Guest columnists: Matthew Taylor and James Wallman

Matthew Taylor
Think like a system, act like an entrepreneur.

Sometimes change feels hard won, a gradual chipping away of the status quo. In other moments, it is like an unstoppable tide.

For more than 250 years, the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce has sought to bring about progressive change, and our call to “think like a system, act like an entrepreneur” is based on our understanding of why change so often fails.

The pressure to move faster is unrelenting, but it is important to think deeply about societal context. Our approach emphasises agility (delivering change through fast, incremental steps, learning as you go) and adoption (taking your people with you). We have used our “think like a system, act like an entrepreneur” approach when engaging citizens in Fife on our project to design a basic-income pilot.

Our methods aim to identify ways to effect system change. Nowhere is this more relevant than in terms of welfare. We’re seeking to understand how a basic income might provide a radical alternative, asking questions such as: in what context might an experiment be introduced? How might a basic income impact on those in need? What priority issues might a basic income address? How could the application of a basic income be best aligned with people’s values? Throughout, we seek to understand welfare through the eyes of service providers as well as local citizens.

Alongside the systems diagnostic, we look to identify opportunities and energy for change within the system. This isn’t about the deployment of a predetermined grand plan; such over-managed processes tend to lead to failure. It is about spotting the opportunities for change, however small. This requires a hacker mentality, developing workarounds for resistance to change.

Our work in Fife has enabled us to identify legislative, political, fiscal and cultural spaces and moments of opportunity. Some of these will fail to open up or sustain, but our entrepreneurial approach means that, when the door to change does start to open, we and our partners will be ready with the tools to push it wider.

Matthew Taylor is chief executive of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

 

James Wallman
Success at work depends on resilience and happiness.

The science of success took a sudden turn in the 1990s. Until then, everyone thought success was determined by IQ. But, as psychologists Salovey and Mayer discovered, success is also determined by emotional intelligence (emotional quotient, or EQ). And so EQ took its place alongside IQ.

Recent studies have added another element to how social scientists think about success. Evidence has emerged that strongly suggests a causal link between happiness and success. What’s really fascinating is the direction of the relationship.

Most of us assume that success leads to happiness. But psychologists have discovered that people who are happy are more likely to become successful. Then there’s a growing body of research that has shown that, if you want to be happy, you should spend more of your money and focus on experiences.

If we agree that if A leads to B, and B leads to C, then A leads to C, then these scientific discoveries show that if you want to be successful, you should focus on experiences.

There’s a further reason why a focus on experiences is more likely to lead to success: resilience. Research has shown that being able to handle tough times and bounce back is essential to both happiness and success.

The American Psychological Association’s top 10 ways to increase your resilience fit almost hand in glove with some of the key reasons why scientists say experiences are good at making us happy – they bring us closer to people, give us a chance to define who we are and challenge us. The right kind of experiences can improve our ability to bounce back and are an ideal launch pad for happiness and success.

The ability to distinguish between good and bad experiences, to recognise them, to plan them, and to organise our lives around them, is essential. In other words, IQ and EQ are critical for success – but so too is ‘experience intelligence’.

Here’s what the science suggests in a nutshell: if you want success, as well as IQ and EQ, you also need a healthy dose of XQ – ‘experience quotient’.

James Wallman is the author of Time and How to Spend It: The 7 Rules for Richer, Happier Days (WH Allen, 2019)