The pandemic has affected everyone sometimes in very different ways. Covid has picked winners and losers. For the life of me from a philosophical perspective, I can’t understand. Why do e-commerce websites deserve to prosper and why do restaurants deserve to not prosper? I have no idea. I get lots of nods of agreement when in conversation I suggest life today feels like a checkerboard with the pieces flipped in the air we have an idea where they will land when they come down or even if they will land on the board. Very unnerving. I do know we are all feeling the global trauma of these times. It is often opined it is good to live in interesting times, yet for many, these times may be too interesting.
My use of coherence in part references the quality of forming a unified whole. This in part refers to the collective energy we are all part of, sense and feel. Gaia, collective consciousness, the unified field you pick your chosen name of many.
I have read that 50% of folks are having a hard time sleeping I certainly am. Are you jittery, down, or anxious? On a call with my men’s group recently I was reporting on days occasionally irrationally filled with dread. A friend who I don’t think of as being overly sensitive reported the same thing, days of being overwhelmed for no obvious reason, and then the feeling was gone the next day. With not a shred of science or evidence, my personal belief is we collectively are slowly and very painfully collectively waking up. Coherence.
What to do? How to deal?
Telling the future with specificity is beyond me, yet I am certain of certain things that will hold us collectively in good stead. First developing a daily practice of one or preferable more of the ten practices that we have published on this blog that scientifically benefit us in many ways. Two ways I will focus on today are first when we get centered, we are more resilient. Boy, we all use more of that these days. Second, if our creativity is enhanced, we at least can solve some of our biggest business challenges.
Collaborative is in my company name it should be no surprise how deeply I believe the future of independent is collaborating with each other coopetition. Check out platform coopertivism. Imagine if Uber drivers owned the app and not Wall St. When groups of independent businesses band together either by same industry, similar geography, or other their opportunities for success grow exponentially.
Due to our unprecedented times, there are many unprecedented opportunities while the checker pieces remain in the air. There could well be a shake-up of historically who the winners are. Some examples are below.
$10 billion — The amount of funding the U.S. plans to hand out to help upstart companies gain access to capital in a bid to rev up business in disadvantaged communities and spur a broader economic recovery from the pandemic. There will be additional funds available in many states. The questions remain, who, how much and how those funds are put into play.
While my crystal ball is cloudy, of one thing, I am sure. Values matter. Customers are and will increasingly reward companies that work at solving humanity’s biggest challenges and along the way pay deep attention to environmental and social challenges and injustices. This is no fad, no trend, this is rapidly becoming a prerequisite to be in the game. In my opinion, in ten years companies that are not playing will be out of business and early adopters will be justly rewarded.
Combing both values and collaborations I do know when I participate in group Zoom calls with fellow B Corps the willingness to consider collaborations is very high.
I recently learned a new term. Moral trauma. This was used in relation to the great resignation. It refers to how many companies require their employees to commit acts they know not to be right. The term I prefer is the great realignment. So many companies think if they pay enough people will participate in immoral ways of conducting business. That used to work, these are different times. As stated above people are waking up. If your business model requires immoral behavior by employees that destroys the environment and commits social injustices, you are rightly doomed. Would you choose to hook your future with a company that forces employees to act in ways they find immoral? Would you hitch your wagon to a company that is against environmental and social justice?
As I have said upheaval = opportunities. To me, the biggest risk is in trying something big and different. Insanity is in doing the same ol thing.
When we are feeling centered, healthy, resilient, creative we are better able to tackle embracing bold new initiatives. Often strategy begins as an inner job. Yes, SWOT analyses and many other processes are vital to deciding the path forward. You need to have an initial idea to study. Many people will say its all about the hard work of tending of the garden. In my experience, it is the idea, the seed that without nothing happens is the vital component. Does an environment that accepts moral hazard sound like the kind of place that is open and supportive of creativity and innovation.
In conclusion, our communities are dependent on the local economy. Can your community depend on you? I was part of a group that 20 years ago spent a weekend in the Pocono’s on retreat brainstorming what became the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (Balle, now renamed Common Future). It was a deep recognition that communities thrive when they are supported by customers and there is a mutual understanding of a collaborative interdependence between businesses and the local marketplace of customers. This is coherence on an economic societal level. When we begin to realize the interconnectedness of everything, our behavior becomes more life-affirming.
Coherence, when our brains, heart, and gut are in synch we are in touch with everything. It is the one string we can pull that affects everything. This is how I can remain positive in the face of all the checkers being in the air.
By practicing meditation twice, a day I view it as the most important power I do for both my business and the world at large. My mindful daily walks during Covid are part of this. On the occasions when I do yoga and breathwork this supports my coherence. I hope you are getting the idea. Daily practice is the path to business success, healthier communities, and a thriving path for humanity.
Sometimes folks want from an advisor like me practical advice on how to advance something on their to-do list. That is all well and good. Yet I find most businesses and even most people haven’t thought deeply about why they do what they do. Therefore, I am a total evangelist for the deep clarity that comes from coherence. This is next-generation business thinking. Please consider reaching out for a discussion. Our work is at the intersection of coherence and the best practices of business strategy and leadership.