Z3: Zymposium on Green Business and Conscious Capitalism
Posted on Oct 10th, 2007
by 
christiana
christiana
I am the third post in a series of 5 posts on the topic.
To see the previous posts:
Check out:
Julian's announcement
Siona's Meditation on Conscious Capitalism
Brian's The "Consciousness" in Conscious Capitalism
I have just emerged from a Conscious Capitalism Retreat. This was sort of a shut in of some great minds; intellectuals, philosophers, business leaders, investors, civil society activists and humble student-me, the only representative of the Millennial Generation.
I am marinating in all of these thoughts over the weekend, and after pages and pages of notes, I am seeing that there is some sort of order arising from this.
We are having multiple conversations on different aspects of Conscious Capitalism and Green Business and pretending like we are talking about the same thing.
It seems essential that we begin with what Conscious Capitalism means as a term, and have a working definition. And yet, as soon as that process begins, it doesn’t take long to notice that we all have different definitions.
Lets start from the basics. Wikipedia gives these definitions for conscious(ness) and Capitalism respectively:
Consciousness is a characteristic of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one’s environment. It is a subject of much research in philosophy of mind, psychology, neuroscience and cognitive science.
In common parlance, consciousness denotes being awake and responsive to one’s environment; this contrasts with being asleep or being in a coma.
Capitalism generally refers to an economic system in which the means of production are all of mostly privately owned and operated for profit and in which investments, distribution, income production and pricing of goods and services are determined through the operation of a market economy.
SO here are some of my early musings…
Some want to talk about the philosophy of Conscious Capitalism as an ideology, or socio-economic structure, and the potential of this concept, if implemented, to “change the world” by solving a lot of the worlds problems. (Or at least upgrading them) Some would like to play with this idea and play out the scenarios in the developed and the developing world exploring what policy is needed to support this, what is the role of government in the first place. This is something I am incredibly interested in and that I know the LEAST about. I need to read A LOT more about Macro Economics, International Policy, and the promises of Free Markets, as well as Communism, Marxism, the anti-globalization movement, the WTO and Free Trade, popular Republican, Democrat, Libertarian beliefs, and then try to asses what dynamics are at play in my culture and those of our Global neighbors, before pretending like I can have some sort of educated discussion in this space. But I want to outline it as a vital topic of discussion.
Some want to talk about what a Conscious Business looks like. And from here you can dissect it even more, looking at what would the creation of a business like this look like and then what would it take to transform a business. Within this bucket we have a LOT of terms like: Green Business, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Sustainable Enterprise, Good Businesses, Purpose-driven, Values Driven, Mission Driven, Triple Bottom Line (Profit, People, Environment) Multiple Stakeholders, Whole Systems Approaches to leadership.
(Perhaps Jeff will write more about this?)
Another thus-far proven world-changer in this domain in Micro-finance/credit:
The extension of very small loans (micro loans) to the unemployed, to poor entrepreneurs and to others living in poverty who are not considered bankable. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit. Microcredit is a part of microfinance, which is the provision of financial services to the very poor; apart from loans, it includes savings, microinsurance and other financial innovations.
Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in using Micro-finance to alleviate poverty in Bangladesh.
And then another sub-category (which lately has been very popular) of discussions here about Business and Spirituality: Meditation in the workplace, the Soul of a business, The Meaning of Money, Money as Energy, The Metaphysics of Money, Manifesting, Right Livelihood (good for me, good for you, good for all living beings) Enlightened Enterprise, Enlightened Entrepreneurs.
The arguments for this are that businesses that are more “Conscious” are more profitable. And this is the proof in the pudding.
Another sub-category here is the culture of a business, and whether the leadership cultivates a workplace in which the health, well-being, and actualization of employees are considered.
And then the role of business in the world: Business as a force for good, a force for change. Business is the Hero! Here to save the day!
Some want to talk about the role of the individual, and the upward flow of human consciousness, and each of us living to our highest potential, our connection to our higher purpose either as entrepreneurs, work-as-service, right livelihood, or in our role as consumers, shopping in alignment with our values. Or as conscious investors perhaps, helping provide “conscious capital” to fuel the future. (This has been the majority of our discussions so far)
Some of us want to talk about the cultural “paradigm” and the role of the media in perpetuating a consumer culture and abusing the collective unconscious by targeting their marketing efforts towards our desires for beauty, indulgence, and plain old entertainment (and primal desires for food and lust.) Consumers are the Sleeping Giant (a metaphor which works well with the current definition of consciousness denoting "being awake." Much of the efforts of NGO's are focused here, on creating a Demand for Consciously produced goods by educating/ bringing awareness to the impact of our purchasing choices.
Green Business summary and how it plugs in:
When we refer to Green Businesses we are generally referring to the small but rapidly growing market for products or services that may consider some or all of these factors:
Sourced from Rapidly renewable resources, sourced from recycled materials, produced without toxic by-products, does not off-gas toxins within its lifespan, uses energy efficient manufacturing and transportation practices, improves the efficiency of the consumer’s energy use, reduces the toxicity in the consumer’s environment, can be recycled or biodegrade, has multiple functions, has a high quality or long life span reducing the need for replacement, does not contain or use pesticides or petrochemicals in production, was produced locally minimizing transportation costs, provide a sustainable livelihood for the producer (fair-trade)
Buzz words: Eco, Organic, Natural, Environmentally Friendly, Sustainable, Fair Trade, Conscious, Cradle to Cradle, Holistic, Free Range, Compassionately Raised or crafted, Hand made, Sweatshop free, sustainably harvested, Carbon Offset, Chemical free, Locally Produced.
What is GREAT about these businesses: These products are available today because of a reaction to the care-less-ly produced goods that have become common practice since the age of the industrial era, but much expanded since post-World World 2. There has been an increasing availability of goods to the consumer. It is possible to manufacture goods extremely cheaply because the cost of managing the 1) the cheap energy fueling production (coal, nuclear, oil) 2) waste or bi-product from production (such as CO2 being released into the atmosphere, Dioxins from the production of plastics entering the air and water stream, Livestock waste being washed into the watershed) being put onto the commons.
