Evolutionary Provocateur

The Secret to Profiting from Economic Crisis

Jay Bragdon's Profit for Life and Lamp Index makes the clear case that companies who value Life, care for their employees far outperform their peers even in tough market conditions. Yet, through  David Meerman Scott's story on the recent Hubspot World Wide Rave webinar, it is obvious that even those companies can evolve.

He told the story of a guy who took something like 13, 000 post-its notes and put them all over a Jag. 3M liked the picture and approached the person responsible to discuss using his idea. In fairness, the man who created the post-it noted Jag asked 3M for a bit of compensation, even enough to cover the post-its... like $2000. 3M said NO. Obviously David Meerman Scott tells the story better than I do but the message is 3M didn't play fair... at all. In a short time it was all over the social media.

Why? What did 3M not see that was obvious to those in the social media environment?

Inter-connectivity and inter-relatedness comes immediately to mind.

What do I mean by that? Simply that 3M has not elevated its consciousness to the level where it could see itself as a part of the whole system. It has recognized through its value-centic culture that it is part of a living system, yet without sufficient consciousness matched with a deep sense of care decisions like that amount to shooting oneself in the foot or to use another image: the Emperor Who Has No Clothes. Everyone can see what you can't.

The goof was obvious to those in the social media circle but was it obvious to 3M? Hopefully it truly was an unconscious move, otherwise their decision amounts to intentionally discrediting oneself. Definitely, not the best idea ever hatched.

Operating from an intrinsic sense of care requires that a company know it is a living system and as such is inter-connected to all living things, including things outside the boundaries of the company. Though 3M is a member of the LAMP index, it has before it through this experience, a great opportunity to evolve its self-awareness.

Corporate-Social Responsibility or Profits

An entire issue of the Economist (The Future of Corporate Responsibility - January, 2005) was dedicated to the discussion of whether the two concepts of corporate-social responsibility and profits could be said in the same sentence in a synergistic fashion. The perspectives covered quite a range from the belief that companies, by existing, are meeting all their social responsibilities to whether the societal approval of the corporate-social responsibility as a concept has resulted in truly authentic responses or the appearance as in ‘smoke and mirrors’.

You can find some of the articles on line at www.economist.com.

The point is that it is not about either it is corporate responsibility or it is profit. It is both.

How can that be? I call it a no-brainer but just in case the dots are not connected clearly enough here are a few signals:

• The advent of pandemic diseases is becoming a threat to business. The existence of chronic diseases like HIV, and the full range of cancer, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses trace themselves back to stress or imbalance. To pretend that the health care system will look after it is to pretend it is all looked after. Taking charge of what used to be a social system service is not going to be an option.
• The planet is undergoing some major changes and it is showing up in the weather patterns. The cost to society and to business of natural disasters, such as Katrina, is high. To say social responsibility is not in the corporate job description is to deny that you have people working for you and that you have strengths. The relationship is direct in many cases.
• The cases of bullying, violence and aggression in the workplace express the stress that people are experiencing from a changed business environment. In the cases where the business has not noticed and has maintained a business-as-usual approach, the pressures that the business feels is passed on to employees automatically. The cost to human welfare, to society and to the unrealized value held within the business is high. Flying blind is not an option.

Sticking to using a narrow lens to view the situation is simply too limiting. You need the wide angle version. The entire principle of leadership involves holding two opposing views in balance with each other at the same time. There is plenty of corporate leadership available to tap into. You will find them using the wide angle lens.