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Gratefulness in Business - 10/21/2007 3:29:59 PM   
Pat

 

Posts: 15
Joined: 7/10/2006
Status: offline
This thread is for people interested in the role that gratefulness can play in the sphere of business, which profoundly shapes our daily lives. Whether you are a business leader, employee, or consumer activist, you are encouraged to join in this vital discussion. This forum has no suggested agenda, beyond the observation that globalization and climate change are causing an unprecedented reexamination of both business practices and economic theory, giving us much to discuss.


< Message edited by Pat -- 10/23/2007 10:30:53 AM >
Post #: 1
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 10/22/2007 3:07:59 PM   
J1937

 

Posts: 846
Joined: 6/25/2007
From: Austria/Europe
Status: offline 		In response to your call for contributions to this Forum, Pat, let me tell you the story of my son. It might also be put on the "Today I feel gratitude challenged" thread, but as I consider it typical of today´s world of business, it also fits in here.
Martin is highly qualified, also very specialized, with a university degree in electrical engineering. He never found a job in his field after graduating, so he turned to IT. He left his first job as a programmer after 1 1/2 years due to blunt mobbing, found an even better one, though, immediately at a computer center (working for various banks). He loved his work and it was appreciated. After another 1 1/2 years, however, he was called to the office of the personnel manager, who he had never met before, who informed him of his dismissal due to staff reductions. The head of his department had not had the courage to even hint at his dismissal.
Hard as he has tried, he has not found another job, in spite of literally hundreds of applications. He is considered "over-qualified". He has been unemployed for four years now.
His story is typical of the situation in Europe;  I suppose it is not different in the U.S.A. To me, it goes to show that PROFIT is at the center of everything today; human beings and their fate do not count.
Why am I, as his mother, still grateful? I feel deep gratitude for his overcoming depression, for trying over and over again, and for his finding meaning in a lot of voluntary social work. We are lucky, of course, that there are just the two of us (I am widowed), so we do not starve. What about others, however, who are not so fortunate? And where will this development lead to?

Juliana
_______________________________________________________
"Speak Peace in a World of Conflict"
Post #: 2
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 10/23/2007 9:41:41 AM   
Pat

 

Posts: 15
Joined: 7/10/2006
Status: offline 		Dear Juliana,

Thank you for adding to this discussion Martin's story, which illustrates clearly and sadly what's lacking in much of the business world.  When i mentioned Martin's situation to my husband, who is also in IT (in the US), he said that in his opinion, gratefulness and business are almost like oil and water.  The profit motive of business -- in practice and in most people's belief -- seldom coincides with valuing employee's needs and gifts, an essential aspect of gratefulness.  It is not much different from the UK in most places in the US, especially in IT where outsourcing of jobs has become standard.  IT employees live in constant awareness that they might lose their jobs at any time.

By contrast, there are workplaces like Google renowned for the good care they take of employees.  Google offers gourmet food to employees for free at their Mountain View, California campus, according to Fortune Magazine, and wants people to have fun in addition to working well.  And there are innovators in the business world like Terry Pearce, author of the article on Gratefulness.org about appreciation in the workplace, whose focus is on educating businesses about employees as one of their most valuable resources. 

I would love to hear how people visiting this forum think that this kind of approach could become more widespread.  Meanwhile, Juliana, i hold in high regard your ability to find sources of gratefulness even amidst Martin's tremendous challenge, which is also your own.  You ask excellent questions, and i hope others will come upon this conversation and respond.

In Gratefulness,
Patricia
Post #: 3
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 10/23/2007 10:55:23 AM   
John Forman

 

Posts: 4
Joined: 10/23/2007
Status: offline 		Hi Juliana and Pat,
You do well, Juliana, to find gratitude in the midst of an event like your son's. The dynamics you point out are complex and we can easily be discouraged by what shows up in the media. Others might allow appearances to overwhelm them. The profit motive is not inherently a bad thing. I work with numerous companies trying to do well by their people, and it's not always the cast of characters that the media choose to portray as the "bad guys."

Two quick examples: I worked with a Microsoft director for a year or so to help her create a staff development program based on mutual respect, meeting people where they are and encouraging the change that they themselves desired. Higher profitability was directly linked to the group's awareness that the more money they made, the more money the Gates Foundation could bring to bear in eradicating malaria, improving education and making a positive difference in world economics. I am now working with another group who is headed in a very similar direction.

