“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities.”
- Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) (1904 - 1991)
In Part 1 of Reality, Fantasy and Sustainability, I presented the notion that sustainability relies upon two seemingly paradoxical ideas:
1.) Learning to distinguish between elements of reality and fantasy, and
2.) Blurring the lines between the two.
I focused on the first idea of learning to distinguish between the “worlds” of reality and fantasy and presented the following diagram to illustrate a few points:
The first point is that we as individuals serve as a gateway between these two worlds and our minds are where they meet. Secondly, the world of fantasy is limitless and cannot be changed (or like a planet’s gravity it holds too much relative influence for us to change). Thirdly, our minds act as a filter and allow us to perceive reality while “channeling” fantasy. Fourthly, for us to change our reality (which I argue is desperately in need of changing), we must change our minds. Lastly, mistakenly viewing reality as immutable can lead to higher levels of escapism, introspection, distress, depression, defiance and a host of other “flight or fight responses”.
In Part 2, I would like to concentrate upon the many ways we have found to positively blur the lines between reality and fantasy and make them work for us. Why?
Because I can.
Why “Sustainability”?
I think it’s important to first clarify what I mean by “sustainability”, because I think this word is misunderstood and overused. As of late, the word “sustainability” has come to mean having to do with the environment, especially when it comes to the generation of power and/or pollution. Webster’s defines sustainability as “to keep up or keep going, as an action or process”. I look at sustainability in the context of the furtherance in the evolution of the human race.
Before the human race first appeared on this planet, the various flora and fauna evolved using what
But with our new understanding and dominance of the planet, we have hit a plateau. We have won the contest through cooperative means yet there are still the old signs of competition everywhere; sometimes friendly, sometimes not. The professional sports industry thrives upon “healthy” competition and what we deem to be rules of “sportsmanship”. Our economy also thrives upon what we like to think is “healthy” competition, but in light of our recent global economic crisis, we have seen signs of humanity turning on itself through greed and abuses of power.
If we begin to step back and look at the “unreality” of the “reality” we have created we might see that if we took the sum of all debt in this world in relation to all the potential earnings of the world, our global economies are in the red without any means of ever paying it back. With this in mind, we should realize that the system we created is not sustainable and will only continue to cause humanity to eat itself alive. We even have historical precedence of such a thing happening: the Rapanui people of Easter Island, the Mayans of Central America, the Anasazi of the American Southwest, the Mali & Songhai of Western Africa.
The “Beauty Part”
While we have historical precedent of humanity wiping itself out, we also have precedent of utilizing elements of fantasy, through innovative means to solve real-world problems. Here are just a few examples:
Strategic & Goal Planning
Any successful organization must have an idea of where it’s going and how it’s going to get there. A strategic plan with subsequent supporting goals provides the roadmap by which the organization gets from Point A to Point B. Most experts will tell you that starting out in such a process requires a certain time set aside for visioning and dreaming (fantasy) outside of the normal flow of day-to-day business. Once we determine the direction, we begin identifying all the obstacles and risks (reality) associated with causing our plans to fail. Knowing the obstacles and risks, we can then derive solutions to overcome them (fantasy) and subsequent goals and action steps (reality).
The Internet
There is no doubt that the Internet is one of humankind’s most significant achievements. What started out as a military project has blossomed into a virtual world (fantasy) unto itself that has allowed us to bridge long distances over short periods of time to reconnect with long-lost friends and colleagues (reality), keep in touch with family overseas (reality), develop commerce (reality), promote ourselves (reality), our products and our services (reality), develop new business models (reality) and collaborate (reality). Unlike the real world of real estate which is experiencing its own challenges at the moment, real estate on the internet is relatively cheap. Anyone can establish their own presence and be who they choose (for better or worse). And while most social media organizations have yet to monetize the operations, social media remains the largest draw to the internet today.
Credit
Sure…credit markets are tight now and they, along with other debt-based financing tools are what got us into our global economic crisis to begin with, but there is something extremely useful to getting what we want now (reality) by utilizing a scheme of imaginary credit (backed by real and sometimes, imaginary money) and a repayment scheme (reality) when we lack the real money we need.
CAD/CAE/CAM
When we want to present a new product idea, we must present a proof-of-concept or prototype. In the old days this was costly as one would have to construct the product first to see if it worked as planned, which took time and considerable expense. In today’s world, we can utilize computer-aided drawing/computer-aided engineering and computer-aided manufacturing to create a virtual drawing board (fantasy) to which we apply the known laws of the physical universe (reality) to test and refine it. Once satisfied with the result, we can bring it forth into reality.
Virtualization
To support a virtual world of collaboration, innovation, commerce, etc., we need to support such an ecosystem with real hardware. Unfortunately, real hardware like servers, routers and switches rely upon an increasing a mount of physical space, controlled environments and power consumption, which is all costly (in real money). Current trends in computing show a movement towards virtualization through such products as VMWare’s VSphere and Microsoft’s Hyper-V which allow for the reduction in the number of servers via software tools. Cisco’s relatively recent release of
My Conclusion
I believe that we are now standing at the crossroads of humanity, and have only two options: change or die. As a parent of three children, I choose the former.
To do this, I feel that there are several metrics that have not been established into the mainstream that would allow us to better monitor our progress towards sustainability. The first of which I mentioned in Part 1 of this series: hours spend doing escapist activities. This measures an organization’s (company, government, network) ability to truly get buy-in for their various initiatives. A high figure is an indicator that the current direction does not benefit all constituents, the environment for supporting innovation and creativity is lacking or the rules/policies may be to constrictive and controlling. A low figure indicates that most constituents agree with the direction, innovation and creativity is supported and there is less need for controls as all constituents do not need to be forced into compliance. I do believe that this indicator can be too low and that there is an acceptable operating level that would need to be established under empirical studies.
Another metric that I have mentioned in the past is Relationship Capital which is based upon individual perception of all members of a network (see January, 2009’s Relationship Capital in the Workplace for more on this subject). As the saying goes, “perception is reality” therefore I believe this metric can also be used as an indicator.
There are still another missing piece of the puzzle not answered here, such as knowing when an organization (or an individual) is too lopsided in either reality or fantasy to ensure its own sustainability. I have developed another tool called WingspanTM which I plan to introduce in a future article which addresses this.
I believe that with such metrics in place as well as fostering an environment of open-mindedness, where we replace the negative connotations of “idealistic”, “pie-in-the-sky”, “not based in reality” and “airy-fairy” to describe ideas and worse yet, people with “visionary”, “innovative” and “creative”, we can all make a positive move towards sustainability. Why?
Adam J. Kovitz is the Chairman & Founder of The National Networker Group of Companies, which publish The National Networker, provide member services and consulting as well as branding and social media domination.
Hire Adam to speak at your next conference by emailing info@thenationalnetworker.com.
The Emergence of the Relationship Economy
Relationship Capital is the cornerstone of the Relationship Economy, which RNIA defines as “a measurement assigned to individual and organizational entities based on the relationship interactions between them, and the interactions they have internally.” I am proud to have contributed discussion of the Ten Laws of Relationships Capital to The Emergence of the Relationship Economy, now out as an eBook and in hardcopy. With a forward written by Doc Searls (of Cluetrain Manifesto fame), it is being considered a “must read” for anyone responsible for the strategic direction of their business. If you would like to purchase your own copy of The Emergence of the Relationship Economy, please click here.
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