So, even if these products are not perfect, many of them are carrying the banner and proving the point that business CAN be done while minimizing or reducing their impact on the environment.
Many of the producers care about the impact of their practices on the planet, on the health and livelihoods of the people involved in the production of these goods. They CHOOSE to internalize the previously mentioned externalized costs.
And I will also mention here Green and Socially Responsible Investing- (are there are distinctions between the two, but i will lump them together for now.) SRI funds, Windhill Climate index, Venture funds specializing in Green companies, Community investing, Spectra, Calvert, Green Bull Fund, Social Venture Network. And then conscious wealth Mangagement services available to help one sift through all the options, like Abacus Wealth.
And Green Finance- New Resource Bank is a Green Bank. It redefines community as a boundary-less network of folks with shared values. People who choose to bank there know that their money is going toward loans being given to Green Businesses, often providing the start-up capital to get them off the ground.
RSF Social Finance- has been providing socially responsible investors, donors, for-benefit organizations, and social enterprises innovative investing, lending and philanthropic services to promote environmental social, and economic sustainability for over 20 years.
BUSINESS CHANGING: Can a company transform?
Can a company previously founded and operated with a single bottom line (ahem, $$$$) BECOME conscious? In this case, lets keep the word conscious in this case meaning, aware of their impact on the environment? Will Walmart go green? or BECOME conscious? What about Nike? HP? Does a company have to be 100%green to be considered green? Does it have to be socially/envirnonmentally responsible for the "right" reasons? Or does it earn them any brownie points if it just makes good buisness sense. Many Corporate Sustainability Consultants have had great success at getting businesses to make significant changes by making the business case. Want to increase efficiency, reduce energy cost and increase profits? Increased profits as well as PR are motivators. But many Big Businesses these days are "waking up." Not just GreenWashing. (a term that is used to describe the actions of a company, government, or other organization which advertises positive environmental practices while acting in the opposite way.)
So, I have no prescriptive here as of yet, more of a collection of observations.
I could launch on a long stream of ideas for each of these categories. But I wanted to introduce the idea that Conscious Capitalism means different things to different people, and I believe that it is important to outline these different idea “buckets” if you will so we begin to have a framework from which to communicate.
These are a few questions have emerged for me so far:
What is the goal? To change the world! Yeah- ok, but can we get a little more specific?
Do you have to be spiritual to be conscious?
Are Conscious Businesses necessarily Green?
Are Green Businesses necessarily conscious?
(If ya wanna play the Spiral)- Are we talking about asking what do Integral/ or Turquoise Businesses look like manifest?
Do Green Businesses tend to lack healthy Orange Business language and acumen?
Do Orange Businesses lack Green Values, or at least have less expansive/ inclusive values?
That if you believe that there is an upward flow of human development, then as consciousness evolves it naturally becomes world centric and takes the charge of including the impact of all world citizens in all of its decisions. This will naturally occur as we evolve.
If only 15% of the world’s population (max) are considered to be at a world-centric level of consciousness, then is it enough to have 15% of the world’s citizens participating in Conscious Capitalism? Or is it up to those Pioneers to create the patterns and embed them in culture for any and all to use regardless of incentive? (example for this- John creating WFM, but if others copy his biz practices just because they result in high quality product and profit, not necessarily because they have any interest in Love and Service…)
The relationship of Green Business to Conscious Capitalism I will summarize with a wiki definition:
Free Market Environmentalism is a theory that argues the free market is the best tool to preserve the health and sustainability of the environment. This is in sharp contrast to the most common modern approach of looking to government intervention to prevent destruction of the environment.
MY PERSPECTIVE:
I think the most essential element for me comes from the wiki definition of Conscious(ness)
“the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one’s environment”
(Think of Brian’s Spoon Example)
The more aware I am of the relationship between myself and my environment, the more responsible I feel to care for and work for the flourishing of the life-support systems of the earth that support all other sub-systems. (Although increasing awareness does not necessarily assume care, or taking action to do something about it for everyone….)
Ahem.. we are all connected. Through the web of life (biosphere), web of the Market (where did that cheese come from, why does your rent cost what it does?), web of social ties (I think I’m getting closer to Kevin Bacon…), web of digital representation (cybersphere—uh, internet)
Most of the people in the world have a very limited ability to perceive these relationships. Acting from these contracted perspectives in what has become a global marketplace, does not serve the flourishing of our species, our planet, and the quality of life on our planet.
I am not an economist. I am not even a college graduate. I am an autodidact with a passion that moves through me for change. What does change mean to me? It means that I have suffered, and witnessed suffering. That my heart is open. That I hold within that open heart an ever-expanding sphere of care and compassion for those I hold dear, for those far away, for those without voices, without power. And I am determined to do all that I can within my lifetime to work for a more just, safe, clean, peaceful world for myself, my family, my country, mankind, and all other beings alive today as well as future generations.
I believe in taking responsibility for my life choices. I try my best to ensure that my choices have positive consequences. I bring an awareness of interdependency to all of my choices, be they lifestyle, work, purchases, and then trust that it will make a difference.
To see the previous posts:
Check out:
Julian's announcement
Siona's Meditation on Conscious Capitalism
Brian's The "Consciousness" in Conscious Capitalism
I have just emerged from a Conscious Capitalism Retreat. This was sort of a shut in of some great minds; intellectuals, philosophers, business leaders, investors, civil society activists and humble student-me, the only representative of the Millennial Generation.
I am marinating in all of these thoughts over the weekend, and after pages and pages of notes, I am seeing that there is some sort of order arising from this.
We are having multiple conversations on different aspects of Conscious Capitalism and Green Business and pretending like we are talking about the same thing.
It seems essential that we begin with what Conscious Capitalism means as a term, and have a working definition. And yet, as soon as that process begins, it doesn’t take long to notice that we all have different definitions.
Lets start from the basics. Wikipedia gives these definitions for conscious(ness) and Capitalism respectively:
Consciousness is a characteristic of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one’s environment. It is a subject of much research in philosophy of mind, psychology, neuroscience and cognitive science.
