Like-minded people from around the world joined the first of three pre-annual-conference online events, where we explored “what is a prosperity-creating organization? How can we create prosperity through our work?” JOIN the next online ebbf pre-event exploration During the intense exchange of ideas, we agreed that
“definitions of prosperity in business and society are now connecting less and less with what people aspire to”
whilst currently the word prosperity immediately flashes dollar signs in our and society’s mind, what is actually good for us, what creates real well being is actually very different: health, access to opportunities, education, development of talents, achieving purposeful goals, even giving and receiving love, being of service are the acknowledged factors towards true prosperity.
So how can we evolve? A participants mentioned how attitudes change, for example some 50 years ago his mother smoked whilst he was in her womb, then it was accepted, today that would be totally unacceptable. In the same way as the growing dissonance between personal wellbeing and current drivers in business are getting greater a shift is starting to occur in what is desirable and acceptable.
“A sense of purpose is way stronger than an objective.”
Most workplaces today operate with a driven-by-objectives mentality that misses a much stronger driver of motivation and success which is to become purpose-driven organisations. We mentioned how at the ebbf annual event in Barcelona we will meet a number of such purpose-driven companies, highlighting the growing number of these organizations that we can learn from.
These new companies often enjoy a culture of freedom of thought where open conversations are encouraged, a sense of service where individuals support each other, everyone help others to to succeed.
They create environments for discourse and dialogue, where people sincerely try to understand and learn from each other . most people have a journey to talk about which in most companies is locked up. An example was given about working in a bank with 12 high level directors who started with very diverging personal stories then finding convergence after open sharing was allowed thanks to a secure and safe condition. A condition where to explore, gain new insights, challenge our assumptions of how we live our life.
instead of the Xfactor it is the “we factor” that creates prosperity
We jokingly highlighted the key factor to create long lasting successful prosperity in organizations being the – we – factor, a wider awareness of who we are working for, of course ourselves, the families we support through our work but also seeing all the other individuals and entities that we can and should positively affect with our work, starting from our own colleagues. We highlighted justice as a condition for prosperity, sharing amongst many and thinking of the good of many and not just of a few. As this imbalance also puts the – financially – wealthy in a difficult position always having to defend themselves from the majority who does not have privileges, meaning that not even they ultimately fully enjoy their prosperity.
“build and yearn for a vision of hope and not a vision of survival”
We closed this call with a call for organizations and us, as the people who need to drive a new sense of purpose to move away from the constant survival, short term mode, to building visions of hope that can fuel our everyday meaningful work.
In the next pre-event online event we will be looking at practical examples of using Unity and Collaboration that have created Prosperity in organizations. Click here if you wish to join us in this online event
OR
Comments