Articles from Integral Leadership Review1/15 – Integral Transformation of Value Chains: OneSky’s Integral Leadership Program in the Brazil NutValue Chain in Peru and Bolivia2015-01-14 09:01:15 Gail Hochachka

Gail Hochachka

Abstract: One Sky carried out an Integral LeadershipProgram with the Brazil nut value chain in Bolivia and Peru, in partnership withCostco the fourth largest retailer in the US, as well as Candor, one of his mainbuyers, along with the Canadian nonprof it organizat ion Integral WithoutBorders Inst itute. As an overall goal, the program sought to foster a personal,collect ive and systemic t ransformat ion of the Brazil nut value chain through anemergent design, based on integral principles. It included f ive ret reats over 18months, in-depth self -development as a leader, extensive learning about thesocial and environmental dimensions of the value chain, the importance ofqualit y of the product , and ef fect iveness of the value chain it self . Theprogram intended to generate the depth of relat ionships and t rust to create amore unif ied vision amongst all actors and a more resilient value chain, able toexist f luidly amongst the on-going threats that global issues pose forsustainable supply. This art icle discusses the design and the methodology,and then reports on the success towards this end, considering the indicatorsfor change in all of these dimensions of t ransformat ion.

IntroductionThe Canadian nonprof it organizat ion, One Sky, in partnership with IntegralWithout Borders, took the integral leadership curriculum f rom work in WestAf rica and adjusted and aligned it to be used in the private sector in Peru andBolivia. Our private sector partners were Costco, the fourth largest NorthAmerican retailer who is generally known for it s moral business pract ices bothinside it s own organizat ion as well as with the communit ies and regions itworks in, and one of it s main buyers Candor, an innovat ive company who holdsa simple, fascinat ing and t ransformat ive principle to “honour source” in theirglobal business pract ices. These companies are keenly exploring market -based approaches to address the underlying issues of poverty andmalnut rit ion, in the communit ies that source these products.

The One Sky core team included facilit ators Michael Simpson (Canadian), GailHochachka (Canadian) and César Morán-Cahusac (Peruvian), then IntegralCoaches Alex St reubel (Colombia) and Márcia Kodama (Brazil), and Big Mindfacilit ator Sant iago Jimenez (Colombia).

It is important to point out here at the outset of this art icle that One Sky has12-year history working in global sustainabilit y in the nonprof it sector, mainly inthe Global South but also in Canada, almost exclusively with partnerorganizat ions with overt social change missions. It was unusual and unique forour team to engage with private sector, and such large corporat ions at that .We came into the process not without a crit ical inquiry, and a crit ical self -inquiry, doing constant check-ins with each other on how this was going, onwhether we were retaining our own change mission in the midst of this privatesector engagement , as well as on how we were holding ‘beginners mind’ toopen to the potent ial of this synergy. The crit iques of big business in acontext of sustainabilit y were never far f rom our minds—such as, corporateagendas with goals for limit less growth on a planet with f inite resources—andyet we at tempted to hold a t ranscend-and-include space where thoseperspect ives could co-exist alongside the other potent ials present in thisinit iat ive. We were also genuinely curious and open to exploring how the globalmarketplace might actually form it s own evolut ionary pathways beyond it self ,and were appreciat ive and mindful of the power that private sector couldbring to bear on a large-scale global change.

We began with 28 Peruvians and Bolivians, who come f rom every point in thevalue chain: local harvesters, leaders of indigenous peoples’ associat ions,landowners with large Brazil nut concessions, people involved in shelling,buyers and sellers, and some individuals f rom the public sector (governmentof f ices who regulate various aspects of the Brazil nut t rade) and f rom thenonprof it sector (NGOs in the region who support Brazil nut harvest due to thefact that it can both serve conservat ion and community developmentobject ives). This at rophied down to a core 15 people, who represented themost important groups and actors within the value chain, and who wereauthent ically on board this t ype of process.

The private sector players in this project use the term “value chain” in anunique and innovat ive way, which is important to point out f rom the start .Described by Sheri Flies of Costco (personal communicat ion, 2014):

A value chain is where everyone (1) provides value and in turn (2) receivesvalue. We look at deeper questions: if someone is not providing value, we givethem the chance to do so and if they cannot, they are asked to leave—thus,value chain: if you don’t provide value you don’t belong. This eliminates uselessmiddleman that actually don’t do anything. With the streamlining of the chain,efficiency and cost savings ensue. With the cost savings, we can then look atthe second part of the definition. We use the cost savings to give back to thecommunities, improve value/quality and infrastructure, while also loweringcosts to the consumer. Everyone needs to receive a fair return, including theconsumer. This is how we shift systems. A fair return is defined differently byeach segment of the chain and is fluid based upon the needs at the time. Theseare organic and constantly evolving systems. I point out this definition becausenot all retailers share this view and/or definition and I think it crucial to point thatout up front, especially if we want to replicate it in the private sector.

Moving f rom that def init ion, with a constellat ion of champions who were in theright place and the right t ime, drawing on integral methodologies usedelsewhere, and including an advisory that included some of the brightestminds we know, One Sky with Costco and Candor carried out this 18-monthintegral leadership program. It became, essent ially, a t ransformat ionpersonally as well as within the system of the value chain it self .

In brief execut ive summary, at a personal level most part icipants:

Gained new perspect ive and greater ecological and social awareness.Were more able to connect their own work in the value chain with thelarger global context of business.Gained greater self -empowerment and the abilit y to voice their opinionsand insights about the value chain—from the local harvesters through tothe buyers in Lima.Experienced a shif t in their sense of ownership, where they went f rombeing a “cog in a machine” to being a leader for a “greater whole”.Experienced a posit ive change in their capacit y as a leader.Improved their communicat ion skills and abilit y to resolve conf lict s.Had an opportunit y to pract ice and gained new conf idence in publicspeaking, planning and visioning skills in a safe context .Reported a general sense of having improved as a person.

