Rushing to collect my children from day care the other day, I caught myself feeling frustrated and thinking about how expensive day care was.  Then feeling somewhat guilty it I realised that the cost of childcare is small compared with what I get paid and is small in terms of what that service allows me to do in my life.  I thought further ‘What could be more important than raising our children?’  How had I and by extension we as a society got it so wrong?  How have we valued the care of our children so little in comparison to other professional work?  No wonder there are day care supply problems when the work is valued so poorly.

This is but one of a myriad of complex issues that we face as a society.  Frank Dixon, in his 2003 paper ‘Total Corporate Responsibility: Achieving Sustainability and Real Prosperity’ comments at length about the state of our social, economic and political systems.  In it he comments that we now face global economic and social crises even in prosperous countries.  Issues ranging from endemic obesity levels, proliferation of prescription and illegal drugs including anti-depressants are cited as evidence of something going wrong.

He goes further to state that the challenges we face are highly interconnected and the total system is too complex for any one person or organisation to understand let alone solve.  Our traditional analytic process of reducing problems into component parts no longer works because solutions in one area often become problems in another.  An integrated ‘systems’ approach is required.

Business leaders have a key role to play in transforming this situation.  In recent years the corporate social responsibility movement has driven improvements in business’s environmental and social performance.  However according to a recent report in The Age newspaper activity in Australia has mainly focused on philanthropic donations, community sponsorships and stakeholder engagement programs.  While increasing numbers of CEOs have incorporated environmental, social and governance issues into core strategies, few have been working with others to harmonise their actions across the systems in which they operate to make the fundamental shifts required.  As commendable as these individual initiatives are they are not connected enough to make an impact on systemic issues.

According to Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute, ‘first tier thinking’ results in a belief that one’s own value system is the only true, correct or deeply worthwhile one that exists.  He posits that ‘second tier thinking’ has an understanding of the crucial and relative importance of different value sets and focuses on interrelationships, flexibility and integrated sets of actions.  This shift from ‘first tier’ mode of judgement, blame, ‘either/or’ thinking to the ‘second tier’ non-judgemental, world-centric, ‘both/ and’ thinking is necessary to make the transformations in our interconnected and conflicted economic, political and social systems.  To shift from one to the other requires a momentous leap, a leap that is essential for us to prosper going forward. 

1. Think of a time when you faced a challenge which could only be resolved by involving leaders from several organisations

• What were the unique issues you faced?
• What were the barriers and enablers to resolving this?
• What in this article could you have applied to that situation?

2. Think of a time when you had a significant conflict with someone close to you such as a work colleague, your partner or another member of your family.

• How were you judging, blaming and employing first tier thinking?
• What aspects of non-judging and second tier thinking could you have used to move through the conflicts?

3. Think of a time when you faced a challenge which could only be resolved by involving individuals from many different departments in your organisation.

• How did you go about addressing the challenge?
• What would ‘second tier thinking’ have looked like in that situation?