Go with the flow or stay behind

The EFQM Forum 2012 was organized last October 9 and 10. Under the name 'Fit for the Future', the challenges and chances that await us over the next 20 years were discussed. We are living in a dynamic, changing world where both raw materials and time are scarce, so how do we deal with that? How do we create excellence for our organization?

New base
On behalf of the European Commission, Reinhard Buescher had a shot: 'There is no easy solution available for the current crisis. We need a new industrial base in Europe, a strong, sustainable and solid one. Mainly technological innovations enable us to structurally change society.'

Futurologist Peter Cochrane even heighted this: 'We cannot get any smarter or work harder from a biological perspective, we have reached our max.' Luckily, he was there to offer a solution as well: 'Technology can help us save the world.' A beautiful example of such innovation is the 3D printer. We can already use them for medical goals.

Flexible life
‘Research proved that 92% of all creative work-related ideas are invented outside the office', as says Marc Buellens (Professor of the Vlerick Leuven Gent Business School). The mind is flexible and needs a flexible organization. Or: it's finally time for 'The New World of Work'. Finally indeed, because not much has changed since its introduction in 1954 (Peter Drucker - Management by objectives), not counting the small number of exceptions.

But in the year 2012, we live in a time where smartphones, tablets and laptops have become common property. We live in a global village, can work everywhere and it's therefore unnecessary to join the traffic jams every day. Moreover, employees don't see the point of it, generation Y leading the pack. This generation – that first thinks of a virtual meeting place when they hear the term 'social network' – is exceedingly suitable for flexible forms of labour based on autonomy and own responsibility.           

Remarkable results
The Belgian Mobistar has now embraced The New World of Work, as became clear at the Work@Home,Home@Work Bbest Conference at October 8 2012. A large part of the staff was offered the chance to (partially) work from their own homes. Of course a number of rules was set, but there was more than enough space for one's own initiative within these rules. This lead to more motivation, less 'traffic jam distress' and a better 'work-life balance'. The results were also positive to Mobistar: there was a significant improvement of both productivity and cost efficiency.

Network society
Regardless of being an employer or employee: it's time to open your eyes. Only 5 years ago, Twitter and Facebook were still relatively unknown. In 2009, only 10% of the Dutch inhabitants had a smartphone, in the year 2012 over 60%. In only 2 years, the knowledge recorded on the web will double every eleven hours(!). A network society based on premium technology is the future. It is just a matter of going with the flow, or staying behind... 

  

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Sustainability Mission EFQM Forum 2011

Next week the EFQM Forum 2011 will take place. On 25 & 26 October the Crème-de-la-Crème of the EFQM Community will gather at the distinctive futuristic BMW Welt conference center in Munich, Germany. Finally the EFQM members (and also other interested parties) will be discussing the topic “Taking Responsibility for a Sustainable Future”, as our annual Forum will be centred round the theme “People, Planet, Profit”!

Must admit I am very happy to finally have my favourite Fundamental Concept on the menu. And as far as I am concerned this is long overdue too.

Let me provide you with evidence J. The graph below shows the scoring per Criterion of the EFQM Excellence Award applicants 2007 to 2010. Here you can see that Criterion 8 Social Results scores lowest of them all. The graph shows the average scores and highest scores per Criterion. The highest score is for Criterion 9 Key Results with 90 points. The highest score for Social Results does not get above 73 points. On the averages all criterion score between 58 to 62 points, except again Social Results, the average for this Criterion is only 45 points! 

Now without proper investigation and analysis we can only speculate on the causes behind this phenomenon. Might it be the EFQM Model itself where we could find some answers and areas for improvement? Or maybe we should look for something in the assessment-approach? Maybe it is the level of awareness around all that is connected to sustainability that still needs to find a critical mass in our EFQM Community?

These are all questions I am walking around with. I will take up the opportunity to approach one or more representatives of applicant organisations that participated in the EEA this year to review and reflect with them on this matter. Possibly I might even tackle some people from the organisation winning the EEA Award this year and see what they think!

Although I am not without purpose much, I suppose I will be a woman with a ‘sustainability mission’ at the EFQM Forum this year. Please beware!

Chaordic

I attended two wonderful conferences. Towards the end of October I attended the annual conference of Bbest near Brussels with the sustainability of our future on the agenda. Earlier last month I was a delegate at the EFQM Forum on Creativity & Innovation The Art of Management. This year’s Forum was set in the beautiful Basque city of Bilbao home of the amazing Guggenheim Museum as the superb expression of creativity.

Throughout the Forum there was one question that occupied my mind at that time, and after still… A young Canadian speaker called Lotfi El-Ghandouri posed the question. He explained to us that you need chaos and not order to be able to be creative. He spoke about the concept of “chaordic”. And after some more explanations he asked us “How much chaos and how much order do you need to be creative?”

Later in the month I attended the Bbest Taking Responsibility for a Sustainable Future conference. You are maybe interested to learn that Bbest is the primary partner of the EFQM in Belgium and The Netherlands. It is licensed to promote and deliver the EFQM products and services in these countries. 

During the Bbest conference some exiting announcements were made. Firstly the translation in Dutch of EFQM 2010 Model has been completed and is now available. A group of Flemish and Dutch EFQM Model experts volunteered to create a new translation that would meet the needs of both Flemish and Dutch organisations interested in Excellence. Bbest also announced the Benelux Excellence Award. It will be presented for the first time in October 2011. It will be given to the organisation(s) with the best performance as assessed according to the EFQM Model. Organisations that have received a 4-star or 5-star Recognition for Excellence (R4E) from Bbest in the 12 months previous are automatically eligible for the Benelux Excellence Award.

The main part of the conference was obviously made up of companies sharing their strategies and approaches on sustainability. Although many good and relevant issues and options were discussed throughout the conference, I still had the unsettling feeling that despite these great examples we will not live in a sustainable future in anytime soon. We really need to be creative and implement global solutions to our sustainability challenges and quickly too.

Maybe we should be more brave and try it in a chaordic way?