Our evaluat ion also assessed that as a value chain (in terms of a culture ofactors as well as a system of business):

There is now greater t rust and t ransparency, which has a directconnect ion with how f luidly and ef fect ively the value chain operates.There is now greater capacit y to resolve conf lict s as they inevitablyarise, with a st ronger sense of shared ident it y and unif ied vision, all ofwhich corresponds with a cultural shif t f rom being like, “disconnectedcomputers” toward being like, “an Amazonian rainforest in harmony.”There is collect ive agreement that the value chain funct ions well now,but there is st ill room to improve, and that their largest challenges maylie ahead.The leadership program great ly assisted to st rengthen the value chainf rom it s incept ion.The quant it y of containers went f rom 1 to 14, and the t ime it took to getproduct to market was reduced.The process for negot iat ing price has stabilized and moved out of thespeculat ive model that is otherwise used in Peru.The model used in this leadership t raining is one worth replicat ing inother value chains, part icularly those that are in a startup phase.

In this art icle, we f irst share the design of this program, with some highlightsf rom the curriculum, and then t rack the all-quadrant result s of this value chaint ransformat ion that were ident if ied in the concluding integral evaluat ion of theproject . Also, throughout this document in the side boxes, we have included

stories of personal t ransformat ion.

The DesignWhere does design actually begin, in a process like this one? Is it in thet ranscendent intent ion held to uplif t consciousness at key leverage pointsacross the planet , or at points part icularly available and open tot ransformat ion? Did it f irst start in conversat ions between leaders in theprivate and non-prof it sector some four years ago, in a completely dif ferentcount ry to where the program actually took place? Did it start when we putour minds together and put pen to paper on how this could actually roll out?

Perhaps all of these. Insight is accessed in the deepest recesses of the soul.It then cascades into greater densit ies of ideas, planning and coordinat ion.Before it f inally crystallizes into form, with part icipants coming f rom all partsof the value chain, f rom the rainforest villages to the ports in Lima and La Paz,and facilit ators beginning the journey of an integral leadership program.Indeed, all points along this t rajectory reach f rom the Absolute to the relat ive;this movement of Spirit -in-act ion cont ributed to seeding the t ransformat ionnot only of a value chain and the actors within it , but also of an ent ire globalmarketplace.

We sought to use an Integral Approach to lay the emergent condit ions fort ransformat ion within a value chain, primarily working with actors at everypoint of the value chain. On the one hand, we were experiment ing with thetheoret ical rigor of Integral Theory that suggests when a comprehensive sliceof realit y is engaged in a coherent way, result s will be profound and last ing.We were test ing to see if this inherent intelligence of the theory actuallymanifests as such in pract ice. On the other hand, we were replicat ing thedeep st ructure of previous integral leadership and capacit y development wehad carried out within the civil society sector elsewhere (Nigeria, 2009-2011and Peru, 2007-2009).

The cent ral axis of this ent ire endeavor is that of t ransformat ion. Call it ameta-object ive, or an overarching goal, or a cent ral axis, point of being: wewere aiming to get individual and social holons to t ransform. From there, theent ire methodology is geared toward that t ransformat ion (and somet ranslat ion). Our design was oriented to create the condit ions for thist ransformat ive f low that goes f rom ego-cent ric to socio-cent ric toworldcent ric. We were open to “anything” arising f rom that f low, and thus hadfew concrete object ives art iculated at the outset . By “anything” we werereferring to anything that was t ranslat ive (health achieved within a given levelof consciousness) or t ransformat ive (growth to later levels); we were notreferring to the emergence of regressive states or stages, where higherperspect ives broke down completely into compet ing egocent ric blocks.

So we held this broad, wide, general template of t ransformat ion—a f rame forvirtually ANY sort of t ransformat ion in individuals and collect ives and their links—and were working with both changes in st ructures (egocent ric tosociocent ric to worldcent ric), and states (both meditat ive and usingScharmer’s natural states in the U-Process), guided by an all-quadrant model,and “throwing all of them together for a ‘god knows what ’ outcome—as longas it ’s actually t ransformat ive.” (Wilber, K. personal communicat ion 2013).

Though this may come across ad hoc to some, it is worth taking a moment tonote some advantages of developing a technology like this. First of all, it t rulyhonors the inherent , natural evolut ionary intelligence in a system. That is, wemay not be the ones to actually say to where or to what a system shouldt ransform; that is not for external actors to impose but rather for the systemitself to give rise to. By sheering away our own preferences of where or howthis t ransformat ion should go we actually honor, in a non-at tached way, whereit is actually inclined to go. There is wisdom and great respect felt in such non-at tached act ion. Also, there is another pragmat ic advantage of such anapproach:

In any situation where we would like to see an improvement in any number ofparameters—but perhaps we don’t fully understand all the variables involved,and so we can’t set out detailed goals and mission statements—we couldapply this ‘generalized transformation technology’ which, in working with adeliberately broad number of parameters and opening the system at large, itslinks, and its individuals all to undergo transformation, the technology itselfwould seek out the areas of least resistance to transformation and undergotransformation at those points. The better we understood a system and all itsvariables, the more specifically goal-directed we could be from the start, andthe less we understood the system, the more we could apply this ‘open-system transformation’ model. (Wilber, K., personal communication, 2013)

In this case, we didn’t have detailed knowledge of the context and this was

the f irst t ype of collaborat ion between the groups ment ioned, and thus weopted to use this open-system t ransformat ion model. In this, we const ruedthe value chain as a holarchy of greater and greater depth, developingleadership capacit y at each fulcrum point of that holarchy, and act ivat ing theemergent nature of t ransformat ion towards greater perspect ivism.

Within this meta-f rame, there were four cent ral modules of this program, withthe types of themes covered (examples depicted in the diagram below).

1. Developing Self—Leadership Vision and Personal Capacit y2. Building Skills—Workplace Performance and Competencies3. Developing T rust and Shared Ident it y—Organizat ional Culture4. Inf luencing Systems—Ef fect iveness of the Value Chain

Figure 1: Design with quadrants

Outcomes and CriteriaUnder our open-system t ransformat ion model, as we came to understand themany variables at play more fully, we also art iculated associated outcomesfor each quadrant . These are depicted below with the criteria used for each.

