business – People First

After a few decades stumbling around the topic, two things became clear.
- You have to change the way business thinks if you want to change how it works.
- If businesses change how they work they can change how their audiences think.
John Caswell - over on linkedIN

I had to reply - of course, and I did, but it felt substantial enough to include here - flip though the first sentence was.

You might imagine that I won’t argue too much - except to say that businesses not only won’t think - they can’t. It’s the people in those businesses that do the thinking.

We then have to ask - if what needs to happen is so clear to so many people, (judging by everything that you read), then why doesn’t it change?

My friend (Daniel Szuc) in Hong Kong has observed that when at work people are essentially in the mode of sleepwalking … and related to that, see their roles defined in the organizational boxes - and rarely look outside that box … ‘not my job’.

One question …. “if not you … if not now … if not ….” you know how it goes.

Seperately Venkatesh Rao developed a simple model a while back where he mapped the 4 forces of nature to his own 4 forces of humanity, drawing comparison between the relative strengths and reach of each force. He mapped business to gravity.

I take it a step further - unlike the 4 natural forces - the 4 forces of humanity are not givens. It is in our power to change any of them.

Gravity is a given. Business is not.