Culture For Change

Bring True Purpose to Your Workplace
How is your company’s work culture right now? How are the attitudes of the employees? Are people content, happy, or excited? Do they love their jobs, or are there complaints and worry? Do the employees complain about management, co-workers, the economy, etc., etc.?

It is quite possible that your company’s culture is at risk. Employees are demoralized about their present situation, and concerned about their future

Historically, surveys have shown that over forty percent of employees are unsatisfied with their job and nearly half of all employees don’t care about the direction of the organization (other than keeping their job). These numbers may be a little different in the current state of our economy, as more and more people are losing jobs, but there is also more concern about the economy and what is happening.

This article is going to focus on two main points. We will discuss bringing true purpose into the work place and how this changes the culture of the company. Secondly, we will show how bringing true purpose to the workplace can also help alleviate the fears and concerns of the employees.

True Purpose
What is true purpose? In many businesses you won’t find a whole lot of true purpose in the workplace. Yes, you may serve your clients and do well for them, but depending on what you do, how much of this service has true purpose? And most importantly, do the employees of this company feel connected to this purpose such that their jobs, and their lives, are positively impacted by it.

Let’s face it, there is not a lot of purpose in answering phones, or grinding away in accounting. Most jobs are unsatisfying, and the natural tendency is to get bored and dissatisfied with your job.

But, what if? What if what you did on a daily basis made a major impact in the world. What if you where about building schools in Africa, or a part of child education around the world. What if you helped build water wells, or helped with the problems of child slavery and child trafficking. Wouldn’t that make a difference in your job? Wouldn’t that give you a new sense of purpose?

This new wave of being socially conscious is allowing companies to do just that. You can bring more purpose into the work place by directly connecting your profits to a social cause around the world. You could be a dental office that help saves the rain forest in Brazil. The opportunities and the causes are endless.

A New Attitude
Once socially conscious principles have been integrated into the workplace the overall attitude of the company begins to change. As employees start to understand the problems of another, and give service, their perspective on life begins to change. As their perspective changes, they have more gratitude in their hearts and get more happiness from their place of employment.

This is a powerful philosophy to integrate into your company culture. To find out more on how you can transform your companies workplace you can contact us with any questions that you may have.

The heartbeat of a company is their people.  The health, mindset, and attitudes of the employees has a profound effect on the direction and performance of a company.  During struggling economic times, the heartbeat of the company can be very fragile as the employees find themselves in tough financial situations.

Not only are many Americans going through difficult times, businesses are too.  This only compounds the issue as companies have little options, and little money to invest in their employees. This leaves businesses in need of answers, new innovations, and ways to help the culture of their company.

Poverty Consciousness

Slumping house prices, rising gas prices, and the overall situation of the nation’s economy, has a major part of America living with doubt and concern.  This doubt and concern leads to a state of poverty consciousness.  What is poverty consciousness?  It is a state of mind when one can only see the negativity around them.  They can see no solutions in a time when solutions are needed most.  It is not to say that the current economic situation isn’t real, it is just saying you won’t solve anything by focusing on the lack, or scarcity, of the situation.  Focusing on the problems only leads you on the downward spiral to nowhere.  However, if you can change your focus, you can begin to see solutions where others only see problems.

Many businesses find that their ship is being manned by hundreds of employees that are in this poverty consciousness.  They have many concerns about their life situation, and quite possibly their job security.  When the morale and focus of a companies’ environment is stuck in this mush, what chance does a company have to climb their way out?

A Solution

In a wave of the new social, and environmental, responsibility comes a solution to helping businesses create a work environment where their employees are inspired.  This next evolution of doing business brings purpose to people’s jobs, and a mindset of gratitude and abundance, verses the current state of fear, doubt and worry.

Becoming a socially conscious company will help lead employees out of state of fear and anxiety, and into a state of gratitude and abundance.  This comes through an evolution of steps:

First, as a company integrates socially conscious principles into their organization the employees begin to step outside themselves, their problems begin to dissipate as they learn of the suffering around the world.  Raising this awareness, and declaring the company’s intentions to make a difference, will bring purpose and inspiration to the work culture.

Secondly, as awareness is raised about the world’s concerns, people will soon step outside themselves and serve.  Service is a key to help alleviate so much of the suffering in the world, and it also helps alleviate any suffering to those who are lending a hand.  In fact, in service it is very difficult to truly see who is serving whom, because both parties receive so much benefit from doing so.

As people step outside their life situation to serve others in need, their life begins to change.  Their perspective on life begins to change.  They are left with a new sense of gratitude about their lives and their jobs.  And gratitude is simply one of the most powerful principles we can live.

Then employees will go from this third step of Gratitude and begin to see the Abundance that is all around them.  Gratitude is the doorway to Abundance.  When we are truly grateful for what we have, we now have the vision to see the abundance that lies ahead of us.  A company’s future is drastically altered when the employees of that company live in a state of gratitude, and see abundance all around them.

