This is the first time in history that a Value Exchange has ever been shared publicly on the blockchain. Ethosvo.org has run 1,000s of these over the last 20+ years of experimentation. However (gulp) this is my Value Exchange. What is a Value Exchange? It's a blog really of your work story over a 1-3 month period. Work as in everything you do that is meaningful to you in some way and involves other people. Work should be something we do to bring focus to Social Value. Ironically, this last month has been filled with health issues and Christmas holidays so I probably have less to say than normal. BUT in the spirit of working out loud this is a BIG step for me.
Looking back.
The idea here is between your last Value Exchange and now (in my case 1 month!) how have you identified any social value have you delivered that you recognise? This can be literally anything. Writing a blog that people enjoy due to its honesty? What's yours?
One calendar month! My mother had a fall on 3 Dec 2022 and much of my time has been spent in family support! My dog Pippa had to be rushed for an emergency operation on 19 December - that has taken much time. Finally a 2 week Christmas holiday. So the truth is that most of my value has been with my family (and my pet!) this last month less time in Ethos.
We have run month 1 and now month 2 with our minimal overhead including Tony and I only being paid for externally funded work! It’s petrifying but I believe we have achieved the re-invention intended.
The Dovetail governance work I am doing is fascinating and I would dearly like it to progress to more work like this. It is about bringing the UK's charity sector and digital agencies together in a way that can match cultural fit ensuring that Discovery processes can ensure the right problems get solved by the right people.
We brought Ethos to a nice close just before Christmas including preps from spinning off TeamPolice and the first steps of a strategy for the Smart Businesses. Ethos continue's to support Geoff and the Ethos Wilder propositions. Fantastic symbiosis working with 
What is your Mission?
What’s your story? Your “Why?” What change would you like to see in the World (value to society)? Why this change? Why now? What will you give in order to achieve this? How will you personally change to achieve this? Note: this does NOT have to change each time you do VE but you include it to make sure you have an opportunity to rethink for the next phase!
I would love for future generations to live in a world that served people and our planet before organisational interests. I hope to convince a few people that this is, in fact, possible. This rather simple ambition (like Google’s founding “do no harm”) is easy to say, almost impossible to enact. How can an organisation never harm an employee, customer or stakeholder? Perhaps we have to moderate our self interests more, trust one another by default and collaborate more to achieve this?
Spiritually, I am at peace with the World as it is right now. “It is what it is”. I nevertheless can be restless in my quest for promoting change in an energetic and excited way.
Anger is not my best self. I recognise that the world may not change in any discernible way during my lifetime. That’s OK. Maybe some small thing I do will have a positive effect on a future generation or parallel universe. I’m not looking for instant gratification on this one!
I am a bit of a workaholic which I recognise as a weakness. I love innovation and playing in the space between discipline boundaries such as psychology, anthropology, sociology, technology, socal value, organisational interests, individual interests, economics and on.. I am a do-er which for me means mission and vision are closely followed by strategy and action research. Try, fail, try, fail, LEARN, succeed. I want the world to be a safe-to-learn space.
I love starting things. I need to be careful not to over commit or to be over ambitious. Nor must I burden myself with too much responsibility. Each of these things come naturally but can be weaknesses. I love leadership. I hate management. I love working out loud. Open data. Networks, Blockchain, Tech (open source, Linux, Docker, Github) and what it means to lead oneself in a networked society.
Like many people, the financial and emotional support that I give to my family is my number one priority. I have a very nice lifestyle that I plan to maintain as father, husband, son and brother.
Being in flow for me means aligning my actions to this mission and my strengths. I review this mission every three months or so.
I recognise that health is a gift and as such can be taken away. I will exercise regularly and will not overindulge. I will benefit from more energy.
Only one thing is for sure: things will change. I will embrace each change and respond with flexibility and agility. I recognise and search for the opportunities and adventure that each change presents.
I will be grateful, thankful and happy with everything that we have and I will give more than I take.
