Dear Visitor
With his permission, I share with you a letter written in 2003 to my son, John. He was the founder and CEO of National Lifestyle Villages, an organisation based in Western Australia.
The point of writing it back then was, and in sharing it with you today is, to provide a workable model and process for creating and maintaining a high functioning and therefore sustainable community of people.
This document outlines an approach to preventing the residents (called ‘lifestylers’ by the company) and company personnel within John’s villages from forming into a ‘them and us’ dichotomy with the resultant difficulties and downsides that creates.
As important as addressing the previous point (probably more important); is to respond to the inherent need within the village community (in my experience in any group or community) to limit the inevitable formation that is variously described as cliques, factions, elites and in-groups from developing.
Specifically, from them evolving in a way that is counterproductive to the sustainability of, in this specific case, the lifestyle village as a psychologically healthy, integrated community where all needs are responded to with impartiality and objectivity, not just the needs of the more powerful and vocal.
As already stated, the process behind the model outlined for John is suitable and adaptable for any business or organisation. Anyone with the required skills and heart-felt inclinations could introduce the process (in re-tailored form to suit the needs of their group or organisation) in fostering the concept of living and working from Possibility rather than impossibility for their company or organisation.
It is an outline that any aware leader, inspired by the potential of living from Possibility, could explore when considering transforming their organisation into a joined-up, cross-pollinating, a creative, innovative and sustainable community that individually and collectively see Possibility.
Note: John sold his company in May 2018, and the organisation may have changed its name, so if you decide to look it up on the web you may not find it.
WHAT REALLY WORKS AND REALLY MATTERS
CREATING SUSTAINABLE ORGANISATIONS AND COMMUNITIES THAT SEE POSSIBILITY RATHER THAN SEE IMPOSSIBILITY.
‘Culture isn’t just something in our life; it is the soil in which we thrive or die.’
What follows speaks to a process prepared for a unique group of people and also recommended for their host group. That same process, tailored to suit the needs and specific requirements of any other group, would work just as well and be equally as effective.
Examples of such other groups would include a company board, an executive group, creative group, any workgroup within the private, government or NGO sectors.
Any group of people wanting to perform at their cohesive best would be suited to the process outlined below, and the application of the model, equally effective and the outcome sought, likewise, transformative for the group.