked with over 33,000 clients using this process and has helped many achieve remarkable inner and outer transformations. These discoveries and successes led to the design of the MAP described in her new book, The Map: Finding the Magic and Meaning in the Story of Your Life!

With The Map, Colette shows you how to use the magic of metaphors to delve into the most profound aspects of your subconscious, the places within you that light the way to lasting change. As you discover the details of your inner landscapes, you can transform negative experiences from your past or present. Whatís more, you can also choose to navigate to a desirable location on this interior map, to a place where youíll find joy, excitement, balance, and serenity. Change where you are on the inside and the emotions and qualities you experience internally will†take form in your everyday life.

My life work is about creating inspiring lives and inspiring corporations, which, in turn, can†lead to an inspiring world.† Colette has added a great gift to this cause by writing this book.

How things have changed.

Today, this phrase has a certain cringe-inducing feeling about it and, in a way, its poor fit for a post-Great-Recession world represents both what we have lost,†and what we long for.

In a phrase, we want our world back – the world where the aspirations of corporations and those of people are aligned – where what is good for the company is good for America.

This will require a deep rethink of††organizational beliefs and leadership style.† To get our world back, we might consider making these “Eight Aspirations for 2011″ our Corporate New Year Resolutions:

1. Will what we plan be good for people, the planet and the bottom line?
2. Will people LOVE our organization because of our actions?
3. Will our strategies, policies and practices inspire?
4. Will we set the standards that raises the bar for the rest?
5. Will everything we write and say stand public scrutiny years from now?
6. If WikiLeaks distributed our emails, would we be proud?
7. Will the rest of the world copy our exemplary behavior?
8. Will we be heroes to our children?

Let’s commit to living these “Eight Aspirations for 2011″ during the twelve months ahead, and then meet again a year from now, knowing we progressed and helped the world become a better place – a world that is closer to the one we long for.