Change minds, then labour

A Business Day headline of 29^th May 2003 read: ‘Government finds 1% rise in black managers unacceptable.’ So it should. So should we all. It’s a disgrace and an indictment of white-dominated business’ clear lack of commitment to transformation. We’re all big on suggesting that government take criticism ‘on the chin.’ It’s time for us to do the same. The good news is that there’s plenty we as individual business people can do about it.

Fast-tracking young black execs to acceptable performance norms may not be easy. We could blame apartheid and the dreadful ‘Bantu’ education system, white apathy, black entitlement apathy and a host of others reasons. They might all share culpability. But the time for analysis and looking for excuses is over.

I and a good number of associates devote several precious hours a week to helping aspirant young black business people. It can be a deeply frustrating exercise. You set up appointments with a big hitter to scrutinise their business plan and two days before the meeting, the business plan hasn’t been produced. When it finally surfaces, it’s a pastiche of cobbled together business book sections, bearing absolutely no relationship to the real world. One of the most common flaws is that huge amounts of time and quantities of paper are devoted to complex structures for the business. Some young guys wanted to demote ‘board members’ before they’d even registered their company - and asked me to play hit man in the process!

The hard business information required for someone to make a decision about helping, getting involved, or investing, is often glossed over in a few lines. I arranged for a book on naming of companies to be donated to a particular duet. They never collected it. They also didn’t bother to phone a contact that the wonderfully helpful International Marketing Council had set up for them. But I’m committed (as are my associates) to not cynically tarring with the same brush, the next bright-eyed young things who ask for help.

We can and should all be doing something about this. A wise business peer of mine plays the role of tough cop in his mentoring processes. He deadlines the kids against specific objectives and gives them exactly the same kind of hell he gives his own son, when they don’t deliver as agreed. The youngsters doing these things are not doing them intentionally. Their contrition when they realise they’ve been screwing up or offending, is enough to make you feel guilty about raising an issue. So the willingness is there. What’s missing is the understanding of what’s expected, required and needed.

We can all do something about this. If each business person in this country takes indirect, even if not hands-on, responsibility, for the growth and development of one young entrepreneur or business wunderkind-in-waiting, we’ll generate a positive revolution. The fruits in terms of job creation and efficiency enhancement will be phenomenal. But it means setting aside time and energy, or squeezing an allocation from already demanding projects, in order to do something.

Here’s what I find: If you devote just a half hour a day to making some small difference, you really can. Don’t accept upward delegation or cop outs. Send back the garbled proposals and the woolly prospectuses - peppered with helpful comments. Make the originator work and rework them with your guidance, so they become a valuable learning curve. Next time, those bits at least, will not have to be revisited.

I’m deeply mindful that many of the young people just don’t have the infrastructural resources to do the simple things we take for granted in business every day. Scanning or faxing can mean walking to a Hillbrow or local township bureau. Having a Hotmail internet address means they can’t send or receive attachments, or large file sizes. Maybe Microsoft could look at an empowerment data-size allocation to overcome this Hotmail limitation? Mobile phones run down expensive pre-paid airtime very quickly. Maybe Vodacom, MTN and Cell C could look at preferential ‘wannabe business person’ pre paid call rates?

When we change the minds of business people in South Africa, we’ll start changing the equity balance and the efficiency dynamics of our labour resources. Each and every one of us must take personal responsibility for doing something – however small – on a daily basis. Otherwise it will indeed, as Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana says, “At this rate, take 100 years to transform the SA workplace.” You and I can prevent that from happening.

The Fourth wave in business

Outgoing American Ambassador to South Africa, James Joseph, said: “People who strive to live morally are now insisting that their institutions and leaders do the same.” International Corporate Governance guru, Bob Garratt, is quoted as saying, “In an increasingly litigious environment internationally, your honesty rating will follow you like a personal credit rating.” It’s a pity that the fear of litigation has to be a driver for honest behaviour. But following the scandals surrounding Enron, Worldcom, and locally, Saambou, Regal Treasury Bank, Unifer and now PSG, one is inclined to ask, ‘Who’s next?’ People are suffering from what I call ‘fraud fatigue.’ We’re all heartily sick of seeing elderly people’s life savings evaporate and droves of people refreshing CV’s because some greedy sods have ‘done it again.’

Enter the alien concept of moral and ethical living and behaviour in the corporate world. What I would call ‘Spirituality in Business.’ Zilch to do with religiosity, but everything to do with respecting other people and their interests. I believe that the ‘new era’ corporate perception organogram will have Spirituality at the top. On the next tier down, in descending order of precedence, will be Corporate Image, Client Service and then only Technical Competence. Corporations will wake up to the fact that they’re not ‘things.’ They’re vibrant, living entities, comprising, surprise - people!

Spiritual Intelligence or Spiritual Awareness in business is a concept whose time has come. Twice in the last few weeks I’ve given talks on the subject, to audiences comprising pragmatic, competitive business people. Just five years ago, this would have been unthinkable and would undoubtedly have been unworkable. Yet now, through the vision of Debby Edelstein and her QualityLife Company, and others like her, we see likeminded business people from all walks of life, coming together to look for something beyond just making money in business.

Corporations around the world already know that potential or actual shareholders want a healthy triple bottom line. Good fiscal performance, a corporate social investment program that works and environmental sensitivity. Enter then, the ‘Fourth Wave’ – of Spiritual Intelligence. Stakeholders will want to know that the organization functions morally and ethically. That it has a conscience. That it is founded on a set of strong, non-negotiable values. That they function, as David Ogilvy said, like, ‘gentlemen (or women!) with brains.’ Which was the kind of client he sought for his advertising agencies.

How would you recognise Spiritual Intelligence in corporate or elsewhere? Here are some of my thoughts: The Spiritually Aware individual will often be nonconformist or idiosyncratic. Their concept of what constitutes truth, fair play or justice will feature prominently in their relationships. They will often, by default, make those who are ‘economical’ with truthfulness and integrity, feel uncomfortable. They raise the moral and ethical bar through their very presence. Yet they’re not necessarily members of the clergy, missionaries, social workers, volunteers and the like. Indeed, they may never have been in a mosque, temple, shul, church or shrine in their lives, or followed any traditional or formal religious path.

OK, if that’s the people, then how would I define Spiritual Intelligence itself? Here’s how: Spiritual Awareness is not necessarily religious, or even dependent upon religion as its foundation. It can be defined against or observed through some telling criteria such as: a sense of purposefulness, truthfulness, compassion, respect for all levels of consciousness, constructive empathy, a sense of being a player in a greater whole, generosity of spirit and action, a sense of being ‘in tune’ or ‘in synch’ with nature and the universe, and being comfortable with being alone, without being lonely.

Out of all of this, what would be the organizational ‘symptomology’ of Spiritual Intelligence? Here it is: People with a sense of relevance and purpose in life. A better work ethic. Greater respect for diversity. Lower stress levels. Less ego, conflict and gossip. Less inappropriate (destructive) competitiveness. Better mentoring, nurturing and supportiveness. Lower levels of fraud and theft. A better social investment ethic. Better respect for and conservation of, resources. Lower levels of sexual or other impropriety. As I joke, the only downside to all of this, is the risk of premature sainthood!

There’s a simple, proven sequence to personal or organizational behaviour. Thought becomes Action. Action becomes habit. Habit becomes Character – and the ‘Character’ of the organization is what will be seen just before the pinnacle of the corporate organogram. No amount of spindoctoring or PR effort will have a sustained impact on public perception when an organization is intrinsically spiritually unintelligent. Think about it.