Republished from Juan’s – Business with Common Sense

by Juan Villamayor

@juanvillamayor41

14/02/2012 at 13:45 Leave a comment

Poster “Don’t stop, come to the Raval”

The recession is hitting Spain very hard. We are reaching an unemployment rate of almost 25% and many small business have to close.

However, there is room for good news and hope too. In Barcelona, several bars and shops located in the district of Raval have started a very nice initiative to offer products and services to unemployed people at lower prices ,with discounts of up to 50%. This initiative takes place on Tuesdays, a traditionally quiet, slow day for business.

These small bars and shops are showing social engagement and, at the same time, they have found a new business opportunity. They are not only attracting customers on a slow day like Tuesdays, they are also revitalizing the neighborhood with their promotion: the street is also more visited the rest of the week. At the end of the day, everybody benefits from it: the businesses, the unemployed people and the neighborhood.

This is a very good example of how SMEs can benefit from CSR in terms of the generation of new business opportunities. Pure shared value creation. Business With Common Sense.

One of the bars offering the promotion

This 3 part series looks at 3 perspectives of the cost to people in the manufacturing of Apple Products

• Accountability for What? Constructing the 3rd Pillar – Social Sustainability

• Steve and Laurene Powell Job’ Legacy

• Defining the Future Inquiry

By Lavinia Weissman

@wecarehealth54545454545454

New York, New York

Community Solutions

“Is there some mystical reason why an innocent person becomes the target of evil? Of course not. People who talk about the karma of victims as if some hidden fact is bringing down the rain of destruction are speaking from ignorance.”

Deepak Chopra

Steve Jobs, in his life-time, had personally mastered the vision of living a life of life-long learning. He translated his vision into the design and manufacturing of products that can be adopted as the most power enablers to make this possible.

By large, as a society of people of any means, we cannot move beyond ignorance if we cloister ourselves from the world of learning. Jobs constructed a vision of the ICloud so that from anyplace, anytime with any device people can synch and learn to solve the problems they face everyday at home and for what they do for work.

Recently,  Sustainability, CSR and Accountability experts have focused on the cost to humans of how Apple products are manufactured; it is an interesting direction in my mind to see that the Jobs technical legacy has constructed a technical platform that is so critical to creating a framework for the human interaction that can embed social sustainability in society and culture today.

This platform enables the publication and production of media that works in a cloud where individuals can shape their personal learning by vocation or the way they live to take that learning and solve problems with others that can be formed into community solutions of any kind. Laurene Powell Jobs, during her husbands final days, guided him to find the peace that he had not found inside himself and with others before his death by supporting him to articulate this vision.

Walter Isaacson, Job’s biographer, provided a most complete story capture of conversations with  President Obama, Bill Gates (Philanthropist), and the technical leaders of Silicon Valley global companies, in just a few conversations that could create a picture of this vision for these leaders to act on, if they chose.

The story that  Isaacson  offers  is fundamental in my mind  to launching a new thought leadership in practice. I see this story line as part of a briefing for launching a learning  community that focused on creating the educational framework from which people can build a system of response to heal poverty and economy of debt and lack, I don’t see how we will create the system by which to full benefit of the power of this technical platform.

Basic to forming this kind of learning community, the convening team that sorts out the launch, the invitation and to convene the community needs to an  economy model and hub to support its formation and translation into local scale that mentors the participants into a form of knowledge and emotional intelligence that can translate vision into action and lasting form.

This community can become a forum or hub that represents and attracts the attention of leading educators that I have written about that include John Sexton, President of NYU and Freeman Hrabowski, President of UMBC. Sexton and Hrabowski are calling for the formation of a new educational format where portals of learning provide the architecture to the students all around the world to solve problems drawing from the best of humanities, science and technology that inspires a new experience of thought and engagement for anyone who joins in this form of learning that is sustainable.

How does this fit with Jobs Vision?

In Jobs final days of conversation with his biographer, Walter Isaacson, Jobs noted that Apple was a great company like HP, Intel, and Disney, because it was built to matter and live beyond simply a purpose of the founders developing an IPO to go public so the founders can leave and cash in. The literature shows that HP, Intel, Disney and Apple have lasted out and emerged from failure out of learning and a commitment to make a difference.

Jobs went on to say that when these companies get off course, that is the real cost.   Inn my opinion the cost to humans  associated with these companies. This is about a from of  sustainability that respects profit and people in balance.

At present, the complexity of engagement and the state of the world economically and the perpetuation of poverty, building companies to last in this way is not sufficient to insure a health global economy for people, planet and profit. In a consumptive society, the production of products, organization of services and innovation are often developed with a regard for building the most attractive product features and benefits.

Jobs talent for doing this in a very Zen like manner resulted in meeting the needs of talent beginning with the graphic design community with the launch of the Mac and reshaping and defining a “Mac Lifestyle” by 2004, that had the Apple products represent and associate with a lifestyle of promise rather, distinguishing Mac from Windows based products that have been tools of productivity.

Facebook and Linkedin.com have entered the global market affording a market of communication that is accessible to millions of people for free, supported by the sale of apps and advertising. However, these global gathering social media complexes do not have the substantive architecture that is basic to reshaping local economies of people where the needs of the people in local community are put ahead first so they can move beyond poverty and learn within their communities to sustain.

Talking on a platform does not provide the financial resources that insure the health and success of these projects to sustain.

I believe the forthcoming generation of learning and inquiry has to expand beyond the view of business as usual from a community and local economy perspective beyond the limitations of institutional views.

Who Belongs in this Inquiry?

In the tradition of view of economic development projects have always been like Microsoft organized as a fragmented vertial channel to solve a problem, e.g. foster more innovation to create more jobs; bringing costly pharmaceutical treatment to 3rd world countries. The problem identified to solve is in some regard a task.

