#60 Going Beyond Zer0: Business as a Restorative Enterprise

“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