Business Paradigm Shift
We can transform the business paradigm in which many people
are imprisoned at work in such a way that people find their
working experience 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
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. The recent dramatic events in the financial system, and their far-reaching effects, have cast a different light on some of the assumptions about profut and ethics. If you have been affected by this, tough as it may be, you have the opportunity to re-think your goals and what you truly want from life.