• The first step is to invite local communities to join in regions where there are problems associated with global companies that foster human injustice, e.g. Shell Oil in Nigeria, BP Gulf Oil Spill, Apple Human Costs to Manufacturing in China;
• Begin by convening and analyzing the most basic needs of people impacted by this harm and providing them a stable infrastructure from which they can learn , work and live is a new form of inquiry that will begin to create a new form of mastery of quality of life for people in the locales through which they live and work;
• This implies participation from the companies and governments in these locales where other distinct problems can be solved like the lack of industry or any sustainable economy, similar to what has been shaped for Rancho Petacal in Mexico by Roberto Vargas Marciel, Maher Ashram in Pune, India by Sister Lucy or the Honey Bee Network led by Anil Gupta, the first Pew Research Fellow;
• Critical to the success of these projects, funding sources need to come from all sectors of participation, philanthropic foundations and where possible contributions from the local communities of people, who build these community by building a local economy of goods and services that aligned with the culture of location.

Taking the Bite Out of Apple

Accountability experts in sustainability and corporate sustainability have been steered over the last 3 decades since the issue of the Brundtland Commission Report in 1987 to continue the norm of how investors and corporations approach markets using a vertical channel approach.

It’s ironic at this time that Steve Jobs, founder and leader of the most successful company, Apple – in his final year of life called on great leaders to outline his integral view of life drawing on Edwin Land passion for integrating humanities and science to integrate into technological development.

Spiritual Leader J. Krishnamurti who inspired Physicist David Boehm from this view as well. Boehm in his writing pointed to the value of inquiry and dialogue as the path to creating a culture that embedded the most fundamental respect for what it means to be a human being.

At this years World Economic Forum gathering global leaders and private citizens from around the world left the meeting challenged to address the growing harm of poverty and harm to people.

This opens the door to the greatest challenge accountability experts have ahead for them – shifting accountability to defining and measuring sustainable metrics that serve people and local economy.

The 1984 launch of Apple Computer was in synch with the creation of the Brundtland Commission.  How ironic that Steve Jobs, Apple’s founder has left a legacy  to solve the most challenging and controversial problems associated with Apple by gathering with a small group of leaders, mostly personal friends to define the opportunity that technology implies to education and the change that this implies to all our approaches to education from how we educate children in schools to higher learning to the restructuring of how adults learn life long to sustain within their communities local economy.

_______

Author’s Bio: Lavinia Weissman is sustainable leadership coach, health advocate, capacity builder, and publisher/editor-in-chief of thestoryofmeaningfuluse.com.

For More information on Lavinia’s Coaching, Workshops and Presentations or to obtain an invitation to Monday Circle or Prayer Community Conference,

Contact Adriana Hill in the US by phone 516.204.6791 or at mydestinyjourney ampersand gmail.com.

This 3 part series looks at  3 perspectives of the cost to people in the manufacturing of Apple Products.

• Accountability for What? Constructing the 3rd Pillar – Social Sustainability
  

• Steve  and Laurene Powell Job’ Legacy
  

• Defining the Future Inquiry
  

By Lavinia Weissman

@wecarehealth54545454545454545454545454545454545454545454545454        

New York, New York

The Wholistic View

“Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in every thing. That is how the light gets in.”

Leonard Cohen

If one looks outside of Steve Jobs leadership and performance at Apple as CEO, and follow a very complete story of his life, work and his final days, I believe the picture painted if very different than what is described in the business press.

Jobs contact with people outside the context of running a company contains within it the  legacy Steve left behind supported by his wife Laurene Powell Jobs, that are an interesting foundation for building a “social sustainable agenda” described in Part 1 of this series. Time will only prove if this vision can translate into community solutions aligned with Laurene Powell Jobs current vocation.

Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute, was selected to by Steve and Laurene Powell Jobs to be Jobs, biographer. The book, simply titled, Steve Jobs. Completely atypical of Jobs, he and Laurene both gave full control over the  book and the content to Isaacson. Jobs in his final days asked for final say on the artwork for the cover.

This book is a composite of the story of the history of Apple as Jobs and others crafted it, the products that resulted from Jobs vision, the meanderings of Silicon Valley ups and downs influenced by the MBA Venture Community and ultimately how Jobs as a visionary and innovator powerfully drove his agenda to build Apple as the strongest multinational company based headquartered in Silicon Valley.

Jobs informed Isaacson, “I think you are good at getting people to talk.” This is why Jobs selected him as his biographer.  Steve and Laurene wanted the book to relay the real story that included Steve’s failing and success.  They wanted the truthful story. Even Steve in his candid conversations with Isaacson saw his own personality flaws, which may have been unnecessary.

For fans of the history of Silicon Valley from a technical view, you will have to read the book that captures a rich history of all companies that sit side by side with Apple and the influence of the cast of characters from Larry Ellison of Oracle, Gil Amelio of NEC and Apple, John Scully and more. Isaacson true to form studied the man, the culture that surrounded the man and the family from which he grew and in the end helped him make peace.

The Silicon Valley and Apple Corporation that I knew emerged to be number 1 after my downsizing research in the late 80′s predicted it would be Apple, Sun or IBM.

Unlike Sun Microsystem and IBM, Jobs crafted with his products a vision of creating an Apple lifestyle, but in the final chapter of his legacy with his wife he began to create a global lifestyle through conversations  with his wife  Laurene and his final conversation with Bill Gates in May 2011 before his death in October.

Isaacson’s talent for asking “the why after the what,” helped me make see this new form legacy that is socially sustainable, that Laurene is now making her focus.

While the business press offered consistent final reports, e.g. Thomas Friedman, that  when Obama inquired about bring back jobs to the US for IPhone and other Apple products,  Jobs replied,  “Those jobs aren’t coming back.”  Friedman was one of many that reported this based on secondary research.

Isaacson captured 40 interviews with Jobs, dating back to 1984, when Isaacson was at Time Magazine and drew from more than 115 people and interviews and secondary research for this book. This is where the story behind how Jobs meeting with Obama in Silicon Valley’s story behind the story begins to open inquiry on the legacy that Jobs crafted in the final 10 months before his death.

Hidden in this story is the non technical legacy that Jobs could see that integrated a view of humanities and science with his genius capacity to design the leading technology and thought that captured Apple’s market today.

Laurene’s Added Spark
In 2010, Laurene Powell Jobs joined the White House Council for Community Solutions. At the most recent, State of the Union Address, by President Obama, she was introduced as the founder of Emerson Collective which she has directed to focus on underserved communities to better lives and in her role with the White House Council for Community Solutions she advises the President on how to mobilize and involve each sector from a true capacity building point of view on how to concretely address specific community needs.

