Stage-5: Sustain a Core Group

Applying Kinship-centred Principles

You have sensed for some time that if even a few people at the top put the organization’s needs ahead of their own, as you now invariably do, then progress and profits could improve greatly. You reach this Stage when that group, called here the «Core Group», exists.

If you are the CEO,Closed you have attracted a few people who are ready to back you 100%. You must sustain their identification with your aspiration and goals, and require that they are absolutely loyal to each other, to you especially, and above all to the organization.

If you are not the CEO,Closed then you have allowed yourself to be attracted by a CEO who seeks to create a Core Group. So you accept the required conventions and get yourself included.

The Core Group

The Core Group knows that its members belong together for just one over-riding purpose: creating a great business! The group is not synonymous with top management. It might well contain an individual from support services or middle management, and possibly the CEO's personal assistant, and even an outside advisor.

If you are new to the idea of the Core Group, read more here.

The needed principles and dangers are described in detail here. However, this is the Kinship-centred story in a nutshell:

New Thinking is Waiting Outside

The strength and therefore the problem of all kinship-centred principles is that they generate an inward-looking orientation, and restrict full confidence to a handful of personally-trusted colleagues.

When difficulties persist and current thinking is self-evidently not enough, it is necessary to look outwards. There are so many different outlooks: far more than could ever be accommodated in one organization. Even if potentially useful, anything lying outside your team or your organization cannot be brought inside—unless someone like you is prepared to work to let it in.

Remember: there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your personal philosophy. This embracing of something alien and poorly understood requires learning to broaden your horizons. The Mode that embodies this truth is perspective-centred.

Originally posted: July 2009