Contrast that with a group of community hospitals/clinics that I worked with a few years ago. They had found a unique way to serve a part of the community that tends to be overlooked or who are very difficult to work with. Their community has a sizeable population of non-English speaking indigents and people with a variety of mental health issues. Most of these people in other communities frequent the far more expensive emergency rooms because they can't afford to see a doctor for preventive care. (No British Health here!) We had found a way to rotate patient call so that these folks had a doctor assigned to them. The clinics assigned staff in ways that allowed them to serve the underserved and yet remain profitable. But when the interim medical director left, he was replaced by a hardened man who closed down the innovative staffing in favor of his one right way to do things. It was a disaster. Docs and nurses left in droves and the system has been in financial trouble ever since.

My point is this: Profit is the life-blood of most organizations. A solid mission is important, but without cash flow, organizations rarely get very far. The more important key, in my experience, is leadership's relationship to "profit." When they have a higher awareness of where it comes from and what it is for, and can adapt a stewardship role, they can aspire to contribute to making the world a better place, even in small ways.

For each of us, Juliana, I think the very first step is to maintain, as you have done, a sense of gratitude, hope and patience in the face of whatever reality we are confronted with. Thank you for your story.

all blessings,
-- j
Post #: 4
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 10/24/2007 8:21:48 AM   
elise_mcb

 

Posts: 1
Joined: 10/24/2007
Status: offline 		I am truly grateful that I have been able to build a business where I can be self-employed.  It's not huge and I'm not wealthy in terms of money.  I work with a lot of people, and I find that if I cultivate in myself an attitude of gratefulness and eagerness to be of service, people are drawn to that and my business grows.  It was through a chain of circumstances in my former work life that I became willing and ambitious enough to strike out on my own, and it has been rewarding beyond measure.  I've learned a lot about myself and about why I didn't fit well with a corporate structure.  Not everything I've learned about myself is positive, and I sometimes struggle with my productivity, but I try to apply an attitude of gratefulness to the learning opportunities that present themselves to me.  I feel lucky and blessed to find this way to work after 20 years of ups and downs in corporate America. 

_____________________________

Elise B
Post #: 5
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 10/24/2007 12:43:59 PM   
Tereza

 

Posts: 3
Joined: 10/24/2007
Status: offline 		With respect to John, I agree with Juliana that the for-profit paradigm is at the heart of why intelligent, hard-working people are unable to find a satisfying way to make a living. Farming is a good example. Only 2% of U.S. citizens are in agriculture, even though we all eat. When I thank God for my food, I picture God's hands as Mexican, and in danger of being deported, imprisoned, or misused in order to feed me. God has been deprived of a job in his home country, due to farm subsidies in the U.S., which sold corn under the cost of production until they drove small farmers out of business. Now that corn ethanol is in demand, of course, they can double the price.

Our free trade agreements allow foreign subsidiaries of U.S. corporations to violate labor and environmental standards, including violence to unions and activists, but import their products here without duty-tax. Unless we're willing to work under the same awful conditions, we can't compete. It's not that there's no work - our way of life requires tremendous amounts of labor - each of us, on average, consumes 4.3X our weight in other people's labor. Yet those our own labor serves are other consumers or corporations, not those whose labor serves us.

I've come to the conclusion that how you make a living matters little - what matters is using the money you made to change the choices for others. How we spend, give, and invest can change the world. For myself, I'm looking to gradually divest entirely from the for-profit economy. I think it's possible for us, as individuals, to bring the debt-economy down by paying off our mortgages and never allowing them, in perpetuity, to be owned by a bank again. We can buy CSA farm shares and fair trade products, and give to grassroots NGO's that build sustainability in other communities. We could even change the shareholder paradigm, and actively invest in production rather than passive profit.

This doesn't change the difficulties your son is dealing with, Juliana, and may not be relevant at all to Austria. But I don't think it's his failure to fit into the business world - the global economy is failing all of us. I only have to look at my Spam folder to see what we've been reduced to, in order to make a living. We can't change it for ourselves, only deal with it the best we can. But we can change it for others in different countries, and maybe it will come back and save us.
Post #: 6
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 10/24/2007 1:32:35 PM   
Solomon

 

Posts: 207
Joined: 6/9/2007
Status: offline 		If you want to put the power back in the hands of people in other countries, you could always lend money through Kiva.

_____________________________

Things I'm Grateful For - Updated Daily. Now updated to the new Mk II version.
Post #: 7
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 10/24/2007 6:33:32 PM   
Tereza

 

Posts: 3
Joined: 10/24/2007
Status: offline 		Hi, Solomon

Yes, Kiva, Finca, Grameen Bank, and other microloan programs are a good way to go. I also like Global Fund for Women, MADRE, and Ashoka, which do microgrants. There are wonderful partners available for loaning or donating money.