Fall 2010, Laurene advised her friends at the White House that include John Doerr, Venture Capitalist and then at a meeting for President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board that Obama needed to hear Steve Jobs point of view on why the US had lost its edge.  With help from the Jobs son, Reed, who was attending Stanford, Laurene was able to convince Steve to join Obama in a private 45 minutes meeting in October 2010.

No Holds Barred

In his book, Isaacson reported that Jobs told Obama at their private in October 2010, that Obama had to become morbusiness friendly and make  it easier for business to open factories in the US over China that he was headed for a one term Presidency.  Here is was indicating a need to reduce regulation and unnecessary costs.  Jobs then asserted that even bigger obstacle was the American education system as antiquated due to unionization of workers and teachers.  There was a need to revamp the entire system, beginning with defining the role of the teacher and improving the status of teachers.

By the end of the meeting, Jobs offered to put together a group of 6-7 CEO’s together to converse with Obama and examine how the US government was obstructing innovation.  Jobs idea was to create this as a dinner and conversation. The White House almost derailed the meeting, trying to turn it into a major event of 20 ore more CEO’s, including  GE’s  Jeffrey Immelt.  Jobs made clear his terms and the agenda and format were recovered and given Jobs assumed control.

Over a dinner at Palo Alto’s Greek Restaurant, Evita of 12 included Carol Bartz (Yahoo), John Chambers (Cisco), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Reed Hastings (Netflix), Art Levinson (Genetech), Eric Schmidt (Google) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) with Obama, Jobs and White House Staff, Valerie Jarret and John Doerr.

Isaacson writes that Jobs began the dinner conversation by stating, “Regardless of our political persuasions, I want you to know that we’re here to do whatever you ask to help our country.”  While this prompted proposals and suggestions, starting with John Chambers idea for a tax proposal.  Zuckerberg was heard to lean over to Obama’s aide Valerie Jarret and point out they were all there to help the President and wanted to know from him, what he needed.

John Doerr and Jobs returned the discussion to the focus and Jobs indicated that America had to educate and train more engineers.  In China today 700,000 workers are need on site support from 30,000 engineers and Apple simply has no resources of that talent to hire here in the US.
This pointer caught Obama’s attention and while Jobs was in the final phase of his own journey, he pointed out if America (Obama) can train the engineers Apple would bring back manufacturing to the US.

Isaacson’s ability to interview and capture the full story is quite different than the business press reporting the short sentence. Yes it is true,  at the present time, Apple cannot bring manufacturing back to the US. And yes,  if America addresses its most critical problem – our educational system’s inability to produce enough engineers, Jobs committed to bring manufacturing back.

While this is a story capture of Isaacson’s book (in red) that are taken from the book.  Pardon me with breaking from the tradition of footnoting with the limitations of blogging.

Isaacson has opened the door to integrating a story that values all 3 pillars of view for sustainability that can not be constructed without opening a conversation and inquiry that examines issues from the 3 perspectives that Jobs drew from his study of Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid; these persepctives are about creating a balance of view drawing from humanities, science and technology.

From my studies on dialogue and inquiry, I learned something similar from the perspective of David Boehm, Physicist. Boehm often pointed out based on his studies with spiritual teacher, Krishnamurti, that he learned that building trust to innovate change and evolve culture cannot be built without building into our conversations practice that appreciate these 3 elements (humanities, science and technology).

This invites my readers to join me for next and final post. This poises the question of how we alter our view of education integrating the vision and forecast for education that Steve Jobs shared with Bill Gates before he died.
Stay tuned  for Part 3 – Defining the Future Inquiry that describes this opportunity and a history of dress rehearsals that failed. Is it time to launch this as a community of practice within the UNGC?

 _______

Author’s Bio:

Lavinia Weissman is sustainable leadership coach, health advocate, capacity builder, and publisher/editor-in-chief of thestoryofmeaningfuluse.com.

For More information on Lavinia’s Coaching, Workshops and Presentations or to obtain an invitation to Monday Circle or Prayer Community Conference,

Contact Adriana Hill  in the US by phone 516.204.6791 or  at mydestinyjourney ampersand gmail.com.

Taking the Bite out of Apple TSOMU Series -Part 1 of 3

This 3 part series looks at  3 perspectives of the cost to people in the manufacturing of Apple Products.

• Accountability for What? Constructing the 3rd Pillar – Social Sustainability
  

• Steve  and Laurene Powell Jobs’ Legacy
  

• Defining the Future Inquiry
  

By Lavinia Weissman

@wecarehealth545454545454545454545454545454545454        

New York, New York

Earlier this month, Apple filed its first 2012 Supplier Responsibility Report, Elaine Cohen, an expert on sustainability reporting gave her attention to this report immediately in her CSRWire TalkBack column, ITransparency: Is Apple Catching Up,  praised Apple for the quality of disclosure reflected in the report. And at the same time with her tongue and cheek humor, Is there an App for That? Asking if there is a solution to the years of complicity in a host of human rights abuses and violations within Apple’s supply chain.

Charles Duhigg and Charles Barboza captured in detail the story of these abuses and an overview of the complicity between Apple, the small manufacturers and the multinational corporations that comprise the Apple supply chain in their NYTimes article, In China, Apple and Human Costs are Built Into the IPad .

This article portrayed up close and personal the harm to ordinary people, with normal motivations, e.g. working to have a family, buy a home and live in a society what workforce practices are dictated by the supply and demand for labor based on expertise, where product demand exceeds what is humanly possible to produce and where occupational and safety standards and wage regulations are ignored.

These stories make the corporate way clear, if an employee cannot step up to the demands of an employer at the cost of their health – mind and body, , the solution is to simply let this human cost go by and fill that job with others waiting in line for the job.  Employers show no understanding of the principle of “do no harm,” described in the Earth Charter’s Principle 6, the Precautionary Principle.

Absent from these reports is a view of issues that merit attention from a societal view on what it means to be human and build a practice of sustainability embedding the missing 3^rd pillar, social sustainability.”

The Implied Hope of Social Sustainability

The Brundtland Commission Report in 1987 ignited the csr and sustainability movement offering the framework of the 3 P’s – People, Planet and Profit along side the framework of the 3 E’s – Environment, Economy and Equity.

