The current dilemma

As we come out of the lock down, will you pursue business wherever you can find it? The very survival of your company is at stake – as is the income your team, and their families, rely on. Shouldn’t you be doing everything possible to put bread on the table – and allow your people to do the same?

On the other hand, will you take this opportunity to conduct business only with those who share your values or purpose? It is a chance to reset and refocus – why not seize the moment and bring alive your passion? If you’re willing to ignore your values at a time of crisis – are they really your values? Now is the time to prove it.

With my passion for purpose, it’s easy to sit back and say “this is the time to start the journey towards a better world. Let’s not go back to a rampant, anything goes business environment”.

But – if it comes down to base survival of your business, and the people who rely on it, do I really have the right to ask you to take that risk?

Yes I want a world full of purposeful businesses – but if we want thriving communities, we need thriving businesses.

I can’t answer this dilemma for you, all I can do is offer my support and to trust that you will make the right decision – based on your specific situation.

Go well and trust yourself.

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Let’s stamp our feet!

I have commented on a couple of posts today about the world post lock-down/pandemic. Both of these posts were about a new future, one were purpose and impact ruled the business world.

That is what some many of us want – but remember I blog under the name The Optimistic Cynic. I may want this change but I’m too cynical to believe that it is going to happen automatically, just because people want it to.

I thought I’d repeat my comments here because I believe that they’re important.

If we let it, the world will go back to how it was. We’ll see a continuation of the slow change that we saw prior to the pandemic but our dreams of real, significant change will not be realised. UNLESS – we all double down on our efforts to lead, support and encourage that change. It’s our responsibility to make sure real change can happen and we need to be accountable (to ourselves) to ensure that we do this. We need to take every opportunity to spread the message – to business and to Govt. We need to be there for each other, supporting and encouraging. We have to put our hands up to help those who are starting on this journey. It’s time to share our passion, loudly and proudly! It’s up to us!

We also have to stop preaching to the converted. Let’s find ways to increase our sphere of influence into the wider corporate and government sectors. We need to champion our cause to those who haven’t heard it before, and those that have heard but not heeded it. We need new audiences for our message – we simple have to break out of our echo chambers. Who are the most resistant to change? Who are our fiercest critics? These are the people we need to engage with.

Maybe we should be bringing back soap boxes at every street corner….

Perhaps we should be banging on more desks…

No maybe or perhaps, we need to get fired up!

Is it time for change? Really?

I wrote this as a comment to a really good post on LinkedIn that said it is time for change and we need to make the most of the opportunities this virus has unfortunately presented us with.

“Many people in the impact space are thinking (or is it hoping?) that we will see significant change come out of the current pandemic. My concern is that these conversations and aspirations will be shared amongst those of us already on that page. My question is – how can we make this so mainstream that we will bring on-board a whole new set of leaders, influencers, organisations and basically anyone else? The world was already changing albeit slowly. What can we all do to make our passion a reality across our communities, bringing the economy along with us? We must do more…”

Sitting back reflecting on what I wrote, I have to ask myself, what am I doing?

If I truly and passionately believe that business is an awesome resource for doing good, and have often stated that it’s so easy to do – what am I doing to share this belief? What am I doing to help businesses along this path?

It is up to all of us to get this message across the whole economy and sitting talking to ourselves isn’t the way to do it.

I’m an old fashioned introvert so anything that appears remotely self-promoting doesn’t come easy but maybe it’s time to stand up.

Time to put it out there in a post, LinkedIn, here I come

  1. I believe that my book is an easy guide to how businesses can do good – using normal business techniques.
  2. I’ve blogged about my thinking
  3. I’m always able and willing to talk to any business, person or group about this way of thinking.

 Post coming up to broadcast what I can offer at this time.

What are you going to do?

Feed-back on Touch Point

With everything in lockdown, people have turned to reading so I thought I’d quickly share some of the feedback of received on Touch Point, seven business strategies for a better world.

“This type of thinking should be taught at university.”

“Great ideas, the danger is middle managers play power games by interfering with the messages up and down.”

“The university should give this book to all its Management School students.”

“It was really good. I didn’t know you had it in you!”

“So easy to read. I enjoyed it and I’m not even a business person.”

Thanks to everyone who has let me know how they found the book – I really appreciate getting your feedback.

Remember if you haven’t got your copy yet, you can order online here.

Bah technology – who needs it?

I’ve just returned from 14 days ‘off grid’ – no internet and no cell coverage – and guess what, I survived!

In fact I didn’t miss it at all.

The first few days I did missed the football results (and not keeping up with the transfer window was also tough) but even that ceased to be an issue.

I was outside, in the fresh air, doing manual work. It was great.

Now I’m back home, I’m online again with work, book launch, football and watching Netflix.

You could say it was only a couple of weeks and that the sun was shining but in all honesty, being outside doing physical work beats technology for me.

Let’s put things into perspective. If we lost the internet, our species would evolve and carry on. It is just a passing phase on our long journey.

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No argument from me

The Sustainable Business Network (NZSBN) has collated 12 predictions for sustainable business this year.

As with most things “sustainability” related, the focus is on environmental issues (not that there is anything wrong with that) but it was great to see a media organisation pick up on the people message, especially a business editor.

Here’s what Maria Slade, Business Editor, The Spinoff had to say:

“Demonstrating a purpose other than making money for their shareholders is going to be one of the biggest challenges for firms in 2020, because today’s customers and employees are no longer willing to tolerate businesses that generate profits at the expense of people and the planet.”

Now who could disagree with that?

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Having a purpose vs being purposeful

2019 seemed like the year of talking about organizational purpose.

2020 will be the year for *practicing* it.

Forbes published an interesting article highlighting some work from Zach Mercurio around closing the gap between the idea of purpose and the practice of purposefulness

He says “we have to help employees make meaning. In today’s complex and fast-changing economy, we can’t assume that people understand how their work ladders up to larger, significant goals for their own performance, and by extension, that of our teams and organizations.”.

What I liked was the three simple recommendations that he makes for managers (though he should say leaders):

  1. Regularly show people how their work benefits others
  2. Help people tie their everyday tasks to a bigger purpose worth committing to
  3. Make contribution goals more important than achievement goals

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