In, through and beyond the Overton

Grounded in what 'is', motivated by (and always working towards) what 'could' be

I recently posted on LinkedIn about a ‘job search’ process I was undertaking (this is broader than FTE, and can be loosely translated to ACTIVELY looking to do, and be paid for, good work. I am open to many different models for how this could work well for the org/s and myself, including maintaining a focus on consulting).

This post was supported by a short video that I’d previously recorded as part of a very specific application process (one of those rare opportunities within an org that is broadly aligned to my view of the metacrisis and how we might best collectively respond at different levels of organisation. In fact, you could say, the org is largely focused on ‘inner development’).

Why did I do this?

Well, in short, I wanted to:

• Express myself authentically (yes… I know. That! But this is absolutely aligned to the org’s inner development focus, and frankly, much of what we really need to do in a broader sense)

• Seek feedback on the framing (I feel confident in the assertion that, even when confronted with very difficult ‘realities’, I am willing to attend to, explore, accept, integrate, learn and evolve), and

• Potentially open other doors that may have previously been concealed (by this I basically mean a form of ‘weeding out’. By showing up a particular way consistently, you can sometimes ‘attract towards you’ more genuinely aligned relationships, opportunities etc. This of course limits your overall opportunity base in terms of quantity, but it can often massively enhance your opportunity base in terms of quality)

What followed was quite interesting. Here’s the content of another post that sums this process up:

“I’ll start by saying thank you for the support, especially those that have reached out to me directly via LinkedIn messages or SMS.

Most of you have suggested that the video, in the context of the role as I briefly described it (wisdom oriented, metacrisis aware etc. Some of you are aware of the actual role too, so that helps!), felt appropriate and authentic (especially recognising it had to be sub three mins). You offered support of various kinds.

Others have offered useful and constructive feedback (in terms of how I might frame my unique experience and expertise in such a way it better integrates with an existing organisation and the various constraints they operate under). I deeply value this. It helps me learn and I will integrate it.

Outside of that, I also received a very passionate and colourful message suggesting this video was deeply antithetical to me gaining any type of CxO employment (the sender completely agreed with all I said, but clearly not the context within which I said it). Although there wasn’t explicit feedback offered, I can of course imagine / understand why this might be the case. Including:

1) What I described in each of the three answers is WAAAAYYYY outside the normal distribution / Overton window. These are very personal / ‘philosophical’ answers. This is uncommon and rarely rewarded.

2) I explicitly describe, in my answer to question two, that I have turned down money on many occasions because it didn’t meet normative (ethical) criteria. This is simply not how most business works today, where the one value to rule them all is very clear (you know what I refer to here).

3) There’s nothing in here that feels 'tangible' and related to the usual core responsibilities of a CxO (for the most part). This doesn’t mean I don’t have the capacity to steward a P&L, support favourable conditions for a truly healthy culture, or grow what should be grown (this is covered in my CV and cover letter). I see this as being this ‘and’, not this ‘or’.

So, the criticism I received feels—if I’ve read between the lines effectively—entirely accurate in the context of what ‘is’. But… And this REALLY MATTERS… My work is about what ‘ought’ to be. It’s about wide boundary analysis, moral imagination, a systems informed theory of change and adaptive ways of working that move an organisation and the systems it effects / affects towards preferable futures (which is ALWAYS grounded in what is. Again, this ‘and’, not this ‘or’).

So, I’m still here to learn. And yes I am looking for work. But no, I don’t want to just fit in. I want to uniquely contribute in ways that help increase the likelihood we share in a better than decent future.

I trust this clarification is helpful.”

Overall it was a useful experience. It’s an experience I have thankfully learned from. And I hope it’s one that helps better position me (in the fullest sense of what that can mean) in relation to work opportunities that are genuinely complimentary.

If any of this is of interest to you, here’s the content of a recent cover letter (org identity removed) that dives a little deeper (please keep in mind this is a very specific organisation asking for very specific things in a quite unique overarching systems context i.e. supporting inner development as a meaningful response to the metacrisis):

<first part of the letter completely removed given how context sensitive it is>

“I’ve spent the last decade attempting to understand:

• The sociohistorical (and evolutionary) context that led to where we are today

• The realities of our ‘current state’ (using the widest boundary thinking I’m capable of)

• The potential for normative action that this affords, and

• The ways in which we, at every level of organisation, can meaningfully respond

Earlier in my career, this was a heavily intellectual pursuit. I was obsessed with the propositional dimension of knowledge. I wanted to ‘get all the facts’, and use my capacity for formal logic and reason to inform how we make authentic progress.

Over time, and after some incredibly challenging and confronting personal health and life issues, I woke up to the reality that this was insufficient. Through this process I began deepening my relation to the procedural, perspectival and participatory dimensions of knowledge. I ‘got out of my head’, so to speak, and began cultivating deeper capacities within myself.

