There is not much positive news in the mainstream media at the best of times.  The credit crunch, recession and social upheaval give them the opportunity to really go for it.
Uncomfortable as it undoubtedly is this recession is also packed full of upside.  There are some obvious ones like prices and carbon emissions falling as we fly, buy and travel less.
There are less obvious upsides too. We all knew that our behaviour over the last years was unsustainable.  We all knew it.  And yet somehow while it continued, it was very difficult to stop.  As Charles Prince (the former President of Citibank) said “As long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance. We’re still dancing.”

Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention, and while things seem to be going well, few of us are prepared to make the changes we know we need to.  When things appear to be going well, most of us are reluctant to tamper with the system.

However - when things start to wobble, the risks and uncertainties of deliberate change start to look much less daunting in comparison to the change that is happening anyway.

Crisis creates the opportunity to improve.

One way to improve things is to create crisis.  Another is to embrace crisis when it happens.  A further is to deliberately bypass the crisis and go directly to the improvement.

What we are seeing in this recession is a massive clear out of old and out of date business models and business thinking.  Of course there are exceptions, but in general the businesses that appear to be the most affected are the ones that are most deeply rooted in the unsustainable past.

Success belongs to the most relevant.

As businesses become established they generally have to build up strength in process.  They have to get to be good at doing something.  This tends to be at the expense of being good at innovation or change. 

Unless they specifically prioritise innovation and creativity, businesses that enjoy a long run of success are the ones that find it hardest to adapt when circumstances change.

When something needs replacing, we always have the choice to upgrade. 

Upgrading to a new economic system is the opportunity created by this recession.  Upgrading to system where people and planet are enhanced, not exploited.  A system where profit comes from responsibility, respect and care.

A system where more of us end up taking greater responsibility for ourselves and the outcomes created by our choices.

I can see an evolution to a distributed model of employment where fewer people have conventional full time jobs.  A model where we get to choose when and for whom we work.  And how much we work for.  Where we have a portfolio of jobs that play to our strengths.

I can see businesses which rely on hierarchy and control struggling to recruit people, at any level.

And this is already happening; the internet is facilitating the spread of mass self-employment, through web services like odesk, elance and guru.com.  And the success of drop in “offices” like The Hub - where we can enjoy the community benefits of an office environment - while working independently.

I am looking for partners to help this change to happen and to ensure that it goes in the right direction.  I would like to find partners within organisations who want help adapting to change and I want to find consultants, coaches and facilitators who are ready to learn how to help businesses to create a culture of innovation.

If you are interested in partnering -  lets have a chat or have a look at our partners page

With love

nx

Neil Crofts

Inspirer

authenticis

inspiration innovation motivation

+44 (0)7775 658534

neil@authenticis.com

www.authenticis.com
 

I love the innovation.  I love the efficiency with which resources can be enabled to do great work.  I love the clever business models that enable win, win, win solutions.
I love businesses that are able to generate profits by solving the challenges of society, however big or small, however directly or indirectly.

I love big businesses like Google, Nike and Apple who provide products and services that raise the game and enable people to achieve more and better things.

I love startlingly creative business models that change the game like iStockphoto, Threadless or Guru/elance/oDesk.

I love businesses that profit by solving the big problems like Good Energy, Betterplace, Whomadeyourpants.

I love businesses that are prepared to transform themselves when they learn something new like Marks and Spencer and Interface Carpets.

From my research these businesses have a huge advantage over more conventional rivals.  They get between 10 and 50 times more benefit for every Pound, Euro or Dollar that they spend on marketing and staff motivation than other businesses.

Business is the most effective vehicle humanity has yet found for sustained innovation.  It is business innovation that has contributed so much to our present affluence, as well as creating some of our greatest challenges (pollution, over dependence on oil, exploitation of people and nature and the credit crunch). 

Innovation is required to resolve these challenges and that innovation will come from business.

The social and business landscape is changing fast.  So fast that many businesses are struggling to keep up.  When things change so fast it is easy to become reactive and to be fully occupied just putting out fires and managing risk. 

