A Great Man just stepped off the Planet! Help me say goodbye to Bishop Michael Sande

 

Goodbye Mike, Goodbye Bishop – Till we meet again!

The other day a light went out on Earth and a flame erupted in Heaven- signaling the return of an angel. I never knew a man who could say so much in so few words. Soft, refined and well defined phrase. My last engagement with Mike was at a coffee shop. Mike was on the way to a board meeting when I bumped into him. I enjoyed a secret privilege to pay his bill as I left him seated eating a fruit salad – an insignificant amount compared to what he had done for me over many years. In case you think I am talking about a hobo, make no mistake, Mike was a Bishop, but unless someone explained to you his credentials you would never know. Such was the gentleman, patterned after his master Jesus the Christ. To all of us teenagers he was just Mike. Sometimes Mike on the mike. The title did not make Mike, Mike made the title. I was privileged to have him as one of my seven fathers when I and a hundred other young people in IMANI needed a father, mentor, patron and brother. Together with Mrs. Sande, whom we respectfully called Mama Jessica or Mama Olando; they gave us an open home, a taste of heaven and paid for our musical dreams. With an astute mind he taught us, guided and chastised us. And even had some of us married. Never did he mention a forgiven wrong. He never raised his voice, never demanded, but he did ask – ever so politely. In life he lived a testimony, in death he has brought us face to face with our own mortality. Would he want us mourn, perhaps… a little maybe, but for him it would be more important that we each make our own peace with God. You may think I am talking about an angel, but believe me I have not described half the man. Of the Bishop I will let others speak. Mike has gone ahead to the promise he held us to keep – Up from the grave he arose with a mighty triumph ... Yes, a light has gone out on Earth, but a flame is burning in Heaven. No words can describe the pain, but the gain is that we shall see him again, if we hold to His Spirit. We love you Mike; we will miss you, rest well - till we meet again.

How Transformative Thinking works

 

 

This paper explores how business leaders can use transformative thinking to successfully facilitate corporate transformation in the 21st Century. The author explores the principles of transformative leadership put forward by published authors alongside the challenges of ensuring a business remains sustainable in a dynamic environment. The paper lays the groundwork for empirical research on transformative thinking and corporate transformation as a base for the development of sustainable business policy and organization development strategy. The author argues that business leaders have the responsibility to ensure their organizations stay attuned to the operating environment without losing focus in serving the needs of an evolving customer base. The article challenges business leaders to engage transformative thinking as a way of generating superior, non-traditional outcomes and creating a paradigm shift in organization performance. Click here to download full article.

 

Take your Business through a Hyper-Jump in 2021

 

Take your business through a hyper-jump in 2021

I am writing my final business article for 2020 and I am thinking what might be different for business in 2021. Why should it be different and how has it been different in 2020? We are now familiar with how COVID-19 disrupted business through social-distancing, travel bans and broken supply chains.  We had to quickly and immediately find out how to do things differently. What we may not be fully aware of is the significance of those “hyper-jumps” we were forced to make to adjust to the new conditions such as moving from offline to online and working from home instead of an office building. It has almost become second nature to call for home deliveries instead of going to the store. Less than a year ago, these hyper-jumps may have seemed surreal.

So what has all this got to do with 2021. Well, while these “little” shifts in behavior may have been considered as emergent and temporary, they are now beginning to assume a sense of permanence. In other words, we are getting used to doing things differently.  Some of those hyper-jumps have been so beneficial that many businesses are looking for ways to establish them in their normal operations. Indeed, industries are looking for ways to make further inspired hyper-jumps like moving from petrol to solar power and from labor to automation permanently! The gentle nudge by COVID-19 has set off a believable train of thought that things can actually be done differently. Is it possible that 2021 will trigger even bigger levels of innovation and creativity? Could professionals, companies and industries be looking for ways to regenerate themselves through beneficial hyper-jumps. Production may never be the same with the opportunities opening up for rebranding of careers, generation of new ideas and the need for new product designs. So why not take your business through a hyper-jump in 2021! God Speed!

Go for the Prize in 2021

 

Go for the Prize in 2021

Willey Jolley says, “a setback is a setup for a comeback”. Les Brown won’t let you park your car on the side of the road, just because you missed a turn. The great apostle Paul says, “forgetting what lies behind I press on to the goal that lies ahead”. It seems to me that we all come to earth to play a small part and then depart. That small part takes heart, mind and soul and is the only way we can leave the world a better place. A lot has been said about 2020 and perhaps the worst place to look for inspiration is in the past – you have already been there! Looking ahead is an awesome, fearsome and challenging undertaking that always raises the stakes. Perhaps a dream died in 2020 and maybe you almost died with it. Maybe and just maybe you have justifiable reason to give up on this whole “goal setting thing” because it has never worked for you all these years. But I have one more reason for you to rise up and try again as Jolley, Brown and the great apostle Paul would say – it’s a New Year! And because it is a new year it brings an opportunity for New Hope, New Joy and New Success. So set up those goals for 2021 again, yes, again and never ever give up your future for anything in your past.  Trust God, who made you and the universe, to bring it to pass and press on to the prize that lies ahead. What prize are you going for in 2021?

