Author: Jeremie Averous

A simple habit to tame the lizard. Just for you.

I have a small trick to tame the lizard.

When you consider a situation, an event, always look for the positives before you consider the negatives. Always brainstorm the opportunities before the risks.

Setting your lizard in positive mode first will tame the lizard.

If you don’t do that, you will drown in the negative and never be able to look again at the positives.

This is so simple, yet so powerful. It is just a habit. It is just a simple way to exercise the brain the right way.

So, promised? In the next days and weeks when faced with a new situation, always think opportunities first. That will change your life.

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The bureaucratic entanglement (part 2)

Bureaucracy is pervading our mindset so much that when we are faced with a problem, our first reaction is to add another layer of bureaucracy.

Enron crash
Enron crash

Take the Enron scandal for example. What was the reaction? A book of new rules, also known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Voted by 99% of representatives and senators.

Add controls, permissions to ask before doing anything. Is that safer? That’s not sure at all. Is it stifling companies? That’s pretty sure – all the companies that can are fleeing the US stock markets to avoid the additional bureaucracy.

Anyone working on technical risk knows that adding new safety systems necessarily adds new risks. It introduces additional complexity, new types of failures. It generally lowers reliability. It often makes sure the widget does not work even if it could.

So, what’s the solution?

Bureaucratic approaches rely on removing the responsibility, bringing it higher in the hierarchy, splitting it between people looking at each other suspiciously. They rely on permissions to be asked before doing anything.

Make people irresponsible and they will certainly behave so.

The solution is to make people responsible. Entrepreneurs. Foster taking initiatives without asking for permission first. Give authority and accountability as close to the ground you can. Encourage people to multiply the value they create for the organization.

Let’s aim to remove everyday one bureaucratic itch in the organization. Within a few weeks you’ll see the difference. And more happy people that will be easier to retain in your influence zone!

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The bureaucratic entanglement (part 1)

Bureaucracy is stifling entrepreneurship. While it looks like rampant redtape is there for all the good reasons, it is stifling bureaucratic companies to death. Entangled in their procedures they will one by one topple over.
Open, fluid organizations based on decentralized accountability will take over.

Corporate bureaucracy
Corporate bureaucracy at work

In the industrial age, where communication was scarce and large companies based their competitive advantage on information management, bureaucracy was all about making the organization more efficient. Bureaucracy was the essence of the corporation.
Today where information management is inexpensive and can be done by anyone with an internet connection much more effectively than any bureaucratic organization, it is obsolete. The quest for efficiency of commodity production has been replaced by the quest for effective creative solutions.

As often with Fundamental Revolutions, what was the life-giving system of the previous age has become gangrenous.

Every day we meet bureaucracy: “sorry, that is not the standard operating procedure“… “I need to ask permission first higher up“… “that’s a good idea but it does not fit in the box“…

Sorry, but the game is over. Get rid of the bureaucracy or you’ll die. And slow death is generally the most painful.

Wake up. Reject bureaucracy. Do something today for others in your company without asking permission first. You’ll see. It’s great.

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Collaborative tools and catastrophes: transformation of the emergency response

Collaborative tools of the Fourth Revolution are reshaping the way we manage catastrophic events.

Examples from the Japan Earthquake:

If you are looking for information on people in the quake zone, Google has opened a Person Finder page.

Ushahidi, a crowdsourcing mapping tool, has set up a local platform for Japanthat allows people in the area affected by the earthquake to text the location of people who may be trapped in damaged buildings

And did you notice how Facebook is slow these days? That’s certainly because so many people use it to connect, give news to loved ones.

The full extend of how these collaborative tools will change emergency response is, I believe, not yet apprehended by Emergency Response Institutions. For example, this great video from TED shows how collaborative map making changed the response to the Haiti quake.

Emergency Response Institutions need to account for the Fourth Revolution. People are connected. They stay connected. And together they can greatly help themselves. When Emergency Response Institutions will know how to leverage this connectivity, their intervention methods will transform for the better.

Emergency Response institutions need to change. Let’s tell them.

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The power of collaborative information: a live demo, right now!

Do you follow the evolution of the situation in Fukushima nuclear power plant? I do, and it happens I know a bit about nuclear power plants and nuclear safety. So basically, as in any field where you happen to know a bit more than average, I am frustrated by the approximations of conventional media.

So, I was looking for the best source of information for me – not just high level plain-vanilla information but accurate and detailed information to allow me to understand what was happening.

I found it.

It’s not CNN or any of the television news networks.

