by LeeAnn Mallory
“Business is the social institution that that makes the world go ‘round. At one point in time, it was government and monarchies, and another point in time, it was religion. Now, it’s businesses. So if we want to change the world, we have to change business.” – Nathan Havey
3D Business: A force for positive change
In the 1970s, Milton Friedman said that the only responsibility of business is to increase profits for its shareholders. Today, conscious capitalism expands the definition of success for businesses to be three-dimensional, to include the environment, a diverse workforce, and more, and to ultimately leave a positive impact on the world.
Nathan Havey believes transforming business is one of the best ways to help all people thrive. To that end, he’s done an impressive job weaving together his passions for film and storytelling alongside his public policy and consultant background to bring us the documentary Beyond Zero.
Together, we discuss:
– Nathan’s road to creating the documentary and how it illustrates Conscious Capitalism
– How we can bring Conscious Capitalism into business conversations – and who can drive it
– The 6 elements important for stakeholder / conscious capitalism
– And more
With the right mindsets and practices in place, business has the ability to become a restorative enterprise that creates good in the world.
Positive impact is best for business
[5:35] “Business people need to understand the consequences their companies have on the environment and on humanity, and they need to try to make sure those are positive consequences. That’s the way we can actually work together to create a world that works for everyone…because it’s the best way for capitalism to operate.”
What’s your BHAG? And does it go beyond your shareholders?
[7:09] “…all of the macro life support systems on Earth are in decline. And they’re in decline because of industrial activity. And as he read what Hawkins said, he realized that he, as the chief executive of a global industrial company, was part of the Vanguard that was driving the decline of the life support systems on Earth. And so it, it absolutely shocked him to his core.
Business success = helping people be the best version of themselves
[47:52] “Rather than using people in your company for your gain – ‘I’m gonna pay you as little as possible, work you as hard as I can so I get maximum benefit from you’ – is there a way you can help make them the best version of themselves? Can you help them become who they want to be, to help them be who they need to be for their family?
When you do that, counterintuitively, they perform far better, and you actually end up getting better performance.”
Progress, not perfection
[24:32] “That stops a lot of companies from starting this journey – they see all these different places – there’s environmentalism, and there’s economic justice, and there’s animal rights, and welfare, and where do we even begin? If we’re going to start to do anything, are we going to immediately get slapped for everything that we’re not doing?…
”We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, but the best way to do that is by holding up how much farther we still have to go so that it’s all in context.”
What can you do? The smallest gesture may have big payoffs
[14:09] “But what there is for us, each of us, to do is to just do the things that we see to do. And you never know what the other extenuating circumstances are, that when your small gesture of giving a book recommendation might be the thing that changes a piece of the world.”
About the documentary Beyond Zero:
https://beyondzerofilm.com/
Ray Anderson Spear in the Chest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eUMdcgXxJo&t=11s
Interface
https://www.interface.com/US/en-US/homepage
Paul Hawken
https://paulhawken.com/
The 6-Part Stakeholder Score:
https://stakeholderscore.com/
Listen to Nathan’s 10-episode podcast:
10 Things You Should Know About Stakeholder Capitalism
Visit:
https://www.100monthstochange.com/
https://www.consciouscapitalism.org
Raj Sisodia
http://rajsisodia.com/
Firms of Endearment
http://firmsofendearment.com/
Emmanuel Faber, Former CEO, Danone
https://time.com/6121684/emmanuel-faber-danone-interview/
Leith Sharp
https://eesl.sph.harvard.edu/leith-sharp-program-director-biography
LEED Certification
https://www.usgbc.org/leed
Erin Meezan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinmeezan/
Jessica Schneider – Conscious Capitalism Consultant
https://www.linkedin.com/in/inspiringpossibilities/
Milton Friedman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman
To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources:
https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
by LeeAnn Mallory
Do you ever feel overwhelmed and even stuck by situations that feel complex, uncertain and ambiguous?
I certainly do.
My guest today, Jay Cone, tells us that there’s a surprising power in not knowing what to do. He believes that if we can boost our immunity to feeling the chaos, we can respond with creativity and compassion rather than paralysis and tribalism. Does expanding your repertoire and freeing your mind sound useful? Then join us as we talk about bias, quicksand questions, and four disciplines for getting unstuck.
—-more—-
“If we were able to have a more productive approach to uncertainty and ambiguity, we actually might find responses that make things better. But we want the easy answer. And it’s our fascination with the easy answer, actually, that prolongs the chaos.”
– Jay G. Cone
Overcoming thinking traps
We often find ourselves stuck – both individually and collectively – as we’re faced with chaos, uncertainty, and unpredictability. Easy answers can be very attractive, regardless of their long term viability. When we fall into these thinking traps, we may oversimplify the problem to create a simple solution. This need for closure creates hasty actions that can actually sink us further into the problem, like being stuck in quicksand.
