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  • I spent a lot of time today on the Evolver and Reality Sandwich web sites. These are definitely places of shared values for me. The passion and intent to build a ‘better’ world is certainly apparent and wonderful to behold. Maybe it’s my age, but my experience is very much one of ‘the more things change the more they stay the same.’ I want to admit my own bias’ here as my own background certainly informs my perspectives. I believe that this is natural, however I’ve heard and read several instances where the authors are intent in throwing out aspects of human history that it is clear they do not understand. So what’s new about that? And that’s the point. We are so steeped in our own worlds and points of view it is very hard to notice the water we are swimming in. We can trade religion for technology, but the undeveloped aspects of our humanness that distort true religious understanding will do the same for technology. Without a really astute understanding of Self we are doomed to continue doing the same things over and over while expecting different results - sound familiar? The key to the sustainable creation of a ‘brave new world’ that will actually bring a different way of being into existence is our courageous and unflinching understanding of our own self. As we get to know our own internal landscape, we also begin to better understand others and with more compassion, I might add. When ever we stop looking inside we become doomed to recreate the past. My personal belief system posits the evolution of the human species which requires the evolution of the individuals within it. To think that everyone is at the same degree of understanding and wisdom and to think that we all move cheerily along at the same pace disrespects the individual nature of human beings. That understanding, for me, indicates that we will be doing what we are doing for a very long time. The scenery may change, but the play remains the same. My intent is not be discouraging, but to counsel compassion, patience and forgiveness instead of hubris and distain for the human condition. The ‘proof’ of our ability to evolve will be our success in taking responsibility for our environmental condition and acting on that shared responsibility. If we can actually put the survival of the species about our own personal wants and desires, then - maybe - we have a chance.

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  • [gallery link=”file”] I can really understand the resistance to taking responsibility! Entitlement has become a way of life and what would be more confronting than being “responsible” for the speed of changes happening on the planet. Easter Island springs to mind. Even there, I suspect that as the last tree was cut down the rationale was, “But I NEED it.” I have no doubt that life will continue, but I will miss the beauty that I’ve come to love. given time, I’m sure a new beauty will be created. I do not know if the species can “mature” as David Korten says, or if entitlement will be too strong a habit to break. The other belief that keeps “doubters” locked into apathy is an unwillingness to ‘own’ the power that humans have acquired. Perhaps it’s the fear of responsibility, perhaps it’s the implied call to action that seems overwhelming. What is not so clear to me is why does it matter? OK, so what if Global warming is not true, are any of the actions we need to take to prevent it actions we should NOT take if it isn’t real? I think the answer is no. We need to clean up our air and water, we need to rethink how we grow food, we need to value our resources more (walls to protect trees, doesn’t even begin to impact that issue), so let’s stop kevetching and create a world we’d love to live in - period. The question that begs an answer is - what if it IS true and we do nothing. what are we willing to risk losing? What are we willing to experience as the Earth crashes? What kind of experiences do we want our children to have? The real issue facing us is what kind of world do we want to leave as our legacy? Answer that one and then act accordingly.

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Sand and the science of granularity

Jun 27th, 2009 by ethicalimpact

Science has been looking at falling sand. It seems that tiny particles act a lot like water. Wired Science has neat videos that show this in action.

One of my more treasured memories was of taking a drive into the mountains in Boulder, Colorado. As I made a turn I came out overlooking a meadow that was edged by pine forest. As I watched a herd of elk ‘poured’ out of the forest onto the meadow floor. a truly awesome sight! Gorgeous Bull Elk in RMNP Pictures, Images and Photos.

I wonder how this applies to organizations - to groups of people going into and out of events, to the neurons in our brain when we do many things at once (like playing music and singing). I wonder what this not quite solid and not quite liquid dynamic can tell us about culture, how it ebbs and flows. What would we see if we could think of our thoughts and beliefs as grains of sand? Physicist Heinrich Jaeger of the University of Chicago,… sees in granularity a potentially universal dynamic, reflected in everything from highway traffic to crowd patterns to ecosystem function.

Heady stuff.

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Have we forgotten?

Jun 21st, 2009 by ethicalimpact

Listening to NPR this afternoon and a wonderful song about a deaf mother, a blind guitar playing father, a sister who played the tambourine. The singer sang of sleeping along the road, of never going hungry, of the love his mother and father had for each other and the richness of their marriage.

