Relational Thinking and the importance of relationships to the economy

Hello Everyone

Steven Covey in his famous book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People says that we need to ‘begin with the end in mind’.  I could not help thinking about this when I heard about a new business/life model developed by Dr Michael Schluter a social thinker, entrepreneur and founder of Britain’s Relationship Foundation.  He spoke about the need for workable relationships in areas as diverse as debt and the economy, criminal justice, care for the elderly, asylum and immigration, the environment, and sexual ethics. 

Dr Schluter says that once our physical needs are met, such as food, shelter and safety the most important things in our lives are our relationships. This includes relationships at work, home, the community – in fact, everywhere!  Even if we have fallen out with family or friends they are still on our mind.  He calls this philosophy relationism or relational thinking.

Is it possible that cultures around the world might shift from being based on individualism and materialism to being based on relationships?   Dr Schulter believes that we are just starting to see some signs that this could happen.   Australia’s Michael Tanner and Britain’s Michael Gove for example, have both spoken about the politics of relationships and the key role Relational Thinking has to play in a post-capitalist political environment.

According to Dr Schulter, the main symptom of relational distress is the breakdown of marriage and what is happening both to children and older people. He says the major drivers behind the breakdown in marriage and the family include: long and unsocial working hours; debt - because debt breaks up families;  the tax system; and corporate structures which mean that the people running companies have little connection with their employees.

Corporations have little idea of what the daily life of their employees involves, and how their decisions affect those employees. Their sole goal is to satisfy the needs of their shareholders.

Dr Schulter goes on to say that there is a need to have a triple bottom line approach to public policy, just as companies are meant to have. We should be evaluating everything the government does from an economic point of view, an environmental point of view and a relational point of view. Governments and corporations tend to only look at the economic impact of policy, and sometimes the environmental impact, but rarely the relational impact of policy. 

 What is your compass for life?  What do you value?  Most people on their death bed are concerned with who and how they have loved rather than how much money they have made or if they should have spent more time at work, or if they should have spent more time at work.

If we begin with the end in mind then the most important thing is our relationships.  How are your relationships?

Live! Love! Laugh!

Roz Townsend  www.roztownsend.com

Declinology ~ are we in decline?

Hello everyone and welcome to my little corner of the world

There has been a lot written about the symptoms of decay and decadence in Western culture.  An Australian documentary  Decadence: Decline of the Western World even goes as far as saying that Western civilisation peaked in 1969 – the year Russians and Americans reached out beyond earth.

Some sobering symptoms are grabbing attention.  Symptoms such as high suicide rates, high consumption of anti-depressants, disintegrating families, uninspiring leadership, obsession with money  and consumption are a few of the obvious ones.

It is little wonder then that yet a new word declinology has been created to brand this school of thought.  Declinology is the advocacy of the belief that one's society is in decline.

The symptom of this new way of thinking that really caught my attention was highlighted by Jacinta Dunn.   She points out that “just before the fall of the Roman Empire, they were all dining on lark’s tongue and nightingale hearts”. 

Not that I have eaten lark or nightingale but I know that much of Western civilisation is obsessed with food.  The incredible number of television programs about food, the books about food and dieting and the pages of major tabloids devoted to food and alcohol consumption are all testimony to this.

Yet I was impressed by a family who live in the bush and are trying to be totally sustainable.   They grow all their own food.  Their vegetable garden, chicken and other livestock take up virtually all of their time.  For this family, at the self sustainability level, the obsession with food production is also obvious.  The difference though is that Western civilisation’s obsession seems to be with consumption and processing of food whereas at the sustainability level it was about the production and nurturing of food sources.

It certainly is an indication of the ‘quality’ of life that some people have that they can devote so much of their time to how and where they will consume their food.

Unfortunately much food is wasted.  In 2011, 1.3 billion tons of food,  about one third of global food production, are lost or wasted annually.  Loss and wastage occur at every stage of food supply chain.   In low-income countries most loss occurs during production, while in developed countries much food – about 100 kilograms (220 lb) per person and year – is wasted at the consumption stage.

We can be aware and responsible for the huge environmental consequences of such waste .  Scarce water resources are wasted and unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions are generated through wasted production and decomposition in landfills.  For example,the methane that decomposing food produces has a greenhouse gas equivalency twenty-five times higher than carbon dioxide.

Where does your time and energy go with food?  Are you favouring  the production or consumption?  Are you part of society on the decline or is your focus on responsible production? 

Live! Love! Laugh!

Roz Townsend  roz@roztownsend.com