Finding Your Meta-Strategy

Somik Raha Feb 18, 2015

ICT4SE, UC Berkeley

Let’s spend 10 minutes in silence.

Simply observe your thoughts and let them settle.

Make a list of metrics that measure what you’re really after

Metric What are you measuring?

Values as measures: Value functions, utility functions Value-focused thinking: Distinguishing between means and ends Values as norms: Cultural norms that are upheld in society and organizations

Something else?

When you hear the term values, what are you hearing?

There is a fourth kind of listening

Values as “meta-strategy”

What do you make of the distinction between how we treat others and our purpose?“Our purpose for our business is essentially how we want this business to affect outsiders while how we treat others (either in the company or those we work with) is the values with

which we want to run the business/our lives/our work ethic.” — Sita Kumar

What can brushing our teeth teach us about values?

Systemic Value: Count of # times we’ve brushed Practical Value: Dental Hygiene Intrinsic Value: Personal well-being

Let’s try it. Go back to your list. Is there anything that you think represents what you were really after?

What can be counted does not really count.

What counts cannot really be counted.

The great poets of the world speak of this

The one who confuses the label water for water is

naïve indeed. Repeating “water, water,” such a

one is destined to die of thirst.Sufi poet, Zaheen Shah Taji

Note: He is criticizing the conflation of the label with the experience,

not the use of labels themselves

The great poets of the world speak of this

Repeating “fire, fire” produces not a scratch on the lip An ember on your lip will immediately burn it.

Sufi poet, Zaheen Shah Taji

Note: He is criticizing the conflation of the label with the experience, not the use of labels themselves

Intrinsic values are about finding your deepest values, and there are signs to

recognize them

Shake Emotional

Silence

The small truth has words that are clear. The great truth has great silence.

..Rabindranath Tagore

Intrinsic values have a quality of uniqueness

Test: Are most people likely to say “me too” for your intrinsic value? If yes, we need to keep looking.

The focus here is on those values that stir you in an odd and unique way

Intrinsic Values are about what’s Sacred to you

“I recently read the book I Am Malala and was struck by a part of her writing that I would label sacred service. She wrote that if she met

another Taliban like the one that shot her in the head, she would not retaliate but tell them how important education was for all children.”

— Caitie

“Sacred Service makes one feel incredibly light. I feel this is something that come from the deep innate desire of doing something good for

others. I feel I have received a lot of sacred service in the past.” — Lisa Li

“In my work with public sector service providers, I occasionally met people who had been in the "business" for decades and, still, diligently

'dotted the is and crossed the ts'. They did not feel it was hard and believed that it was their higher calling.” — Asim

We got stuck while doing a traditional DA consulting workshop

Our remit: Help us double our revenues from $500M to $1B

Three slides that went to the board

Meta-strategy (purpose)

M&A Strategy

Check opportunity for fit with packaging “traits” Only if there is fit, let’s look at the numbers

Quote from hard-nosed M&A expert: “I have never seen a soft tool work this well”

Observation

• Human mind shuts down when faced with numbers e.g. goals like double market share, revenues, etc.

• Creativity springs forth with inspiration e.g. Indian branch story, going from $2M to $30M

Questions for you• “The sacred service venture made me wonder if our venture needs

to be volunteer-based and not for profit. Or should it only be for a fee that maintains the business.”

• “How do you measure how much social value you have created? Would you say a company like Uber (solves transportation problem for middle/upper income people in developed country) is more valuable than a knowledge sharing platform for agricultural workers in India? It's much harder to create the same amount of value if you are serving people in developing countries. However, it seems like providing the same product/service to developing regions would make a bigger impact. How can ventures for developing regions justify the amount of social value they created?”

Associative Logic Error

Feynman’s Cargo Cult Science

Jainism

“Khuda Key Liye” - “For God’ Sake”

Non-Violence in Violence

Aikido

http://blog.aikidojournal.com/media/morihei-ueshiba-throwing-tada-575.jpg

http://www.aikidomiami.com/photos/Aikido//Ueshiba.gif

http://www.aikidowagga.com.au/media/uploads/AikG.jpg

A I K I D O = T H E W AY O F H A R M O N I Z I N G W I T H T H E L I F E F O R C E

“Attacker” and “defender” are replaced by “receiver” and “applier”

The technique is an excuse to experience oneness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KihiVy0in4E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIv80U4BjRw

The technique is an excuse to experience oneness

Questions for you• “How is it possible to do business and seek nothing

in return?”

• Extreme Variant: “How is it possible to fight without a trace of hatred?”