But I think that something deeper is broken than any of us can fix individually. For instance, I'm involved with a group trying to help Firestone rubber plantation workers in Liberia. Despite being beaten and tear gassed by police, they elected their first representative union. Firestone withheld all pay and food from the new leaders, but the workers gave them bags of rice and gathered $100 - from people who make $3.15/day to tap 1150 trees, a quota that requires children to work. Last week, two of them were arrested on charges of "terrorism," including a woman named Comfort. While in jail, her children were harrassed and threatened. The impoverished workers, again, raised their bail, and groups here are trying to raise a legal defense fund.

Why isn't this a scandal? I think because we're afraid - if we scratch the surface, will our whole way of life implode? What Firestone's doing is egregious, but not extreme. There are hundreds more stories like this, and no one to tell them to. It's the seamy underside of all the "good jobs" that our economy rides on the backs of those enslaved within their own countries. We didn't choose our life, and shouldn't feel guilty. But we should change it, out of gratitude to those who make our lives possible.
Post #: 8
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 10/25/2007 12:55:26 PM   
John Forman

 

Posts: 4
Joined: 10/23/2007
Status: offline 		Tereza,
This is a useful illustration of what I was alluding to about one's relationship to profitibility. What your story describes looks to me like a motivation toward power (as opposed to profit) by a group of people that clearly doesn't represent Firestone at its best. I absolutely agree with you that one of our moves needs to be learning to be grateful for our own circumstances.  I also believe that we also have to be careful not to demonize all of Firestone, all corporations or even the people in the story you shared with us. I don't exhonerate their behavior nor am I suggesting that you have gone that far. I'm hoping to offer all of us a bit of a challenge instead: think the harder, but more fruitful path, lies in seeing even these people in their wholeness, which includes their limitations as well as their strengths. 

Frequently, the kind of behavior you describe is motivated by a fear of shame. A practical part of the response (mostly out of our hands) is to insist on a rule of law that prohibits these kinds of practices, but that also provides productive channels for better practices. You touched on another strand worth exploring, Tereza, and that is the introduction of a collective sense of sense of shame (my phrasing) as a countermeasure to individual blame/shame. I think that there is a powerful signal in guilt that gets lost. Admittedly, guilt is too frequently used as a bludgeon. But as a first signal, it can help us to see our own failure to support cultural values and actions based on mutual respect. And it is our own behavior that we have the greatest influence over. It is our collective shame that we allow people to grow up into positions of authority without a sense of mutual respect for their fellow human being. Why, as you say, isn't this a scandal? Indeed... 

You point to that which is both broken and deeper...perhaps the only way for any of us to fix that is to get started in our own backyards in the relationships that we can influence more immediately.  I'm reminded again of one of my favorite Jerry Garcia quotes: "Somebody has just got to DO something. And it's incredibly pathetic that it has to be us!" ;)
-- j 
Post #: 9
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 10/25/2007 3:41:16 PM   
Tereza

 

Posts: 3
Joined: 10/24/2007
Status: offline 		Ah, John - we're having what Thich Nhat Hanh calls "a real dialogue" where both sides are willing to change. What a joy that is! We are, it seems, in full agreement on the fundamentals. I also believe that it's important not to demonize or "other" any of the people at Firestone. I've been reading Poems from Guantanamo and applying the same thinking there. We're each doing the best we can in our circumstances, whether we're the torturer or the tortured. Gandhi's best trick, I think, was to separate the person, who wants to do the right thing, from the role. He acted with equal compassion for the oppressor, to release them from the trap of their role.

Getting out of individual shame vs. blame is a good step, but I don't know if collective guilt is the answer. With my three daughters, I found that if one got hurt, compassion was the natural response. However, if another was implicated in the hurt, all I heard was why it wasn't her fault. Guilt blocked compassion, and insult was added to injury. I suspect that collective guilt and its partner, fear, is at the root of our national insecurity where the best defense is a good offense.

You mention gratitude for our circumstances, but how can we be grateful that someone else is suffering instead of us? That type of gratitude seems like it would only compound our guilt, and keep us from seeing the relationship between our acts and their suffering. If we forgave ourselves for our circumstances instead, I think we could break out of our guilt-paralysis. We're each born into the role we have the best ability to bring good out of. There's no pride or shame in it. There's just work to do!

I LOVE the Jerry Garcia quote.

Tereza
Post #: 10
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 10/25/2007 4:30:13 PM   
J1937

 

Posts: 846
Joined: 6/25/2007
From: Austria/Europe
Status: offline 		Thank you for all your contributions to this thread, Pat, Elise, Solomon, and especially for your dialogue, Tereza and John. (Real dialogue is so rare ---  it is one of my favorite topics. Riccardo Lombardi, S.J. said, "The new name of love is dialogue".). It gives me hope that you have picked up the ball I threw into the Forum, speaking up on some of the most important issues of our time. I cannot join in myself, as English is not my native tongue, nor am I competent in business or economics. Gratefulness and love are siblings, so let us keep the dialogue going!

