Calgary Shift 2012: Opening Remarks from TEC Founder & CEO Dr Lynn Tanner

What follows is an edited transcript from Dr. Tanner’s welcome speech to members and guests at TEC’s Alberta multi-group meeting in Calgary on January 17, 2012. 

It is a pleasure to see all of you here today. Some of you I have known for years, others I have not met before, and some of you are  “generational” TEC members – by which I mean when the companies that their previous President or CEO built and sold has now opened up new doors for them to move into the role that their President or founder use to have. It’s wonderful for me to watch that progression build and watch people gain the confidence to take the risk necessary to build new companies based on past experience as an employee in a TEC member organization.

I want to share with you today some of the things that I’ve been working on and some perspectives that have been evolving for me over the last 25 years. So let me shift to what I see as a precursor, conceptually, to what you are going to hear today from Chris Luebkeman. In the 1970s I was very involved in the World Future Society, and I used to do a series of retreats on early warning systems for the American Management Association. I was always fascinated by how a lot of trend analysis was perceived as too general or esoteric by many in the business community.

I want to appeal to you to shift your head just a little bit about how you handle information that comes at you from a world citizen who you are going to meet here shortly. “World Citizens”, as far as I’m concerned, are people who actually live in and learn numerous cultures in different parts of the world. They are not parochial; they really have gone outside the socio-economic and cultural bounds of where they were primarily raised.

I am particularly interested in how that becomes a generative framework – a framework that supports those of you here today to be generative citizens of Canada. You are the people who take risks, create jobs, manage balance sheets hire people, manage all the fluctuations of the economic cycles, look for new markets, new talent, and deal with the depression when one of your senior people leaves and goes to a competitor – all of those very tough things you have to deal with. And you do deal with it, while at the same time maintaining a course of growth stability and development of your company.

One of the dimensions of being a generative citizen is also not just your companies, but how you also visualize yourself in relationship to your employees, your community, your nation, and your children, spouse and families. One of the things that a world citizen enjoys, I think, is that they see all of that in operation with a different cultural lens. And they see it comparatively in different countries so that in fact it’s different but it is still somewhat the same. Today you will have that opportunity to listen to a new perspective from a new lens on the world.

I’d like you to go outside the day-to-day business world and understand that this might be a lever that will allow you to move to new markets and new countries. It can enhance your intellectual capital and move you beyond what you would otherwise learn over time; knowledge that would simply be a lens that only focuses within relatively tight boundaries. I am interested in having you expand those boundaries – and that is one of the things that I have been involved with in my group for the past 25 years, which I still run. Sometimes my members enjoy it but do not see the relevance in it, and sometimes they see that, in fact, a whole new company or roll-up strategy can be developed that they didn’t see as possible for them previously.

The other dimension that I want you to see is the way in which, as you open your lens and expand what you see and understand in the world, you also expand what you see and understand in yourself – and more importantly in your employees. Because when we talk about corporate culture you have to allow and understand that there is a leakage function that takes place based on you and your development as a person and CEO or president.

What is leadership? Leadership is to be a vessel of data and intellectual capital that will actually ooze out and be available for the people who work for you. It has an energy and presence that inspires and commits loyalty; that attracts talent to you.

My goal is for you to shift your thinking, expand to embrace new paradigms and begin to grab relevance rather than wait for it to hit you in the head. Because as a leader, you need to be an operative into the world for your bankers, accountants, employees, and for new markets. This expanded nature allows you to be someone who attracts opportunity, who understands the culture so that when you do get lucky, you know how to exploit your luck.

So it is my pleasure to be with you. Thank you for your membership, thank you very much for your commitment to the growth and development of TEC Canada and this wonderful country of Canada.

 

The Human Side of Change

The change isn’t the challenge – it’s the transition.

According to Professor William Bridges, who first identified the human side of change as pivotal to the success of corporate change programs, there are two distinct parts to change. The first is change as an event that is external to us – it happens to us. The second part is transition, which is an internal process that affects how we respond to the change event.

TEC Canada Chair David Rubin talks about the history of change management as a management science, and how business leaders can identify and work with the human element to improve the success of their change programs.

Shift 2012: Opening remarks from TEC Canada President, Catherine Osler

TEC Canada President, Catherine Osler, opened the TEC Canada Shift 2012 multi-group meeting events in Vancouver and Calgary with the following speech, outlining the role, the potential and the power of TEC in creating and supporting Canada’s business leaders.

Welcome everyone to a new year and to mark its beginning, an exceptional day of learning and networking. I am delighted to be here with you as we explore together the acceleration and complexity of global change and how it impacts each of us.

Over the past year, I have heard from members across the country about the challenges and uncertainty of the global economy we are all now a part of. I would like to take a few moments to briefly describe my vision for TEC and the commitments I am making to build the kind of community that will help you to thrive in the new normal of this complex global economy.