Creating a culture for change inside your organization will do wonders for your company.  Your employees will come together as a team.  Their views and opinions of upper management, and ownership, instantly change.  The overall mindset, and attitudes, of the employees are significantly improved.  This is the greatest step a company can take, especially in these tough economic times.  In doesn’t matter if you are part of a small firm of ten employees, or thousands, this is a revolutionary business practice that drastically improves your company’s future.

Not every business can be a social business, but every business can be a socially conscious business.

In his book, Creating a World Without Poverty, the Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus describes a social business in two ways:  The first is a company that focuses on providing social benefit and will forgo profit to maximize their social giving.  The second is a profit business that is essential owned by the poor.  These are two ways in which Mr. Yunus describes a social business and how they can benefit the poor.

Mr. Yunus also describes this as the “future for capitalism” and I agree with him.  I imagine if you ask random people in the street if they would rather support a typical corporation owned by the wealthy, or a similar business that is a social business that benefits the poor, the answer would be overwhelmingly one sided.  People are becoming more aware of whom they buy from and what they buy.   They want their products to be environmentally safe and you will see a similar push to support social businesses.

The future of business is social business.

I stated earlier, (and according to this definition) not every business can become a social business.  The majority of businesses are not owned by the poor and they don’t work directly with any social cause.  Here in the United States we have a large amount of small businesses across the nation that aren’t, and won’t become, social businesses.  However, there is an opportunity for businesses to become socially conscious, and it is so important to do so.

This is where adopting a Culture for Change philosophy can fit in so beautifully with any business.  Our philosophy will help you become socially conscious, and even though you are not a social business, you can be socially conscious.  This can be done with little investment and time, especially if you get involved in our Business Program.

The future of business is being green.  The future of business is being socially responsible.

THE BEING SIDE

Creating a Culture for Change will work inside of any organization. It doesn’t matter what type of business you are in, or what you do, it only matters who you are and who you are “being.” You may serve food, offer accounting or financial service, maybe you sell tires, or build airplane parts, it doesn’t matter. Any company can give back to the world and create a work environment where their employees love to work.

Inside every business there are two sides, the Doing Side and the Being Side. As an everyday example, in my relationship with my wife there exists this Doing Side and Being Side. Everyday I could wake up, provide breakfast in bed, clean the house, give back and foot rubs, bring home flowers after work and cook a marvelous candle lit dinner. There are so many things I could do, but if I am not doing these things with a spirit of love, fun, laughter, compassion, etc. it won’t work. I might as well be a robot, doing tasks around the house. In my relationship it is more important that I am being lovable, caring, kind, generous, etc. than what I am doing.

In business it works the same way. It’s important what you are doing and it’s important how you do those things. It shows up in your relationship to your clients and customers and it is also very apparent in the relationship between management and employees. I think a good example of doing vs. being is a story from Nordstrom. Nordstrom as we know sells clothes. That’s what they do. They are also an excellent example of customer service. There is a story of a sales associate who on a cold snowy day went and pulled up a customer’s car and had it waiting at the door all warmed up for the customer. (I imagine they don’t teach their employees to do valet parking on colds days). However, this associate was being a person of service. Service on the doing side is selling shoes in a professional and courtesy matter. Service on the being side, is walking out in the snow and pulling up the customer’s car.

You can do any type of business and you can be a socially conscious business. You can be a culture for change, a culture for peace, a culture that ends poverty and protects our world’s environment.

I really want to express my thanks and gratitude to Dan Meub of Building Champions. Dan is the COO and an Executive Coach for Building Champions. His coaching and business experience along with his overall philosophy has been instrumental in helping me build the Culture for Change company and in writing my book. Below I am sharing a simplified chart of Dan’s life and business philosophy. Dan describes every company as having a “Being” and a “Doing” side, and both sides emanate from a company’s Core Purpose. On the Doing Side, “what you do” is directed by strategies and actions that strengthen your Driving Force – the primary driver of your business results. On the Being Side, “who you being” as a company is driven by behaviors in the workplace that best reflect your company’s core values. On both sides, Dan works with his clients to establish Doing Side plans that direct what you do in the marketplace and Being Side plans that direct who you are being in the workplace or your emerging company culture. (To find out more about Building Champions and their services go to www.buildingchampions.com).
Our Culture for Change philosophy should be integrated into your company’s Being Side plan. Our consulting services and business programs will allow you to integrate this program into your company.

This simplified diagram shows the importance of building your core purpose, driving force, and core values and how that translates into smarter business plans and a healthier culture. Culture for Change is here to help you develop a much stronger Being Side foundation and to continue to build on it in a powerful way. The core purpose of our company is:

“We provide businesses with a foundation for a socially conscious environment where everyone loves to work and collectively we serve all of humanity and changed the world.”

Our goal is for you to easily integrate our system into your company without a lot of effort and money. To learn more about the Being Side and building a social conscious foundation for your Being Side plan, please check out our Business Programs. We also offer Business Consulting services to help you build and shape your Being Plan. For more info, please visit our Business Consulting page, or email us at consulting@cultureforchange.com.