In common parlance, consciousness denotes being awake and responsive to one’s environment; this contrasts with being asleep or being in a coma.
Capitalism generally refers to an economic system in which the means of production are all of mostly privately owned and operated for profit and in which investments, distribution, income production and pricing of goods and services are determined through the operation of a market economy.
SO here are some of my early musings…
Some want to talk about the philosophy of Conscious Capitalism as an ideology, or socio-economic structure, and the potential of this concept, if implemented, to “change the world” by solving a lot of the worlds problems. (Or at least upgrading them) Some would like to play with this idea and play out the scenarios in the developed and the developing world exploring what policy is needed to support this, what is the role of government in the first place. This is something I am incredibly interested in and that I know the LEAST about. I need to read A LOT more about Macro Economics, International Policy, and the promises of Free Markets, as well as Communism, Marxism, the anti-globalization movement, the WTO and Free Trade, popular Republican, Democrat, Libertarian beliefs, and then try to asses what dynamics are at play in my culture and those of our Global neighbors, before pretending like I can have some sort of educated discussion in this space. But I want to outline it as a vital topic of discussion.
Some want to talk about what a Conscious Business looks like. And from here you can dissect it even more, looking at what would the creation of a business like this look like and then what would it take to transform a business. Within this bucket we have a LOT of terms like: Green Business, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Sustainable Enterprise, Good Businesses, Purpose-driven, Values Driven, Mission Driven, Triple Bottom Line (Profit, People, Environment) Multiple Stakeholders, Whole Systems Approaches to leadership.
(Perhaps Jeff will write more about this?)
Another thus-far proven world-changer in this domain in Micro-finance/credit:
The extension of very small loans (micro loans) to the unemployed, to poor entrepreneurs and to others living in poverty who are not considered bankable. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit. Microcredit is a part of microfinance, which is the provision of financial services to the very poor; apart from loans, it includes savings, microinsurance and other financial innovations.
Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in using Micro-finance to alleviate poverty in Bangladesh.
And then another sub-category (which lately has been very popular) of discussions here about Business and Spirituality: Meditation in the workplace, the Soul of a business, The Meaning of Money, Money as Energy, The Metaphysics of Money, Manifesting, Right Livelihood (good for me, good for you, good for all living beings) Enlightened Enterprise, Enlightened Entrepreneurs.
The arguments for this are that businesses that are more “Conscious” are more profitable. And this is the proof in the pudding.
Another sub-category here is the culture of a business, and whether the leadership cultivates a workplace in which the health, well-being, and actualization of employees are considered.
And then the role of business in the world: Business as a force for good, a force for change. Business is the Hero! Here to save the day!
Some want to talk about the role of the individual, and the upward flow of human consciousness, and each of us living to our highest potential, our connection to our higher purpose either as entrepreneurs, work-as-service, right livelihood, or in our role as consumers, shopping in alignment with our values. Or as conscious investors perhaps, helping provide “conscious capital” to fuel the future. (This has been the majority of our discussions so far)
Some of us want to talk about the cultural “paradigm” and the role of the media in perpetuating a consumer culture and abusing the collective unconscious by targeting their marketing efforts towards our desires for beauty, indulgence, and plain old entertainment (and primal desires for food and lust.) Consumers are the Sleeping Giant (a metaphor which works well with the current definition of consciousness denoting "being awake." Much of the efforts of NGO's are focused here, on creating a Demand for Consciously produced goods by educating/ bringing awareness to the impact of our purchasing choices.
Green Business summary and how it plugs in:
When we refer to Green Businesses we are generally referring to the small but rapidly growing market for products or services that may consider some or all of these factors:
Sourced from Rapidly renewable resources, sourced from recycled materials, produced without toxic by-products, does not off-gas toxins within its lifespan, uses energy efficient manufacturing and transportation practices, improves the efficiency of the consumer’s energy use, reduces the toxicity in the consumer’s environment, can be recycled or biodegrade, has multiple functions, has a high quality or long life span reducing the need for replacement, does not contain or use pesticides or petrochemicals in production, was produced locally minimizing transportation costs, provide a sustainable livelihood for the producer (fair-trade)
Buzz words: Eco, Organic, Natural, Environmentally Friendly, Sustainable, Fair Trade, Conscious, Cradle to Cradle, Holistic, Free Range, Compassionately Raised or crafted, Hand made, Sweatshop free, sustainably harvested, Carbon Offset, Chemical free, Locally Produced.
What is GREAT about these businesses: These products are available today because of a reaction to the care-less-ly produced goods that have become common practice since the age of the industrial era, but much expanded since post-World World 2. There has been an increasing availability of goods to the consumer. It is possible to manufacture goods extremely cheaply because the cost of managing the 1) the cheap energy fueling production (coal, nuclear, oil) 2) waste or bi-product from production (such as CO2 being released into the atmosphere, Dioxins from the production of plastics entering the air and water stream, Livestock waste being washed into the watershed) being put onto the commons.
So, even if these products are not perfect, many of them are carrying the banner and proving the point that business CAN be done while minimizing or reducing their impact on the environment.
Many of the producers care about the impact of their practices on the planet, on the health and livelihoods of the people involved in the production of these goods. They CHOOSE to internalize the previously mentioned externalized costs.
And I will also mention here Green and Socially Responsible Investing- (are there are distinctions between the two, but i will lump them together for now.) SRI funds, Windhill Climate index, Venture funds specializing in Green companies, Community investing, Spectra, Calvert, Green Bull Fund, Social Venture Network. And then conscious wealth Mangagement services available to help one sift through all the options, like Abacus Wealth.
And Green Finance- New Resource Bank is a Green Bank. It redefines community as a boundary-less network of folks with shared values. People who choose to bank there know that their money is going toward loans being given to Green Businesses, often providing the start-up capital to get them off the ground.
RSF Social Finance- has been providing socially responsible investors, donors, for-benefit organizations, and social enterprises innovative investing, lending and philanthropic services to promote environmental social, and economic sustainability for over 20 years.
