Consider the Requirements of a Mind-Driven Economy

On 4/20/2010, I reported on how the Great Restructuring that we have been experiencing over the past two years reflects the adolescence of a mind-driven, mentis-facturing economy. But exactly what does that mean? Like the industrial revolution, we are undergoing a major shift in global economic drivers.

I can only imagine how all the farmers of the 1800s felt as they watched their children leave the confines of the family farm to make their way in the big city. The city offered more opportunities as factories, mills, and mines drained work-ready youngsters from the less relevant countryside.

This is exactly what's happening in countries like Brazil, India, and China. The United States is undergoing a similar migration. Instead of farmers moving to cities, our skilled industrial communities will retool and reapply their experiences to technology and information-based industries. Advances in technology and the advance of the virtual worker means that people can find new jobs with new companies without leaving their existing communities. More and more companies can build mentis-facturing work teams across the country, leaving physical communities and economies intact.

Fundamentally, this shift extends beyond economics. Our societies and core institutions must change to keep pace with the shift. To strengthen mentis-facturing, the growing leader of our economic prosperity, communities and leaders should consider the following requirements for growing a mind-driven economy:

• Change the way we educate. Our current primary and education systems are designed to train great workers who can follow instructions and fit within manufacturing-based economic systems. Remember that "test" that asked you to read all the instructions before beginning? The last instruction read: "Stop at number 1." It got me every time. Why get my brain going, then tell me to ignore all the creative outputs of my mind?
• Get citizens into the workforce faster. Our community and technical colleges increasingly provide a faster track to getting the technical and information skills people need for a mentis-facturing economy. That means more people in the workforce, faster, without the cost and delay of a four-year college education. Declining birth rates and smaller families mean we need more income-producing (and, I must say openly, taxable) citizens entering the workforce more quickly to sustain our quality of life.
• Restructure federal, state, and local tax policies. Governments and policies require a few upgrades to recognize services and information outputs as the majority of transactions in our economy. Washington State is already seeing this already with proposal to impose sales taxes on services and recently-approved taxes on mentis-facturing outputs like digital goods. This is just the start. Our leaders and communities should be at the forefront of these recommendations to get it right and avoid emotional, reactionary debates.
• Accept that intellectual property is king and work with global leadership to standardize copyright protections and enforce them. This will allow us to outsource more of our innovations to places -- domestically and abroad -- that can produce them more efficiently and cost-effectively.

A mind-driven economy is a global economy that looks beyond a neighborhood's immediate needs and considers its impact in the greater world as a whole. The consciousness of the average American should include a understanding of the different regions of the world and how those regions impact productivity and performance at home. When heads get stuck in the sand and ignore the realities of our new economy, minds go numb and eliminate our ability to leverage our most valuable asset -- our ability to think, innovate, create, and grow.

Leading the Way to Recovery and Tips for Making the Most of Your Tradeshow

I lead conversations on small business growth and competitiveness as the Chair of the Council for Small Business at the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce. On 4/13/2010, Carl Gipson, Small Business Director at the Washington Policy Center, joined me to lead a discussion on recently passed Washington State legislation and its impact on the small business community's ability to lead our economic resurgence. He also shared a copy of the WPC's report, Lead the Way: Small Business & the Road to Recovery. Thank you to all of the attendees who provided feedback and insights on navigating our changing economy!

During the second portion of the program (time stamp 1:14:00), I shared with our viewers some marketing tips for making the most of trade shows. This is in preparation for the upcoming Chamber Annual Tradeshow, the premier Puget Sound venue for showcasing your business and networking with more than 1,500 attendees. If you are a Seattle Chamber member and have not yet registered to exhibit, hurry up! Booths are selling out (they have a few left as of today).

How Should We Drive the Economic Shift from our Hands to Our Minds?

We all know that we've entered a new economy. The Great Recession of 2008/2009 has been renamed The Great Restructuring, and we're all starting to feel the effects. With the demise of the Industrial Age, our economic systems, business practices, and social structures are absorbing the realities of the Information Age. The western world's economy has shifted from producing goods with our hands to producing goods with our minds.

