Business Can’t Succeed in a World That’s Failing

6 thoughts on “Business Can’t Succeed in a World That’s Failing”

  1. “It is working people who should control the work to be done”. What a call to arms! Are you going to be talking about this at Zurich?

    It is also working people who should control their own experience of work. I have always hoped that people would use the phenomenal democratising potential of social technologies to take responsibility for their own destinies.

    I am afraid to say that I think my enthusiasm of five years ago is being replaced by a more realistic assessment. Despite the explosion of interest in MOOCS (Massive Open Online Courses) I think people are using social technologies mainly for entertainment.

    I know you have written about the pain that many in Spain are currently suffering. As you probably know, I mention it enough, I come from a part of the world that experienced catastrophic economic decline early, with the collapse of shipbuilding along with all the ancillary engineering and steel making.

    The health effects of that decline go from generation to generation, and are still being mopped up.

    This is why I venerate the work of Professor Sir Michael Marmot. In this article, Health in an Unequal World (http://www.who.int/social_determinants/publications/health_in_an_unequal_world_marmott_lancet.pdf) he talks about empowerment (and disease causation) being socially embedded.

    Lack of control and autonomy (“leading the life one values”) are linked to disease; it is those lower down the pecking order who have increased risk of coronary heart disease.

    Marmot also says:

    “Taking social networks and support to the level of community leads to the ideas of social capital – the idea that some communities are marked out by cohesiveness and trust. The evidence supporting the links between the social capital of a community and health is suggestive.”

    He suggests that socially cohesive social networks encourage community action. I see these issues as being intimately linked to effective corporate social responsibility and the untapped potential of social technologies. Marmot ought to be required reading in every business school. He was recommended to me by a professor – his work is part of no syllabus that I have seen.

    1. Hi Anne-Marie! Oh, my goodness! That’s just some EXCELLENT input and feedback comments! Thanks ever so much and how very inspiring!!

      Yes, I will be talking about this very same topic in Zurich, in fact, it’s going to be the title I will be using for the presentation as well with a bunch of themes I will be covering: autonomy, co-ownership, co-responsibility, mutual trust, dual engagement, etc. etc. I will be sharing a draft of the presentation shortly, so that you can have a look into it… Would love your feedback, once I share it out there, Anne-Marie.

      Indeed, I, too, have noticed that same situation where the vast majority of end-users are taking social networking tools for personal, trivial, casual use, perhaps even as a escape from what happens at work, where they are demotivated, disengaged, overloaded, exploited, very badly paid for the skills they have and with very little inclination to go further up the ladder. Over here in Spain, it’s even more notorious, when you go and check out the Trending Topics, for instance, from Twitter, where the vast majority of the topics are TV related. And a strong sense of #lesigh goes through my spine when I see the huge potential of what these social technologies could help us achieve and how misused they are, once again.

      That’s why I am keeping up the fight. That’s why I’m planning on continuing with my blogging, and social networking participation to keep things moving along. I feel we have just invested far too much effort, energy and effort to just dedicate it to trivial, fun stuff, that, also good, it’s just not good enough!

      We need to aim higher, we need to level up the game and participate from that network mindset that, as a community, would help us shape up how we interact, both at work and outside work. The stuff from Marmot is a superb confirmation of the kind of work that lies ahead and why I still feel we are going through some exciting times altogether! Thanks much for pointing me to his work! I was not away of it and I think I may have missed out quite a bit! Time to catch up!!

      Stay tuned for the next blog post, Anne-Marie, because it’s going to talk about something similar to this one, but with a purpose on how we make things work together and how we, as a society, are reaching that point where we may be looking for a massive reboot of our potential, if we would want to survive plenty of the tough times that lie ahead. The example about health issues is a good one when social technologies could help us all advance, for instance, towards preventive health, looking after each other, like we used to go in the good old days when people were people and when people were value as such! We need to bring that back! 🙂

      Thanks again for the wonderfully inspirational feedback, Anne-Marie. Always much appreciated reading such boosts of mind-blowing thought leadership!

  2. “Participate from the network mindset” – yes! Although my enthusiasm of a couple of years ago is now a bit more realistic, my belief in the potential of these technologies is undiminished. Things obviously take time to change – so we carry on a conversation at a time.

    And it is you who inspire so many of us and encourage us to keep going. Thank you, Luis 🙂

    1. Hi Anne-Marie, awww, no worries. That inspiration is mutual and most of the reflections I keep sharing over here on these blog posts are a direct influence of the conversations we keep having here and there, one at a time, indeed! But still having a blast!

      Yes, there may well be the odd moment of weakness, but that’s fine. It helps us become stronger in our beliefs and modus operandi and eventually come back for more in full force! In fact, I have been having a few of those moments, lately, and then what I do to shake them off me, is to write away jotting down firm beliefs of why I got involved with “Living Social” in the first place many years ago. That excitement and passion for that huge potential is still very much there … In a great deal, thanks to you all of you! Keep it up, please! 🙂 hehe

      Thanks again, Anne Marie!

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