Today’s bigger culture problems require a telescope not a microscope.
The purpose of all organisations has to be centred around supporting society and eliminating the company’s impact on environmental degradation.
Since the caveman, people have worked hard to ensure they are safe – in the short term. From fortifying shelters through to hunting and gathering practices, the focus of survival has always been ‘annual’ at best. The smarter cave-person recognised season change and prepared for winter hibernation and possible summer drought. Nomadic patterns were essentially based on these observations also, and even the way we live today, around an annual calendar speaks to our conditioning toward short-term thinking.
So it shouldn’t come as any real surprise that as a species, we’ve driven ourselves to possible mass distinction. Largely as a result of our short term thinking. Don’t stop reading just because you don’t like what I’m saying. The truth is often unpleasant – but necessary. Our desire for immediate gratification and comfort has come largely at the expense of our future, more importantly, our children and grandchildren’s future. Last year’s UN statement off the back of the IPCC Working Group’s report is ‘code red for humanity’. “The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse‑gas emissions from fossil-fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk. Global heating is affecting every region on Earth, with many of the changes becoming irreversible.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres
Some years ago, like many others, I completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) course. During the course the question was asked ‘what is purpose of a company?’. The AICD facilitator stated very clearly that the purpose was and I quote ‘to make profits for shareholders.’ I disagree, and in fact we all have to disagree if we plan on living on this planet for the next 100+years. The purpose of all organisations has to be centred around supporting society and eliminating the company’s impact on environmental degradation. Profits will come from this, now more than ever. Customers and investors are supporting ESG compliant organisations more now than ever before, and the future of culture lies in building organisational culture that supports the company’s ESG position.