I am committed to creating a community where our members, Chairs, staff, and many trusted advisors achieve beyond what any of us alone could accomplish. As Keith McFarland notes in his recent book, The Breakthrough Company, we cannot go it alone however good we might be. McFarland maintains the best results occur when we surround ourselves with networks of people willing to question and debate our approach, as well as support, celebrate and share in our success.

I am committed to creating a member community with diverse and divergent points of view, yet also like-minded in our values. We are innovative thinkers, honest with ourselves and each other, open to change and growth. We have a keen desire to contribute our experience and wisdom to help others excel and to celebrate one another’s success. We understand the value of mentorship to accelerate personal and professional growth and recognize the unprecedented power of group effort. We also recognize that we all – Chairs, members, and trusted advisors – share the responsibility for the composition, tenor and continued innovation of our groups.

I am committed to creating a community who champion the best thinking. My objective for TEC is to become an applied thought leader – applied because we want to close the gap between theory and practice – thought leader because we want to prepare you for the challenges and opportunities of the new global economy. Being an applied thought leader is not about professing the “right answers.” It is about our ability to recognize trends, to be part of vibrant discussions at the forefront of business thought, to be conduits of new thinking. Today’s event illustrates the practice of applied thought leadership.

I am committed to building a community where members act for one another as catalysts to spark new thinking and new potential for investment – where innovative ventures take shape and ground breaking products and services germinate: A community that works with other organizations that support collaboration to foster innovation, perceiving and solving problems in new and different ways. Our relationship with KPMG has already proven how we are strengthened by these partnerships, and I am pleased and delighted our KPMG colleagues are here with us today.

I am committed to building a community of confident leaders who look regionally, nationally, and internationally for new opportunities. Over the next 36 months, I will be focusing efforts and resources on leveraging our network across Canada and around the globe with Vistage and our international partners, in places such as the UK, Brazil, Australia and China. I invite you to join us for the international member conference in January 2013. [note: Details are available at conference.vistage.com]

I am committed to building a community who understand the wise exercise of leadership in all spheres of life is a contribution to human advancement.

To establish a community built on these objectives is to make TEC a safe harbour where our members can confidently chart their visions when the economy is favourable, and take wise refuge when it is not. We are to be the organization to successfully navigate the new normal of the global economy in all its complexity, uncertainty and opportunity.

I thank you for the courage to become a TEC member and your decision to fully realize your potential – and in doing so, help others realize theirs. I wish to celebrate and congratulate you for your commitment to transformational leadership and your perseverance to build enterprises, even during the most challenging economic conditions. In the months and years ahead, I invite you to continue your journey with me as we realize our visions to collectively become more than we could ever achieve alone.

Today, we are coming together as individual leaders to create and explore the power of our own community.

Shift 2012 Vancouver: Are our businesses designed to thrive?

Karen Chown is TEC Canada’s Vice President of Member Relations. She recently attended TEC’s SHIFT 2012 event in Vancouver, participating in the the futurist workshop of Dr. Chris Luebkeman to identify and analyze the effects of the complex changes that are currently affecting Canada’s business environment. You can follow her on Twitter at @ChownerCalgary.

Recently I had the opportunity to participate in a workshop given by Dr. Chris Luebkeman, who heads Arup’s Foresight, Incubation and Innovation team.  Chris reinforced how quickly our world is changing – in fact, that change is constant and through participation we can influence this change.

Our group discussions were thought provoking – what where these drivers of change and how they might impact our businesses 20 years from now?  Are our businesses designed to thrive?

The aging of our population in Canada has been a demographic reality which we regularly think about, at least superficially.  But have we really considered the impact of this change?

At the most fundamental level, human capital, or people, drive our economy.  Consider Canada’s population pyramid which reminds us that our economy will be increasingly reliant on immigrants, as our population of working age adult dwindles. As we become more reliant on immigrant population growth to fuel our own economy, it reminds me that many Canadian businesses are not adequately prepared to leverage our new workforce.  Our educational, training and accreditation systems lag behind supporting our needs.  Canada is the only G8 country in the world without a fast track medical accreditation system designed for immigration of medical professionals from specific countries.

We often read about or experience the generational differences between workers.  The Millennials are delaying adulthood;  extending their education, living at home with parents until late into their 20s and seeking balance in their work lives.  This will have a tremendous impact on our economy. Home purchases will be delayed, children will be born later and there will be fewer of them.  Most millennials have a different value system, placing less importance on consumerism.  How will this impact our economy and our businesses?

We can sit back and watch these changes take place or we can influence the future by shaping it.  Business leaders can and should be making significant efforts to make their workplaces welcoming to immigrants. We can get involved in making our education, training and accreditation systems become world class.

Let’s get started.