Stay on your waka to excel in corporate 21st century

The waka offers many lessons for the 21st-century business world.

It carries goods across the water, along with the hopes and dreams of a tribe and it was believed to carry the spirt to the other side. 

The tribal leader steered the vessel by communicating with those on board even in times of fear, ensuring those who manned the oars gave the same energy to propel the craft to safety. Without communication from the leader, the vessel would flounder.  

Business is now focused on communication, operating and marketing online not only to its people but also to clients and customers, diluting the need for face-to-face interaction and weakening trust or long-term relationships. We have become dependent on the internet and indoctrinated into believing the world is at our feet by mastering the ever-changing network.

Speed and convenience are part of the drive for business efficiencies and effectiveness. We need those KPIs – saving money but increasing margins and bottom line profits. However, where are the people in this puzzle? Have staff and employees just become data – a disposable resource if we cannot match the desired KPI results set by formula? 

Our businesses have also become the target of the network blackmailer – the hacker – a malicious force breaking into our networks to create havoc and prevent leaders from ensuring everyone on board the waka moves in unison.

The hacker is a virus or resident gut bacteria we contend with on a daily basis. To become effective in controlling and preventing damage we must have open communication channels between each crew member. This requires trust between each member, knowing that each will protect the other.

Can this really be achieved? It used to be the norm until the 1980s to have an open work environment where communication was not dependent on the internet. Today, efficiencies and higher returns are demands placed upon business owners compelled to create wealth for shareholders. It pressures each department or silo to beat other teams to become the champions. 

There is nothing wrong with being a champion. Maybe the measurement of a champion has been redefined in recent years. We now measure it based on income and targets. What is this doing to organisational culture? Does this inspire trust, nurturing and care, not only for the person next to you but also the entity – the waka? The answer is, surely, no.

It is the trust in each member of the team that creates elasticity of communication between us all.  

More often than not, business and staff are self-interested. They ask “what’s in it for me,” rather than “what’s in it for the entity.” Our ability to see has been clouded by greed rather than the necessity of caring for the person next to us. The rowers are moving to their own beat and rhythm.

The communication channels have blockages, so the hackers have a field day knowing there is no organisational unified effort to be vigilant and watchful of outside forces. They wouldn’t be as destructive if only we had the communication channels open.

Even our bodies and the cells have channels of communication. Cells feed nutrients to each component so each can communicate and transfer information. It’s a micro world, and business is much more complicated but healthy cells work beautifully to fend off outside forces. It is called our immune system. 

Can we learn from the miniature world of the cell and the spiritual meaning of the waka to open communication channels within businesses? We have the answers and resources within to fend off hackers. 

We just need to know how to utilise the people who will propel the business – the waka – forward.