Today, Jay outlines tips for avoiding thinking traps and nurturing an “unstuck” mind that’s open to new possibilities. Much of it begins with knowing the right questions to ask to open new ways forward. Being able to adaptively respond to uncertainty is helpful, because expertise and learning from the past doesn’t necessarily provide a fail-proof roadmap for the future.
The importance of building mental stamina
[08:28] “[In chaos] the only responses that we have are based in the limbic system in the amygdala, and we want to fight or we want to flee. But if we can develop our stamina for thinking, when things are complicated or uncertain or ambiguous, then we’re not as susceptible to the same ideas and…closed mindedness and tribalism, that tends to paralyze us.”
[19:09] “And when you start focusing on simplistic answers, then you tend to hang out with people who have gravitated towards those same simplistic responses. And it gets to the point where it’s just too difficult to be open to new information, different perspectives, or to continue processing things.”
How to know you’re stuck
[10:21] “One very common experience … you’re really not clear on why it is that you can’t achieve this goal. You make up all these reasons for why this attempt failed… So if a pattern emerges, there’s a good chance that there’s something more to be uncovered.”
[14:46] “If someone expressed a point of view…and all of a sudden [you] have horrible judgments…if that’s a feeling you’re having, and it’s one you’re not particularly proud of or that doesn’t make sense to you, that might be a leading indicator of stuckness as well.”
Identify quicksand questions
[23:05] “One of the things that you can look at is the way people pose questions … the way people frame a question about a situation they want to change reveals a lot about how they’re thinking and feeling.”
[26:16] “All these things that we want other people to do, we just frame a question around them and we work toward altering the behavior – rather than trying to understand whether we as leaders, organizations, are complicit and whether there’s something other than their behavior that needs to change.”
Get in touch with Jay Cone:
https://bit.ly/35ZVSZE
Useful links to “The Surprising Power of Not Knowing What to Do”
https://unstuckminds.com/the-surprising-power-of-not-knowing-what-to-do/
Support local bookstores by ordering on bookshop.org
https://bookshop.org/a/16835/9781735927404
(As a bookshop affiliate, I may benefit if you purchase from this site)
Resources:
Blog: https://bit.ly/2NivMuo
Free Assessment:
https://bit.ly/2LWZRzg
https://unstuckminds.com/
Blindspots (book) Hidden Biases of Good People:
https://amzn.to/3642S7T
Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources:
https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
by LeeAnn Mallory
“If we focus on goals alone, without being tethered into this beingness, [it] can activate and trigger us, and we see those goals as our persecutor…‘Was the goal big enough? Did I do it fast enough?’ So the goal-setting can actually become a persecutor. And in our own mind, we feel victim to that.” – Donna Zajonc
Are your goals also your persecutor?
Working toward a goal or vision is important – but how often do we pay as much attention to the person that we’re being while in that pursuit, as the pursuit itself?
It’s easy to get caught up in the goal without placing attention on who we are along the way. However, without tending to ourselves we can feel trapped by our own goals and wonder if we’re living up to the standards we’ve set. Distress and reactive behaviors follow.
Donna Zajonc covers this topic in her new book, Who Do You Want to Be on the Way to What You Want.
Alongside her partner, David Emerald, they’ve developed a framework for recognizing and responding more intentionally when life throws us a curve ball. We learn to move out of the toxicity of the Dreaded Drama Triangle (DDT), and how to reorient ourselves with the The Empowerment Dynamic (TED).
We’ll discuss her new book, along with 3 powerful practices for you to use to look inward, spur creativity and conquer stress.
Tangled up in your emotions? Notice and name
[00:28:21] “When we notice and name something, we are now able to see it and hold it in our hand and go, ‘Oh, look at that.’ We’re not as enmeshed into it, so we’re not subject to it. It’s really a powerful psychodynamic thing that’s going on, that allows us to have it and not be it…when we can do that, our body starts calming down.”
Stuck? Tell 3 stories
[00:30:50] “When we’re really stuck and attached to a particular point of view, we’re constricted in our bodies, our minds are constricted – and we are totally lost to the creativity of any other possibility. So we literally must broaden our perspective. That’s really hard to do when we’re stuck in one perspective. The practice of the possibility of telling three stories [helps you realize] there’s even more going on here than I realized.”
Create space and see what space creates
[00:39:24] “[Leaders often feel they] need to be able to tell people more ideas about how to fix this or be that. And it’s actually the opposite – to let go of needing to have the answers and to create a safe space for others to step into their genius, their creator, their sense of who do they want to be. … Let’s take a timeout let’s breathe, let’s calm ourselves, and trust that our wisdom is going to rise if we can calm ourselves.”
