Conscious Capitalism has 4 principles. Conscious Leadership, a Higher Purpose, a responsibility to every Stakeholder and a Conscious Culture. As Raj and John say they are all connected with each other and you can’t separate them out they all go together.
My favorite part though is Conscious Culture.
No matter what your perspective or political affiliation I am sure we can all agree that there is a lot to do.
Our world needs all of our best efforts if we are going to get it all done.
Unfortunately, as Gallup is happy to tell us only about 30% of us are engaged (13% globally). This is a huge waste of potential. As Raj and John say, “humans are not a resource, they are a source”. Like the sun humans are creative and full of potential to do what needs doing in amazing new ways.
There are two reasons that Conscious Culture is my favorite part.
The first reason is that the people in the organization are the ones who are going to make everything else happen. The people carry us all forward in service of our higher purpose and the people take care of all of the stakeholders, starting with the customers and the suppliers and then the community and the environment. This is where it all happens.
The second reason is 90,000 hours! This is the number of hours each of us is likely to spend working during our lives. A paycheck is just a stipend that keeps us going, it needs to be fair and above average and that is where it stops being important. Once we are compensated fairly and generously then the issue of money is no longer worth our time and we can get to what really matters. For a healthy work environment, we should avoid all other extrinsic motivation. (no bonuses! they are a distraction and a demotivator)
Human beings have intrinsic needs. We want; positive emotion, relationships, meaning/purpose. We want to learn and to teach what we know, we want environments filled with humility, humor, forgiveness, compassion, generosity and gratitude. We need psychological safety and autonomy to flourish.
Want to know why 70% of people are not engaged or are actively disengaged? There are two potential reasons.
#1 Scarred psyches. Many people have spent years in abusive or sub optimal work environments where they were distrusted, closely monitored, manipulated, and treated like a resource. They may have had a manager who was nothing like a Conscious Leader. It can start very early. Many of us from grade school through high school were told what to do, exactly how to do it, and judged by how well we conformed. Some company environments are harsh. It is no wonder that after years of acculturation to perform in a non-compassionate and non-creative environment that it can take time for someone to begin to trust, feel safe, and begin to engage.
#2 Have we provided an intrinsically motivating environment for them? Human beings need psychological safety and autonomy, this is non-negotiable. How much autonomy is there for us to decide what we are going to do, how we are going to do, it and who are we going to do it with? Most typical managers would be shocked to see how far autonomy can go and how well it works. Have we co created an environment with friendships, positive emotions, compassion, generosity and gratitude? Are people learning from eachother and teaching eachother every day?
Our planet and everyone on it needs all of us to be performing at our best. This is why creating a Conscious Culture is more important now than ever.
As of January 2020, Gavin Watson began serving as Board Chair of Conscious Capitalism, Connecticut Chapter. View Gavin’s LinkedIn profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavin-watson-225420163/
