Conscious Capitalism

Hello Everyone

Is it possible that a new form of capitalism is emerging? One that can see profits arising out of working within a socially responsible purpose?

Evidently in 1848 Karl Marx proclaimed that capitalism was on its knees. Professor Sisodia from the Bentley University in Massachusetts thinks that capitalism is also now on its knees and in for a radical positive change.

Professor Sisodia talks about a fledgling social movement called conscious capitalism.  The idea being that companies that work towards a higher purpose than profits such as being socially, environmentally, globally responsible end up having increased profits. In other words if they are creating business for the right reasons they end up profiting in any case.

Research indicates that company loyalty is more about the way a company is conceived rather than the artificiality of marketing.  When the “well-being” of employees, customers, suppliers and the public was considered then unexpected high productivity was the result.

The basic philosophy behind conscious capitalism is that businesses can operate in a way that creates value for everyone. This ultimately means that society benefits.  The concept has gained such momentum particularly in the United States that the Conscious Capitalism Institute has been formed with the aim of promoting the philosophy.

 It is interesting how a crisis provides opportunities if we are open to the idea and so it is with conscious capitalism.  It was created as a response to the global financial crisis.  It is more than just a mere donation to a charity but a deep seated paradigm shift in the way businesses are conceived and developed.

In my own work as an author, educator and communication consultant I always ask myself is my work providing value? Am I moving communication forward?  Am I doing any harm?  Once I am satisfied with my answers then I know my work is of value.

Imagine if individuals and organisations took to heart conscious capitalism and only engaged in activities that brought value to everyone involved with them?  What would the world be like then?

 
Live! Laugh! Love!  Be Abundant!

 oz  Roz Townsend   www.roztownsend.com

Abundance- Luxury v Possibility

Hello Everyone

I think I have found a new hero in life – his name is Peter Diamandis and he has written a book called Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think.   

One of the first points that Diamandis makes is that the amygdala in our brain is geared for survival and hence is always paying attention to what might harm us.  This helps to explain our desire to read negative press and be influenced by it.

For example there are few places in the media where the following information is promoted.  In the last 100 years the cost of:

1.    food has dropped by a factor of 10

2.    electricity by a factor of 20

3.    transport by a factor of 100 and

4.    communication by a factor of 1000

Similarly the psychologist Professor Steve Pinker believes we live in one of the most peaceful times in Earth’s history.

If our amygdala is always taking our attention and erring on the side of what could go wrong then we may become blinded to what is possible.  Diamandis makes the point that scarcity is contextual and that humans have an incredible ability to develop breakthrough technology, thus making what was once scarce now abundant.  In the 1800s, for example, aluminium was rare and precious until the invention of electrolysis made extracting it from bauxite cheap and available.  

The communications industry is also testimony to this as the cost has dropped by a factor of 1000. Diamandis states that a Masai warrior with a cell phone has better mobile phone capabilities than did the President of the United States 25 ago.

The point Diamanidis makes is that with increasing technology there are very few resources that could be considered really scarce – they are merely inaccessible to us right now.  Yet the predominance of ‘scarcity’ is a great part of modern thinking.

Imagine how our lives would be different if we could have an attitude of abundance and possibility rather than luxury and scarcity.

Live! Live !  Laugh! Love!  Be Abundant!

Roz Roz Townsend   www.roztownsend.com

Is it all horse manure?

Hello Everyone  
I was amused to read an article by Stephen Davies the academic director at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London.  The article said that about a hundred years ago social commentators were complaining that life had become desperate about the great horse-manure crisis.  Davies noted that in the Times of London in 1894, it was estimated that in 50 years every street in London would be buried under nine feet of manure!

In the nineteenth-century cities depended on thousands of horses for their daily needs. All transport, whether of goods or people, was drawn by horses.

The problem was that all these horses produced huge amounts of manure. A horse will on average produce between 15 and 35 pounds of manure per day. Thus, the streets in those times were covered by horse manure which attracted flies, which when dried was blown everywhere.

In 1898 the first international urban-planning conference convened in New York. It was abandoned after three days, instead of the scheduled ten, because none of the delegates could see any solution to the growing crisis posed by urban horses and their output.

