Corporate Idealist

photo credit: paulswansen

Gossip. Some of us take part more than others, but we all contribute a little from time to time.

In the workplace, gossip can get really mean. A former coworker was recently telling me about attempts to undermine her that came from others in the office who saw that she was away from her desk while her boss was out of town. (The truth was that she’d had a doctor appointment, and had emailed her boss about it in advance.)

But it doesn’t stop there. Office gossip can trump up single instances of a behavior into a gossip-worthy pattern: maybe someone who’s having a tough morning is observed stepping out for a 5-minute fresh air break and suddenly that person is suspected of having a pattern of idling. Or maybe someone is observed taking the last cup of coffee without starting a new pot because he or she is in a hurry to a meeting, and suddenly that person is the culprit whenever the pot is empty.

Whatever the behavior, gossip has a way of turning trivial events into something sinister in the retelling over time. There is also, according to an article in this morning’s New York Times, a tendency for gossip to grow due to the pressure to contribute to it:

The earlier studies found that once someone made a negative comment about a person who wasn’t there, the conversation would get meaner unless someone immediately defended the target. Otherwise, among both adults and teenagers, the insults would keep coming because there was so much social pressure to agree with the others.

You know what our suggestion is: be the one to shut it down. We’ve talked before about how important it is to empathize with others around you; great accomplishments are rarely made without true collaboration, and for true collaboration, you need at least reasonable compassion and empathy for those you’re working with. But nothing breaks down trust and creates barriers to collaboration like gossip. Shut it down. Move on. Foster a culture of empathy and understanding. If something needs to be communicated to someone, talk to the person directly or communicate with his or her manager if need be. But no good will come from spreading gossip around the office.

Besides, you’ll only be making it more likely that one day, office gossip will be spreading about you.

photo credit: Furryscaly

Often when we talk about risk in the business world, it’s a Bad Thing. As in “minimizing risk.” “Managing risk.” And so on.

And sure, when you have an idea where you want to go and how you want to get there, risk is anything that can keep your plans from succeeding.

But let’s be honest: in our personal lives, risk can be kind of fun, too. Risk that isn’t out of proportion with potential reward is what makes life fun.

So why aren’t we more excited about taking risks in business? Why isn’t there a “risk advocate” instead of a “risk manager”?

I suppose it’s because predictability is key to efficiency and we think of efficiency and all kinds of other attributes like profitability and scalability as being nearly the same. In truth, they’re not. They may well relate, and there may be strong correlations between companies that have predictable results and those that are profitable, but there are some big, profitable companies that have taken some pretty huge risks, too.

But I’m not even advocating huge risks. I know people’s jobs can be jeopardized by bad decisions. But even little everyday risks can be rewarding. Like answering your phone when you don’t know who’s calling.

Sure, when you’re deep in the process of meeting a big deadline, it can be beneficial to tune out things like phone calls, emails, and so on. But when you emerge, it may be time to reconnect with the outside world.

The benefits that can come from an unexpected connection with a sales prospect, an unsolicited job candidate, or even someone who called the wrong extension are too random to predict, but they do happen.

We don’t often get to have serendipity in our business lives, because we don’t often allow ourselves the unpredictability.

This week, why not take a small risk or two, and see what happens?

Happy Monday!

photo credit: LordFerguson

I’m reading Saving The World at Work by Tim Sanders. (Well, when I say I’m “reading” it, I mean I have it out from the library and it’s sitting on my desk. Along with the six other intriguing library books I have out. But I do flip through it once a day or so and I will likely give it quite a thorough skim when I get the final due date reminder email from the library and have to return it in a rush that day. Welcome to my hectic life.)

Anyway, from what I’ve seen so far, the book looks promising, and I’ll be sure to report back when I’ve finished reading (or skimming) it. In the meantime, though, I happened to notice an article at the Canadian publication FP Posted called Sustainability: The Second Business Bottom Line that references the book. Ray B. Williams quotes the book as saying:

“the responsibility revolution has arrived. It demands that companies make a difference to society,” and the ones what don’t participate risk becoming obsolete.

A bold statement, to be sure, and one that should make all but the most cynical of corporate fat cats lean in and at least feign attention. This is a difficult adjustment, after all. In most pockets of corporate culture, we’re just not used to being held accountable for anything but profit to anyone but shareholders. But as Williams wrote in the introduction to that same article:

Business can no longer operate from the perspective of short-term financial gain only. The world has become too complex, and social and environmental concerns now make financial profits at the expense of everything not only short sighted but dangerous. And we need only see the leadership debacles of an Enron, Webcom and the recent Wall Street fiascos to see what selfish financial gain reaps on everyone. There is increasing support for the notion of a business triple bottom line: financial profits, social responsibility and sustainability.

The triple bottom line concept is not new, and indeed we’ve referenced it before. It’s gaining traction… at least in the abstract.

What makes it a tricky sell, though, is the difficulty in accounting for sustainability. It’s all well and good to say businesses should make it a priority to reduce their environmental impact and so forth, but there’s no denying that when it comes to making accountable business decisions, the path of least resistance for the time being is still going to be to use a monetary basis. Cash is the capital everyone is used to measuring business by, and so far it’s just not that easy to account for a business’ use of other types of capital, like water and energy use, or to account for measurable contributions to human development, etc.

As a small business owner, I know this myself: the time I’ve spent with spreadsheets has been concerned with making sure my business has the cash flow it needs to survive. So far I haven’t invested much time at all on developing other non-monetary measures for my business. As the author of this blog, I suppose you’d expect I’d be naturally inclined to do so. It’s not for lack of interest or alignment with the idea of sustainability; it’s just that roughly 99.9% of our societal knowledge about starting and running a business focuses on cash flow and profitability. There’s precious little guidance to be found, for example, about developing a business that supports social growth as well as economic growth. What does exist is largely academic and not distilled for practical application.

So here’s what we need: we need organizations that support new and small businesses, like local chambers of commerce, SCORE, SBA, and others, to start the training early; to educate entrepreneurs about the triple bottom line and how to account for it. Educate mid-level CEOs about other measures besides profit. Help get the business community talking about why we haven’t done more with this before now and how to get started. We won’t have perfect metrics to begin with, but we’ll have a start towards adjusting our collective mindset. And you can’t improve on what you don’t attempt.

photo credit: optimal tweezers

It’s easy to get so caught up in the process of getting things done that we don’t stop to celebrate what we have gotten done.

This week, why not take a little time to review what you have accomplished in the past week, past month, and past year? Make a list if you like, or just browse through your calendar and remind yourself of all the little beginnings, or maybe even some big beginnings, your tasks have added up to.

When you see your work in context, it’s easy to feel motivated to get back to it and do the most important things: the things that will be worth reflecting on next week, or next month, or next year.

Happy reviewing, and happy Monday!