BUSINESS CHANGING: Can a company transform?
Can a company previously founded and operated with a single bottom line (ahem, $$$$) BECOME conscious? In this case, lets keep the word conscious in this case meaning, aware of their impact on the environment? Will Walmart go green? or BECOME conscious? What about Nike? HP? Does a company have to be 100%green to be considered green? Does it have to be socially/envirnonmentally responsible for the "right" reasons? Or does it earn them any brownie points if it just makes good buisness sense. Many Corporate Sustainability Consultants have had great success at getting businesses to make significant changes by making the business case. Want to increase efficiency, reduce energy cost and increase profits? Increased profits as well as PR are motivators. But many Big Businesses these days are "waking up." Not just GreenWashing. (a term that is used to describe the actions of a company, government, or other organization which advertises positive environmental practices while acting in the opposite way.)
So, I have no prescriptive here as of yet, more of a collection of observations.
I could launch on a long stream of ideas for each of these categories. But I wanted to introduce the idea that Conscious Capitalism means different things to different people, and I believe that it is important to outline these different idea “buckets” if you will so we begin to have a framework from which to communicate.
These are a few questions have emerged for me so far:
What is the goal? To change the world! Yeah- ok, but can we get a little more specific?
Do you have to be spiritual to be conscious?
Are Conscious Businesses necessarily Green?
Are Green Businesses necessarily conscious?
(If ya wanna play the Spiral)- Are we talking about asking what do Integral/ or Turquoise Businesses look like manifest?
Do Green Businesses tend to lack healthy Orange Business language and acumen?
Do Orange Businesses lack Green Values, or at least have less expansive/ inclusive values?
That if you believe that there is an upward flow of human development, then as consciousness evolves it naturally becomes world centric and takes the charge of including the impact of all world citizens in all of its decisions. This will naturally occur as we evolve.
If only 15% of the world’s population (max) are considered to be at a world-centric level of consciousness, then is it enough to have 15% of the world’s citizens participating in Conscious Capitalism? Or is it up to those Pioneers to create the patterns and embed them in culture for any and all to use regardless of incentive? (example for this- John creating WFM, but if others copy his biz practices just because they result in high quality product and profit, not necessarily because they have any interest in Love and Service…)
The relationship of Green Business to Conscious Capitalism I will summarize with a wiki definition:
Free Market Environmentalism is a theory that argues the free market is the best tool to preserve the health and sustainability of the environment. This is in sharp contrast to the most common modern approach of looking to government intervention to prevent destruction of the environment.
MY PERSPECTIVE:
I think the most essential element for me comes from the wiki definition of Conscious(ness)
“the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one’s environment”
(Think of Brian’s Spoon Example)
The more aware I am of the relationship between myself and my environment, the more responsible I feel to care for and work for the flourishing of the life-support systems of the earth that support all other sub-systems. (Although increasing awareness does not necessarily assume care, or taking action to do something about it for everyone….)
Ahem.. we are all connected. Through the web of life (biosphere), web of the Market (where did that cheese come from, why does your rent cost what it does?), web of social ties (I think I’m getting closer to Kevin Bacon…), web of digital representation (cybersphere—uh, internet)
Most of the people in the world have a very limited ability to perceive these relationships. Acting from these contracted perspectives in what has become a global marketplace, does not serve the flourishing of our species, our planet, and the quality of life on our planet.
I am not an economist. I am not even a college graduate. I am an autodidact with a passion that moves through me for change. What does change mean to me? It means that I have suffered, and witnessed suffering. That my heart is open. That I hold within that open heart an ever-expanding sphere of care and compassion for those I hold dear, for those far away, for those without voices, without power. And I am determined to do all that I can within my lifetime to work for a more just, safe, clean, peaceful world for myself, my family, my country, mankind, and all other beings alive today as well as future generations.
I believe in taking responsibility for my life choices. I try my best to ensure that my choices have positive consequences. I bring an awareness of interdependency to all of my choices, be they lifestyle, work, purchases, and then trust that it will make a difference.
Access: PublicTagged with: z3, Conscious Capitalism, Green Business, Green, Sustainability, Economics, Free Market, Capitalism, Choice, Julian Walker, Siona, Brian Johnson, Green Gift Expo, Organic, Zymposium
brian johnson
October 2007 
more soon, for now: love it…
(and I definitely think you're getting to kevin bacon… :)
aw shizzle here we go - cant wait to dig into this meaty consideratiion - it was great brainstorming with you yesterday!
Brilliant Christiana. I especially appreciate your recognition of the importance of living in and with the questions, of recognizing the complexity of these issues, and your exemplary and very serious practice of embracing both - the questions and complexity.
Through this, you embody consciousness - a heightened ability to perceive the relationship between yourself and the environment, and recognition that answers may be revealed through ever-deepening inquiry into this relationship.
Hi Christiana:
You pose the question:
Can a company previously founded and operated with a single bottom line (ahem, $$$$) BECOME conscious?
Short answer is, “Yes”, and the qualifier to that is twofold:
(Part 1) There is a wholly-natural process going on in the world, a curing, a shifting, that is happening right now, and which appears to work itself out rather like a homeopathic effect - rather as if the Soul of The World is purging through, and a lot of crap has been coming to the surface for decades, centuries - longer even - and so now the world is experiencing a sort of “healing crisis”.
That is happening anyway, so it is the case that sooner or later a shift towards being more and MORE conscious will take place within every sentient being - even within the most hard-headed business people and even the presidents and rulers of certain countries.
(Part 2) However, this natural process, just like any other birth, will take as long as it takes, but it can be helped by skilled midwives and other relevant professionals being present and being actively involved wherever that is appropriate.
For example, it has often been said that it is not possible to change a person's attitudes…
And a key factor in everything we are talking about here, beyond the physical abundance or lack of resources, is OUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS WHAT IS OK AND WHAT IS NOT OK IN RELATION TO THE USE (OR NOT) OF THOSE RESOURCES.