Attention to people and equity have become a missing pillar of the sustainability movement.  In 2002, the Johannesburg Conference stressed that the integration of 3 dimensions could only be built out from a foundation of humane equitable and caring global society at the present time and for future generations.

Recently the Swedish Government and Sodotorn Univeristy funded Magnus Bostrom, Department of Life Sciences, Sodertorn University and his colleagues to ascertain the state of challenge to embedding social sustainability into society and culture. Bostrom’s summary report, A missing pillar, Challenges in theorizing and practicing social sustainability, is  the introductory article to the Winter 2012 issue of Sustainability, Science, Practice and Policy, a global journal based in Washington DC.

According to Bostrom there are two obstacles to embedding social sustainability in sustainability development.

1. By nature of the theory and thought leadership is fluid and falls behind the concrete approaches to repair the  environment and economic agenda;
2. In practice, social dimensions attract less attention and are far more challenging to operationalize and incorporate into projects and planning.

Bostrom identifies the substantive and procedural aspects of social sustainability which present another layer of complexity in terms of adoption and governance which is very aligned with the challenges outlined in the 2010 10 year review of the UN Global Compact by the UN Joint Inspection Unit in Geneva, Switzerland.  This report identifies the challenges ahead for its 7700 members to address through its own governance and applying what is learned with a much greater impact beyond the current penetration of

The Brundtland Commission Report in 1987 inspired the hope that the world leaders would embed an agenda people with the promise of recognition of human needs addressed in a kinder way.  Three decades of focus on the sustainable agenda have pushed these issues to the back burner, resulting in teh acceleration of  poverty and injustice as the wealthy 1% control the economy without regard for the other 99%.

Is there a different approach to addressing this agenda taking form outside the engagement of institutions focused on practices of accountability, governance and transparency.

Could it be in his final six months of life, Steve Jobs inspired by his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs created the legacy to spark and innovate a social sustainable agenda through personal conversation with friends?

Stay tuned for Part 2 - Steve and Laurene Powell Jobs Legacy to Apple and the World

 _______

Author’s Bio:

Lavinia Weissman is sustainable leadership coach, health advocate, capacity builder, and publisher/editor-in-chief of thestoryofmeaningfuluse.com.

For More information on Lavinia’s Coaching, Workshops and Presentations or to obtain an invitation to Monday Circle or Prayer Community Conference,

Contact Adriana Hill  in the US by phone 516.204.6791 or  at mydestinyjourney ampersand gmail.com.

By Lavinia Weissman

@WeCareHealth545454

New York, New York

original date of publication in CSRWireTalkback 01 December 2011

The redefining “No Child Left Behind” act was passed exactly ten years ago on January 8, 2002.  Today, however, there is real question on its value.

The EdWeek.com performance in review puts it succinctly.

So “What does it really mean to leave no child behind; and is this a social issue that can be addressed by CSR?”

There is no denying that the future performance of our workforce depends on the quality of education available to our kids. That the U.S. has fallen behind in assuring access and funding for quality education is not news either.

Educational Standards: Are We Up For the Challenge?

Current curriculum and education standards do not assure the best possible education to prepare our kids for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), let alone help them embed this knowledge into careers that provide sustainable value.

In an economy where jobs are scarce, corporations believe that they are at an advantage, perpetuating the idea that there is not enough competent talent. To build the best workforce possible, CSR principles must be embedded in all aspects of the STEM curriculum. And EMC’s Kathrin Winkler isn’t the only one endorsing this.

The Role of STEM in Sustainability…

Ellen Weinreb’s recent research in CSO Back Story revealed that several of the country’s sustainability chiefs have educational backgrounds in STEM, helping them become critical, system thinkers.

Part of the challenge in insuring that a future workforce is prepared for careers in sustainability lies in integrating the foundational values of CSR with a set of values based around work. Consider, for example, the Swedish word for “work”–Narings Liv. Literally translated, it means “work that nourishes you for life”—a value system that should be at the heart of the CSR movement.

By integrating this value into our work culture, companies could examine a new system for defining work—one that could be translated into a functional educational system for children and adults.

It is time to declare an opening to an examination of workforce values and the question of how we prepare young people to sustain themselves both through their work and when they cannot work.

…or WorkEcology

I see this as a creation of a CSR workforce eco-system that I describe as WorkEcology. We know that our current employment systems, workforce development and all that this implies—including benefits and compensation—are broken.

The tradition of education for employment and professional development is no longer a sustainable model. We know that it no longer assures ongoing professional development, wages that assure a sustainable lifestyle, or support of benefits that assure protection for disability, health care and retirement.

In preparing a young person for the realities of this kind of world, what kind of work are we preparing them for? What system of education will meet those needs? And how can corporations that advocate corporate social responsibility serve that preparation?

From Thought Leadership to Practice

As part of my thinking on these questions, I have begun mentoring a gifted 11 year old young woman, who is motivated and passionate about biology and other disciplines in science. Together we have uncovered a range of topics for discussion from bullying and dumbing-down to negativity and claiming personal power.

Thanks to Disney’s ABC Studios and my affection for Extreme Makover, we watched episodes about how to heal and counteract bullying, and I began to introduce her to the power of social media at its best as an educational tool.

At a New Year’s Eve party, my friend was put to the test. Overhearing her talk about global warming, a man in his late 40s approached her and, in front of the party crowd,  informed her that her passion for global warming was useless, and that there was no definitive evidence.

Explaining CSR to an Adolescent

As I listened to this young woman the following day, I realized that all I could do for her is what I do in my career—provide a bit of education to inspire her, and identify networks of educational resources that will inspire her self-esteem and learning.

I pointed her to:

• Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth;
• Fabian Cousteau’s Plant a Fish;
• The Pew Charitable Trust Marine Fellows Program

Where can this investment come from?

A 2011 Standard and Poor’s analysis featured in the Wall Street Journal reported a total of $1.08 Trillion in corporate cash reserves.

Can corporations redirect a portion of their cash reserves and philanthropic foundation investment to assure no child is left behind and moves into a narings liv approach to work?

What would this imply for human resources, educational institutions and financial approaches to funding and sustaining access to quality STEM education that embeds sustainability and CSR?