Opportunity and profit lies on the other side of this equation, the proactive side.  Opportunity and profit lie with the innovators who are proactively leading change and defining their marketplace.  The magic ingredient for these organisations is that they have a culture of innovation.

As old models for business start to creak, it is time to change them.  When things are going well it change feels risky.  Now is the time to come up with new solutions and new ideas.

At Authenticis we have developed a model to take businesses from reactive to proactive, from fire fighting to fire starting.  We want to help businesses transform themselves by identifying the challenge that they can solve for society and focussing their energy on delivering it AND making greater profits as a by product of that process.

We are looking for senior business leaders and brilliant business consultants to help make it happen.

Are you ready to collaborate?

With love

nx

Neil Crofts

Inspirer

authenticis

inspiration innovation motivation

+44 (0)7775 658534

neil@authenticis.com

One thing we can be sure of, both as individuals and as a society, is that however much we think we know about the way life works, there is more that we don’t know.

Holding this essential humility gives us the opportunity to learn and negates dogma.

The existence, or otherwise, of what we might consider to be exceptional is independent of whether we understand it, or believe in it and of the opinions of others.

There are many things which cannot be seen or touched, but have to be experienced. Even with experience their form can be hard to quantify or explain, but this does not mean that they do not exist.

I have worked with thousands of people to help them to articulate their life’s purpose. One of the things I have seen in this experience is that people have a kind of energetic compass. We know what the right thing to do is.

This energetic compass is like “The Force” in Star Wars, it can help us to achieve amazing things and it also has a dark side. Our energetic compass helps us to find motivation, energy and passion.

With motivation, energy and passion amazing things can be achieved. But the compass points in two directions and we have have a choice which direction we take.

We can choose “The Dark Side” and be motivated by fear, greed and anger or we can choose the positive side and be motivated by love and compassion.

We make this choice every day. In the way we relate to friends and family, in the way we run our lives, our businesses and our society. Our challenge and our opportunity is to increasingly make decisions based in on “The Light Side.”

From what I have seen in the people I have worked with, we only learn to be motivated by fear through negative life experiences. When we notice feelings of fear or anger motivating our choices we can take action to change it.

In order to make the shift to being motivated by love we need to legitimise our feelings and responses to those negative experiences. We do this by revisiting the experience with a higher level of understanding (perhaps with some help) and applying that to our response retrospectively.

We may then need to go through a process of healing with those who were involved in the experience or with ourselves.

If we do this every time it happens we learn how to positively focus our motivation in all things even when things look scary or bleak.

If you would like help in moving motivation to “The Light Side” for yourself or your organisation lets have a chat.

Take a look at my new Motivational Coaching web site at www.neilcrofts.com

With love

nx

Neil Crofts

Inspirer

authenticis

inspiration innovation motivation

+44 (0)7775 658534

neil@authenticis.com

www.authenticis.com

From a mainstream media/political/business perspective recession is definitely a bad thing. But, is recession a bad thing from a global evolution perspective or an authentic business perspective?

From a global evolution perspective this particular recession is necessary.

There was a growing awareness that the model of business currently crunching, was out of date and no longer in touch with society. An awareness that society is moving to a different level where innovation is required and required to benefit wider society in a sustainable way.

It is difficult not to be persuaded by the innovation limiting idea “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. So while business was booming and the money was rolling in it was difficult to persuade people that their success was a problem.

This recession will be a clear out and will help us to shift society one step forwards towards more sustainable and authentic business practices.

The real loser through all of this has been societies trust in banks, in particular, and business in general. Rebuilding that trust is going to involve many businesses developing a level of integrity that they have never known.

The kind of integrity that authentic businesses enjoy.

Authentic businesses are likely to be somewhat protected from the worst effects of credit crunch and recession by the closeness of their relationships with their customers and their long term sustainable approach to profitability.

Charles Middleton the MD of Triodos Bank in the the UK spoke about this in a recent article in The Guardian.

Through the challenges of recession some conventional businesses leaders will decide that authenticity might be the way to rebuild trust and confidence in their business and their brand.

