How Shift Can Happen: Some Thoughts on Conscious Business.
By Sally Lever
The whole idea of running a business in a conscious way, by that I mean ethically, holistically and sustainably, can seem to many people like a complete contradiction in terms.
Back in the 1980s, I was an employee in a large multinational organisation and I completed a Diploma in Marketing with the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Although we did cover some business to business marketing, the focus was on “fast moving consumer goods” (FMCG) and how to make the general public want them and buy more.
This is still typical of the approach of many of the companies that supply our food for example. The idea is to identify a customer need, e.g. to feed themselves, and meet that need by encouraging the customer to have particular “wants” in response to that need. So, if a large supermarket chain is successful with its promotion activities, then when we feel hungry, our automatic response will be to think of visiting our nearest branch of that supermarket. Similarly with fast food outlets, when they promote themselves successfully, our hunger response will trigger a desire to go out and buy a takeaway.
This might be deemed successful business practice in traditional, profit-focussed terms, but it’s not ethical, holistic or sustainable for the business or its clients.
Having run several small businesses over the last 20 years, my experience has taught me a lot about myself and what kind of person I want to be in serving a particular customer base and also what it’s like to be a client of FMCG type companies versus smaller, sustainable companies with a more humane and environmentally responsible outlook.
There are a couple of obvious challenges for someone running a conscious business:
1. Doing work that you love in a world of climate change, dwindling oil supplies and economic crisis.
2. Turning crises into business and life opportunities.
Doing what you love in a crisis.
What is it about your business or your work that you love? For most of us there will be several different ways in which we can employ our skills, experience and knowledge in order to make money and support ourselves financially. How we actually choose to earn a living can tell us a great deal about what motivates us in life and what brings us fulfilment. For many of us who have been brought up in a culture with a strong work ethic, allowing ourselves to enjoy our work and follow our hearts in a business environment can be one of the toughest of challenges at the best of times.
In a time of crisis, be it personal, environmental or circumstantial, it can be very tempting to return to old patterns of “dong anything for the money” regardless of how we feel about it deep down. What I’ve noticed with coaching clients facing this situation is that it can be helpful to stop, ground ourselves and reflect by ask ourselves questions such as the following:
1. Why did we start our business initially? What client problems were we intending to solve? What is our business purpose?
2. What are the three most obvious signs that what we offer is top quality?
3. How does our business serve our needs, those of humanity and of the planet?
4. How else can we reduce our costs and consumption, reuse the resources we have, recycle what we no longer need?
5. How can we better promote all of the above and the benefits that clients and others involved in the business derive from them?
The answers we come up with can serve as badly needed reminders of the personal and business benefits of continuing to follow ethical, sustainable and holistic business practices.
Turning Crises into Opportunities.
Crises, by their very nature, have a tendency to force us to change our behaviour. Some of the downshifters that I work with are what I call forcibly downshifted i.e. they did not choose to downshift, but find themselves having to change direction in life or work following some kind of unforeseen circumstance such as redundancy, ill health or a relationship breakdown. What they often find is that, once they summon the courage to face their situation head on, a new set of possibilities start to become evident. The key to noticing those opportunities is to:
1. Give your personal physical and mental health top priority so that you’re in peak condition and ready to act.
2. Create head space, physical space and free time, otherwise you won’t see the opportunities, even when they’re right under your nose.
3. Simplify in whatever areas of your life that you can so that you have the reserves of energy you will need in order to…
4. …be ready to welcome new opportunities into your life.
Conclusion
To be consciously open to shift happening in a positive direction we need to:
Be ethical, holistic and sustainable in our approach.
Be willing to learn and develop in ways we might not even know about yet.
Stay grounded and courageous in facing our difficulties.
Be true to our purpose in work and business.
Sally Lever is a coach and writer specialising in working with those who are downshifting or otherwise moving towards a more sustainable way of living and of doing business. Subscribe to her free monthly newsletter, Fruitful, on her website.
This article was posted by Sally Lever