Readers: Can social organizations and business effectively target No Child Left Behind by investing in  organizational design,  academic curriculum and targetting funding to educational institutions?

By Lavinia Weissman

@wecarehealth54545454545454545454

New York, New York

Last week, I offered a post (part 1) in a private subscribed conference,  Monday Circle of Prayer, Walking About Rather than Walking From.  It focused on a more personal experience with respect to how women cope with the realization they have no choice but to walk away from dysfunctional employment and other related activities and what that implies.

This article is a  second installment to that reflective inquiry from a more systemic view of women’s participation in the workforce.

Part 2- A Systemic View – When Walking Away is Your Only Alternative

It has been 30 years since, Gro Harlem Brundtland, M.D., launched the sustainability movement by convening the Brundtland Commission Inquiry in cooperation with the United Nations.  One of the worlds most remarkable female leaders, Dr. Brundtland is the former prime minister of Norway and former Executive Director of the World Health Organization and continues her work out of the United Nations community to this day.

What is happening for women in the economic system in which the work of the Brundtland Commission dialogue was to influence change?

A company culture that embeds corporate social responsibility implies that this culture has worked or is working on issues of transparency and materiality that invite an end to secrets. To assure acceleration of the women’s agenda in the workplace, this is a solid beginning but one has to ask why with such remarkable leadership among women, is this movement so slow to accelerate?

Conditions for Women Today

A few years back, I came to recognize living a life of spirit and faith was also key and not engaging dysfunction. As the economy became more challenged, I found myself on a battlefield of toxicity for work that has brought me to a downward spiral that many health people share with me.

On an ongoing basis, I am reminded of how exceptional women have been good at retaining secrets from public view, e.g. health, marital abuse and discrimination in the workplace to a degree of complicity that underlies why there is so little progress for women in a country that has complicated the lives of so many now by the cost of education, the diminished number of jobs available and the increasing number of jobs available for a wage that no one can live on, let alone support children.

Somehow in the United States, women forgot to speak for and in support of their peers. The spiritual movement in the US grew into a focus of self-care and personal intention and the issues that trapped or harmed so many were forgotten that can compromise any woman’s health or access to education.   We make people personally responsible to heal the obstruction and wounds that have been imposed on them that they did not cause.

Living and working in this kind of environment can result in the adoption of behavior that is dysfunctional when we feel all we can do I fight back on the battlefield by declaring war or simply protest. Some woman cannot free themselves for socio-economic reasons and need access to constructive options of employment, education and housing, especially if they have children.  They need a form of protection that can overcome the harm they had to endure personally or to their children if they speak up or make the “secret known.”

For me this week, I can own the cost of freeing myself from walking away from systems of obstruction and not looking back to my Sodom and Gomorrah.

For many years, more than I care to think, I have found the courage to walk forward with my wisdom and my eyes to in minutes note an elephant in the room that is not right.  I like many offer compassion and no remedy and keep walking or support as I can. This week, I became very clear, I will not perpetuate or enable anymore secrets and I will not engage in any conversations that bring me into a form of triangulation that perpetuates the secrete. Yet as women in this country we continue to perpetuate secrets and to me this has become as harmful as keeping the secret.

Over the past 3 decades there emerged a new set of systemic challenges at a rate of acceleration that the Earth Charter and UN Global Compact Principles have been designed to counter act all this.

These systemic challenges have form into many secrets that can become the ground of a battlefield of tension and obstruction we cannot speak about in public. For a few who experience this they have the protection of wealth, position or marriage to reduce the harm, but the wounds from these battles can be life long.  I know this personally and discovered I was not alone in this experience in a very pronounced way in 2004.

The Hidden Story

In 2004, I attend a private by invitation meeting in Boston, attended by over 200 women who had MBA’s and worked successfully in the Financial Service industry. Success in this instance is equated with title and financial success. Most of these women were graduates of a top 10 MBA programs. This particular program by 2004, had over 900 female graduates working in industry.

As a journalist and business writer my invitation was extended with a strong request for non-disclosure. This group wanted my participation and I had to promise not to report any panelist personal story or report on the overall event to a public audience.

What I can say now is that the meeting focused on report from Catalyst, a non-profit established in 1962 that conducts research on the progress for women in business. The 2004 Catalyst presentation focused on the question,  “Why fewer than 7% of women had advanced to C-level positions in the Fortune 2000?”

This report has popularized and been presented to a public view over and over again. What I did not expect was to listen to testimony of female leaders in the financial industry that offered “secrets.” These secrets included that 85% of the panelists suffered from chronic illness and had compromised life circumstances that led to the deterioration of their own health when they are parents, elderly caregivers, or witnessed first hand corruption.

A panelist at the time of the conference was working in venture capital investments. She reported that she had witnessed when employed by a securities firm of fame,  an “indiscretion.” Her husband’s response to her was, “Resign immediately.  I am glad I can support us and assure your resignation with dignity because you don’t have to work.”  She also indicated her resignation was just on time to see her husband through his own health challenges while caring for her young children at home, which she was not anticipating and needed the freedom of her own company. She ended her presentation stating, “I do not know what single women did to protect themselves from this kind of association by employment?”

The most dramatic presentation was last from a woman of status and achievement in the financial service industry, who announced that she let her career destroy her life – marriage, relationship with her children and friends. This is not news.  How many articles and reports have there been through the years on women who sacrificed a “life” for “career.I found comfort in recognizing and end to my ongoing feeling of an isolated experience.  I had just met women like me who had lived through similar experiences.

I noticed by the end of the event that women,  I respected the most was no longer employed in industry, but served industry.  These women structured their businesses so they no longer had to personally absorb or perpetuate harmful corporate behavior they could not control.

Forbes journalist, Meghan Casserly wrote, Millennial Women Are Burning Out by 30, Great for Business.  This is truly not news. Casserly points out more women are becoming entrepreneurs and starting their own companies as an alternative.  In my experience the women succeeding are doing that with the education and knowledge of sustainability and corporate social responsibility. What does that imply to women today?

As someone, who has worked at the frontier of sustainability and csr, for nearly two decades, I have seen the freedom that these woman claimed that was across the board empowered by family and friends. It was clear to me if you did not have that kind of support, it was a long hard road with no guarantee for successful outcome.

Is Change Possible?