If our attitude sucks, and it is not possible to change people's attitudes - well, the ride will be rougher than if it were possible to (appropriately) change people's attitudes.
Catch 22 here is that if we change people's attitudes in an INVASIVE way, then we aren't actually changing anything - the process itself cannot work via INVASION - it has to work via INVITATION…
“So what if people - especially our key decision makers - don't accept the INVITATION to perhaps change their attitudes towards this, that or the other?”
Well, the whole-healing-thing will take longer.
But if people do accept that INVITATION, just how do you facilitate a bona-fide and appropriate attitude change?
Answer:
The person or organisation or government you are working with is already engaged in doing or facilitating a whole bunch of things themselves - all the different activities within that whole overall ACTIVITY will basically have any one or more of the following six “flavours”…. each activity can be in support of:
1) The Godly or
2) The Great or
3) The Good or
4) The Bad or
5) The Mad or
6) The Ugly
The fairly self evident aim being to identify:
A] Any activities that support: The Bad, The Mad and The Ugly
(These are obvious symptoms of a Parasite Mentality in action, in Reality)
(NB: The word “Ugly” here is not being used in the cosmetic context - it is being used instead of the somewhat more emotive word “Evil” - which itself could be defined as simply being that which: “Erodes Vitality by Impeding Love”)
(And I'm also writing this from Spaghetti Western country, so waddya expect? LOL!)
And also, of course, it will at some stage be necessary to identify those activities which can legitimately be regarded as being:
B] Supportive of The Good, The Great and The Godly.
(Symptoms of a Paradise Mentality at play)
So, Appropriate Attitude Change is to make anything to do with [A] above NOT OK and anything that genuinely facilitates [B] above VERY OK.
So how do you do that?
Well, the four stage process that actually facilitates Appropriate Attitude Change is as follows:
1] Identify current ACTIVITY BEING FACILITATED (to whatever depth of detail is appropriate)
2] Invite the individual(s) or organisation or government voluntarily involved in this process with you to be open to the APPRECIATION OF NEW POSSIBILITIES.
3] Assist the individual(s), organisation or government voluntarily involved in this process to gain an AWARENESS OF NEW WAYS of doing things. (Usually via a range of appropriate Experiental Learning Activities or actual Life Experiences)
…which brings that individual, organisation or government to a place called CHOICE…
At this point, the individual, organisation or government is invited to genuinely CHOOSE to either keep doing everything as before, or to do something different…
As soon as that CHOICE is made, then what will naturally come out of this process will be either a ZERO CHANGE IN ATTITUDE or an ACTUAL CHANGE IN ATTITUDE….
Obviously, if there is ZERO ATTITUDE CHANGE….at this point in time….that does not mean that all has been lost….this could mean that “the penny will drop” later…
How small or how great any ACTUAL ATTITUDE CHANGE may be will depend on the openness of the individual, organisation, government and the effectiveness of the facilitator(s) engaged in facilitating this whole process.
Where an actual ATTITIDE CHANGE has been facilitated, the individual(s) organisation or goverment may then go back to engage in their ACTIVITY FACILITATION work - equipped with NEW AWARENESS, and (ideally) some relevant new skills to help make practical changes, so that all of their ACTIVITY or ACTIVITIES are enabled to begin to move away from being:
- Bad, Mad or Ugly
and towards being
- Good, Great and Godly
Oh… and in anticipation of a very common question, “But who is to say what is Good, Great or Godly? Who is to say what is Bad, Mad or Ugly - in this context?”
Short answer is:
God KNOWS…..
And therefore, so does your own SOUL….
If in doubt, open your own MIND to your own SOUL… by simply BEING TRUE and the answers you seek are already there.
Doddle, huh?
Ray
Christiana, you really got some good detail in there!
And so many tangents… I'll try and take on some of
your questions from my spot on the park…
What is the goal? To change the world! Yeah- ok, but
can we get a little more specific?
Q: Do you have to be spiritual to be conscious?
A: Seems to come with the territory, we learn to
connect… we keep on that path and it becomes
‘awe-some'….
Q: Are Conscious Businesses necessarily Green?
A: Green meaning conscious of the environment yes. You
cannot be unconscious about planet, people or profit…
or yourself.
Q: Are Green Businesses necessarily conscious?
A: This is a ‘line' question (KW's lines, states and
stages)… they may or may not be, but its ‘better' that
they are, otherwise their decisions do not have enough
depth to make the business…
Q: (If ya wanna play the Spiral)- Are we talking about
asking what do Integral/ or Turquoise Businesses look
like manifest?
A: I'd guess these would be new companies, with very
bright people with a passion for business and change.
These bright folk would have to be aware, able to
lead, strategize, compromise and have a thorough
understanding of money, environment, and people. They
will feel a moral obligation (as Brian put it) without
living in the sphere of morality or obligation, they
will have had to have transcended these so it just
becomes a natural position, and it is taught to all
employees based on their ‘stage'. Different strokes
for different folks.
Q: Do Green Businesses tend to lack healthy Orange
Business language and acumen?
A: This is the same problem with Republican and
Democrats. Republicans are decisive - its easy to do
the wrong thing, Democrats want to do the right thing
(except who can decide. So many choices). Green
Businesses have to go to the next STAGE of
development, which is to realise that you HAVE TO
decide what to do, and learn by the consequences. We
grow by experience.
Q. Do Orange Businesses lack Green Values, or at least
have less expansive/ inclusive values?
A. Orange business fails in this day and age because
it is unsustainable, it has outgrown its model. But it
has all the experience, so it must be transformed. And
that means transforming people. Business is people.
Free Market environmentalism sounds a bit wishy-washy.
We need Governments as guardians of the rules of the
game of life, laws etc. Free Markets are like chaos
energy, constantly buzzing, in need of limits and
boundaries. Like we are. We are dealing with egos's
here, think of it that way. Free Market is a Free Ego
- doesn't sound to great now does it! Children need
limits, so do Adults. Markets may not need them when
the start looking after things themselves. But I'd
wait until there was more than 15% Turqouise….
