Update on the past few months

Hi everyone,

Sorry that I have been so quiet over the past few months.  Things have been busy, as they have been for everyone I'm sure.

I am going to update you on a few of my current thoughts:

1) Spiritual Disciplines:

I preached a sermon on Spiritual Disciplines this morning, using Prezi the PowerPoint killer.  Feel free to browse it at: http://prezi.com/qvf0ycgkcn_1/

I am convinced that the vast tradition of the early church's experience and practice of the craft of Spiritual Disciplines holds the key to a deeper, more rounded, more socially congruent corporate community.  My comments are: "Spiritual Disciplines are the tools whereby are inner worlds are settled, quietened, healed and ordered by God, so that our outer worlds can take shape and congruency.  And shaped and congruent outer worlds, like individual birds flying in formation, become how we act out our corporate calling".  If you would like the full sermon, please mail me.


I would like Melville Junction to take this journey with me, and so intend to arrange a retreat with the Jesuit Institute in Johannesburg (http://www.jesuitinstitute.org.za/en) as well as a shorter day-long event at Brenthurst Gardens (http://www.brenthurstgardens.co.za/welcome.php?section=walksandactivities).  Again, if interested, please let me know.

2) Topics for the SA church to get its teeth into:

I have a high view of the local church, perhaps a bit too high, given that many have not had the most pleasant church-type experiences.  But I do believe that the local church is the best vehicle for putting flesh onto the bones of God's redemptive plan of putting the world to rights.  I have been trying to put a series of booklets together, in conjunction with MJ's resident Theologian-in-the-House, Paul Warby, which we intend will be used to spark the imagination of the SA church.

The topics we are tackling are shown in the attached mindmap below.  We hope to introduce a fresh angle into these debates, going beyond the stale old 'social gospel vs spiritual gospel' narrative, often disguised as a thin 'faith vs works' or 'grace vs law' argument.  To steal a quote from Rob Bell, when it comes to such reformationist dichotomies (which we import into scripture), the right answer is 'group hug'.  Let's please all move on...

So, the topics at hand are (please right-click, save it, and zoom in on it):

3) The environment

With Copenhagen behind us, unsurprisingly nothing too noteworthy has been achieved.  The Economist summarised the choices the world is facing (in the light of clear lack of scientific consensus following the leaked East Anglia emails) as a decision whether to devote 1% - 2% of GDP to mitigate climate change over the next 41 years (i.e. until 2050) (in the same manner you purchase insurance hoping to never have to use it); or of course, to do nothing and take the chance that catastrophic environmental changes take place... leaving well, the world as we can probably never imagine it.

I opt for the first option.  To this end, I have changed by fuel guzzling Merc C280 for a Golf 1.9 TDi (to much scorn in the executive parking lot), and make every effort to use my Eezi Bike (the electrical wonder which in a promotional venture, managed 3000 km in Namibia for the total cost of R15) to commute the 20km round trip between home and work.

I'm no eco saint, but surely this has to help, even if it simply changes our awareness of our consumption patterns; and the bad habits we generally have.  Next stop: solar heating and rain water harvesting for the Briggsies, followed by less flying.

4) 2010 and beyond

The best thing about 2009, from a work point of view, is that it is almost over.  While much corporate unpleasantness has passed, the experience has provided all of us with a chance to deconstruct the corporate narratives of life-sacrificing work practices, excessive and unchecked consumption, and a belief that 'this is all there is too it'.  May we bank these lessons and never forget them.

So to 2010.  Let's grab it with all the gusto we can muster.  The Briggsies will be in Seattle for most of June 2010, so if anyone wants to rent a house in Parkview... ;-)

Sustainability in a post-everything world

I have come across an excellent article in the September 2009 Harvard Business Review, by Yale School of Forestry and Environmental studies, Professor James Gustave Speth, entitled ' Doing Business in a Post growth Society' (http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/09/doing-business-in-a-postgrowth-society/ar/1).




"It challenges the popular notion that economic growth is never ending, and that good business requires this growth to always be taking place.



Just as unlimited population expansion is untenable, so is unlimited GDP growth. Yet the open-ended commitment to economic growth persists, and it is now creating more problems than it is solving. It undermines jobs, communities, the environment, a sense of place and continuity, and even mental health. It fuels a ruthless international search for energy and other resources, and it rests on a consumerism that is manufactured by marketers and failing to meet the deepest human needs."