Mahatma Gandhi

SatyagrahaUpliftment

of all

Truth

Head Heart

Habit

Sarvodaya

DaanUpliftment

of all

Love

Head Heart

Habit

Sarvodaya

Vinoba Bhave

Bhoodan

Rurouni Kenshin

Question for us

“What is the best process for flushing out simplistic values of a venture when it is a complex problem with a complex solution?”

Value MappingFinding your meta-strategy

What in your offering is priceless?

Values of SmartOrg

Having fun making

organizations Smarter

People co-creating Magic

Prudential Intrinsic

Systemic

Making a Difference

that Matters Amazing

Capabilities

Awesome Software:

That inspires, enables and empowers

Professional Experience:

Practical knowledgeable staff who can do and coach

Thought Leadership: Show the way to solve real

problems Improve:

Build Customer’s Capability

Service: Proactively

and responsively

serve the real need

Excellence: High quality

practical rigor

Great Relationships: Among ourselves, with

vendors, with clients

Whole Person: SmartOrg is where personal passion

meets the productive world

Situational Leadership:

Follow & lead, with responsibility

and accountability

VALUES as NORMS e.g. SmartOrg

Complete Integrity:

Honesty, openness, trust and

trustworthiness.

Ongoing Learning:

Ongoing Personal, Professional and

Team Development

Impact: Empowering

customers to achieve their most important

objectives

Financial Stewardship:

Sustain the business and the

people in it

Prosperity

Performance: Accomplishing

what we set out to do

Enjoyment: Work enlivens

Mapping your values (as meta-strategy)

? ?

?

YOU

Head Heart

Habit

Great Decisions Every

Time

Full Truth in Every Opportunity

Agile Decision Support Systems

Head Heart

Habit

The professional

field you count yourself in

You show up and this shows

up

A goal that is deeply inspiring and an end-in-

itself for you

Find your purpose (meta-strategy) is an act of deep listening

Things that have worked for me

You can be a friend to someone Look for silence, emotion, shuddering

Test the values – if any one is missing, is something big missing?

Look for uniqueness, not universality

The professional

field you count yourself in

Intellectual Energy

Mapping your meta-strategy

? ?

?

YOU

Head Heart

HabitYou show up

and this shows up

Unstoppable Energy

A goal that is deeply inspiring and an end-in-

itself for you

Emotional Energy

Couple’s Meta-StrategyHospitality Welcoming

Spaces

Celebration

Head Heart

Habit

John

M&A —> ? Healing

Detachment

Head Heart

Habit

MaryBefore: Mary wondered about

helping John in his hotel business.

After: Mary is working on a transition to becoming a

therapist

CEO’s Meta-Strategy

Energy Efficiency

Ecosystem Solutions

Visionary Change

Head Heart

Habit

Doug/ Retrofit Company

Vasper’s Meta-strategy

Intelligent Exercise

Healing like a child

BioMimicry

Head Heart

Habit

Vasper Systems

Apple’s Meta-strategy

Remove Drudgery

Support rebels who want to change

the world

Zen Minimalism

Head Heart

Habit

Apple

Google’s Meta-strategy

Organize world’s

informationImprove Lives

Machine Learning

Head Heart

Habit

Google

Shin-gi-tai

Thanks to Kentaro Nakamichi

In Summary• Values as Meta-Strategy is upstream of all practical

considerations

• This is about the mountain you want to climb (distinct from how you want to walk on the road)

• The highest given in a decision e.g. We commit to strategic fit (safe, natural, etc.)

• All economic value calculations are Systemic values

Given

Current

Future

“How do you extend the values to your peers? How do you instill the values in people you hire? How do you internalize these values without flaunting them publicly to attract attention?”

Systematizing to get to the value is essential, but it is not the value

Systems drive action. (police story)

Public Safety Dignity of Client

Education

Head Heart

Habit

SUDPS

Somik’s lens on SUDPS

SYSTEM: Hire highly educated people who resonate with “dignity of client”

What’s your music?

Under the sky studded with the sun and myriad stars, In a universe throbbing with life, I've received my little space. In sheer wonder, music springs from the depths of my soul.

…Rabindranath Tagore

1. Pair with someone from a team other than yours. 2. Speaker: Share deeply on what is deeply important

Listener: Listen deeply to the sharing. Parse heart and habit (ignore head for now)

Let’s try mapping your venture’s meta-strategy

How do you know you’ve found something intrinsic?Silence, emotional, shaking

HEAD: Intellectual Energy (ignore for now) HEART: Emotional Energy

HABIT: Unstoppable Energy