Top U.S. CEOS: Stakeholders over Shareholders

The CEOs of nearly 200 companies just said shareholder value is no longer their main objective

The book "Work the Future! Today: A faster path to purpose, passion and profit" predicted this in 2017.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/19/the-ceos-of-nearly-two-hundred-companies-say-shareholder-value-is-no-longer-their-main-objective.html

Main Points

The Business Roundtable, a group of chief executive officers of nearly 200 major U.S. corporations, issues a statement with a new definition of the “purpose of a corporation.”
The reimagined idea of a corporation drops the age-old notion that they function first and foremost to serve their shareholders and maximize profits.
Investing in stakeholders—employees, delivering value to customers, dealing ethically with suppliers and supporting outside communities—are now at the forefront of American business goals.
This is the first step from the old bottom triple bottom line of profit, people, planet to planet, people, prosperity. Why? No planet, no people, nothing. And companies that don't stay relevant, die.

LOVING LEADERSHIP: More Heart, Less Head

Being Your Own Leader in a Leaderless Era

Earth Day, 2018: The great thinker and liberator Nelson Mandela challenges us by asking:

“Who are we, not to shine?”

So in this blog and those to follow, we’re introducing a new, better and more effective way to be a leader, whether you’re leading 1, 10, or 10 million people.

“Who are we, not to shine?”

This is one of the most important questions for all of us today.

Why?

• Because most of our current global leadership is heartless—and their heads don’t seem to work very well, either.

• Because people, organizations, and entire countries are stuck in systems of ego-driven, expired thinking, and action that is jeopardizing our survival.

• Because schools teach memorizing information instead of critical thinking.

• Because so-called spiritual leaders are trying to co-opt, control, and commodify the Earth and the great mystery of which we’re all a part.

This is happening right now, and it’s been going on for millennia.

No Future for Futurists

No Future for Futurists

Are you going to create your future? Or, are you going to let the future control you?

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

The future isn’t working the way it used to. If you’re not at the driving wheel of your future, then you’ll get run over by the future and be tomorrow’s roadkill.

“When it comes to the future, one word says it all: You never know.” ~ Yogi Berra

We are consumed with the future.

Everywhere we look we see many articles and blogs pontificating on the Future and the Future of Whatever, particularly the Future of Work, which isn’t working. As financial institutions are fond of saying: “Past performance is no indicator of future performance.” In other words, what might have worked in the past, might not in the future. Systems leadership and design is based on now — not the never never of later on.

“Past performance is no indicator of future performance.”

Work The Future! Today is the art of the possible, practiced well in advance.

Work The Future! Today is based on possibility — based on asking and answering the question: “What is it we could do today, starting now?” It is the act of embracing the unknown as an opportunity and taking responsibility for it. Predicting the future is fed by the unknown and the fear of the future, and relying on someone else to take responsibility for it.

Whitney Vosburgh + Charlie GranthamSeptember 26, 2017future of work, future, futurists, North Star, purpose, innovation, culture, community, transformationComment

How Culture Can Turn Your Work Space into a Place

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast and operations excellence for lunch and everything else for dinner“ ~ Bill Aulet, MIT 2013

Introduction

Many design articles call for “Engaging workplace design that doesn’t stop with a response to technological and real estate needs. It must go further, supporting the creation and integration of a company’s culture, brand identity, and overall community.”

We’ve taken up that challenge. We want to draw out the distinction between “space”, which is the physical part of the workplace, and “place”, the social aspects of a work environment.

Genesis of the concept

It all begins with “purpose”. What is the purpose of the workplace? What is the purpose of those who perform their work in that place? And how do those two relate to each other? It is our contention that we are currently experiencing a shift in cultural narrative/story from the “Old Story” to a new one.

The purpose of work and where it gets done is changing quickly. We are talking about purpose in the context of work, where many of us find our highest purpose. However, we live in an increasingly purposeless world filled with purposeless work. The Old Story and its attendant social institutions were designed to promote continuous growth. These institutions are no longer life affirming, nor supportive of personal well-being (integration of body, mind, and spirit), let alone human wholeness (integration of individuals into a greater whole).

Brand New PurposeMay 14, 2017place, space, culture, workplace, community, purpose, design, future of workComment

Change, for the better.

The CEOs of nearly 200 companies just said shareholder value is no longer their main objective

Being Your Own Leader in a Leaderless Era

Why?

— WTF! —