book review
By Alyson Nyiri, CHRL
CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM FIELD GUIDE: TOOLS FOR TRANSFORMING YOUR ORGANIZATION
BY RAJ SISODIA, TIMOTHY HENRY, THOMAS ECKSCHMIDT
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW PRESS, 2018
Judging from the bizarre and never-ending fake news com-ing
out of Trump’s America, capitalism in that country
never bothered to read Conscious Capitalism Field Guide
by leadership expert Raj Sisodia, and Timothy Henry and
Thomas Eckschmidt. Clearly, implementing principals of higher
purpose and conscious business throughout their organizations is
more than just optional. We might even say the same for some
business titans in our country too because really, how many com-panies
have you worked for that adopted, never mind acted on,
their commitment(s) to higher purpose, stakeholder orientation,
conscious leadership and conscious culture?
But all snark aside, conscious capitalism is about more than
making a profit and has taken root in many businesses, here and
abroad. It is an approach to business built on the belief that peo-ple
aspire to more, seeking fulfillment through work that offers
meaning and purpose. It “places the flourishing of human beings
at the center of business enterprise.” If you’ve been keeping pace
with the latest business lore, even a little bit, you no doubt know
that today’s competitive advantage lies in the human capabilities,
culture and operating model of an organization. That’s why you’re
in HR.
Acceleration centres, incubation and innovation hubs are
popping up in every community, with hundreds of young entre-preneurs
and social entrepreneurs starting up businesses with
the goal of solving local and international challenges; making the
world a better place and elevating humanity. If you find your-self
trapped at your desk mired in HR metrics, go visit your local
innovation or community hub to meet some of these new business
leaders. It’ll be refreshing.
While you’re out meeting these new business pioneers, ask them
for their thoughts on building a conscious culture. You might be
surprised to hear them talk about how they are building a long-term
caring culture leading to sustained superior performance. In
this book, you’ll want to zero in on the “Evolving and Deepening
Your Culture” chapter. Here you can see how rewards, recognition
and performance are managed in conscious capitalist companies:
“how” rather than the “what” matters more.
Field Guides are a great way for leaders and HR departments in
for-profit, B Corps, non-profits and social enterprises to amplify
and implement new operating models. Conscious Capitalism Field
Guide helps you build support in your organization from all levels,
including your stakeholders. You’ll also find stories and com-ments
from interviews with business leaders such as Jay Coen
Gilbert, cofounder of B Lab and the B Corp movement. B Corps
– or benefit corporations – are corporate legal structures that
embed a stakeholder orientation into their legal charter. They
are obligated to meet higher standards of public transparency
by publishing an assessment of the company’s overall social and
environmental performance.
The Field Guide takes you through the four tenets of conscious
capitalism: higher purpose, stakeholder orientation, conscious
culture and conscious leadership. Subsequent chapters in each
part offer exercises, assessments and other tools such as sug-gestions
on how you can dive deeper into specific aspects of
your business. n
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