Otherwise greed and fear will poison everything… It
may well mean that the US government cannot do a good
job, but its hardly the model for good government!
Consciousness
“the ability to perceive the relationship between
oneself and one's environment”
This is in a sense the key to changing things, people
ideas. Stories that engage peoples love and care, like
the Spoon story. These stories connect to us much
better than stories about Jesus for example (no
offence). Because they are more immediate and
personal. To illuminate others by this method is the
best one, at least for me. I cannot talk ‘states and
stages' with people at work, but I can talk about
things that connect them to their capacity to relate
beyond themselves - sans soapbox, with humour, with
all my awareness to be deft when I need to be, and be
cutting when its appropriate. Big Mind/Big Heart
indeed.
The managers duty is to try and get his 10 people
working to their highest capacity. There are many bad
ways to do that. All the bad ways fail. The good ways
however turn those 10 into more managers - people who
are wise enough to lead and train others. This is how
change can really happen. One person buys so much, 10
people buy 10x more…. Etc etc…
Ta, made me think!
I think the most essential element for me comes from the wiki definition of Conscious(ness)
“the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one’s environment”
Thanks for your perspectives Christina. This too is an essential element for me. I've been through most of the flow you've outlined within myself… and the key for me seems to been how great my awareness is… ( how far up the Spiral am I really ) … to realize that I have much greater awareness, much more world centric awareness than when I started my first business when I was 23. In my experience I was able to evolve my business as I evolved… and sold it to evolve more quickly. Somewhere along the path I realized I was on a journey with no end. That the MORE continues…
That I am in service to the flow of consciousness… whether it be through conscious business or some other form.
I am able to see the beauty in all that is unfolding… and being supportive of The Good, The Great and The Godly. ( to use Ray's conscious language )
Ray and Sanjuro, you guys did a great job of taking the flow further.
Enjoying the enrichment!
christiana - i am clicking back and forth between reading your (brilliant) piece and watching the (very bad) zeitgeist movie that several people have told me is sooooo amazing - i smell another deconstructing scathing blog coming on (brian i may have to wait on the science of getting rich lol) - as well as another very complimentary commentary on your contribution once it all settles in…
funny contrast though!
Hello, this is Juan again. I'm using Manish's account because my Zaadz account has not been reviewed yet.
This is a great post. It helps us put so many questions into perspective. I would like to ask one more, if that is ok:
We are focusing a lot on businesses and ourselves, and the way the culture operates. Are we focusing also in the education system? I think that if socially responsible practices are taught to children in school and at home, then they will find it more natural to be a conscious consumer. I know that in my school they taught me everything about the environment and recycling and globalization from a very early age, and I am very aware of all of my impacts in this world because of that. Then again, I went to school outside of the US, so I'm not sure how the US is encouraging children to be socially responsible.
Another point I would like to raise is that we are looking at this issue from the point of view of an individualistic culture. The US, Canada, Australia and many European cultures operate this way, and look at the world from a different perspective that cultures in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and others. How can people from community-oriented societies tackle these problems? Do they even face the same problems? From my experience growing up in Central America, people down there tend to be more conscious about who they buy their products from, how much fossil fuels they use (then again, it is an expensive commodity down there), the amount of electricity and water used… in other words, people try not to waste anything. Is it because there isn't such a huge abundance of products? People in individualistic societies put their needs and wants before the needs and wants of others… could this be a reason why people go about their business not caring about their impact in the world? (of course, not everyone in America is like this, I'm just speaking in general terms)
I would love to hear the opinion of all of you wonderful experts on educating children abour social responsibility, and about the different ways individualistic and community-oriented societies percieve the problems in the world :-)
holy forest fungi christiana this is a gorgeous pice of work. i know you could expand outward in several different directions to make a chapter out of ech of your paragraphs here…..wow. cant wait for the power point presentation, book and documentary film…
would you inlcude a link to a good spiral dynamics intro so that readers new to that color jargon can plug into the shorthand!? right off the “if ya wanna play the spiral” phrase would be a good place… :O)
i love the invitation into so many areas of consideration and the recognition that we are all going to enter the conversation from whatever quadrant we privlege/value/have experience in the most.
you end the piece with such humble dignity and grounded idealism.
thank you
juan i am so glad to see your comment here and on siona's blogpost - looking forward to the presenters responding to your perspective/questions!
sanjuro ripping it up!
enjoying you ray.
looking forward to tomorrow jeff…
Holy Forest Fungi!! ha! I will never live that one down huh?i wll look for a good link.
And wish to respond to all these wonderful ideas, but my kid wont sleep and i had counted on spending sometime replying after bed… oh well. Good night all! Thanks for participating and lets continue the discussion here and tomorrow on Jeff's Blog.
Great overview. Thank you!
Do you know Green Money Journal…a great pub that might support your explorations. And I will be relaunching New Paradigm Digest in January that will include a New Paradigm biz section so stay tuned…I also posted some interesting things on my new paradigmworld blog today. I once took a test for optimism and was told no one had scored higher and believe that the negative world we see is a direct reflection of unconscious and wounded minds, hearts and souls that have produced a dangerous and dysfunctional world but have also acted as catalysts that have sparked quantum leaps in problem solving abilities and that interdisciplinary collaboratives will become more and more the norm and means to produce genius in service to life ideas that benefit the whole. If you want to be inspired, read Buckminster Fuller, William McDonough and Amory Lovins, the latter two are changing the business dna…
This is mainly in response to Jaun's points about education….
Thought I'd post a few comments on : Holistic Thinking:
Part of my work with individuals and organisations is to help people think and act “outside of the box”, and, instead, think and act to the best of their individual ability in unison with:
- God & True Heaven (The Spirit and Soul of True Reality)
- The Whole of Life & (The Mind and Sensitivity of True Reality)
- Nature (The Body and Motion of True Reality)
…with all the above viewed as one WHOLE…
So, in a nutshell, I facilitate HOLISTIC THINKING.
Now most people in the modern and developed world, it seems, have been trained during the past decades, centuries and probably even longer, to think using a process called LOGIC.
