Thursday, December 18, 2008

It's ALL About Love

No, this is not a rehash of the lovely, easy-listening ,songbird Sade. It is in fact a statement about what I am growing to believe is the the true secret to success. A confession, when I started my career, my insecurity coupled with a dysfunctional work environment, resulted in my operating in a constant state of fear. From that place of fear, I could not get out of the behavior patterns of being outwardly tough, sometimes even mean and vengeful. I still think about the people with whom I worked to whom I still owe apologies for being such a bitch. But what I learned from those three years was that operating from fear and projecting confidence while not having any is an unsustainable modus operandi. I quit that job and took some time to refocus and renew myself. In some ways it felt like starting over, and in other ways, once I had accepted that I had to work on myself so that I could free myself from the shackles of fear, the universe opened up for me. I got great work as a freelancer with really good organizations working to make the world a better place. As time went on, I learned how to lead from below instead of the traditional top-down corporate model. I learned that compassion aided any negotiations. I learned that when I could find the energy to operate from love, I felt fed, full of integrity, powerful, free.

Discussed on Charles Henderson's blog www.nextworlddesign.com is the LeWeb conference about web 2.0. The theme is LOVE. "As explained by conference co-founder and organizer Loic Le Meur, the gathering is not about technology, business, or even social networking, 'It's all about love.' Embedded in his remarks is the weighty claim that the web itself, together with human community, commerce and, yes, spirituality, all center around love."

So what does this mean? If each person on the planet operated with more generosity of spirit towards their colleagues, towards strangers, towards themselves, we all would benefit. Let's all confront our fears and start loving ourselves by loving one another.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Trends in Philanthropy

I was very interested to read the new briefing produced by The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, funded by Bank of America. The research conducted aims to better understand the effects of our current economy on charitable giving. The subject pool was determined by household income-- over $200,000, and from there was randomized throughout the U.S. The highlight finding from my point of view was that, of all the options given to the question "why do you stop giving to a cause or organization?", 60% of respondents claimed that they no longer felt connected to the organization. This is very different from not believing in the mission of the organization or a change in tax policy. This has to do with a very essential human need-- a need for emotional connection.

Why is connection to an organization so important for the philanthropic community when determining how it will allocate its funds? Is it because people are living disconnected lives in most other ways? I believe that the axial shift I referenced in my first posting, will require us to learn how to live more attuned and integrated lives, in order to heal and repair the world and ourselves. Our values need to live and breathe through each decision we make. People have to disconnect to avoid what psychologists call cognitive dissonance; "the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent. For example, when our awareness of our attitudes and of our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes.Myers, David Exploring Psychology, 7th Ed." I know many people for whom work is a necessary evil-- it's a paycheck, it's health insurance. But it is NOT so many things-- it is not an extension of ourselves at our best-- it is not the joy of our daily routine. In some cases it is even more extreme than that-- look at Bernard Madoff or Elliot Spitzer.

I worry about the people, specifically young people who had their whole lives "figured out." They were on the linear path from an elite high school to an Ivy League undergraduate education with a B.A. in business. They went on to work for a few years at an accounting firm and are now in business school for that golden M.B.A. And now the economy is falling apart and the 100-hour-weeks don't promise that mid-six-figure salary with the bonus to ensure that life of luxury that justifies working so hard for the company's bottom line. Where do these people go? How do companies deal with this reality? How do our young investment bankers and traders deal with this upset-- this major source of cognitive dissonance? Do they have the values, the essential human resources to ride out this storm? I'm pretty sure that business school didn't cover this in the curriculum. And when the payoff has been measured in monetary terms and there is no payoff any more, what on earth do these people do?

You, dear reader, can help figure this one out. I am interested in what you think. Comment away!

The Axial Shift: Social Entrepreneurship

My business partner, Primavera, sent me to the front page of yesterday's New York Times Business Section to see the article entitled Starting Over, With a Second Career Goal of Changing Society. I am so pleased to see Harvard University is joining the social entrepreneur movement with its new initiative "intended to help [fourteen fellows] learn how to be successful social entrepreneurs or leaders of nonprofit organizations focused on social problems like poverty, health, education, and the environment." The pilot program is geared towards individuals in their 50s and early 60s who have had successful careers in a variety of sectors and for whom a traditional retirement of travel, golf, and liesure is not an appealing use of their time. There are other social entrepreneur programs at educational institutions like Columbia University's RISE-- Research Initiative on Social Entrepreneurship. As its name suggests, RISE seeks to research and understand better the business of social entrepreneurship.

While both the Harvard intiative and Columbia's RISE are indicators that the trend of social entrepreneurship is growing, so too are online ventures like www.change.org and www.changents.com. These online ventures are social networking platforms with the explicit purpose of linking individuals to ways to implement social change. There is a very powerful underlying tool here that I am excited to see come to fruition in a multitude of ways. What these social platforms are doing for social entrepreneurship is what www.facebook.com is doing for consumer focused advertising, among other money-making ventures. The members of www.change.org and www.changents.com are already a self-identified group of do-gooders. This means that the corporate sector is likely looking for ways to understand, connect, and ultimately relate to this growing group. If the corporate sector sees a possiblity to profit from impacting social change, we'll all benifit greatly.

Imagine if the best way to relate to a group of powerful consumers is to build water wells for villages in Africa, fund community-based education projects on sustainable water catchment and farming, train a new generation of leaders equipped to negotiate conflict in our global community, or fund projects that benefit low-income women and girls-- now that is change I wish to see in the world.