Apr 5 / Randall Iliff

What The World Really Needs

The graphic you see here is much more than a simple marketing image.

To me it is a model of what the world needs most, a manifesto that guides everything I envision for Eclectic Intellect, and a reason for everyday people to believe that improvement is possible.
There are only three blocks, but since they function as a system there are four critical aspects to this visual manifesto:

Deeper Insight

The starting point for decisions should always be reality, not theory or superstition.

Better Solutions

Actions should be responsibly designed to satisfy needs without creating adverse side-effects.

Happier People

The best metric of your success is how people feel. 

Connections

The arrows reflect a total of six connections within this system, each contributing to the success of the whole.

Let’s quickly explore each of these six connections, since that’s where the magic in any system arises or is lost:

  • Deeper Insight enables the formation of Better Solutions.

    Understanding the problem lets you design a great solution. We see this constantly with technology, as each discovery unlocks the potential to provide better products. It applies equally to processes.
  • Deeper Insight removes misunderstanding/frustration that leads to Happier People.

    People notice when leaders are uncertain. Few things in life are more unsettling than to be responsible for work that is poorly understood or operating under guidance that doesn’t match reality.
  • better solutions remove misdirection / waste and also leads to Happier People.

    The solutions leaders impose are like medicine – they have potential benefit and potentially harmful side-effects. The dominant reason that people are unhappy in organizations is that they are being ordered to do work in a way that conflicts with their understanding of reality in that moment. 
  • Better Solutions enable access to even Deeper Insight about the work.

    The closer you get to reality, the more you learn. Sometimes you learn that your model was wrong all along, such as thinking the Sun revolves around the Earth, and had no hope of success regardless of investment or the number of management reviews conducted. 
  • Happier People are ideally positioned to be open to Deeper Insight.

    Minds close due to fear, but open wide when they feel understood. There is genius everywhere within organizations, happy people feel safe enough to share it and trust it will help, not hurt, them to do so.
  • Happier People support, maintain and sustain Better Solutions.

    People naturally support and defend their source of joy. The most successful organizations that I have been part of have also been the most enjoyable to work within – in large part because they were aligned with reality instead of working in opposition to it. 
Empty space, drag to resize
The model can be used to describe, create, and diagnose a wide range of business systems, and extends to the enabling methods and practices that make these objectives possible.

If people aren’t happy you can be certain that something about the understanding of work and the approach you are using is off. 

Applying that insight to world affairs leads quickly to the realization that a lack of adequate insight leads to marginal solutions that irritate everyone.

The only available change driver is for people to demand improvement.
 
People who use and benefit from products, people who work in the organizations that create and manufacture products or deliver essential services such as healthcare, people who invest in the creation of value – even people who don’t use the systems are all societal stakeholders.

If you’d like to be part of making people happier, you are in the right place.

The deep insight you will find here is unique, has been derived from almost fifty years of immersion in a diverse range of roles and organizations, and can lead you to much better solutions than those available today.