Business paradigm shift

We can transform the business paradigm in which many people are imprisoned at work. Many people would like their working experience to be more rewarding and more productive, for themselves as well as for the organisation where they work.

Thinking about return to shareholders or meeting targets isn't very inspiring. In the end, people work for meaning rather than for profit: for users satisfied and a job well done rather than targets met. It can be soul-destroying to by driven by targets that are ony numerical or profit-based.

As we see more and more the results of short-term profit-driven business on people and on the environment, we can feel a kind of despair; it's hard to see how to challenge the "power" of the corporation. Taking small steps, noticing and challenging our own assumptions and patterns of thinking, noticing that "they" are human beings too, can give us back at least some self-respect. We increase our personal power to make a change in the way we think, and in other areas over which we have control. This has unexpected effects on the people around us.

• What needs to be different at work?
• Who has the power to make that difference?
• What matters to them?
• What is the first tiny safe step that you could make, that might begin to make a difference?

People like Paul Ormerod, Charles Hampden-Turner and Stephen Covey show us ways of reassessing our basic assumptions about business and the economic system. Reading their work can be helpful in making real sense of your own business paradigm. What do you want to achieve in your own life? What would you like to be proud of?