Voices all across the globe from all levels of society are ringing loud and clear that business as usual is no longer working. Business models with the narrow focus on immediate financial profit are quickly becoming dated while teams that incorporate robust and inclusive models are taking the lead. Those new strategies integrate the tight focus of bottom line with tangible social objectives that support their mission. As a sign of the changing times, last quarter the CEO of Black Rock who manages $6 trillion annually sent a letter out to all the companies they invest in to declare they must start showing positive impact to society:
“Society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose … To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.” – Laurence D. Fink, BlackRock CEO [1]
How can we keep up with these turbulent times while providing top value for our customers? I met Dr. Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, a global thought leader on integration and metasystems, about two years ago. Dr.Esbjörn-Hargens has been working with corporations on four continents implementing a model that turns the chaos of multiple stakeholders into a sustainable and workable whole. He and his colleagues at MetaIntegral Associates have used their decades of experience and research to create an easy to apply method for creating new business models and systems for any kind of project, organization, or governmental agency to sustainably thrive and prosper. This new approach is called the MetaImpact Framework, and it focuses on four types of impact, four bottom lines (people, profit, planet, and purpose), and ten types of capital to consider in designing systems that will work best for your unique situation.
I used this framework in my organizational development work over and over with tremendous success and am very happy to announce that Dr. Esbjörn-Hargens will be from April 9-13th at the Open University leading a 5-day seminar providing an in depth training on how to apply the model. Guest speakers for the seminar will be Anna Sigrún Baldursdóttir, the assistant director of Landspítali, Prof. Kristin Vala Ragnarsdottir is Professor of Sustainability Science at the University of Iceland, and Bala Kamallakharan.
During the seminar, everybody will be implementing the MetaImpact model on an individual project while using the Icelandic healthcare system collectively as a case study for the group.
There will be a free introduction seminar of the framework with examples on how to apply the work to the main Icelandic sectors – Tourism, Energy and Healthcare on Thursday, April 5th from 16 – 18:00. On Friday April 13th from 16 -18:00 will be another event with insights from the seminar and updates on how to use these innovative approaches to improve the impacts of the healthcare system in Iceland. Both of these presentations are free and open to the public, and will be held at The Open University Reykjavik, Menntavegur 1 IS-101 Reykjavík.
For more information on the 5 day seminar, including information on registration, please see: here and here in Icelandic
For additional information about these events in Reykjavik, or to set up a coaching session or meeting with Dr. Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, please contact me directly at: claudia@metaintegral.net
- Quote from: Sorkin, Andrew Ross. (2018). BlackRock’s Message: Contribute to Society, or Risk Losing Our Support. New York Times. Retrieved Thursday Jan. 18th, 2018 from: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/15/business/dealbook/blackrock-laurence-fink-letter.html ↑
