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I believe that the moment has arrived for American businesses to seek out and find a depth of oneness similar to that which our country is experiencing due to the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Personally, I feel that this unity must come from our ultimate love of and respect for each other as sparks of the divine. When it really hits home that we are all spiritually connected, and that our actions and energies work through those connections to affect all of life, then the stage will be set for the next phase of American leadership, industry, and prosperity. The customer revolution of recent years caused many businesses to reassess employee attitudes toward customers and opened up new ways to empower employees to meet customer needs. Along with cross-functional teamwork and a growing respect for diversity has come some level of awareness that the business is perceived as a whole by its customers, and should strive to work together as that whole. Taking this process of business enlightenment one step further, I believe that the profound negative impact of intra-corporate rivalries and bickering, narrow-minded mental models and stereotypes, and perceived limitations is just beginning to become visible. Stress research has proven that negative thoughts and feelings held by even one member of a team about another member profoundly weaken the entire team. As illustrated by Gregg Braden in his recent book, The Isaiah Effect, quantum physics and chaos theory reveal that our realities and our future can be chosen, and sustaining patterns of negativity and limitation at the crossroads of such a choice can lead to a catastrophic future. Yet correspondingly, the flip side is also true. We can choose a positive, abundant, and profoundly rich future if we approach it with a sincere belief and knowledge that this future already exists and is just waiting for our choice. I believe that if we are to collectively choose this kind of future in American business today, we must examine all of the areas of life that we influence, both within and outside corporate boundaries, personally and as an enterprise. I don’t think that business really has anything to do with making money; after all, only the government actually manufactures money. Instead, I believe that business has everything to do with meeting the needs of all it touches: those who work within the enterprise; those who buy its goods and services; and those impacted by how it conducts business, the talents and gifts it shares with those in need, and its prosperity. When a group of people joins forces and commits to truly meeting all of these needs, I believe that economic success must result. I believe that September 11 is showing us that our lives today have global implications, and we must be open to understanding and feeling the burdens and needs of people both around the corner and around the world. Greater sensitivity, greater respect, and greater compassion will provide the impetus companies need to inspire them to create products and services that work for all. With these new offerings, companies will be able to provide value for some without taking away value from or making life worse for others. Companies will also be able and will try to include others who in the past have suffered or been disenfranchised by a less caring approach to business. I think that models from nature can help us see how to achieve this kind of balancing act. According to R. Buckminster Fuller, "The triangle is the only flex-cornered polygon that holds its shape: ergo, it alone accounts for all structural shaping in the universe." The triangle is a natural mathematical figure that, in combination with other triangles, provides maximum efficiency with minimum structural effort. Starting with the tetrahedral shape formed by combining triangles, Fuller went on to design and build structures that proved to be much stronger than similar rectangular shapes in distributing stress.
By examining how these elements manifest in the artifacts that a business has created, one can seek out that balance. I like to see each plane of the tetrahedron as a fundamental dimension, analogous to the proverbial earth, air, fire, and water. The four planes combine to form the tetrahedral shape shown below, and these then combine to build ever more complex and dynamic structures. We can begin at the plane of the spirit, seeing how the mission, vision, values, and guiding principles of the business express the balance we are trying to achieve, and how these have been expressed in the business’s culture and the attitudes and goals of employees. Looking to the plane of ideas, we can examine how thoughts have shaped the business mindset as it has responded to market opportunities and needs with strategies, objectives, initiatives, plans, and processes. Are these still in balance and aligned with the business’s spirit? Entering the plane of actions, we can see how the business has placed its energies in fluid motion as it has established teams, partnerships, and projects and committed its resources and emotions into actions to achieve its ends. Are these actions still in balance and aligned with the business’s spirit and creative mind? Finally, we can look to the plane of tangible, practical results the business achieves by examining its financial strength and market share as well as how well it meets the needs of its customers, employees, and the communities it touches. Are these results still in balance and aligned with the business’s spirit, mind, and actions? Since businesses need both balance and sustainability, structures that can readily change without compromising fundamental principles are essential. I believe that it is necessary to examine all of these dimensions to enable businesses to both restore balance and alignment and find their own sustainable structures for the future. As a business ultimately creates its own reality, I believe that these structures and the changes needed to build and sustain them will arise naturally by tapping into the creative genius and sacred hearts of its people, and tempering these solely with balance. |
In a business analogy,
I like to think that the tetrahedron symbolizes how a business
can achieve balance and maintain it under stress. As shown in
the figure at right, I place its power to take action (e.g. its
human, financial, and technological resources) on the first vertex,
its sensitivity to and caring for the needs of its stakeholders
on the second, and its knowledge of how to apply those resources
to meet these needs on the third. The remaining vertex then becomes
how the business maintains open, integrated communication about
the other three so that it is able to wisely balance these and
achieve the most benefit for all, including its own employees,
shareholders and the greater community.