Bridges To Knowledge: A Blog by Barry Camson

Be Careful What You Wish For

Having spent a good deal of time reviewing countless articles on industrial symbiosis, the circular economy and everything in between, I have come up with one overarching reaction which is: Be careful what you wish for.

It is challenging to take even a modestly critical view of what are important ideas and initiatives in our effort to alter our industrial framework to reduce the effects of climate change and other deleterious impacts on the environment. My defense is to quote Aristotle in saying, we should try to follow the "Golden Mean" - everything in moderation.

In this case, this is more an admonition to think carefully about what we are doing and not simply jump into action without considering fully the implications of our efforts. We obviously cannot afford to be inactive. However, we should try not to rush into unthoughtful action allowing our enthusiasm to get us into other - though different predicaments.

Integrating Ecosystem and Value Chain Design in Sustainability Efforts

There are several important questions with regard to using design to improve sustainability in organizations. The first is how does one take a large-scale ecosystem perspective to design while also maintaining a more detailed, linear value chain perspective. The second is what role does the customer journey and experience play regarding these two perspectives especially in large systems. This post looks at both of these.

Adaptive Design For Collaborative Ecosystems

This article sets out a working description of a collaborative ecosystem in which value is co-created. It describes what needs to be attended to in the process of adaptive design for the ecosystem. It sets out a path forward in pursuing adaptive design for a collaborative ecosystem.

Are you an Ecosystem?

Being an ecosystem involves recognizing all those engaged in the co-creation of value and in ongoing relationships with one another constituting a larger network. This is qualitatively different from seeing your organization plus all of the business relationships it has with its different providers and stakeholders. It is different from seeing your customer or client as the recipient of the goods or services that you develop.

Creating Sustainable Value Chains

Taking a value chain approach is particularly helpful when addressing how to build in sustainability as an integral part of a large and complex organization. The overarching goal in such an effort is to make the entire organization as well as its ecosystem of suppliers and customers more sustainable. These approaches differ significantly from previous efforts of "greenwashing" the organization or creating a separate sustainability function divorced from the daily life of the organization. The current recognition reflects the importance of making sustainability part of the daily mission and work of each person in the organization.

This post sets out the steps that can be used to accomplish this.

These steps are derived from two Harvard and Stanford business cases, dealing with Unilever and Walmart respectively. The steps tend to be iterative and will apply differently depending on specific conditions.

 

 

The Polysemous Organization

The organization or political jurisdiction of the Newtonian age and the following Industrial Age was one in which all could be reduced to a singularity.

The Newtonian world-view held that it is possible to arrive at a perfect, objective representation of the world outside us which in turn allows us to accurately predict all phenomena. In this mechanistic paradigm, one could attain simplicity, coherence and completeness. The Newtonian approach had a great influence on the scientific and organizational world for most of the next three hundred years. In this world, one finds predominant the idea of one meaning, one fixed structure of governance, one defined process and one person doing the governing.

It is shocking then to realize that Shakespeare who was writing a century before Newton does not at all subscribe to this singular view of reality. In creating a world where multiple, potential meanings abound, Shakespeare provides a guiding path to our own future.

Value Propositions In Networks

We are learning that networks as a means of conducting business or creating social change cannot be treated like our traditional "bricks and mortar" organizations. This is true for both networks made up of individuals and those composed of member organizations. It is important to understand how networks differ from traditional organizations. This, in turn, leads us to changing the way we respond to networks in our efforts to help develop and improve them. Thinking of networks in terms of their value propositions can be very helpful in working effectively with networks.

Whither The Value Chain - Does It Have A Role In Our Future?

Over the last two decades we have seen a growing sophistication in discussing and using the concept of a value chain. In my own experience, this has consisted of the use of more well-developed approaches for understanding and redesigning linear processes especially the use of socio-tehcnical systems design (STS). We practitioners then experimented with non-linear design recognizing the increasing role of knowledge work. Others worked to perfect the value chain concept talking about what to do with the white spaces in between steps and extending the value chain on a global basis. Throughout all of this, the underlying assumption was that of the almost inviolate value chain even as we saw it as being less and less linear.

The challenge I believe we are facing now is what role does the value chain have in a network of providers. Can you have a value proposition without having a value chain? If so, then how is value produced? How do you account for the transformation of goods and services from raw materials to finished output? Does a value chain provide more room for maneuver than a supply chain?

Supporting The Further Development Of Israeli Civil Society

What will it take for NGO's in Israel to survive and be successful in the globally competitive environment for NGO funding? This post pursues this question and reflects on issues in the development of civil society in Israel.

The CVO Network: An Innovative Approach To Leveraging Resources In The NGO Sector, Part 4

This is the last post in this series about the CVO network in Haifa, Israel. The previous post dealt with interaction and knowledge sharing in the CVO network. This post will look at examples of CVO successes and the dynamics among the various aspects of the CVO network.

Acknowledging and Sharing Success

CVO is proud of the courses that it runs. Yael Abada, the CVO Director stated, "organizations outside of Haifa come to us and say that they want to be in the course, in the network. Courses are very professional. People get a lot of knowledge, tools, connections."

Another accomplishment of CVO is being a local infrastructure which is very unique in Israel. Yael said, there is no other organization on the local level that is doing what we are doing. People want to learn what we are doing and how we are doing it."

CVO has gained experience and had success in building networks and increasing the power of organizations working together. They have success in increasing the voice of organizations.

