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.

Tim Sanders states, “this revolution will be more influential than the quality revolution of the 1970’s or the Internet revolution of the 1990’s.”  This revolution is huge and it is the new way of doing business.

There is simply no way you can read Tim’s book and not understand that there is a new way of doing business.  Tim takes examples, stats, and history and lays it all out in such a simple way that you know if you are not a part of this revolution, then you will not be a part of business.  Tim says,  “Companies that focus solely on profits are out of sync with the times.”  We are now in a new era.

This revolution is happening because customers are demanding more from the companies they buy from and support.  Tim states, “Today 65 percent of Americans are willing to switch to a brand associated with a good cause if price and quality are relatively equal.  And 66 percent participate in at least one social cause-generated boycott each year.”  It won’t be too long before each customer and client will have a choice, to support a socially conscious business, or a profit-greedy machine.

This revolution is also happening because employees want more from life, and they want more from their employers.  Stats show that personal fulfillment is becoming more and more important than money.  This is true with the older generation who want to leave a legacy, and a new generation, who is more concerned about helping others, than their personal net worth.

Culture for Change not only helps you become socially conscious, in helps you integrate and live socially conscious values in your work place.  This brings purpose to your employees’ jobs and meaning to their work.  Their personal fulfillment increases, as they become a part of a group that is dedicated to giving back to the world.

Below you can open and download a question and answer document with author Tim Sanders, where he talks more about the Responsibility Revolution and his new book.

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.

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.

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” - Mohandas Gandhi

“To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’ own.” - Abraham Lincoln

Service is such a win-win scenario. It is such a blessing to those who are receiving service and to those giving of themselves as well. In fact, it’s actually very difficult to say who is serving whom and who is benefiting more.

I have had times in my life where I have made myself sick because of my stress level. I have also been depressed, lost, confused and probably felt every other emotion that leaves you a in state of feeling completely helpless. In the moments that I have stepped outside myself and focused my concerns outwardly towards others, the stress and depression has been lifted.

I have been blessed by the amazing joy and satisfaction that comes from serving. Even in times of personal turmoil and despair, I have felt complete joy because of the blessing of serving others.

- Jeremiah Forest

After a few interviews I was hired. I was excited for an opportunity to work in what I thought would be a great environment. However, it wasn’t. I was given a cubicle in the basement of the resort. This basement was where the majority of the people worked. There were no windows. I could have been working in an underground bunker for all I knew. There was some office space with windows and views of the canyon, but not for my department. (Which made things even worse.)

Four or Five siblings inherited the ski resort from their late father. I remember all the talk about how the kids argued between each other and money was the biggest issue between them all. (I think I was actually told this in my initial orientation with my superior.) That was my environment. I worked in a bunker for some rivaling siblings.

The most interesting thing to me, looking back, was that it really hurt my performance. I didn’t like where I worked and I performed poorly. The work environment could of been a lot different and that would of helped the performance of everyone.

I excelled in my previous jobs and my following jobs, but the work environment that was not a positive environment was where I failed as an employee.

A culture is so huge for performance. If you see people that are not excelling in their job, maybe the first question should be what is their work environment and is it geared towards allowing employees to excel.

At this ski resort, if the owners would of shown how they care about their employees and cared about giving back to the world, instead of fighting over the millions of profits, it would have been a completely different place to work. You never know, maybe I would still be working there.

With all of that said, we now have more than ever the power to change all of this. We are blessed with the technology, the knowledge and the capabilities to end all of this. We can end the damage we are doing to our environment and we can make drastic movements to ending world poverty and world hunger.

In order to do so, it will take the effort of all of us. Everyone will have their own responsibility in it, especially companies and corporations. In the past the corporate model has been designed to focus strictly on profit. Their bottom line has been the most important thing and they have focused on that. In many instances, this commitment to the bottom line has been a contributor to the problems we are facing today.

We have already seen a tremendous push towards social giving by major corporations and have been blessed by the example of some the wealthiest men and women in our nation. Over the next 20 years we will see even more of a push towards all companies to becoming more environmentally and socially conscious. Many have already changed and are changing. Most will adapt because they will see how important is will be for the company, for their culture and for the world.

Becoming a socially conscious company and Creating Culture for Change is not about signing a check and donating the money somewhere. It’s about being a Culture for Change. It lives inside your organization and lives within your people.

Creating a Culture for Change is a step into transforming your organization to adapt to what is happening and will be happening in this changing world. If the businesses and corporations of this great nation would adopt programs similar to these we could save millions of lives, educated 100 of millions of children, save the environment and change the world. It actual doesn’t take much. Small steps by lots of people and we are making a major difference.