Looking forward
The 4 outcomes and deliverables in the table below are above don't have to mean a whole lot to everyone - although they could that's OK. This period they are really my shorthand on my commitments. I will come back to in a month and write about in my social value recognition in these areas.
| Outcomes | Deliverables | |
|---|---|---|
| TeamPolice.UK | Sign spinout agreement | Support Tony and Bill in this regard. |
| ESG clients | Progress 3 projects to commencement | Dovetail ref / Better pipeline / more volunteers recruited |
| Smart Cities | Have an agreed plan with Guildford/Surrey | meetings / f2f |
| Value Exchange | plans to support strategy | Hive blockchain. LI. Slack Helpdesk. Finding. Recruiting. |
- I'm going to be working full time on the above outcomes other than family and stuff.
- I'm only going to be paid when there is project or grant revenue directly associated to these things.
- January is going to be a 'zero' month so I am have capacity to roll my sleeves up on so many things - although I don't want to divert from my core mission especially Value Exchange.
- There are no conflicts of interest to manage.
People / Your network
"no person is an island" You need lots of people to help you work! Supporters, coaches and mentors. They work with you along the way to achieve shared goals. One of the keys to this section is to encourage you to engage with others and enlist others to support your mission.
Back-casting
This is completely optional. Where are you in the process right now? I've recognised my social value, recapped my personal vision, thought about outcomes and deliverables and the people who will help me stay well and who can support me. Sometimes it can be helpful to run-the next Value Recognition event in your mind, who will be there? What did you achieve? What led to those achievements? I needed to do this right now as we have launched a whole new strategy for 2023. It's big and ambitious. I was able to identify a major lack of self-confidence in the permission I have been giving myself around Value Exchange.
From: 26/01/2023 To: 25/02/2023
I removed the self doubt I have around the efficacy of value exchange. I did this by having evidence both on the B2B and B2C side. AND there was money. I did this by engaging my network in this box!! It was about the back-cast. We have managed to develop the vision to a level of detail where we could see the “who, what, why and where”. In other words the plan and the people who are enthusiastic about the plan. At my next Value Recognition (start of March) we have not only Ethos people but people who used to be Ethos people plus clients, collaborators and co-conspirators!!
The Party!
The Value Recognition event - it happened on 25/01/2023
Only a few of us need to attend! - of course this can happen asynchronously via comments but having a real-life event make this PHUN (Ethos spelling). Have food, alcohol, whatever. Run it virtually. But try and speak to each other. First the Value Exchanger talks about what it's been like and then others ask question and then add their own comments. No negative stuff but it's full of caring people who can offer kind advice and support - only when invited to of course! Below is a tiny flavour of the actual conversation that happened over Google Meet earlier this week:
Bill Skelly Are you happy with where you will land? Echoing comments Annabelle has made. Your leadership, vision, entrepreneurial approach has created this thing. People like me have come along to create something good and special. TP will go on to some good things. Possibly great things. More than a decade or more. After a year. Amazing. Fertile ground of ideas it wont stand still. 1TA as a product. That may be more change. Relevance. It is the single biggest drive to make PSUK relevant to the Police of the UK. The life of an innovator is never a smooth one. Material success is often elusive and will probably only follow the blooming of a new idea that has been forged in the fire of frustration. You can look back at the track record of success and feel comfortable that success will once again manifest but it wont be easy.. Rob: how can we help the “Bill in waiting?” Crucial is the sale. Sold on VE on all orgs should have/embrace. This would require their approach to people management. Skillset you have or need to source. How would you sell this. You will do well at developing the product. Incubated / developed over a number of years. BUT the bit about speaking the language of the buyers - do the buyers want Rob or someone else… There are a number of moving parts behind this. The concept… Head of HR, you like your own empire… Orgs will have to listen, change. It will only take one cycle of “not listening to” for this to fail. The concept and then the practicalities. What do I have to do? The mechanical nuts and bolts… How does this work.. The other part of that is being able to articulate the gap. What question does it answer? What problem does it solve? E.g. HR it was a system that existed for it’s own benefit. Mixing up a question about someones wellbeing rather than someone’s performance. “We feel you have a problem with the way people feel value” “whether people are able to contribute more”. “Here’s what it takes.”
Annabelle Lambert Your words, terrifying. I feel you have led excellently. I feel like “I don’t want money” - that is the answer. 24 years in the making. Not ground zero nothing. Of course we could not have done this 24 years ago. Money aside. It is really exciting. I think you have led me well to get there. I really enjoy working together. Would like to do more on my side. But thank you and really happy with where we are.