CVO has been successful with the use of clusters. The Special Needs cluster and the Young Adults clusters are examples of successful CVO clusters. The Special Needs cluster is made up of 33 organizations. The Young Leadership cluster is made up of 15 organizations. Signs of success for a cluster are: if other organizations want to joint the cluster; if they produce new connections or new projects; if they have collaborations among themselves; if they promote issues or if they have products.

CVO would like to be doing more to share knowledge with others in regard to clusters, the Lead Haifa program and new programs being initiated with leaders of the recent protests in Israel. CVO would like to focus more on how members could work together to lobby.

Dynamic Relationships Among Network Elements

All of the network elements set out here act to support and reinforce one another.

Fostering interaction between individuals and organizations in order to build relationships and the atmosphere of CVO is a key driver. Facilitation supports achieving this. Facilitation results in norms that guide actions and behaviors and helps to create a good working atmosphere among members. Focusing and re-focusing on mission continues to be helpful to motivate members and to keep CVO on course. Having an approach to recruitment and inclusion supports the mission and lays a foundation for interaction.

The governing and convening structures especially the clusters and sub-teams do the work of CVO.

Funding enables all of this to happen and ultimately results in value that is added by the efforts of CVO to members, individuals and the community. Part of this value is what knowledge CVO is in a position to share with various Haifa community groups and those outside of Haifa.

The leaders' theory of change is specifically appropriate for operating and governing as a network and underlies many of the other network activities.

Conclusion

In the twenty first century, there are increasing instances of people and organizations operating as networks. This is certainly supported by the interactive capabilities of the Internet. Beyond this, there is the recognition that often the highest leverage for advancing the goals of individual organizations consists in affiliating as a network. This is especially true in the non-profit sector where individual organizations do not have the benefit that private sector organizations do in generating revenue and funding. CVO is a significant illustration of the value of the network approach in the NGO sector.

The CVO Network: An Innovative Approach To Leveraging Resources In The NGO Sector, Part 2

This is a continuation of a series of posts. Previously we explored the value provided by CVO as a network of NGO's operating in Haifa, Israel. Now, we will explore how CVO operates to provide this value.

Inclusion, Participation and Commitment

CVO recruits members to become part of CVO. There is a core of members that continue from year to year. There are other organizations that belong depending on their particular organizational needs or what their finances allow. CVO started with 32 organizations. Last year, there were 100 out of 300 organizations in Haifa that were members. An organization could be a member one year and not in another year. CVO thinks about other approaches to tie together these Haifa organizations including the use of technology. The result is that a single NGO can leverage the knowledge of many other NGO's in performing its work.

CVO recruits members by locating all the organizations that may be interested in a given subject and following up with them. CVO recruits actively by advertising in newspapers, using mailing lists, their own Internet site or by meeting with administrators of these organizations.

In the recruiting process, CVO will go to organizations to see what they do. This can lead to an invitation to the organization to participate in CVO.

Economic or political interests are not part of the CVO network. Yael Abada said, "we had a very big discussion on, should we add to the network businesses and political parties?" In the end, CVO "decided not to let political interests or economic interests be part of the network or the decision making process. This is in keeping with the idea of civil society as a space between the government and business sector.

Arab citizens are included in all of the activities of CVO. Yael stated, "We make efforts that in every cluster (working group of CVO) or course the Arab organizations will be part. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't." She continued, "Special needs organizations are involved, feminist Arab organizations, communications organizations are involved."

Organizations may want to participate in CVO in different ways. They might want to come to the General Assembly which is one of the major discussion and decision making forums of CVO. They might want to come to training or attend a course. They might want to be a board member.

What CVO expects from organization members according to Yael is "to pay member fees, to come to gatherings, to take part in a week of volunteerism, to come to courses, to use us if they want to send a message to other organizations, to use our data base."

Operating Model, Governance, Funding

CVO is an official entity according to Israeli law. CVO has a board that meets once a month and a chair of the board. The board has 14 members most of whom are representatives of other organizations. One creative tension in the board is between thinking about their own organization and CVO. Which organization do they want to promote more? It is helpful when the board members think more about CVO and work for the benefit of CVO. The assumption here is that when CVO as a whole benefits then all the individual NGO's that are a part of it benefit as well.

 CVO has a director, Yael Abada, five staff plus part time jobs. There is a General Assembly which meets once a year, chooses the board and approves official documents. The General Assembly provides for general awareness of the members. The work of CVO is done in what are called clusters. CVO is funded mainly by the Haifa-Boston Connection, plus the Joint Distribution Committee. It is also funded by municipalities and provided with in-kind contributions by the University of Haifa. Members pay 200 sheckles a year. CVO also writes proposals to American foundations with representatives in Israel.

Convening Structures

Members are convened via the General Assembly. Email lists and a Facebook page also serve as convening vehicles or at least communication vehicles. Courses offered by CVO also serve as forums in which members convene.

The main convening vehicle of CVO is the clusters. Clusters are groups of member organizations that are convened in order to do the work of CVO. Clusters are composed of representatives of member organizations who are interested in a particular area. For example, one such area is Employment. Member organizations are connected together while also maintaining their specialness.

Clusters and the sub-teams within them are the key vehicles for doing work in CVO. Sub-teams work on specific action areas within the main focus of the cluster. Organizational members bring in a lot of ideas. Clusters learn together, discuss issues and share knowledge. Small teams work on issues that the clusters want to work on. Teams are set up and people choose which the team they want to work on.

Members in the clusters choose how they want to be organized. In each cluster, CVO gives them time to define what they want to do and how they want to do it. The Special Needs cluster finished the whole process in two days, Each cluster has a facilitator to help them organize the cluster.