Figure 2: All quadrant outcomes and indicators.

MethodologyRetreats

The t raining took place in Puerto Maldonado, Peru and Cobija, Bolivia in theAmazon rainforest over 18 months beginning in April 2013-October 2014.Part icipants took part in 4.5-day t raining sessions and part icipated in ongoinglearning and individual and group coaching in between sessions.

The workshops and learning act ivit ies held at ret reat intensives held thefollowing design principles.

Iterative learning as part of an action-inquiry: Moving f rom theory topract ice to applicat ion to ref lect ion to theory.Developmental: Aligning with the current level and creat ing condit ionsfor emergence.Participatory yet lead: St riking a balance between enablingpart icipants to be teachers/cont ributors in the program, while alsoholding a role as leader of the overall meta-perspect ive.Engaging learning in multiple-perspectives: Employing and invit ingf irst -person, second-person, and third-person perspect ives in thelearning approach and content . So, we included didact ic learning(lectures, presentat ions), dialogue (small group work, large groupdiscussion), and experient ial (ref lect ion, self -inquiry, embodimentexercises).Creating space for personal expression within the group:Facilit at ing t rust , allowing self -expression and self -ref lect ion, givingopportunit ies for people to pract ice speaking publically, giving voice toeveryone, bringing group awareness to the individual.Designing retreat intensives such that every aspect is aboutlearning and can be replicated: Using the holonic-design of theret reats as a learning opportunit y, so that part icipants can replicate thisdesign with their home organizat ions.Consistently making the connection between personal practice andprofessional work. Using rituals, visualizat ions, story-telling,embodiment pract ices, journaling, shadow work, and meditat ion as wellas Big Mind process.Holding, articulating, and co-creating meta-vision: Holding the“banks of the developmental st ream” through co-creat ing towards

t ransformat ion.Orienting this work as part of a larger integral social changemission: Working with the understanding and commitment that this isnot a one-of f project , but part of a suite of intervent ions that support alarger sustainable, integral social change.

Integral CoachingTM

Integral CoachingTM is a useful way to engage people’s individual changeprocesses. Unlike a client who seeks out integral coaching usually when theysense they are at a cross-roads in their lif e, or a fulcrum point in their owndevelopment , the part icipants here may or may not be at such a point . Whichis to say that the integral coaching may be addressing a t ranslat ion (changewithin a level) or a t rue t ransformat ion between levels. In the former cases,this coaching may not have too not iceable an impact but in the lat ter case, itcan support a vast shif t , personally or professionally. In either case,part icipants are given metaphors to illust rate their ‘current way of being’ and‘new way of being’ along with pract ices to move them between these. Wehave found that this assists at a personal level the t ransformat ive processwe hold collect ively. In most cases the personal coaching program ref lectsaspects we’ve already covered in the group, and reinforces it .

U Process

The ret reat intensives followed the U Process of Scharmer (Scharmer, 2014).Ret reat One brings people into the room, facilit ates them to f irst locatethemselves in this group, in their professions, in their largest vision for theirlif e. In other words, it really begins with a self -cent ric sphere: who are we, whatare we doing and what are we here for? Usually this also facilit ates thebeginning of group t rust , as the group gels through this personal dimensionwithin their shared professional dimension.

Ret reat Two brings the group deeper into that group t rust , which isspecif ically important for a value chain where usually one actor only interactswith another based on a business t ransact ion. Under normal condit ions, theseactors don’t get to know each other to the extent that they actually did in thisprogram. Ret reat Two covers some of the key components of a healthyinterpersonal domain, such as conf lict resolut ion, understanding perspect ives(levels of consciousness), and exploring power, rank and privilege.

Ret reat Three moves the group into Presence, into the spaciousness ofcreat ive potent ial, or the ‘bot tom of the U’, which is supported by IntegralCoachingTM that runs concurrent to the ret reat sessions. Shadow workbegins in this session, as well as deeper visualizat ions, embodiment pract icesand collect ive contemplat ions on the meaning of resilience in turbulent t imes.

Ret reat Four is where greater shadow work is done, deeper self -ref lect ion(circling back to exercises done in Ret reat One, such as personal visioning andself -expression), and the emergent ground provided for emergence. In thiscase, it was the Integrated Nuts movement , which arose completely f rom theinit iat ive of part icipants as a way to art iculate their shared values andprinciples for the Brazil nut sector in Peru and Bolivia, which sets them apartas leaders and innovators in the f ield. This is the f irst move up the other sideof the U.

Ret reat Five is taking stock of t ransformat ion, stabilizing new forms of being,contemplat ing where one is stuck and where one is f lowing, sharing personalstories of change and t ransformat ion to conf irm group support of these ‘newways of being’, and f inally to design next steps for carrying forward theemergent design (in this case Integrated Nuts). This is the stabilizing of thenew way of being on the farther reaches up the U.

Figure 3: U Process of the overall program

Breakthrough Initiatives

Leadership work cannot occur in a vacuum. Ef fects f rom working individuallyhave to f ind a way to land in the real world of people’s work. The subst rate fora breakthrough init iat ive was the Brazil nut value chain it self .

This not ion of breakthrough init iat ive comes f rom the United Nat ion’sDevelopment Program (UNDP) work in leadership t raining in the HIV/AIDS f ield:

A breakthrough happens when one achieves something that was previouslyseen as impossible for the community one serves. During the LeadershipDevelopment Programme, participants in small teams form breakthroughinitiatives that are laboratories for trying out new ideas and methodologies, andvehicles for producing measurable results. Breakthrough initiatives must fulfillcertain criteria including: leverage, visibility and measurability, producing near-term results, going beyond ‘business as usual’ (e.g., reflecting velocity,productivity, innovation, effectiveness, participation, impact, efficiency).(Sharma, M.; Gueye, M; Reid, S; Sarr, C., 2005)

In this project , the creat ion of Integrated Nuts was the groups’ breakthroughinit iat ive. It arose in Ret reat Four and has since become a way for the valuechain to ident if y the needs in communit ies, processing facilit ies, or in theenvironment that should be awarded funds. Increasingly buyers are paying a‘premium’ on a product , to ensure they are paying the t rue cost of a product .That ‘t rue cost ’ must consider the social and environmental wellbeing for thatproduct to exist and enter the supply chain. This cont ributes to a sustainablesupply chain, as well as greater sustainabilit y in the communit ies andecosystems where these products come f rom. Integrated Nuts is posit ionedat this intersect ion, to assist in direct ing funds f rom purchasing ‘t rue cost ’ tothe more pressing needs in communit ies and ecosystems.