Elaine Cohen, a recognized authority on HR and corporate reporting in the movement of change for Corporate Social Responsibility, recently reviewed Women and the New Business Leadership by Peninah Thomson with Tom Lloyd.

Thomas and Lloyd reported that one mentee interviewed pointed out

” Women tend to want to get everything on the table, because they
believe it is only when all the sometimes painful facts are on the table
that the truth of the matter can emerge “

This fits with my view that  “women rarely want to disregard the “elephant in the room.” Yet we have appeared to often organize our view of the most “difficult,” as a secret.

I believe until women find a spiritual foundation and new form of strength that has them begin to see strife as strife of many rather than getting lost in their own strife to intend a miracle of repair. This is critical as a principle of uniting and forming a credible movement of change from which to claim their power and influence the acceleration of change.

I do not see this happening as rapidly  without women learning to weave networks in which they can safely claim their power and also generate solutions to generations of abuse and harm to their health and economic status and social position that no one asks to be imposed on them.

Margaret Wheatley, a leadership thought leader and change agent, points out how critical it is for any change agent (man or woman) to exercise perseverance.  In her book titled Perseverance she writes:

“Perseverance is a discipline—it’s a day-by-day decision not to give up.  Therefore, we have to notice the moments when we feel lost or overwhelmed or betrayed or exhausted and note how we respond to them.  And we have to notice the rewarding times, when we experience the joy of working together on something hard but worthwhile, when we realize we’ve made a small difference.

A Personal Action Plan

I know many competent, leadership quality women, who did not chose the adversity that was imposed on them.  Often the only solution for them was to accept roles of care giving, patient or simply walk away from a job to protect their health.  They wisely recognized that to envision repair and change for a scale of outreach that goes beyond what they can know personally and it implied now walking away, but walking in a high degree of uncertainty with perseverance to form something new for which there was no guarantee of outcome or assurance of a happy ending.

My chemical and environmental sensitivity and chronic illness has pushed me to care about the impact on this to people because so many men, women and children suffer more than me. Drawing from this perspective I learned how to formulate ideas that assure lasting social impact. I did not ask to live life with this challenge and at the same time, this challenge has pushed me to integrate a spiritual practice and take on life in forms that are ordinary but not anything that anyone could teach me.

And I have created my own form of empowerment and remedy:

1.   Formulating a course the redefines network so anyone person can benchmark and define their personal social network and its assets;

2.   Gathering group of women and men  in my life that I can interact with virtually on a daily basis to empower me to overcome the obstacles that I and many of my peers and colleagues face in challenging economy.

3.    Shaping my presentations and coaching  to inspire this change, for which I can speak with passion, credibility and spark engagement between women in local community.

Every person in my sustainable reflective  prayer community knows a variation of challenge. The question remains in taking care for yourself and those you love, how you move from hero, heroine or victim to claim a life of repair and solution with other women to accelerate that change and claim our power?

I regret in 2004 with this alumnae group of  women with Wall Street related careers, we did not follow-up with another meeting to look at these questions.

While articles like what Meghan Casserly wrote for Forbes portray a bright picture for the millennial women, we have millions of other women, who are able to step up to learn a new way that I teach that can empower and accelerate a global economic change that has not been fostered by the traditional institutions and industries where women continue to burn out or wait for a pink slip and then what?

Come to one of my programs or host one for your community through a local “green” incubator.

____________

Author’s Bio:

Lavinia Weissman is sustainable leadership coach, health advocate, capacity builder, and publisher/editor-in-chief of thestoryofmeaningfuluse.com.

For More information on Lavinia’s Coaching, Workshops and Presentations or to obtain an invitation to Monday Circle or Prayer Community Conference,

Contact Adriana Hill  in the US by phone 516.204.6791 or  at mydestinyjourney ampersand gmail.com.

Moving Beyond Today’s Spiritual Vacuum

@wecarehealth525151515151

New York, New York

This past week, I have been exceptionally frustrated. My frustration grew out of  an observation that many of the men and women, I know, have become unconsciously resigned as a result of the today’s economic challenge or the do not break from the mechanical nature of doing more of the same – looking for a job or living simply in response to stress, to find a point of transformation to shift local economies and learn new approaches to problems they share with their friends that can impact the health of the economy, people, environment and habitat to measure lasting social impact for the welfare of all.

Author, JK Rowling has taught us so many times, in how she lives and has lived her life while imagining every Harry Potter chapter, success grows from failure and recovery from failure grows from imagination.   Her learning took form from her own journey as the daughter of a chronically ill mother, who became an abused wife.  Freedom from abuse took her with her imagination through the journey of an impoverished single mom, living on services with her daughter to becoming a teacher, and then magic beyond words shaped her life today growing out of her rich inner childhood imagination that birthed Harry Potter and friends.

I see many woman using spiritual practices of being positive and expressing and claiming gratitude as a way to accept a diminished life and circumstance for which they are unable to abound.  I have organized a prayer group for numerous of my acquaintances called Monday Circle of Prayer. Many members of this group have very compromised life experiences due to illness, single parenting, job loss, declined sources of income, care-giving sick family members and more.

Each week, I offer a prayer to these women through a private group on Facebook, called Monday Circle of Prayer.   It is my way to inspire myself by inspiring others by building a new view of who we are and what we represent.  It’s about creating a faith practice that inspires hope for those of us who carry a burden that the socio-economic authorities have served to us a cloud of resignation that has translated into a life challenged by poverty, poor health and economic strife. For me I have survived by finding the faith to persist at my own life and work in these difficult times and find a new path that improves their capacity to sustain themselves.

I curate this group and invite conversation and contribution. I archive the prayers in a protected group on Facebook, so as to assure privacy.  I have introduced some of the women to each other and some have begun to talk by phone to each other about problems they may share in common, perhaps to seek a new view.

Last week the conversations with a number of these women fueled my frustration to see how to easily they are using their spiritual practice to fuel a form of resignation and not work to alter their life, but to use the positive ways and expressions of gratitude almost like a form of accepting this diminished form of life.

This group has helped to alleviate isolation many feel when living in poverty or challenged.  The group has not yet found the courage or imagination to author a new view that is fueled by all its members and not driven by me.  All I can do at this time is author a reflective prayer each week or an link or two of inspiration.

