Beyond Business As Usual

Wherever we are in the quality movement, there is more to discover--to explore. Today, quality serves business as a way of increasing profits. That is one end of a spectrum. Tomorrow, quality takes business into the rest of the spectrum. In this new dimension, business learns to serve, and be served, from a foundation of unconditional love. At the other end of the spectrum is quality's far-reaching goal--the attainment of harmony between people and the entire cosmos. This goal reveals the gap, and steps, between it and what we do today. This book is intended for explorers and pioneers. It is not for those who are comfortable in today's paradigms. It is for those who search and yearn for new ways bring heart into the world of business and society. It is not for those who are comfortable living an unexamined and changeless life. It is for those who sense a thrill in the heart with the changes of each new day. Experience, not dry learning, is the heart of this book. For this reason, "Practical Exercises" are included in most of the chapters. They are experiences of things that can be known, but not told or taught. Without the exercises, your knowing will be superficial. With them, you can enter into dimensions unknown to you today. Michael W. Munn, Ph.D., heads the Gaia Center for Quality in Palo Alto, California. He provides keynotes, experiential change seminars, and business quality workshops. Strategic planning, executive development, proposal, and reengineering efforts are among the topics of his workshops.

The revised and expanded edition includes new information, new teaching resources, and perspectives gained in the last eight years, as well as the General Convention resolutions of 2015. Beyond Business as Usual is full of resources for forming the vestry as a learning community. It deals with the "soft" side of leadership that enables the pastor and vestry together to journey along the leadership path. Each chapter can be read and reviewed at a series of vestry meetings or as part of a vestry retreat, and includes questions for group and individual discussion. The book also contains resources for vestries, based upon different preferred learning styles, for the formation part of the vestry meeting or retreat.

Wherever we are in the quality movement, there is more to discover--to explore. Today, quality serves business as a way of increasing profits. That is one end of a spectrum. Tomorrow, quality takes business into the rest of the spectrum. In this new dimension, business learns to serve, and be served, from a foundation of unconditional love. At the other end of the spectrum is quality's far-reaching goal--the attainment of harmony between people and the entire cosmos. This goal reveals the gap, and steps, between it and what we do today. This book is intended for explorers and pioneers. It is not for those who are comfortable in today's paradigms. It is for those who search and yearn for new ways bring heart into the world of business and society. It is not for those who are comfortable living an unexamined and changeless life. It is for those who sense a thrill in the heart with the changes of each new day. Experience, not dry learning, is the heart of this book. For this reason, "Practical Exercises" are included in most of the chapters. They are experiences of things that can be known, but not told or taught. Without the exercises, your knowing will be superficial. With them, you can enter into dimensions unknown to you today. Michael W. Munn, Ph.D., heads the Gaia Center for Quality in Palo Alto, California. He provides keynotes, experiential change seminars, and business quality workshops. Strategic planning, executive development, proposal, and reengineering efforts are among the topics of his workshops.

This report summarizes the findings of the ARC discovery project, Reconfiguring the enterprise: shifting manufacturing culture in Australia (DP # DP160101674). Research conducted between 2016 and 2019 collected data from 10 manufacturing enterprises, across diverse sectors, scales and organisational forms through in-depth interviews, site visits and workshops. The project's main finding is that there is a culture of manufacturing that is beyond business as usual in Australia. This report counters ill-founded fears that manufacturing in Australia is dead by presenting convincing evidence of dynamic companies that are committed to just and sustainable manufacturing practices. It demonstrates how there is a viable future for manufacturing in Australia in the 21st century that is being shaped by a culture that is beyond business as usual. Through the case examples we uncovered how this new manufacturing culture: a) maintains firm viability and thereby safeguards manufacturing in Australia; b) provides decent jobs in an inclusive society and thereby builds a more just manufacturing sector; and c) produces with a smaller ecological footprint and thereby builds a more environmentally sustainable manufacturing sector. These economic, social and ecological goods are realised in these firms through practical commitments expressed in the daily enterprise operations and over time.The findings are significant for Australia. Manufacturing supports 1.27 million jobs in Australia. It plays a major role in the social inclusion, nurturing the productive capacity of people from many different backgrounds and experiences. It is a point of concentration for innovation and investment in R&D.However, the current business as usual model is no longer viable. Growth without regard for a social licence to produce is no longer acceptable. Nor is growth with disregard for the environmental impacts of production and consumption. The new culture of manufacturing rewrites the social licence for enterprises. It is building viable firms with the capacity to withstand threats that might undermine the sector. At the same time, their ongoing commitments and practices are helping Australia address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 9 Industry Innovation and Infrastructure, and SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production.

Business as usual is extinct. Disruption and social pressure are the new norm and change is inevitable for enterprises of all kinds--businesses, governments, non-profits and social institutions. We've reached a turning point and it's time to evolve or go the way of the dinosaurs. Teaching the Dinosaur to Dance provides the roadmap enterprise builders and rebuilders need to rethink, redesign, and revitalize their organizations to remain relevant and sustainable in a new and very different future: Offers fresh approaches to organizational leadership and strategy, and highlights the personal leadership capabilities required to adapt to a new reality. Guides enterprise teams in setting core organizational values and purpose. Shows how to increase your enterprise's engagement with a wider range of stakeholders to understand a more diverse range of viewpoints. Includes three practical tools and user guides to support your organization in designing a new path forward.

A pragmatic new business model for sustainability that outlines eight steps that range from exploring a mission to promoting innovation; with case studies. Many recent books make the case for businesses to become more sustainable, but few explain the specifics. In this book, Francisco Szekely and Zahir Dossa offer a pragmatic new business model for sustainability that extends beyond the traditional framework of the triple bottom line, describing eight steps that range from exploring a vision and establishing a strategy to implementing the strategy and promoting innovation. Szekely and Dossa argue that businesses and organizations need to move away from the business case for sustainability toward a sustainable business model. That is, businesses should go beyond the usual short-term focus on minimizing harm while maximizing profits. Instead, businesses on the path to sustainability should, from the start, focus on addressing a societal need and view profitability not as an end but as a means to support the sustainable organization. Szekely and Dossa explore key problems organizations face when pursuing a sustainability agenda. Each chapter presents one of the eight steps, describes a business dilemma for sustainability, provides a theoretically grounded strategic framework, offers case studies that illustrate the dilemma, and summarizes key findings; the case studies draw on the experiences of such companies as Tesla Motors, Patagonia, TOMs, and Panera. The book emphasizes leadership, arguing that leaders who question the status quo, inspire others, and take risks are essential for achieving sustainable business practices.

An excellent read for entrepreneurs, corporate business leaders, board members, and strategists aiming to future-proof their business by integrating sustainability into the very core. This book offers a way forward, helps you understand the Sustainability Revolution, and provides valuable insights into the journeys and strategic choices of sustainability trailblazers such as Patagonia, Interface, Ørsted, Unilever, IKEA, Oatly, and others. Because you are not the first company to discover the potential in doing well by doing good, or as William Gibson said: "The future is already here - it's just not very evenly distributed". Still, many wicked problems urgently need innovative solutions. Solutions that the world of business is particularly well equipped to address through the ingenuity, creativity, collaboration, and resources that it can so often call forth more effectively and efficiently than other human organizations. Here and now, this requires a move beyond business as usual and a transformation into Better Business.