EvaluationProjects that deal with complex issues require a t ruly non-linear and emergentproject design that engages both the interior and exterior dimensions ofchange. Evaluat ion of such projects can be t ricky as their complexit y evadesthe usual problem-solving techniques. We can’t use the linear formalevaluat ions ef fect ively in these cases. Instead, we have to include methodsf rom all four quadrants used in integral approaches and also t rack changesacross a t rajectory of innovat ion that develops.

To evaluate this project , we sought an evaluat ion process that could capturethe full t ransformat ion that occurred in this program, which is what we sharehere in this art icle. Our Integral Evaluat ion included personal interviews with thepart icipants to assess their own personal change stories, collect iveassessments during the ret reat , and a survey at the end. As well it includeddirect -observat ion (both at the leadership ret reats and in the weeks following)and, we were also assessing for t ransformat ion in the individuals, thecollect ive, and in the “innovat ion” it self (this being the emergent outcome ofthe leadership program on the Brazil nut t rade in these two count ries).

Data Sources

Table 1: Methods and data sources for integral evaluat ion.

Developing the Self—LeadershipVision and Personal Capacity

Change in Perspective and AwarenessPart icipants experienced a change in self -awareness. For some, this had adirect impact on their professional lives (see Story 2 on Kathleen Sharkey ofCaro Nut below). For others, this occurred in their personal lives: over thecourse of this program, unhealthy relat ionships have split up, others havetaken their commitments to deeper levels with marriages and pregnancies,others have reunited with est ranged family members (see Story 1 box belowon Biviana Calle of RONAP (Asociación de Recolectores Orgánicos de la NuezAmazónica del Perú), Story 3 box Billy Echeverria of Rainforest Act ionNetwork, and Story 4 on Miguel Zamalloa of RONAP). Simply put , lives havechanged. Here, we asked people to specif ically speak to how their awarenessof environmental and social issues has changed over this program.

Part icipants spoke of gaining new environmental and social awareness. Whenasked how conscious or aware they were of social and ecological issues uponcomplet ion of the program, over 89% of respondents ranked their awarenessas “very good” to “excellent .”(For all diagrams, n=10, which is a sampleapproximately 75% of the graduat ing group.)

Diagram 1: Degree of awareness of environmental and social issues af ter the program.

One young woman f rom an indigenous community spoke about how she usedto watch her mother gather the cans and bot t les to recycle them but didn’treally understand what she was doing. Now, she is able to connect hermother’s recycling ef fort s with the larger picture about how to protect theBrazil nut t rees and surrounding forests. (Biviana Calle, RONAP)

For some, this shif t in awareness that occurred collect ively served to support

an individual’s exist ing environmental ethic. Said Miguel of RONAP, “Thisprogram has st rengthened my environmental awareness, although this hasalways been important to me. It st rengthened the awareness I have alwayshad, I feel supported and vindicated by this, I am not alone. Now I know I amnot alone.”

Taddy Villaverde of Vitalianos spoke most eloquent ly about this shif t inawareness, saying:“These workshops have been a st rong process that has enabled us to seeand understand the importance of the Brazil nut t ree. Through this program Ihave realized that every single nut goes through an extensive process; eachnut is f illed with emot ion for me, because behind each nut there are so manypeople, there are the communit ies and there are the rainforests.Understanding this has completely changed my perspect ive.” (TaddyVillaverde, Vitalianos)

We sought to provide a global context in which to understand the Brazil nutvalue chain. Upon complet ion of the program, 88% of survey respondents saidthat their abilit y to connect their own work within the value chain to a larger,global understanding ranked at “very good” to “excellent .”

Diagram 2: The extent to which part icipants are able to see their work connected tothe larger, global context .

Carolina Jara of Candor summarized this shif t in perspect ive very well,“Changes have been established, and we have planted the seeds for thefoundat ion of what we want with this. We have the opportunit y here tomanifest a value chain that not only creates economic value but also has aposit ive impact in social and environmental issues. They all have realized this.”Finally, Kathleen Sharkey ref lected on the changes in social awareness thatwere a result of this program, specif ically in terms of how her company couldaf fect their community wellbeing bet ter, simply by shif t ing their perspect iveslight ly. She explained:

“In regards to where they store the nuts… At the outset , we built a warehouseon a vacant piece of land. But I’ve come to see that it ’s in an awkward place,it made more sense to take it to a dif ferent warehouse that was easier to getto. I went f rom thinking, ‘f ind a piece of vacant land and build a storehouse’ to‘how would this best work for the community to access and use?’ Myperspect ive shif ted.”

EmpowermentPart icipants also demonst rated an increase in empowerment which, on theone hand is cent ral to ent repreneurial at t it udes, on the other hand, it can bepart icularly t ricky in business relat ionships where power is held unequally.Of ten, the person with less power ends up remaining silent , even when theyhave invaluable wisdom to share on a part icular point . This was t rue of certainpart icipants, where through the program, they gained access to their personalpower and their voice, and thus were able to add value into the business andinto the value chain. “I feel that I am more empowered. I feel people listen tome, before I did not know how to express myself .” (Viviana de Olarte, Candor)

Empowerment is part icularly important for the indigenous people involved inthe Brazil nut t rade. The intent ion sought by Costco to ident if y and pay fairreturn provided a degree of empowerment for these people. Said HermanBascope of the Takana community, “I am empowered now, because when the

community asks ‘what have you done, are there any changes, any newperspect ives?’ I can answer conf ident ly now that we have a ‘plus’ for thecommunit ies and we have considered how we can meet the community’sneeds for basic sanitat ion.”