It’s not the International Herald Tribune or any of the newspaper web sites.

It’s Wikipedia. The Fukushima 1 article is up-to-date as quickly as the professional media and much, much more precise and detailed.

Fukushima NPP accident picture (from Wikipedia)
Fukushima NPP accident picture (from Wikipedia)

The power of the Fourth Revolution in action: the collaborative enterprise of amateurs beats the professional news.

When do you start looking at Wikipedia and other collaborative news sites for a better information coverage?

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The lizard and the Fourth Revolution

We developed our biological construct as primates and then hunter gatherers. We were wandering, very vulnerable, in a hostile nature. We developed very effective warning signals for any change that could have fatal consequences. Our primitive brain, the first to process sensory information, triggers quick response in case of anything outside the usual.

the lizard
the lizard

That is what Seth Godin calls “the lizard brain”. It never sleeps. It constantly monitors the environment. It reacts to any change.

In our modern world the lizard brain is still at work. It protects us usefully from dangerous situations, but also kicks in and prevents us from doing worthwhile activities. It is the lizard brain that prevents us from public speaking – a dangerous situation, at the center of attention of so many pairs of eyes!

The lizard brain is also at work when it comes to the Fourth Revolution. In the face of change, our natural reaction is to retreat in a safe environment. In an environment that we think is safe because it is well known and has served faithfully our parents and grand parents.

Yet the Industrial Age is now crumbling. Rather than trying to hide behind the walls of the citadels of the Industrial Age, which will only resist for a while before being swept away by the tsunami of change, the safest option is then probably to leap forward into the Fourth Revolution.

This is not intuitive. It goes against our deepest reflexes. It needs exercise, practice and will to go outside one’s comfort zone willingly, to tame the lizard.

When do you start taming your lizard?

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A live example of how the Fourth Revolution brings opportunities to developing countries

I want to share with you a true story of how the Fourth Revolution can bring incredible opportunities, regardless of whether you are living in a developing country.

A few month ago I was thinking about the concept of the Fourth Revolution, and considering maybe to write a book, when I stumbled on this image in the middle of a slideshow of diverse stunning images (thanks Jean-Marc!!)

a picture by Alim Boeana
a picture by Alim Boeana

WOW – I thought, that’s a great illustration of the Fourth Revolution concept! How can you get more visual?

So I went to try to get a copy of the picture in high definition so that I could use it for printing, and possibly the Fourth Revolution book’s cover.

So I googled a little bit, found soon the name of the photographer, Alim Boeana, and uncovered within a few minutes that he is a young and talented photographer from Indonesia, working in Bali and Yogjakarta.

After trying unsuccessfully a few email addresses I could find on the internet I finally managed to establish the contact thanks to Facebook (you can send messages to people you don’t know). We quickly came to an arrangement for the license for the picture, I transferred the money using Paypal, and I received the full high quality pictures by email. They now adorn the website, the blog and soon the cover of the book.

So, what’s the lesson from the story? Having posted some pictures on internet, Alim put a seed to the world. He could be seen. His stunning pictures were reproduced and spread from person to person. I could contact him although he is in a developing country, and that made absolutely no difference. And, in a typical win-win situation, Alim could get an unforeseen compensation for his pain and talent, and I could get a great picture for my project.

Just 5 years ago this would not have been possible without excessive pain, and probably we could never have been able to contact each other.

Who now still says the Fourth Revolution has not ignited? And that the entire world is not participating?

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Have no bed, no toilet but I have a mobile phone… and internet!

A major impact of the Fourth Revolution is that ubiquitous cheap long distance communication is accessible worldwide. That means, also in developing countries.
It is so important for people to be able to communicate that in a scarce budget, people will often put a mobile phone or internet as a first priority expense. Every day in Africa, India and other places of the world, communication capability is more important in people’s life. The famous Grameen Bank of Muhammad Yunus developed micro-credit by lending money to women entrepreneurs so that they could buy mobile phone and sell communication time!

No shoes, no bed... but internet
No shoes, no bed... but internet

There has been a lot of comments on the post on the renewal of the elites. The daily news show how pervasive the Fourth Revolution can be in developing countries, making coordination of demonstrations and public action in a way that was before reserved to countries with highly developed infrastructure.
So what? The developing world is now connected to the world. Communication and broadcasting is not reserved to rich countries.
And that’s a fundamental change. Sure, that does not help in the short term the condition of the daily life in developing countries, but it will certainly transform it in the medium term. Because with connection comes opportunity. Discriminations based on Agricultural Age mindset will be overcome. History will not just be written by rich countries or elites that have access to broadcasting.
We are just now seeing the tip of the iceberg.
The world will change fundamentally in the next few decades. New perspectives will come from developing countries. Are you ready to embrace the change?