LOGIC is very very good at “Little Box Thinking”… and tends to struggle with genuinely being able to “Think Outside of The Box”.
However, every single Sentient Being - including you and me - is also capable of thinking using a process called LOGOS, which is literally brilliant at “Thinking Outside of The Box”.
So, the key to Thinking Outside of The Box is to practice and become skilled at thinking via LOGOS.
The ability to think via LOGOS has been supressed in many cultures around the world, for centuries, with the result that nowadays most people have heard the word LOGIC, and use it in everyday parlance, but very few people truly understand what the word LOGOS actually means - many people have never even heard the term.
This does not prevent you or anyone continuing to be able to think via LOGIC - in fact you will find that the ability to think via LOGIC as well as being able to think via LOGOS are the two things that make you able to genuinely be able to THINK - and also SEE (with BOTH of the Mind's Eyes) that which is Superficial (Logic is good at this) and that which is Substantial (Logos is awesome at this.)
When we think only with LOGIC, then that is like thinking with one of the Mind's Eyes closed.
So, given the above, you can see that we end up with another pattern of three, which does actually correspond to the first pattern of three (bullet-pointed) in this blog. viz:
LOGOS (Whose primary focus is the Spirit and Soul)
THINKING (Whose primary focus is the Mind and Sensitivity)
LOGIC (Whose primary focus is the Body and Motion)
INTUITIONObviously this is all very relevant to Education, on any subject whatsoever, and it is easy to confirm that the majority of our Educatoinal Institutions in the West, and now in many other countries in the world (following our lead) are massively biased, and sometimes totally biased, towards LOGICAL THINKING, as being the foundation or platform from which every single subject in orthodox education is taught.
Teaching our kids how to practice THINKING VIA LOGOS, generally speaking, just doesn't happen.
Not to put too fine a point on this, that is going on for exactly the same reasons that “the abused becomes the abuser”….
Way back whenever, (which some say was around the time of Descartés) (Creating that which is now often called “The Cartesian World View”) …LOGIC became the way of achieving its own self… and we have ended up where we are largely as a result of this.
Now, before Mr Descartés made Little Box Thinking so popular… (the body is separate from the mind, the mind is separate from the soul, the soul is separate from the spirit, the individual spirit is separate from God…and so on)…a few other people had popped in, so history tells us, with different ideas.
Some of whom had actually tried to persuade us to think via LOGOS first and foremost, but to also use LOGIC when appropriate.
For example, I believe there is a saying in the Koran, which translates as: “Trust in God, but tie up your camel” - in other words use LOGOS and use LOGIC too - be both Spiritually Awake and Practical in your actions.
And of course before that, other famous teachers had popped in for a quick visit and a chat, usually just before having their heads chopped off, being poisoned or getting themselves nailed to a tree and suchlike.
“Courage - Love and Wisdom (Courageous-Love-Wisdom)”, was the short version of what they taught, but that maybe felt a bit too much like hard work, so the key decision makers amongst us opted, over the centuries, for Greed-Fear and Myopia instead…and trained the rest of us accordingly.
And we became very good at this, so by the time of Mr Descartés, LOGIC was King and pretty much every member of every society on the planet was walking around, going about their daily busy-ness, with one of their Mind's Eyes shut….half awake, at best.
And our educational systems, emerging out of this, became literally “Living Encyclopedias”…seeing the world like a cyclops…generally using only one of our Mind's Eyes…and educating us accordingly.
(And of course, you've probably already realised that we don't actually use the phrase “The Mind's Eyes” in common parlance, we tend to say, “The Mind's Eye”)
The great thing that is happening now, is the NATURAL opening of our second Mind's Eye…the one that sees (and of course thinks) via LOGOS.
So what you will find happening pretty soon, throughout all of our educational establishments, little by little, is a re-awakening and genuine facilitation of:
INTELLIGENCE
INTELLECT
(Another pattern of three - fits with the first one - you get the point, I'm sure)
And another great thing is that people in communities like Zaadz will be helping this to happen.
Oh….and just to wrap this up….
Another word for LOGOS, which apart from meaning “The Word” or “The Law” is, quite simply:
LOVE.
Cool, huh?
Ray,
That was quite clear, except, could you give us viewers an example of Logos in action, in a particular specific instance in your dealings with facilitating this. I have a sense of what you are getting at, but nothing tangible (in a non-cartesian way of course)… :)
Even an example of an exercise might be the most beneficial bang for your blogging buck?
Try this at home folks…
cheers
Hi Sanjuro and all! (Love your posts by the way, Sanjuro!)
An example of LOGOS in action…
When I am working with an individual or an organisation, on (say) personal development, compassionate leadership skills, teamwork and similar stuff . there soon comes a point where I explain that to use LOGOS and to experience the practical benefits of doing so, it is necessary to use the Soul-Skill of TRUST…
Which I define as:
Taking-Risks
Unconditionally
Supporting…..that which is…
True
Now this applies to anything, in any situation, but people often like a fairly Wow! kind of example, so this is one (of many) that I often share with people, regarding something that really happened when I was first living over here in Spain…
I had no money and no work (I had been earning ship-loads before I got here, but for various reasons I decided to put myself into a position comparable to suddenly finding yourself out of work, with no money in a strange environment)…what money I had had before I came to Spain, a very expensive girlfriend helped me dispose of.
Anyway, what I was doing in Spain was, quite simply, practicing TRUST…to improve my own skill at doing so, and to be able to explain, from personal experience, whether or not it really does work and, if so, how it works and what it achieves….
What I was TRUSTing was:
- God and Heaven Love me.
- I am safe.
- All my needs will be met,
- In the best possible way
- If I skillfully TRUST…
Please note this is the absolute opposite of taking God / Heaven for granted. This is not wishy-washy wishing. This is not based in any way whatsoever on wanting this or wanting that…you don't have a fixed outcome in mind.
Anyway, I had been living in this way for months, and was living like a king…in a ruined old cortijo (farmhouse) which had 17 rooms, only 2 of which had a roof, no electricity and a well with its own potable water supply. I was located in the mountains, way off the beaten track.