How many more laptops, cellphones and new cars can our planet sustain? How many more dot com fantasies, telco start-ups and low cost airlines can our planet sustain? How many more global rugby tours by beer swilling paunchy managers? How many contrived BEE deals leading to uber conspicuous consumption and zero social good?



I don't have the answers, but at least we are starting to ask the right kind of questions, and questioning the narrative of ever sustainable growth at the expense of everything we hold to be important.

Why Prof Jansen is correct in forgiving the Reitz Four

South Africa continues to look for lightning rods for its national collective zeitgeist, laden with its unhappiness, anger and the stresses of change, so that it can be unleashed like a three pm Johannesburg summer thunderstorm bolt of lightning. So it really shouldn't surprise anyone that Prof Jansen, the Vice Chancellor of the University of the Free State, has confronted the acceptable narrative of punishment and retribution by offering forgiveness to the Reitz Four, and is now paying the personal and political price for his actions.



That the making of the Reitz hostel video was despicable is not even up for debate. That it symbolized the worst of our country's chauvinist white male culture, prolific in institutions across the language and class spectrum (from waspy boarding schools to working class army barracks) is not up for debate. That it is symbolic of the transformation challenges in South African higher education, is a given.



That it goes against our state sanctioned national meta-narrative is not up for debate either, unfortunately. And it is this fact which has caused the backlash and outcry which has exploded in Prof Jansen's lap. Forgiveness has never been popular, particularly when it is costly and requires us to review our own agendas, and perhaps to change our own hearts.



Prof Jansen has challenged the national meta-narrative, that unconcious story running in our collective head, which tells us that it is more than fair to punish transgressors of the race equation. This state sanctioned mythology is close to a Caesarean myth, and Prof Jansen has dared challenge it. I don't profess to know the man, but the comments I've read indicate a deep sense of self awareness, and a self-professed brokenness with the resultant response of 'communing with the Divine'. Sounds like he has wrestled with his own demons before...



Good for you. Prof Jansen! Putting things to rights requires sacrifice, especially when you counter Caesar's narratives. Forgiveness is costly.  I stand by you.

Let's get this right, once and for all

So I need to get this online presence thing working properly. Here's to creating digital footprints all over the web - what a fine day for Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and a new blog posting.

Why I love Jo'burg and am hopeful today for tomorrow

This is a post I sent to a friend who lives in the UK. Unfortunately it was deleted, but I see it as my manifesto for hope for Johannesburg.

"I hear you on the crime thing, but I have such a different take on SA, even on Johannesburg. I would love to tell you about our living - from the book shops in Melville, to the restaurants in Parkview. Mountain biking along the spruit and Delta park, walking in Westcliff. A vibrant community church in Melville, touching the wealthy in Greenside and the up and coming professionals in Westdene and Brixton; so much energy and life!

I would love to tell you of the post grad Wits students we host at our house every month, sharing a bit about our adventures in corporate jo'burg, and the hope they represent for this country; or the crazy uber wealth I see as I peer out my office in Sandton looking at Sandhurst every day. Or the buzz SA is at the moment with Zim being touch and go; the upcoming elections (will you vote?) and the boom-bust nature of resource based economies. Africa is probably the most hopeful it has ever been.

Crime does loom larger than other realities. My friend (now my boss) wrote an email to his company last year, which morphed into the 4th best selling book in SA in 2008, entitled 'don't panic'. We have different views on Jo'burg - he believes anything south of Sandton is the next Hillbrow; I can't get enough of our new house in Parkview, with space and trees and long walks with daschunds. But then we do have guys on bicycles quietly patrolling the suburb.

So we all do have different realities. I understand your pain and the love you had for Jo'burg, and I understand the safe and sensible option of living in London. I do ask that you open yourself to a different reality and see that much that is bad is also amazingly positive. Anyway, feel a bit like I'm preaching, so will leave it there."

Is this a bit harsh? Didn't mean it to be.

My first stab at blogging

I have made the leap into true social media.

Now I can share my thoughts online.

I hope that my words are valuable and not just more e-clutter and cyber nonsense.

I'll do my best to make this space worthwhile.