Resources:
Donna Zajonc donna@theempowermentdynamic.com,
Who do You Want to Be on the Way to What You Want? https://bookshop.org/a/16835/9781733678100
Center for the Empowerment Dynamic: https://www.theempowermentdynamic.com/
Link to coach training in May 2022: https://www.theempowermentdynamic.com/coaching-2/
Episode 51 Focus 2022: From Surviving to Thriving with 3 Vital Questions (Replay from February 2020): https://rise-leaders.com/podcast/
Rise Leaders YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKZAhRU1iLsXYwpvCECVreg
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
by LeeAnn Mallory
“Imagine if we could all show up in more, if not all, places in life fully ourselves – that we could fully open ourselves to learning, making mistakes, taking feedback, taking risks, and be being fully seen for our humanity and our potential without the fear of embarrassment or retribution.”
Move from socially defined to self-authored
Have you ever felt that internal tug-of-war where you yearn to bring your whole self to a situation – but you hold yourself back? Perhaps you self-impose guidelines for how you “should” speak and act in your organization?
Endeavoring to live with authenticity often causes internal conflict. We suffer when we constantly try to become what (we assume) others expect of us. As a result, we have less energy to innovate, improve and positively impact stakeholders. We end up with a decreased sense of well-being and satisfaction with work and life.
Ultimately, we want to live and lead in a way that exemplifies what’s most important to us.
To help you ground and elevate your authenticity, I share:
-What it means to live and lead with authenticity and be “self-authored”
-The cost incurred when we don’t fully show up as ourselves
-5 practices to help create more authenticity
Image management hogs organizational resources
[03:05] “In an ordinary organization, most people are doing a second job no one is paying them for … spending time and energy covering up their weaknesses, managing other people’s impressions of them, showing themselves to their best advantage, playing politics, hiding their inadequacies, hiding their uncertainties, hiding their limitations. We regard this as the single biggest loss of resources that organizations suffer every day.”
– From An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization by Harvard Professors Bog Kegan and Lisa Lahey
When we’re inauthentic, we suffer
[04:55] “Jesus said, ‘If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.’” – From the Gospel of Thomas
The result of authenticity? Vitality
[16:13] “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman, author, philosopher and theologian”.
“An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization” by Harvard Professors Bob Kegan and Lisa Lahey: https://bookshop.org/a/16835/9781625278623
Self-Authoring mind: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/01/27/what-having-a-self-authoring-mind-means/?sh=51a3a1953b77
The Gospel of Thomas:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/thomas.html
Howard Thurman:
https://www.bu.edu/thurman/about-us/who-is-howard-thurman/
StrengthsFinder; CliftonStrengths: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/01/27/what-having-a-self-authoring-mind-means/?sh=51a3a1953b77
Owning Your Value | Key Elements for Authenticity & Personal Power: www.rise-leaders.com/podcast Episode 21
A Guide for Owning Your Value: https://mailchi.mp/d37649fa5f04/own-your-value
Article: Authentic Leadership: https://www.wgu.edu/blog/what-is-authentic-leadership2004.html#close
Rise Leaders YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKZAhRU1iLsXYwpvCECVreg
Insight Meditation App (search for body scans that work for you) https://insighttimer.com/
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
by LeeAnn Mallory
“Can you discern between resistance and fear and strategic changes in direction? …not giving up and changing direction because something is hard or scary, yet being willing to change your mind even when something you really wanted to pursue is no longer a good investment of your precious resources?”
Reflect, refresh, and recalibrate
The change in seasons reminds us that it’s time to pause and reflect on what’s behind and what’s ahead of us. In organizational life we do quarterly reviews to assess progress and determine what we might need to stop, start and keep doing. Where do we need to step on the gas? Where should we apply brakes?
Spring (our current season in the Northern Hemisphere) is symbolic of new beginnings. Can you find this feeling of a fresh start and new growth in yourself?
Respond with Agility
In a constantly changing world, it’s not a problem to adjust our approach or our vision – it’s a strategic response. We reflect on our commitments in order to respond with agility.
In this discussion, we’re going to:
- Pause in a deliberate way to connect with what’s important to us and our work in the world
- Locate ourselves in a broader context, beyond our goals
- Take the opportunity to apply discernment to our earlier planning: do our original commitments still make good strategic sense? Are we placing our efforts on the right priorities?
This is a worthwhile practice to do individually and with your team. You can do this activity anywhere, anytime you have a spare moment, mentally or with a journal.
Answer these questions quarterly:
- Who is the person (or team) you are committed to becoming?
- What is the impact you want to make?
- How are you doing on your goals? What adjustments do you want to make?
- How are your systems, processes, and practices supporting your intended impact?
Links & resources:
Beginning Again 2022 https://mailchi.mp/68e183fd18bf/beginningagain2022
Podcast (source of Locate Yourself) Tami Simon & Lynne Twist on Sounds True: An Evolutionary Leap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV3BwmYkOCU
Article: How Regular Rhythms Unlock Powerful Growth https://www.monkhouseandcompany.com/blog/how-regular-rhythms-unlock-powerful-growth/
Origin of Easter: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-15/the-origins-of-easter-from-pagan-roots-to-chocolate-eggs/8440134
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