Authentic businesses generate their profit through the pursuit of a profound and positive purpose. Profit is required, but it is not the reason for being in business. Whatever the specific purpose is, it is a passion shared by customers and employees.

From a business perspective it generates tremendous customer loyalty and word of mouth recommendation. On average authentic businesses spend 80% less on marketing than their conventional counterparts.

Authentic businesses provide a platform for their staff to achieve their personal life purpose, because they share it with the business. So these businesses also enjoy high levels of motivation and loyalty from their staff.
Conventional businesses can become authentic by understanding and articulating their true purpose and then using that authentic purpose to redefine the brand and culture.

I would love to discuss these issues with you. Please comment here or e-mail me directly.

Take a look at my new Motivational Coaching web site at www.neilcrofts.com

With love

nx

Neil Crofts

Inspirer

authenticis

inspiration innovation motivation

+44 (0)7775 658534

neil@authenticis.com

www.authenticis.com

All of the conflict we see in the world is simply a reflection of our collective inner conflict.

Corruption, crime, war, aggression in business and politics, bullying, fundamentalism, exploitation of people and nature are all conflicts that cannot exist when we are at peace with ourselves.

The path to world peace requires enough of us to find inner peace that the conflict ends - that is all.

It is an individual process and, if we seek world peace, we must each take responsibility for our own inner peace first. To be clear - it is not possible to fight for peace, we must simply find our own peace and then help others to find theirs.

A map is helpful in making any journey, so what follows is my best current understanding of the map of the path to peace. If you believe in peace and if you believe in this map, please share it with as many people as you can, we urgently need to move on from conflict.

“Legitimise” - We first need to accept that we are where we are. There is no blame. Whatever has occurred to get us to where we are was valuable. No matter how painful our experiences might have been, if we can let go of the blame, they will contribute to getting us to where we are going.

We need to accept that fear, confusion and weakness are inevitable at this stage and that we can move on from them, if we choose to.

“Visualise” - The second step is to articulate our potential and our purpose. To create a vision for how our life can be. To do this we must let go of societal limitations and soar.

My free life purpose e-book can be helpful at this stage.

For our vision to be effective it must be fully present for us. It must be more present in our daily life than distractions. Think how present distractions, like media or an unloved job, are in your life - how can you make your vision more present than them?

“Release” - Our true purpose will happen if we let it - we are held back by baggage and tensions, once we have articulated our purpose and vision we need to let go of the junk in order to get there.

As you articulate your vision it is very likely that all sorts of negative thoughts will swamp your mind. Write them down. The real work of the path to peace is releasing these tensions.

Common ones are:

Parental relationships that need healing

Who am I to… - who are you not to?

Money issues - see my free Authentic Wealth e-book

Confidence/fear of failure - practice, practice, practice

Location - we need to be in a place that inspires

Releasing these tensions may need some help. Find a friend or coach who can help you through this.

No world class athlete would expect to achieve top level performances without the help of a coach - why should we? Why should any of us settle for less than our top level performances?

“Come out” - at some point the pull of the possibility overcomes the inertia of the baggage and it is time to declare our truth to the world.

Ideally this is done in a way which will sustain during the dark moments that will follow. A way which is so committed that we have to work things out and going backwards is not an option.

“serve/teach” - the sense of liberty, peace, clarity and unlimited possibility of the breakthrough to authenticity comes with a responsibility to share it with others. As we make the breakthrough we discover how much more there is to learn and that learning is best done through teaching and service.

This is my work. I help people, both as individuals and within organisations to live at their highest potential. I am profoundly grateful for this gift. If you feel I could help you or your organisation - lets have a chat.

“Transcend” - at some point we can make the shift from doing to being. We have learned and contributed so much that all we need to do is to be.

Take a look at my new Motivational Coaching web site at www.neilcrofts.com

With love

nx

Neil Crofts

Inspirer

authenticis

inspiration innovation motivation

+44 (0)7775 658534

neil@authenticis.com

www.authenticis.com