Agenda 2063 - Managing the Vision

Agenda 2063 - Managing the Vision

The turn of the century brought about a refocusing of global and national vision. It moved the world from short term thinking to long term action. The global focus on SDGs, grounded on the accomplishments of MDGs, is much more than rhetoric. Countries around the world stepped into the 21^st century committing themselves to pursue national transformation beyond the traditional medium term development plans confined to the administrative tenure of elected governments. Perhaps the World has borrowed a leaf of thought from the East considering the rise and rise of those economies over three generations in China, Japan, and of course, the ASEAN Tiger technological hub. The adoption of “far-sight” rather than foresight as an instrument of national development is an indication that short term planning is weak on deliverables. But perhaps, more important, is the revelation that long term planning generates better results – even in the short term!

Africarecently launched a 50-year vision – Agenda 2063. The vision is seven yearsold. It is a most commendable initiative of political leaders to outline afuture for at least three generations to come. Nonetheless, in the same season, individual African governments have launched 20-30 year national visions, many of which are losing steam midstream. These economies are accruing rising (foreign) debt as they acquire infrastructure to grasp at the dream of a developed nation. The cost of this transition strategy stretches long into the foreseeable future and begs the question of the sustainability of these initiatives. Does development really mean doubling debt?

In response, one might ask, “just what is development?”. The very essence of development needs to be turned on its head in the word transformation. Transformation is the internal generation of substance. Development, on the other hand, is the simple acquisition of capacity. Development is a word focused on the exo-skeleton of advancement. For example, the expansion of roads provides room for more cars and transport vehicles. This is not short sighted if the country produces cars. However, if the country does not create roads nor produce cars, this can hardly be considered advancement. Transformation is based on empowerment for growth and generation of wealth through the creative, collaborative reorganization of the internal capacity of a country to advance its wealth position. It does so by creating new value through social engineering, transformative education and value creating enterprise. In short, there are two roads to national advancement; borrow the money-import capacity-pay the debt-export wealth. The second is, empower the people- nurture capacity- establish competence - import wealth. You will notice that the model from the East is designed on the latter, the model in Africa is predicated on the former. The former is an instant, exciting and fundamentally unsustainable. The latter takes time, effort and initiative.

In order to fulfill a vision there is a need to manage its realization. Developing a vision, like realizing a goal, requires a process of managing priorities and reorganization of one’s current reality to align with a sustainable future possibility. That requires the deployment of transformative thinking, critique, creating and doing things differently to sustainably realize a new future. Managing a vision is a generative process of transformation that cannot be managed by politicians. Transformation requires dedicated teams of citizens and social entrepreneurs committed to sacrificing for and serving the interests ofthe next generation. The difference between those who get things done and those who don’t, is that the former do and the later don’t. 

 

HELP PUBLISH RESEARCH

 

HELP PUBLISH RESEARCH

The beauty with writing is that you get to touch and transform lives of people you will never meet with a few well-chosen words on a blog, paper or book. This year I ventured into academic writing. Frankly, I was not prepared for the amount of work required to generate such papers, especially when I found out that it costs between $500USD-3000$USD to get a paper published in a reputable journal! Anyway I braved the challenge and published three articles and I am asking for help to publish a few more.

Research is a public good that drives industry, technology, education and the advancement of society. We could do with a lot more research to improve livelihoods in Africa. The article, “How empathy, social contracts and deep conversations are helping companies in Kenya overcome the disruptive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, (October, 2020) garnered more than 800 reads in one month! The research is downloadable at no cost to readers. Anyone can utilize the findings to improve their circumstances.

CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUTE 

One of the greatest areas of need on the continent is transformative leadership. Availing research publications is one important way of empowering leaders, readers and organizations to; transform living standards, resolve pressing social concerns and design sustainable solutions to environmental problems. Though research costs be prohibitive, lets help get it published. Thanks in advance! 

Build Ecosystems @ KUSI Ideas Festival 2020

 

Build Ecosystems @ KUSI Ideas Festival 2020

While thanking the organizers, participants and promoters for the presidential engagement of the KUSI Ideas Festival 2020, I do hope that the discussion will move from Ideas to action in the immediate and short term.  The event was predicated on Post COVID scenarios and discussed Pre-COVID options, but was reminded firmly that proactive “In-COVID” initiatives are perhaps the most important things we can do with our time right now. Rather than draw up industry blueprints and grand recovery plans to be acted upon when COVID has passed, we must establish ecosystems that support the emergence of those industries and recovery plans. Building cotton factories is unsustainable if there are no farmers growing cotton and no ecosystem to support its passage from farmland to fashion house. You can ban used clothes imports today, but with no ecosystem to support the local clothing industry, you merely strike the used clothes market off the tax radar. Our In-COVID responsibility and action therefore is to establish the ecosystems that will support the grand plans we have for a post-COVID recovery. Ecosystems, however, take time to build. They are not installed like factories. Ecosystems are an association of ideas, initiatives, incentives, profit motives, livelihoods, entrepreneurial activity and connectivity provided by technology, protected by a legal environment that advances national interests. Ecosystems are the invisible networking of a confluence of initiatives, like a spider’s web, that guarantee and sustain the economic survival of all stakeholder in a food chain.