What Can The Royal Wedding Teach Us About Corporate Responsibility?
Loyal dual citizen that I am, I got up early this morning in Northern Virginia and watched the ceremony and the parade back to the palace. One of the TV commentators noted that despite his intellectual views about the monarchy, he was swept away by the wedding and by all that surrounded the event. Good for you I thought, me too!
I got to thinking about how we separate our rational from our emotional. This is common in many walks of life and often to good effect. I might feel something emotionally, but be able to rationalize a better decision intellectually. It can be valuable tool in corporate responsibility too to help us separate personal interest from what is in the best societal interest.
For the most part, the tools of the business world are tools of the rational and the intellectual – often supported by quantifiable evidence. And to an extent, as an organization gets bigger and more people are involved in decisions and of greater consequence, the more this has to be the case. However the impacts of our decisions on individuals are often relationship based or have an emotional component. They are much harder to quantify and therefore to take into account of in ‘rationally’ based processes.
A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to participate in the annual meeting of alumni of the Prince of Wales Business in the Environment Program at Highgrove House in the UK. HRH Prince Charles attended and I was honored to be able to meet him and even speak with him in person for a couple of minutes (1 min 34 secs to be precise). In his keynote address to the couple of hundred corporate executives present he challenged us not to leave our hearts at home, but to bring them into work with us and to use them. This message resonated with me then and still does today, although it took an US TV commentator to remind me of it.
Separating our intellectual from our emotional reactions is no bad thing to be able to do, but that doesn’t mean leaving either behind. Both tools should be an important part of our arsenal for reaching conclusions.
Kevin- I appreciated your views on the value of considering both the rational and the emotional when decisionmaking, even in the business arena.
Not a dual citizen but an anglophile nonetheless, I also got up early to watch the proceedings and was capitivated by all aspects of it, as well as the spirit of the public reaction. It does seem to mark a new era and hope for the future. Moments such as this continue to tie the US to our connection with Britain despite all other influences and differences, and that in itself is worth celebrating.
Diane Noe
Public Relations, BT
Good post Kevin.
I agree that the emotional aspect to running a business is too often neglected. As an organisation grows, it is easier for management to rely on cold logic, surveys, devolved responsibilities, ‘common sense’ and experience.
But business improvement in general and sustainability improvements in particular usually succeed by changing massed employees and customers’ minds. And the quickest way to achieve that is by demonstration of emotion, empathy and appealing to emotions.
Of course a sustainable change also needs the backing of rational argument and to accommodate those who are favoured by the status quo.
But I would like to see more senior management considering emotion – both theirs and their stakeholders’ – as a routine approach to management and planning.
As far as today’s events are concerned, I was only 100 miles away from Westminster, and was making grumpy, sarcastic remarks at the TV all morning. But I was really touched by the Duke driving his Duchess a few hundred joyful yards from Buckingham Palace to Clarence House in his Dad’s old open-topped MG. Will’s piece of empathy with his audience will play a larger part in the maintenance of the monarchy than any scheme drummed up by the professionals in the Palace or Government.
Now I must go. I seem to have something stuck in my eye…
Good thoughts Kevin. Admirable, and really – who can argue against the value of remembering ones values – especially given the decision sciences and formulaic approach to decision-making that dominates in corporate settings? Still, a significant challenge for CSR professionals/champions (boldly including myself here) is not so simple as to “consider the emotional along with the rational,” but rather (since we all too often wear our hearts on our shirtsleeves) to develop clear arguments that fit within the constructs of corporate decision-making WHILE supporting our own heart-felt intentions. Those really are the ONLY arguments worth making in this line of business. After all, the best ideas sell themselves anyway; rather than cultural or business shifts, focus instead on minor course corrections that get us closer to the ALIGNMENT of interests (emotional, societal, rational, sustainable, profit-motivated, etc.).
Also – I would NOT like (as previous commenter suggests) to see more senior management considering emotion (sorry Simon), especially if it meant sacrificing business acumen. Sustainability is multi-dimensional, and sustainable decisions are (only) those that make sense when looked at through various lenses. Too many companies make too many decisions in the interest of sustainability and green image alone, and too many of them will fail as a result.