"The practice we should use daily is listening"

I could not resist this article:

Rebels with a cause | BP Magazine | bp.com

So unlikely from a large multinational I know so well to celebrate individuality and diversity. And then to use my nom de plum as well. Looks like I have left a lasting mark there after all!

But seriously, what is all this about?
" Seeing both sides. Four people describe life working on both sides of the oil and non-governmental organisation fence"

Could there be a link with 'social business' here too? Let me read the actual article and see. Here are some interesting quotes:

"It is society that gains, he says, by open dialogue and people seeking solutions."
(a former senior BP executive now heading WWF in Australia)

"She says the oil sector needs more practitioners who better understand the methodology of community development, while the development sector needs to come down from its moral high ground and accept that it will not be able to make the change it seeks without engaging with industry. “
(a global community relations coordinator at BP formerly a 'green economist' at WWF in Pakistan)


“I only found one important difference. For a social NGO, the immediate motivation is to create a better life for people, via education, housing etc. For the industry, the social model seeks to facilitate operations, make them viable and to leave a legacy."
“What really moved me was the possibility to raise the importance of social matters in the organisation, and to go from thinking to doing,” he continues. “Given BP’s evident leadership, it was possible to interact with community representatives to influence the structure and formulation of local and regional development plans. I found a denser field of action, where focua and permanent action leads to more palpable results."

He says communicating is fundamental in this field and to overall BP success, and corporations could do more of it.
“The practise we should use daily is listening,” he says. “At the same time,
NGOs have to get to know the corporate world better, how it works and its priorities, and could also make good use of corporate goal, measurement and risk assessment systems.”
Corporations like those systems and results, of course, but social development programmes are never ‘complete’.

“After more than 15 years, someone might say ‘it’s all done,’ and that would not be right,” he says. “Communities change, overcome the lack of one thing and feel the absence of another; children become adults with responsibilities and, since they are BP’s neighbours, they also adopt positions regarding what we do; politicians pressurise companies to get involved in their purposes. This all translates as history repeating itself, with new challenges and achievements, new actors and audiences.”
(a BP Columbian community affairs group member formerly at a leading NGO focusing on education, housing and disaster relief)

What, if any, links exist here with Muhammad Yunus? My immediate reaction is that quite a number of observations above bring out pointers for the direction of Yunus related work.

1. It is essential to engage both sides of the argument around 'for profit' and 'social business' in an open dialogue with people seeking solutions.

2. Recognise that systems and measurements in different spheres of business may have to be different yet discipline they impose is necessary in both.

3. Boundary-crossing activities and programs require people who have
successfully crossed those boundaries themselves.

4. At times of change nobody is always right. A healthy dose of humility coupled
with the daily practice of listening is essential.

5. People who work in large organisations are as likely to be committed to
creating a better world as any of us.

6. Find a former corporate senior executive to lead YunusUK and encourage the
practice of making it happen through operational delivery discipline.

7. Discover 'rebels with a cause' inside large companies and engage them as the
future Yunus ambassadors.

This should be a rich basis of a conversation with Tomorrow's Company team http://www.tomorrowscompany.com/.

Prof Mohammad Yunus lecture in London

I am involved in organising the lecture in St James Church on Piccadilly on Saturday 16th February. These are the photos taken on location of the posters and leaflets.

It all now looks totally real. The only thing is now making it happen with full house of 700 people.

Brad de Long on importance of economic history

What a great idea - instead of the morning blog, speak to your Mac, get Macspeech to transcribe it and hey presto - your favorite topic of the day is ready for viewing and reading.

Now, this particular topic has definitely got my attantion. I fully endorse the move to get students and practitioners of different disciplines to appreciate each others contribution to a chosen topic. This time he argued for closer collaboration and deeper links between historians and economists.

Of course, this is critically true for many other disciplines. It would be interesting to explore which other academic fields might be similarly enriched by cross-fertilisation.

Davos 2008 - Opening Plenary with all the Co-Chairs

The Annual World Economic Forum has started in Davos today. As far as the openings go, this is not a bad one.

why does it take so long for business school academics to recognise what happens in reality?

It really takes so long to see something talked about in business school literature though you have actually experienced it in practice. The article above talks about middle managers as sources of ideas and innovation in organisations. Well, hallelujah!

'The unsung heros' is very apt here but for so many large companies that have followed guru prescriptions in the last 15 years about thinning the middle, this is scant relief! Not to mention the waste layed of the lives of those middle managers who have been unceremoniously 'outsourced', 'let go', 'made redundant', 'let go', 'given eary retirement' or whatever euphemism one may wish to use.

This seems to me to only confirm exactly what last week FT article by Michael Skapinker argued.

TED Talks - Isabel Allende: Tales of Passion

At the start of New 2008 Year, I have been really uplifted by a wonderful and truly felt talk Isabel Allende gave at TED2007. She is passionate but not preaching, she tells stories about real people, has lovely sense of humour and twinkle in her eye that betrays sense of fun but above all she is deeply passionate about making the lot of women around the world not only better but GOOD!

So, please click on the link nd do yourself a favour - watch and listen to a woman who can just reawaken your passion for life! May it be the start of inspiration for your path this year and in the many years to come.

Oh, and not to forget, she has some wonderful asides about Sophia Loren and her beauty tips for staying young even when you are over 70!

2007 at Work Matters - Bob Sutton review

This is first part of the end of year reflection focused on issues arising from the book Bob Sutton published earlier in the year "The No Asshole Rule ".

I was struck throughout the year by the level of recognition that raising of the subject provoked. We are often talking here of behaviours of people who are entrusted with large funds, have big presence in public and take charge of significant number of staff. Yet, while abuse of money is clearly punishable by law, verbal abuse of people clearly goes on regardless.

Perhaps, 2008 will bring more recognition of the difference supportive colleagues and bosses make.