Juliana
______________________________
"Speak Peace in a World of Conflict"
Post #: 11
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 10/26/2007 12:05:34 AM   
Imenuff

 

Posts: 810
Joined: 3/23/2007
Status: offline 		I have read the praises of Microsoft above
quote:

Higher profitability was directly linked to the group's awareness that the more money they made, the more money the Gates Foundation could bring to bear in eradicating malaria, improving education and making a positive difference in world economics.
What percentage of this "higher profitability" goes directly to the Gates Foundation and what percentage goes to the corporation's pocket and Bill Gates pocket?
September,2007
quote:

Microsoft was left reeling yesterday after a bruising defeat at the hands of European judges who upheld a record fine of over $700 million against the software giant for illegal business practices that violated antitrust law and
for abusing its dominant market position to crush competition.
I believe there was a similar suit against Microsoft in the U.S. several years ago which they also lost for the same reasons. Is this the kind of
quote:

positive difference in world economics
that will change the lives of the poor and disenfranchised? Is it totally unimportant how many are crushed in the pursuit of profit so long as a small portion is given to the poor? I believe Bill Gates is listed as one of the richest, if not the richest man in the world. How does his worth compare with the net worth of his foundation. If one is worth 56 billion dollars (1 billion is equal to 1,000 million), is it really tremendous generosity to give away 3 to 5 billion dollars??? How does this equate with a preferential option for the poor and disenfranchised????

_____________________________

Shalom(May you be at peace in Body, Mind,& Spirit)

I'menuff
Post #: 12
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 10/30/2007 5:08:11 PM   
Margaret

 

Posts: 35
Joined: 7/11/2006
Status: offline 		I am appreciating the stimulating discussions on this thread - thanks!

I think a lot about how gratefulness, sustainability and business are intertwined, and I hope that out of necessity we will begin to bolster our local economies and it will be beneficial for everyone!  One of my friends here in Ithaca, Jennifer Wilkins, is a Food Systems educator at Cornell and longtime proponent of locally grown foods and the major impact they have on individuals' and our planet's health.  She says "Local is the new organic."  Here is a wonderful organization that is supporting local business networks in their sustainable work, not only making their communities healthier, but becoming economically viable as well:

BALLE - Business Alliance for Local Living Economies.

Very encouraging...
Post #: 13
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 10/31/2007 1:29:35 PM   
J1937

 

Posts: 846
Joined: 6/25/2007
From: Austria/Europe
Status: offline 		Thank you for this truly encouraging message and the link to the website, Margaret! It is good to know that across the ocean similar initiatives are growing as in Europe.

Juliana
______________________________
"Speak Peace in a World of Conflict" 
Post #: 14
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 11/1/2007 7:52:33 AM   
Imenuff

 

Posts: 810
Joined: 3/23/2007
Status: offline 		Margaret, thank you for reminding us all that there is something we can do. In that same vein, the TV program NOW on PBS in the states tomorrow evening is doing a show on the "Buy Local" Movement. I, personally, will have to admit that I need to educate myself much more on this subject and on investing in those companies who do provide just working conditions and environmentally friendly business practices.

_____________________________

Shalom(May you be at peace in Body, Mind,& Spirit)

I'menuff
Post #: 15
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 11/16/2007 7:06:11 PM   
John Forman

 

Posts: 4
Joined: 10/23/2007
Status: offline 		Not sure what to do with this, I'menuff, I feel quite at a loss. You seem quite angry at Microsoft and Bill Gates' donation of $3 to 5 billion dollars. I don't give away $5 out of every $50 that I make, so I can't hold ill will against him and, lawsuits notwithstanding, I'm not persuaded that anyone, let alone poor people, are being "crushed." If they were, wouldn't introducing and valorizing a position of gratitude inside such an organization be a good thing? Do you also mean to equate gratitude with "preferential option for the poor and disenfranchised"? They do seem related in some important ways, but I find some distinctions as well. I am truly grateful for opportunities to be of some service to the poor and disenfranchised (especially those who are my neighbors), but I'm also quite grateful for the interdependent sets of values, skills and motivations that make a conversation like this one possible through networks of various technologies and webs of meaning-making. Am I misreading you?
Post #: 16
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 11/18/2007 1:00:44 PM   
Imenuff

 

