Think about them, and post your response on the blog!

1. Get to the table and share knowledge. Build a collaborative culture in your organisation, avoid arguments and reduce internal competition. “If you are not at the table, you’re on the menu!”

2. Stop looking (backwards) for excuses – unless failure and therefore extinction is an option?

3. Learn about the biosphere and what it needs to stay healthy. It’s a very complex system that requires systems thinking and a lot of learning. Create practical solutions in your workplace. Stop wasting and especially burning finite resources such as gas, coal and petroleum – actively seek and use alternatives.

4. Invest in the creation of “value”. Abandon GDP as a measure of success and use GPI instead. The biggest asset in a business is the combined knowledge and imagination of its staff, yet this is not currently expressed on a balance sheet and is too often neglected as a result.

5. Change the model of “the firm” and in particular our financial system. Measure learning and manage behaviour. Should banks be run as casinos, or as receptacles of private wealth who are responsible for ensuring a guaranteed return to all?

6. We need to apply new technology that allows us to change processes and use less energy and water. We must eliminate waste and recycle as much as possible. It’s unlikely the “old” technology can be improved enough to meet our future needs.

7. Decide where you want to be, then plan how to get there (back-casting, not forecasting). Develop this plan based on firm principles, and what you would like life to be like for your grandchildren’s grandchildren (i.e. 100 years from now).

8. Use alternative and clean energy sources. We didn’t develop from the stone age because we ran out of stones, nor did we stop using horses as transport because we ran out of hay. Instead, we discovered something better, and learned new ways to do things. It’s time to do that again.

9. Build on imagination. New ideas come from combining known things in a new way. Think “why not?” rather than “why?”

10. Don’t confuse the consumer market with the financial market. If salaries were based on the value a person adds to an organisation, we’d start to close the gap between rich and poor.

If you’d like to discuss any of these points further, please don’t hesitate to post it here or get back to me direct.

Stig Ehnbom
Chairman, Swedish Style Organising Committee