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Will the Fourth Revolution bring positive changes? The objections part 2: Big Brother is watching You

So, is big brother watching us?

Big Brother is Watching You
Big Brother is Watching You

In George Orwell’s novel, the government controls completely information, even changing systematically historical archives to fit some new official viewpoint.

Web-based applications certainly make much more private and personal data available to many more people than ever before.
Some literacy is needed to know what information to post and what not, in which conditions.
There are quite a few scary things happening out there on the internet – emails and Facebook pages get hacked, confidential information can be used against us. Our communications are certainly filtered for terrorist clues. If we are not careful, our computer might even become a participant to the zombie networks of organized crime.

Still, despotic governments again and again don’t manage to control internet. Their only solution is often to shut it down completely. Because it is widespread, shapeless, unstable, ultra-redundant, long distance communication cannot be stopped any more. And with collaborative tools, instant demonstrations can be effectively coordinated by loose leadership, through virtual social networks, using mobile networks or internet.
If a government shuts down internet, its people will never be able to get on board the Fourth Revolution and the dramatic change of value produced in the world. It condemns the country to slip economically behind. This is not sustainable and one day or the other, it will collapse.

Every day, long distance interactive communication shows its anti-despotic powers.

Could somebody take control at the world level? If Google turned evil, could that happen? I don’t believe so, because if would be easy to rebuild something similar on the side and start again. The disruption would be there but it could be overcome.

So, yes, each of us gives a lot of personal information to the world. Still, because of our new, incredible global interconnection, and an entirely decentralized infrastructure, the risk of a global evil takeover of our communications and our lives appears more and more remote. Rather, modern communication technologies develop the practice of democracy at an astounding rate.

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Will the Fourth Revolution bring positive changes? The objections part 1: no renewal of the elites

One clear assumption of the Fourth Revolution Manifesto is that the Fourth Revolution will ultimately bring positive change to the world (the way to the Collaborative Age might however have some bumps). Quite a few reactions have been received that disagree with this assumption. So, the next few posts will cover the two main objections categories received. I expect that they will be the source of much heated debate! Anyway, thanks to those that have raised them as they fostered a lot of thoughts!

The two types of objections are basically the following:

  1. The present changes in the world only reinforce the influence of the current elite, and poor, underprivileged and fragile people will see their own personal situation worsen
  2. Big Brother is watching us: our interconnectivity opens the door to incredible access in our private lives, which could be exploited by evil groups, ultimately leading to a new era of general slavery

Let us dwell on the first objection. The second objection will be treated in the next post.

One source of the objection is that we can observe in our world today, in particular in developed countries, that certain fragile categories of the population, get even more fragile with the globalization and the general disappearance of low qualification industrial employment. Governments have financial problems and the social safety nets get less safe. The poor get poorer and the rich, richer.

Industrial employment is certainly disappearing and it is only a question of time until its share will diminish even in emerging countries. The problem with the fragile segment of the population of the developed countries is that it now competes worldwide for manufacturing jobs, which tends to lower the value share they can claim.

Does that mean that the people that thrive today will be the same than the ones that will lead the world tomorrow?

Historically during the Third Revolution, it did not happen. Apart from a few exceptions, aristocrats did not manage to make it in the leadership of the Industrial Age – although they would have had the time and the means to access the necessary knowledge. And instead a powerful ‘social elevator’ progressively brought a large segment of the poor farmers up in the social hierarchy – based on processing abilities leading to promotion in the mandatory public education system. Numerous current industry and political leaders come from families that were quite poor 2 or 3 generations ago.

Through the Fourth Revolution, apart from a few exceptions, the current elite will not make it into the new leadership, in spite of their available time and means, because they are in their comfort zone. A new ‘social elevator’, based on different skills than the Industrial Revolution’s, will operate. And new leaders will come from all segments of society – and more importantly, for the first time, from all ethnic and national origins.

So, yes, the segments of the population that rely on Manufacturing for their living will suffer, as the ones that relied on Farming did in the 19th and the early 20th centuries. Still, the opportunities will be here to move into the Collaborative Age value creation system.
Never had so many people so many opportunities to access to knowledge and education, to be connected to the world- in particular in emerging or developing countries. And they can all practice the necessary skills to become successful, part of tomorrow’s leadership.

As, overall, the value production will increase tremendously, so will ultimately the living condition of all.

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