A Sense of OwnershipWe not iced how, prior to the leadership program, “the value chain” wasexperienced as something people were subject to or immersed in, but af terthe program, the value chain became comprehensible as something theycould actually work on, innovate, and excel at , as well as be int imately part of .Being able to “take it as object ”—that is, to lif t one’s head f rom the daily grindof one’s small piece of the larger whole and actually perceive that whole aswell as one’s own crucial part in it—is a shif t in awareness. And, that shif t thatseemed to co-arise with greater ownership. From other work elsewhere, wecan at test that an increase in ownership is a crit ical ingredient forsustainabilit y of result s.

“Thanks to the workshops and what each link of fers, one feels the value chainas a whole and we have the sense that it belongs to us.” (Miguel Zamalloa,RONAP)

Before the workshops I had no idea what the value chain was andmoreover I only saw myself as a castañero. I can now explain what it is, Ican see now that others view me as an important person, and I am moreinformed about the value chain. I have a value and a posit ion in the valuechain; we are the f irst in the chain because we are the collectors of thenuts. (Herman Bascope, Takana)

Building Skills—WorkplacePerformance and Core Competencies

Leadership CapacityWe asked part icipants direct ly if they thought they had become a bet terleader through this program, with evidence as to why they thought that .

Miguel Zamalloa, the President of RONAP explained, “Yes, I am now a bet terleader. These two years of work has enabled me to have a closer relat ionshipwith the RONAP’s partners and they now see how my ideas are benef icial.Moreover, this year I was reelected unanimously and they are going to giveme an economic recognit ion for my work.”

Taddy Villaverde of Vitalianos explained, “It allowed me to see in what way wewere failing in my company. Before, our presence [as Founders and Directors]was needed, now our people make their own decisions and they do it well.”She and her colleague Michel Llanos went on to explain how the shif t in theirown self -awareness and their own act ions within the company changed overthe course of the program and the impressive impact it had on the rest of thecompany.

Over 75% of survey respondents rated the value chain as having “very good”or “excellent ” leadership capacit y upon complet ion of the program. CarolinaJara of Candor said, “There used to be only one leader, now everyone is aleader.”

Diagram 3: Degree of leadership capacit y in the value chain upon complet ion of theprogram.

However, this process of becoming a new leader, really t ransformingpersonally, can be a longer process than just a year and a half . MiguelZamalloa, RONAP, part icularly spoke about how to really, genuinely changepat terns inside oneself that have taken 30 or 40 years to develop may takemore course correct ions, support and feedback than this 18-month programitself provides. He and others have suggested an annual meet ing to check inwith each other, do any course-correct ions that are necessary, and proceedfurther into and beyond the t ransformat ion of the value chain. Carolina Jaraproposed to have an IN gathering in September/October 2015.

Communication SkillsCommunicat ion improved in the value chain, moving f rom barely anycommunicat ion at all to “good” to “very good” according to the survey.

What changed in the value chain was communication, in the beginning we didnot know how to say what we thought, how to solve conflicts. We have learned

how to say what we feel…I feel we are now more informed, with a more fluidcommunication. (Taddy Villaverde, Vitalianos)

67% of survey respondents rated communicat ion in the value chain at the endof the program as “very good” with the remaining 33% rat ing it as “good.”Given that all the actors in the value chain were present , some of whom havemore power than others, a “very good” abilit y to communicate indicates asuccess on this f ront .

Diagram 4: Survey respondents regarding the communicat ion in the value chain uponcomplet ion of the leadership program.

Kathleen Sharkey of Caro Nut explained, “It ’s not always about the product , itis also important whether you like the person behind it all t hat you have tohave conversat ions with throughout a year. There has been an improvementin communicat ion and now there is a st ronger relat ionship between who CaroNut is and what we are doing there.”

Visioning, Planning, Public-speakingWe took videos of individuals sharing their personal vision in a three-minutespeech at ret reat 1 and again in ret reat 4, providing part icipants a way togauge their own abilit y to vision and communicate that vision to others. It wasimpressive to see the degree of change in these videos. All of the part icipantsimproved in their abilit ies, while some of the natural public speakers reallyexcelled.

Michel Llanos of Vitalianos said, “I learned how I am as a person. With [theIntegral Coaching] I learned to move forward. To understand where is it that Iwant to go, to have more order. I have allowed our company to f low; this hasallowed our company to improve… Our company moves forward by it self now.These workshops have helped to orient and t rain us, and through it , we havebecome leaders. This is a concrete result .”

Self -Improvement

When part icipants were asked to what extent the program helped them toimprove as a person, 56% ranked it as “excellent ” and the remaining 44%ranked it as “very good.” This self -improvement was certainly a key successof the program, as many of the other quotes and stories f rom part icipantsat test to throughout this document . The principle behind this focus is thatself -improvement corresponds with improved innovat ion and init iat ive, which inturn supports good business.

Diagram 5: Extent to which the program supported self -improvement .

Developing Trust and Shared Identity—Organizational Culture and Learning

Trust and TransparencyThe cent ral axis of a value chain is t rust . Biviana Calle, Secretary of RONAPexplained, “I think we as a value chain have improved in t rust andt ransparency, and we have demonst rated that since the second workshop.”

Diagram 6: Degree of t rust in the value chain af ter the program.

This t rust af fected how people negot iated price (see more below in StabilizedPrice) and how they understand the process of the value chain it self , all ofwhich cont ributes direct ly to the ease and speed with which business can takeplace.

Biviana Calle of RONAP described the experience of this greater t rust andt ransparency, “Previously, I did not know anything about the value chain; [ourprevious buyer] never told us about it and did not explain it s processes. Theyonly showed us that they sold the product . With Candor there is a big change:we do know how the value chain works and we can now explain it to others.”

