Living Strategy: Putting People at the Heart of Corporate Purpose

Step Four: Creating a map of the system

A fundamental characteristic of humans is the search for meaning, the active interpretation of the events, the creation of coherence and integration. Earlier we saw the efforts of the team at Citibank to realign key people processes to create cohesion of meaning around customer networks and thinking globally. For them the creation of integrated meaning meant a move from sequential, ad hoc decisions about separate parts of the organization to an integrated, cohesive map of the system. In this step we consider how this integrated approach can be developed and become part of the way a people-centred strategy ...