There is a change in this country over the past six months, since the stand by Occupy Wall Street. A much greater number of people have moved the pervasive denial that pushes so many to do more of the same and not recognize the need for change that the 2008 Global Financial Meltdown implied.

As part of my own grappling about the lack of understanding in our economy of what is implied to care about the welfare of others, I decided to read Hillary Clinton’s autobiography, Living History, written in 2003

Reading this bio has prompted me to rethink what it means to embrace your own personal power.  I continue to believe that power is inside every potential leader at birth and if prompted in by family, educators and friends, it can mushroom into something remarkable over time that has nothing to do with position or authority.

Embedded in Hillary’s life story is this kind of pattern.  Yet while reading the book, I had to ask myself how does she lift herself beyond failure and difficult times, which for Hillary like many woman in my prayer gropu have been numerous, brutal and life altering.

Hillary discovered the power of intangible prayer during her first month as First Lady.  This was to carry her through her first 6 months as First Lady of the United States, which were filled with loss, disappointments, failures and infringement of her family’s privacy.

By the end of six months, the task force she chaired for health care reform failed. She experienced numerous significant deaths of her father, mother-in-law and her close friend and law partner committed suicide as a result of clinical depression.  The Clinton living quarters had been searched with out notice.

In April of that year, Hillary was invited to make a speech at the University of Texas as her father lay at death’s door. On the plane to Austin, she found an article authored by Lee Atwater, Age 40, political adviser to Presidents Reagan and Geroge H.W. Bush, who was dying of cancer. Hillary embedded this passage from the article in the speech she gave in April 1993 at University of Texas, Austin.

Atwater wrote,

“Long before I was struck by cancer, I felt something striring in American society; it was a sense among the people of the country— Republicans and Democrats alike—-that something was missing from their lies, something crucial… I wasn’t exactly sure what the “it” was.  My illness helped me to see that what was missing in society is what is missing in me:  a little heart, a lot of brotherhood.

The 80’s were about acquiring — acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know. I acquired more wealth and, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn’t I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn’t I pay for an evening with friends?  It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with the truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught you in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime….

I drew on different sources to put together a statement about the need to “remodeled society by redefining what it means to be a human being in the twentieth century, moving into a new millennium.

We need a new politics of meaning. We need a new ethos of individual responsibility and caring. We need a new definition of civil society which answers the unanswerable questions posed by both the market forces and the governmental ones, as to how we can have a society that fills us up again and makes us feel that we are poart of something bitter than ourselves.”

Who will lead us out of this “spiritual vacuum?”

After reading Lee Atwater’s perspective, Hillary answered Atwater’s  question for her audience, stating, “The answer is all of us.”

The answer remains unchanged today from 1993.   But shifting our behavior as a country from the individual, political, business and citizen perspective has to integrate an understanding of what is implied by the word, “welfare.”

This requires a new understanding and view, voice this past September by Jan M. Morgan, President of CSRwire, LLC.  Jan offered this statement in a publication,  GLOBAL COMPACT COMMUNICATION ON PROGRESS, September 2011, prepared for the United Nations Global Compact:

“I am terribly ambitious where the world is concerned and feel a personal responsibility to contribute to the welfare of all. I try to take responsibility for my own actions and I believe the work we do at CSRwire benefits society and communities all over the world.”

Whether a commercial enterprise, a government activity or a non-profit initiative, it has always been my belief that within those institutions that people can take the kind of responsibility that Jan Morgan describes can be done by anyone by   investing time, energy, thought and funds to measure a return on investment of lasing social impact.

We can no longer afford to think of “welfare” in the context of charity or government services that only serve to diminish people and obstruct their capacity to sustain personally and empower their children to do the same by redefining the idea of, “No Child Left Behind,” to mean educate, inspire, mentor and encourage intelligence and health.

As of late, my own belief and values in this regard have been challenged and I have been trying to find my way out of my own spiritual vacuum from a very reminder personally of what it is life for anyone when difficult times are imposed on you  that you could not counteract or protect yourself from.

Since last June, a few event in my life have had me reach out to numerous friends, leave behind some old friends and make some new friends.

My outreach has been primarily to women, who are also experiencing challenge.  Before the 2008 financial meltdown, I usually knew 1 or 2 women challenged by illness, lost job, challenging social circumstance. But in my life at this time, I now know over 14 women experiencing a combination of challenges and the size of the group continues to grow rather than decline.

In Living History, Hillary describes her introduction to the National Prayer Center, founded by Ken Wilde. This non-profit invites participation of people of all backgrounds and political representation to offer the gift of service to others in need. After Hillary’s first month as First Lady, she was was presented with a book of messages, quotes and scriptures give to her to sustain her tenure by members of the National Prayer Association. Hillary joined with a prayer partner to pray for her as she prayed for others.

The National Prayer Center, located in the Beltway of Washington DC, reached out beyond the Washington divide to anyone in need of support by providing gifts that are intangible and so meaningful – discernment, peace, compassion, faith, fellowship, vision, forgiveness, grace, wisdom, love, joy and courage.

Prior to Thanksgiving, when my own situation of challenge escalated, I only had prayer left and then I realized as I talk to more of and more of my friends, prayer was all that many of us had left.

While at the present time, I do not have many answers or ability to impact concrete measurable change that assures intelligent hard working women jobs or single mom’s the ability to care for their family or cures for children suffering from chronic illness and disabilities that overtake the day of a family trying to care for itself in these stressful times.

I know the unity and benefit of what can serve from prayer. Whether you believe in G-d or not, I know combining higher thought and sparking a direction of goodness that can impact a societal change that assures the health of people, environment, economy and habitat is something we need now.

You are all welcome to contact me at lavinia@laviniaweissman.com, if you have interest to join a group of people in prayer in this way or join our virtual group, Monday Circle of Prayer and support it with a modest donation or simply as a sponsor.

Recommended donation is

$15+ individual

$30+ two income household

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$250-500+ corporate sponsor.

Donations are confidential and any contributions that exceed recommended amounts are used to offer access to people living in poverty or without income.  These donations support my work and writing and this community of practice associated with The Story of Meaningful Use Magazine and companion page on Facebook.