Conflict Resolution (the Ability to Take Others’Perspectives)Most of the part icipants spoke about new capacit y to take others’

perspect ives, and many noted the important role that has played in improvinginterpersonal skills and resolving conf lict . Most spoke of a posit ive impact inregards to perspect ive-taking in the context of relat ionships in both apersonal and professional sense.

We observed the impact of this abilit y to take the perspect ive of another inthe f inal ret reat when two potent ial conf lict s arose: one in which RONAP oweda debt to Candor and another in which the Takana community had obtained aloan f rom Candor to get a boat but then used the money for something else.These types of conf lict s of ten arise in the f low of business involving localproducer communit ies and buyers. The quest ion is more around how they willbe solved, and what at t it udes people will t ake in solving them.

In the above cases, the president of RONAP literally wept in a group process,so fully did he recognize the error of not paying back the debt to Candor andin social recognit ion of the need to follow through on that as soon as possible.And, the representat ive f rom Takana spoke emot ionally about how he hadn’tknown of the situat ion of Candor f inancing a boat which was never actuallypurchased by the Takana member in quest ion, and said that he’d do his verybest to make that right .

Carolina Jara of Candor explained, “Somet imes people do not want to changethings, but there has been a t ransformat ion in the way we act and think. Therewere moments of internal conf lict s but I see those are needed for the valuechain to grow. Through this process, everybody has shown honesty and a lotof open-mindedness. People are not in a defensive mode and there is morepart icipat ion.”

Kathleen Sharkey also commented, “The quest ion is how we’ll meet thechallenges as they arise, not that they won’t arise at all. I think there wereresult s obtained in greater capacit y in conf lict resolut ion: how to face theissue and understand it .” She went on to explain how now, as an ent ire valuechain, people have a bet ter understanding of where an issue may actually liein a conf lict , and that when a conf lict arises, the group is now more open toasking, “Hey, is that really the issue here?” Kathleen sees this as a concreteresult that was obtained over the course of this program.

From these examples, we can see that by placing people a) in a programaltogether where the t rust amongst each person increased and the socialcont racts became clearer and more personal, and b) in providing conf lictresolut ion t raining over the f ive ret reats, we have seen a substant ial increasein the capacit y to resolve conf lict . And hopefully over t ime, the capacit y willcont inue to build to avoid such conf lict s in the future with shared socialcollateral.

Shared Identity and Unified Vision

There is a coherent sense of We in the group, and a lot of interpersonalsupport for one another. People spoke highly of each other, and weresupport ive and challenging in a style part icular to a group that knows eachother well. 38% of survey respondents said the sense of shared ident it y was“excellent ” with another 38% saying it was “very good” and 25% seeing it as“good.”

Diagram 7: Survey respondents rat ing the sense of shared ident it y of the value chainaf ter the program.

According to the interviewees, over the course of the f ive ret reats, this senseof shared ident it y st rengthened:

“We are a group, in fact we have a name now, we are solid, and we will growby incorporat ing new members.” (Taddy Villaverde, Vitalianos)

It helped us to value every part of the value chain. In my case I thought it wasonly a product that was harvested, but, I have realized that there are so manythings involved in this natural product: nature, people, different cultures,communities. (Michel Llanos, Vitalianos)

We asked people how they felt as a link in the larger value chain, uponcomplet ion of the leadership program. Said Miguel of RONAP, “I feel muchbet ter. I see we (as RONAP) are an important link in the chain. If I leave, or ifwe leave, that important piece would be missing. I have of fered mycollaborat ion and I am now more connected with the Candor team (CarolinaJara, Viviana de Olarte) and the Bolivians, all thanks to these workshops.”

New Culture as a Value ChainCulturally, the value chain has t ransformed: “we are now Integrated Nuts (IN)and that can become our culture, a way to ident if y us.” (Miguel Zamalloa,RONAP) This shared ident it y does indeed af fect how the whole operates withgreater accountabilit y and resilience:

You are actually part of the whole, not just a link in a chain, and so this givesme a sense of connection, beyond dependence, as well as a way to trust thatconnection. Where if one link in the chain is cheating another, we are stillconnected to the Company and to each other to continue. (Miguel Zamalloa,RONAP).

With the integral coach, the group ident if ied ‘metaphors’ to t rack it s ownchange process, including a “current way of being” and a “new way of being”.The current way of being metaphor was “Disconnected Computers” and thenew way of being metaphor was “A Restored Amazonian Rainforest inHarmony”. Over 88% of survey respondents rated the value chain as “verygood” in it s progress towards “A Restored Amazonian Rainforest in Harmony”with the remaining 13% rated it as average.

Diagram 8: The value chain in it s process f rom the metaphor of “DisconnectedComputers” to “A Restored Amazonian Rainforest in Harmony.”

Influencing Systems—Effectiveness ofthe Value Chain

Value Chain FunctioningMost survey respondents ranked the value chain as “good” to “very good” interms of how it was working, leaving room for improvement .

Diagram 9: Degree to which part icipants see the value chain working now.

At the same t ime, most agreed that it has improved in how it works now ascompared to before. Viviana de Olarte, Secretary of RONAP said, “It feels likethe value chain is just start ing to funct ion, it ’s f inally moving! At the verybeginning it was rusty, but we are now on our way!”

Said Carolina Jara, “In the beginning it was chaos, now [af ter the program], If ind the value chain has greater order. Everybody is connected and the valuechain in [Integrated Nuts] IN, we all help each other. It is a very unique valuechain.”

This quest ion on how the value chain operated previously compared to nowwas somewhat unclear on the survey and so those result s are a bit garbled.Regardless, the take-away in both the surveys and interviews is that , whilethe value chain is working well, there is more than can be improved for it torank at “excellent .”

At the same t ime, when asked to what degree the leadership program servedto st rengthen the value chain, a remarkable 90% of survey respondents ratedit as “very good” to “excellent .”

Diagram 10: Degree to which the leadership program served to st rengthen the valuechain.

