The 4th Dimension of Business.

Many people we talk to in business are suggesting that the economic challenges we face today are the catalysts for a new era.

It seems fairly obvious that in the West we are heading towards a global-centric stage of development and we will require a considerable amount of aligned energy and intelligence going forward if we are to succeed and recover from the current crisis.

At 4D we believe the new era is the era of 'human being’ in the work place and the further evolution of human potential in general.

As healthy business practices are the foundations of healthy economies and ultimately healthy societies, we feel this is an exciting time. If we get it right.

Most successful Western businesses have already successfully satisfied the needs required to flourish in 3 basic dimensions:

• Resources - Finance, knowledge, technology and workers.
• Organisation - Hierarchy, systems and processes.
• Status - Brand and market position through customer relationships and community.

But what's required now is galvanising the fourth dimension.

This is the collective energy and intelligence generated by the talent, attitude and behaviour of an organisation's people. This is the key differentiator in a competitive market place. The energy and intelligence of it's people is a company’s best asset and the greatest resource available is human creativity.

Ecology, sociology and psychology can tell us more about the workings of the human mind and our connection to the environment than at any time in our history. We are at the dawn of a new understanding of ourselves and the eco- systems that both created us and those we create and operate within. We can no longer ignore the fact that we are connected, in a profound and fundamental way to all of humanity and the environment. The actions of business can no longer operate in isolation from its people or the rest of the global system.

However, in the past people may have been expected to selflessly give up their values, ideas and beliefs and become merged with a whole in service of a tribe, a community, a society a nation or a company. This is currently becoming unacceptable to many people today and in the past few years has led to uprisings, continued dysfunction and the failure of nations, cultures and businesses alike.

We are now heading for an age where the focus is on personal awareness, realisation of potential and individual uniqueness and autonomy together with a greater sense of belonging and being part of something much bigger. This brings with it an enhanced sense of individual empowerment but, at the same time the need to take responsibility for our actions, create alignment and be mindful of the right use of power.

Here are some possible tenets for evolved, 4 dimensional thinking for business leaders.

Creative behaviour is innate, necessary and fundamental and expresses itself in an environment of growth, freedom and optimism.

Destructive behaviour is contingent, born of frustration and fear and expresses itself in an environment of stasis, restriction and authoritarian control.

Evolution is an absolute and universal law. Any organisation that does not evolve will be unsustainable.

Allowing an individual to pursue their own self-interest, but in a way that automatically benefits everyone else, whether they mean to or not, is the secret to the new evolution of business.

Ensure your organisation's culture makes everyone feel free to create, develop and evolve, important, needed, useful, successful, proud, respected, rather than unimportant, interchangeable, anonymous, wasted, underused, expendable and disrespected.

Bearing in mind that the work we do becomes part of our identity and the way others define us, our work must authentically express who we are on all levels. This requires, courage, honesty and an absence of fear.

Help people find meaning in their organisations. If we find no meaning in our daily activity we may eventually feel our lives to be meaningless.

Ensure as people develop they are given responsibility and power, rather than left in a state of passive dependency.

Organisations that share information across departments with increased employee involvement perform significantly better than organisations that are run autocratically.

Flexibility and adaptability will be significantly related to financial success in the future.

Leadership roles should be interchangeable and needs based not awarded on length of service alone.

Managers and leaders should be enlisted from experts in their particular field and lead based on their knowledge not on their ability to intimidate or wield power.

Companies that will succeed in the future will be those that are closer to a natural organism in the way they function. Committed to continued evolution for the good of all, both inside and outside of the business. Like the human immune system, the energised and evolving organisation is constantly aware, and reflecting on the patterns and habits of it’s systems and processes, checking for any dysfunction. This would require a ‘no blame’ culture in order to encourage the workforce to be vigilant and take responsibility to openly flag up and address challenging issues helping to keep the organisation open and healthy.

The 4th dimension of an evolving organisation is the energy and intelligence of people operating as an integrated whole.

And we could really do with some new ideas!