In today’s swift and severe world, where we all are beset by the daily insults of modern politics, media, and by the existential wars of everyday life, compassion and common sense are difficult to attend to. From the C-Suite to the folks make the factories hum, turbulence is before all of us, with terrible consequences to our social calm.
By insults, I mean the countless instances of witnessing the mistreatment of our fellow humans; anything from seeing loud people abuse their children while shopping in the local supermarket to news reports of the unchristian way that misguided Christians now exclude immigrants and other peoples of the world, in direct contradiction to religious teachings. By common sense, I mean an appreciation of our fundamental sense of friends, family, and the human condition.
Compassion is what really matters in life. Without this compassionate core, commonsense actions in society become more difficult to keep before all of us, especially living near capitals and their power centers. Our young become agitated if not anxious. The oscillating intensity of day-to-day politics distorts this common sense in adults and peers and fellow workers.
We need to fight a war of common sense and compassion to defeat such trends in our everyday.
COMMON SENSE REIGNS
The politics of hate and exclusion cannot last. That is what’s lasting in common sense.
The stern elephant of social change moves on implacably, carrying with it evolutions in technology, capital markets, investment trends, and our individual lives. Many in society now know that this new century needs something big: a rediscovery of the vital links between frugality and competition, between common sense and goodwill. When you visit the inner core of most world religions, you see the cultivation of five compelling and common principles to reshape human competitiveness from selfish to social.
I describe these principles as follows:
Trust is Currency: Building and maintaining trust is the foundation and high-octane fuel of organizations that matter and communities that thrive. In the global community today, we need to fight against whatever disrupts the delicate line of goodwill.
Learn from The Other: When someone fouls another before us, we need to call “time out”, breathe in more social air. We can, at times, help them get back their footing. This is the trust that matters, enabling us to rejuvenate then recover, then fight again for what’s good for our town. Honor the other is another way to think this thru.
Partnerships Over Isolation: In my forty-five years in global business, I found that the most profitable firms know that partnerships matter. They do not act in isolation of global markets, laws, and talent.
Innovation Thru Efficiency and Restraint: I learned from Ben Franklin’s work that to go from rags to riches requires a competitive frugality – a sense of restraint – with every paycheck, not just at the end of the tax year. Great nations, sovereign nations, practice this.
Storytelling as Strategy: Yes, all of this takes storytelling, like you see in the stories of Matthew, Luke and especially John. You saw this in the classics you read in school, from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin to the boom of memoirs from today’s numerous innovators. A rainbow of talent exists in the world to remind us of our basic common sense and humanity.
These are the competitive principles that sustain teams in uncertain times. The beating heart of this set of principles, and how it supports others with compassion and common sense, enriches our lives and of our families. For we know, deep down, that every heart has a job beating for that better society that matters.
Photo by notorious v1ruS on Unsplash
Bruce Piasecki is the founder and CEO the AHC Group since 1981. He is the author of books now being filmed in an upcoming PBS show about his life and works. Learn more at the videos at the top of www.brucepiasecki.com