Some part icipants explained that , although they have come a long way, thereal test lies ahead; their biggest challenge is yet to come. “How did I feelabout the result s we’ve obtained so far? Very well. But we have a far biggerchallenge in f ront of us.” (Viviana de Olarte, Candor). Our sense is that thatthis is an accurate assessment : it is easy to feel you are a group, with sharedt rust and ident it y when you are meet ing every three months in a facilit atedprogram. It is far harder to cont inue this group ident it y and f low of operat ionswhen you are not held in that facilit ated process.

Quantity and Speed to MarketIn terms of sheer quant it y, the value chain went f rom selling two containers to14 containers in a single year. Carolina Jara of Candor explained how the goalreached to date is good,“But we can get more; our goal for 2015 is between 20 and 25 containers. And,to this with the principles of having full t raceabilit y and with a social andenvironmental impact is the value we add.”

Within the f irst year of the leadership program, Gerard Jara of Candorcommented on how the product had indeed moved to market more quicklythan he would have expected. T racking this across the year, we toodiscovered this to be the case. It seems that the group t rust that deepenedamongst the actors in the chain supported the speed at which productmoved.

Kathleen Sharkey, of Caro Nut , agreed that product had gone to market morequickly, but mused on why that might be the case. “I think this was due to thelogist ics of get t ing f rom A to B. It could have been due to greater t rust and amore unif ied group of actors in the value chain.” She later explained how, over18 months, any inconsistencies in terms of how an actor was showing upbecame apparent , so this program naturally uncovered the red f lags andweeded out any player that wasn’t coming in good faith or couldn’t f ind a wayto f it with the overall whole. This clarif ying of the value chain may it self havebeen a reason for product moving more quickly to market .

Stabilizing PriceAssist ing to stabilize or raise the commodity price for Brazil nuts is a t rickyterrain, since in Peru and Bolivia there is much speculat ion in terms of howprice is set . This becomes a game of chance: some years the producers win,but of ten they lose. Carolina Jara of Candor ment ioned how it of ten costsmore for a Brazil nut harvester to get the nuts out than they actually makeselling the nuts on the market . Costco’s manner of working, in this regard,bodes well over the long term, as they buy at ‘t rue cost ’ with a ‘plus’ (direct ingproceeds back into the communit ies and ecosystems).

The biggest hurdle here will be shif t ing the culture of working with price in aspeculat ive way. Over the long term, Costco’s way of set t ing price will win out .On the short term, however, depending which way the overall price goes,harvesters may have to forego a larger, short -term speculat ive win to takethe consistent , stable price of fered by Costco.

Nevertheless, there have been gains already in this area. Kathleen remarked,“There is much less speculat ion surrounding price; we [Candor/Caro Nut /

Costco] have been consistent with our message overall. It has been a hugebenef it over the last 18 months to have this consistent message, as itfacilit ates t rust .”

When asked whether they had a changed sense of how price was establishedor negot iated, part icipants replied, “Yes. You see, what happens in Peru isvery speculat ive and now I understand why [Candor] requires that anydiscussion on Price must be t ransparent .” (Viviana de Olarte, Candor). “It isdef initely helpful the way that Candor works with price, because we now knowwhat the price is [i.e. it ’s no longer speculat ive], what the prof it percentage is,and we know we can negot iate the price of our product in this process. It ’sgreat to know the market and know that you can negot iate with it .” (MiguelZamalloa, RONAP)

A Model Worth RepeatingAll part icipants interviewed repeatedly said that this Integral LeadershipProgram was worth invest ing in and could be replicated in other value chainselsewhere. “Yes, it is worth repeat ing in other value chains. We have achievedso much!” (Viviana de Olarte, Candor)

“Def init ively, yes, I see great potent ial for this in other value chains. This valuechain is totally dif ferent , as we’ve all said… it ’s a totally dif ferent value chainnow… At the beginning, one could not express what one actually was! Thisprocess has been to recognize the good and the bad in yourself . Theseworkshops support you so you can become st ronger and in doing so you cancause a posit ive impact not only for yourself but also for others. Somehow inthis program you facilit ators were able to draw out the potent ial that even aperson him or herself doesn’t know he or she has.” (Miguel Zamalloa, RONAP)

“This has been an awesome program for me. I didn’t even know what a valuechain was before this, and now this makes sense and this is our work.”(Herman Bascope, Takana)

The One Sky team has been musing on how the right combinat ion ofcondit ions can create the possibilit ies for something innovat ive to emerge.We call this, “emergent ground.” Our test for this was the emergence ofIntegrated Nuts (IN). IN was not an init iat ive sparked by One Sky and t rulyarose on it s own terms, f rom within the intelligence of the value chain it self . Infact , this occurred on Ret reat Four and took us by surprise to some extent ! IN

exists to hold a meta-f rame for the values and principles by which the Brazilnut value chain in Peru and Bolivia would like to operate, giving a larger goal towhich they can direct their ef fort s. It may become an organizing body to makedecisions on where and how to invest in greater resilience in communit ies andecosystems involved in the Brazil nut t rade.

ConclusionIn conclusion, One Sky sees a very posit ive opportunit y to replicate thisintegral leadership program as a t ransformat ive process to shif t a value chainf rom one that is shaky, disconnected, and dist rust ful to one that is cohesive,f luid and based on t rust . In fact , a value chain then becomes a t rust chain.

This t rust was supported in several ways through our programming, f romsimply bringing people in the same room to moving through int imateprocesses of collaborat ion. Collaborat ion wherein they could hear eachother’s voices, understand their values and what they are missing in their dailybusiness as usual. We explicit ly saw and then measured the way in which thist rust resulted in a great f luidit y in how the value chain funct ions. Althoughthere is room to improve, the value chain today is t ransformed f rom what itoriginally was, and the actors within it too have changed.

It has been said that innovat ion and ef f iciencies for business of ten come f romthe staf f themselves. But accessing and releasing human potent ial can be achallenge, given the st ructure of how a value chain operates. This programmanaged to tap into a collect ive intelligence beyond any one individual, whilealso empowering all individuals to access their potent ial and voice theirwisdom f rom their processing facilit ies, their of f ices and even f rom the forestf loor.

