water

My new concept for the week is salience.  Before Leon from Occam's Donkey introduced me to it, I have to admit I didn't even know it existed.  However, now that I am aware of it, I think it's quite an important factor in much of the work we do.

Maybe I should start with a definition - Salience is the state or condition of being prominent. The Oxford English Dictionary defines salience as "most noticeable or important."   In short, salience theory studies what people deem to be more important to them out of a series of options.  Politicians are especially interested in this, as it seems a very useful manipulation tool ...

Most traditional companies are quite intentional about choosing their mission, often settling on a well-crafted statement that sets market domination and excellence as their target. Sonja and I have been less intentional, and have rather let our mission emerge over the last 12 months - emergence is a key factor in managing complexity after all :)

What is our mission then?

It's not market domination, nor is it service excellence ... while those are important factors of our business. Rather, our mission is two-fold:

1. Changing the mindsets around the perceived value of water, and
2. Transforming the culture of safety on mines

These have emerged out of numerous client engagements in the water and mine safety arenas. Through gathering stories of water management and mine safety incidents, we have become convinced that part of our calling (if you like) is to use our narrative techniques to assist in changing mindsets and transforming the culture associated with water usage and mine safety.

The case for improved mine safety is a well known one in South Africa, and globally. However, we believe that the case for improved water usage and management in South Africa is less understood. In fact, we are of the opinion that South Africa is on the verge of a water crisis. If our sense of the early warning signals (mainly seen through the stories we have gathered from companies, government, research institutions and society) is correct, we believe that the average South African needs to better understand the true value and cost of water.

The predominant mindset is that water is cheap and of low value - it is a resource that is "on tap" ... I open my tap and water comes out of it. Simple as that. The reality is that potable (drinking) water is more scarce than we'd like to believe, and hence, the value of water is much higher than most would admit.

Here's one story to support this argument ...