This process, the type of process <org> supports others in enacting, has been amongst the most meaningful ongoing experiences of my life. It’s led to a much healthier balance between my modes of being, doing and becoming. And I believe it's rather radically enhanced my capacity to contribute to the processes, practices and rituals that truly matter. In fact, it’s because of this process that I am both decently ‘grounded in reality’ and ‘actively hopeful’. By this I mean, I’ve spent considerable time being with the reality of our global predicament. I’ve expressed, grieved and metabolised. Because of this I am not optimistic. Nor am I pessimistic. I believe in the possibility of better (hope) and am living my life in service of that possibility (active).

With that out of the way, let’s get into the specific areas of this role you’ve asked me to comment on.

Strategic Leadership

When it comes to ‘strategy’, I’m very much aligned to Roger Martin’s ‘strategy is not planning’ distinction. Using this distinction, most of my recent work has been about strategy (the logic underpinning the theory, the integrated set of choices we describe etc.). Earlier in my career, however, I spent a lot of time translating an organization's theory into different kinds of plans, describing confidence interval based roadmaps, expressing context-sensitive measurement criteria, and evolving ways of working to increase the likelihood organisational goals could be met or surpassed. I recognise this is often a rather artful pursuit. It’s a challenging balance between meeting the desire for ‘certainty’, yet confidently and healthily interfacing with the inherent uncertainty of any such pursuit. I cannot claim I ‘know’ exactly how to do this, given it changes by context, but I am confident that I’m well placed to both advise on, and effectively execute, the strategic intentions of the co-founders and board of directors.

Business Development

I’ve been ‘selling’ my entire career. By this I mean, I’ve been working to open doors and help people see and experience things that were previously unknown to them. Through this process of creating these opportunities, I’ve been able to drive purposeful growth in a variety of different contexts, from my first ever clothing startup through to my VC backed startup and beyond. I thrive in relational contexts, and have demonstrated the ability to match commercial goals with normative aims (something that is always a challenge, but one I embrace to the best of my ability).

Advocacy + Relationships

I’m a professional speaker and experienced communicator. I love the process of dialogically engaging with people from all walks of life. It’s through this process that I best learn, integrate and evolve. So regardless of the advocacy or relationship building context, I feel confident that my skills and experience will be well suited to help <org> continually expand its reach and influence.

Impact + Innovation

As both philosopher and entrepreneur, I’ve been fortunate to explore the theory and praxis of impact and innovation in many contexts. Perhaps the best way to describe my approach here is using the ‘bridging’ analogy. I think of innovation as being something that is new, useful and successful (inspired by Horace Dediu’s taxonomy). But, this fails to account for the normativity of the effort itself. Innovation ought to be something that is new, useful and successful in the context of solving problems that truly matter. Given where we are today, my reference here is about raising social foundations, while at the same time bringing the totality of human activities back with the ‘safe operating zone’ of planetary boundaires. To do this, we need to bridge the best of philosophy, science and spirituality with the best ways of collaborating and coordinating. There’s no set of deterministic rules that can guide this. It’s really a living process. And it’s one that I live daily.

People + Culture

I spend a lot of time coaching people on philosophical health, meta-cognition and psychospiritual development. Over the years, my capacity to actively listen and observe, thoughtfully prompt and inquire, and support cycles of development has improved a lot. But I am well and truly amidst this life long process myself. I don’t want to make any grand claims about my ability. Slightly more practically, however, a lot of my work over the years has focused on trust and its antecedents (benevolence, integrity and competence). This has helped me seed truly favourable conditions for people to grow in relation to each other, and the shared goals they are working towards. Because of this process, and the fact I’ve been tried and tested in so many diverse contexts, I feel confident that I can healthily lead the team to meaningfully develop, pursue shared goals, and contribute to real-world impacts in the process.

Governance

I’ve advised public and private organisations on governance practices for a decent chunk of my career. I should clarify, however, that I often approach governance with a little more breadth than is standard (I’m currently writing a paper on the universality of governance, where we draw inspiration from the ‘features of complex adaptive systems’ and describe how that can inform how we govern, at every level of organisation, human contexts). By this I am largely referring to the ways in which a theory of value, and the process of doing ethics (engaging in systematic normative reflection), informs shared deliberation, decision-making and the follow-on actions that create an organisation's authorising environment. Through this process I am attempting to demonstrate how we can go far beyond governance as compliance, and towards governance as both responsible stewardship and ethical innovation.

I realise that all of this is a conversation starter. I hope it's one you’d like to continue.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. And thank you for your consideration.

Here’s to our going in, through and beyond the metacrisis.

Nathan Kinch”

Again, to reiterate the point… I am trying to hone in on the right kind of mutual opportunities here. I am not interested in a scatter, throw it against the wall and see what sticks, type of approach. That will not work well for any organisation that is considering me joining their organisation (we will both be wasting time and incurring opportunity cost). Nor will it work for me.

Will this serve that process effectively?

I don’t know.

But I believe there’s a chance it might.

With love as always.

An opening amidst a storm, taken outside the front of my home here in Melbourne.

P.S. When it comes to consulting stuff, this is a different ball game. My proposition (the underlying philosophy, the processes and practices, the target outcomes etc.) is tightly defined and well evidenced (in terms of me having done it a bunch of times in a bunch of contexts). See my website for more, or reach out with specific inquiries.

Oh yeah…