5-Day Executive Programme: The Sphere Economy – October 2024

The Sphere Economy

The Sphere Economy is a proven methodology for improving bottom-line performance by connecting behaviours across organisational silos and reimagining waste as opportunities lost. With this approach, corporate sustainability becomes a search for profitable opportunities. Successful management shifts from task- or compliance-driven use of employee time to a collaborative search for innovative opportunities. By using established systems thinking methods, we go beyond traditional best practices to help managers think about their habits more broadly. As value creation becomes more networked through digitalisation, the Sphere Economy equips organisations to create value more effectively in an unpredictable world.
This course will develop your knowledge, competence, and application of the Sphere Economy to improve sustainable, viable personal and organisational performance, interdependent with governance and decision-making in local and international settings.

Overview

• Duration: 3 x 1.5 Days
• Location: TBC

Who is it for?

The Sphere Economy is for leaders, decision-makers, and strategists who want to understand and solve complicated problems by carefully studying the whole system.

Course Details

The course team comprises active Sphere Economy practitioners and researchers.

Christopher Gleadle With over thirty years’ practice of unified systems thinking approaches, Christopher Gleadle is the creator of the Sphere Economy and author of The Five Essential Steps to Sustainable Viability.

The course is taught through on-site methods, combining face-to-face lectures, workshops, group work, and case studies developed from highly diverse multi-sector experience.

Modules:

1) Introduction to the Sphere Economy – 1.5 days 

This foundational module introduces the basic concepts of systems thinking and the Sphere Economy. It explores complexity, the limitations, and risks of common habits of thought and behaviour, and sets out why and how to think about context and perspectives in a systemic, evaluative, and creative way.

• Introduce key Sphere Economy approaches to explore the impacts and unintended consequences of decisions, and the identification of waste and opportunities foregone.
• Build bridges across knowledge and competence gaps between disciplines and silos.
• Utilise a range of case studies to practice application in real-world contexts.
• Consider the management of factors causing friction between functions, interactions, and communications.
• Apply Sphere Economy interventions for communication and collaboration in complex organisational situations, reducing friction, waste, and missed opportunities to drive sustainably viable value.
• Examine how culture, schemas, beliefs, and attitudes influence value chain interactions, teamwork, and collaboration by examining cognitive biases and reasoning.

On successful completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Examine core Sphere Economy concepts and appraise sustainably viable systems that underpin practical methodologies to enhance personal and organisational performance.
• Understand heuristics, biases, and modes of communication (cooperation vs. collaboration).
• Explore divergent thinking for innovation.

2) Systemic Leadership and Organisational Behaviour – 1.5 days

Uncover the true extent of risk…and opportunity.

• Understand your organisation, who’s involved, and how things change within the usual setup.
• Measure and prove waste reduction, identify value, and find opportunities for improvement.
• Explore systemic leadership and governance that enables frictionless collaboration across various functions, disciplines, and technologies.
• Develop a map for sustainably viable systemic leadership using mathematical methods to validate system maps and remove waste and loss.
• Use scenario thinking to apply Sphere Economy methods for establishing organisational sustainable viability.

On successful completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Assess, account for, and validate attrition between functions and structure and its negative impact on organisational agility and resilience.
• Evaluate the innovative systemic approach to capture, create, and deliver more value for sustainable viability.

3) Leverage Newfound Knowledge – 1.5 days 

Develop and apply the knowledge and skills acquired from the previous modules.

• Select, plan, design, and report on an intervention to support an organisational need.
• Utilise the diverse talents within the class to create insightful applications of the Sphere Economy to various issues and challenges.

On successful completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Work effectively in diverse teams.
• Assess different ways of thinking to make better decisions in various situations.
• Explain the benefits and skills of the Sphere Economy to others to help them make sustainable changes.
• Develop ideas for new businesses.
• Communicate sustainability clearly and adjust your message based on your audience.
• Create clear reports and messages to reduce waste and find new ways to create value.
• Recognise obstacles to effective leadership within a system.
• Involve affected individuals and use digital tools effectively.
• Deliver improvements directly to the bottom line.

Notes:

• Students will be encouraged to work interdependently with guidance from the supervisor to apply their knowledge and skills, integrating theoretical and practical aspects of the Sphere Economy for future personal and organisational performance.
• Modelling methods will introduce various representations for systems and their behaviours, creating a foundation for formal methods used to understand and validate complex interactions.
• Complexity and complex systems often confound conventional linear thinking. The Sphere Economy applies modelling techniques to address and cope with various aspects of complexity in organisations.

Architecting Enterprises

• The Sphere Economy emphasises AI’s role in optimising behaviour and decision-making across organisational silos.
• Combined with the Allocation Economy and Internet of Agents, it amplifies potential for enhanced efficiency, innovation, and exploration of human behaviour, cutting out waste and exploring new opportunities.

Conclusion

Organisations often miss opportunities that link performance and sustainability. By focusing on managing attrition between disciplines and the waste it creates, the Sphere Economy accelerates organisational transformation to low-waste, zero-waste, sustainably viable entities and value chains.

Transformation

The Sphere Economy is not a collection of tactics but a new way of viewing and managing the organisation. It will shift management assumptions, habits, and behaviors, improving individual and collective performance and unlocking new streams of value creation.

Learning and Practice Outcomes

• Financial: Boost Engagement, Value Discovery, Improve Margins
• Technical: Technology Integration, Diversification, Lowered Impact
• Operational: Innovation through Harmonisation, Efficient Design, Low-Waste/Sero-Waste Performance