Where does that leave the United States? Like the European Union, our manufacturing base has given way to an increasing need for engineers, scientists, and service industry professionals. Theo Eicher, professor and director at the UW Economic Policy Research Center, succinctly put it that our economy has shifted that from manufacturing to mentis-facturing. That means that we have changed from the bulk of our economy being produced by mechanical means (by hand, or "manu-") to being produced by our intellects ("mentis" or mind).

It is estimated that by 2016, currently "developing" nations will output 2/3 of all goods and the U.S. and the E.U. will produce only 1/3 of goods. That's in strong contrast of where we were in 2000. By 2016, more than 66% of our jobs will in service or innovation industries and will rely on creative, innovative thinking to be productive and competitive.

Yet, if you look at our citizens, we are below average in math and science literacy. And only roughly 30% get a college degree. That means in the new economy, many in our society will slide to lower middle class as the wage gap between college-educated and high school graduates increases. The ones who do not graduate from high school will be completely disenfranchised as un- and low-skilled job opportunities shrink.

We could conceivably see an unemployment rate in this country that surpasses 20%. But there is a way to change this outcome. In order to compete, we need to focus on getting smarter. Doctorate degrees are not required, but we will need more high school graduates, better prepared to take on jobs that don't even exist today.

How do you propose that we prepare for an increase in information-based jobs? I have my own ideas, which I will share on 4/27. In that post, I will discuss the requirements for making the shift from Manufacturing to Mentis-facturing, or a Mind-Driven Economy.

Courageous Conversations Require a Strong Sense of Self

Douglas Conant, CEO & President of Campbell Soup Company, spoke at the White House Workplace Flexibility Conference on Wednesday. Conant was proud to see that his employees felt comfortable enough to have courageous conversations with their manager. These courageous conversations helped them shape an attractive workplace flexibility program.



The Campbell Soup approach to workplace flexibility lives its values and appreciation for its team members. The leadership and team members possess a strong sense of self.

An organization's sense of self blossoms from a solid strategy that has vision, mission, values, and position at its core. This sense of self means that leaders and managers trust workers to do their jobs and get the job done without micromanaging where they work, when they work, or how they work. Workers have more control over their schedules and lives, allowing single moms and dads and sandwich generation employees to achieve work-life fit. Both organizations and workers need a strong sense of self in order to have courageous conversations. They also need the trust in their co-workers to feel safe having open, honest, even difficult conversations to express needs and wants and recommend ways the organization can better compete, improve efficiencies, and save money.

In my post, Workplace Flexibility Begins with a Shameless Workforce, I looked at what workers need to be Shameless and ask for what they need. Organizations also need to have a strong sense of self and trust in their ability to bring out the best in their workers, no matter where, when, or how they work. The Strategy String allows organizations to get beyond what they offer and start looking at why by wearing your values on your sleeve to drive every day performance. When organizations understand why, courageous conversations come naturally. All team members within the organization will have a strong sense of the organization's "self." Every individual, from the CEO to the worker on the manufacturing floor, will have a through understanding of your vision, mission, values, and position. Every one will know how to communicate it and understand how to tie it to the work they do every day.

The Seattle area provides two great examples of organizations with a strong sense of self. If you ever have a chance to visit Seattle University, ask any of the staff about their mission. They can not only recite the mission, but describe in detail how their job educates the whole person and builds leaders for a just and humane society. If you visit any Nordstrom around the world, you immediately experience the best customer service in the world. Of all the luxury retailers, their personable, unpretentious customer service comes through with every interaction you have with a Nordstrom employee.

If your organization needs a better sense of self, order The Strategy String for your leadership team. With Shameless workers and a strong sense of self, you'll be poised to conduct courageous conversations for workplace flexibility -- and beyond.

What is your organization doing to build a strong sense of self and encourage courageous conversations?