The problem was overwhelming. The larger and richer a city became, the more horses it needed to function. The more horses, the more manure. As well, these horses had to be stabled, using up ever-larger areas of increasingly valuable land. And as the number of horses grew, ever-more land had to be devoted to producing hay to feed them (rather than producing food for people), and this had to be brought into cities and distributed—by horse-drawn vehicles. It seemed that urban civilization was doomed.

The great crisis vanished within three years of the conference when millions of horses were replaced by motor vehicles. Even though horses were a problem, in the background inventors and entrepreneurs such as Gottlieb Daimler and Henry Ford were developing a solution. The price of horse-drawn transport rose steadily along with the cost of feeding and housing horses…this created strong incentives for people to find alternatives.

This story points out the difficulty of predicting the future.  It also inspires hope. We humans are such creative beings that I am sure solutions to some of our greatest problems already exists and we are on the cusp of embracing them.

Live! Laugh! Love!  Hope!

 Roz Roz Townsend   www.roztownsend.com

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

Chillax - this is it!

Hello Everyone

A new word is gaining in power in the west and can now be heard in the sub continent. The word is chillax - a combination of ‘chill out’ and ‘relax’.  

It is interesting that English already has many, appropriate words for this state but yet a new word is gaining popularity. 

I believe the word is an indication of part of the wider spiritual paradigm shift taking place in the world.  The shift is drawing our attention on what is happening in the present rather than having our mind dwell on the past or worry about the future.

The increasing pressures of developing worlds, especially the impact of the global financial situation and consumerism are taking their toll.  A common greeting of professional people for example is the question “How are you? Busy?”   The answer usually reflects how extremely busy people are, and to admit to being busy is almost a badge of honour.

It is no wonder that books like Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now are such best-sellers.  There is a yearning and healthy need for people to just be in the present moment.  The following is some of the advice to be found in Tolle’s book.

Be present as the watcher of your mind -- of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as in the situation or person that causes you to react. Notice also how often your attention is in the past or future. Don't judge or analyze what you observe. Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. Don't make a personal problem out of them. You will then feel something more powerful than any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind the content of your mind, the silent watcher.

Many children have the ability to chillax and live in the present.  However, as adults we have certain responsibilities which call us to acknowledge the past and honour the future.

The question is: how much of your thinking time is spent in the past, present or future?  And if you find that your mind is heavily dominated by the past or future then consider it could well be time to chillax.

Live! Love! Laugh!

Roz Townsend  roz@roztownsend.com

The Questionable Value of Narcissism

Hello Everyone
Do you or someone you know have an inflated or grandiose sense of themselves?  Do you, or others you know, think perhaps that you are special, unique, and entitled to better treatment than others?

Then perhaps you are part of the narcissism epidemic.  According to Twenge and Campbell in The Narcissism Epidemic.  The narcissism epidemic is happening at both the individual and cultural levels all around the developed world.

Narcissism is increasing and the book points out that there are many more highly narcissistic people now than just a decade or two ago.  It would appear highly likely that cultures are changing too. Increases in materialism, entitlement, public violence and aggression, self-promotion, and the desire for uniqueness are typical symptoms.

Some specific changes include an increase in: plastic surgery rates; credit card debt; the use of "my" in web addresses; the larger size of personal homes; reality TV shows; narcissistic song lyrics; and the fake paparazzi who can now be hired to experience what it’s like to be famous.

It is interesting to consider that the current economic crisis was, in part, caused by overconfidence and greed which are both key components of narcissism.   The global rebellion of ‘Occupy’ is a reaction to the greed of the wealthy with the emphasis on ‘what about me’.  Narcissism at both ends of the wealth continuum!

The costs of narcissism are high. As societies become more narcissistic there is an accompanying higher level of depression and disconnection.

Many  great philosophers and leaders have highlighted a paradox: we have more meaningful lives when we focus on the needs of others and take the emphasis off ourselves.   It is a concerning trend that whole cultures are becoming more narcissistic .  Narcissism is likely to become an insidious value of society, an addictive trait that might be so powerful that  we become blind to its impact on our true well-being.

Could we ever consider that we are just normal not special?  That we are no better –or worse than others?   Perhaps as the book suggests, we need to consider teaching our children not that "You have to love yourself before you can love others,” but rather you will be the happiest when you love others “If you love yourself too much, you won’t have enough love left for anyone else!”

Live! Love! Laugh!

Roz Townsend   www.roztownsend.com