In 1988 I read Brian-Hall's book, The Genesis Effect, in 24 hours--I was excited by what I read. 22 years later--I'm more convinced than ever of the power of the genesis effect.

So what is the genesis effect? It has two dimensions: (1) we try to create the world around us to match our view of how the world should be, (2) we are most most motivated to undertake activities which match our values.

1. Creation

   We each have a view of what the world around us is all about. Our personal world-view is shaped by our beliefs, our life experience, our knowledge about 'the nature of things', etc:

   

   The values we hold are the byproduct of our personal world-view. We attempt to create a desired world around us through makings decisions about what to do. Since the choices/decisions we make are based on our values, and since our values are a byproduct of our world-view, it follows that our personal world-view (inner-reality) determines the world (outer reality) we create for ourselves.

   This has important implications for change be it personal, corporate, or societal and leads to the first principle of the genesis effect, i.e. to change our outer-reality, we must firstly change our inner-reality (world-view).
    

2. Motivation

   We are only motivated to do things which match our values. This is the main cause of procrastination, i.e. we are reluctant to do things that are important to someone else (match their values) but do not match our own values and are therefore not important to us.

   

   So, if we define productivity as a measure of how much we get done with a given resource, the second principle of the genesis effect becomes: there is a direct relationship between productivity and the extent to which people can live their own values--i.e. when people can perform tasks which match their values they will be more productive than when they are 'forced' do things which match someone else's values.

What have the Minessence Group learnt about values-based programs over the past 22 years? In summary, the following set of principles, starting with the two above, have emerged:

1. People make decisions based on their identity. To change the outer-reality, the inner-reality (world-view) must firstly change;
2. To increase people's productivity, one must ensure they can engage in tasks which match their values;
3. What matters is not WHAT values a person has, rather, what matters is HOW they live their values;
4. Rather than attempt to change a person's values, it's more effective to 'harness' the values people already have;
5. Transformative leadership is a team effort. It requires constructive dialogue between the Transactional leaders (the implementers) and the Visionary leaders (the dreamers);
6. People's brain-preference influences whether they more motivated by being a Visionary or Transactional leader;
7. Systems (organizations, the economy, cultures... ) have values independent of the people in them. The values of systems are those of the people who created them. As people's values change, it's important to re-work systems to be based on people's current values;
8. Civilization is best served through facilitating people to maximize their well-being (Why? Because the path of happiness is identical to the path of progress--see 9 & 10);
9. Happiness ensues when we take on ever more challenge, with commensurate skills development, whilst living our own values; and
10. Progress = increased simplicity through increased complexity. The arrow of progress is in the direction of increased internal complexity, provided the increased complexity is for the purpose of making things simpler.

Should you wish to discuss any or all of these principles in depth, please visit our blog site.