Chop wood carry water.
I also, by that time, had acquired 3 horses, one dog and a cat…the cat had had kittens and had adopted the kittens of two other neighbouring cats that had died (probably eaten by a fox).
My policy was to make sure the animals were fed before I was, and for myself, my own way of measuring that this was working - even before I had ended up at this cortijo - was to have at least one good meal a day, and somewhere comfortable to sleep each night - without ever asking for these things….simply by TRUSTing….
And up til that point, that had happened every single day…
Now, one morning my cat came up to me and was not in a good way. She could not walk properly and she sat on her haunches, bared her chest and showed me how red raw and badly scratched it was from feeding all those kittens…
At that moment I had no food in the house at all, but that normally would not have mattered to Pup (my cat) because she lived by killing the rats that lived in the cactus around the house and drinking from a tiny trickly of water that came out of the ground nearby.
Til that day she had been totally independent.
But this day she could not hunt. Could not feed her babies.
So I said to her, “Well, Pup, we'll just have to trust and see what the day brings.”
At that time, there was nothing else I could do.
The cat looked at me like I'd lost the plot and wandered off.
About an hour later, in the distance, I saw a car coming along the dirt track towards my house. There was a large easy chair (comfy chair) strapped to the roof of the car.
The car arrived and two people I had met maybe six months before got out.
They said, “Hi Ray. When we saw you we promised you this chair we were going to throw out…” (I had almost zero furniture, a bed and couple of orange boxes)….”We're moving back to live in England now, and we thought we'd better bring this to you now, otherwise you'd never get it.”
“Great! Thanks a lot!”
“Oh, and we've emptied our cupboards and freezer, so we have loads of bags full of food for you and I've brought six tins of catfood - is that any use to you?”
Absolutely.
The point is, I did not engineer this.
This was not some freak coincidence - because if it was, I'd been having about ten freak coincidences like that every week (and still do).
If I had been using only LOGIC, instead of LOGOS, then I would have thought, spoken and behaved very differently…
I would probably have thought, “Shit! I have to get some cat food, and some dog food wouldn't hurt either!” (Panic, panic)…I would have said to my cat, “Don't worry Pup. I'll save you!”… then I would have wandered off to visit my friend Oscar, hopefully borrow some money off him, then walked for about two hours to the nearest shop, bought the catfood and dogfood and walked back…..
Point being:
LOGOS likes to achieve results via SYNERGY.
LOGIC likes to achieve results that use up lots of ENERGY.
For my money, LOGOS is the best first choice, and if, by being open to LOGOS, you feel INTUITIVELY that in this (whatever) particular situation you need to use LOGIC, well, LOGOS is OK with that….LOGOS is absolutely NOT anti-LOGIC (though LOGIC can very often be anti-LOGOS).
Hope this helps?
Ray
Christiana,
I thank you for your work providing this useful information dump. It badly needs distillation though, I think, to be source material for further discussions, demonstrations and calls to action. I hope you will take some of this difficult distillation work on here at Zaadz.
A place where the distillation process is further along on some of these themes is Tikkun and its Network of Spiritual Progressives. Its starting point is that conscious capitalism requires institutional reform. It is leading political struggles both for ”A New Bottom Line” for institutions and corporations, and for a Social Responsibility Amendment to the US constitution.
In the New Bottom Line, institutional and corporate productivity and efficiency would no longer be judged solely by how it maximizes profits and power, but also by the degree to which it supports ethical, spiritual, and ecological sensitivity and helps people be caring.
The Social Responsibility Amendment, far more specifically, demands that:
Corporation doing business in the US must get new charters every twenty years. They will only be granted to corporations who prove a history of social responsibility as measured by an Ethical Impact Report that evaluates the company's sensitivity to the needs of the environment, the community, and its employees.
“We are having multiple conversations on different aspects of Conscious Capitalism and Green Business and pretending like we are talking about the same thing.
It seems essential that we begin with what Conscious Capitalism means as a term, and have a working definition. And yet, as soon as that process begins, it doesn’t take long to notice that we all have different definitions.”
wow! this is an excellent overview of the different flavors under the banner of Conscious Capitalism. thanks for articulating and linking them together. allow me to add a definition by the BBC News Encylopedia:
“Conscious capitalism stands for a more moral approach to what is often seen as the dirty business of business. Where once a company would bow only to the demands of its shareholders and customers, under the new order it must take on board its impact on everyone with a direct or indirect interest.”
so in short, the foundation of conscious capitalism is a strong (or more sophisticated and “higher”) ethics. ideally, a more world-centric ethics which takes into consideration the diversity and the level of development of cultures.
having said that, just like you “This is something I am incredibly interested in and that I know the LEAST about.” that's why i am humbled everytime i dig into this topic because i know so little about the domain of business and the bigger lens of economics. it's easy to criticize big business and impose our own morality on them but people sometimes forget how everything is interconnected: business, economics, politics, technology, etc… so the more i look at the big picture, the more i realize that i know so little, the more i see the complexity, the more i am humbled, the more i see suffering, the more i'm inclined to take action. sometimes it even makes me feel helpless. so i continuously seek inspiration from people from different domains who have devoted their lives to make our world a better place. this gives me hope and provides me with more option on how and when to take action in my immediate sphere of influence.
~C
Further to ldgussin’s info on Social Responsibilty (from the Tikkun community), here is the link to the world organisation that works with the governments, Its called the OECD, based in Paris.
Basically, one of the many things is does is discuss best practices with governments, corporations and other stakeholders, and then asks member countries to engage in these voluntarily, which they do because it makes sense. This entails creating new laws which work with changing non-best practices (unsustainable and environmentally damaging processes for example) with multinationals. They do not berate corporations, they engage them on sound long-view strategies which are ultimately better for the triple bottom line.
Its a bit heavy of course… but there is lots to get into…
www.oecd.org
Excellent outline of the various streams of thought in this emerging area!
Thanks for saving me 10 hours! :)