Business
The focus of business in Humanity Awareness will be on creating a meaningful economy – one that allows people to thrive in psychologically healthy cultures[1] with work that supports human evolution and the ecology of the planet. To this end, all businesses will sign up to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.[2]
The authors of The Rise of the Meaningful Economy,[3] Mark Drewell and Björn Larsson, stress that it is no longer just a small number of the privileged elite who can look for meaning and express that in their economic decision-making; millions more people, particularly the younger generation and people in nations operating from the worldview of People Awareness, are looking for meaningful work. They are also being more conscious in how they spend their money. Drewell and Larsson state that meaning is a new economic force – a new currency.
In Reinventing Organisations,[4] Frederic Laloux also talks about the importance of evolutionary purpose. He states: ‘Teal organizations [those operating from the worldview of Humanity Awareness] are seen as having a life and sense of direction of their own. Instead of trying to predict and control the future, members of the organization are invited to listen and understand what the organization is drawn to become, where it naturally wants to go.’
In Humanity Awareness, business will be organized around three core principles – social purpose, personal and professional development, and social and environmental accountability.
Social purpose
Every industry and business sector will have a governing body that regulates the operations of companies according to an agreed list of universal human values and an overarching social purpose that supports the well-being of humanity and the planet.
The purpose of the governing body will be to provide a framework of values and rules, from within which competition in every industry and business sector can be organized in a similar way to the Olympic Games – agreement at a global level on the framework within which competition takes place.
Personal and professional development
Every organization (for profit and not-for-profit) in addition to having a social purpose will have a deliberately developmental framework of education[5] and training for personal development (soft skills) and professional development (hard skills) for all employees.
Employee development and leadership programmes will be designed to support workers in mastering the adult stages of psychological development – individuating (releasing subconscious fears and limiting beliefs); self-actualizing (developing the individual’s gifts and talents); integrating (connecting with others in unconditional loving relationships); and serving (contributing to the well-being of humanity and the planet).
Laloux refers to this as ‘wholeness’. He states: ‘Teal organizations have developed a consistent set of practices that invite us to drop the [ego] mask, reclaim our inner wholeness, and bring all of who we are to work.’[6]
Social and environmental responsibility
Every organization will be responsible and accountable for its social and environmental impact – external costs that are now borne by society will be internalized. Businesses will recognize they are wholly owned subsidiaries of society, and society is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment. If we lose our environment, our society will collapse, and our businesses will suffer.
Businesses will also recognize that they are agents for peace – bringing stability through wealth creation and contributing to the support of national welfare programmes. To this end, organizations will seek out full spectrum leaders – leaders who aspire to be the best for the world rather than the best in the world. Selfish business behaviours that compromise the future of our global society will not be tolerated in Humanity Awareness.
[1] Richard Barrett, The Values-driven Organisation: Cultural Health and Human Well-being as a Pathway to Sustainable Performance (London: Routledge), 2017.
[2] https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org
[3] Mark Drewell and Björn Larson, The Rise of the Meaningful Economy: A Megatrend Where Meaning is the New Currency (Stockholm: Amazon), 2017.
[4] Frederic Laloux, Reinventing Organisations (London: Nelson Parker), 2014.
[5] Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey, An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organisation (Harvard Business School Publishing: Boston), 2016.
[6] Frederic Laloux, Reinventing Organisations (Nelson Parker: London), 2014.
