Chapter 16

December 6, 2022 9:11 PM

Systems Citizen
Vague Interdependency
- Globalization and Future are alien to us
- Networks of mutuality
- We have never been here before
- Lacks of concern about how our decisions affect people and larger living systems thousands of
miles away

Societies Waking Up
• Kyoto Protocol
○ operationalizes the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change by
committing industrialized countries and economies in transition to limit and reduce
greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in accordance with agreed individual targets.
• EU's Extended Producer Responsibility
○ is mandatory within the context of the Packaging Waste, WEEE, and Batteries Directives,
which put the responsibility for the financing of collection, recycling, and responsible
end-of-life disposal of packaging, WEEE, batteries, on producers
• China's Circular Economy
○ an economic model that stresses the importance of maximizing resource use and the
lifecycle of products, with emphasis on integrating these concerns at the product design
phase.

Insurers, Consumers, and Investors Taking a Stand

• The terms of global trade often unfairly favour the rich.
• Corporate Social Responsibility
○ a business model by which companies make a concerted effort to operate in ways that
enhance rather than degrade society and the environment.
○ helps both improve various aspects of society as well as promote a positive brand image
of companies.

Business Discovering, They Cannot Go It Alone

• The global food system is the world's greatest generator of poverty
• Race to the bottom
○ refers to heightened competition between nations, states, or companies, where product
quality or rational economic decisions are sacrificed in order to gain a competitive
advantage or reduction in product manufacturing costs.
• Sustainable food lab

What Does All This Mean for Leadership

• Systems Citizenship - a kind of leadership that calls for
○ Systems intelligence
 Seeing patterns of interdependency
 Seeing into the future
 "once people start to see systematic patterns and understand the forces driving a
system, they also start to see where the system is headed if nothing changes"
○ Building partnership across boundaries (With the "Other"
 Takes time and real commitment
 Strength comes from differences
 Myth of the Management Team
 Organizations are coercive systems
○ Openness of mind, heart, and will
 No "right model" for a complex system

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  No "right model" for a complex system
 Judged based on usefulness, not absolute accuracy
 We are all part of the problem
 "to become a leader, first become a human being" - Confucius

Systems Citizenship

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