Posts: 810
Joined: 3/23/2007
Status: offline 		John, thank you for responding. Differences of opinion are always valuable opportunities for growth. For now, allow me to respond to just part of your post.
1.
quote:

“You seem quite angry at Microsoft and Bill Gates'”
John, this is not just about Microsoft and Bill Gates, rather corporate America’s business practices. Are there any instances in life where anger is justifiable? (Is there anywhere in scripture where we read about Jesus’ anger with excessive monetary profiteering and greed)?
2.
quote:

“I don't give away $5 out of every $50 that I make, so I can't hold ill will against him.”
What I hear in this statement is a question with a hint of sarcasm—Do you [Betty] give 10% out of everything you make? If not, then who are you to comment on a 3-5 billion donation vs a 55 billion income? To answer what sounds like your implied question, John, YES, I do give at least that much and most times more. When one has experienced those times of “not knowing where the next meal is coming from,” or has had family members with medical conditions requiring thousands of dollars per month in prescriptions, one tends to give from one’s “poverty” rather than from excessive abundance, knowing full well what it feels like to be on that brink of disaster.
3.
quote:

“lawsuits notwithstanding, I'm not persuaded that anyone, let alone poor people, are being "crushed."
John, the United States’ highest paid CEOs for 2006 received an average pay of $36,400,938 with salaries ranging from $71,660,206 down to a “POVERTY LEVEL” of $24,801,531. Statistics for 2006 show that “The COEs of major American corporations made as much in ONE DAY as their average worker made in the ENTIRE YEAR.”

“Between 1990 and 2005, If the minimum wage had risen as fast as CEO pay, the lowest paid workers in the US would be earning $23.03 an hour today, not $5.15 an hour in 2005.” Yet many of these large corporations can no longer “afford” to pay health care insurance, provide adequate retirement benefits, etc for their employees. They are constantly seeking ways to outsource jobs overseas, many of which to third world countries, in order to pay even less than our current minimum wage.

The 20 highest paid executives of European Companies earn an average of $12,400,000. THIS IS ONE THIRD OF THE AVERAGE EXECUTIVE PAY IN THE U.S. If one were to subtract the European average CEO pay from the U.S. average CEO pay, there would be almost a $26,000,000 pay difference FOR EACH corporation. How much healthcare insurance, etc., could be bought at a particular company for $26,000,000? Could there possibly be something wrong with this picture??? Why is it that compensation equal to ten times the average employee is adequate for the CEO of Costco while the CEOs of other large U.S. corporations earn over 364 times the pay of the corporation's employees? When is enough enough? How many cars, houses, etc. can one actually use/need??
4.
quote:

“If they were (‘poor people being crushed’), wouldn't introducing and valorizing a position of gratitude inside such an organization be a good thing?”
My question remains—if this is truly introducing and valorizing a position of gratitude inside such an organization-what percentage of this increased productivity/profit goes directly to the foundation for the poor and what percentage goes to the corporation and CEO’s

John, please understand, I do not feel like I have all the answers. I do believe, however, that when we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.

What we are is God's gift to us. What we do with it is our gift to God.
NAMASTE!

_____________________________

Shalom(May you be at peace in Body, Mind,& Spirit)

I'menuff
Post #: 17
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 11/18/2007 4:25:03 PM   
buttington

 

Posts: 2151
Joined: 6/9/2007
From: UK
Status: offline
quote:

John, please understand, I do not feel like I have all the answers. I do believe, however, that when we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.

What we are is God's gift to us. What we do with it is our gift to God.


Betty, I'm anything but a business person, but I can't resist applauding you for this post.
Of course there are justifiable reasons for anger, and I wholeheartedly agree with yours here.

Love Jude

_____________________________

Love is the only way
Post #: 18
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 11/22/2007 8:08:15 PM   
Winter1

 

Posts: 1
Joined: 11/22/2007
Status: offline 		Ditto


Winter
Post #: 19
RE: Gratefulness in Business - 11/23/2007 8:02:48 AM   
Imenuff

 

Posts: 810
Joined: 3/23/2007
Status: offline 		Dear Winter,Welcome to the forum. We hope to see your posts often. I am really struck by your name, "Winter", a time when nature appears to be dormant but is rather replenishing and renewing itself for the vibrancy of spring. It also brings to mind a favorite song "Winter is Coming Home," and those many nights of serene stillness as moonlight reflected off fresh snow seems to set the night aglow in soft, simulated candle light. "Winter" is such a very special, contemplative and gifted season. Just reading your name provided a gentle reminder. Welcome!

_____________________________

Shalom(May you be at peace in Body, Mind,& Spirit)

I'menuff
Post #: 20
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