As I return to reflecting on the progress that so many have fostered, globally in #csr, #socent, #sustainability and #health communities of men and women, who are not resigned and have formed this tipping point of change to accelerate and translate practices through out the world, I am reminded each other them also works each day like me to grow beyond the difficulties that impose personal challenges to each of us. Prayer is the foundation by which we can each inspire ourselves and others to do our best to just continue to do our work for the greater good and the welfare of all. Prayer can open our channels to discover new ways to talk and work with other people.

Prayer is an intangible when offered in the presence of others as witness and partners, can inspire a change we could not see during times of great uncertainty, like how we are living now.

___________________________

Author’s Bio:

Lavinia Weissman is sustainable leadership coach, health advocate, capacity builder, and publisher/editor-in-chief of thestoryofmeaningfuluse.com.

By Lavinia Weissman

@WeCareHealth4949494949494949494949

New York, New York

At the end of the year, I take some time for reflection. First, I identify people, who have influenced change in my own thinking.  But this year, I have taken stock of people, who have drew me into a conversation that in my opinion is changing the neural landscape in which I live which has been filled with denial. This form of denial is not my own, it is the pervasive denial that is obstructing change that more and more people want for health  that will impact people, environment, economy and habitat.

This trend in my thinking began when I met Peggy LaCerra  on Facebook, through Joan Borysenko.  Peggy is a evolutionary neuroscientist that introduced me to the idea of “neural landscape,” back in June 2010. It has taken me more than a year of time to even feel like I grasp what neural landscape is, since I wrote this post, Changing my Neural Landscape.

Joining Peggy LaCerra in reflections of the heart and brain

Sometime last August, when I was first contacted by James Schwinn from his outreach on Linkedin.com, something began to deepen in my understanding of a neural landscape after a few weeks of chatting in brief bits and bytes and sharing writing with James, that resulted in my writing, Can Sustainable Venture Repair the Social Fabric of the Global and Local Economy?;  followed by What Do People want after OccupyWallStreet.

James pushed me my thought in such a way that it brought me to the door of  a new neural landscape. This landscape began to come to life in the way I related.  At the time, I did not realize the impact on me personally and how I was about to face one of the most challenging changes in my own life. It came to life for me inside very loudly and with great difficulty that I simply could no longer work the pattern of education and career that I had grown out of in the institutional world of non profits, government and commercial enterprise.

What grew inside of me was a level of rejection that was pushing me to walk away from doing anything as usual.  This happened while I was in Boulder, Co. Day be day it got more difficult and in some ways horrifying and hair curling. I am a person of courage and strength. This was not a soup opera or drama , I was completely altering how I think, who I related to and more important redefining myself in many different ways that was bringing into my life many new people who fostered great respect in me.

Learning with James Schwinn

Then through James Schwinn, I met his business partner Charlie Randall. Charlie and I sat in Boulder over tea a few times and he had an impact on me that was different from most.  Our conversation was very personal and quiet; grounded in a form of humility and heart that I cannot describe and maybe few could view and observe.  I left these conversations accepting how difficult life was and just recognizing the painful nastiness that seemed to be growing around me and making my life difficult on a daily basis at an accelerated scale over 5 months time.

Yet, in between honoring my own pain and suffering, I continued to sort through the muck and meier of it all and start to grow a new pattern to find my way out of the other side and slowly come back to life again experiencing some faith and hope, and refusing the same form of courage and strength that got me through so much difficulty from my experiences in the past.

Exploring Life from a New View with Charlie Kendall

I have for many years now no matter how bad it gets , get up each day and follow my cues and now after a few months of upheaval, I just got up with less suffering and continue to work my life, my path and follow the rapid appearance of some new cues.

Before leaving Boulder, Co, I met Andrew Lange, N.D and I  spent a lovely day with him that included meeting his life partner, Barbara, a nurse and somatic therapist.

This was an experience I could not translate rapidly.  While I am still absorbing the conversation that Andrew, Barbara and I shared,  Andrew is bringing to life with real time hard work, everything medically that I believe in and value that can transform health as we now know it. He is creating changes in practice that address the complexity of the environment, habitat, economy and all that is challenging people today for personal health.

More important, Andrew has shaken out a form of offering lab tests to people at significantly lower cost through his company, Save on Labs for as much as 60% saving on tests directly organized with patients.

This has moved a legislative activity into action in Rhode Island, where Internet related legislation blocked use of this site to Rhode Island citizens.

Why is this a change to my Neural Landscape?

On Friday, December 24, 2011, President Obama told Barbara Walters that he had not fostered an understanding of just how bad the American economy is with the people in this country. It has perpetuated a form of denial, which obstructs change.

The pervasive denial in this country is a neural landscape  that has obstructed and made it difficult for any change agents or capacity builders like myself to do the work we intend.

Being a hero or heroine is not my idea of way to live. Ultimately, people you relate to what help you form a new neural pattern in your unconscious from which you can respond with ease and filter as intuition without “talking about it.”

The truth that I have been pushed to learn and see through all my experiences with downsizing, death and dying and illness is not the life I had planned. But while I could see this truth, I continued to work in the way American told me I had to work and with people who did not have the sincerity to create the change we need.

These past 6 months have pushed me into a very painful leap that is now calming down to foster relationships and create a neural landscape with others who are working to create the change with need out of sincerity and by fostering the right approach.

I feel gifted to know all of them and draw the inspiration I need to build The Story of Meaningful Use and all I do into a platform of change that will move millions of people from the denial we are living with her in America and other forms in other parts of the world.  It will take this scale of change in our unconscious brains  to weave a systemic change that will bring to life around the world the discovery of change that so many want and need.

Happy 2012 to all. I welcome your comments and want to hear from you in how I can serve what I believe in with all of you to continue to expand this new neural landscape of change.

_______________

Author’s bio: Lavinia Weissman is an sustainable market leadership coach, journalist, and publisher of thestoryofmeaningfuluse.com.

As a speaker, she describes the new emerging patterns of markets shaped by sustainable market leaders and the social networks they work with and employ.

As a coach, Lavinia works with all her clients to inspire professional development that assures a person the opportunity to embed sustainability as a leader into the network and culture of people they work with. She has a private practice where she works with women to embrace the experience of chronic illness that challenges their livelihood and form of work.