Today’s music is self-focused, full of angst and loss; the struggle to find one’s self or rage at what others are doing. Have we forgotten life?

Would people celebrate the union of a deaf woman and a blind man or would they shake their heads? Which life is richer, the life of song or a protected life in the Social Service system as foster children?

What stories are we telling now? They are stories of riches; gotten and lost, but the only riches we acknowledge as being worthwhile are those connected with money, but real wealth is ignored.

I am hopeful that this financial crisis as it unfolds will get back to reality. Bankers are sacrificing others in the shallow hope that some how in doing so they will not lose money and creating lose, lose situations for everyone in the process. I’ve heard stories where some banks are working to keep people in their homes by renting them back and this is certainly better than making people homeless and creating empty property that no one is really responsible for and that becomes both an eyesore and a safety hazard, but it’s not enough.

Ethics are really about relationships. To be sustainable all the relationships need to be sustained. In the economic crisis we have: worker/employer, lender/borrower, resident/city, supplier/organization, city/resident, child/family, family/school system, school system/city all involved. The focus has been on the LENDER. That is not sustainable!
campfire

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Being Green?

Jun 10th, 2009 by ethicalimpact

How invested are you and your business in “being green?” What does that mean to you and how do you think it contributes to your business success? I’m very interested in hearing what you have to say about this as we move forward into a more sustainable world - or not. do you think that it is important that business make this shift? If so why, if not why not.

If you have made the commitment to ‘be green’ what actions have you / are you taking? Have you found it an easy process or difficult? Have you formed a philosophy about ‘green’ that you can easily talk about and that helps you and any employees focus and make decisions with?

I’d love it if you’d share your journey!!!

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  • [polldaddy poll=1672234]I’m an optimist and I think that most folks who are claiming ‘green’ but really aren’t do so out of ignorance. Many think of ‘green’ as energy conservation, recycled packaging or organic. Certainly it is all of these and much, much more. The entire point of sustainability is that we want to live on this planet FOREVER. To do that we need to live in harmony with it and live so that ALL of our actions enhance the ability of ALL life to live. We are a long way from that! Most people do not know much about nature or how ecologies work. Traped in the old belief systems of separation, they do not get that everything is interconnected. More importantly they do not understand the implications of what this statement means. Because of that changes in behavior are irratic and even innappropriate. Systems thinking is a key skill in understanding interconnectedness. Many people think in linear and step-by-step fashion so thinking of wholes and interrelationships is difficult. We’ve been trained for hundreds of years (since Newton) to think of the world as a collecttion of parts, so we’ve felt fine about tinkering with the various parts in any way we wished. thinking this way also allowed us to do what we wanted without thinking of consequences. Unfortunately, not thinking about consequences does not mean they are not there, and today we have the proof of that! I believe that the success of our journey through this crisis will only happen if we, as a species, make the leap into connectedness and begin seeing the world as interconnected as us as an important part of that interconnection. We are the only part that is required to take conscious responsibility. David Korten, in his book, The Great Turning talks about this as the mautrity of the human species. When you love someone or some thing, you protect it and prevent it from being hurt. It is time for us to take that position about the Earth. Being ‘green’ is a heart space decision, not a monetary one. Coming form the heart the business intent is to ‘do no harm’ and be willing to make the changes in business practice that will support this intent. When the focus is on making money from this new market, then the depth and implications of sustainability are lost and not addresses, or are unknown. It is to be expected that people will try to take advantage of the new opportunity, some for good reasons and without much understanding, and others for more selfish reasons. That requires us to be vigilent and make sure that we put our money where our hearts are and exercise due process in all of our purchases. It also means that those with heart, but limited understanding need to take action to educate themselves and then others on what being green means as a path to true sustainability.

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  • For me one of the great struggles is to discern the real from the want’a be. Many try for authenticity, but few actually seem to have it. My recent Enlightened Business radio show on Brands and Sustainability was addressing this issue from the perspective of marketing “green” businesses. Companies trying to get on the bandwagon muddy the waters with their claims. They use language that is misunderstood by consumers as suggesting ‘green’ and ‘natural’ and even ‘local’ when they are really no such thing. Multi-Nationals are trying to argue that they are ‘in the neighborhood’ so buying from them reduces carbon and makes them ‘local.’ Such tactics put a lot of responsibility on the consumer. There needs to pushback from consumers who are outraged by this flagrant undermining of reality.

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