There are several “lessons learned” f rom this that we can bring into futureprogramming. One Sky’s abilit y as a team to draw an adapt ive managementst rategy (or, on “the art of improvisat ion” as Carolina Jara described), which isto f ine-tune our curriculum and intervent ions was an important part of theleadership curriculum staying in close relat ionship with the needs of thispart icular value chain. That said, we see the need to st rengthen the st ructure,programming and t imetables in such a way that we don’t lose that f lexibilit y.Also, our use of an integral approach allowed us to work at two scales, boththe personal and the collect ive, as well as to engage the intangible as well astangible aspects that support a more ef fect ive value chain.

One Sky recognizes that in the case of working with the Brazil nut sector wedid miss an important player, which was the government . In the case of Peru,it ’s the government that slows down enormously the speed the productt raverses the value chain (Carolina Jara and Viviana de Olarte, Candor). TheGovernment is an important silent player, due to their regulat ion andevaluat ion power. They were invited to the f irst and second workshops butcould not cont inue due to their diverse obligat ions and “social degrees ofseparat ion” f rom the value chain. In Bolivia this was not the case.

Other lessons learned that we will bring into any future work include:

The importance of ident if ying a champion or natural leader in thecount ry where the value chain operates. This champion becomes apoint -person for many aspects of program delivery. In this case, thatperson was Carolina Jara.The need to carry out some type of social mapping to gather the rightgroup of actors across a value chain.The requirement for part icipants’ commitment to stay with the programfor it s full 12- to 18-month process.The need to def ine a f irm scheduling for these ret reats in order tomaintain momentum and reach a driving force that could lead to bet terresult s in future value chains.The need to do this with other buyers in their own companies. GerardJara emphasized the need for this saying, “On the buyer’s side of this, itis almost an obligat ion that business people understand value chainsf rom a global, holist ic, personal t ransformat ion perspect ive. They haveto get this at a deep level too.”Finally, that the presence of a representat ive f rom the Costco in thelast workshop gave the process a deeper meaning, as the actors in thevalue chain saw that this was for real, that there was a new way ofdoing things, with respect and valuing the real product ion cost . In fact ,maybe for the next workshops there could be a way to consider theCostco’s voice along the process to enhance the experience of theent ire sequence of workshops.

The important quest ion for a program like this was whether it was a goodbusiness decision; do the outcomes gained actually t ransfer into better

business decision; do the outcomes gained actually t ransfer into betterbusiness pract ice. On this topic, Sheri Flies of Costco, explained:

When we do this work, we are developing trust within our current value chains,and my belief is that the people in these value chains will stay with us whenthey have options in a seller’s market due to these being limited resourcecommodities, providing us with high quality products and competitive fairprices. This is my business case and why this work is important.

We asked Gerard Jara of Candor, who was one of the main investors into thisprogram, whether his investment—the price breakdown per part icipant—wasactually worth it , as a business case. His answer took the whole conversat ionto a new level. He said, “If I run that math, I am not doing it for the rightreasons. This was a long-term bet , as a company, on t ransformat ion it self ,not driven only by business, but rather rooted in deeper beliefs.”

He went on to say:

Did this program transfer into better business? Well, we’ve increased thebusiness this year, but it is hard to say whether we grew it thanks to theprogram. It has helped to solve some issues that appeared during businesstransactions—yes. But it is too soon to say this program is good for businessper se. There have been no negatives. It has been a very good thing for thepersonal transformation of participants, and we could say that that in itself isgood for business.

Did the program satisfy me as one of its investors? Yes it did. No regretwhatsoever. I think we are a better company now, thanks to this program. Thishas been a complete success in that sense, and I have no doubt saying that. Imake a very serene, calm claim that this has been transformative. Thereshould be no doubt about that. But, the question remains as to exactly how thiswill unfold in the business over time.

Musing on how this could af fect business in the future, he said,

In time it will translate into better managers, and when there is less access tolimited source commodities, when there will be a fight for them on the openmarket, when things are scrutinized, simply put: you will be ahead of the curve.

In conclusion, through this experience, One Sky has clearly seen how thisintegral leadership program engaged the personal, cultural and systemict ransformat ion of this value chain, how the emergent design provided thenecessary ingredients for Integrated Nuts to be created, and how an increaseof collect ive t rust supported the value chain to become more f luid, coherent ,and human. Each person seeing another to the full depth and span of his orher being, and moving into business t ransact ions f rom that place, undoubtedlycarries a dif ferent energy and imprint . We come away with a more embodied,real sense of the possible for global business and sustainabilit y in the future.

ReferencesScharmer, O. (2014). Theory U: Leading f rom the Future as it Emerges.Ret rieved f rom ht tps://www.presencing.com/sites/default /f iles/page-f iles/Theory_U_2pageOverview.pdf

Sharma, M.; Gueye, M; Reid, S; Sarr, C. (2005). Leadership DevelopmentProgramme Implementat ion Guide. United Nat ions Development Programme

Wilber, K. (2006). Integral Spiritualit y: A Start lingly New Role for Religion in theModern and Postmodern World. Boston: Shambhala.

About the Author

Gail Hochachka, B.Sc., M.A., works in internat ional sustainable developmentusing integral principles as a Co-Director of Integral Without Borders and asthe Execut ive Director of One Sky-The Canadian Inst itute for SustainableLiving. She has pioneered the use of an Integral Approach in rainforestconservat ion, capacit y building, leadership development , climate changeadaptat ion, and community resilience in various count ries of Lat in Americaand Af rica. She is gif ted in designing large-scale projects on socialt ransformat ion, bringing complex theory into heart felt act ion in the world.She’s a published author including the book, Developing Sustainability,Developing the Self: An Integral Approach to International and CommunityDevelopment, as well as with art icles in Ecological Applicat ions, World FuturesJournal, T rialog Journal for Planning and Building in the Third World, and theJournal of Integral Theory and Pract ice. She current ly manages projects inPeru, Colombia, Bolivia, and Nepal, and she lives with her family in Canada.

www.integralwithoutborders.org

gail.hochachka@integralwithoutborders.org

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