I spotted this connection four months earlier than he did. I would not have the cheek to claim Geoffrey Moore as a follower, but I am a bit concerned I may be the “lone nut”.

I also wish the acknowledge Stephen Bungay for his kind permission to use some of the material from “The Art of Action”.

I have edited the post by adding the practical guidelines from the end of my presentation.

Regards

Greg

P.S. Purchase the TIN100 Report at

http://www.tinetwork.com

particularly if you are Australian!

If we must put policy up for sale, then sell it for something constructive, not for more pokie machines and roulette wheels. Winning at the gambling table does not cultivate the sort of ‘winners’ that we need!

My rant for the day!

Great article Simon, as an Irishman living in Melbourne, Australia with a Kiwi wife it certainly got me thinking! I agree with your point on cities – younger innovative knowledge workers congregate to large cities – from what I observe the words they use (in no particular order) to describe the environments they like are exciting, fast-moving, sustainable, eco-friendly, nightlife, arts and culture, access to the outdoors, sports, ability to collaborate and innovate, diversity, multi-cultural. As we get a little older we probably put less emphasis on the fast-moving and this is where New Zealand (and Ireland and AUstralia for that matter can attract people to what is a slower moving life style.

It is natural for young people to go move to the major hubs (think London and New York) – we should encourage it – what countries like Ireland and New Zealand (and Australia for that matter) need to do is encourage people to come back home with the experiences they have gained and be incentivised to share their experiences and to set up businesses where applicable . I know KEA New Zealand are doing a lot of work on connecting up with their diaspora and Ireland has certainly looked at it in recent times given the currrent economy – have a read of http://www.irlfunds.org/news/ffund/diaspora.asp

Attracting these people back to their home countries will help create better societies. Having lived away from Ireland for almost 10 years I can see a lot more clearly the great things about it as a country, but also its weaknesses. When I lived in ireland the waeknesses weren’t so apparent to me (or maybe I refused to acknowledge them).

A place that prides itself on using less stuff. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
A place where people are open to new knowledge and have a wide consciousness about local and world issues.
A place with open, transparent and participatory local government.
A place that doesn’t seek to expand it’s population base.
A place that strives to use appropriate green technologies.
With government help, a place where prices are REAL, because “bads” are taxed, and subsidies are rare.
A place where knowledge and learning is encouraged in every home. A knowledge society.
A place where social justice is practised. There’s lots of lip service in NZ to values we’ve abandoned.
Those are J.G. Speths’s eight necessary transitions.
http://www.streetgroups.co.nz/eighttransitions.html

Add to that new economic thinking based on ecological principles: Environment, Community, Governance, and the Economy, in that order.

Environment:
I see us recognising that preserving the services of the environment is our prime responsibility not only to ourselves, but to our grandchildren, and their children, to the 7th generation I hear Maori people saying.
We look after the environment and it looks after us.

Community:
I see us planning to include the poor in new housing development.
I see us planning a society that promotes good health, and particularly good mental health, which we neglect.
I see us realising that a good community, doesn’t need a lot of social services from agencies; the police, work and income, child welfare etc. What have we been doing to destroy “a good community” in the last 60 years?
We can’t BUY, a good community we have to MAKE one, by making one possible.

Governance:
Once again you can’t buy good politics, that has to arise out of the community.
See the call for open and participatory government, and for good information. We need ubiquitous broadband.
We need to stop political groups “buying the right” to be the government. That’s part of our problem too.

Economy:
There is no shortage of money. Money is not wealth, money is debt, someone’s obligation to pay in the future.
There is irresponsible use of money, in ways that destroys our resources and reduces our real wealth.
No modern economy can employ all it’s people in what we usually call “production”. To do so would be to destroy the earth in short order. That’s why we’re building a “service economy”, or a “knowledge economy” but that doesn’t work either. Many more of us will work from home in future. We’ll work much fewer hours.
Local production will become much more important to the way we live.
The solution to the “economic problem” is social. No amount of money can
fix it.

I work as an independent design consultant, and even though I could effectively work anywhere in this great country, I am limited to places with good internet broadband. The “remote office” concept works great for me as I get to keep the commute travel miles down and stay out of the greater Auckland carpark.

Not everyone strives to live and work in a big city. Improving supporting infrastructure, like better broadband access, will go a long way to making New Zealand an attractive place for our departed tech talent to return home to.

I look forward to following the continuing discussion on this topic.

regards

Grant